The cvars apply to both teams equally, so as infected just ghost to a point near the survivors and you can easily gauge whether the spawn distance has been messed with. Then adjust strategy accordingly and remember as survivor that they can spawn near or far.
It is quite annoying losing time trying to spawn near them though, when the distance is set high.
I just had an epic versus moment on No Mercy level 3.
Outside the wearhouse, opposite side of the gasstation, one of the survivors in my team lies incapacitated from a hunter. Well ###### I thought, but we're allright with two green and one yellow. We keep getting harassed by z.masters and cannot revive the fallen and suddenly we hear a tank coming from afar, dag damit nammit. The tank rushes in an push us around a bit (lvl 1 weapons are suuuper ineffective) and shortly after incapacitate two other survivors. So we have three down and me running on green with a lvl one shotgun. The z.masters are well aware of my loneliness and a smoker grabs me behind the truck, "oh shi- oh shi-" I roar in the mic. I shoot him twice but no dice, im capped. However, by some miracle from a god i'm unaware of, the tank is pissed at me getting away so easily and slaps me sharply in the cold comfort of the smoker. The smoker flies away like a sack of potatoes and im free, still going green. The situation was grim and I needed to get creative so I did the smartest thing I could think of, I ran behind the gas station pumps and taunted the tank ("Look! TAAAAANK") in pill-billy voice. The tank actually seem to think he has me in my own trap and pounds away on the nearest gaspump, hoping to blow me to schmittereens. Little did he know that fists are not known to ignite fuel. With glee I shoot the pumps as I scream, almost deafening my fellow survivors, words of encouragement towards exterminating big musclly undead people and questioning their biological mothers status. In a burst of a great inferno, I action-hero like jump away as the ground crumbles below my feet. Smoke, a lot of smoke, is he dead? Did I do it? *plop* out of the blurry mess a big burnt corpse of a tank falls out. I save all of the survivors and enjoy happy voices, praising my expertise in quick-thinking for the rest of the round.
Even tho I did not receive the one-man vs tank achievement I placed it in my collection mentally. Who needs colored icons telling me what I have done or not?
And that is why L4D will always be fun. Heroic last stands. In my "intense versus game" we were playing against a team who was not ashamed to use some cheap tactics -- hidnig in the closet by the elevator (on No Mercy, by the way) and under the ramp in the finale. Well, my team and I, we had already decided we would NOT use cheap tactics, and instead held out at the elevator like men (and woman), pressed against the wall gunning down the hordes.
But the real prize came when we had to do the finale. As we survived the second wave, the second tank began to wreak havoc on our team. The first tank was hard enough to deal with with a distinct shortage of molotovs, and I had missed with the first found molotov for the second tank. He continued to run after our team, and my second throw was a bit luckier, but also a bit too late. He had connected with Francis and sent him careening towards the edge of the hospital, sliding across the ground and off the building.
But Francis wasn't giving up. He grabbed onto the side and started screaming for help. The tank turned his attention back -- having focused on someone else momentarily, figuring Francis for a goner -- and began to thunder towards the stranded man on the edge.
I leapt from my perch, hastily drew out my 1911s and scrambled after the tank as I unloaded into his backin a futile effort to save my friend teetering on the edge of certain death. But not before another teammate would become a victim, getting wrapped up by a smoker and drug in the opposite direction, away from the forth (and final) team member. We were scattered all to hell.
######, I had to make a decision. I turned away from Francis as the tank closed in on him, and looked for my tongue-tied buddy, seeing him being drug towards a corner. I crouched down and snapped off a few shots to the smokers tongue, and managed to break him free just before he was yanked out of my field of view (which would have forced me to run forever away from Francis, and I probably would have lost both of them).
I turned my attention back to Francis. "Just GO, he can't get up from here, leave me behind!" he screamed at me. While it was true -- the tank had knocked Francis to a lower area of the hospital's edge and, although there was a ladder, it was quite far away -- I wasn't about to leave my BUDDY behind. And with that, in all my stupidity, I slammed two new magazines into my 1911s and pulled up right next to the tank, railing every shot into his side at point blank range.
Woops.
He turned to the side and jacked me away, sending me in the opposite direction with his dying breath as the beast came to his knees. Even though I was only a few feet from Francis now, I was incapacitated too.
We cried out to our teammates and they scurried over, shooting whatever hunters, smokers or boomers away that tried to swarm out of the woodwork. Just as they both reached us, and both started to help us up, ###### hit the fan. <i>Hard.</i>
A boomer came to the edge of our location and puked on us.
The helicopter soared into view as it whipped towards the landing pad while we got onto our feet, and with it came another horde and two tanks, along with a boomer's horde for good measure. The thundering sounds of two tanks along with the screams and growls of a massive horde bearing down on your ass is absolutely terrifying.
"Get to the ######ING CHOPPER." And we broke for the nearest ladder, limping across and shooting the horde as it began to crash into us, fighting our way through the masses of zombies, pushing with every ounce of strength we had, and we FINALLY got up the stairs to the helipad to see...
A tank, waiting for us at the side of the helicopter atop the pad as another closed in fast behind us with thousands of angry zombies in tow.
