Upcoming DLC Highlights

[Surf3rDud3]

LOTS of good goodies take a look :)

L4D Mods:
http://www.l4dmods.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=88:upcoming-dlc-highlights&catid=2:news

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Versus Mode
The Survival Pack will open up Dead Air and Death Toll to versus play.
Tweaks have been made to allow for more competitive play survivor camping spots have been removed and new infected spawn areas have been added.
In Death Toll, the woods around the town have been thickened to make them a darker, scarier, and ultimately deadlier place for survivors.
Additional Updates
A patch with a few minor matchmaking fixes will deploy shortly before the Survival Pack becomes available to download, some time this month or next.
SDK will be released simultaneously with DLC, before April 21
Valve will launch matchmaking 2.0. This will have more impact on Steam than 360, since Valve maintains the PC servers in-house and has mountains of data on rage quits to cull through.
Chet was vague when pressed for details about the new matchmaking system, saying only that if you look at the games forums you can get a pretty good idea of what needs to be done. (I guess it's Looking 4 Four system).
We still play our games, and we want to keep them updated, he stated. (Someone could argue about it)
Achievements
Microsofts official policy is that new Achievements can only be included with paid DLC. There will be no achievements for 360 players.
Brighter side: It looks like we will probably have new achievements on PC!
Critic's Edition + DLC
Valve announced a new Critics Choice Edition of Left 4 Dead, which will ship on April 21 and contain the full game and DLC on the disc.
The downloadable Survival Pack will be released for download at some point before that, adding survival mode and the two new versus campaigns (Death Toll and Dead Air).
Survival Mode
Survival mode will be playable on 16 maps, 15 of which are culled from the existing campaigns crescendo moments and finales. The final survival map is the new original creation, Lighthouse.
Survival Mode Gameplay
Survival mode goes straight for the jugular. It made for a quick jump-in-and-play experience.
Its vital that survival time is based on skill level, and not just having a point where suddenly everyone goes off a cliff, Chet explained.
You get only one health pack each (but you can find Pills etc.), and ultimately there are no happy endings. You are going to die, and all that remains will be your best time posted to the global leaderboard. The entire team gets the same score, so theres extra incentive to help each other out.
Survival Mode - Levels Design
You start survival mode in a zombie-free map thats been stocked with heaps of weapons, explosives and items.
The horde wont descend until you alert it. This gives you a chance to stock up on supplies, strew explosives around the place and strategize with your teammates.
Minor modifications have been made to suit the flow of carnage in survival play. For example, in the No Mercy elevator crescendo, many of the rooms around the elevator doors are off-limits until the mob breaks through the walls to open them up.
Like in versus maps, areas that are overly favorable to the survivors have been altered or removed, so teams wont be able to rack up easy time by closet camping.
Crossing certain time thresholds earns the team medals. The time needed to earn a medal will vary from map to map, but will be in the range of 4, 6 and 8 minutes for bronze, silver and gold respectively

Videos:
#1 Video (http://www.gamesradar.com/video/v-20090304181329535022) - Valve plays Lighthouse Survival+ commentary
#2 Video (http://www.gamesradar.com/video/v-200903041895163010) - Valve plays Lighthouse Survival 2
#3 Video (http://www.gamesradar.com/video/v-2009030418112183012) - Valve plays No Mercy - Evelator Survival
#4 Video (http://www.gamesradar.com/video/v-2009030418549291075) - Games Radar plays Subways Underground Survival
# 5-8 Videos (http://www.vg247.com/2009/03/05/left-4-dead-dlc-four-movies/) - Short clips

(Videos are bad quality sorry! :()

[Surf3rDud3]

*Bump Edited*

[Surf3rDud3]

Surviving the L4D Survival Pack (http://www.l4dmods.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=117:surviving-the-l4d-survival-pack-&catid=2:news&Itemid=82)

Survival Mode pits your team against never ending waves of infected. Sounds simple. Just trap the survivors in a small part of a map, unleash the hordes, and record the longest time. Survival Mode, which will be released next week, is actually a bit more than that.
Originally posted on the official Left 4 Dead Blog (http://www.l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=2417)
Our goals for Survival Mode are to deliver a mode of play distinct from Campaign or Versus, have games that regularly last under ten minutes, and emphasize competition with team play through leaderboards.

