Left 4 Thumbs

[Grippage]

Yes this was quite a fun round of L4D with some new people.

Our team would definitely have mauled had it not been for the microphone bug on my part.

I'm afraid neither I or Toblix will be able to attend next week's game, due to a combined birthday party for the both of us.

[James]

It was good indeed. It had plenty of the back-and-forth defeat-and-comeback stuff that makes things exciting, and some really great moments of Infected viciousness and co-ordination on both teams. I was particularly pleased with the final round, in which I first spawned as a Smoker, and one of my team-mates as a tank. We were playing No Mercy, and we were in the long corridor after the staircase at the start. I waited for the Tank to pass, and as it did, grabbed the nearest survivor (Wrestlevania), pulling him away from his team, who were pre-occupied with the tank. I think someone else from my team got Boomer bile over most of the rest of the team, so I was left to my own devices with poor Wrestle. Eventually ysbreker pounced on him as a hunter to finish him off, so it was a real team effort.

[n0wak]

It was good indeed. It had plenty of the back-and-forth defeat-and-comeback stuff that makes things exciting, and some really great moments of Infected viciousness and co-ordination on both teams. I was particularly pleased with the final round, in which I first spawned as a Smoker, and one of my team-mates as a tank. We were playing No Mercy, and we were in the long corridor after the staircase at the start. I waited for the Tank to pass, and as it did, grabbed the nearest survivor (Wrestlevania), pulling him away from his team, who were pre-occupied with the tank. I think someone else from my team got Boomer bile over most of the rest of the team, so I was left to my own devices with poor Wrestle. Eventually ysbreker pounced on him as a hunter to finish him off, so it was a real team effort.

That was me with the vomit

It was fun. Took a while to get used to playing Infected as this was my first time playing online (still couldn't get the controls of the hunter down though...) and, really, second time ever, but it was easy to adjust after a bit of reorientation. It's certainly a hell of a lot of fun destroying most of a team with a tank while they're still in the safe house

I just wish my latency wasn't so horrible.

[miffy495]

I may (!!!) end up working on Sunday evenings from July on, so joining up on L4T on a regular basis could happen soon. I certainly hope so, as the two weeks I was involved were fantastic and I want more. Sounds like it just keeps getting better.

[Wrestlevania]

I was particularly pleased with the final round, in which I first spawned as a Smoker, and one of my team-mates as a tank. We were playing No Mercy, and we were in the long corridor after the staircase at the start. I waited for the Tank to pass, and as it did, grabbed the nearest survivor (Wrestlevania), pulling him away from his team, who were pre-occupied with the tank. I think someone else from my team got Boomer bile over most of the rest of the team, so I was left to my own devices with poor Wrestle. Eventually ysbreker pounced on him as a hunter to finish him off, so it was a real team effort.

Yes, that was distressingly masterful.

Another frustrating run with the Tanks for my team--just seems to be really hard to get it right. If you're not getting stuck behind things or generally not able to catch anyone, the AI Director seems hell-bent on taking control off you.

Prior to the climax level of No Mercy, the AI Director took the same Tank off me and then Thayer, before evidently saying "fuck the human players" and taking control itself. Then dying just as pathetically.

However, I think I redeemed myself with that last run on the rooftop. Managed to club all of you to the floor in turn, which was hugely satisfying!

Then you pulled your Smoker stunt immediately afterwards.

[toblix]

SOUNDS LIKE FUN

[James]

That was me with the vomit

Yeah, sorry, I worked that out by a process of elimination shortly after posting.

(still couldn't get the controls of the hunter down though...)

Crouch until the little circle around your crosshair fills up, then you are ready to pounce. If you stand up it will reset the the circle, but if you stay crouched between pounces you can keep going indefinitely without having to wait for it to charge again. Beyond that it's just technique, I think. Judging the arcs and all that.

Another frustrating run with the Tanks for my team--just seems to be really hard to get it right. If you're not getting stuck behind things or generally not able to catch anyone, the AI Director seems hell-bent on taking control off you.

Yeah, it can be a bit fiddly, I guess. If you're about to lose control it might be an idea to throw something at somebody, although that does take a second or two.

I like how tanks basically make you reverse all your strategies. Normally everyone wants to stick together and have as many sides as possible covered by walls, but the tank can take you down in seconds if he just keeps bouncing you off a wall, and it's probably best to spread out so you don't all get fucked at once.

[Wrestlevania]

Yeah, [Tanks] can be a bit fiddly, I guess. If you're about to lose control it might be an idea to throw something at somebody, although that does take a second or two.

...that doesn't work when there are floors/ceilings to contend with, though.

I like how tanks basically make you reverse all your strategies. Normally everyone wants to stick together and have as many sides as possible covered by walls, but the tank can take you down in seconds if he just keeps bouncing you off a wall, and it's probably best to spread out so you don't all get fucked at once.

