L4D Blog - Building a Better Apocalypse

[Blink]

Another update over at the Left 4 Dead blog:

We recently updated the PC version of Left 4 Dead with some exploit fixes and Versus balancing. We are going to be releasing another small update later today that contains some server issue fixes and one small, but very large, gameplay adjustment. We have made a change to the melee mechanic in Versus and the soon-to-be-released Survival Mode.

The post goes into more detail about how the gather details and feedback. Worth a quick read.

[no00dylan]

Sounds really awesome, I guess we can expect to see the SDK before the 21st

[Megadude]

March 25, 2009 - Left 4 Dead Update Released

Updates to Left 4 Dead have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Game and client changes


Introduced fatigue to the melee attack in versus mode. You will see a HUD display when your melee swing is cooling down

Boomer vomit will now pass through common infected

Addressed some surround sound detection issues

Fixed a rare crash when exiting Left4Dead on Windows Vista

Fixed a case where the complete all expert campaigns achievement was not being rewarded


Dedicated server changes

Corrected an issue where Windows based dedicated were sending spurious shutdown notifications to the master causing them to delist temporarily

Fixed dedicated servers not resetting the versus team swap correctly--you could join a dedicated server that had a previous game that was swapped and arrive on the other team than what was selected in the lobby

Renamed the tags for sv_search_key to use "key:" in the server tags instead of "sv_search_key." This should help with issues of the 63 character limit of server tags

Fixed an occasional server crash related to voting

I quite like the fatigue thing. as it will mean people can't just hide in a corner and melee when the horde comes. What I would like to see though is the melee not doing any damage, and just being used to push infected away. After all, the survivors do have pistols with an unlimited supply of ammo to kill with, and people rarely run out of ammo for their primary weapon, so it would mean that people have to think a bit more skillfully rather than just meleeing a smoker or hunter 5 or 6 times.

[vcool]

I guess it's a feat I will love when I am infected but utterly hate when I am a Survivor.

[Sathor]

I really like it! I mean, L4D is not what you would call a realistic game (not in sense of story, but concerning weapons etc), but the meele was really disturbing.

[joe_dirt976]

heh, when the sdk comes out, i'm throwin in all my chips, might need a hand with this crazy idea i'm workin on

[mky]

I really want there to be a versus survival mode.

Haven't heard anything of it though

[Habboi]

Well it could easily be done with the stuff we have now. You could have them start next to the exit but use a timer to unlock it and just make the gamemode VS. A quick game until the real deal someday comes out.