Left 4 Dead 2 Catch All

NathanialG wrote:

I like both Lars and Quintin, I will play on a team with them, and the other well know jerk Burnt toast any day. On the other hand ever since Camnipotent called me an asshole in a finale I cant seem to remember I have hated him and will never play in a game with that jerkface again. He can die in a fire. A DA style grease trap fireball fire. So there!!

L4D2 needs snarespeak desperately!

I like the new maps overall. They may not have polish, but they have spirit.

stupidhaiku wrote:

I like the new maps overall. They may not have polish, but they have spit.

Fixed that for ya.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Regarding the ending, anyone else find it a bit dark?

Absolutely! Thought that was a very nice touch to storytelling, and it's also very interesting how the point you made also happened at the start of the Crash Course campaign with the original survivors.

On the people complaining about the environments... my impression was they were more detailed and FAR more interesting than the original Left 4 Dead. There's also other factors to consider like loading times, and how much larger the maps in L4D 2 are.

The maps are far more interesting in gameplay terms, which is what makes the difference. It doesn't really matter if Valve have accurately modelled the fabric of the clothes on the shelves in the store people will just run past, if the maps are boring to play.

The first campaign contains more interesting tactical situations and elements than pretty much the whole of Left 4 Dead 1.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Regarding the ending, anyone else find it a bit dark?

I noticed this on my first trip through the game, and yeah it's dark. I also think it's totally appropriate and awesome, although it fits L4D better than L4D2 since the sequel has so much more silly humor in it and is a bit more lighthearted.

Yonder wrote:

Well, there is one thing. I've given this a great deal of thought and their are two ways to achieve perfectly balanced L4D teams.

The first one is to ban Switchbreak from playing. But I like Switchbreak, if he were to have an accident, it would sadden me.

Funny stuff in the middle of the ongoing "balanced teams" discussion, I like it

Folks are getting hung up on a few names and building them into something more than they really are. When I think about the best L4D players I regularly play with, none of them are so ungodly amazing that they can carry a team to victory all by themselves. Keep in mind that you are 25% of your team's ability.

It can definitely suck when a team gets stacked with 2 or 3 of the best players in our group, but honestly this just doesn't happen that often. When it does happen, I can't think of any of them that would refuse a request to split the "ringers" up. Just ask instead of sitting through an entire game on the edge of a ragequit.

One of these days we need to figure out whos friend that guy "Bacon" was that we played with once long ago. We need him back for a reality check for just one game. As a few others here might recall, the guy was so amazingly good that we wanted to call "hax" on him. It would serve as a good scale to compare the larger fish in our small pond against.

MyBrainHz wrote:
Dimmerswitch wrote:

Pretty sure we could have gotten three folks on that chopper, without much risk (the zombies were almost all behind me). No hard feelings - let's just say I'm looking forward to my next versus match :P

Totally my fault. I had used my adrenaline to make it down to the chopper, and because I wasn't slowed down by the common infected, I got way too far ahead of the group. Then when I turned around to reassess how we were doing, you were (very politely!) being mauled to death.

Sorry

I wasn't gonna name names, but yeah the olympic sprinters at the finale were you and nekroman. No worries - I know it wasn't out of malice.

Plus, like I said, versus is great for payback.

Switchbreak wrote:

The boomer is way more dangerous, though. It now also removes all the borders and text above your teammate's heads, so it's a lot harder to see while you're hit.

Didn't L4D1 work that way too?

I haven't had much time to play yet... still working my way through the first campaign. But I need a new headset before I can play multi anyway so no big deal I guess. I'll see you all in game next week.

complexmath wrote:

Didn't L4D1 work that way too?

No, you'd still have names visible in L4D. When you're boomed and your teammate yelled "pounced" you could just find their name tag on screen and empty a clip at it to free them even though you were blind.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Finally finished it last night. Sort of. I didn't quite survive the finale of The Parish (only made it about half way before I was sacrificed to the tank), but I'm glad Latrine made it. Again. Maybe some day I'll get to see what that's like, too.

When they announced Left 4 Dead 2 so early, we all wondered how they could make a game that was so much bigger than the first in so little time. I think I've found the answer.

