Morning Discussion

by Chris Faylor, Mar 16, 2009 7:06am PDT

Monday, already? It seems like I barely got anything accomplished this weekend.

Really, I just played an hour or two Resident Evil 5, co-created and tested a Peggle drinking game, cleaned the apartment, watched some Wire, and read a few chapters of Snow Crash. The rest of the time, I was either sleeping or doing something here.

There were also about five minutes spend on a hammock. Hammock weather, at last!

On the plus side, um, I've got another chance at the weekend here in a couple days?

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#161

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By: TrickSh0t x Show Full Post

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Observations From The Front: L4D

I'm absolutely loving the social customs springing up in this game. For example, at launch, healing your mates was considered "good", and Valve even created an achievement for it. Now, as players move towards Expert difficulty as a norm, we have players "refusing" to be healed. "NO! I'm not black and white yet!" I've been yelled at, and even incapped once--for healing someone. Though, the more extreme resistance to being healed seems to correlate with female players. My sample size may be small though--any other observations?

Also, I think the most effective carrot/game mechanic that Valve has introduced to the game is stat tracking zombie kills at the end of each level. It seems to make players take a "I can kill more zombies than you" attitude--which invariably leads to spotty decision making (and player deaths). Observing the way people play is a fascinating experience.

I can't get enough of it.

Mar 16, 2009 7:36am PDT

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Observations From The Front: L4D I'm absolutely loving the social customs springing up in this game. F... : TrickSh0t
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 106 replies.
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  Those people who son't want to be healed? Yeah we just call them retarded. : JohnnyRey
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    it depends. Playing expert coop, you don't heal until black and white if you want to win. : re-verse
  - It is necessary on expert in some situations. : sheepraper
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  some players ask for being killed at the end of a level if they are black and white or under 50 hp (game ... : barichnikov
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    I don't agree with the asking to be killed either. I think health should regen between levels maybe. : re-verse
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      That or you start the next level and have to rescue a survivor if any are dead. : zerog83
      
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      Yeah, dying between the last rescue closet and the saferoom should mean you need to be rescued in the nex... : Beady
      
      I like this idea. : Mmmmmoo
      
      I agree with this completely. Being dead at the end of a level should work the exact same as if you star... : DinK
      
      Hey, that's a great idea. I agree. Would cause players to refocus their strategy and avoid gaming the dea... : TrickSh0t
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  I live for headshots, so those zombie stats at the end are pretty sweet. : ieGod
  - Haha, same here. I love taking out skulls all day with assault rifle bursts. I'm usually on the low end... : DinK
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  I insist on healing at the earliest convenience once health drops below 50%. My goal is to help the team... : Lone Swordsman
  - Healing early and often is not the best way to help your team win though. It has nothing to do with pers... : DinK
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    That's effecitvely throwing away another 50 (current health) + 60 (2 more incaps) of damage you could soa... : mroizo40
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      But if you fall into the yellow or red, you start to limp, and you can get knocked down easily. If you g... : Lone Swordsman
      
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      Like I said, it depends on the situation. You can deal with the slow movement speed for many parts of the... : mroizo40
      
      Oh and the limp cutoff point is 40 hp, not yellow or 50hp. At 39 you start limping, 40 is full speed. : mroizo40
      
      Having to slow down slightly is a far lower price to pay than not having one or even multiple healthpacks... : DinK
      
      That's also what pills are for btw. : DinK
      
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      That's what pills are for. : ShoCon
      
      But you can't count on those! : Lone Swordsman
      
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      PILLS HERE! : yacoub35
      
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      Wait, they're pills? I thought they were peels! : dumb.
      
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      THERE ARE PILLS HERE! : yacoub35
      
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      Grabbin' peels! : dumb.
      
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      I HATE PILLS : yacoub35
      
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      Boomer pills! : dmason
      
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      GURNADE! : yacoub35
      
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      AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEHAHAHEAHAUUUGHHHHHHHHH EH EH!!! : sanchez
      
      TANK!WITCH! mmmm tankwich... tasty! : yacoub35
    - Here's the problem I have with your strategy--you're assuming you're going to be rescued before dying. I ... : TrickSh0t
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      To Mroizo40 - But the problem there is that if you even get knocked down in Expert, odds are decent that ... : wytefang
      
      Like I said, it depends on the situation - if you KNOW you're going to take more damage but that you'll s... : mroizo40
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  The healing stuff makes total sense. It's just people learning how to play efficiently. I've thought si... : DinK
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    ^ pretty much it. Anyone playing expert well is healing only under these circumstances. : ColonBlow1
    - note this is all related to playing on expert. when we play, we even let people b/w people die on purp... : brainchild420
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    i wish you could command the bots. right now if they want to heal you, they're gonna heal you. : ermac
    - Unless you pull out your healthpack constantly, which is annoying as fuck. : heartsauce
- I won't heal unless I've been incapped twice. That's the way I've been playing since launch. : notd665
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  On Expert, the only health packs are in the safe rooms and the finale area. There are no health packs inb... : ShoCon
  - but the bots will just keep trying. it's annoying! : ermac
  - There are health packs in the levels on occasion. It's rare, but they're there. : Gonzo
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    This is not true. There are ALWAYS extra health packs on the finale map in-between the safe-room and b... : TrickSh0t
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      There are usually three health kits between spawn and finale house. The third is usually in the far cabin... : Mmmmmoo
      
