Hey everyone, I hope you’re not too desperate by our silence and that you still have some faith in our project. We don’t have a lot to say and most of our babbling occured on Twitter recently. Sorry if you don’t like it, but it’s far more convenient when you just have a few words to say.
Over the course of the last month, we managed to find solutions for all of the major problems that were getting in the way of the release since half a year (which is a little miracle in itself). The problem is that “finding the solution” doesn’t exactly mean “knowing how to fix it” and eventually, it took time. Last week, we found the solution to our well-known lobby connection failure that prevented any player from hosting a dedicated server on our campaign (which is kind of a deal breaker). I talked about it with people on the Left 4 Dead mailing-list, I talked about it with people at Valve, I talked about it with the team and believe me, this is not what you could call a minor problem.
Basically, the campaign is now finished (with escape vehicle and everything working) but you can only play it with bots or using console commands to control the server you’re playing on because the matchmaking system is giving up before servers hosting our campaign can reply. The solution to this problem is fairly simple: there’s no solution. The only way we can fix this is by making huge changes in the way three of our levels work. At first I seriously considered giving up and calling it a day. It’s been 14 months, we’re tired, we’re sick of working on this campaign, this was the most annoying thing that ever happened to us and it’s happening only a few days before the release… but eventually, we found some motivation to try to fix it.
We don’t know how many time it will take us, we don’t even know if it will fix the problem for good, but it’s still worth a try anyway. The release was supposed to occur next week but this won’t be the case anymore, sorry. Thankfully enough, Valve is supposed to release the Left 4 Dead 2 DLC soon and it will probably help everyone waiting.
sad…
still waiting…
i don't understand, why servers don't respond in time?
Brf….
This is sad…
Is it something about custom gameplay or big surprises?
Vous découragez pas les gars, on est impatient de voir le résultat et on vous soutient, ce n'est pas grave d'attendre encore un peu, on saura être patient … mais trouvez la force SVP, de finir la campagne et de nous la présenter …
Even Valve delayed their DLC. I find this an interesting problem. I will be searching the mailing list to make see what the issue is. Can't wait to see what you guys have cooked up, hope the changes don't require anything big to be taken out or changed.
Maybe release map 1 and 2 for single player? The waiting hurts my heart :O
Well, it's more good than bad news to hear that, I think. Because – when I understood that correctly – this Lobby-bug is currently the only big issue you got what prevents you from releasing the campaign, am I right?
So, I have hopes to get a release soon (depending how fast you can fix that issue) and finally able to get my hands on this jewl…
Other thing I am curious about: You said, you won't release a public beta but do you let some people (4 or 5, not many), who aren't involved into that project, testplay the campaign? Not, that you made something, what YOU thought has an obvious solution but then people are stuck at that place and start to complain because they can't continue… Just saying. It wouldn't be the first time, I encountered that problem by being stuck at some point because it wasn't obvious where to go or what to do.
release singleplayer only but only to people who give mailing adresses and then you can send a big email to everyone who provided the address with news of update of small glitch fixes and big multiplayer fix. that would be smart. :)
@audiOtrash:
Believe me, the waiting hurts us too.
@Daniel:
Don't worry, we know what we're doing.
@Jake:
That would be a perfectly stupid idea, not because the idea in itself is stupid, but because we will never have the time to organize something like this. There's like thousands of people waiting, we can't reply to everyone!
———-
By the way, we are on the way of finding a solution, thanks to all the ideas we got on the mailing-list. We should be able to get over this one.
Arf, les gars c'est demain le 1er avril :(
bonne chance pour la suite !
Release it even if you decide to scrap it, its not your fault it doesn't work multiplayer.
And don't say you are scrapping it anymore, you playing with my emotions.
I admire your patience with these problems and I am glad that you didnt give up.
Please take your time.
Still no need to rush it :-)
( I still hope to see this for L4D2 too )
Glad you didn't give up this project (although i could understand if you did after such a throwback). I really appreciate your patience and all the work you put into this campaign. Since I'm quite the opposite of patient i was hoping that you'd release the single player before the multiplayer issue was fixed…but well, at least it will be perfect when it's finished. Keep it up :)
To do this much work and not release it would seem to be a mistake. I have some idea about the kind of effort (lots) and reward (essentially nothing but your own satisfaction) with producing levels/maps/whatever for games like this (although I have not done so for L4D). Whatever you have, release it. If only single player, which a lot of people do like, perhaps someone can find a way past the problems you have encountered. From what I've seen so far, I would hate this to not see it released in some form. All the best to you guys.
keep up the good work guys, i am a follower since the first hour and i am still looking forward to the release of your campaign. i hope at the end the work will pay off for you in some ways!
One level per week?..
@Anonymous:
Yes, it's taking a week to fix each level. It's a tediously long process.
Valve really screwed big time with this L4d2 thing.
The boycooters were right at the end. L4d2 divided the users dumping some of the excellent custom campaigns from l4d1 and the ultra slow support to
the l4d1 is unbelievable.
Well, no one is perfect, and Valve proved this.
Anyways good luck to the IHM team.
what exactly are you fixing?
Nicolas is focused on the Nav…we are sure at 99% that our campain can't be launched from a lobby because of their weigh. It take a lot of time with a lot of patience for him to fix them. On my side, yesterday I checked our campaign on L4D2 and as Nico said, their are a lot of little things that Valve seems have forgot…we can make a list and send it…we'll see. Currently, we have to finish the campaign for L4D1! That's our priority!
hello i'm a player of left 4 dead 1 and 2.
and I would like to know when will come out this campaign to the left 4 dead 2? will be this month?
first the cake, now this… :(
We've been following the development of this campaign since the very beginning (talking as l4d.es). Recently i've replayed portal: prelude so i perfectly understand your seeking for perfection, keep up with your good work and thanks for your effort and patience while developing this awesome campaign.
The time is not a problem when the product is as well polished as yours.
@doktor10:
Well, time may not be a problem for most people, but for us, it is. Not only delaying the campaign again and again is making us crazy and taking time from our private lives, it's also making things worse for people who are sick of waiting after us. We know this, but at this point, it's not like we have any choice. We're not polishing anymore, we're just trying to make it work with the crappy tools/bugs of the engine.
WTF?
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/4428/l4dhospital01apartment0b.jpg
I saw that in the custom campaign No Mercy Park!
Isn't the mapper comunity awesome?