Left 4 Dead

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Wed May 20, 2009 10:57 am

Navaros wrote: Similarly, the other day I was going for the "do not get healed during a campaign" achievement on Easy with 3 other players and 1 bot...then on the third map, the idiot AI bot Francis heals me in the starting safe room without me asking him to or having any way to avoid it, thus ruining my achievement.

If you bring up your own medkit that will stop them from healing you.

Don't use it, just equip it.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Wed May 20, 2009 11:19 am

You can also kill the bots at the start of the level.

Kelric · Post by **Kelric** » Wed May 20, 2009 11:47 am

I hope to be around for some (possibly drunken) L4D tonight.

Kraegor · Post by **Kraegor** » Wed May 20, 2009 11:53 am

Chaz wrote:You can also kill the bots at the start of the level.

"who doesn't belong?" "Fire!"

Navaros · Post by **Navaros** » Wed May 20, 2009 1:32 pm

What's the best way to find a huge clan of good players for this game? I have realized that trying to play this game when I don't know anybody sucks big-time, at least in terms of getting achievements.

I figure the best way to get the Versus achievements is to just join a clan and let them all play as survivors and don't fight me at all whilst I get my achievements. How do I find said people who will let me do that though?

I really suck at this game so take this opinion with a grain of salt...but I tried Versus for a while and it seemed to be wayyyyy unbalanced in favor of survivors. If they so much as see you, you are dead a half a second later. Yet, there is no way to get near them without them seeing you. And they all have long-range weapons whereas you don't, so that gives them another huge advantage over the infected? It seems to me that they would need to increase the number of common infected by 100 fold at least in order to make playing as infected in Versus balanced properly. Definitely not a fun time for me playing as the infected. Don't see how I'd ever be able to be bothered getting 50 000 dmg against survivors with them not letting me do so.

Two Sheds · Post by **Two Sheds** » Wed May 20, 2009 1:45 pm

If you're finding Versus to be heavily balanced in favor of the survivors, you're not doing it right.

And gaming the system for achievements is stupid.

Kraegor · Post by **Kraegor** » Wed May 20, 2009 1:53 pm

heh, the only reason a game will play like it favors the survivors is if the infected team sucks... that's not a class balance issue... it's a teamwork issue... ya'll are not planning concerted attacks...

n't see how I'd ever be able to be bothered getting 50 000 dmg against survivors with them not letting me do so.

it's not 50K in one hit.... it's 50K total... afaik... it adds up over time....since i've had a 2000point round before... 50K doesnt seem impossible...

It seems to me that they would need to increase the number of common infected by 100 fold at least in order to make playing as infected in Versus balanced properly.

It's called a boomer. And a properly timed boom... is beautiful....

other night had a game going... and one guy... apparently got lost for a second... and I happened to be spectating this player.... so I spawn in and boom.... he gets swarmed.... and incapped... my boom has recycled by this time... I boom him again to finish him off... it was funny... cuz eventually they realized what was up and came back for him.. which is when the hunters pounced...

ska5fe · Post by **ska5fe** » Wed May 20, 2009 2:00 pm

Isn't it only 5,000 damage for Dead Wreckening? That's possible to get on one Tank life, isn't it? It's really not that hard of an achievement.

Kraegor · Post by **Kraegor** » Wed May 20, 2009 2:03 pm

ska5fe wrote:Isn't it only 5,000 damage for Dead Wreckening? That's possible to get on one Tank life, isn't it? It's really not that hard of an achievement.

thnk he's talkin bout the bigger one.

I have Dead Wreckening... got it with a boom on the church map... think it's a church... the one where the survivors make a last stand in the countryside or something....

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Wed May 20, 2009 2:58 pm

I feel like if you're looking for people to let you kill them and such just to get the achievement, you may be missing the point of achievements. I also don't understand, at a basic level, people who create and populate the TF2 achievement farming maps. It's slightly more understandable if there's unlocks based on achievements. But for me, part of the fun of having the achievements is to actually earn them. There's a sense of accomplishment when you single-handedly take down a tank that's trying to kill you to get the achievement. Not so much when you get a cooperative group to stand around while you pump rounds into a tank who's willing to just sit there and take it.

Kelric · Post by **Kelric** » Wed May 20, 2009 3:27 pm

Navaros wrote:What's the best way to find a huge clan of good players for this game? I have realized that trying to play this game when I don't know anybody sucks big-time, at least in terms of getting achievements.

We call it the OO L4D group. We won't let you get the achievements as an enemy, but you should find us much more enjoyable to play with (and against) than public games.

Kraegor · Post by **Kraegor** » Wed May 20, 2009 3:27 pm

Navaros wrote: I really suck at this game so take this opinion with a grain of salt...but I tried Versus for a while and it seemed to be wayyyyy unbalanced in favor of survivors. If they so much as see you, you are dead a half a second later. Yet, there is no way to get near them without them seeing you. And they all have long-range weapons whereas you don't, so that gives them another huge advantage over the infected? .

oh yeah... spose could answer this question....

well... here's a random brain dump... some was advice given... some is just how I play...

The "E" button is your friend.... if you can't figure out WTF they are... run in the opposite direction until you get a "too far away" warning and hit E... will teleport you to where they are....

1) Don't spawn immediately.... get a feel for how the survivors are moving... spawn too soon and you end up an easy target... spawn in the wrong place and you get to play catchup as they outpace you...

2) Smoker... is not an attacker per sae.... play the smoker as a disrupter.... you want to pull people off of ledges... pull them down a flight of stairs... out of a window... basically... force them to backtrack to save the guy you just smoked...

3) hunter... pick a straggler... or a leader... someone lazy about staying close to the others... FEED. Game is VERTICAL... it's in 3D... I shit you not! so... uhh... get off the damn ground... see those scooby glowing footprints on walls n stuff? you can climb that shit, yo! so get up there. Learn how to FLY!!!

4) Boomer... opposite play from the others... boomer isnt meant to survive... I try to get 2 shots in... 1 with spit... then wait 5-10 seconds or so... then run in and have them blow you up in the chaos so you get a second hit and hopefully blast new targets. the simpler approach means you wanna try to spawn... walk 2 feet and DIE.... so ya gotta learn how to use walls and barrels and cars n stuff to let you spawn as close as possible... a lot of games depend on the Boomer creating the distraction by getting in a solid hit. Several bad booms and it's tough to win as infected, unless the tank/hunters are just royal badasses...

5) you can spawn just about anywhere... just get out of line of sight... and sometimes crouching behind a car will do the trick... so no you don't have to spawn "far away"... you can spawn right next door... just gotta learn how big the "sphere" is that surrounds players preventing your spawn.

biggest trick is learning that all the infected are paper tigers... so your true effectiveness comes when you time things together... a solo boom... will do ok... but if you can get a boom and then 2 hunter hits... if timed right and the it's a full boom... survivors = dead....

/shrug. just depends...

weirdest thing last night... in a group playing vs a stacked clan... the clan managed to get 3 hunter hits on 3 of us (myself included) inside of 5 seconds.... when a smoker pulled one of the guys out of a building and we scrambled to save him... I ran outside... killed the smoker... but our guy was incapped so I was runnin around the corner to revive... bam hit by hunter... look up... and see 2 more hunters... sailing from the top of a building like a couple damn vampires... I swear it coulda been in bullet time that moment....and see them both land separately on the 2 remaining survivors...so we all ended up dying in 1v1 fights with infected.... embarassing....

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Wed May 20, 2009 5:22 pm

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Kraegor, the Jack Kerouac of Left 4 Dead advice.

Kelric · Post by **Kelric** » Thu May 21, 2009 8:45 am

The rust really showed last night in that game of Versus on Dead Air. Ugh. I was terrible until that last map, whereupon I proceeded to kick ass.

Burnt Toast · Post by **Burnt Toast** » Thu May 21, 2009 2:23 pm

Kelric wrote:The rust really showed last night in that game of Versus on Dead Air. Ugh. I was terrible until that last map, whereupon I proceeded to kick ass.