We did what we could.
Everyone pulled out their primary weapon, locked and loaded, took a knee, and began to unload into the tank in a sort of half circle across the opposite side of the helipad in front of him. He lurched forward and hit Bill first, sending him back into the horde and waiting tank. Then the tank turned towards Zoey, reaming his fist into her side and chucking her off the side of the hospital. Francis and I had tried to run behind the tank, but he did a good job playing goal tender and adjusted his position after every attack to keep us off the chopper, and, stepped forward to jack Francis in the face, laying him out next to Bill, who was basically a corpse at that point anyways.
I had run out of ammunition.
I was in front of the tank, who stood between myself and the chopper after readjusting his position after swatting Francis.
I pulled out my 1911s, again, held down my walk key, and slowly proceeded towards the tank as I unloaded full blast into him.
... ...
... ...
... ...
<i>And he swatted my ass right back into the horde too.</i> t-t
We lost by 46 points. And I was really, really hoping that the tank would die because I'm sure it would have been awesome to see Louis PROCEEDING FORWARD bringing his firepower to bear on this mother######er. But he didn't and I got my ass sandwiched by angry zombies and an even angerier, musculier zombie.
<!--quoteo(post=1694057:date=Nov 21 2008, 03:55 PM:name=enf0rcer)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(enf0rcer @ Nov 21 2008, 03:55 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1694057"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I need friends that use a microphone and are GOOD AT THE GAME...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Feel free to add me ([OldF] shipwreck) or look up the Fogies group. We rule.
Kouji_SanSr. Hινε UÏкεεÏεг - EUPT DeputyThe NetherlandsJoin Date: 2003-05-13Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
there ya go: <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/459-Left-4-Dead" target="_blank">http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/vie...459-Left-4-Dead</a>
<!--quoteo(post=1695816:date=Dec 11 2008, 02:16 AM:name=Kouji_San)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Kouji_San @ Dec 11 2008, 02:16 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1695816"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->there ya go: <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/459-Left-4-Dead" target="_blank">http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/vie...459-Left-4-Dead</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Considering Yahtzee is, as we mostly all are, a big Valve fanboy, and also considering he's been invited to their offices and into the inner circle to play their games, it's not surprising he's reserving his bile on this occasion.
Any complaints he did make are stupidly nitpicky as per usual, and any suggestions for improvement just as misguided (he suggests that after you die as a special infected you should be able to play as a zombie - yes, because 20 seconds of voyeuristic anticipation, analysis and forward planning with your teammates is surely never going to be as gratifying as the frustration and total confusion of spawning and dying in 0.5 second cycles as a horde member while you wait...). The he talks about the zombies in games like Resident Evil being interchangable with Aliens or Terrorists (can you honestly see <i>that</i> producing the same gameplay?), making me inceasingly think he should just stick to adventure games and leave his insights on other genres locked away inside his imagination where they belong. The only insightful comment was about the anthropomorphism of the dynamic difficulty rulesets constituting the "AI director".
Then again he's probably just grasping at straws because he doesn't actually have anything obvious to complain about with L4D.
AbraWould you kindlyJoin Date: 2003-08-17Member: 19870Members
<!--quoteo(post=1695856:date=Dec 11 2008, 03:10 PM:name=Crispy)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Crispy @ Dec 11 2008, 03:10 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1695856"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Considering Yahtzee is, as we mostly all are, a big Valve fanboy, and also considering he's been invited to their offices and into the inner circle to play their games, it's not surprising he's reserving his bile on this occasion.
Any complaints he did make are stupidly nitpicky as per usual, and any suggestions for improvement just as misguided (he suggests that after you die as a special infected you should be able to play as a zombie - yes, because 20 seconds of voyeuristic anticipation, analysis and forward planning with your teammates is surely never going to be as gratifying as the frustration and total confusion of spawning and dying in 0.5 second cycles as a horde member while you wait...). The he talks about the zombies in games like Resident Evil being interchangable with Aliens or Terrorists (can you honestly see <i>that</i> producing the same gameplay?), making me inceasingly think he should just stick to adventure games and leave his insights on other genres locked away inside his imagination where they belong. The only insightful comment was about the anthropomorphism of the dynamic difficulty rulesets constituting the "AI director".
Then again he's probably just grasping at straws because he doesn't actually have anything obvious to complain about with L4D.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I agree completely with this post. Crispy, you have saved me the mental anquis of having to translate my thoughts to written words, thank you.
Kouji_SanSr. Hινε UÏкεεÏεг - EUPT DeputyThe NetherlandsJoin Date: 2003-05-13Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
The comment that Valve is run by a bunch of nerds based on their flagship game where a nerd kicks the crap out of football jock marines is a good one as well <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
He is always stating the obvious without punctuation and ocasionally stumbles across some truth that is just there to haras. He is funny though!
<!--quoteo(post=1695856:date=Dec 11 2008, 02:10 PM:name=Crispy)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Crispy @ Dec 11 2008, 02:10 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1695856"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Considering Yahtzee is, as we mostly all are, a big Valve fanboy, and also considering he's been invited to their offices and into the inner circle to play their games, it's not surprising he's reserving his bile on this occasion.
Any complaints he did make are stupidly nitpicky as per usual, and any suggestions for improvement just as misguided (he suggests that after you die as a special infected you should be able to play as a zombie - yes, because 20 seconds of voyeuristic anticipation, analysis and forward planning with your teammates is surely never going to be as gratifying as the frustration and total confusion of spawning and dying in 0.5 second cycles as a horde member while you wait...). The he talks about the zombies in games like Resident Evil being interchangable with Aliens or Terrorists (can you honestly see <i>that</i> producing the same gameplay?), making me inceasingly think he should just stick to adventure games and leave his insights on other genres locked away inside his imagination where they belong. The only insightful comment was about the anthropomorphism of the dynamic difficulty rulesets constituting the "AI director".
Then again he's probably just grasping at straws because he doesn't actually have anything obvious to complain about with L4D.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I disagree. I think the problem is that you're actually taking zero punctuation seriously :p Yahtzee is not a reviewer; he's an entertainer. If you're watching his skits for insight into games I can't help but feel you're missing the point. I hardly ever agree with his points but they're funny; it's observational comedy for gamers really :3
I don't normally double post but I don't feel right editing my old post unrelated to what I'm posting now just because nobody has posted since this morning :3
L4D <b>really</b> needs a way to switch chars in-game. It also needs to remember your fave char. I tried jumping on a game with my flatmate but zoey was taken. I didn't want to just leave as that would be fairly rude to the two people I didn't know in the game so I put up with Loius until we wiped. I think I behaved quite well but I really wasn't enjoying playing another char. I just didn't care and every time zoey came across my sights I was tempted to pull the trigger plus I always found myself waiting and watching her getting ripped up before finally stepping in to help.
I dunno what it is but when I can't play any of the chars I want in a game my interest quickly fades and I just end up picking on those who took the chars to amuse myself in a petulant kinda way :p
My flatmate tried going to spectator to let me switch over but the game doesn't let you so I just left in the end.
Yes... yes... I know. It's not mature. I don't care and it's not like I don't try to enjoy myself enduring some random fictional face I don't give two hecks about but it just doesn't work; at least not in multiplayer game.
<!--quoteo(post=1695960:date=Dec 12 2008, 08:57 AM:name=Geminosity)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Geminosity @ Dec 12 2008, 08:57 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1695960"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I disagree. I think the problem is that you're actually taking zero punctuation seriously <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> Yahtzee is not a reviewer; he's an entertainer. If you're watching his skits for insight into games I can't help but feel you're missing the point. I hardly ever agree with his points but they're funny; it's observational comedy for gamers really :3<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->I'm not sure about that. I didn't find this one nearly as entertaining as when he's pulling holes in obviously flawed games. The past few he's done have been on stellar games and he's had to massively overcomensate to try to get laughs that come easily with other games. I just can't laugh when he's saying something that isn't true, or that's really not a big deal, or it's so obvious you just wouldn't make a gag out of it and expect to get a laugh. It's like when I watch 90% of female stand-up comics and their material generally consists of: "So, periods. Anyone else turn into a total ###### when it's their time of the month?"
Female stand-up comedians... One of them (german one) went "In a breach with female stand-up comedian tradition, I am not going to talk about periods at all. Wait. ######. Okay, moving on..." and that was all that was mentioned of THAT topic. Nicely done.
AbraWould you kindlyJoin Date: 2003-08-17Member: 19870Members
<!--quoteo(post=1696011:date=Dec 13 2008, 12:31 AM:name=Crispy)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Crispy @ Dec 13 2008, 12:31 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1696011"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It's like when I watch 90% of female stand-up comics and their material generally consists of: "So, periods. Anyone else turn into a total ###### when it's their time of the month?" /deep sigh<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That is so true. Young/aspiring female danish stand up comedians do that aswell. Way to force your way into a profession largely done by men by playing the stereotype you have been assigned. /abysmal sigh
<!--quoteo(post=1696043:date=Dec 13 2008, 03:20 PM:name=Abra)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Abra @ Dec 13 2008, 03:20 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1696043"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->That is so true. Young/aspiring female danish stand up comedians do that aswell. Way to force your way into a profession largely done by men by playing the stereotype you have been assigned. /abysmal sigh<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Woooooooh, slow down.
Alzheimer-boolimia is still pretty funny <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />
Kouji_SanSr. Hινε UÏкεεÏεг - EUPT DeputyThe NetherlandsJoin Date: 2003-05-13Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
<!--quoteo(post=1696009:date=Dec 13 2008, 12:04 AM:name=Svenpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Svenpa @ Dec 13 2008, 12:04 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1696009"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Louise is the best guy imo.
When locked in a closet: "I-I can help! I PROMISE, just let me out!"<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> And his laugh is the best one! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Yahtzee wasn't very right with his nit picks even. He cied the characters as being too dark...what? Louis is wearing a white shirt with a red tie. Zoey has a red sweatshirt. Bill is wearing green. Just about the only survivor that can become barely confusing is Francis because he sticks to a dark color pallete, <i>however,</i> his colors are not <b>mute</b> and <b>dulled</b> as the infecteds' are. It's extremely easy to tell survivors apart from zombies and Yahtzee absolutely fails if he can't.
Why people are complaining about the "weapon shortage" is strange as well. You certainly wouldn't complain about a weapon shortage in Counter-Strike, but what really gets used? Deagle, M4, AK, AWP, MP5, grenades (minus smoke). L4D's weapon lineup is perfect -- no space wasted. Assault rifle, pump shotgun, sub machine gun, automatic shotgun, sniper rifle, pistols, molotovs and pipebombs. What else do you really need? I agree that it would be <i>nice</i> to see an AK-47 instead of an M-16 but it doesn't change the core gameplay, nor does the lack of an AK-47 severely impact the game.
The only complaint that actually had any warrant to it was game length. Then again, this is a multiplayer game, the maps will be repeated. How many servers run aztec, dust, dust2, and office? Not only that, but each campaign itself includes <i>five</i> entire maps, and with four campaigns that's actually twenty maps. <i>Twenty maps.</i> How is that a shortage of maps again? It's a multiplayer game designed around replayability. Whats wrong with being able to run through every campaign in about eight hours of straight play? I can run through aztec in four minutes.
L4D is legitimately an excellent, quality game that has very little issues to nitpick.
<!--quoteo(post=1696087:date=Dec 14 2008, 08:42 PM:name=Haze)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Haze @ Dec 14 2008, 08:42 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1696087"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->L4D is legitimately an excellent, quality game that has very little issues to nitpick.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I've got one. Let me find my own damn servers, especially ones without lag. Or at least give a variable for max allowable lag.
<!--quoteo(post=1696129:date=Dec 15 2008, 08:09 PM:name=spellman23)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(spellman23 @ Dec 15 2008, 08:09 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1696129"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I've got one. Let me find my own damn servers, especially ones without lag. Or at least give a variable for max allowable lag.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo(post=1696129:date=Dec 15 2008, 03:09 PM:name=spellman23)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(spellman23 @ Dec 15 2008, 03:09 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1696129"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I've got one. Let me find my own damn servers, especially ones without lag. Or at least give a variable for max allowable lag.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
sv_max_search_ping
something around that area <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
L4D still has some annoying bugs, e.g. starting games on a specific difficulty and suddenly finding out they have Defaulted to Normal for some reason (annoying if you're going for an Expert Achievement, meaning you have to votechange difficulty and restart campaign playing the same level again). I've also found a 100% Hard Lock crash when switching on/off 'Start Voice Chat' in the Lobby, although it may be specific to USB mic/headphone combos.
Then there's the one where you can't join a lobby if a co-op or versus campaign was previously booted from that lobby and completed (shows as game in Finale even though Finale has finished).
Then there are issues with achievements working correctly, specifically the completion of a campaign using only pistols which does not unlock correctly for everyone in a game if multiple players meet unlock conditions (which if it affects the 360 version is actually an automatic fail for Microsoft Submission guidelines, so if it was a known issue it should not have been shipped before fixing).
But I can't really flaw the gameplay, and that's mostly what counts.
douchebagatronCustom member titleJoin Date: 2003-12-20Member: 24581Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
there are 2 achievement bugs that i know about:
the first: anytime an achievement requires the completion of an entire campaign, if you ever load a map too slowly and the others load first (might be judged by how quickly they exit the safe room) then you won't get the achievement because you aren't counted as being in the server the whole game.
the b) untouchables: i have found out how to glitch your way into getting untouchables. works every time. untouchables is received when no one on the team takes any damage after contacting the rescue vehicle. the way you can get it easily is to join a game before a rescue vehicle is called, but actually get into a game after the rescue vehicle is called. if you survive and escape it does not matter how much damage anyone took, or even if everyone escaped, you will get untouchables.
ShockehIf a packet drops on the web and nobody's near to see it...Join Date: 2002-11-19Member: 9336NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation
<!--quoteo(post=1695856:date=Dec 11 2008, 02:10 PM:name=Crispy)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Crispy @ Dec 11 2008, 02:10 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1695856"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Any complaints he did make are stupidly nitpicky as per usual, and any suggestions for improvement just as misguided (he suggests that after you die as a special infected you should be able to play as a zombie - yes, because 20 seconds of voyeuristic anticipation, analysis and forward planning with your teammates is surely never going to be as gratifying as the frustration and total confusion of spawning and dying in 0.5 second cycles as a horde member while you wait...).<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I'll be first in line to take time as a Zombie, please. I don't want, or need 20 seconds of scratching my appendages whilst other people play the game. Considering that if you're unlucky enough to spawn as the complete failboat we'll call 'THE SMOKER' to hide it's identity (oh whoops!) you're going to have a lifespan so short* that it's entirely possible that you'll be spending most of your time looking at the respawn queue, at least give me something to do.
And there are still 'bugs', or at least design decisions that are, in a word, a bit ****. Melee can still knock a Hunter out of a leap (conservation of momentum apparently doesn't apply in L4D), attacking the guy being tongued breaks the tongue (way to <i>reward</i> Friendly Fire there) and the decision to spawn the Tank can effectively be a long annoying death sentence, depending on where you are. You can still block exits last time I played using a car as the Tank, you can <a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=52RICNSQMQo" target="_blank">block ladders</a> as a Survivor, etc etc.
