Left 4 Dead Update Adds Fatigue to Melee

Post by trog @ 09:57am 26/03/09 | 43 Comments

A new Left 4 Dead update has landed with an interesting change to melee combat - fatigue:

- Introduced fatigue to the melee attack in versus mode. You will see a HUD display when your melee swing is cooling down
- Boomer vomit will now pass through common infected
- Addressed some surround sound detection issues
- Fixed a rare crash when exiting Left 4 Dead on Windows Vista
- Fixed a case where the complete all expert campaigns achievement was not being rewarded

A few dedicated server fixes were made as well, fixing some crashes and other bits. As always, bounce Steam to get the update. Let us know what the verdict of this new change is in the comments!

left 4 dead

Latest Comments

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Tim Tibbetts
Posted 10:17am 26/3/09

Wow that's a pretty massive gameplay change, that's going to change things drastically.

Also

Boomer vomit will now pass through common infected

WOOT

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ViscoS
Posted 10:19am 26/3/09

See: VS Mode noobs whining.

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Jim
Posted 10:30am 26/3/09

melee fatigue is a great idea
will suss out it's implementation later today

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Jim
Posted 10:43am 26/3/09

or now
seems pretty good imo

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icewyrm
Posted 10:47am 26/3/09

Finally, was hoping this was in the works :)

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Bahamut
Posted 10:52am 26/3/09

I agree with Jim, that's a fantastic idea that'll make the hoard events much more challenging (and thus interesting for both sides). Kind of surprised they didn't implement it in coop as well though, that would've been another way to ramp up the difficulty of expert mode.

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Jim
Posted 11:06am 26/3/09

it could probably do with some sort of indicator down on the hud rather than just on the reticle and probably a secondary one to show when the lactic acid has subsided a bit too

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BillyHardball
Posted 11:23am 26/3/09

- Fixed a rare crash when exiting Left 4 Dead on Windows Vista

"Rare" my arse.

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Jim
Posted 11:23am 26/3/09

haha yeh I was thinking the same thing

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CHUB
Posted 11:50am 26/3/09

I might actually load up L4D and play VS again.

Previous update, tank buff, smoker buff and boomer explosion buff.

Now this melee change and another massive boomer buff.

They just need to clear up a few of the camping spots in VS and it might actually be playable on "Normal".

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Jim
Posted 11:56am 26/3/09

it's been well and truly playable all along

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Boxhead
Posted 12:06pm 26/3/09

Please don't chub.. as a whole l4d community has been enjoying the casual aspects of the game alot more since you've been gone.. Not everything has to be played to the EXTREME for it to be fun

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niklaos
Posted 12:12pm 26/3/09

l4d rocks, cant wait to play it tonight

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d0mino
Posted 12:15pm 26/3/09

how much is it these days? im bored of tf2.

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CHUB
Posted 12:17pm 26/3/09

Nop L4D still sucks.

F*****g noobs everywhere.

Downed 3 guys as tank solo just then, the 3 other guys (hunter/boomer/smoker) couldn't get the 1 other guy (who I was actually chasing in addition to the other 3).

They ended up finishing the level with 4 survivors.

S*** carnts everywhere, back to TF2.

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ravn0s
Posted 12:19pm 26/3/09

about f*****g time

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Jim
Posted 12:19pm 26/3/09

chubfail

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boba
Posted 12:44pm 26/3/09

I think it's your fault you lost as you were too s*** to take 4 down as tank chub

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CHUB
Posted 12:46pm 26/3/09

It's a good lan game, but pub is complete failure.

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Jim
Posted 12:49pm 26/3/09

nah it's win, even for pub
just don't be such an sk all the time

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Tim Tibbetts
Posted 01:01pm 26/3/09

It's great fun in with randoms (most of the time). That being said just get a good group of people together who you play with frequently and play with them.

My Steam ID is Commander_Pants

last edited by Tim Tibbetts at 13:01:18 26/Mar/09

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TiT
Posted 01:08pm 26/3/09

_TiT_add me

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BillyHardball
Posted 01:09pm 26/3/09

I like that the emphasis is much more strategy than individual skill - I was able to go from noob to champion in a short period of time (although I still get lost at the end of that giant elevator level).

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ctd
Posted 01:27pm 26/3/09

CHUB is online superstar public god. Do not forget this.

Still no dead air and the other one :(

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FraktuRe
Posted 01:31pm 26/3/09

I love how when chub wins a game he's all in your face, but if he's beaten it's 'there's to many f*****g noobs in here blah blah'

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ravn0s
Posted 01:32pm 26/3/09

lol @ all the people whinging about melee on the steam forums.

Still no dead air and the other one :(

they are being released on april 21st

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Khel
Posted 01:42pm 26/3/09

Haha, Chub seems EXACTLY like a guy who was in the game I was playing on the weekend. He'd be all "Oh yeah, I owned you b******!" when he was winning, and as soon as he was losing it'd be a case of "F***en bugs, too many bugs in this game" or "I wasn't even trying that time". And he had the habit of, when he was low on life, hiding in toilets and other little rooms while the rest of his team did all the work, then going on at the end of the level about how awesome he was because he never died.

The guy provided me with many laughs, I just couldn't believe he was for real, I thought those people only existed as internet parodies.

