Unfortunately the melee attack, whilst powerful, is limited by one key aspect: it only goes forwards. A melee is useless for a player facing the wrong way. You shouldn't be attacking the players face on anyway, it's a game of ambushes and sneaking up from behind. I've seen a boomer sneak up on four survivors all of whom were busy blasting away a horde to notice. Got the all in one boomer vile achievement for it too, and we won the round. It's about timing and tactics. Harder then playing as the survivors, but oh so satisfying when a plan comes together.
I reckon I'm of above average ability (more tactical/less twitchy) in these games, but certainly no pro gamer. But I think playing Infected is a) arguably the most fun, and b) fairly easy. I'm not that good with the smoker, but I'm improving. Hunters are staple fare, but the boomer is my favourite. People are getting better at pushing the boomer away, but likewise boomers are evolving their tactics accordingly. Although Versus servers are supposed to be normal difficulty, I'm sure some are advanced or worse. But regardless, in the majority of games, 4 survivors won't make it to the safehouse. Not a boast - I feel that any team of 4 co-operating Special Infected have an advantage over survivors. I'm not super-hero, and my regular team-mates aren't either - we just enjoy playing as a team. The key is teamwork. Each survivor is the same, so it's a question of safety in numbers; stick together and watch each other's backs. With the specials, each plays differently and the AI varies the line-up; that makes it more difficult for noobs, but if you learn to dovetail your attacks with your team mates, you can be devastating. <minor grumble>The seems to be more and more teams who sacrifice themselves (when survivors) just so the can get back to playing infected quicker; it really annoys me - why bother? We'll kill you soon enough anyway..</minor grumble>
I think the constant respawn makes up for it. Me and my buddies haven't lost a single Versus yet and we've even caused a group of survivors to get a score of '4' on one map of No Mercy. Tips to make it fun: Work as a team: boomer leads, the rest follow when the horde come is a good one. Understand what each special does: hunter for fast attacks and scares, boomer to call the horde, cause explosions and stun the survivors and smoker for long range attacks and misdirection. Don't always attack! Run in, scare them, jump away, draw their fire away.
Bit-Tech is mentioned on the front page of the l4d.com website! It's listing all the awards the game got and BT is right up there! lol, we're famous!
bit tech is owned by Dennis Publishing now. As an example of what that means: they own Esquire Maxim. It should grow into a pretty huge brand in the future
I found playing as the infected in versus mode to be mainly about planning. I was playing against 3 players the other night. 1 went AFK but the ai stayed back to cover them, the other 2 went far forward enough to be out of my way but not far enough to rush the level. I managed to incap the ai then eventually kill him because the other 2 kept coming back, then killed the AFk player. Next up there's a witch next to the ammo/health/weapons supplies. I spawn as a hunter then wait next to the witch... ... cue the 2 survivors shooting at me, waking the witch, she takes one down I take the other .
Or - and this is sneaky - attack the with as a special and get her to chase you toward the survivors. Awesome trick.
You have to pounce her, not slap her. Don't pounce over her head while she's chasing you though, or you get stuck in mid air and can't move. Also, she will kill you, so don't stop moving until you're where to want to move her to.
Underhanded? I think that's a bit harsh. Anyway, how the hell do you define these things? I've seen many players do it so who knows when something is acceptable or not? To me, it's using the game's mechanics. Just like bashing down the door on the second level of No Mercy is.
Was shown a great little tactic last night on level 4 of No mercy. If you come out of the lift and a tank spawns there use a gas canister near one of the ledges and blow it just as the tank runs by. It blows the tank off the roof rofl
It's hardly an exploit, it's just a tactic. Is it also an exploit for a smoker to drag someone next to the witch? Ninja edit: I've been doing a boomer impression all day today. Stupid kebab shop. Thought you guys might want to know...
A lot of people complain when you use the mechanics in the game to give yourself an edge over the other team, but both sides can do it so I don't see what the problem is. Setting the tank on fire and just running away will get you no damage, camping in certain places the tank can't get to (Air vent in the subway), using bottlenecks to slow the infected to a trickle. There are obvious exploits like corner stacking and charging up the minigun to skip parts of the level/get to unreachable places for the infected. And they should be fixed. Closet camping also gets on my tits, melee should have a cooldown period/stamina bar so it's possible to get overwhelmed, and you shouldn't be able to reload whilst using it. My biggest gripe is balancing though. It's annoying as hell when you get 4 good players on one team, and people who have clearly only just bought the game on the other. Boomers who don't know how to throw up/too far away, hunters that jump around in circles etc, and as survivors they run ahead/stay behind/get lost and generally shoot in every which direction. Kicking them is unfair as they'll never get good. Experience needs to be recorded somehow, and the teams balanced accordingly.
I was the tank last night on the penultimate level of no mercy, I managed to knock 3 survivors off the building and pin down the last one .
Yes, having infinite melee is kinda annoying if your a hunter. A stamina bar for melee sounds like an excellent idea imo.
I don't think it was intention to make special infected equally deadly as survivors. It would be rather frustrating to play as survivors if hunters were able to incapacite them in one pounce etc.. Playing as infected in versus mode is rather about making survivors life as miserable as possible. And as Bauul said - it's up to players to be creative and use environment to their advantage(well, except for exploits). It's easy for survivors on normal, easy for infected on expert, but well balanced for everyone on advanced. If you think you're not playing well as infected then play as survivor, observe your own habits and what's making your fight difficult...
This happens with every multiplayer game where the two sides are not identical. If the developers listened to every complaint and beat the game with the Nerf bat, the end result would be an oversimplified mess. The survivors come up with the best strategy they can within the game mechanics. The infected do their best to slow, confuse, panic and generally mess with the opposite team. The infected were never meant to annihilate the survivors in one go. At the end of the round, the roles are reversed. It's awesome.
The great thing about Versus is that it's not Infected vs Survivors. It's two teams who each play as Survivors and each play as Infected. It doesn't matter whether the server balance favours one side or the other, providing that the server environment is the same for both legs of the battle.