Every house is totally empty abandoned, even the one with the freaking "tag sale" out front; compare any of the houses in Hard Rain to the apartment you drop down into in No Mercy 1. I've already complained about how empty (and clean) the mall looks. Swamp Fever begins with no sign of what happened after the end of Dark Carnival except for some heavy-handed exposition. There is VERY little graffiti and none of it is on par with that of the first game. While each part of each map has a feel to it, there seem to be fewer "set pieces." Just lots of streets and clusters of buildings. Some of the settings look really good and there are some nice touches (I love the F/A-18 flyovers, for instance), and there are some parts that are quite well done (like the finale of The Parish) but for the most part, these feel like very smart, high-quality fan maps. They just don't have that level of detail and polish I'd come to expect from Valve.

I cannot believe they spent anywhere near as much time on each L4D2 map as they did on the L4D1 maps, and the entire feel of the game suffers for it. That isn't to say they're BAD maps. They just lack a lot of the character that made L4D1 so great. I hope someone figures out a way to import the maps from the first game or retrofit the new weapons and Infected to L4D1. As sick as I am of those maps, they just feel more immersive to me.

I think they spent a lot more time on the layout of the maps though than the first game. The pacing between places with drop offs or narrow ledges is great and those types of things are in every map rather than once or twice a campaign. I agree the world doesn't feel as fleshed out, but I really like the design of the maps.

Yonder wrote:

Well, there is one thing. I've given this a great deal of thought and their are two ways to achieve perfectly balanced L4D teams.

The first one is to ban Switchbreak from playing. But I like Switchbreak, if he were to have an accident, it would sadden me.

The other possibility is to clone Switchbreak, The rest of us will be as children playing Cowboys and Indians, suddenly finding themselves among Custer and his troops. We will scamper below the real fight, having minor scuffles amongst ourselves, but mainly trying to avoid being crushed between the two struggling titans that battle above us.

Dude, last game I was in, Pyroman and Fedora mopped the f*cking floor with me. Seriously, it was an hour and a half of them just kicking my ass up one end of the map and down the other.

complexmath wrote:
Switchbreak wrote:

The boomer is way more dangerous, though. It now also removes all the borders and text above your teammate's heads, so it's a lot harder to see while you're hit.

Didn't L4D1 work that way too?

Nope, in L4D1 you could still see player names and outlines when you were boomed. It put the obscuring effect over them, but they were there. Now it pops you into realism mode for 10 seconds, which makes a much bigger difference to your ability to read your team's position and their need for help than I would have thought.

Elycion wrote:
complexmath wrote:

Didn't L4D1 work that way too?

No, you'd still have names visible in L4D. When you're boomed and your teammate yelled "pounced" you could just find their name tag on screen and empty a clip at it to free them even though you were blind.

You're half right. In L4D1 when you got boomed, only the names of a player that you were directly looking at would show up. All others disappeared.

Tkyl wrote:
Elycion wrote:
complexmath wrote:

Didn't L4D1 work that way too?

No, you'd still have names visible in L4D. When you're boomed and your teammate yelled "pounced" you could just find their name tag on screen and empty a clip at it to free them even though you were blind.

You're half right. In L4D1 when you got boomed, only the names of a player that you were directly looking at would show up. All others disappeared.

Notice I said "find their name tag on screen", since the tags pop up when they're anywhere within a 20 degree arc of your crosshair it generally only takes a second to scan and see where all 3 teammates are.

Elycion wrote:

Folks are getting hung up on a few names and building them into something more than they really are.

Shhhh! When I establish Switchbreak as some sort of cult hero he will certainly reward me for my devotion!

Switchbreak wrote:

Dude, last game I was in, Pyroman and Fedora mopped the f*cking floor with me. Seriously, it was an hour and a half of them just kicking my ass up one end of the map and down the other.

Ah, the modesty angle. Excellent Switchbreak, keep it up.

Elycion wrote:
complexmath wrote:

Didn't L4D1 work that way too?

No, you'd still have names visible in L4D. When you're boomed and your teammate yelled "pounced" you could just find their name tag on screen and empty a clip at it to free them even though you were blind.

