My experiences with rushing have always turned out badly in this game. Inevitably, because people are more concerned with going forward than making sure their backs are covered, someone gets separated by zombies that get in the way, or a smoker grabs the last one through, and everybody else is like "Oh, thought you were with us. Well, anyways, let's go." Usually by that point it's just a matter of picking off the rest.

Besides that, it's not usually too hard to take down a tank as long as you're in an area where you can all focus your fire on him.

I've had mixed experiences with rushing. Then again the few times I play versus I sometimes end up with a mix of friends + pubbies.

If you rush and pause to kill special infected, you should be just fine until they spawn again. There are certain points where you have to move as one unit though or you'll get picked off by a smoker or hunter and you can't be saved.

Probably the biggest problem I experience are people who kind of take their sweet time when we're moving. It's not campaign so we don't have the luxury of exploring every nook and cranny; at least not if you are up against competent Infected players.

Also hay tank virgins when you incap somebody don't keep pounding them expecting a kill it just makes you a jackass. Also during the Blood Harvest finale keep your distance and just throw shit, their shotguns won't have as much of an effect. A lot of time players will camp the ammo room expecting you to rush in there so they can fuck you up with the auto shotties since tank smash only hits one survivor. Just look at them long enough to stay in control and let your teammates wear them down in a war of attrition.

After going through a crazy Orange-walled custom level (Textures missing I guess) tonight with Pang, Dope & Sass, I looked around to see what other stuff people have come up with. I saw a BioHazard type mod, a couple player Skins (Especially for Zoe) but the creme de la creme HAS TO BE THIS:

Crossroads Mall - A Replica of the Mall in Dawn of the Dead

I saw this on youtube already, but as huge as it is, it will need more work to ensure survivors aren't wandering aimlessly or getting separated when they play. As it stands, there's not even an indication of where a person should go to find a safehouse.

Here's an updated walkthrough of some of the work they've done, which looks good so far.
YouTube - Dead before Dawn - Left 4 Dead New Map

I was up till 4 am trying to beat a campaign on Expert. We could get to the house at the end of the cornfield but the Tanks kept acting serious types of fucking retarded.

Patch for PC is out. Just bug fixes, no new content. 360 patch is expected in the next few weeks.

Well, Smoker might be better.

Now I have even LESS of a reason to use the Shotgun, bleh.

Well, they were pretty overpowered. Plenty of times I've seen the survivors, crouched in a corner of the Blood Harvest finale, take out a tank before he can swing a second time.
Just tested this, Smoker and Boomer melee both deal 8 damage now. Hunter does 12.

Edit: Hm, I'm having difficulty spawning as a tank (for some reason I have no health and get killed in one shot. This is with console commands, mind, but it used to work fine), but it seems like his melee is up to 48 damage.

So I've been playing a somewhat casual melange of versus and campaign (thanks again, Pang). Impressions so far are mostly very positive:

- Loving the radial menu system for those lacking in mics, even if I spend most of my time using it solely for spamming the "laugh" command when I'm playing as Louis.
- The atmosphere is great. A big change I've noticed from the earlier screenshots of the game is the lighting. The flashlight reliance keeps the player vigilant.
- Versus mode. Oh, a round-based shooter built on an engine developed by Valve? Psh, played it a milliNO. The alternation is great. Rotating at the end of each round provides a great change of pace and keeps things fresh.

It does, however, suffer from a little bit of new-Valve-game-pre-patch-suck, which, of course, will be ironed out soon (e: or, given that it's been patched since I last played, perhaps things are better already). Can't wait to play the other campaigns on versus.

Perhaps when I learn to not suck so horribly, I could join you gentlemen.

After a couple of throwaway rounds, I almost feel better about the old smoker. I prefer having a surefire backtrack for the survivors to a little extra damage here or there.

It also doesn't make a whole lot of sense to nerf hunter swipes, either. The appeal is that they're silent compared to smokers and boomers, who will almost never be up in close combat and won't have a lot of excuses to melee. The improved pounce is nice, but it doesn't provide a lot of flexibility on the infected side.

Also this.

