New mode – Left4DoD Versus

This has been on the cards for a while.  I get constantly asked why humans cannot play Zombie like in the Left4Dead versus mode and the main reason is that it would require a major rewrite to get the game mode working properly.  Everything has been tailored to bots and getting humans just to play the five special infected requires a different way of thinking.

So I had a bath.  Those of you who know me, know that this is where I get 90% of my inspiration and true to form, I thought of a way it could be done.

The deal is this.  There can only be four special infected on the Axis team at any one time so a bunch of things need to be controlled:

1. Every one needs to be able to play a special zombie at some time, so randomly swapping people is a good way of doing it.  If not, people complain they never get to play Zombie…and they do complain.
2. Zombies need to be a lot easier to kill.  Special Infected now have intelligence meaning they can hide, sneak around, get to areas of the map quickly, go in places where the bots can’t go.  So they have to be weaker.
3. Allied guns need to be more powerful to deal with the specials.
4. Spade hits need to be weaker for Special Infected.
5. You should not have Special Infected until Allied server numbers increase.

So we have a test server running the Beta right now:
69.162.99.28:27015 TheVille.Org XV – Left4DoD-Versus Zombies

To be honest, it’s not as popular as Co-op for some reason.  I’m getting the impression that people just like to go, shoot bots and get achievements, rather than face a challenging map (the Allies do lose more frequently).
So more tweaking is going to have to be done over the next while.

Well that was embarrassing

You think you have every base covered when you upload a new version of the plugin.

But nothing prepared for the dumbassed bug I added to the plugin.  Somehow, in some weird editing screw up, I deleted the line where Zombies slowly get more health as they die.
For for two days straight I couldn’t figure out why players were racking up 400+ kills…

I changed the program and with Squeeeeze’s and Oldman’s help I managed to get the levels back to where they should have been before the bug.

*sigh*

Cube Soccer Update coming soon

I received a nice PM the other day from one of the admins on The Escapist servers saying that he couldn’t find a decent TF2 Cube Soccer server out there.  The goals either never materialized or the Cube never appeared.

So I quickly threw up a TF2 Cube Soccer server for him to play on and it went squirly for him too.  So it left me pondering what the hell was wrong with the plugin.

Going through the code, which I had last updated on November 2008, it was simply awful.  Timers not being handled properly, inefficient code and loads of cvars.  People know my feelings, these days, on multiple settings for people to screw up…
The biggest issue was with weapons.  The Cube would replenish The Scout Force-a-Nature with the same amount as the Scattergun…which would mean an endless supply of ammo.

Last night, I ripped through the code, pragma semicoloned it (!) and changed the way weapons and the Cube work.
Now, instead of constantly refilling to max ammo, the Cube gives only a quarter ammo refill.

Why, you ask?  Surely it is way more fun with endless ammo and just shooting the crap out of anything and anything…
Players need a challenge.  They need to run out of ammo to make them run closer to the Cube and get more involved in the action.  Running around deathmatching, for some, is enjoyable, but when you don’t have a lot of ammo to do it, it becomes a problem and makes you play closer to the Cube.

I’m also changing the way damage is dealt.  No more mirror damage (whose bloody idea was that anyway?).
To put it simply, the further you are from the Cube, the less damage your weapons do.
Now this has an interesting side effect.
It means we can re-include all those classes that were left out, like the Sniper or the Spy.
I was never happy about making Cube Soccer a Scout only game…that’s not the point of TF2 and anyone who wants to make this into a Tribes style Soccer game is not thinking straight.  There are all these classes and they all do awesome things to counteract each other.  So why can’t they be included?  Why can’t we include Snipers?  They can be picked off by Spies.  Why can’t we include Engineers who can be picked off by Soldiers? Besides it’s tough building sentries with limited metal.

So I’m going to be messing with this over the next few nights and maybe try to reinvigorate this plugin and some of the awesome maps that comes with it.