I don't know if they fixed the spawning of Tanks yet. sherpa & I played one campaign where the other team had four, and we had zero. It's a great, fun fun game, but it's not without it's share of problems.
* Hit Reply at this point, and don't forget to type out the long winded 'ololo you're clearly a nub' text here, you know you want to.
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
edited December 2008
<!--quoteo(post=1696190:date=Dec 16 2008, 09:46 AM:name=Shockwave)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Shockwave @ Dec 16 2008, 09:46 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1696190"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I'll be first in line to take time as a Zombie, please. I don't want, or need 20 seconds of scratching my appendages whilst other people play the game. Considering that if you're unlucky enough to spawn as the complete failboat we'll call 'THE SMOKER' to hide it's identity (oh whoops!) you're going to have a lifespan so short* that it's entirely possible that you'll be spending most of your time looking at the respawn queue, at least give me something to do.
And there are still 'bugs', or at least design decisions that are, in a word, a bit ****. Melee can still knock a Hunter out of a leap (conservation of momentum apparently doesn't apply in L4D), attacking the guy being tongued breaks the tongue (way to <i>reward</i> Friendly Fire there) and the decision to spawn the Tank can effectively be a long annoying death sentence, depending on where you are. You can still block exits last time I played using a car as the Tank, you can <a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=52RICNSQMQo" target="_blank">block ladders</a> as a Survivor, etc etc.
I don't know if they fixed the spawning of Tanks yet. sherpa & I played one campaign where the other team had four, and we had zero. It's a great, fun fun game, but it's not without it's share of problems.
* Hit Reply at this point, and don't forget to type out the long winded 'ololo you're clearly a nub' text here, you know you want to.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I will say I think you are wrong on the smoker comment, at least when playing mercy (harvest is just a slaughter fest of the infected for most of it). I never expect to deal any damage to the person I tongue, just pull them out of position, force their hand. Also, the only point where attacking the survivor frees them is a melee shot OR shooting through them when they are actually being attacked (unless I missed something?). Both of these are fine by me. The melee is the equivalent of grabbing them, sure they could have set it to +use instead of melee, but what ever. And FF being disabled when some one is being beat on by the smoker is fine in my mind (it would make freeing them way to hard if you couldn't).
However, I am 100% with you on the tank thing. When the other team gets tanks and you don't it just sucks. They really need to make it so that if a tank will spawn for that map it is decided ahead of time, and it spawns for BOTH sides (not necessarily the same spot, but SPAWNS).
Same spot is pretty important. 20 steps further for the survivors might make the difference between narrow chokepoint with tier 1 weapons or everyone standing ready in front of a distant door with autoshotties. Man, that game sucked, never seen the Director stack so much towards one team.
AbraWould you kindlyJoin Date: 2003-08-17Member: 19870Members
<!--quoteo(post=1696200:date=Dec 16 2008, 05:17 PM:name=Align)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Align @ Dec 16 2008, 05:17 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1696200"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Same spot is pretty important. 20 steps further for the survivors might make the difference between narrow chokepoint with tier 1 weapons or everyone standing ready in front of a distant door with autoshotties. Man, that game sucked, never seen the Director stack so much towards one team.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Was that director stacking? I thought we just sucked royally. I'm pretty sure I did, considering it was my first VS game. We DID seem to get endless hordes of zombies while the other team only had to contend with a mere trickle, but they moved a lot faster than we did. And stuck together better. Even without director stacking they would've owned us.
Comments
It is quite annoying losing time trying to spawn near them though, when the distance is set high.
Outside the wearhouse, opposite side of the gasstation, one of the survivors in my team lies incapacitated from a hunter. Well ###### I thought, but we're allright with two green and one yellow. We keep getting harassed by z.masters and cannot revive the fallen and suddenly we hear a tank coming from afar, dag damit nammit. The tank rushes in an push us around a bit (lvl 1 weapons are suuuper ineffective) and shortly after incapacitate two other survivors. So we have three down and me running on green with a lvl one shotgun. The z.masters are well aware of my loneliness and a smoker grabs me behind the truck, "oh shi- oh shi-" I roar in the mic. I shoot him twice but no dice, im capped. However, by some miracle from a god i'm unaware of, the tank is pissed at me getting away so easily and slaps me sharply in the cold comfort of the smoker. The smoker flies away like a sack of potatoes and im free, still going green. The situation was grim and I needed to get creative so I did the smartest thing I could think of, I ran behind the gas station pumps and taunted the tank ("Look! TAAAAANK") in pill-billy voice. The tank actually seem to think he has me in my own trap and pounds away on the nearest gaspump, hoping to blow me to schmittereens. Little did he know that fists are not known to ignite fuel. With glee I shoot the pumps as I scream, almost deafening my fellow survivors, words of encouragement towards exterminating big musclly undead people and questioning their biological mothers status. In a burst of a great inferno, I action-hero like jump away as the ground crumbles below my feet. Smoke, a lot of smoke, is he dead? Did I do it? *plop* out of the blurry mess a big burnt corpse of a tank falls out. I save all of the survivors and enjoy happy voices, praising my expertise in quick-thinking for the rest of the round.
