Left 4 Dead

Pootrain

2009-10-01 05:08:05 pm

train kept rollin

aaaaaaaaand their fixed.

Normand Nubcake

2009-10-02 01:52:52 am

I did a bit of testing before the patch came out, didn't find anything mind-blowing. I assume the skips Pootrain was referring to only worked on the 360 version. Here are the patch notes :

Quote:

Left 4 Dead (PC)

* Item density calculation corrected for Versus games
* Fixed weapon density in Crash Course
* mp_gamemode now a valid command
* New localized audio for Crash Course now available
* Fixed achievement issues in Crash Course
* Fixed dedicated servers not updating correctly to master server
* Increased the timeout to fallback to listen server when searching for a dedicated server to 45 seconds

Left 4 Dead (360 dedicated only)

* Item density calculation corrected for Versus games
* Fixed weapon density in Crash Course
* Player controlled special Infected will no longer be trapped if they spawn in rescue closets
* Weapons and health kits in cabinets are now correctly respawned in the second Versus round
* Fixed a deploment issue on Xbox 360 dedicated servers that resulted in collisions not being properly detected. This issue is a server only issue

You can use pills to bypass the fire in the first level, allowing you to skip the panic event. Other than that, the shortcuts are all fairly obvious and minor. I'm gonna do some more testing today

I did a bit of testing before the patch came out, didn't find anything mind-blowing. I assume the skips Pootrain was referring to only worked on the 360 version. Here are the patch notes :

[quote]
Left 4 Dead (PC)

* Item density calculation corrected for Versus games
    * Fixed weapon density in Crash Course
    * mp_gamemode now a valid command
    * New localized audio for Crash Course now available
    * Fixed achievement issues in Crash Course
    * Fixed dedicated servers not updating correctly to master server
    * Increased the timeout to fallback to listen server when searching for a dedicated server to 45 seconds

Left 4 Dead (360 dedicated only)

* Item density calculation corrected for Versus games
    * Fixed weapon density in Crash Course
    * Player controlled special Infected will no longer be trapped if they spawn in rescue closets
    * Weapons and health kits in cabinets are now correctly respawned in the second Versus round
    [b]* Fixed a deploment issue on Xbox 360 dedicated servers that resulted in collisions not being properly detected. This issue is a server only issue[/b][/quote]

You can use pills to bypass the fire in the first level, allowing you to skip the panic event. Other than that, the shortcuts are all fairly obvious and minor. I'm gonna do some more testing today

Lag.Com

2009-10-02 02:04:41 am

sda loyalist

I've revised the 4-player speedrun idea to be on Expert, to maximise its differences from the 1p Easy submitted one. Also that way we actually get to play the game which is sorta nice.

Normand Nubcake

2009-10-02 05:02:30 am

I don't know about that. The submitted ILs aren't really done on Easy since the runner keeps changing the difficulty to Expert to kill the bots (instead of just kicking them, heh). Also, it seems a bit silly to justify or get around the fact that we're not doing any sequence breaks by saying "yeah, but we're doing this on the hardest difficulty!". As much as I don't like the idea of an unnecessary arbitrary category, I still think a "No Major Skips" category is our best bet

Lag.Com

2009-10-02 05:20:29 am

sda loyalist

Oh. I didn't know that's how the run worked.

I don't really care what the eventual category is labelled as. Just as there's a run of Left 4 Dead on the site that actually shows people playing the game. :p

Normand Nubcake

2009-10-02 12:48:37 pm

You see, that's precisely my problem with this. No one wants to see us "play the game". Everyone has played through the L4D campaigns a hundred times. Most people who got hooked on the multiplayer for a few weeks know every level by heart. There's nothing impressive about 4 guys just running to the end of the levels ; in fact, that's what any semi-competent and organized team does in Versus. Not trying to kill your interest in running this game since I always wanted to do a 4-player run of L4D for SDA, but you should probably give it some more thought

marshmallow

2009-10-02 04:29:13 pm

Jack of all Trades

I haven't gone through the entire thread, but I didn't see anything about solo expert. Why not?

Natural

2009-10-04 02:47:32 pm

Quote from marshmallow:

I haven't gone through the entire thread, but I didn't see anything about solo expert. Why not?

Not sure. But if the runs mentioned in this thread are single segment, I can vouch that a solo expert single segment would be an exercise in frustration. I've done been doing solo easy runs for youtube and even in that you need a reasonable amount of luck to get some decent spawns. With expert you would need early tier 2, avoidable tanks in chapters 2, 3 and 4, no tanks before panic events and no early finale tank. If that sounds improbable, factor in no delay for smokers, and very little margin for error with respect to damage. Even if all the game factors go your way, there will probably be human errors of the type that a speed runner won't want in an SDA video. I think anything above normal difficulty would be extremely, and almost impossibly difficult to make an SDA quality single segment solo run.

