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The Official Left 4 Dead Thread

Xdrive05

Member
So what's the deal with the custom campaign community? I dled a few custom campaigns (supposedly popular ones) and installed using the new supported .VPK system, etc., and I hardly found anyone to play with...

I think the default server browser sorta, kinda works with the custom content but it's very hit or miss. Haven't seen too much on the actual server browser either.

WTF happened? Am I just looking in the wrong places for maps or something?
 

Blizzard

Banned
Xdrive05 said:
So what's the deal with the custom campaign community? I dled a few custom campaigns (supposedly popular ones) and installed using the new supported .VPK system, etc., and I hardly found anyone to play with...

I think the default server browser sorta, kinda works with the custom content but it's very hit or miss. Haven't seen too much on the actual server browser either.

WTF happened? Am I just looking in the wrong places for maps or something?
For me, it's multiple things, i.e.

1. Games already take like two hours to play, so I probably wouldn't get a custom map unless I heard it was really good. (plus there's always the chance of your server crashing halfway through)

2. The ingame "download this map" thing linked me to a website the only time I tried it. As I posted earlier, that website warned that installing devpacks might affect core components, which might be forbidden by Valve (I assume DLLs, which I've heard could get you VAC banned...though I guess I could just be careful not to overwrite anything?).

3. Because of things like 1 and 2, there's very little chance of me actually finding a group who wanted to collectively try to play some custom map. I did that a few times back before the dead air and death toll campaigns were official.
 

vertopci

Member
Xdrive05 said:
So what's the deal with the custom campaign community? I dled a few custom campaigns (supposedly popular ones) and installed using the new supported .VPK system, etc., and I hardly found anyone to play with...

I think the default server browser sorta, kinda works with the custom content but it's very hit or miss. Haven't seen too much on the actual server browser either.

WTF happened? Am I just looking in the wrong places for maps or something?

No. Turtle Rock are just fucking retards and suck at custom maps.
 

Ryuuga

Banned
For anyone planning on doing the completed Death Aboard custom campaign be warned, it's a well designed campaign overall with a lot of creative ideas. HOWEVER, the 4th map is a downed ocean liner and (while it's designed beautifully) it'll make you nauseous after the first few minutes (which is probably the desired effect). One thing I particularly liked about the 4th map in the campaign was the creative crescendo event in which a car was teetering in a large steel crate stacked up high upon others, you had no choice but to shoot the car which would send it falling and set off its alarm. I originally played the map a few months ago in beta and it seems like they've polished it up quite a bit since the release of the SDK, but there were only 3 maps available at the time. Check out the campaign sometime if you have the time, but for the love of all that is holy rush through the 4th map if you know whats good for you.
 
I'm on vacation right now so I have some pretty bad Internet right now, but are custom maps actually in matchmaking now? Where I can download a map through servers? Or is it only available through friends? I know the question was asked earlier but I didn't see an answer.
 

Xdrive05

Member
Ryuuga said:
For anyone planning on doing the completed Death Aboard custom campaign be warned, it's a well designed campaign overall with a lot of creative ideas. HOWEVER, the 4th map is a downed ocean liner and (while it's designed beautifully) it'll make you nauseous after the first few minutes (which is probably the desired effect). One thing I particularly liked about the 4th map in the campaign was the creative crescendo event in which a car was teetering in a large steel crate stacked up high upon others, you had no choice but to shoot the car which would send it falling and set off its alarm. I originally played the map a few months ago in beta and it seems like they've polished it up quite a bit since the release of the SDK, but there were only 3 maps available at the time. Check out the campaign sometime if you have the time, but for the love of all that is holy rush through the 4th map if you know whats good for you.

Is it available in VPK yet?
 

Ryuuga

Banned
Xdrive05 said:
Is it available in VPK yet?


