Zombicidal

While you may have noticed a marked decline in activity from us here at Zombicidal, rest assured that we are working tirelessly to prepare you for what’s coming. In this case, Valve is about to release its much-anticipated first DLC for Left 4 Dead 2, The Passing.For those who still yearn for their favorite Survivor from the Northeast, The Passing is centered on a meeting between the two groups of Survivors. Valve has confirmed that players will take the role of the L4D2 Survivors as they meet the original cast in a small, rural Georgia town. Players can expect a full-length campaign with spinoff maps for the other game modes.  In addition, The Passing will introduce a host of new features. There will be a new cooperative “challenge” mode of play, official support for Infected bots in Versus, and weekly game events called “Mutations”.

 Each mutation will be playable over the course of a week, and will introduce interesting and enticing new variations on gameplay—for instance, Valve has mentioned game modes like Realism Versus and Chainsaw Massacre, a mode where all Survivors have chainsaws with unlimited fuel. Twenty Mutations are currently planned.

A new uncommon Common Infected and a couple new toys are also planned. The UCI will be the “Fallen Survivor”, who, unlike most Infected, tries to flee from Survivors. However, managing to take down the Fallen Survivor may yield rewards, such as ammo or health. Two new weapons are being introduced: the golf club, a classic improvised self-defense weapon, and the M60 machine gun, which may end up turning you into a one-man zombie Emmenthaler factory.

In celebration of the release of the new expansion, Valve has released two Midnight Riders songs for Rock Band. Also, Valve employees will be there to join in on the zombicidal action! Check out their blog post for more details.

Elunah General

Check out our new feature article in Game Theory Magazine’s March-April 2010 issue! Written for the Best Bosses in Gaming category, the article is entitled “Tank Season” and explains an expert approach at tackling the behemoth of the Left 4 Dead world, the Tank.

Elunah General

Left 4 Dead 2 is 50% off on Steam now! Even a die-hard boycotter would be hard-pressed to shrug off a deal like this.

Elunah General

Hello, everyone! We just wanted to drop by and let you know that we have not (yet) been lost to the undead scourging of the Earth—or rather, work and personal duties. As you know, Zombicidal is a completely enthusiast-run site (one-enthusiast-run, as a matter of fact), and we’ve just gotten sidetracked. Expect more in the coming weeks.

For those of you who are rendered incapacitated by ennui in our absence, we recommend reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in the meantime!

Elunah General

Here comes the best Christmas present of all! According to the Left 4 Dead official blog, the authoring tools (SDK) for Left 4 Dead 2 have been released! In addition, the developers have also released an addon support package for players who just want to use custom content.

Players who are only looking to play custom content (including custom maps for L4D1) only need to download the support package. In Steam, open your Tools tab and look for the entry called “Left 4 Dead 2 – Add-on Support”. Click it and install it. After installing it, you don’t need to run anything. Your game client will automatically be able to play custom content thereafter.

Custom content designers should download the aforementioned file and the “Left 4 Dead 2 – Authoring Tools”. This download adds applications, utilities, and example files.
The new authoring tools are similar to Left 4 Dead’s authoring tools, but there are a number of new additions:

Gamemode Logic: Designers can now make a single map that can behave differently depending on the gamemode in which it is being played. This can dramatically reduce the file size of Campaign add-ons, as the same map can be used for Co-op, Versus, Scavenge, and Survival.

Director Logic: Maps can now alter their layout and behavior depending on how “angry” the A.I. director is. The better the Survivors are doing, the angrier the AI Director seems to get. This allows you to base variable paths and other events on the player’s skill and current conditions.

Scavenge Mode Support! All the elements map authors need to support Scavenge in their maps. This includes game props as well as a full example in the form of Deadline 2, an updated tutorial campaign.

Left 4 Dead 1 map designers are encouraged to compile L4D2-specific versions of their maps in the new tool.

Elunah Developer, Left 4 Dead 2, Patch community, maps, SDK

We noticed a great guide for Scavenge on the official forums that you might be interested to see. These tips, courtesy of noisy_, may help even an experienced player to get the most out of the Scavenge experience. Reproduced with permission.

The Golden Rules

• Communicate goals and status via mic early and often. Remember that leadership is earned and not demanded. Ask your teammates what they want to do. Volunteer to cover them as they run for cans. Get them involved. Gain their trust.
• Maximize your odds. Jump survivors with cans at point blank. Attack with double the number of infected. Send redundant rescuers to disabled survivors. Never attack all four survivors at once unless it’s to serve as a distraction while someone gets pulled/charged/etc.
• Be likable. I know this will be hard for some of you to grasp, but if you act like a jerk, you’re just another sad little person whose parents beat them a little too much. You’re not funny, aggravating, or interesting. You’re played out. Encourage your teammates when they mess up or hit a rough spot. Practice good sportsmanship. Thank the other team for the game. Do you taunt ragequitters? Guess what? They’re probably quitting because you’re unlikable and they don’t want to waste another minute of their life in your company, not because of any personal defect of their own. Read more…

Elunah Left 4 Dead 2 Scavenge, Special Infected, Survivor

Valve has released a new update for Left 4 Dead. The update primarily includes fixes for versus matchmaking. One notable change is that lobbies that are more full are preferred over ones that are emptier, potentially allowing lobbies to fill more efficiently.