I clearly have to mess with my video settings. A solid boom in L4D leaves me almost completely blind, though if I only catch the edge of one I can see a lot better. I've never really understood that aspect of it. Maybe it just has to do with the amount of light in the area and it's all an effect of too-low gamma settings.

Tkyl wrote:
Elycion wrote:
complexmath wrote:

Didn't L4D1 work that way too?

No, you'd still have names visible in L4D. When you're boomed and your teammate yelled "pounced" you could just find their name tag on screen and empty a clip at it to free them even though you were blind.

You're half right. In L4D1 when you got boomed, only the names of a player that you were directly looking at would show up. All others disappeared.

Oh, that may be right. I certainly don't see outlines though.

I hate that there's a 7' fence in dark carnival map 4 that you can't jump over to the safe room, and you have to go all the way around and through the GAUNTLET OF PAIN to get to it. If you're going to put such trivial barriers in, dress them up a bit so it's obvious we need to go around them.

This just in: I need practice.

Elycion wrote:
Yonder wrote:

Well, there is one thing. I've given this a great deal of thought and their are two ways to achieve perfectly balanced L4D teams.

The first one is to ban Switchbreak from playing. But I like Switchbreak, if he were to have an accident, it would sadden me.

Funny stuff in the middle of the ongoing "balanced teams" discussion, I like it

Folks are getting hung up on a few names and building them into something more than they really are. When I think about the best L4D players I regularly play with, none of them are so ungodly amazing that they can carry a team to victory all by themselves. Keep in mind that you are 25% of your team's ability.

It can definitely suck when a team gets stacked with 2 or 3 of the best players in our group, but honestly this just doesn't happen that often. When it does happen, I can't think of any of them that would refuse a request to split the "ringers" up. Just ask instead of sitting through an entire game on the edge of a ragequit.

One of these days we need to figure out whos friend that guy "Bacon" was that we played with once long ago. We need him back for a reality check for just one game. As a few others here might recall, the guy was so amazingly good that we wanted to call "hax" on him. It would serve as a good scale to compare the larger fish in our small pond against. :)

As long as Switchbreak, evilseed, Tkyl or Fedora aren't allowed to play together in any combination of 2, I'm happy!

Picked it up on Steam, haven't played very far yet. It's so much easier to control with a mouse and keyboard.

I'm down for multi, so if there's a group or something then let me know:

SteamID: Glycerine74

Also, anyone know if there is a way to install it on a second PC in my house for LAN play? Or does that require (which is what I'm assuming) purchasing the game again?

Glycerine wrote:

Also, anyone know if there is a way to install it on a second PC in my house for LAN play? Or does that require (which is what I'm assuming) purchasing the game again?

To run 2 copies you're going to have to buy it again. You can just copy the files across though, or do a steam backup, which can be less trouble (note: you need the license to unpack a steam backup).

complexmath wrote:
Tkyl wrote:
Elycion wrote:
complexmath wrote:

Didn't L4D1 work that way too?

No, you'd still have names visible in L4D. When you're boomed and your teammate yelled "pounced" you could just find their name tag on screen and empty a clip at it to free them even though you were blind.

You're half right. In L4D1 when you got boomed, only the names of a player that you were directly looking at would show up. All others disappeared.

Oh, that may be right. I certainly don't see outlines though.

Most of the time, a regular player could work around the outline missing thing—just unload into the area you know they're at, and you're good. Sometimes it wouldn't work out well, though. A good example would be if somebody is right nearby, but behind a cement pillar. You know where they are, you know where to shoot... except there's something in the way, and that part you can't tell. Likewise, occasionally height differences would make it hard to know how far up/down to aim at the name. Or you might save a survivor from the SI on them, but not be able to tell they're saved, and keep unloading into them.

The new boom effect is definitely a lot more hellish, at least for the people who are used to being able to save friends while boomed. I suspect a few of the regulars are going to be feeling "OMG! Why aren't you SAVING ME!?!" for a while until we stop having to work to remember that boomer juice is nastier now.