Even tho I did not receive the one-man vs tank achievement I placed it in my collection mentally. Who needs colored icons telling me what I have done or not?
But the real prize came when we had to do the finale. As we survived the second wave, the second tank began to wreak havoc on our team. The first tank was hard enough to deal with with a distinct shortage of molotovs, and I had missed with the first found molotov for the second tank. He continued to run after our team, and my second throw was a bit luckier, but also a bit too late. He had connected with Francis and sent him careening towards the edge of the hospital, sliding across the ground and off the building.
But Francis wasn't giving up. He grabbed onto the side and started screaming for help. The tank turned his attention back -- having focused on someone else momentarily, figuring Francis for a goner -- and began to thunder towards the stranded man on the edge.
I leapt from my perch, hastily drew out my 1911s and scrambled after the tank as I unloaded into his backin a futile effort to save my friend teetering on the edge of certain death. But not before another teammate would become a victim, getting wrapped up by a smoker and drug in the opposite direction, away from the forth (and final) team member. We were scattered all to hell.
######, I had to make a decision. I turned away from Francis as the tank closed in on him, and looked for my tongue-tied buddy, seeing him being drug towards a corner. I crouched down and snapped off a few shots to the smokers tongue, and managed to break him free just before he was yanked out of my field of view (which would have forced me to run forever away from Francis, and I probably would have lost both of them).
I turned my attention back to Francis. "Just GO, he can't get up from here, leave me behind!" he screamed at me. While it was true -- the tank had knocked Francis to a lower area of the hospital's edge and, although there was a ladder, it was quite far away -- I wasn't about to leave my BUDDY behind. And with that, in all my stupidity, I slammed two new magazines into my 1911s and pulled up right next to the tank, railing every shot into his side at point blank range.
Woops.
He turned to the side and jacked me away, sending me in the opposite direction with his dying breath as the beast came to his knees. Even though I was only a few feet from Francis now, I was incapacitated too.
We cried out to our teammates and they scurried over, shooting whatever hunters, smokers or boomers away that tried to swarm out of the woodwork. Just as they both reached us, and both started to help us up, ###### hit the fan. <i>Hard.</i>
A boomer came to the edge of our location and puked on us.
The helicopter soared into view as it whipped towards the landing pad while we got onto our feet, and with it came another horde and two tanks, along with a boomer's horde for good measure. The thundering sounds of two tanks along with the screams and growls of a massive horde bearing down on your ass is absolutely terrifying.
"Get to the ######ING CHOPPER." And we broke for the nearest ladder, limping across and shooting the horde as it began to crash into us, fighting our way through the masses of zombies, pushing with every ounce of strength we had, and we FINALLY got up the stairs to the helipad to see...
A tank, waiting for us at the side of the helicopter atop the pad as another closed in fast behind us with thousands of angry zombies in tow.
We did what we could.
Everyone pulled out their primary weapon, locked and loaded, took a knee, and began to unload into the tank in a sort of half circle across the opposite side of the helipad in front of him. He lurched forward and hit Bill first, sending him back into the horde and waiting tank. Then the tank turned towards Zoey, reaming his fist into her side and chucking her off the side of the hospital. Francis and I had tried to run behind the tank, but he did a good job playing goal tender and adjusted his position after every attack to keep us off the chopper, and, stepped forward to jack Francis in the face, laying him out next to Bill, who was basically a corpse at that point anyways.
I had run out of ammunition.
I was in front of the tank, who stood between myself and the chopper after readjusting his position after swatting Francis.
I pulled out my 1911s, again, held down my walk key, and slowly proceeded towards the tank as I unloaded full blast into him.
...
...
...
...
...
...
<i>And he swatted my ass right back into the horde too.</i> t-t
We lost by 46 points. And I was really, really hoping that the tank would die because I'm sure it would have been awesome to see Louis PROCEEDING FORWARD bringing his firepower to bear on this mother######er. But he didn't and I got my ass sandwiched by angry zombies and an even angerier, musculier zombie.
Feel free to add me ([OldF] shipwreck) or look up the Fogies group. We rule.
<a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/459-Left-4-Dead" target="_blank">http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/vie...459-Left-4-Dead</a>
<a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/459-Left-4-Dead" target="_blank">http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/vie...459-Left-4-Dead</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Considering Yahtzee is, as we mostly all are, a big Valve fanboy, and also considering he's been invited to their offices and into the inner circle to play their games, it's not surprising he's reserving his bile on this occasion.
Any complaints he did make are stupidly nitpicky as per usual, and any suggestions for improvement just as misguided (he suggests that after you die as a special infected you should be able to play as a zombie - yes, because 20 seconds of voyeuristic anticipation, analysis and forward planning with your teammates is surely never going to be as gratifying as the frustration and total confusion of spawning and dying in 0.5 second cycles as a horde member while you wait...). The he talks about the zombies in games like Resident Evil being interchangable with Aliens or Terrorists (can you honestly see <i>that</i> producing the same gameplay?), making me inceasingly think he should just stick to adventure games and leave his insights on other genres locked away inside his imagination where they belong. The only insightful comment was about the anthropomorphism of the dynamic difficulty rulesets constituting the "AI director".
Then again he's probably just grasping at straws because he doesn't actually have anything obvious to complain about with L4D.
Any complaints he did make are stupidly nitpicky as per usual, and any suggestions for improvement just as misguided (he suggests that after you die as a special infected you should be able to play as a zombie - yes, because 20 seconds of voyeuristic anticipation, analysis and forward planning with your teammates is surely never going to be as gratifying as the frustration and total confusion of spawning and dying in 0.5 second cycles as a horde member while you wait...). The he talks about the zombies in games like Resident Evil being interchangable with Aliens or Terrorists (can you honestly see <i>that</i> producing the same gameplay?), making me inceasingly think he should just stick to adventure games and leave his insights on other genres locked away inside his imagination where they belong. The only insightful comment was about the anthropomorphism of the dynamic difficulty rulesets constituting the "AI director".
Then again he's probably just grasping at straws because he doesn't actually have anything obvious to complain about with L4D.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I agree completely with this post. Crispy, you have saved me the mental anquis of having to translate my thoughts to written words, thank you.
He is always stating the obvious without punctuation and ocasionally stumbles across some truth that is just there to haras. He is funny though!
Any complaints he did make are stupidly nitpicky as per usual, and any suggestions for improvement just as misguided (he suggests that after you die as a special infected you should be able to play as a zombie - yes, because 20 seconds of voyeuristic anticipation, analysis and forward planning with your teammates is surely never going to be as gratifying as the frustration and total confusion of spawning and dying in 0.5 second cycles as a horde member while you wait...). The he talks about the zombies in games like Resident Evil being interchangable with Aliens or Terrorists (can you honestly see <i>that</i> producing the same gameplay?), making me inceasingly think he should just stick to adventure games and leave his insights on other genres locked away inside his imagination where they belong. The only insightful comment was about the anthropomorphism of the dynamic difficulty rulesets constituting the "AI director".
Then again he's probably just grasping at straws because he doesn't actually have anything obvious to complain about with L4D.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I disagree. I think the problem is that you're actually taking zero punctuation seriously :p
Yahtzee is not a reviewer; he's an entertainer. If you're watching his skits for insight into games I can't help but feel you're missing the point. I hardly ever agree with his points but they're funny; it's observational comedy for gamers really :3
L4D <b>really</b> needs a way to switch chars in-game. It also needs to remember your fave char.
I tried jumping on a game with my flatmate but zoey was taken. I didn't want to just leave as that would be fairly rude to the two people I didn't know in the game so I put up with Loius until we wiped. I think I behaved quite well but I really wasn't enjoying playing another char. I just didn't care and every time zoey came across my sights I was tempted to pull the trigger plus I always found myself waiting and watching her getting ripped up before finally stepping in to help.
I dunno what it is but when I can't play any of the chars I want in a game my interest quickly fades and I just end up picking on those who took the chars to amuse myself in a petulant kinda way :p
My flatmate tried going to spectator to let me switch over but the game doesn't let you so I just left in the end.
Yes... yes... I know. It's not mature. I don't care and it's not like I don't try to enjoy myself enduring some random fictional face I don't give two hecks about but it just doesn't work; at least not in multiplayer game.
When locked in a closet:
"I-I can help! I PROMISE, just let me out!"
Zoe
Leave the Server
:p
Yahtzee is not a reviewer; he's an entertainer. If you're watching his skits for insight into games I can't help but feel you're missing the point. I hardly ever agree with his points but they're funny; it's observational comedy for gamers really :3<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->I'm not sure about that. I didn't find this one nearly as entertaining as when he's pulling holes in obviously flawed games. The past few he's done have been on stellar games and he's had to massively overcomensate to try to get laughs that come easily with other games. I just can't laugh when he's saying something that isn't true, or that's really not a big deal, or it's so obvious you just wouldn't make a gag out of it and expect to get a laugh. It's like when I watch 90% of female stand-up comics and their material generally consists of: "So, periods. Anyone else turn into a total ###### when it's their time of the month?"
/deep sigh
/deep sigh<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That is so true. Young/aspiring female danish stand up comedians do that aswell. Way to force your way into a profession largely done by men by playing the stereotype you have been assigned.
/abysmal sigh
/abysmal sigh<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Woooooooh, slow down.
Alzheimer-boolimia is still pretty funny <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />
Cindy aus Marzahn equals win:
<img src="http://www.cindy-aus-marzahn.de/imperia/md/images/cindyausmarzahn/galerie/kohler_641.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<a href="http://www.cindy-aus-marzahn.de" target="_blank">http://www.cindy-aus-marzahn.de</a>
When locked in a closet:
"I-I can help! I PROMISE, just let me out!"<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And his laugh is the best one! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Why people are complaining about the "weapon shortage" is strange as well. You certainly wouldn't complain about a weapon shortage in Counter-Strike, but what really gets used? Deagle, M4, AK, AWP, MP5, grenades (minus smoke). L4D's weapon lineup is perfect -- no space wasted. Assault rifle, pump shotgun, sub machine gun, automatic shotgun, sniper rifle, pistols, molotovs and pipebombs. What else do you really need? I agree that it would be <i>nice</i> to see an AK-47 instead of an M-16 but it doesn't change the core gameplay, nor does the lack of an AK-47 severely impact the game.