Unqestionably, it's some of the best multiplayer game design I think I've ever seen.

It's exactly for this sort of reason I'm now giving L4D2 the benefit of the doubt; if they can tweak this sort of aspect of gameplay, and expand it with new ideas, then it should be bloody brilliant.

[James]

From the sound of it, they're intending to further subvert previously successful strategies and generally keep us on our toes.

[Grippage]

Let's see what they should do:

- Barricades

- Something to fill the excruciating wait in between spawning as infected in Versus.

- New sound for the hunter SHRIEEEEEEEEEEK SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEEK SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEEK SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK

[DanJW]

- infected bites

- dead survivors rising from the grave as powerful undead!

(Dead Survivors is an awesome oxymoron that this game has made possible!)

[Wrestlevania]

I don't understand why you can't play as regular Infected whilst waiting for the Specials timer to tick over again. Seems like a missed opportunity, or maybe it was horribly frustrating to get endlessly cut down with a couple of shots?

Barricades I'm not sure about. I think that might break up the flow too much. There's a very natural feel to the game, pushing players along a series of tubes with the horde as the stick.

The emphasis should still remain on the climax at the end of each scenario in my opinion. But it'd be good to see one more Special added to the mix, though they're presently very well balanced I think.

Only thing I've not really liked about the L4D2 footage so far is those incendry ammo for the machine gun. Whilst I appreciate this is a game about shooting reanimated corpses, fire bullets is pushing things a little too far for me...

[James]

- infected bites

- dead survivors rising from the grave as powerful undead!

I believe they originally had a more traditional zombie mechanic whereby on dying players would come back as zombies, but found that it fostered distrust and undermined the teamwork aspect they were trying to emphasize so much.

I don't know. Once you're a man down, you're already pretty buggered, so adding a human-controlled adversary into the mix would probably just make failure even more of a certainty. Then again, it would be pretty great to see zombified versions of your former buddies.

I'd quite like it if they had multiple models for each special. They'd have to maintain the distinctive profiles, of course, but vary up the specifics a bit.

[Wrestlevania]

I'd quite like it if they had multiple models for each special. They'd have to maintain the distinctive profiles, of course, but vary up the specifics a bit.

I know what you mean, though it's not really an issue for anything other than the Hunter. It's not uncommon to have three player-controlled Hunters leaping around a level at some point, though you never get more than one of the other 3 Specials at any one time it seems.

Wouldn't expect Valve to patch that into the original game to be honest, if they were to even entertain the idea. But, if they do look at adding at least one new Special into L4D2, Infected players might need the distinction more to help organise the team.

Mind you, that's pretty much relegated by having everyone's names hovering above them in dark red text most of the time...

[James]

I wasn't expecting it to be patched in, and I'm not speaking from any practical standpoint; I just find it a bit irksome that the same four zombies seem to be constantly getting resurrected to harass the survivors. I just want some visual variety for its own sake.

[toblix]

Great game, James, Wrestle and n0wak. Hope you had fun fighting the last tank while I held his rock.

Hope I didn't ruin the other game or something by quitting. There was some confusion and James burned himself on the cross for me, and I didn't want to be they guy who just forced someone else out, etc.

[DanJW]

We eventually got a full house in the versus game, so all worked out. We lost a couple of people to crashes and stuff on the last map; still lots of fun though.

[toblix]

Excellent. Now I can sleep without resorting to drugs.

[James]

This may have been funnier at the time:

odpcWiR1zbk

[toblix]

It was pretty hilarious. I had one whole HP left at that point. One HP, and a whole lot of love for you.

[James]

IT WAS ALL PART OF MY MASTER PLAN. You see, by setting her off I guaranteed that she would be after me, and she couldn't reach me through that door. It totally wasn't an accident. I totally didn't think that the music was still for the other witch down outside the car park. I was entirely in control of the situation. I assure you.

It's true, though: once somebody sets the witch off, she pretty much ignores everyone else. Besides, n0wak got an achievement out of it.

[Wrestlevania]

Notice, fellow Thumbites, how I stayed entirely out of that ridiculous, childish dispute?

By being dead.

[James]

Incidentally, the reason the video doesn't have sound is that both the recording software and the game just follow the system setting for audio input (it may be that they're unable to do otherwise -- I don't know), which means that when the video set itself to record general sound it did so by switching the input device, meaning it all got broadcast over my voice chat channel. That was the source of all the noise at the beginning. It was a while before I worked this out. I'm not sure if there's a good way around this, either. It's bothersome.

[toblix]

Yes, the first minutes were pretty interesting. For a moment I was about to cut my wrists with one of my outdated business cards to make the sound inside my head stop. Then I realised it was coming from my headphones.

[Wrestlevania]

It made my branes hurt and almost drove to feast on the entrails of my kin. Thankfully, it stopped.

The solution would be two sound cards I expect, then some fucking about in Windows' sound manager utility (the "Recording" view).