L4D UPDATE! Options

[MonkeyFiend]

Valve have just updated Left 4 Dead, the changelog is:

January 14, 2009 - Left 4 Dead Update Released


Left 4 Dead has been updated with a host of fixes, tweaks and new features, including enhancements to Versus mode for improved competitive play. The full change list is below. For PC users the update will be applied automatically via Steam. Meanwhile, the update will be made available to Xbox 360 players in the coming weeks.

General

• Fixed Survivors being able to climb surfaces marked for versus infected only
• Fixed a class of SurvivorBot bugs dealing with rescuing downed players
• Players can no longer grab ladders while flying through the air after a Tank punch
• Shooting near a car with an alarm that has already fired the alarm will no longer make chirping noises
• Improved loading time
• Fixed mini-gun physics exploit
• Fixed propane tanks (and other physics objects) causing players to fall through elevators
• Fixed rare achievement bug issues
• Fixed several map exploits
• Fixed various match making issues
• Fixed NAT traversal issues

Versus Changes

• Added HUD elements to show status of other infected players
• Changed color of infected player name in chat to red
• Fixed exploit where players could spawn infected bots
• Fixed instance where a Survivor changing to the infected team would be attacked by infected bots
• Normalized special infected melee damage
• Made the following client commands cheat protected: "Kill" and "explode"
• Fixed exploit where infected players could run away and teleport back to gain health
• Players can only change teams once per map
• Players can't change teams while other players are still loading
• Tank spawns at the same % through the map for both teams in versus mode
• Made the Tank and Witch spawn directly on the escape route
• Increased chance of getting the Tank or Witch
• Fixed team swap issue

Hunter

• Easier to pounce a Survivor who is meleeing
• Increased Minimum damage a Hunter pounce does

Smoker

• Fixed Smoker tongue tolerance
• Smoker now has to be killed or the tongue destroyed for the tongue to break
• Survivor's cannot bash someone off the tongue until the Survivor being pulled is paralyzed or hanging
• Tongue attacks that fail to paralyze or hang a Survivor will use the shorter ability delay timer
• Fixed cases where the ability timer was not using the correct time
• Fixed case where you could point at a Survivor but not register a tongue hit
• Fixed Smoker tongue not targeting and landing properly through PZ ghosts
• Smoker tongue does damage every second while dragging paralyzed Survivors

Tank

• Bashable objects now appear with a red glow
• Tanks hitting a car with an alarm disables the alarm permanently
• Tank frustration timer is only reset by hitting Survivors with rocks or fists
• Reduced autoshotgun damage against Tanks

Witch

• Witch spawns at the same % through the map for both teams
• Avoids spawning within a certain % of the tank
• Fixed an exploit where the Witch could be woken up and tricked into attacking Survivors

[Magik5]

yeh when i saw the changelog state "meleeing normalised" you assume theyve all been made to cause same amount of damage


have to say though, i dont hate the tank positioning as much as i thought, although id still prefer the randomness back.
i think it has its benefits and downfalls, much like most other aspects of the game

[=R6= Raile]

well i'll completely disagre with you on the tank one if you don't mind

[Magik5]

group 1: ah sweet, a moly, best keep this incase we get a tank
group 2: ah sweet a moly, best keep this for when its time for the tank

both groups still have a moly, and have to fight them on the same area/terrain

[MonkeyFiend]

waaat? Firstly the moly/pipebomb placing do not match between rounds...

1st team, not wishing to dilly-dally picked up a molotov and 2 pipebombs - these were just available on the way.. a tank came, kicked some ass and avoided getting lit..

The 2nd team knowing they were about to ge a tank scoured the place for molotovs (which they packed several of), cleared the surrounding area first and the moment the tank popped it's head out was lit-up 'apocalypse now' style

Likewise when levels came with no tank, the 2nd team used this knowledge to get stocked up on pipebombs instead of molys, since these were of more use :S

I think it would be nice to allow 2 modes of play - competetive and random.

Random: like the old days, random weapons, random tanks, random witches
Competetive: both teams get same weapons, tanks in the same place etc., to make it more balanced for clan matches and tournaments.

