Left 4 Dead 2: The Quickening

[fulcy]

Good points - my rationing right now is that ram is relatively cheap, and this machine is pretty robust and should last a little while, why not future proof it?

[fulcy]

Oh, and Chris, good games. Imagine how long we'd last on survival if we had real players, instead of the useless bots who stand next to you while you're being strangled by a smoker or slashed by a hunter, or who constantly give you pills in the middle of a fire fight?

[bsu legato]

Yeah we were making some seriously decent last stands there, right up until Coach-bot would announce "Hole on a second, I'mna stand in this pool of spitter goo." Nick-bot wasn't much help either.

[bsu legato]

Hmm...THIS looks awful familiar.

And THIS garners a big "D'oh, why didn't I think of that?"

[fulcy]

Now, how the heck did they drop the health and weapons there?!?!

[fulcy]

Dammit, need to watch both videos first!

[bsu legato]

I found a video where a team made it nearly 17 minutes on the Bridge level of The Parrish. Interestingly, they camped out at the far end of the off-ramp, where it meets the bridge. It seems that most of the undead come from down the off-ramp, and down by the docks, making it easy to get a clear shot down the road at them as they run up. Heck, even the tanks are mostly dead by the time they get within punching range.

[fulcy]

Interesting. Takes some practice to figure out all the spawn points, and then figure out the best pinch points to use to your advantage...

[bsu legato]

Ok, the supply hoarding can be done. Its very time consuming, but worth it if you're going to have 4 player controlled survivors and no useless bots (Coach-bot spoiled my 1/2 hour of prep by remaining stationary on top of the off ramp on the Parrish, and dying immediately. Then the othe two bots ran around uselessly trying to help him). The only issue I had was that some items kept wanting to return to their spawn point if you were still inside a certain radius. 1st aid, chest paddles, and pills & shots all drop to the rear when you exchange them, but guns are thrown foreward, making it a lot faster to move them.

[bsu legato]

THIS is pretty damn interesting. It makes our combined efforts look pretty amateur.

[fulcy]

Interesting - just let the tanks burn - seems to limit the amount of infected that come after you...

[bsu legato]

Interesting - just let the tanks burn - seems to limit the amount of infected that come after you...

That, and the tactic of basically barricading oneself in a corner with fire(works). I don't know how you could apply that to a team-based playthrough, but its still food for thought. I'll have to check out his other videos.

[fulcy]

Seems like barricading would work best for a single survivor - not easy to do with multiple survivors (more specials and doesn't seem like there's many places to barricade that are large enough for multiple survivors).

[bsu legato]

I tried this on realism mode with three bots, and it actually worked. Coach made it about 2/3 of the way through, Nick bought it during the second Tank battle, and Rochelle went down on the run to the chopper. With some actual non-AI teamwork, I think its a viable strat. And that was with only one gas can and the fireworks.

Also, I'm not a fan of the current "Hard Eights" mutation. Being raped by a continual barrage of specials is not what I call fun.

[bsu legato]

Well, I just nearly tied our best time on the Parrish Dock level (8:47) in Survival mode, all by my lonesome and three bots. I moved every available item down to the helicopter, and managed to keep a pretty continuous bonfire going at the two gates. I also used up all the ammo in all the M16's I hoarded, which tells me I should have hoarded more. In hindsight, perhaps the fire only needs to be used at one of the gates, allowing the player(s) to focus their small arms fire at the other entrance. The funny part is that I never even used a single pill or health kit. The next time we do survival, I'll have to demonstrate the ins and outs of supply moving. Two or even three players will at least cut down the prep time.

[fulcy]

I could imagine supply moving being tedious - taking alot longer than the actual game would.

[bsu legato]

I could imagine supply moving being tedious - taking alot longer than the actual game would.

Pretty much. It's just a question of how stubborn you are. Personally, I decided I was going to make the best possible last stand I could, and that meant gathering everything there was on the level. Your mileage may vary.

[fulcy]

You obviously didn't gather everything, since you could have gotten more M16's...

[fulcy]

So, 6:30 this evening my time. Anyone in?

[bsu legato]

I'm in!

[bsu legato]

Getting wasted 13 seconds short of the Gold medal on the Parrish dock was a complete piss-off. I completely blame the bots, as usual. Particularly Rochelle-bot, after she ran out of our control zone at the beginning of the first run-through and was immediately set upon by a special (was it a hunter? ) Worse yet was when Ellis-bot decided to run out through the fire to save her.

[fulcy]

Well this is annoying - apparently steam updated, and it broke l4d2. I haven't been able to find anything useful online yet - anyone else having issues?

[bsu legato]

So...I should avoid starting up Steam then? Not that it matters, since I'd need Steam to play regardless.

Have you tried the Steampowered forums?

Edit: Is your problem similar to THIS?

Edit Numero Deux: No problems on my end.

[fulcy]

Nope - I can't even LOAD l4d. I double click, it starts, the valve logo comes up, then the intro movie, and if I try to either click past the intro movie, or let the intro movie play out (kill all sons of bitches!), l4d then crashes.

[bsu legato]

I suppose a complete reinstall could be the least painful fix. Your vital stats and achievements aren't stored locally, and there's no single player campaign game saves in L4D, so you wouldn't lose anything.