If you were or are allowed to run chapters individually, then it's certainly viable. You can find many expert solo chapter runs around.

[quote="marshmallow"]
I haven't gone through the entire thread, but I didn't see anything about solo expert. Why not?
[/quote]

Not sure. But if the runs mentioned in this thread are single segment, I can vouch that a solo expert single segment would be an exercise in frustration. I've done been doing solo easy runs for youtube and even in that you need a reasonable amount of luck to get some decent spawns. With expert you would need early tier 2, avoidable tanks in chapters 2, 3 and 4, no tanks before panic events and no early finale tank. If that sounds improbable, factor in no delay for smokers, and very little margin for error with respect to damage. Even if all the game factors go your way, there will probably be human errors of the type that a speed runner won't want in an SDA video. I think anything above normal difficulty would be extremely, and almost impossibly difficult to make an SDA quality single segment solo run.

If you were or are allowed to run chapters individually, then it's certainly viable. You can find many expert solo chapter runs around.

marshmallow

2009-10-07 01:49:54 pm

Jack of all Trades

Yeah, I've done every level on solo expert for fun and put some on youtube too. I think an individual level table would be cool, despite the randomness of tanks/tier2.

DREVPILE

2009-10-27 01:12:33 pm

Has anyone beat any of the finale events on solo expert?
I think it's neigh on impossible.
As far as i can see this is the only thing stopping a solo expert run.

Natural

2009-10-27 02:29:56 pm

Quote from DREVPILE:

Has anyone beat any of the finale events on solo expert?
I think it's neigh on impossible.
As far as i can see this is the only thing stopping a solo expert run.

There are a couple of expert finale videos floating around on youtube as individual levels, mostly utilizing glitches. It's not impossible to solo it without glitching, I can recall watching a couple. But there is so little margin for error that it would take the wildest amount of luck (along with a little skill) to accomplish this in a single segment run. For SDA standards you'd need very close to a perfect run through chapters 1-4 while still managing to run a perfect finale on expert. The odds are so stacked that even surviving would be highly unlikely, let alone surviving it in near perfect form.

All 4 can be done, so with regards to IL runs it wouldn't be a problem. But single segment isn't very realistic, imo. I've been doing solo SS runs on easy, and even with that you need many attempts just to get a decent spawn... and that's before factoring in luck and human error. Took me dozens of tries to even get close to a perfect No Mercy run. I shudder thinking about trying to do the same on expert... x4.

[quote="DREVPILE"]
Has anyone beat any of the finale events on solo expert? 
I think it's neigh on impossible.
As far as i can see this is the only thing stopping a solo expert run.  
[/quote]

There are a couple of expert finale videos floating around on youtube as individual levels, mostly utilizing glitches. It's not impossible to solo it without glitching, I can recall watching a couple. But there is so little margin for error that it would take the wildest amount of luck (along with a little skill) to accomplish this in a single segment run. For SDA standards you'd need very close to a perfect run through chapters 1-4 while still managing to run a perfect finale on expert. The odds are so stacked that even surviving would be highly unlikely, let alone surviving it in near perfect form.

All 4 can be done, so with regards to IL runs it wouldn't be a problem. But single segment isn't very realistic, imo. I've been doing solo SS runs on easy, and even with that you need many attempts just to get a decent spawn... and that's before factoring in luck and human error. Took me dozens of tries to even get close to a perfect No Mercy run. I shudder thinking about trying to do the same on expert... x4.

DemonStrate

2009-11-30 03:25:05 am

If we were you, we would quit now.

Just so everyone knows, I want to make a little writeup on improvements to the currently published run. I might even consider running it myself, but we will see if that gets done anytime this century. Anyway, I still need to read over his description, but I watched the run.

marshmallow

2010-03-20 09:29:40 pm

Jack of all Trades

L4D2 time? Grin

teh_efekt

2010-03-30 07:06:13 pm

I'd be downing for doing a 4p... add me on steam if you wanna talk about it...

steam acct: fr33kz

Lazylen

2010-04-02 01:07:26 am

fuck you i wont do what you tell me

I play often with friends. One of them has a server that keeps track of the fastest run of each map. We don't do glitch stuff, but I can give some times to beat for L4D2.

combined best time for Dead Center is 704.4 seconds = 11.74 minutes. There was no tank in that finale. I've done a finale that took about a minute longer, and there was no tank spawn.

combined best time for Dark Carnival is significantly longer at 1851 seconds, or about half an hour.

combined best time for Swamp Fever is 1866.6 seconds = 31.11 minutes. the first and last stages take about 20 minutes combined due to finale & trolley

combined best time for Hard Rain, excluding the first level (as I can't get a proper read on what is an actual run through and whats just a glitch) is 1014.6 seconds = 16.91 minutes.

combined best time for The Parish is 1570.94 seconds, or 26.18 minutes. The third map is incredibly long, clocking in at just under 10 minutes.

i have some times for modified versions of the L4D1 maps as well, but they're slightly modified and wouldn't reflect the true maps.

also they'd be on expert as well. This is generally 4 people running through together as a team, not going for speed, though if 3 people die and 1 person lives, the fastest person's time trickles down to everyone else who is currently playing.

all times are recorded on Expert, possibly expert realism difficulty.

