Ha! That’s great.
I appreciate all the advice - I might actually be dangerous now!
I also figured out part of my problem with the Hunter - when I leaped, it would look to me like I overshot/went right of my target, so I’d go to try again, only to realize that I’d actually landed perfectly. Now I’m used to the look of a good leap, it is much easier!
Weird. I would’ve sworn I was taking two to five damage from friendly-fire when his guy was pumping shotgun shells into a hunter on me. I need to start recording my rounds so I can review this stuff.
Random other things to observe:
Does having a health kit result in a health bonus at the end or do you need to use it?
What’s the server variable to check if alltalk or melee fatigue is on?
How exactly does this tank health / burning stuff work?
I think you need to use the health kit. At least people I’ve played with have said “don’t shut the door, heal first”.
The server variable is “sv_alltalk” but I’m not sure if just typing “sv_alltalk” in the console will give you an accurate reading of the server’s setting. It always seems to read 1, even when it’s off. What’s melee fatigue?
I’ve read on the L4D forum that tank burning is independent of the tank’s health, which I think is pretty stupid. That is - once you start burning him, you have a set amount of time (say, 30 seconds) until he drops dead from it. Damage you inflict with guns won’t speed that up, although if you take all his HP that way you could kill him before his timer expires. So apparently once you’ve set him on fire, unless you’d normally be able to kill him otherwise, just keep running and don’t bother to shoot.
With melee fatigue on, after five (or so) swings, you start swinging at half speed. If it’s off, you never slow down.
Huh, that should be a more common option then, as melee seems way overpowered to me.
While we’re at it - does anyone know how to adjust the difficulty on a versus game? I’ve seen other people playing in versus games that are set to advanced or expert (affecting zombie damage and such) but there’s no option for it in the lobby creator menu.
The server admin changes the z_difficulty command server-side.
Might be able to manually call a vote on it with the listissues and callvote commands. Haven’t tried.
And melee isn’t overpowered. Most people are just really bad.
Here’s a very comprehensive list of cvar commands, though I’m not sure which ones have to be modified by the server’s admin and which can be changed by players. I guess if someone’s hosting locally, it doesn’t exactly matter.
“director_finale_max_loops” looks like it would be interesting to do - it controls the number of waves in the finale. Set it to 100 and see which team lasts the longest.
Melee seems overpowered to me. You can reload while meleeing which seems nuts, you can spam melee tons of zombies off of you and I have seen people spam melee so it makes a Hunter pounce pretty much impossible (also read is can stop a Smoker tongue but not sure).
I think it should be toned down some.
As for the Tank on fire I have read once on fire the Tank has one minute to live and it is separate from shooting damage. So, if possible just run around for a minute and he’ll die.
Hmm, looking through that list a little further, it appears it only takes 30 seconds for a burning tank to die in versus mode. At least, that’s what it has listed as the default. So I guess the best tactic is to ignite and outrun. Of course, if you’re playing against an AI tank, shooting still helps to draw attention away from a player more wounded than you.
I tried this and it works. If you type ‘callvote ChangeDifficulty Normal’ in the console, it’ll vote on changing the difficulty in versus. Only your team votes on it too, so it’s easy to pass.
You have to do it every section too, since the difficulty defaults to the server setting between rounds.
Cripes. Just can’t get a stable server these days.
Me either.
I am a computer nerd by profession and my PC is rock solid. I usually see people complaining about crashes or lockups in other games and wonder what they are talking about. In this game I know what they are talking about. I experience total system freezing lockups occasionally, crashes to desktop occasionally and frequently lost server connections.
Damn annoying.
Tell me some other doper gamers are loving this game as much as I.
The setting: zombie apocalypse. (Okay, “infected,” but come on.) The mission: survive getting to a rescue location, and actually get rescued. The problem: limited health, moderately limited ammo, limited teams, and a helluva lotta zombies. So awesome!
Let me get my complaints out of the way.
First, no offline versus against the AI. It would really be nice to play a quick match or learn to control the boss infected without going through the pains of irritating online folks who already have gone through the effort. I’d say it is a rite of passage but from my TF2 experiences not everyone is so patient with people who are new to the game.
Second, not quite limited enough ammo. While you cannot indescriminately blast your way through the infected masses, if you are persistent in your search you rarely run out of primary ammunition, especially since the pistol is very good for picking off strays and has unlimited ammo.
Third, AI is weirdly unbalanced. It sometimes stands there clueless for a painful second and a half while a hunter is tearing you to shreds, but is a crack shot and can see infected through trees or haze that a human player absolutely could not. (I understand the physics of this is probably impossible with current hardware. Still, a little frustrating in online versus matches with unbalanced teams.)
IMO, that’s it.