Here's something fun to look at that's been making the rounds lately.

How was getting your tongue broken instantly by melee any more surefire? I don't see how the tongue is anything but stronger now.

Also, how is two more damage a nerf, exactly?

Hunter swipe damage went down from 10 to 6, while the Boomer and Smoker went up to 4. Auto-targeting still sucks ass but it's better than it was before.

A few exploits on No Mercy were fixed, some were left alone but they made little changes to things here and there that even if you're exploiting fast melee you can still get pounced, just not smoked.

Witches still don't consistently spawn in your way, but it's only in some maps where she does not, so you should still be able to organize something around her as Infected. The set spawns kind of ruin what some players wanted. Then again they did provide what people complained about not having: Equal Opportunity.

Like the witch though, there are still moments where you do not get a Tank at all during the round. At least both sides won't have a tank though, since the set spawn only occurs if it spawns for the first team.

Versus should hopefully be less heavily biased towards the Survivors now, but time will tell.

Okay, I guess I am just doing double damage for no apparent reason then.

Smoker before was a waiting game, but a sure kill was a sure kill, and at the very least you made people go in the opposite direction to get to the survivor. The tongue now is supposed to be more specific in its targeting, but so far all I've seen is that it doesn't seem to grab as often.

It could just take some getting used to, but it definitely operates differently now.

As far as I can tell, melee still breaks a tongue, it's a bit confusing.

You're not doing damage for no apparent reason, Starman, the hunter always did 20 damage.

New patch likes to make me lose connection between rounds. I love it.

At least we got through the subway on Expert! :D

That was some grueling shit man. So the plan eventually was: OKAY LETS RUSH!

and then it was all...
A TANK, FUCK!
A WITCH RIGHT BY THE SPAWN CLOSET, FUCK!
A BOOMER SPIT ON ME FROM OUT OF NOWHERE, FUCK!
A SMOKER GRABBED SOMEONE, FUCK!
DN IS ON FIRE, FUCK!

Ah, but then we finally made it. The new patch seemed to improve my connection ability and the game only spazzes out a little when its loading the level, but then it goes back to normal and its all good. The Volume levels seem reset though, but I didn't have time to fix it then.

Lesson Learned: Never try and hide in the safe room if a Tank spawns in the beginning on Expert. He'll smash through the door and come right at you. :(

(If anyone has any suggestions about this, let me know? Me and Pla and some of his buddies tried again this week to no avail.)

Last night, Pang went right back to the safe room and hid in a bathroom within. The tank never came to get him out. I don't recall if he was on fire before Pang went into the safe room, though.

That was on No Mercy, but I really have no idea how he jumped down, then got back up.

I'm a little stunned that running through the subway in No Mercy on Expert full sprint actually works as well as it does. Most times we can get to the generator room, and if you haven't come across a Tank by then but your buddies are dead, you have plenty of time to sit around and wait for them to respawn. Sure they end up at 50 health (which is not a lot on Expert) but the other tactic is sit by the gate and crawl under as soon as you can. A couple times we had one person (oddly, each time it was Dark Nation) get through, and then you can wait again for the respawn.

That's how we ended up getting two people out on...what was it, our tenth try? Eleventh? We gave up at the sewer.

It's easy!

http://www.saxypunch.com/miscimg/l4d...subway0000.jpg

Just one rock to the next, and then back onto the platform. Bots (survivor and infected) never use it, though, so my guess is that it's not part of their pathfinding. The Tank couldn't reach me because he didn't know how to jump up (actually, can Tanks jump at all?)

In this case though I never actually left the room; my game crashed and when I rejoined you guys were heading out the door without good ol' Frank. I grab my medkit, my shotty, and then the tank music kicks in so I shut the door and cower. Fuck yeah cowering!

Tanks are much more dangerous with the newest patch, though. The change from a straight countdown to actual damage when you torch him has increased his on-fire lifespan by about 2x.

Everything I've read about other people succeeding at Expert suggests slow & steady is the way but that'll never work for our group. If we spend more than 15 minutes getting through a level we'll all be dead from accidental friendly-fire.

BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL