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The great griefing engine gets updated

by: John - posted: 1/15/2009 6:36:00 AM
More On: Left 4 Dead
I wasn't able to jump into Left 4 Dead last night for some reason but a new update did come out yesterday with a great deal of fixes and improvements. Even after the update I couldn't join any server but I hope it's fixed today cause I need my L4D fix. I am glad to see a few things have been fixed though. For one, you'll be able to get the Tank or Witch more in Versus mode and they now spawn diretly on the escape route. The Hunter's pounce is now easier against a meleeing Survivor although I don't know if I like this change. The Hunter was pretty tough to use against a player who kept meleeing but I wasn't unhappy about this. It just meant I had to be a little more sneaky. I am glad to see that the Smoker's tongue attack isn't as easy to get out of now. Playing the Smoker was tough when all a Survivor had to do was melee his buddy off a grab but now you can only do it when the Survivor is paralyzed or hanging. Also, the Smoker's tongue does damage as it's dragging making him a little more dangerous and I think inline with the others. Sadly, no changes are made for the Boomer. PC owners, of course, have the patch now while 360 folks have to wait a bit.

Left 4 Dead has been updated with a host of fixes, tweaks and new features, including enhancements to Versus mode for improved competitive play. The full change list is below. For PC users the update will be applied automatically via Steam. Meanwhile, the update will be made available to Xbox 360 players in the coming weeks.

General

  • Fixed Survivors being able to climb surfaces marked for versus infected only
  • Fixed a class of SurvivorBot bugs dealing with rescuing downed players
  • Players can no longer grab ladders while flying through the air after a Tank punch
  • Shooting near a car with an alarm that has already fired the alarm will no longer make chirping noises
  • Improved loading time
  • Fixed mini-gun physics exploit
  • Fixed propane tanks (and other physics objects) causing players to fall through elevators
  • Fixed rare achievement bug issues
  • Fixed several map exploits
  • Fixed various match making issues
  • Fixed NAT traversal issues

Versus Changes
  • Added HUD elements to show status of other infected players
  • Changed color of infected player name in chat to red
  • Fixed exploit where players could spawn infected bots
  • Fixed instance where a Survivor changing to the infected team would be attacked by infected bots
  • Normalized special infected melee damage
  • Made the following client commands cheat protected: "Kill" and "explode"
  • Fixed exploit where infected players could run away and teleport back to gain health
  • Players can only change teams once per map
  • Players can't change teams while other players are still loading
  • Tank spawns at the same % through the map for both teams in versus mode
  • Made the Tank and Witch spawn directly on the escape route
  • Increased chance of getting the Tank or Witch
  • Fixed team swap issue

Hunter
  • Easier to pounce a Survivor who is meleeing
  • Increased Minimum damage a Hunter pounce does

Smoker
  • Fixed Smoker tongue tolerance
  • Smoker now has to be killed or the tongue destroyed for the tongue to break
  • Survivors cannot bash someone off the tongue until the Survivor being pulled is paralyzed or hanging
  • Tongue attacks that fail to paralyze or hang a Survivor will use the shorter ability delay timer
  • Fixed cases where the ability timer was not using the correct time
  • Fixed case where you could point at a Survivor but not register a tongue hit
  • Fixed Smoker tongue not targeting and landing properly through PZ ghosts
  • Smoker tongue does damage every second while dragging paralyzed Survivors

Tank
  • Bashable objects now appear with a red glow
  • Tanks hitting a car with an alarm disables the alarm permanently
  • Tank frustration timer is only reset by hitting Survivors with rocks or fists
  • Reduced autoshotgun damage against Tanks

Witch
  • Witch spawns at the same % through the map for both teams
  • Avoids spawning within a certain % of the tank
  • Fixed an exploit where the Witch could be woken up and tricked into attacking Survivors