The Summer Update

Here I'll explain what's up with this update.

Development Build
- Optimized convar changes on some 400 cvars and some other things
- Windows server support

Release Build
- Optimized convar changes on some 400 cvars and some other things
- Redone all weapons recoil, fire rate, damage, etc.
- Removed Dynamic Paths (for now - they'll be returning)
- Redone versus mode
-- Witches on intro and finale maps, tanks on all other maps
-- Survivors start with medkits and pills, none found throughout the map
-- Fixed bug regarding versus finales not transitioning/ending
- Balancing changes
- Removed several lighting modifications
- Made the lantern a donator-only custom item
- Other changes to various settings

 

And now for me to explain what's going on here. The versus changes you'll find are most expected - versus mode before was iffy, frustrating, and generally less enjoyable. It's now a much more balanced version of regular old versus - with apocalypse tanks, strong SI, and still custom items to go around. The plan is to hold some versus competitions in the near future (yes, with prizes) so stay tuned on that front. A bit of playtesting needs to be done first of course - striking the perfect balance is never easy.

As for the change in lighting - it's certainly not overdue, but it's been an old feature that has slowly fallen below the level of quality of Apocalypse. Now, not all lighting modifications were removed - just one specific line of code that made things oh-so-dark-and-reflective. There were a couple of reasons for this move - for one, there were several lighting problems and some things just looked entirely out of place, and broke the atmosphere. On the other hand - it had a serious effect on gameplay. Sustained periods of darkness are generally exhausting because of the amount your eyes have to work to see - you may not have noticed the discomfort consciously - and while it may have looked more Apocalypse-y, it was actually fatiguing for players and generally made players want to stop playing after a rather short while. The other lighting/fog/colorcorrection/postprocessing mods are still in effect - so it should still look much better than regular old L4D!

With the Dynamic Paths - They are only removed temporarily as they are moved to a better system, as well as to collect more gameplay data without them. They were never working as fully intended, and often ended up as more random and unpredictable than actually adaptive - they also seemed to have little effect on actual gameplay. They will be re-implemented once a better system is in place, a system that can also handle adding more item/weapon spawns, infected placement, and the like.

The lantern was always a less-appreciated item, and was originally donator-only in the first place. Returning it to that status gives donators something to show off without effecting gameplay much at all. Non-donators will simply not see the option to choose the lantern when presented with their menu.

 

Hope that clears some stuff up! Contact me if you've any more questions/concerns.