***Official Left 4 Dead 2 Thread***

Soldato
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What's the point of that? A bit of window dressing at the end of the final map?

I would have prefered to see an NPC form part of a map. You have to escort him from A-->B protecting him so he can open/do something for you.
Tell you what, let's take the story out entirely - remove all character, weapon and place names, scrub the graffiti off the walls in the saferooms and make sure the game has no "window dressing" or character whatsoever. Let's only put any effort into the gameplay and graphics.

Little touches, or "window dressing" can turn a good game experience into a great game experience - it shows that the people making it care about the game and enjoy what they're doing. It's obvious in both games that the central characters are reasonably well-developed (for an FPS!) - they make little remarks and snipe at one another through the game. Would you rather they removed all that as well?
 
Caporegime
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As opposed to 20 maps all requiring exactly the same thing of course... Which are far more interesting...

ps: At least try a bit...

Oh sweet God no!

Escort missions are the bain of gaming.

escort missions are terrible, and will remain terrible until someone develops some pretty decent AI, so a few decades at least.


not to mention it would be crap in VS where the infected would just destroy the npc in minutes.


As for the typos;

I haven't slept,

FF was currently under the divx web player full screen bug where the cursor disappears so I couldn't be bothered taking ages to find where I was,

also it's a ****ing forum, who gives a ****.




Finaly though, it's bane not "bain".


Bain is a bath dear.
 
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PoD

PoD

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I dont believe the Katana is in the demo, nor the fire axe, chainsaw or baseball bat
In fact I think the only melee weapons are the frying pan, nightstick, machete and guitar.

Speaking of weapons though I LURVE the high powered sniper and the SMG, both are unbelievably good at long to mid range.
The AK is nice for fighting off hordes as well as it lends itself to both mid range single shots and fully auto up close.

I think the thought that has gone into the weapons is brilliant, each does something special at a certain range whilst being a lot less ineffectual at other ranges. This means you HAVE to mix and match which gets you diverse weapons for different situations.

  • The riot shotty is great for close range only and whores tanks
  • The other shotties are good for medium and close range
  • The M14 is still a good all rounder, but doesn't stand out in any situation
  • The new sniper is AMAZING at long range and serves you well for mid range whilst running, which was the huge weakness of the sniper before. Plus its clip just keeps on coming (I cant believe how long it lasts)
  • The SMG is just sweet, but you need to aim it a little more for long range and because its not full auto it is difficult to clear hordes up close
  • The AK is another all rounder, but it feels more powered than the M14 (I've not seen the numbers, but I think it is slightly more powered)
  • The magnum feels cool, but I actually think its not accurate enough because you need to knell to get headshots
  • Dual pistols are definitely weaker as I can no longer headshot commons with them

As someone pointed out (I think it was Sh4rk) there are a lot less ammo dumps meaning you have to change weapons instead of getting more ammo now!
 
Soldato
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Tell you what, let's take the story out entirely - remove all character, weapon and place names, scrub the graffiti off the walls in the saferooms and make sure the game has no "window dressing" or character whatsoever. Let's only put any effort into the gameplay and graphics.

Little touches, or "window dressing" can turn a good game experience into a great game experience - it shows that the people making it care about the game and enjoy what they're doing. It's obvious in both games that the central characters are reasonably well-developed (for an FPS!) - they make little remarks and snipe at one another through the game. Would you rather they removed all that as well?

Nice straw man... :rolleyes:

What I'm saying is a whole NPC, just to pop up at the end, say, "well done!" Seems a little bit of a waste? I'd hope an NPC would ideally play a bigger role if only to add more depth to gameplay...
 
Soldato
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I dont believe the Katana is in the demo, nor the fire axe, chainsaw or baseball bat
In fact I think the only melee weapons are the frying pan, nightstick, machete and guitar.

Speaking of weapons though I LURVE the high powered sniper and the SMG, both are unbelievably good at long to mid range.
The AK is nice for fighting off hordes as well as it lends itself to both mid range single shots and fully auto up close.

I think the thought that has gone into the weapons is brilliant, each does something special at a certain range whilst being a lot less ineffectual at other ranges. This means you HAVE to mix and match which gets you diverse weapons for different situations.

  • The riot shotty is great for close range only and whores tanks
  • The other shotties are good for medium and close range
  • The M14 is still a good all rounder, but doesn't stand out in any situation
  • The new sniper is AMAZING at long range and serves you well for mid range whilst running, which was the huge weakness of the sniper before. Plus its clip just keeps on coming (I cant believe how long it lasts)
  • The SMG is just sweet, but you need to aim it a little more for long range and because its not full auto it is difficult to clear hordes up close
  • The AK is another all rounder, but it feels more powered than the M14 (I've not seen the numbers, but I think it is slightly more powered)
  • The magnum feels cool, but I actually think its not accurate enough because you need to knell to get headshots
  • Dual pistols are definitely weaker as I can no longer headshot commons with them

As someone pointed out (I think it was Sh4rk) there are a lot less ammo dumps meaning you have to change weapons instead of getting more ammo now!