I play often with friends.  One of them has a server that keeps track of the fastest run of each map.  We don't do glitch stuff, but I can give some times to beat for L4D2.

combined best time for Dead Center is 704.4 seconds = 11.74 minutes.  There was no tank in that finale.  I've done a finale that took about a minute longer, and there was no tank spawn.

combined best time for Dark Carnival is significantly longer at 1851 seconds, or about half an hour.

combined best time for Swamp Fever is 1866.6 seconds = 31.11 minutes.  the first and last stages take about 20 minutes combined due to finale & trolley

combined best time for Hard Rain, excluding the first level (as I can't get a proper read on what is an actual run through and whats just a glitch) is 1014.6 seconds = 16.91 minutes.

combined best time for The Parish is 1570.94 seconds, or 26.18 minutes. The third map is incredibly long, clocking in at just under 10 minutes.

i have some times for modified versions of the L4D1 maps as well, but they're slightly modified and wouldn't reflect the true maps.

also they'd be on expert as well.  This is generally 4 people running through together as a team, not going for speed, though if 3 people die and 1 person lives, the fastest person's time trickles down to everyone else who is currently playing.

all times are recorded on Expert, possibly expert realism difficulty.

typical

2010-04-04 06:03:48 pm

^does not care for console's

Since someone managed to find bunny hopping in it (old school mind you) someone should try rolling back to one of the older versions and see if they can't get some sort of hl2-esque style runs of it. All you would need it a working space spam script (mine doesn't work :-\) and an older version.

Otherwise it wouldn't hurt just to master mouse wheel down and see whether anyone has an older version.

KlVis

Edit history:

KlVis: 2010-12-17 10:00:48 am

2010-12-17 10:00:02 am

Le Prince Noir

A little run through Crash Course m1 that went pretty well:

Didn't read much advices from this thread before attempting it so I hope I didn't miss any important exploit.

Smilge

2010-12-23 03:19:07 pm

Looked very nice.

KlVis

2010-12-28 04:12:16 am

Le Prince Noir

Thanks for your input!

I have finally been able to make the record function work again, I just pasted a messed up script without looking too closely. So now I can play and record at decent fps (no variable input lags, choppy image while playing and random freezes).

This question may be adressed more to serial_gamer since he started it but what are the rules to record a run using the console?
I think you can't start to record during the loading time using the console. Maybe it is possible to script a whole load level/load options/record function but I can't even get a simple "map l4d_campaignXX_map" bind to work. When using it ingame it kicks me back to the lobby where the binds don't work, I have to retype the whole thing to actually load into the level.
So far I tried just using a record when the level starts but it may miss a couple of frames. I'm also abusing the autorestart after you're dead as there is a nice bonus to it: you often start with the tier1 already in hand.

A couple more ruling questions. In crash course m2 I'll most probably make the finale faster by switching to easy difficulty. Problem is that I'll kill my team mates twice during the run. First time at the start using them as zombie bait and also unlocking the generator which needs all the team close to you (bots aren't too good at speedrunning and the teleport glitch is not very reliable) or dead (which is cool since I can revive them when the finale start).
The difficulty switch midgame was higly discuted, can I extend the rule to a double difficulty switch? And what about using a bind to switch between difficulty levels instead of going to the lobby? "callvote" is pretty useful to make it seamless.

I'll randomly give a shot to some levels when bored. I think I can break the 2:00 bar on this one just by trying to get a similar attempt as the one presented but I want to look into source bunnyhopping some more.

Thanks for your input!

I have finally been able to make the record function work again, I just pasted a messed up script without looking too closely. So now I can play and record at decent fps (no variable input lags, choppy image while playing and random freezes).

This question may be adressed more to serial_gamer since he started it but what are the rules to record a run using the console?
I think you can't start to record during the loading time using the console. Maybe it is possible to script a whole load level/load options/record function but I can't even get a simple "map l4d_campaignXX_map" bind to work. When using it ingame it kicks me back to the lobby where the binds don't work, I have to retype the whole thing to actually load into the level.
So far I tried just using a record when the level starts but it may miss a couple of frames. I'm also abusing the autorestart after you're dead as there is a nice bonus to it: you often start with the tier1 already in hand.