What is awesome:
The Director (TD): Valve’s solution to spawning baddies. Instead of there being one or a few fixed fields of play, the quantity and location of the baddies are determined procedurally from the get-go. TD uses real-time information to figure whether you’re having too hard or too easy of a time, and to respond accordingly. Having played the game nonstop since release I can confirm that very few areas play similarly. TD not only determines baddie quantity and location spawns, but item and weapon spaws. Improved weapons like the auto shotgun do have a few fixed locations they will appear in, but I’ve started finding grenade-style weapons (pipe bombs and molotov cocktails) and health pickups in a dizzying array of locations. TD also has control over the music each player hears, which means a consistently movie-like experience for each player based on what’s happening to them. Brilliant.
Friendly Fire: I know I will regret liking this feature so much with public games, but damn do I like this feature so much. It’s a trivial annoyance on Normal. It’s worth getting a little vocal about on Advanced. On Expert it’s time to get nasty and boot people. Friendly fire has two amazing impacts on play. First is that it’s important not to panic, which makes it that much easier to panic. Second is that it encourages cooperation in a game that really does require cooperation.
Cooperation: simply put, the enemies are good enough to take down a lone survivor. In mass, the infected can take a guy down in the open, or even against a flat wall. (On Expert, even jamming into a doorway can be questionable.) But even without the horde there are the boss infected whose main attack is incapacitating (the Hunter and the Smoker). On your own, you will die. Heroics here are not single-handedly taking down a horde, but covering your downed friend while another friend helps him back up. With moderate cooperation, Advanced is just difficult… it can be done, but you will die many times trying. With moderate cooperation, Expert is a deathwish.
Panic: I’m sorry but when I’m on rear guard without a health pack and the music amps up indicating we’re about to get stormed by the horde, I panic a little. Are they coming from the front? The rear? “Guys, they’re coming…” If they’re coming from the front, are a few strays coming from the back? Is it split? Do I turn around and help? When I’m on front guard and the horde starts plowing your number one idea is to stand and weave and fight the horde like you’re playing Doom. Except, gee whiz, you’re going to take a few shotgun shells to the back. No, instead you crouch down and pray your teammates behind you have got your back while the masses storm you.
Overall, an awesome game. Any XBoxers out there are free to look me up under my SDMB username to play this.
Is split-screen co-op any fun? Or does the diminished field of vision really put a damper on things? I’m sure online co-op is fine, but I like playing and shouting at my friends in person.
Strategy Q’s from folks. Some friends and I have been experimenting with the buddy system, travelling in 2 by 2’s. We try and stay separated enough to avoid boomer issues. This is strictly campaign stuff. Basically two take point and two bring up the rear. I’ve not been able to get three other players that are strong enough to tackle Expert well, and the AI is not good enough backup at that difficulty, so I can’t really experiment much there. (Our fourth player is too bad with friendly fire to even bother on expert.)
I’ve not played on any consistent team for versus but with good players the same thing naturally tends to happen.
Do you play the campaign mode similar to how you play versus? I find the two to be not very comparable. I definitely take time to explore in any campaign and only rush from moderately-safe spot to moderately-safe spot. It seems strong versus play is all about moving constantly and only stopping to heal when absolutely necessary. I’ve read about some rushers who can move fast enough to stay ahead of the director but I’ve not been able to confirm this on my own. Anyone else see this?
Has anyone been able to exploit the fact that your outline relative to the infected disappears with the flashlight off and no movement? I was experimenting last night and unless a boomer pukes on you or it is a crescendo event, even the director-generated horde rush ignores you in this state. Very interesting.
Has anyone seen the video where the tank blocks the safehouse entrance on the first level of No Mercy with the alarmed car? Hilarious. It disappears after about 30 seconds to a minute but while it is there, it is hellish. I’d imagine you could do something moderately similar with the alarmed car later in that level, too. (It won’t block the entrance but it could be a problem with a nearby boomer.)
The Director doesn’t play a huge part in versus games. From what I’ve noticed, hordes aren’t spawned as much as in co-op games, with the exception of a boomer rush.
Then again, I’ve played against teams who ran so fast I had a hard time spawning ahead of them. I usually like to take the run like hell tactic in versus, but all it takes is one person to lag behind and get pounced or snagged, and the whole strategy goes for nothing.
As an aside, I’m really looking forward to the release of the SDK. This game has lots of potential for some really amazing looking custom levels.
EDIT: Someone’s already managed to put up a map database for people who’ve tweaked the previous SDKs to be able to make L4D levels.
Hilarious.
If you’ve got a decent widescreen TV it is playable, but the reduced field of vision hurts.
You. Send a Friend Request to “aaa SDMB”.
Done 