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

Left 4 Dead

• Teams that prefer listen servers will no longer be matched with teams that prefer dedicated servers
• Official dedicated servers are now preferred when searching for team matches
• More populous lobbies are now preferred over less populous ones when searching for games
• Players who crash or have failed to load are no longer banned if they have been kicked
• Fixed exploit allowing players to end games prematurely using the ‘outtro_stats_done’ console command
• Reduced Dedicated Server max search ping to 150 ms
• Fixed a common crash

EDIT: A similar patch was applied to Left 4 Dead 2. The only noted additional patches to L4D2 were:

• Update Russian subtitles
• Fixed not being able to interlink teams in team-on-team mode
• Fixed not being able to properly migrate team lobby after team leader would leave the lobby
• Fixed not being able to invite friends if player was not team leader in a team-on-team game

Elunah Left 4 Dead 1, Left 4 Dead 2, Patch

Valve has just announced the first DLC addon for Left 4 Dead 2, “The Passing”. The new DLC, set to be released in early spring 2010 for the PC and Xbox 360, will include a “huge offering” of gameplay content, including a new cooperative campaign and narrative; new Survival, Versus, and Scavenge maps; a new Uncommon Common Infected; and a new melee weapon and firearm. Oh, and there’s one more thing…

The Left 4 Dead Survivors will be in it!

You heard us right! After months of speculation on Valve’s promised “ode” to the original Survivors, the studio has decided to call all the Survivors together in one campaign.

The story will be set just after Dead Center, in a small town in rural Georgia. Players will take the role of the L4D2 Survivors when they encounter and interact with the original ones. So, if you’ve been missing your favorite eye candy, pill-pilferer, geriatric gunman, or leather-clad misomaniac, this spring, Valve has just the right medicine for you.

The developers also mention that there will be a brand-spanking-new cooperative “challenge mode” of play. We don’t have any specifics on what this new game mode might be. It could be another difficult campaign-style mode, like Realism, or it could be a competitive game mode that pits two teams of Survivors against each other, much like some on the official forums have been suggesting for months. The latter theory seems particularly plausible, considering that both groups of Survivors will be in it.

We should also mention that this should settle the debates about whether or not the original Survivors died at Last Stand (and thus about its canonicality).

See the official Steam News bulletin, quoted below. ▼

Elunah Left 4 Dead 2, Patch DLC, melee

Left 4 Dead 2 has been patched on the PC! The patch includes a huge number of bug fixes that should hopefully make your gameplay experience smoother.

Updates to Left 4 Dead 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. These and all previous fixes will be coming to the 360 later this month. The major changes include:

Left 4 Dead 2

• Changed rules for ghost placement in Scavenge Mode
• Player controlled Special Infected are no longer forced to un-crouch and lock strafe when they crouch attack
• Spitter spit that damages players on a moving elevator will now fizzle quickly
• Allow the survivor and infected to rotate the camera yaw while being attacked by a Charger or Smoker
• Smoker that has dragged a survivor to the end now gets the same cinematic flashlight as the Hunter and Charger
• Fixed a crash in physics
• Updated the Charger’s hit boxes
• Updated the Jockey’s hit boxes
• Updated the Spitter’s hit boxes
• Fixed player health on being revived after a Charger slam over a high ledge
• Fixed versus scores not resetting after a vote to change campaigns
• Fixed being able to use defibrillator on dead players who were far above or below you
• Fixed pink glow on dead survivors
• Fixed being able to hold crouch while incapped to get better weapon accuracy
• Fixed players pushing against some props causing them to accumulate downward velocity and then take falling damage when they let go of the forward key
• Fixed a case where an incapped survivor inside a rescue vehicle would trigger both the escape sequence and a round restart
• Fixed the helping hand from getting stuck when extended

Elunah Left 4 Dead 2, Patch

I ever tell you about the time my buddy Keith replaced Rochelle? You wouldn’t think it could happen cause Rochelle’s a girl and all, but some folks down at Facepunch right done gone and made their own Keith that you can put right in here to be my buddy. Sure, he ain’t got no lady parts to look at, but he sure does do a good impression of Rochelle.

I ever tell you about the time my buddy Keith got rolled by a ‘gator in a swamp? Man he didn’t agonize it or nothin’, we were just tryin’ to grab two so we could piss ‘em off and get ‘em into a fight. Well anyway, the third time Keith started yellin’ “Gentlemen, I need some help!” and “Girl, you shoulda stayed at home…”–

Elunah Developer, Hacks & Mods, Left 4 Dead 2