Will the chainsaw behave just like all other melee weapons do you think? You'll just swing it it around? So basically just a machete with a different noise?
 
Soldato
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escort missions are terrible, and will remain terrible until someone develops some pretty decent AI, so a few decades at least.


not to mention it would be crap in VS where the infected would just destroy the npc in minutes.

AI or pathfinding has nothing to do with it - We're not talking about an NPC trying to climb a mountain here. He might simply have to walk down the middle of a road from A to B, to just go down a pre-defined route from A to B. No path finding involved...

The gameplay element is where to put the four of yourselves to best cover/protect them, all the time the versus can decide to go for the NPC, who you are of course all watching, or instead go for one of the survivors.

It's a simple thing to do, but would add a nice change to the gameplay for a few minutes...

Personally, I think it would make a damn good distraction from standard gameplay...
 
Soldato
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Alright fellas - got hold of the demo last night. Not had a chance to try it yet. Should hopefully get to at some point this weekend.

I just don't have as much time for L4D as I used to :(
 
Soldato
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Whilst I was a little bummed about how short the demo was after the initial hype, I am liking this. It's different enough to feel like a worthwhile purchase and the core gameplay has been tweaked just right.

I had doubts about how effective the melee weapons would be but there's nothing more satisfying than smacking a zombie round the face with a guitar......roll on full release.
 
Soldato
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Whilst I was a little bummed about how short the demo was after the initial hype, I am liking this. It's different enough to feel like a worthwhile purchase and the core gameplay has been tweaked just right.

I had doubts about how effective the melee weapons would be but there's nothing more satisfying than smacking a zombie round the face with a guitar......roll on full release.

Yeh, still be sold on melee weapons. Seem more of a nice 'selling point' than actually bringing anything worth while? But I'll wait for the full release :)
 
Soldato
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Nice straw man... :rolleyes:

What I'm saying is a whole NPC, just to pop up at the end, say, "well done!" Seems a little bit of a waste? I'd hope an NPC would ideally play a bigger role if only to add more depth to gameplay...
Oh no, you used a rolleyes! You're so mean.

What you said was, "What's the point of that? A bit of window dressing at the end of the final map?" which implies that "window dressing" has no point. Why is an NPC a waste if they don't add to gameplay? Is it wrong to add a name to the voice of the helicopter pilot, or the person who saves you - I'd rather be the last man standing on a short pier, screaming, "Wait for me, Virgil!" through the mic than hurling abuse at the horde of zombies approaching me. But for that matter, how do any of us know what kind of role he's going to play? That's right - none of us know for sure.

How about a compromise? You continue moaning about people's opinions and I'll just ignore you.
 
Caporegime
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AI or pathfinding has nothing to do with it - We're not talking about an NPC trying to climb a mountain here. He might simply have to walk down the middle of a road from A to B, to just go down a pre-defined route from A to B. No path finding involved...

emm have you tried play a vs game against good people with a bot?

they wonder out into the open and get 25'ed into the ground then smoked off whenever you're dealing with a horde.
 
Soldato
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Oh no, you used a rolleyes! You're so mean.

What you said was, "What's the point of that? A bit of window dressing at the end of the final map?" which implies that "window dressing" has no point. Why is an NPC a waste if they don't add to gameplay? Is it wrong to add a name to the voice of the helicopter pilot, or the person who saves you - I'd rather be the last man standing on a short pier, screaming, "Wait for me, Virgil!" through the mic than hurling abuse at the horde of zombies approaching me. But for that matter, how do any of us know what kind of role he's going to play? That's right - none of us know for sure.

How about a compromise? You continue moaning about people's opinions and I'll just ignore you.

Or another deal? You rant on not making much sense at all... and we all ignore you? :)
 
Soldato
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emm have you tried play a vs game against good people with a bot?

they wonder out into the open and get 25'ed into the ground then smoked off whenever you're dealing with a horde.

Fair comment but again, I'm not suggesting an NPC that tries to navigate around a myriad of paths... Just one whose job is to go from A to B, most likely not even caring about the survivors as such. You're telling me an NPC can't walk from A to B on a predefined route? Of course it can... :)

So as the NPC is going from A to B (on the predefined route he cannot get lost on), the survivors simply have to keep him alive, and the infected can attack the NPC or the survivors.

When the NPC gets to B, the mission continues... Maybe he's going to open the safe room or something for them... Viola... No rocket science required, and a nice change in game play/stype for very little effort :)
 
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Man of Honour
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Fair comment but again, I'm not suggesting an NPC that tries to navigate around a myriad of paths... Just one whose job is to go from A to B, most likely not even caring about the survivors as such. You're telling me an NPC can't walk from A to B on a predefined route? Of course it can... :)

So as the NPC is going from A to B (on the predefined route he cannot get lost on), the survivors simply have to keep him alive, and the infected can attack the NPC or the survivors.

When the NPC gets to B, the mission continues... Maybe he's going to open the safe room or something for them... Viola... No rocket science required, and a nice change in game play/stype for very little effort :)

The point is that the AI will be terrible/too easy to focus-fire. Not much fun. Would work in coop, not in Vs.
 
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