NathanialG wrote:

On the other hand ever since Camnipotent called me an asshole in a finale I cant seem to remember I have hated him and will never play in a game with that jerkface again. He can die in a fire. A DA style grease trap fireball fire. So there!!

"in a finale I can't seem to remember" are the key words there. Calling the boomer that just blew his juices on my face an asshole does not mean that my contempt for him should transfer to you just because you are wonderfully intoxicated!

EriktheRed wrote:
Tannhauser wrote:
EriktheRed wrote:

How unbalanced could they be? We are all pretty new at the game. It only came out on Tuesday.

Incredibly unbalanced. There are teams that just don't work, which get absolutely smashed when facing a team that can actually play as a team.

The bad teams are always the silent ones (hint), so there isn't even a light attitude about things, which can easily redeem a bad match. Nothing but terse "Hunter's got me!" and the like setting a grim air. Between that and the forgone conclusion that the team you are on is going to lose every single round of the match, there isn't simply isn't any fun.

So only a couple people on your team had mics? Maybe we should try to be more conscious of who has mics and who doesn't before we start a game of vs. to make things more balanced. Other than that though, I am not sure what we can do to balance things.

I think the "(hint)" part is saying that communication in general was lacking. Silence is deadly, but also golden...but if you should make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other's gold, does that mean that the golden friends are the silent friends? That song doesn't even specify if the new friends are gold or silver. That song sucks anyway.

Cam is right, that song does suck. Having people talking is what this game is all about, being on a losing team is completely fine with me as long as we are chatting it up and having a good time. I have to say though that on any team I have been on where people are talking about anything (unless more than one of us is seriously drunk) has never been a "losing" team even if we dont win the match.

camnipotent wrote:

I think the "(hint)" part is saying that communication in general was lacking. Silence is deadly, but also golden...but if you should make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other's gold, does that mean that the golden friends are the silent friends? That song doesn't even specify if the new friends are gold or silver. That song sucks anyway.

I was on the team in question and I usually have no problem speaking up. It was the first VS match I've done on the new game on a map I've never played. I don't talk alot when I have no idea wtf is going on. My 40 yo redneck brain can't compute that fast. It was alot of AHHHH! and WTF! and BS! Do you really need to hear that?

ragin_redneck wrote:
camnipotent wrote:

I think the "(hint)" part is saying that communication in general was lacking. Silence is deadly, but also golden...but if you should make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other's gold, does that mean that the golden friends are the silent friends? That song doesn't even specify if the new friends are gold or silver. That song sucks anyway.

I was on the team in question and I usually have no problem speaking up. It was the first VS match I've done on the new game on a map I've never played. I don't talk alot when I have no idea wtf is going on. My 40 yo redneck brain can't compute that fast. It was alot of AHHHH! and WTF! and BS! Do you really need to hear that?

I am going to say yes, just hearing that helps make the team better. Unless you are whining, that never helps.

ragin_redneck wrote:

I was on the team in question and I usually have no problem speaking up. It was the first VS match I've done on the new game on a map I've never played. I don't talk alot when I have no idea wtf is going on. My 40 yo redneck brain can't compute that fast. It was alot of AHHHH! and WTF! and BS! Do you really need to hear that?

Definately. We need to take entertainment where we find it.

L4D/2, for gamers with a fine appreciation of schadenfreude.

NathanialG wrote:

I am going to say yes, just hearing that helps make the team better. Unless you are whining, that never helps.

Totally. I once played with this dude who was whining about Nick's distracting sleeves, it was so irritating.

Whining can really detract from the experience. I was always playing L4D1 with this guy that was all "I hate stairs, I hate Hospitals, I hate helicopters, I hate vans, I hate the sewers." GAAAAH. I just wanted to slap him and tell him to give me 10 things he was grateful for.

Yonder wrote:

Whining can really detract from the experience. I was always playing L4D1 with this guy that was all "I hate stairs, I hate Hospitals, I hate helicopters, I hate vans, I hate the sewers." GAAAAH. I just wanted to slap him and tell him to give me 10 things he was grateful for.

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ragin_redneck wrote:

My 40 yo redneck brain can't compute that fast. It was alot of AHHHH! and WTF! and BS! Do you really need to hear that?

Yes.