[Multiplatform] Left 4 STOP THROWING PIPE BOMBS AT THE TANKS

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.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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

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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
*Survivors 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

Well, Smoker might be better.

FELIPE NO

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Reduced autoshotgun damage against Tanks

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

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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.

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*Normalized special infected melee damage

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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.

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This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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

Spoiler:

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Skexis

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.

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

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It also doesn't make a whole lot of sense to nerf hunter swipes, either.

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

I was speaking idiomatically.

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.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by StarmanDX

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

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.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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

There's nowhere I can't reach.

At least we got through the subway on Expert!

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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.)

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by LeHah

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.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Sassafrass

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.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by The Dopefish

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

It's easy!



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

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Tanks can jump but I've only seen it happen for player controlled tanks.

I mean, in theory the AI tank could've climbed up there.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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Everything I've read about other people succeeding at Expert suggests slow & steady is the way

I've found that the best way to survive is a "thinning of the herd" thing. If someone gets vomited on, they need to run as far away from the group as possible and let themselves die, to help increase the chance of at least ONE PERSON making it instead of having the whole group having to protect the person.

Also - something I noticed about climbing tanks: Maybe it was the game gliching out, but if you shoot their hands, do they let go? I was watching one climb up onto the car carrier at the beginning of the fourth campaign and it kept falling and getting up every time the guy on top shot at its hands?

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Grail

The smoker (in plain sight) snared someone up, and us hunters systematically (within like...3 seconds) all managed to pounce on every single other survivor so that all four of them were completely screwed.

Weird thing was, they were actually all laying there, snagged or pounced, and it didn't stop...the round only ended when they were all brought to that incaped phase. Which was weird in my book.

Gives them a chance to pistol-shoot someone free from the ground.

Originally Posted by Garr

Any of you guys know what determines what you'll spawn as in Versus? It seems pretty arbitrary to me. There are some times where I end up being nothing but the hunter for the entire level, and then there's other times where I can't stop being the boomer.

I've heard that there's a 20-second delay for the hunter and smoker to be reactivated after being killed. This often works out that if you die with the smoker, your other teammates will die when smoker's unavailable, and you'll respawn as the person to get it.

Coincidentally I think this is why you sometimes get a team with 3 hunters on it.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by How Unfortunate

Gives them a chance to pistol-shoot someone free from the ground.

That's the thing, when 3 hunters have 3 people pounced and a smoker has 1 person died up, I don't think anyone can shoot.

So for about a minute there we got to gloat as the survivors all were going from 100 health down to 0, and then from 300 little bars that drain fast, down to death.

Could be for points though, I suppose...not the actual team winning points, but the individual ones at the end of the round *shrug*

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Grail

That's the thing, when 3 hunters have 3 people pounced and a smoker has 1 person died up, I don't think anyone can shoot.

Smoker took quite a while to incapacitate before the patch, and I think the round ends only when everyone is incapacitated, so that's probably what happened.

Anyone heard any word on when the other 2 campaigns will be opened up?

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Skexis

Anyone heard any word on when the other 2 campaigns will be opened up?

Hopefully it won't be much longer now that pretty much every known exploit has been sewn up. People don't seem to get that patch development time is finite and that cheating for kicks just pushes new content further back in the queue. Then those same people bitch about Valve "taking away functionality without adding anything". Chet Faliszek said in an interview that the content was more-or-less finished by Christmas, so I can only assume it's the need for constant quickfixes holding it up.

At any rate if you run a local server (which is pretty easy to do in L4D) you can already load Death Toll and Dead Air in Versus Mode; they're just horridly unbalanced in their current incarnations.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?