It's just like riding a bike, though. I had a great time on both teams, and I know I wasn't a superstar, but the night before I played quite poorly having been away from the game for several days.

Fortunately, the previous night's game was with other OO'ers too so even though I was teh suxor, I had a fun time with tolerant teammates.

As an aside - if anyone here is looking for an extra player and sees me online, feel free to send an invite. If I'm playing something other than L4D, I am almost always ready to quit and join up!

Padre · Post by **Padre** » Thu May 21, 2009 4:14 pm

A combination of exams and my PSU on my gaming PC crapping out mean I probably won't be seen on L4Ds noble shores for another two weeks or more, continuing my already lengthy hiatus from the game.

Such is life. I haven't even played one single round of survival yet, or Versus on Death Toll...

DonD · Post by **DonD** » Thu May 21, 2009 4:42 pm

Last night was awesome. It's been too long since we've done this.

Ninyu · Post by **Ninyu** » Thu May 21, 2009 5:14 pm

Padre wrote:A combination of exams and my PSU on my gaming PC crapping out mean I probably won't be seen on L4Ds noble shores for another two weeks or more, continuing my already lengthy hiatus from the game.

Such is life. I haven't even played one single round of survival yet, or Versus on Death Toll...

Death Toll generally sucks for Versus. All those roofs in the town maps and you can't stand on most of them. I don't understand when there are high perches on all the other campaigns. Death Toll is pretty cool but No Mercy is still the best.

Dr. Sugardaddy · Post by **Dr. Sugardaddy** » Thu May 21, 2009 7:35 pm

Big fun last night, guys (at least, for the last two rounds

)

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Thu May 21, 2009 9:46 pm

Anyone else having trouble with L4D tonight? I keep getting punted out of games, if I can even join them at all....

Kraegor · Post by **Kraegor** » Thu May 21, 2009 9:46 pm

as usual... hawk eye with rifle... gimme a shotgun and I can't hit anything....

ShotsKillsAccuracyHeadshots
Pistol3,781455 (16.76%)28%5%
Uzi1,944850 (31.31%)100%23%
Pump Shotgun119103 (3.79%)37%2%
Auto Shotgun438331 (12.19%)13%3%
Assault Rifle1,800859 (31.64%)94%16%
Hunting Rifle21587 (3.2%)44%8%
Minigun9730 (1.1%)60%0%

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Thu May 21, 2009 9:47 pm

malchior wrote:Anyone else having trouble with L4D tonight? I keep getting punted out of games, if I can even join them at all....

WTF I don't even think I have you on my friends list. What's up with that! Servers are getting slammed by the TF2 update which I've been trying to download for the last hour.

Ninyu · Post by **Ninyu** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 3:24 pm

Anyone up for a game or two this evening?

gwartok · Post by **gwartok** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 4:21 pm

Ninyu wrote:Anyone up for a game or two this evening?

I haven't played it online yet but I should be able to play around 10-11 CST. My steam id is gwartok.

Two Sheds · Post by **Two Sheds** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 4:33 pm

I'm a definite maybe. If I'm on steam go ahead and send me an invite.

gwartok · Post by **gwartok** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:08 pm

New campaign and versus revamp coming in Sept. Looks like it'll be free for PC and the 360 players will have to pay a few bucks for it.

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 11:09 pm

The new campaign, Crash Course, went live today.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 6:40 am

It's way short at only two stages. Granted the stages seem a bit bigger than the stages from the original game but seriously, I had to pay almost $6 for two friggin' stages?

They also added quite a few new achievments most of which I'll never get since I almost never play Vs. mode.

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:19 am

PC players didn't have to pay anything.

And modders will be using it as a basis for new content.

Peacedog · Post by **Peacedog** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:37 am

Brian wrote:It's way short at only two stages. Granted the stages seem a bit bigger than the stages from the original game but seriously

Well, they're on par with the biggest stages in the game; granted the campaigns tend to mix some longer stages in with shorter ones.

