Accessing Dead Air/Death Toll in Versus mode Options

[MonkeyFiend]

Firstly Valve have removed accesss to Dead air and Death Toll in versus mode.

You can manually download some patched versions of these from here:

Complete campaign pack: http://sneakymonkeys.com/maps.rar

[Edit: changed the address since over 800 people have downloaded these files, I suspect our downloads have been passed around )

I added them a rar without thinking, so if you can't open these files you'll need a copy of winrar (http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm)

You then need to extract them to your maps folder, such as:

C:\steam\steamapps\common\left4dead\left4dead\maps

After installing maps you may need to restart steam.


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Connecting to a server
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Since these are custom maps, you can only play them on servers that have them installed, such as the sneakymonkeys server

To connect to sneakymonkeys (either be a member of the steam group sneakymonkeys) or connect manually, open the console (~) and type: Connect 85.236.100.37:27215

The server may not be on these campaigns, you'll require access to the server in clanforge (server.sneakymonkeys.com) - slect the left 4 dead server (MH11345), click on servers, tick the box next to the server, click live control, click current game and select the corresponding map e.g. l4d_vs_airport_01 etc.,(and then press change map button)


ISSUES:

1. String Table Errors

The content on your computer differs from that on the server. I'd recommend redownloading the custom maps again

2. Doors/Cars/Objects appear white.

Workaround: go to your graphics options and turn shaders to Medium - this will sort out the textures

This relates to HDR Shaders not being built properly. To fix this we could rebuild the cubes (buildcubes command) on the server and redownload all of the maps, if things go wrong (and l4d is pretty buggy) it would prevent access to the server (until you reinstall the maps) so I DO NOT recommend this.

[Magik5]

ah sweet, had no idea about the custom maps


is there any reason valve removed those from versus? seems quite a random thing to do

[MonkeyFiend]

They had decided the balance was not right on them - personally things like a tank in the wrong place can really knacker the balance alone. The only other thing is that some of the maps are short, some are very long, but overall with a reasonably balanced team, I don't think there are any particular advantages.

I've also uploaded the following custom maps to the server:

city_minami_department_a1
city_minami_street_a1
l4d_farm_of_death
l4d_resort04_beach
l4d_vs_hunter_city_b1
l4d_vs_stronghold

I'll make an edit once I've build a install package and stuck it on the website

P.S. Also anyone fancy collaborating on a l4d map? I've hacked the orange box resource kit in the absence of a proper l4d SDK, so was thinking of building some maps... zombie strike at karkand would be fun (if not a little ambitious) - has been a while since I've used hammer properly, so might just wait until the SDK is released

[Magik5]

sweet idea, id love to get stuck into it. not sure how much use ill be, i can model/do basic coding if i can get my head in the sdk - language dependent heh

[Jearik]

Hey, you guys think we could do this this evening? Some Dead Air, Death Toll versus?

[MonkeyFiend]

don't see why not - providing we can muster 8 players who have the add-on maps

[Magik5]

im in ftw

[MonkeyFiend]

god, I sucked so badly at l4d last night - maybe a bit of dead air/death toll will help

[Jearik]

Great, I'm psyched. I have a friend, DAS who's gonna join also. we've both been dying to play these levels
I'm sure I can find others also without much trouble

[MonkeyFiend]

no problem - although dont forget to get the maps installed!

[=R6= Raile]

i'd be up for some tonight

oh and i'd possibly be up for some collaboration map stuff. not sure where my best strengths would lie these days, but i did used to make loads of maps back in the 90's for games like doom2 and duke nukem.

plus i have a load of friends at work who are all pretty masterful 3d'ers, and play L4D. you never know they might be interested as well......

[MonkeyFiend]

cool - still waiting on the L4D software dev kit to be released, because without it making maps is a pain.
From the hacked orange box version that I've been playing with the main issue so far is L4D is mostly flat ground with stairs/lifts to different heights, whereas bf2 has rolling rounded hills - at the moment am not sure how to replicate this in hammer :s (without producing the most laggy memory consuming map ever dreamed of)

[=R6= Raile]

are you guys only interested in replicating karkand? cuz i'm not actually that interested... i think that would be a whole shit load of work, and the map would never actually play that well for this type of game
i don't have a better idea necessarily, but do think something original might be a better direction.. replicating something just means you have something to be compared to.. i'll try to come up with something i think is better and bring the idea forward

[fido77]

i think a close to karkand would be cool, but with more buildings and can go inside the buildings and train.

[Magik5]

i like the idea of a karkand level, i dont think it could be an exact replication of it though, it would need open buildings and a linear path through it, with road blockades in place etc. its downfall is the fact its designed for free roam

[=R6= Raile]

monkey do you know at all how the SDK will work for creating levels? like i said, i havnt used any software of that kind since the 90's. i'm just trying to get a grasp on how things work, to then see how we could actually make a collaboration work.

as for karkand, i might be on board. i have done some rough sketches at work and now have an idea in my head that i think could work to make karkand into an l4d level. the idea would be that rather then replicating the map of karkand, which doesn't work as its not linear, you create a path that one playing bf2 might run, going from the US base to the MEC main. imagine that while running down the streets along this set path, any and all of the alleys, junctions in roads, etc, are all blockaded by whatever (car's, anything that works), to force it to be linear. imagine as you run thru karkand, that anytime you would normally have a choice of different alleys or streets to turn down, you now don't. at each turn, only one path to follow. the path would try to run through as many of the key areas of the map as possible, to replicate the karkand experience. i've got a sorta rough path jotted down that could be played with.

[Magik5]

nice, would like to see

another alternative is to go "dawn of the dead" stylee and base a whole campaign inside a mall/shopping centre

i love the idea of looking out from on top of the roof into the street and not being able to see any tarmac because there are too many zombies down there, that would make for some epic pipe bomb moments

then the final mission would be to get across the street to the heli landing pad or to an escape APC or similar where you have to fight your way throught the epic hord outside

[=R6= Raile]

ooo i like that idea aswell

i'm not sure... would making a karkand be an easier collaboration because we all know it so well?

[Magik5]

i guess it would, yes - but are we hung up on the idea of karkand because of the novelty factor, or because it would be a map that would actually play well?

if we do this seriously, id like to go as far as distributing as a mod, and with that, have a level that actually plays well and provides plenty of key areas where you can get some serious hord on the go

[Magik5]

but perhaps im overcooking it a little, depends how serious everyone else is about it i guess

[Magik6]

Count me out

[Magik5]

you dont count anyway

[fido77]

yeah!!! you don't count. we don't even know you anymore

[Magik5]

SUCK IT 6 YOU QUEER!!!!

[Magik6]

No one will ever accept me for who I am

[Magik5]

i tried and failed, i couldnt put up with the arse grabbing

[=R6= Raile]

i'm glad to see this thread didn't get derailed like usual..

as for karkand, 5, i think doing a map that everyone is familiar with, would be an easier starting point. the map might fail miserably, but everyone would learn from it and then we could do your mall idea, more seriously. doing level design and stuff like this, i've always learned the most by fucking up. its a good idea to do something you dont care as much about first and get the fuck ups out of the way......

[fido77]

and we can always modify it some if we don't like some parts but like others.

[Magik5]

derailed? nice pun


i guess karkand makes sense, we need new thread with a laid out plan on whos doing what... i guess main part is waiting for the sdk tho.

still shouldnt stop us from displaying/tweaking map layouts tho

[=R6= Raile]

like i said i have a rough map and some thoughts, but it all needs comments and i'm sure some people could make some of my thoughts much better with a little discussion.. i'll see about writing some of it up later

as for who is doing what, Monkey didn't answer me before when I asked him about it...
I'm not sure how the SDK will work and therefore am not sure how you would split up work.

I don't know how much we would reuse from L4D's existing materials (tho I would suggest using as many as possible, atleast until it gets to a playable state and we see if it's a good enough map to pursue finishing properly).

also i'm not sure who is good at what... like i said i've done level creating before but it was always only me doing it, and the whole level creating process is surely MUCH more advanced now-a-days. I couldn't even tell you for sure what I'd be good at. Probably lighting would be a strong point of mine (which would be a big part of l4d level design).. not sure about others.

[Magik5]

yeh, we need to discuss.

have to say tho, karkand at night will look pretty cool.

fyi, i have no level design experience, but i feel im at a stage where it wont be hard to get my head around/into the sdk.

oh and as long as i can import objects from 3dsmax modelling wise, im sure ill be fine with that as well.

of course, i could indeed be v wrong - who knows until we try

[MonkeyFiend]

@Raile: The SDK contains all of the texture, brushes and objects in L4D.. The tool used for creating maps is called 'hammer' - the same tool used for all of the source game half life 2/css/team fortress etc., You can hack the Hammer to manually createa an 'orange box' mod and import all the stuff from L4D; this allows the creation of some maps before the SDK is out.

You mention level design in the mid nineties somewhere, so I'll assume you used something similar to DEU for doom, basically the tool gives you wireframe overhead, sideways, front and 3d (textured, solid etc.,) views ; you build you level like an architect would by creating walls, boxes etc., then applying textures to them.

In case you're wondering Hammer looks like this:

[Magik5]

wow, seems easy enough

[MonkeyFiend]

wow, seems easy enough

Sorry I have to quote this one for future reference

Shopping centre (mall) idea from dawn of the dead is already being developed by some other people.. in fact there's a alpha running on our server.

The main issue I have with karkand that I'm not sure we can work around is this: karkand is based on a set terrain of rolling hills, the map itself (buildings etc.,) are then plonked on this terrain. L4D has no such terrain, it is based on rooms of a set height and while may contain ramps, ladders etc., are still in essence joined rooms. To recreate some of the hills that make karkand what it is, would require a fuck load of memory and would run laggier than magik6's computer. That being said I've not actually tried this.. so for all I know such a setup might work

[Magik5]

im currently quite excited to try it out

the interface doesnt seem to foreign to me

we shall see though

shame about the mall idea, though id like to run the alpha it possible

and yes, 6's pc is a laggy pos

[fido77]

i've only biult one mod, but i had to do it three times. and that was for nwn2. so whatever u think i may be able to do. the nwn2 toolset doesn't look too much different than that hammer thingy.

[Magik5]

make coffee

[=R6= Raile]

ok monkey, yeah that looks pretty much what i expected. what size textures can we get in there?

how does lighting work? as i dont see any lighting rigs.. or atleast anything that looks like what i expect..

as for karkand.. the rolling hills doesn't worry me. i've already put some thought into this and think it will be ok. remember, it won't be exactly the same as karkand in BF2. there's more to the feel of the map then rolling hills, and i'm confident if we can replicate the feel, then that will be good enough. i've also already thought of how karkand may need to be split up into multiple levels. but that in itself works great for bf2, as it can karkand as one campaign. more would need to be worked into this, but i still think it would work.

[fido77]

make coffee

that is one of the most impotant jobs u sure u want me in charge of it

[Magik5]

im sure youll pull through