The only complaint that actually had any warrant to it was game length. Then again, this is a multiplayer game, the maps will be repeated. How many servers run aztec, dust, dust2, and office? Not only that, but each campaign itself includes <i>five</i> entire maps, and with four campaigns that's actually twenty maps. <i>Twenty maps.</i> How is that a shortage of maps again? It's a multiplayer game designed around replayability. Whats wrong with being able to run through every campaign in about eight hours of straight play? I can run through aztec in four minutes.
L4D is legitimately an excellent, quality game that has very little issues to nitpick.
I've got one. Let me find my own damn servers, especially ones without lag. Or at least give a variable for max allowable lag.
'openserverbrowser' command works fine.
sv_max_search_ping
something around that area <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
Then there's the one where you can't join a lobby if a co-op or versus campaign was previously booted from that lobby and completed (shows as game in Finale even though Finale has finished).
Then there are issues with achievements working correctly, specifically the completion of a campaign using only pistols which does not unlock correctly for everyone in a game if multiple players meet unlock conditions (which if it affects the 360 version is actually an automatic fail for Microsoft Submission guidelines, so if it was a known issue it should not have been shipped before fixing).
But I can't really flaw the gameplay, and that's mostly what counts.
the first: anytime an achievement requires the completion of an entire campaign, if you ever load a map too slowly and the others load first (might be judged by how quickly they exit the safe room) then you won't get the achievement because you aren't counted as being in the server the whole game.
the b) untouchables: i have found out how to glitch your way into getting untouchables. works every time.
untouchables is received when no one on the team takes any damage after contacting the rescue vehicle. the way you can get it easily is to join a game before a rescue vehicle is called, but actually get into a game after the rescue vehicle is called. if you survive and escape it does not matter how much damage anyone took, or even if everyone escaped, you will get untouchables.
I'll be first in line to take time as a Zombie, please. I don't want, or need 20 seconds of scratching my appendages whilst other people play the game. Considering that if you're unlucky enough to spawn as the complete failboat we'll call 'THE SMOKER' to hide it's identity (oh whoops!) you're going to have a lifespan so short* that it's entirely possible that you'll be spending most of your time looking at the respawn queue, at least give me something to do.
And there are still 'bugs', or at least design decisions that are, in a word, a bit ****. Melee can still knock a Hunter out of a leap (conservation of momentum apparently doesn't apply in L4D), attacking the guy being tongued breaks the tongue (way to <i>reward</i> Friendly Fire there) and the decision to spawn the Tank can effectively be a long annoying death sentence, depending on where you are. You can still block exits last time I played using a car as the Tank, you can <a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=52RICNSQMQo" target="_blank">block ladders</a> as a Survivor, etc etc.
I don't know if they fixed the spawning of Tanks yet. sherpa & I played one campaign where the other team had four, and we had zero. It's a great, fun fun game, but it's not without it's share of problems.
* Hit Reply at this point, and don't forget to type out the long winded 'ololo you're clearly a nub' text here, you know you want to.
And there are still 'bugs', or at least design decisions that are, in a word, a bit ****. Melee can still knock a Hunter out of a leap (conservation of momentum apparently doesn't apply in L4D), attacking the guy being tongued breaks the tongue (way to <i>reward</i> Friendly Fire there) and the decision to spawn the Tank can effectively be a long annoying death sentence, depending on where you are. You can still block exits last time I played using a car as the Tank, you can <a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=52RICNSQMQo" target="_blank">block ladders</a> as a Survivor, etc etc.
I don't know if they fixed the spawning of Tanks yet. sherpa & I played one campaign where the other team had four, and we had zero. It's a great, fun fun game, but it's not without it's share of problems.
* Hit Reply at this point, and don't forget to type out the long winded 'ololo you're clearly a nub' text here, you know you want to.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I will say I think you are wrong on the smoker comment, at least when playing mercy (harvest is just a slaughter fest of the infected for most of it). I never expect to deal any damage to the person I tongue, just pull them out of position, force their hand. Also, the only point where attacking the survivor frees them is a melee shot OR shooting through them when they are actually being attacked (unless I missed something?). Both of these are fine by me. The melee is the equivalent of grabbing them, sure they could have set it to +use instead of melee, but what ever. And FF being disabled when some one is being beat on by the smoker is fine in my mind (it would make freeing them way to hard if you couldn't).
However, I am 100% with you on the tank thing. When the other team gets tanks and you don't it just sucks. They really need to make it so that if a tank will spawn for that map it is decided ahead of time, and it spawns for BOTH sides (not necessarily the same spot, but SPAWNS).
Haha yesterday, right?
:3 sorry.