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Tim Tibbetts
Posted 01:46pm 26/3/09

It's an online team game, no matter how hard you try if the rest of your team is s*** you're going to lose, so there's the possibility of it being VERY frustrating. That being said it can always be very rewarding when you just get into the safe room with a screaming hunter and a pissed off smoker outside.

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ctd
Posted 01:58pm 26/3/09

they are being released on april 21st

Damn. I am gunna be pretty much quitting life for a few weeks when tales of valor is released.

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blahnana
Posted 02:08pm 26/3/09

I think the stakes are a lot higher in this game than a lot of others that are around... you're four a side and because of the nature it only takes one guy who sucks balls to screw the whole team no matter how good the others are.

Or like today, where I'm playing the game without a mike, and there's one douchebag giving instructions the whole time and he doesn't quite know what he's talking about. One more guy follows the guy who's giving the instructions and you might as well just jump off a ledge and hang there for all the fun you'll have otherwise. It's infuriating against one or two opponents who aren't clueless, ESPECIALLY if they're able to communicate on top of that.

It is a _very_ exciting game when it goes right... but it's pointlessly frustrating when the mix is wrong. Having a mike is waaaaaaay more important in this game than most others. As is having people on your team who aren't campaign nubs.

The other hard thing is that they've completely boned the match-fixing side of it, so there are only a few games going. Which makes it very hard to leave a game you know will be no fun without the ability to share your knowledge to some clueless nubs (we all start that way, after all), when you're not going to be finding another game that's already going sometime soon. I love playing the game with friends, but generally hate playing it with randoms. It's a rare game that I join that isn't one-sided.

Pretty much everyone has felt that feeling where the team gets smashed because one guy did one little thing wrong. Let alone when the big things go wrong.

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Jim
Posted 02:24pm 26/3/09

just played a decent few rounds over lunch, the melee fatigue seems pretty well tuned for first go, I like it.
as a survivor it doesn't totally decimate you but you do notice it sometimes if you're not careful.
as a hunter special infected it's great because people can't just run around spamming their melee button 100% of the time and rendering your existence useless

I wouldn't call it a completely game-changing adjustment but it's nothing to poke a stick at either

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Tim Tibbetts
Posted 03:18pm 26/3/09

Having a mike is waaaaaaay more important in this game than most others

I bought a microphone for this game, wouldn't play wtihout it. I find the game so much more exciting when you're able to talk to each other. I generally will quit the game if I join and no one else has a microphone. Does anyone else put on a girly voice though when you get Zoe?

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Jim
Posted 03:22pm 26/3/09

nope!

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Khel
Posted 07:45pm 26/3/09

I put on a girly voice any time I talk on the internet

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Minxy
Posted 09:09pm 26/3/09

there's one douchebag giving instructions the whole time

I haaaate that. Can't stand playing with someone who just tells everyone else what to do the whole time. Also, agreed that playing with people who don't have mics sucks

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BatS***
Posted 09:29pm 26/3/09

When I played (before uni started, yeah its that addictive and I'm such a weak willed person) I only ever played with friends.

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Midda
Posted 12:02am 27/3/09

The guy provided me with many laughs, I just couldn't believe he was for real, I thought those people only existed as internet parodies.

Was that the guy that we played against? Squiddles or something? Man, I couldn't believe him, his stupidity knew no bounds.

As for the melee fatigue, I like it. After playing two whole campaigns on versus, I only got fatigue a few times, but it made playing as infected a whole lot better.

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infi
Posted 12:09am 27/3/09

chub is soo badass

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rolo_tomasi
Posted 12:39am 27/3/09

no mike ftw.

turn off voice and its pure bliss. like bots but smarter.

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BillyHardball
Posted 01:17am 27/3/09

and there's one douchebag giving instructions the whole time and he doesn't quite know what he's talking about.

No where near as funny when there are two people who have very opposing views as to how to complete a level - like when this guy kept complaining that we weren't following his instructions, and "jimsaq" finally snapped and said, "f*** off you little c***", in an assertive yet quiet way that made me wonder whether he was around his kids, or still at work while he was playing!

Funnier still when "jimsaq" suicided as tank a few minutes later!

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icewyrm
Posted 02:24pm 27/3/09

On the other hand, if the players on your team are new and don't know any of the useful spots or handy tricks for a particular map, what alternative is there but to try and provide this information?

Especially if your team mates don't have (or don't use) voice chat, and you thus have no idea whether or not they are listening to you, are disagreeing with you or are simply ignoring you completely.

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Jim
Posted 03:18pm 27/3/09

Heh billy, I actually said "f*** you're a dopey c***" out of sheer frustration =]
And yeah awesome "suicide", one minute I'm running along trying to swipe bill then I get dumped to game menu. And asif votekick me you nub =]

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Khel
Posted 03:25pm 27/3/09

On the other hand, if the players on your team are new and don't know any of the useful spots or handy tricks for a particular map, what alternative is there but to try and provide this information?

Yeah, tbh, this is probably the main thing that prevents me playing it more on public servers. I've only played it online a couple of times, and only with friends, cos I don't really know the maps very well and I don't know all the "strats", so I don't want to end up in a game full of people who know what they're doing and be the guy f*****g it all up cos I dunno where to stand or where to be. Getting insulted for being a noob in text is one thing, but getting insulted via voice chat is just so much more personal and brutal :P

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