TheVille L4D2 Campaign

[ShadyJane]

So I have slowly been getting back into the L4D2 swing. The day of the Infected Invitational was the first I’d played the Passing ever and I really enjoy the campaign. I like the length, the levels, the crescendo in the sewers, and the finale a lot. I have since been playing some custom maps and I have been getting this itch to create my own.

Would anyone be interested in casually helping me create a small campaign for L4D2 (I’m thinking 2 maps to start, and no more than 3)? Emphasis on casually, because I really won’t be working on this for hours every week, but it would be cool to have something working by the end of summer…or maybe a little sooner.

Anyway, I was thinking of goofing around with the hammer editor over the weekend to judge how inept I am with the software. Truth be told, I’m not sure how anyone could really help me with this but I figured it couldn’t hurt to have a general chat on the subject for anyone intrigued by the idea. So I’m going to start setting aside an hour on Tuesday evenings to “work” on this. Tentatively speaking let’s say 8pm Central/Ville time. Message me on steam if you’re interested.

If it all falls apart then I shall instead use the time to start completing campaigns on expert…starting with The Passing.

[Greebo]

I'm up for helping with this.

I've done a bunch of mapping in the best - co-made a map called 'breakout' back in the TFC days. I messed around with maps for DoD:s, but never brought anything to completion. I'm absolutely willing to try and help anyone get up to speed on hammer too.

I've looked at mapping for L4D2 and it is slightly more complex than other games, because you need to make sure the AI can get where they need to. There's a fairly good tutorial kicking around somewhere on the valve wiki for this.


I also have been toying with an idea for a campaign, based on the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. For those poor people who've never been there, the city is build around a castle, which would make an ideal finale venue, and there's plenty of winding streets and suchlike.
I've been thinking backwards about campaign sections so the finale would be the castle (see here), the second to last level would be getting to the castle from the railway station (like this), then one getting towards the through fields (Scotland is rather rural), and maybe a start in some small town.

[TTHREAZ]

Edinburgh was my favorite city during our trip to the UK way back when.

I'm certainly not a mapper but I would be willing to give feedback (both conceptual and playtesting).

We've got some pretty talented mappers here so I'd hit them up in the Mapping forum. I know Ian Suffix has done some original L4D custom campaign work so he may be a good place to start.

[Flash]

Very cool idea. I also wouldn't be any help with the actual creation but would be willing to help test and give feedback.



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[ShadyJane]

So I was spit balling with my roommate last night about what kind of level I wanted to make and I figured that since I am a rookie with this kind of thing that I should just focus on an easy map layout…something relatively straight forward. I think the concept of a campaign in Europe with their narrow streets and historical landmarks would be awesome (finale at a Medieval Castle would also be boss), but I think that is beyond my scope at the moment.

So the concept is a 3 map campaign. I want the first map to start on a highway in the mountains somewhere. I would use cliffs and rock walls to keep the survivors on the road, but make the road 4 lanes so there is plenty of space. I want them to traverse a real interstate highway with pile ups and wreckage and deteriorating roads and maybe deal with the mountains a little bit as well. The level would end at the entrance of a tunnel going under a mountain.

The second level would be this long dark tunnel. I read The Stand a few months back and the section where they guy is inching his way through the Lincoln Tunnel is my inspiration for this. I want a pitch black level. Only light from the flashlights, fire, or the occasional emergency lights. I know this is similar to the level in Death Toll (L4D1) but I’d make it entirely in this tunnel…with a brief stint in the waterworks of the structure…or something. The tunnel ends at a car pile-up and the survivors will need to climb a sewer ladder that will take them to the entrance of an undisclosed army base.

The finale I have in mind takes place at the army base itself, albeit only a portion of it. I was trying to think of a way to make it distinct so I thought the survivors could make their way to comm room looking to radio someone for help. Instead they notice a radar screen showing the base totally surround by infected…and they’re closing in. So instead of waiting for rescue they have to hold out long enough to detonate a nuke that will wipe out all the infected in the area. I’m not sure if there would be an unseen army base survivor who you’d have to “protect” so they can arm the nuke or maybe make a campy scavenge-type finale where the survivors have to fill a nuke with cans of uranium…something stupid like that. Obviously I’m a long way off and have plenty of time to think about it.

Anyway I thought I’d throw these ideas into the thread so that if anyone has a suggestion they could post it here. ALL suggestions are welcome.