A couple more ruling questions. In crash course m2 I'll most probably make the finale faster by switching to easy difficulty. Problem is that I'll kill my team mates twice during the run. First time at the start using them as zombie bait and also unlocking the generator which needs all the team close to you (bots aren't too good at speedrunning and the teleport glitch is not very reliable) or dead (which is cool since I can revive them when the finale start).
The difficulty switch midgame was higly discuted, can I extend the rule to a double difficulty switch? And what about using a bind to switch between difficulty levels instead of going to the lobby? "callvote" is pretty useful to make it seamless.

I'll randomly give a shot to some levels when bored. I think I can break the 2:00 bar on this one just by trying to get a similar attempt as the one presented but I want to look into source bunnyhopping some more.

Kotti

2011-05-21 04:24:28 am

There's a tiny chance me and my friends might try some casual 4-player run of some campaign (L4D1 or 2), personally I'd go with Crash Course. In case we do, I'd like to know some things.
1) The demo files. Once the recording has started, will that record everything (menus, loading screens...) until it's manually stopped? And is it possible to change the point of view in the demos or should every player record a demo?
2) Is there a Jesus-area or other useful stuff in Crash Course, aside from the fire skip?
3) Are there any tricks that require multiple players?

your_name_here

2011-05-22 07:48:05 am

If you start recording at the start of a campaign, it will record the entire campaign. It will not record loading screens (I don't know why you would want that)
You can change the point of view in the demos, but I don't think there's a way to make it follow someone as in spec. It would be easiest just to have everyone record a demo (it isn't hard)

André

2011-05-31 11:59:48 pm

Main Work!!!

Quote from Kotti:

There's a tiny chance me and my friends might try some casual 4-player run of some campaign (L4D1 or 2), personally I'd go with Crash Course. In case we do, I'd like to know some things.
1) The demo files. Once the recording has started, will that record everything (menus, loading screens...) until it's manually stopped? And is it possible to change the point of view in the demos or should every player record a demo?
2) Is there a Jesus-area or other useful stuff in Crash Course, aside from the fire skip?
3) Are there any tricks that require multiple players?

yeah except the fire there's a trick or two but they are well-known like the alarm car jump to skip a couple of seconds but it's possible to pass there without activating the alarm and also, I've search very long for a jesus place and i'm afraid that there is not and finaly i didn't find any trick that require a multiplayer and i even recommend that you do this alone, because it will probably be faster and less problematics

[quote="Kotti"]There's a tiny chance me and my friends might try some casual 4-player run of some campaign (L4D1 or 2), personally I'd go with Crash Course. In case we do, I'd like to know some things.
1) The demo files. Once the recording has started, will that record everything (menus, loading screens...) until it's manually stopped? And is it possible to change the point of view in the demos or should every player record a demo?
2) Is there a Jesus-area or other useful stuff in Crash Course, aside from the fire skip?
3) Are there any tricks that require multiple players?[/quote]

yeah except the fire there's a trick or two but they are well-known like the alarm car jump to skip a couple of seconds but it's possible to pass there without activating the alarm and also, I've search very long for a jesus place and i'm afraid that there is not and finaly i didn't find any trick that require a multiplayer and i even recommend that you do this alone, because it will probably be faster and less problematics

Freezard

Edit history:

Freezard: 2012-02-25 11:07:51 am

2012-02-24 06:11:39 pm

Me and AdamAK have started working on a 4-player speedrun of the DLC campaigns (Crash Course/The Sacrifice), but currently we're only 2-3 players so we're in need of a few more. The campaigns are really short (around 10 minutes each) plus me and Adam are the only ones who need to know the shortest paths, so this project shouldn't require any huge dedication if you're interested in helping out.

The run will be on Easy difficulty for the fastest time and because these campaigns require a late version of the game, most old glitches used in the SDA solo run won't work. Running with 4-players is faster than solo mostly because you can kill tanks in 2-3 seconds, start events right after one another, suicide to let only one player reach the safe room, as well as general cover and stuff like clearing areas of common infected.

If you're interested write a post here or join #L4D on IRC!

gia

Edit history:

gia: 2012-02-24 06:42:28 pm

gia: 2012-02-24 06:40:37 pm

gia: 2012-02-24 06:39:51 pm

2012-02-24 06:38:17 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

i dont use IRC, but I can help if you use steam, if Ill have to have a separate install im less interested Tongue

I can record my screen (not sure how demos work, if they can be dumped then i guess its unnecesary)

Quote from DREVPILE:

Has anyone beat any of the finale events on solo expert?
I think it's neigh on impossible.
As far as i can see this is the only thing stopping a solo expert run.

I have done the ship finale with bots, not sure if thats solo or not though.

Freezard

2012-02-26 02:29:14 pm

Well, our team is pretty much finalized now. I don't want to take in too many people either, but rather have 4-5 dedicated players.

We've been working on Crash Course and it's going very well. The critical point is the finale, as that place can cost many seconds if unlucky with the tank spawns. The rest shouldn't pose too much trouble.