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Excellent campaign, enjoyed it, made me remember how excellent L4D1’s atmosphere is compared to L4D2. —mensaap (on our website)
Apr29

Frequently Asked Questions

Posted by Nicolas in

Questions

Will the campaign be released for Left 4 Dead 2?

Update: The Left 4 Dead 2 version is now available.
The campaign will initially be released for Left 4 Dead 1 and a Left 4 Dead 2 port should follow a few weeks months later. We can’t guarantee the Left 4 Dead 2 port yet, because it’s not as easy as some people think is it to port a complex campaign like I Hate Mountains from Left 4 Dead 1 to Left 4 Dead 2. There’s missing models, and there’s missing Left 4 Dead 1 survivors (obviously), which means there’s also missing voices, and missing textures, and missing sounds, and missing entities (from the Crash Course update), and missing particle systems and missing infected populations, etc. We don’t really see how easy it is as soon as you start using most of the features the game offers, but we’ll try.

Why is the campaign first released in version 1.1?

Nothing to worry about, it’s just that we had an early preview version marked 1.0 internally and we had to fix a few things before the real release so we figured it would be better if we just updated the version number to match our internal system. It’s mostly a technical matter.

How come it takes you that long to release this campaign?

Well… first, we’re only three, and not a whole company like Valve. Then, we all have a personal life and we can only work on the campaign on our spare time. We try to work as much as possible on it, but that’s not our top priority. Finally, we’re really putting all the efforts we can into this campaign, we want it to be perfect, and if that means delaying it again and again, so be it.

Will the campaign feature versus mode or only coop?

We built both, and it seems to work pretty well.

Will there be custom music?

Yes. We had a friend to remix the original Left 4 Dead theme in something a little more catchy for our campaign. You should not be too disorientated.

Why no Public Beta?

We want you guys to enjoy the full thing, fully tweaked, balanced and finished to ensure you are completely satisfied with the result. We hate it if we had to release new versions each month fixing tiny little things that our bug testers can help us balance. Moreover, we’re following the Agile principles that state you should iterate in shorter time periods in order to test everything more often during the development. We won’t do any beta-testing right before the release because that’s just plain stupid, we tested the campaign during the whole development.

Can you teach me how to make a campaign?

Making a Left 4 Dead campaign is not something easy and is also a quite long process if you want to ensure a good quality and a good gameplay. There’s nothing we can personally teach you about this, it’s all about experience in level-design and with the editor. It took us several years to understand all the basics of this stuff and there’s no way we could even try to teach you the incredible mass of knowledge needed. But if you’re looking for a way to start, here’s two useful links:
— http://developer.valvesoftware.com
— http://www.l4dmods.com/LevelDesignDocs/

What do I need to be able to play I Hate Mountains?

In order to play I Hate Mountains you only need to have Left 4 Dead 1 along with the Crash Course DLC installed and up to date on your system (along with Steam).

What do I need to be able to play I Hate Mountains 2?

In order to play I Hate Mountains 2 you only need to have Left 4 Dead 2 along with the Left 4 Dead 2 Add-on Support installed and up to date on your system (along with Steam).

How do I install this campaign?

Before you install, please make sure you have the Steam Client installed along with Left 4 Dead 1 or Left 4 Dead 2 (when the port will be complete). Also make sure the game has been launched at least once through Steam. Then, all you need to do is to copy the ihatemountains.vpk here:
— Left 4 Dead 1: …\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead\left4dead\addons\
— Left 4 Dead 2: …\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\addons\

How do I uninstall this campaign?

Simply delete the ihatemountains.vpk located here:
— Left 4 Dead 1: …\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead\left4dead\addons\
— Left 4 Dead 2: …\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\addons\

Will the campaign be released on Xbox 360?

Most likely not. We’d love to be released on Xbox 360, but we can’t do anything to port it to console, because it’s up to Valve and Microsoft to take that kind of decision. If they ever decide to do it, it will mostly be because a lot of people asked them to do so and because they wanted to. But don’t count on it, Valve recently said we shouldn’t focus the development of custom campaigns on this goal, because it’s unlikely to happen.

Is there something to pay to play I Hate Mountains?

No, of course. I Hate Mountains is a totally free additional campaign for Left 4 Dead 1 and Left 4 Dead 2 (when the port will be complete). In order to play the campaign, you only need to meet the requirements here and here… Asking for a financial compensation would be like asking money to someone because you fixed their computer. It may work like that in a company, but we’re making it for fun, not for money.

So it’s free, can I still donate money?

No thank you, this is a free project, made in free-time. We do not get/never will get any financial gain from this project as the original content belongs to Valve Software. We are using this on the basis that it is free and we do not charge people to play it or contribute. This is the safe way to play things in order to maintain development.

What type of computer do I need to run the game?

Any PC that can run Left 4 Dead campaigns should be able to run I Hate Mountains decently. We’d recommend that your computer specifications slightly exceed what’s recommended for Left 4 Dead since our campaign is a bit greedier in some places.

Recommended configuration :
— Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz
— Display Card: DirectX 9 compatible graphics card
— Memory: 1 GB
— Free Disk Space: 550 MB
— Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/Seven

Does I Hate Mountains feature HDR lightning, Bloom or other effects?

Yes, both Bloom and HDR come with the campaign.
By the way, I don’t think you can disable any of this in Left 4 Dead 1 or Left 4 Dead 2.