I'm a little underwhelme. I'm disappointed that Valve hasn't done a new full campaign for us since the game came out. The stages here have some promise, but either they weren't well tested or someone forgot to flip a switch. There's guns, health, and bombs EVERYWHERE (almost like every spawn point, or nearly every spawn point, has something spawned). Maybe it's different in versus but the infected would be at a severe disadvantage it seems like (there's also a ton of defensible points at every turn). There are a couple of cleverly placed live car alarm cars, which is nice.

I do like the light change in the finale mechanics (the infected just keep on coming when you need to restart the generator, so there's no significant breathing room). The graffiti in the safe room is pretty good.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 9:30 am

PC players didn't have to pay anything.

I know. 360 players didn't have to pay for the last DLC either. Had I known how short this "campaign" was I wouldn't have shelled out for it.

Peacedog wrote: There's guns, health, and bombs EVERYWHERE (almost like every spawn point, or nearly every spawn point, has something spawned).

A friend and I were discussing this and it seems that that would actually make more sense than having weapons be few and far between.

If the military/police and armed civilians attempted to hold a defensible position and where overrun by zombies/infected then there would be quite a few weapons scattered about as the defenders were killed, injured, infected, or ran in panic. There would likely be several of these areas as they fell back to new positions when the previous hold point was overrun.

So really we should see almost no guns in most places and then many guns at roadblocks, fortifications, and previously defended buildings.

Peacedog · Post by **Peacedog** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:12 am

Brian wrote: A friend and I were discussing this and it seems that that would actually make more sense than having weapons be few and far between.

If the military/police and armed civilians attempted to hold a defensible position and where overrun by zombies/infected then there would be quite a few weapons scattered about as the defenders were killed, injured, infected, or ran in panic. There would likely be several of these areas as they fell back to new positions when the previous hold point was overrun.

So really we should see almost no guns in most places and then many guns at roadblocks, fortifications, and previously defended buildings.

Yeah, but while there may be some thematic/narrative sense in the placings it's screwey for game balance. Even in coop. It's way too easy when you never have ammo issues (pretty odd for two longish maps) and it rains have mollys/pipe bombs. The finale is pretty interesting tactically speaking, but getting there is a cinch (even with idiot players in coop, which it also seemed to be raining yesterday).

They did make some attempt to "smartly" place the spawn points. There are several places where you can find guns by military vehciles, fer example. But these places shouldn't all be spawning items.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:16 am

Oh definitely agreed. For play balance it's a a bit overpowering. I was speaking strictly from a narrative viewpoint.

Since this campaign is designed primarily for Vs. I think the availability of ammo/bombs makes it far too easy for survivor players to simply shoot willy-nilly with no need for ammo conservation or tactical decision making.

Since I never play Vs. I guess it doesn't effect me that much.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:21 am

I haven't played it yet, but Valve was very up front about the new campaign being intentionally shorter than the original ones. The logic being that L4D games can run an hour or more, and playing in vs doubles that, which is a really long time for a MP round. They were finding that a lot of people dropped out halfway through a vs match, so they wanted a campaign that could be played all the way through in about an hour.

Sucks that people on the 360 had to pay for it. Get L4D2 on the PC!

Kelric · Post by **Kelric** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 6:16 pm

I'm in for some drunken L4D after 11pm eastern if anyone else is. But I haven't played in almost six months.

Kelric · Post by **Kelric** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 1:17 am

Got a game in with Jab (ragequit!) and some other folk. I warned them that I haven't played in six months and that I was slightly inebriated, but they persisted in having me play. I honestly didn't do too badly, but I certainly didn't do too well either. Been a while.

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Mon Nov 16, 2020 8:05 pm

My son has been playing a Roblox game called "Zombie Uprising". It's fine as Roblox games go, which is to say, repetitive and mediocre. So I decided to introduce him to the real deal and reinstalled Left 4 Dead for the first time in a very long time.

On the one hand, I'm glad that he's being exposed to quality game design instead of Roblox crap. On the other hand, I had forgotten how gory this game is, and maybe 10 years old is a little young for dismembering zombies.

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Tue Nov 17, 2020 12:03 am

FYI left for dead 2 had a big update drop last month. Haven't checked it myself but it's free.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Tue Nov 17, 2020 8:22 am

It's difficult. Very difficult.