[=R6= Raile]

i agree sometimes it happens like that, but that isn't the case all the time.

over the past few days there have only been a few times where that happened for me. usually, atleast on my team, we come up with a gameplan for who does when when fighting the tank. sometimes you come up with a plan and it doesn't work, but a few times it has worked perfectly and we were barely hit.
sure sometimes before the patch you'd have 10-20 seconds from when you heard the tank to when it hit, to come up with a plan and try to force the tank to fight you where you wanted, but also sometimes he'd surprise the hell out of you and completely screw you. now that never happens.

lets just say i hate it

[=R6= Raile]

wrote mine before reading monkey's post..

Everything Monkey wrote has happened to me, and I completely agree with the bit about two modes. why the hell not anyways? more options is easy and has never been a bad thing.
still like my idea about doing something with giving control of the tank spawn to the players..

auto-spawn is the stupidest thing ever and i just dont get it

[Magik5]

greed, autospawn = fail.

monkey u gaylord go make a mod =]

[MonkeyFiend]

ok, I've made some code to turn tank spawns back to the old way

Will test it later tonight


Posting some bumpf here to remind me:

"director_tank_bypass_max_flow_travel" = "1500"
game cheat
"versus_boss_flow_max_intro" = "0.75"
game cheat
- Max fraction of map flow for tank/witch spawn location within the first map of a campaign
"versus_tank_chance_finale" = "0.1"
game cheat
- Chance of a tank spawning within the finale map of a campaign
"versus_tank_chance" = "0.75"
game cheat
- Chance of a tank spawning within a regular versus map
"versus_boss_spawning" = "1"
game cheat
- Enable alternative spawning logic for tanks and witches in versus mode
"versus_boss_flow_max_finale" = "0.6"
game cheat
- Max fraction of map flow for tank/witch spawn location within the finale map of a campaign
"versus_boss_flow_max" = "0.9"
game cheat
- Max fraction of map flow for tank/witch spawn location
"director_ai_tanks" = "0"
game cheat
"versus_boss_flow_min_intro" = "0.5"
game cheat
"versus_boss_flow_min" = "0.1"
game cheat
- Min fraction of map flow for tank/witch spawn location
"versus_boss_padding_max" = "0.3"
game cheat
- How far apart the tank/witch have to be along the flow
"versus_boss_flow_min_finale" = "0.25"
game cheat
- Min fraction of map flow for tank/witch spawn location within the finale map of a campaign
"versus_boss_padding_min" = "0.1"
game cheat
- How far apart the tank/witch have to be along the flow
"versus_tank_chance_intro" = "0.3"
game cheat
- Chance of a tank spawning within the first map of a campaign

setting it so that both teams get a tank, but the point from which you can get the tank on the map is up to 100% the distance of the map means that the 2nd team will get the tank anywhere on the map, hence random again

Autospawns will probably be harder... I'll take a look

[Magik5]

thats quick o0

pr0!

would be nice if you could avoid getting a tank as soon as you open the safe room door though lol =]

[=R6= Raile]

I was going to say, maybe 100% isn't good? Play testing is the way forward tho..

And yeah, all that auto-spawn BS on finale's.... fuckin hell. like auto-spawn me in as a boomer in front of the mini-gun on NM5. 3 times in a row the other night. I was not impressed.

[MonkeyFiend]

eesh, may have to look for another way - the 100% is map variance as in if team 1 gets a tank in the middle of the map, with 100% set team 2 could get a tank at any point in the map. Setting it to 75% is 75% of the map distance away from the first tank, not from the beginning of the map.

As in if team 1 gets a tank 15% through the map, setting the tank to 75% would still mean you could get a tank at the beginning and anything up to 90% through the map. It's either all or nothing

[=R6= Raile]

if that's the case, I'd be interested to see what setting it to 50% would do? or even 20%? even that would atleast vary it up enough for the survivors to not know EXACTLY where it comes. 20% of the map too would make the tank possibly come in a whole different area of the map then the other team had.. and then after some playtesting could always adjust it higher.

[Magik5]

i guess this means the server wont be ranked if these settings are applied?

[=R6= Raile]

servers are ranked?

[Magik5]

as in, you wont be able to get achievements etc

[=R6= Raile]

ahhhh

[fido77]

what kind of stuff do u get the more u play? is there anything to work towards like the badges in bf2?

[Magik5]

it works off achievements, which you get for completing certain tasks like completing a whole campaign without healing once etc

theres 50 in total to get, and ive got 40 so far, but theres some i dont think ill ever get

[fido77]

so, it doesn't take long to get all them?

[Magik5]

majority no... but some require alot of skill... hence why i cant get them