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      Perhaps the developers didn't factor OCD gamers climbing to locations the AI can't pathfind to into their... : etherealrhythm
      
      possibly, haha : Mmmmmoo
      
      you could also not always do the events in the easiest place possible. : brainchild420
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  I would rather not play L4D with you. It sounds like you think you know what your teammates need more tha... : Rooster Cockburn
  - Really, you inferred all that from what I wrote? I think you've injected some opinion here. I've been ... : TrickSh0t
- Can someone add me the Shackers L4D group? Profile URL: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/7656119797199... : ColonBlow1
- In my first game ever, I got yelled at for being a noob (which I was), followed by a full clip of autosho... : duffman03
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  I'm about 30 feet from the safe room. There's only one other person alive, and there's a giant horde chas : Gonzo
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    While your thinking is admirable, it is my believe that it is better to die attempting to save someone's ... : thief
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      By: Gonzo x Show Full Post
      
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      I was just afraid that by the time I got him up, the horde would be on us both. It was a high risk move either way, and a single hunter or smoker would have fucked me totally. Still everyone on the team was pleased with the outcome (except the guy I finished off).
      
      I'm game to play almost anytime. You should know that I've been playing lots of versus lately, which has completely removed my fear of friendly fire.
      
      Mar 16, 2009 1:36pm PDT
      
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      I was just afraid that by the time I got him up, the horde would be on us both. It was a high risk move e... : Gonzo
      
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      Add me. I play as 'adam' -- steamid is /jaunt/ http://steamcommunity.com/id/jaunt or link me yours... : thief
      
      How many aliases do you go by man? : Arctic Fox
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  Is it possible to just vote to change the difficulty on co-op? Is it an unofficial -- unpresented in the... : thief
  - That said, I think the point system could be much better. I don't have time to elaborate, but I think th... : thief
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    Yeah I've done it a few times. Usually just hit esc, call a vote, change difficulty. : Waffles!
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      I feel the fool--I mean change difficulty in VS. : thief
      
      Ah, you got me : Waffles!
  - The only thing I'd change about versus is to drastically up the zombie count and give a small increase to... : Gonzo
- I love this game so much. I've only had it for a week or so since I finally got around to getting a new ... : Waffles!
- Yeah, you meet some seriously strung-out people in this game, don't you? It's why I prefer to play with f... : etherealrhythm
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  This is why I cant enjoy L4D. When everybody was getting started and it was a game about making stupid p... : johnwissinger
  - Yeah, this echoes my thoughts. Playing with fellow chill-ites is a must. : etherealrhythm
  - That happens with any game. And it also depends on who you play with. A lot of my friends are amazing in ... : Godhatesfatpeople
  - That's pretty much most multiplayer games though. There's always this serious side with fanatics and pro... : SkeezPimp
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  Are the leaping horde zombies a new thing? I was playing Dead Air yesterday, and there were zombies leapi... : Gonzo
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    Hunters? They have been in the game since it's launch O_o : Godhatesfatpeople
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      No, normal horde zombies. Right at the beginning of stage one, they were jumping across the gap just o... : Gonzo
      
      Oh yeah they can do that sometimes. : Godhatesfatpeople
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  L4D server stats! HLStats for all shack servers are now available. You can tell who TKs/heals/rambo ba... : Alco23
  - Alco's server stats cured my cancer! : Arctic Fox
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    how does this work? I'm not on this list but I've played shitload of L4D on shack servers : kainen1
    - It works by reading and parsing the logs from the servers. The stats only started picking up logs from th... : Alco23
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      They were only recently enabled on a bunch of the servers, so if you haven't played in the last week or s... : Arctic Fox
      
      Explains it. I've taken a week off of L4D : kainen1
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    LOL! And guess who the top player for L4D is? Strabo! http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=18973592 : Ride-My-Rocket
    - And the follow up xtranormal post: http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=19436246#itemanchor_19436246 : Alco23
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      he's one of the best teammates I've had on a shack server playing expert co-op. : ]pm[chem
      
      I just like that he's competent AND not Special Forces ELITE TACTICS SGT MAJOR on the chat. God, there a... : Kaiser
  - Whoa holy shit #3 O_o : TastyWheat
- Yeah, somebody bitched me out for healing them a few nights ago, so I cr0wned them. : Ride-My-Rocket
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  I get the feeling the original poster is one of the guys who goes way too slow in versus mode! :P : ]pm[chem
  - :) Actually, my original post had nothing to do with Versus Mode. But, to address your assumption, it ... : TrickSh0t
- I was yelled at for healing someone and and then we incapped them for being an idiot. : Derringer
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  >>Though, the more extreme resistance to being healed seems to correlate with female players. Were you... : Vampyre_Dark
  - If that were the case, how could they bring themselves to resist? : TrickSh0t

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