Yeah, available here: http://l4dmods.com/index.php?option=com_joomloads&view=package&Itemid=2&packageId=156


EDIT:
"I'm on vacation right now so I have some pretty bad Internet right now, but are custom maps actually in matchmaking now? Where I can download a map through servers? Or is it only available through friends? I know the question was asked earlier but I didn't see an answer."

You can download custom maps that your friends are currently playing, but it doesn't work at all like one would expect from previous games. Whatever link is associated with the addinfotxt in the packaged VPK they might be using will direct you to the site they originally got the custom map from. So in the end it'd be just the same as having your friends send you the link or by searching for them on various sites likes like L4DMods or L4DMaps.
 

ezekial45

Banned
Ryuuga said:
For anyone planning on doing the completed Death Aboard custom campaign be warned, it's a well designed campaign overall with a lot of creative ideas. HOWEVER, the 4th map is a downed ocean liner and (while it's designed beautifully) it'll make you nauseous after the first few minutes (which is probably the desired effect). One thing I particularly liked about the 4th map in the campaign was the creative crescendo event in which a car was teetering in a large steel crate stacked up high upon others, you had no choice but to shoot the car which would send it falling and set off its alarm. I originally played the map a few months ago in beta and it seems like they've polished it up quite a bit since the release of the SDK, but there were only 3 maps available at the time. Check out the campaign sometime if you have the time, but for the love of all that is holy rush through the 4th map if you know whats good for you.

Played this map a couple months back and there was this glitch that made the object to activate the crescendo invisible. We couldn't continue on.
 

Volcynika

Member
Tried Death Aboard.

Very nice map, aside from my friend spawning way out in the middle of nowhere at the start of each new map :lol

Finale wasn't too bad (thought it didn't have one when I downloaded it), but we lost, and my friend (host) summoned a bunch of tanks to knock us off the top :lol

Yeah, the 4th map will cause some problems for people, being at a slant pretty much the entire map.
 

dLMN8R

Member
Yeah, Death Abroad was pretty awesome! The 4th level didn't make me nauseous, but I thought it was pretty cool and disorienting.

Also - that car crescendo event? Yeah....we didn't notice it the first time. I definitely climbed the ladder right into it, and the car fell down and crushed/killed me and a teammate instantly :lol


I'm disappointed though that the matchmaking service only links you to the site to download it. The L4D blog made it sound like it would automatically download the campaign in-game when it was in a .vpk file.......didn't it?
 

Zzoram

Member
The custom campaign system is far too much of a hassle for me to try new maps. Hopefully Valve will pick a couple polished and quality fun maps to push as a game update in a couple months.
 

Everdred

Member
dLMN8R said:
I'm disappointed though that the matchmaking service only links you to the site to download it. The L4D blog made it sound like it would automatically download the campaign in-game when it was in a .vpk file.......didn't it?
This is exactly how I read it. I haven't been able to play since the updated but I'll be pretty disappointed if this isn't the case.
 

Red Scarlet

Member
Zzoram said:
The custom campaign system is far too much of a hassle for me to try new maps. Hopefully Valve will pick a couple polished and quality fun maps to push as a game update in a couple months.

Darn, was hoping to play some new campaigns with Pop and some folks, he wants to play 'when I am done with my fusing game'.
 

Zzoram

Member
Red Scarlet said:
Darn, was hoping to play some new campaigns with Pop and some folks, he wants to play 'when I am done with my fusing game'.

If there are one or two standout campaigns I'll DL them to play with you all, but coming from Starcraft and Warcraft 3, where custom maps automatically P2P distribute to everyone who joins the lobby but doesn't have it, this system seems archaic.
 

Red Scarlet

Member
Since I saw the link earlier today, I downloaded that full Death Abroad campaign, but it's just sitting on my desktop since I'm not sure what I need to do with it/the old one I have on my comp already (this is where I suck at computers).
 

dLMN8R

Member
Red Scarlet said:
Since I saw the link earlier today, I downloaded that full Death Abroad campaign, but it's just sitting on my desktop since I'm not sure what I need to do with it/the old one I have on my comp already (this is where I suck at computers).
Double-click it, it'll automatically install. I imagine it'll overwrite the old version if they're named the same, otherwise you'll see two of them listed in the add-ons list.
 

