Did they do something this last patch that introduced input lag? It’s subtle but I am super sensitive to input lag and it angers me greatly in the pants.
I just downloaded this. Not sure if it will run on my iMac, but I’m hoping so. Are the servers both PC and Mac? Will I be able to play with the SDMB group?
Yes. You can play against PCs.
I heard the Mac version has some mic volume control issues though.
Just played a bit last night. Fun game. It’s a little more spray-n-pray than methodical zombie survival than I expected, but sometimes running around with a fire axe and chopping down zombies three at a time is nice. Its a little hard to be so far behind the curve on a game requiring teamwork, but so it goes.
Questions:
-what do you do playing as the jockey when there’s nothing useful to run the guy to, like a cliff?
-when a teammate has a zombie on him, is it possible to friendly fire him or is it ok to just fire in his general direction?
-what’s the deal with not being able to choose the server you join? How is it deciding (not by ping, evidently)?
Try to get out of the survivors line of fire, like moving behind corners. You can do some nice ambushes with the jockey if you have a team that communicates well. The jockey (and hunter) can also be used as a good distraction. Keep the survivors concentration on you while the boomer sneaks up on them.
If you mean when they are attacked by a special infected, like pounced by a hunter or smoked, then no you cant friendly fire him so spray away.
There is a server browser in the game, but you have to access it through the console. Type “openserverbrowser” without the quotation marks in the console for it to appear. I never felt the need for it in this game though.
Kinda wondering this too.
In the last few games I played with you (and others) there were a few cases where I had a survivor smack in my sights for a charger to run over. I am talking about three survivors in the middle of a hall and nowhere to go. Instead I manage to run right through all of them.
This was not a one-time occurrence either. I kept missing when missing should have been near impossible.
I grant I suck but not that consistently. Sucks too because pulling off a good charger move is one of the real special moments in L4D2. Very disheartening when you miss.
Yeah…Jockey’s suck for the most part but they do have their moments and on occasion pulling off a good Jockey ride is great fun.
As mentioned your first job is to try and get out of the line of fire from other survivors so you can ride longer.
After that try and get as far away from other survivors as possible. This helps split the group up and allows others to pick off rescuers if they come in piecemeal.
Alternatively move the survivor you are riding into spit or even fire. Move them near a car with an active alarm so rescuers may set it off trying to save the person being ridden.
Survivors are best when they are in a group. Think of the Jockey as a way to break up the group allowing openings elsewhere.
Also note you need not ride them off a cliff for the kill. Sometimes just off a ledge can be hugely useful. It won’t kill the person but may make the path back to their buddies a long one which allows more opportunity to pick them off. Happened to me the other night. We all jumped off a small ledge and a Jockey (opposing team) jumped the last person just before they could jump down to us. We could not get back to the person easily at all and they were disabled by the time we got back.
Done well, on occasion, a Jockey can do some real harm. Most of the time they get swatted off 2 seconds after getting on though.
As a Jockey I try to ride them:
Away from the team.
Into peril.
But most frequently I just ride them back. Away from their goal. If I can get them out of the line of fire then the entire team “must” come back and rescue the one I rode. The more time a team of survivors spends on any map makes it more likely they won’t be call survivors any more.
I hated the Jockey at first but now I rather like it because I think it is the most humiliating to the survivor.
Fairly signifant versus patch today.
No more tank music I guess.
Been waiting for them to make those changes to the health display system. Going after a red guy and then beating on him for 10 seconds only to realize oh woops he had 80 temporary health so he’s fine was frustrating.
If special infected have a respawn time of like 14 seconds in realism versus, that game will be brutal. Probably too brutal. I’d still rather they did regular versus with difficulty levels.
I’m surprised this has been an issue with people. I’ve never had that problem, but then again I’ve constantly been hitting tab to check the survivor’s health and gear.
Realism versus is going to be unplayable with pubs (not that it was that playable before) with the shorter spawn times. I keep trying to get people to move quickly forward, but they still insist on checking all corners for stuff. After this patch it’s more important then ever to move as quickly as possible through the levels.
