Gamethread 5/1

By Shamus Posted Friday May 1, 2009

Filed under: Video Games 21 comments

Special today: Existing Steam users can play Left 4 Dead for free. Also, the game itself is down to $25.

I have a friend who is trying to get another server set up for us. It’s running, and it works well. But it doesn’t show up in the master server list, so you have to enter the IP directly. The server is behind a router, and apparently you have to jack into the port ROMs and resolve the webnet protocol drivers on the server matrix. Or something like that. My vision is for us to have two servers: One for survival mode, and another for campaign mode / versus. I know survival is intense, chaotic, and often cruel. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and the dangers of campaign mode seem placid by comparison. It would be nice if we could have access to both game types to suit everyone’s mood and play style. And also because 4 slots is just not enough for all 300+ of us.

 


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21 thoughts on “Gamethread 5/1

  1. RPharazon says:

    I’m going to have to speak for the big (yet quiet and well-mannered) TF2 players of Twenty-Sided and say…

    We would prefer a TF2 server.
    For those of us with little money (but enough to buy TF2 for $5 or $10 at times), Left 4 Dead is a luxury that is tantalizing in every way possible, available only in a dream experienced whilst waiting in TF2 Arena Mode.

    Don’t get me wrong, you guys can play Left 4 Dead all you want, it’s your right, but please, give thought to those of us with lacking economic resources, those of us with old computers who can’t play Left 4 Dead as it was meant to be played, or both.

  2. As an L4D player, let me add my request for a TF2 server. Not that I’ve got the cash to pony up for one, but…

    It would be great to play with a group that wasn’t assholes. And up to 32 of us could play TF2 at once…

  3. TehShrike says:

    I played TF2 for a while. At the moment, when it comes to multiplayer gaming, I’m only interested in L4D, and then only if playing with friends or 20-Sided group members.

    Oh, and Demigod. I’m starting to get into Demigod.

    Anyway, it’s impossible to get into a L4D game on the 20Sided server if Shamus has joined in the last 15 minutes, and that’s annoying. I want to play with you fools!

  4. Dodds says:

    Another vote for a TF2 server. The extra L4D server is a nice option, however in my experience the one there is is always empty.

    Sure, with TF2 it’d have to be open to the Public, but not everyone’s a douche. And it should be possible to have group only night(s).

  5. SatansBestBuddy says:

    Wait, wait, back up a minute!

    They only allow four people on a sever at a time?

    You mean you can’t run, say, multiple games on one sever?

    WTF?

  6. Snook says:

    Well, that’s a bother. I’ve been wanting L4D for a while now, but the $50 pricetag kept scaring me off. Now the price is cut in half and… I have no way of purchasing it today. DAMN YOU FATE

  7. Kdansky says:

    Since I bought L4D today and have been playing TF2 on a very regular basis for the last year or so, I’m fine with either. L4D actually gets more fun the more you play it, which is highly counterintuitive to most games, which get more and more boring the better you know them.

    40% off is cruel. DAMN YOU IMPULSE PURCHASE! DAMN YOU!

  8. Nick says:

    Just got out of a game of L4D on the campaign server that I mostly played with one other play(Hey, Kdansky!) and 2 bots myself.

    Anybody check out the new stats page? From it, I’ve learned that I’m 97% accurate with the Assault Rifle!

    Here are my stats: http://steamcommunity.com/id/dummybump/stats/L4D

  9. Allen says:

    Actually, even AS a L4D player(BaCoN), I gotta agree that a decently sized TF2 server would do the trick just right. An L4D versus/campaign server would be NICE, but it simply doesn’t cover what the public demands. If push comes to shove for L4D we can simply create a game and find a dedicated on our own.

  10. Fizban says:

    I actually haven’t played TF2 with any of you guys, but I played L4D and will now be buying it (can’t resist the sale). Hiyah Lash.lighting!