_Angelus_

Banned
So where is the Gaf server for the game?
Is it under Steam's servers or is with its own dedicated/local server?
What time do you guys usually play during the week?
 

Red Scarlet

Member
RocketDarkness said:
Ooh, are we planning some custom campaign shenanigans for the evening?

firex said he would sometime today. I'm at the end boss in P3 now, after that I'm definitely up to play.

Angelus said:
So where is the Gaf server for the game?
Is it under Steam's servers or is with its own dedicated/local server?
What time do you guys usually play during the week?

There isn't one afaik.
 

_Angelus_

Banned
Red Scarlet said:
firex said he would sometime today. I'm at the end boss in P3 now, after that I'm definitely up to play.



There isn't one afaik.

So I guess we just have to recognize who is from Gaf and add them to our friend's list then? Sort of a bare bones way to do things but better than nothing I suppose. :/

I'm jumping on in about 15 minutes.
Angelus will be kicking zombie ass soon.

Valiancy,I added you to my friend's list. Hope to run into sometime soon.
 

Red Scarlet

Member
Angelus said:
So I guess we just have to recognize who is from Gaf and add them to our friend's list then? Sort of a bare bones way to do things but better than nothing I suppose. :/

I'm jumping on in about 15 minutes.
Angelus will be kicking zombie ass soon.

Well there is that steam id topic in the online forum, but pretty much the people who have posted the most in the thread added each other at some point since the game came out. I have about 95 gaf people on my friends list if you need somewhere to start adding folks.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/bulleta
 
Hey Red, where'd you get the Death Aboard VPK? It looks like L4DMods only has one random VPK at the moment, or maybe I'm looking in the wrong spot...?

EDIT: Whoops, upon second glance, it looks like the VPK is probably in the zip file. Downloading now...
 

_Angelus_

Banned
Red Scarlet said:
Well there is that steam id topic in the online forum, but pretty much the people who have posted the most in the thread added each other at some point since the game came out. I have about 95 gaf people on my friends list if you need somewhere to start adding folks.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/bulleta

Just what I needed.
Thanks for the link.
I also got the Death Aboard pack last night,I assume more and more are playing it so I may as well add it to my map folder then.
Only VPK packs work on valve servers,right? Thats too bad because Its a shame because there are some nice maps that aren't VPK types.
I guess their owners will add them as VPK soon enough though.

Err wait..Death Aboard is not VPK? So as long as we all have it we can instantly join a game that a Gaffer is hosting then?

AtomicPunk5150
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198011360069
Feel free to add me so we can play in the evenings.
 

Blizzard

Banned
This really is a polished game, and hopefully L4D2 will be even more polished!

I joined some GAF people tonight who apparently had crashed on their previous server. First search found a 200+ping server for nearly everyone. Next server was the former crashed server. Finally we found a server with decent ping, but 404'd server info pages! The survivors got about 95% through the first map when it crashed.

At least it wasn't the finale!

Oh, and PillowKnight had his game crash at some point in that sequence. That happens to people fairly regularly it seems.
 

Kade

Member
My PC is dead so I won't be on until August so you guys won't have to worry about me leaving mid game to pray to Allah.
 
I've gone through like 20 custom vpk addons, and most of them ended up in the D section with variations of Death. Deadline, Death Aboard, Dead Meat, etc. I know it's pretty obvious why it's like that, but I just wanted to make note of that observation. And I'd say some of these custom addons should have been called Dead on Arrival. HAR HAR HAR.
 

ezekial45

Banned
Well, Dead Before Dawn (Dawn of the Dead mod) will be out in a few days. So i guess thats another mod with that starts with a D that you can try.
 

