L4D UPDATE! Options

[Magik5]

is it possible to randomise the infected your given, because sometimes its annoying when your a smoker or boomer or whatever 3 times in a row

[=R6= Raile]

dude its all about timing..

you come in as a smoker 3 times in a row, because everytime you get to the point of spawning in, your other 3 infected are already a boomer and 2 hunters..
because generally you all spawn in and die at the same speed...
eventually someone lives longer then the norm or dies faster, and the pattern is broken..

if you want to be something else just spawn in and hang out for a bit in a closet.....

[Magik5]

yeh i get that...

i meant that could it check what infected you were last then choose another for you instead of having to wait around whilst the survivors get away.

although this has its cons as well because it could give u a boomer instead of a hunter/smoker when theres a last man standing and you need him capacitated

but nvm, how are you finding the patch now youve played it?

[MonkeyFiend]

I believe that would only be possible with sv_cheats cvar on; as raile says theres a pattern to the spawns, the game will always spawn a smoker, a boomer then the rest hunters (with a small chance of a 3 hunter setup) - to adjust this would effecitvely mean altering the ratio of infected - which would allow, for example, 4 smokers. While comedy, the game wouldn't allow this setup without cheats turned on

[fido77]

sounds like this game is going to get old quick.

[MonkeyFiend]

nah... most of the appeal of L4D is the pure teamwork, which to be honest people still haven't sorted out - players will be getting better the more they work as a team and tactics will change

[=R6= Raile]

it would be cool, 5, if as you are about to spawn in, if multiple of your mates are dead and havn't been assigned an infected to spawn in as yet, that you could choose. as in lets say two infected are alive, as a boomer and a hunter, and you and one of your mates are dead.. that when its your turn to spawn in, it would give you an infected to spawn in as, lets say it gives you hunter, but you could then press a button, similar to changing teams, where it would list what was left available, and you could choose. in this case you could pick a hunter or a smoker..

that would help in those cases where the survivors are almost to the safe house, and everyone is dead but you are the only one left to spawn in, and it puts you in as something useless, like a boomer, when you really need a smoker...

[=R6= Raile]

to answer your question about the patch, i havn't found anything i dont like.. with the exception of the same tank/witch thing which i think is borderline going to ruin the game and they better do something quick.. last nights games i was in, only one tank came throughout 2 campaigns. no joke. but that one tank that came, for the first round, it rocked the survivors, for the second round, we smoked it without much fuss. i'm expecting it to only get worse as people figure out more ways to exploit the knowledge they have of where the tank will spawn. people who are saying that the infected get the equal knowledge, are wrong IMO. while sure you know your tank is going to come in at a certain area, you have no control when the survivors cross that mark, and the guy who takes control of it usually doesn't even take control of it till its already half way run to the survivors. last night some dude took control of it after we already had it at half health. i dont see how that knowledge for the infected helps them much at all.

the smoker isn't as powerful as people were making it sound. the tongue seems to be knocked off just as easily as before, which is annoying.. however, the fact that it does damage now while its dragging you back, as opposed to only doing damage once it gets you to a point where you aren't moving any more, really makes the smoker start to be as powerful as the other infected.. all in all the smoker is better.

adjusting the melee of the hunters down is great. it was almost so powerful before that pouncing on a guy wasn't worth it unless it was a kill shot. now, the pounce and the melee are similarily damaging so they both are good in their own right

[Magik5]

nice to read, though i was hoping the smokers tongue would be more resilient.

as for the normalising of meleeing, have the lowerd the amount of dmage a hunter does or have they raised the damage amount the others can dish out? guess ill find out tonight heh

[=R6= Raile]

in case you havn't already answered your own melee question..

before the melee was as follows:

hunter 10 damage
smoker 2
boomer 2

now the damage is:

hunter 6 damage
smoker 4
boomer 4

so much more balanced. i think its a good thing. no more of getting boomered, and realizing after 10 seconds that of all those zombies, one was a hunter meleeing you, and took you from full health to nothing

[Magik5]

but isnt that part of the fun?

if you look closely enough you can still distinguish between zombies and hunters, apart from the exception of when your covered in bile (but tbh all people do at that point is melee whore anyway so that counteracts most melee attacks from any infected anyway)

i was hoping boomer/smoker melee damage would have been higher then hunters because they are much less agile and one melee attack from a survivor pretty much means the end of your life as that current infected, because you stumble and cant melee for the next 2/3 seconds which is plently of time for the survivors to destroy you.

id kinda like it if a melee attack from an infected would cause the survivor to stumble (even for a split second) because atm imo the melee side of things is incredibly unbalanced.

just a few thoughts...

[=R6= Raile]

i see what you are saying about making the hunter do less damage. it's interesting but i wonder how it would play out balance wise. woul d have to see it in action. it makes sense tho

and yeah i know usually you should know there is a hunter on you meleeing you, but once in a while you dont notice him on you right away, and before, it would only take a few swipes and you lost all your health.. now atleast you have a bit more time before you lose everything

[MonkeyFiend]

I like the huntard change - melee is reduced and although the pounce damage is reduced it's frequency is increaced - meaning you take more damage if teammates leave you getting smacked, but less damage if they rscue you quickly.

Or in Fox's case, you die as she skips off to the safe room to 'save herself' for the 50th time

[=R6= Raile]

i don't think fox has the "back 2 help" achievement yet

agreed on the damage tho for hunter. i think its much more balanced now. before it seemed pouncing on a guy wasnt worth it over melee unless he was on his own and you knew you'd be on him for a while

[Magik5]

pouce does 0 damage on first contact, so if u get knocked off/killd straight away its a waste
if u go in meleeing and u land a hit thats 6 points

6>0

(however, 5>6)


meleeings still the better option if you know ur not gna last long because thyre all sticking together

[MonkeyFiend]

yeah, but it's not all about your 6 points.. don't forget decent height/distance pounces = big point/damage.. plus you may want to pounce to slow down, separate, confuse, push off a ledge or teporarily reduce the firepower of the survivors.

[Magik5]

yeh, which is why meleeing is very unbalanced in comparison to pouncing as theres no option for getting extra damage in by jumping from up high etc - and that goes for all infected i guess.

[=R6= Raile]

i disagree that it's unbalanced. i really don't think the melee attack is meant to be a primary attack. i think theres a time and place for the melee attack, and as the points stand now it seems even to me.

i mean, the melee attack used to do 10 points!!! thats 10% damage in one swipe... its just way too easy to run up and swipe a guy.... thats why we were using it all the time!
kinda pointless to have a secondary attack be so good that you rarely ever use the primary one

[Magik5]

fair enough :] there are times when melee is the better option over primary though, im sure youll agree

as i said above, i still feel that the boomer/smoker melee should cause more damage then a hunter because they are less agile and you rarely ever get more then one swipe in with them before u get killed...

[=R6= Raile]

yeah absolutely.. i'm just saying i think its more balanced now. pounce has much more upside... but if someone gets you off the victim right away then it doesn't do much... whereas melee is fairly straight forward
i think its a good balance. upsides to both

and i agree you make a good point about the smoker and boomer. i'm not sure why they dont do more damage