  11. CrushU says:

    I got a friend who runs a ded server… He can put up an L4D server (he’s got 1meg up so it’s not Bad…) But I’m not sure how to get it to be TwentySided or anything like that. Need some help, eh? (Gmrxtrme on Steam)

  12. Simply Simon says:

    I got a five years old gaming pc that nobody ever uses in my basement.
    I can probably put up a dedicated l4d or tf2 sever on it, but I have no idea of how to make it a group server.

  13. Mindstar says:

    @Zitch: ahem. I do believe you weren’t alone with Kdansky *ALL* the time? :-P

    Now to find out why is L4D the only game that has mic problems on my machine…

    Oh and I will be buying L4D as soon as the trial period ends :-P nice move, steam. You’re forgiven for The billing problems that prevented my from buying the orange box for 9€ last week… (tip to the wise: never use a proxy from a country different than the one on your billing address when buying steam, it will flag your account as possible fraudulent…)

  14. Kdansky says:

    And that explains why I could not buy anything on steam when I was out of town…

    Also, you should buy it now, before the 40% off sale is gone ;)

  15. Simply Simon says:

    I put up a tf2 server on my old computer.
    It will not show up as a group server or amoongst the other servers (I think), so to join you have to type:
    “connect 213.66.111.100:27015” in the tf2 console.
    I have not tested it a lot yet though.

  16. LintMan says:

    I’m a single-player only guy these days, so I’ve avoided L4D, but I downloaded the free trial to check it out. I played the Mercy Hospital map, and the game seems very well made and I can see why it’d be so fun in multiplayer. But the ‘bot experience is a bit lacking. The kicker was that is was getting late and I discovered you can’t save the game in single player for some reason. So I kept at it to try to finish the map, and I got killed at the end waiting for the helicopter when something sent me flying off the building without chance for rescue. It brought me back to the last safe room to restart the level, so I called it quits.

    It’s a shame they didn’t give L4D a little more of the Half-Life treatment, because it seems to me that they could have made a really compelling single-player game here as well if they had wanted to.

    I also ended up (accidentally) buying Demigod, which is another multiplayer-only game. (I preordered it before I knew it was multiplayer-only, and by the time I found it was and decided not to buy, I forgot about the preorder, so I was surprised when it showed up at my door.)

    Anyway, Demigod is another very good game that could have had a great single-player campaign if they had wanted to make one. It’s a real pity, because it’s an RTS I could really love if it had a more substantial context than just a series of skirmishes.

  17. @SatansBestBuddy and in general, if your hardware and connection can handle it, you can run as many instances of the L4D or TF2 daemon as you’d like.

  18. Shamus says:

    Thanks so much to the people offering a server instance. Rather than try and track you all down, and rather than posting the info to this thread, please email me [email protected] and I’ll send you the directions on how to set it up as a Twenty Sided group, how it should be named, and how to get the comic MOTD screen to show up.

  19. Jeff says:

    What’s really annoying is I kept holding out on buying L4D waiting for a sale, and then my friend came back from overseas and I grabbed it so we can get 4 player games. …that was last week. Argh!

  20. Miral says:

    You ought to be able to run multiple games on the same server. Certainly in the brief time I was playing I saw two separate game lobbies appear on the one server (although one gave me a strange error).

    In theory, all you should need to do is click on the “Create Lobby” link in the lower left corner if you get there and the active game is already full. Then you can start filling up another game.

    Of course, I can’t actually check this myself any more — I was only playing on free trial, and I don’t think I’ll be buying the full game. (It is tempting, but I’m not really into multiplayer games — partly because I suck too much :) )

  21. Lash.Lightning says:

    Hey, Fizban!

    Those worrying about their skills; No matter how much you suck, you are better than a Bot. The game is most fun when playing with other players, even if a few people are newbies at it all.

    Although I’d like to find out how to make a server, internet providers in Britain are largely tyrannical, enraged about people actually using the services they provide and cutting off the people who use them most. Crazy, eh?

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