Red Scarlet

Member
Well, the Death Aboard map restarted my computer the first time it was loading up and I lost all my binds, username, and spray for a bit, but I got that all going again now.

Had a couple of strange things happen in the game, too. Saw 2 Witches close enough to be on the same screen (thought I heard two), then was dead at the end of map 4, the server tried to lag out, but it didnt, and myself and Mutfox had 100HP for the finale level, but we lost and after that he and I stayed dead and never respawned. Is the no respawning supposed to happen on the DAB finale?
 

Erudite

Member
Death Aboard brought some new life back into L4D for me. Doing a campaign on Expert that is completely new, without any knowledge whatsoever on where to go, where the horde will swarm in from, etc. brings back the memories from when the game first launched and each of the campaigns were new experiences.

Hope more quality campaigns like this don't take too long to hit.
 
Man, Death Aboard was brutal. A very cool map, with some fun concepts. I really liked the idea of the creaky, angled ship, until all it did was cause us to move slow, miss point blank shots, and create super-zombies up the ass. Not to mention the bizarre glitches. Nevertheless, looking forward to playing through more custom campaigns with you all. I haven't done straight co-op in a long time.

Super-zombies are zombies that are clipping through geometry in some way, making them invincible to all melee attacks.
 

Ryuuga

Banned
The VPK for the Silent Hill map was released last night . I had a chance to play through most of the maps and it pays homage to the original game. A lot of familiar scenes and areas are in there along with some *models (Groaners etc.), as well as some puzzle-solving and item collecting. There are only 4/5 maps available at the moment. but it's still worth a shot if you're interested in playing a rather unique campaign.

Available here: Silent Hill VPK
--
Note: Some models were removed from the VPK version. If you currently have the unpackaged version, then you might have trouble getting the VPK to install properly. You will have to delete your "addon" folder and install the VPK afterwards.

FAKE EDIT: I was told that the author might be planning 10 maps all together (2 campaigns with a continuing story). I hope there will be some way of implementing the themes and sounds he already has in some of the folders.
 

Red Scarlet

Member
Facism said:
that car on the ship was genius.

I heard about it so I couldn't stop laughing when RocketDarkness climbed up to the car..I knew something hilarious was going to happen, but not what. :lol

Cool, maybe can try the SH one later today.
 

Facism

Member
Red Scarlet said:
I heard about it so I couldn't stop laughing when RocketDarkness climbed up to the car..I knew something hilarious was going to happen, but not what. :lol

Cool, maybe can try the SH one later today.

I was playing with bots so i had to climb the ladder. the car rolled over my head and downed me :lol
 

vertopci

Member
dygiT said:
My PC is dead so I won't be on until August so you guys won't have to worry about me leaving mid game to pray to Allah.

ROFL I remember that time you were just like "Sorry, gotta go pray" and quit. Your team was so pissed :lol

marvelharvey said:
For those of you that enjoyed streaming Korean Pop server at the weekend, I just found another with 'Thriller'!

I don't know if Thriller can compete with that crazy korean song we had though :lol
 

firex

Member
I liked that campaign, even though it needs a lot of work. It's pretty brutal how long the maps are. I mean, there's like 2 crescendos in each map. And yeah, the boat level is a good idea until you run into super zombies, but I still liked the concept. It's funny how if you hit anything that causes a little bounce, like a physics object or another player, and the ship moves, you'll actually slide pretty far and might even fall off an area. I did that on one set of stairs in the boat map. Also the car that ran over RD was pretty hilarious. I didn't expect it at all. I read there was supposed to be a car blocking some area as a crescendo, but I didn't know it was right there, and so he climbed up the ladder and then I'm all "wtf" as this car rolls out and he gets incapped.

The finale really was pretty lame, though. It's just boring and annoying to climb around.
 
Got hit by a parked car. =(

But yeah, overall it was a great campaign. It just needs a lot of re-balancing in terms of length, supplies, etc. I don't think we got a single medical supply during all of map 4.
 
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