Yeah well we’re not all Finnish cyborgs.
I generally check, but in the heat of the moment when you suddenly get control of the tank in the middle of a crowd while on fire, you head for the red guy… who might have 90 temporary health.
The realism thing with the new spawn times is interesting… but… realism was probably hard enough as it was. The fast spawns mode would’ve actually been more interesting to play on normal versus, which is too easy for the survivors.
Now there’s a thought. They could try how with works by making it a mutation at first. I imagine though that more casual players would get frustrated with it so maybe shave 5 seconds off the max spawn time (30 seconds) and 2 - 3 seconds off the average (20 seconds) to make the gameplay more interesting but not too frustrating.
Most of the pubs that play realism versus don’t have mics. The game already puts you at a disadvantage for not having a mic but in realism your teammates don’t even know where you are. 
I’m finally getting the hang of L4D2. It’s quite fun playing through the single-player campaigns.
I’ve also been practicing in L4D2 single player and am getting better (or at least, less spastic), problem is, since I’m a sport shooter in real life, and was raised in the “Make Every Shot Count” mindset, learning with single-shots and bolt-actions**, I find it very hard to put my mind into "spray’n’pray mode or even “burst” mode
Hand me a sniper rifle, and I’ll pick off Zacks from a distance all day long, or at the very least, hand me a shotgun and I’ll take point and draw out the Horde, put a semiauto or select-fire weapon in my “hands”, and I’ll still treat it like a single shot, with precise, aimed fire, only gojng to spray-n-pray if I get mobbed, ammo’s expensive (yes, even “virtual” ammo, and should be conserved as a finite resource, I take so much time lining up that perfect “one shot kill” that I tend to get mobbed in the process, I’m a precision shooter at heart
I’ve found that the melee weapons are a lot of fun, at times, even more than the guns, as for the most part, a solid hit with a melee weapon on Common Infected counts as an insta-kill, doesn’t matter if it’s the crowbar, katana, axe, cricket bat, or baseball bat, one solid strike and the Zack is down
** as a child, Dad taught me to shoot with a single-shot Ithaca 49 lever-action single shot .22, (looks like a downsized Winchester levergun), and at 16, I was given a Marlin 25 7-shot bolt action .22, heck, my first semiauto firearm I purchased about three years ago, just to see what all the fuss was about (Taurus PT-92AF 9mm), I’ve gone through a few semi pistols since then, and have finally settled on a Kimber Custom II 1911 that I’m very happy with, my only semiauto rifle is a Ruger 10/22 I purchased a couple years ago, my only semis are the Kimber, the 10/22, and a Ruger 22/45 .22 pistol, all the rest of my “toys” are manual-actions of one form or another (single-shot break-barrel, bolt action, pump), I just prefer the simplicity and reliability of manual actions, coincidentally, this makes “Rock N’ Rolling” hard for me to do in FPS games…
We should get a SDMB game of L4D2 going again soon, my Gamertag is MacTechG4
I’ve yet to develop effective strategies for dealing with tanks and rushers. Any suggestions?
AI Tanks or player controlled Tanks? Either way, run back, or forward, to an open area so you have some room to dodge the tank. Throw a Molotov, lighting him on fire, then running away and shoot. Bile Bombs work well against player controlled tanks by blocking visibility and having zombies get in their way.
Coordination with your fellow infected is key, most importantly the Boomer. Pick a spot a little ahead of where the rushers are, hit em with the boomer and then pick off anyone not purple (if you’re PUGing, this is far easier said than done, unfortunately). If they’re intent on rushing, one or more may split off to continue on; this will leave them separated and much more vulnerable.
Not sure how much appetite there is for L4D2 on the boards these days but if anyone is ever up for a game in the evenings, look me up in the SDMB Steam group, ID DrinkyCrow.
We still play probably twice a week on average, usually 2 versus campaigns or 1 campaign and a few rounds of scavenge. I’ll friends list you.
Edit: NM, forgot you were one of the new people that friend listed me already.