Dead Before Dawn - ModDB Best Upcoming Mod 2008

Darth Brush's Dead Before Dawn wins the ModDB Players' Choice: Best Upcoming Mod for 2008.

Originally created for the Half Life 2 Mod "No More Room in Hell" it is now being customized and ported to Left 4 Dead.

Dead Before Dawn contains replica locations from the movie Dawn of the Dead, so far including:


* Crossroads Mall
* Anna's House
* The Park

Soon you will be able to see Andy's Gunshop.

This campaign also promises Easter eggs from the movie and a 100% custom soundtrack.

At the moment, this Campaign looks like it will set the bar for the L4D mapping community ...

Left 4 Dead tutorials - from valve!

This is a great guide that will help a lot of people out until the official SDK for L4D comes out.

Apparently it is an archive of tutorials for the dev Wiki for the L4D SDK (when it comes out).

Download.

















This is the listing of the tutorials:

* Getting Started
* Your First L4D Level
* Ladders
* Visibility
* Nav Meshes
* Checkpoints
* Checkpoint Rooms
* Outdoor Levels
* Level Organization
* Level Standards
* Clip Brushes
* Elevators
* Panic Events
* Breakable Walls
* Finale Events Part 1
* Finale Events Part 2
* Finale Events Part 3
* Additional Finale Components
* Nav Flow
* Advanced Nav Editing
* Versus Maps

The original thread is here, man this makes me wish I had time to make a map ...

Community Map - Spray and Pray (Beta)

This is a work in progress by BrainFood ...



All audio was added post production and is not recorded in game ...

Download: http://www.fpsbanana.com/maps/81857

Left4Dead - ESXi Server Performance - Campain Mode

This is CPU performance of L4D in campaign mode running on ESXi - my CPU is AMD (Dual Core) X2 BE-2400 Brisbane 2.3GHz.

SourceMod - Linux Installation

Why would you want SourceMod on your server?

Well it can help you administer your server in game and you can also install additional plugins with it. This is what it looks like in game ...













Installation consists of copying files to your server so you will need ftp or SSH access to your server. Before you do this you will need to confirm your Steam ID for use later - simply join a server and then open the console and then type the following and hit enter:

status

The result will give you your Steam ID. Copy and paste it from the console and save it for later.

First download Metamod to your computer and extract the files. Copy the addons folder to your left4dead folder on your server. On my server this is /home/user/hlds/l4d/left4dead.

Next you need to generate a vdf file - choose Left4Dead as the game type and leave the gamefolder blank to download the correct file (click Generate Metamod VDF). Upload this file to the addons folder on your server. On my server this is /home/user/hlds/l4d/left4dead/addons.

Now download SourceMod and extract the files. Copy the contents of your addons folder to the addons folder on the server. On my server this is /home/user/hlds/l4d/left4dead/addons. Copy the contents of the cfg folder to the cfg folder on the server. On my server this is /home/sxl4d/user/l4d/left4dead/cfg.

Next we just need to grant ourselves some admin rights by editing the addons/sourcemod/configs/admins_simple.ini file. On my server this is /home/user/hlds/l4d/left4dead/addons/sourcemod/configs/admins_simple.ini.

At the bottom of the file just add the following line where the Steam ID is the one you saved earlier:

"Steam ID" "bcdefghijklmn"

The Steam ID specifies a player and the next field specifies permissions as per the following table:













Simply reboot the server and you are good to go - connect to your server, open the console and type the following to view the in-game admin menu:

sm_admin

Thanks to KingJulian on this thread for many of these details ...

Left4Speed - Left 4 Dead Parody

This is probably the funniest L4D parody that I have seen ...



What are the odds!? lol ... Awesome job ...

Connect to Private Dedicated Server through a Lobby

Well I have tried to do this on and off for a little while now and found a post by MaxRabbit that works for me.

My server config is pretty bare at this point:

server.cfg:

hostname "l4d"
rcon_password "*************"
mp_disable_autokick 1
sv_voiceenable 1
sv_allow_lobby_connect_only 1
sv_region 1
log on
sv_clearhinthistory 0

Server start script:

./srcds_run l4d -secure -maxplayers 4 +hostport 27015 +map l4d_hospital01_apartment +exec server.cfg +sv_lan 0

To connect from a Lobby this is what you do ...

First launch L4D and open up the console and type:

sv_cheats 1
ms_force_dedicated_server x:y

Here x is your WAN IP address and y is the game port (i use 27015).

Close the console and then set your lobby options as normal and the lobby will connect directly to your server!

I am not sure why the sv_search_key way of achieving the same end is not working for me but this will do just fine ...

Versus Maps and Survival Mode Update - Gametrailers

A little more news from Gametrailers on the anticipated Versus Maps and Survival mode due out this spring.

The new Versus maps will indeed be Dead Air and Death Toll, so no real surprise there.

The survival mode will basically be the four survivors trying to stay alive as long as possible over a range of 12 maps. It reamains to be seen if these 12 maps will be from the existing campaigns or if they will include new content. My hunch is that they will be campaign maps that players already know ...

New L4D Game Mode, Vs Maps & SDK due Spring 2009

Valve have issues a press release today that says that a new game mode, Versus Maps and the SDK will be released this Spring!

The first L4D DLC is dubbed the "Survival Pack" contains the new Survival game mode and two complete campaigns for Versus mode. The campaings are not specified but it is assumed that they will be Dead Air and Death Toll.

The SDK will also be made available for the PC in the Spring!

There are no details yet as to how Survival Mode will play.

Spring looks to be a good time for killing Zombies!

Tank on Fire ... Faster or Not?

MarphitimusBlackimus posted an intersting video comparing the speeds of two tanks - one on fire and the other not on fire - in Versus and Campaign modes ...

The results were quite surprising ...



The Campaign Tank on fire is way faster than a regular Tank and the Versus Tank on Fire is a little slower than the regular Tank!

Awesome Video!

Community Map - L4D Death Aboard - 2 PrisonYard (beta)

The second map of the Death Aboard campaign is already out in beta now. Prisonyard sees the survivors escape the Prison and venture outside ...

The outdoor atmosphere is nice, fairly dark and nicely lit ... I especially like the watch tower area when you first get outside.

It's pretty straightforward to work out where to go, so learning your way round is easier than the Prison map.

There's a lot of wire fence around in this map and I wonder if this might hinder Hunters and Smokers in Versus mode ... there might be some good high spots to ambush from though ...

There is one Crescendo event close to the end with an accompanying horde - and from there it is a fairly straight run through to the safe house.

The map did crash on me once but that seems to be an isolated event so far ...

All in all, a nice looking map (and an improvement in some way on the Prison map in my opinion).

Download: http://l4dmapdb.wikidot.com/map:prisonyard