Survival Mode draws on the planning and communication aspects of a successful Finale or Crescendo event, while taking it to another level. It rapidly hits a fever pitch that only a well coordinated team will be able to successfully survive. Everything from simply covering a reviving teammate, to making every shot count to minimize reloads becomes crucial in Survival Mode.

Given the importance of pacing in Survival Mode, we need to define as precisely as possible how the difficulty ramps up during the course of a round. We have numerous variables to work with: mob spawn frequency, special infected spawn frequency, number of each type of special infected, total number of special infected, tank spawn frequency, total number of tanks, and so on. We need all of these variables to work together to create a fairly smooth difficulty curve.

If the curve ramps up too sharply, we find that teams of all skill levels tend to hit a wall at the same time. There isn't enough variation in the times to separate great teams from average ones. If the curve is too flat, then average teams will have a good experience, but really good teams can grind on long enough to cross the line from having fun to just getting worn out.

It might seem that just gradually increasing spawn rates and numbers of infected will create a nice smooth curve, but it turns out to be much trickier than that. Each type of infected has its own spawn schedule, so even though the individual spawn curves may be designed to be fairly easy at a particular point in time, sometimes they overlap in just such a way that the players find themselves in a really bad situation far earlier than we intend.

For example, a tank will be much harder to fight if a mob of common infected spawns at the same time - and nearly impossible if three hunters also show up right at that moment. A similar situation can happen due to variables outside our control - a team may not dispatch a tank or mob quickly enough, causing subsequent waves to start arriving and piling on to an already difficult battle. It's also hard to anticipate when teams will need to make an ammo run or heal up, both of which can be extremely difficult only a few minutes into the round. In order to help visualize these overlap points and the collapse of each spawn curve, we graphed out the wave behavior of infected over the course of a survival round.

http://www.l4d.com/blog/images/posts/012/spawn-graph-thumb.jpg (http://www.l4d.com/blog/images/posts/012/spawn-graph.jpg)

The last variable we added was the "lull" - a short interval of time during which nothing new will spawn. Each lull gets slightly longer as the round progresses, but that's no guarantee the team will actually see the lull - it just prevents new infected from spawning. It doesn't help with infected that are already in the arena. Killing mobs and tanks as quickly as possible is the best way to ensure that a team can take advantage of a lull to heal, resupply ammo, or just move to a better location with more supplies.


Given the extreme pace of Survival Mode, the number of zombies killed in a single round often outnumbers an entire campaign. Even optimizing towards using pistols to eliminate common hordes, ammunition usually becomes an issue at some point. As ammo piles provide a unique infinite resupply for players, they tend to be in relatively less defensible positions in the Survival arenas. This means making an all important ammo run is rarely a safe proposition and requires good teamwork and planning. Timing your resources correctly to be able to make a run when necessary can make or break a team. The perfect pipebomb or well placed molotov can mean the difference between a cakewalk and catastrophe.


The Hospital Elevator, for example, might seem like an easy Crescendo Event to conquer. Hit the elevator button and holdout until the doors open for a quick escape. In Survival Mode, however, the area begins locked down. Areas open as the hordes come in, breaking down the doors to reach the survivors. In each room there are additional caches of vital pills, pipes, and Molotovs. By moving from location to location, using up the plentiful supplies as needed, a team can maximize their time in a game where the elevator never arrives to offer escape. In other maps, items may be less plentiful and require careful planning on their usage. Managing one's inventory and resources works hand-in-hand with teamwork in Survival Mode.


Next week you will be able to see our design in action when the DLC is released for the PC and 360.
Can it, whiners! Easily the most common complaint leveraged against Left 4 Dead was that it had too little content and on April 21st players are getting a FREE download with plenty more zombie shooting action. Did I mention it’s free? Xbox 360 users hardly get anything for that price, except refurbished red-ringed consoles. The DLC adds three significant changes to the game, the melee fatigue already introduced on the PC, the inclusion of Dead Air and Death Toll in versus mode, and the addition of Survival Mode with 16 maps, 15 borrowed and one new.

Nasty, Brutish and Short

Survival mode takes all of the areas, 15 in all, from the original Left 4 Dead maps where you call the horde, like at the elevator in No Mercy and at the crane in Dead Air. There’s also the brand new lighthouse themed, “The Last Stand” with the apt tagline “it doesn’t end well”, because, despite being the level loaded with pills, explosives, ammo and health…well, good luck lasting long enough to use any of them. There’s no rescue in sight for Survival mode, just a never-ending flow of zombies and the crushing feeling of impending doom (or a tank beating you into the pavement). Apparently, the team at Valve hasn’t surpassed the 10 minute mark, and our fairly skilled crew topped out at a little over four minutes in Death Toll’s drains, earning a bronze and falling nearly three minutes short of a silver ranking. For comparison, my first lighthouse run relying solely on AI lasted a whopping two minutes and forty-one seconds. That’s longer than some of my attempts with human players, but don’t expect to set any records with the AI in tow.


Now, to illustrate the infinite zombie spawning, Valve put together this chart:


http://cache.g4tv.com/ImageDb3/145283_S/Left-4-Dead-Survival-ModeDLC.jpg


As you can see, before you even hit the 4 minute cut-off for the bronze rank, you’ll have taken on 3 tanks, numerous special infected and about 5 waves of horde. Every reload, decision to heal and the timing of using explosives affects the outcome of your attempt, and the combination of skill and cooperation makes this mode far more complex than just fending off never-ending waves of zombies. I’ve always felt the brilliance of L4D is how it takes a very simple concept and slowly reveals complex layers of depth to the player. There seems to be a limitless variety in strategies you can employ to survive and with rounds lasting under 7 minutes or so, factoring in time to set up before you call the horde, this is a fast-paced “quick fix” of L4D compared to the versus and campaign modes. It’ll also put you on the fast track to that pesky Zombie Genocidist achievement. Good luck, and leave your friends who cower away from advanced or expert difficulties behind.


Melee Takes a Hit


One common strategy that won’t save you anymore is backing all the survivors up into a corner and spamming melee to thwart the Horde and special infected. It used to be pretty simple to avoid all damage by employing this strategy, it repels snaking tongues, ambitious Hunters and countless zombies with minimal effort. With the addition of “melee fatigue”, you’ll have to wait until your melee “reloads” to continue deflecting zombies. Applicable in both survival and versus mode, the tweak to melee takes some adjustment as a survivor, but it sure makes Boomers and Hunters happy and balances the game nicely. Do I miss melee spam? Ok…a little, but if WiiSports boxing taught me anything, it’s that most people can’t continuously punch things for very long without getting tired.


Versus, Now With Three Maps No One Will Play


Please forgive the tongue-in-cheek, but if you play as much as I do, you’re probably just as sick of the No Mercy favoritism in Versus mode as I am. This is why I’m especially excited to see Death Toll and Dead Air join the circuit. The large open spaces in these levels obviously provided a challenge to adapt for Versus, but the balance is executed well and this was ultimately worth the wait. I’d elaborate more, but this addition speaks for itself, Dead Air is a personal favorite but both “new” maps provide welcome variety to the versus multiplayer.
Last Words


With the inclusion of Dead Air and Death Toll in versus, there’s something here for players of all skill levels and welcome content for those getting tired of playing the same maps over and over. Survival caters to the upper echelon of players and offers so many map choices and such a challenge that you’re unlikely to tire of it quickly. And again, with the whole update being free, there’s virtually nothing to complain to about. Again, Valve proves how reliable they are in supporting their games after launch with more than just fixes, Tuesday can’t come soon enough.

Vidoes: http://www.l4dmods.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=119:no-mercy-survival-videos&catid=2:news&Itemid=82