TheFirstMonk

It can take vid's whatcha thinking? Don't ask... its better not to know. Shaftiel I'm thinking we do a remake of "Predator"....or an even worse version of "Hollow Man."

1. Was Master's Server. 2. Yomamma knows them. I never met them before. 3. I didn't spectate the other two. 4. That is a very unfortunate exploit. I ended up finding out about it either by the Steam forums, or from http://left4dead411.com. I have a fix for it on my server which shouldn't allow it. Well, it's a fix for only servers that use SourceMod can put on there. The whole "survivors going faster" issue is a bug and has been brought up in the Steam forums which I frequently go to since the game's release, and that's the first time I've ever experienced that happen. I didn't seem to think he spawned any tanks for our side when Yomamma and I were playing as the Infected. My guess it's either good or bad luck depending on how you look at it. I could sense frustration from you guys last night too and I caught a "I just want this to get over with" before I switched teams to fix the auto-switch issue. I'm in the same boat with you though, Monk. I would prefer playing with other people we know though, but those two didn't really seem like bad people. If YoMamma knows them, that's good enough for me. I'm dropping the issue since there's pretty scant evidence of anything wrong; I'm probably suffering from some form of whining like in CS, where "anyone who kills me hacks!" I didn't know there was a survivor speed bug by itself, so that seems to explain everything. The tank spawning is likely the way you say it is, based on luck; my team wasn't scoring that high either, so that may have been a factor too. And I agree that they, The Master and phrosty, seemed like pretty decent people. I wouldn't be against playing with them again. I wasn't really frustrated last night, although I can't speak for some of my teammates. I was a bit exhausted afterwards though (I have a slight headache from playing late last night). Versus takes some more energy out of me due to planning and looking for opportunities to strike while on the Infected side, but that wasn't the fault of anyone last night; it happens all the time. I think I could have helped my team's morale more somehow, but I didn't offer many words of encouragement last night like I do in CS. By the end of it, it felt a bit like work (or an exercise in self punishment) to Chen, Shaft, and thegeek; I lost focus after the construction site myself and plodded through the maps. That "I just want to get this over with" you heard was probably Shaft since he dislikes Versus in general. I think greater practice on Dead Air would probably have given both teams, mine especially, a better sense of what to do on the Infected side. Part of the frustration felt from my team, in my opinion, had to do with confusion since it was our first time for that map (although it was probably the first time for you guys too). And that sucks what happened to your team, ZeroDamage.

Played Versus mode with 5 people I know (Chentzen, thegeek, Shaftiel, YoMamma, JackieChan) and 2 people I did not know (TheMaster, phrosty). A couple of questions: 1. Whose server were we playing on? TheMaster's or Jackie's? 2. How well do you guys know TheMaster and phrosty? I just met them today. They seemed like decent guys to me, but I've only played one game with them. 3. When you guys died, JackieChan and YoMamma, did you spectate the other 2 guys while waiting to respawn? 4. Does anyone find this unsettling? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SSa2xcrmDk&fmt=22 It's a hunter exploit. I am wondering if one of the two guys last night was doing this. My team seemed to be getting attacked by 2 hunters simultaneously (perhaps one person was spawning a hunter while the other was a legitimate player, and then the person would spawn another under the 20 second time limit of respawn), or immediately after fending off a hunter, a boomer or smoker would attack us. I am well aware that JackieChan's and YoMamma's team could have been well coordinated, and I wouldn't accuse them of using this exploit. Here is what makes me slightly suspicious of the other 2 guys. An excerpt from a webpage that has posters on the subject. Look at Post #16 by NdRw (I asterisked the swear words): http://www.left4dead411.com/forums/index.p...&topic=8340 "unfortunately we couldn't 'spectate' during vs, but by switching between survivor and infected teams we were able to pull the s*** off... i dont know about them, but i experienced some strange s*** while i was getting mauled by 6 hunters, 3 boomers, and a couple smokers... the survivors moved in ultra fast motion for me. everything from melee to running was sped up drastically to hunter speed. at one point, zoey died and her DEAD icon disappeared, as if the game was actually Left 3 Dead. special infected started attacking special infected. it was strange... it was as if the AI Director had no idea what to do!" I highlighted the part that I thought could be partial evidence of the hunter exploit being used last night. At the beginning of the first map on Dead Air, my team, the Survivors, were running and shooting exceptionally faster than normal. Chen said his shotgun felt like an auto shotty; I noticed an increase in speed when running. We went back to the lobby and restarted the game. At the last map of Dead Air, when my team played as Infected, and JackieChan and YoMamma's team were the Survivors, TheMaster commented that his team was faster and called it a bug. I'm hoping it was just a bug. And I'm hoping neither of the 2 guys were using the exploit. I'm not a sore loser about what happened last night, but I want to make sure that nothing like this was used. I don't know how accurate the above post is; perhaps the poster was on a server that had sv cheats on, or maybe he's not describing what happened that well. There is some evidence that suggests that this exploit was not used; for example, some people say that the tank will not spawn if this exploit is used. A tank did spawn for both sides on certain maps; however, I believe TheMaster said that a tank would be spawned for our team in the third level of Dead Air in the car garage because his team "had a lot of health left." It may be possible that he spawned one for his own to counter the lack of one. As you can see from the youtube video though, the text in the corner shows that the person is switching between the spectator's and Infected side repeatedly. I did not see this during the game, which is the strongest indicator that no one was cheating. In any case, I may look around for some more evidence. I would prefer to find solid proof before coming to a definite conclusion; everything I've listed is just speculation based on a few pieces of information. If I find nothing or very little, I'll assume that last night was a legitimate game, and everyone was playing fair. In any case, if we do play Versus again, I would prefer to play it with friends or people I know at least until Valve releases a patch; I may still play Versus with strangers, but I would prefer not to. If anyone else playing last night has an opinion, feel free to post. I'm prepared to be ridiculed, though I'm trying to make it clear that I'm only slightly suspicious of last night's game.

Hey, You guys have probably seen some of this stuff (or maybe all), but I thought it could be posted here for fun. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/show...ad.php?t=760486 The link is for fan-made media that some users have made. I haven't seen or read everything (some of it has "language" in it; I don't know if I need to mention that in case it needs to be in line with gc rules), but I posted some of the comics I liked (although there are some pretty bland ones posted on the site, no offense to the creators). 12. Every Man for Himself- http://sleepdepjoel.deviantart.com/art/Left-4-Dead-105379377 13. What I Have Learned from L4D- http://golden-silver.deviantart.com/art/Wh...m-L4D-105202937 17. Top 5 Preventable Deaths- http://sleepdepjoel.deviantart.com/art/L4D...eaths-106475867 (This one might offend some people with the language at the end; not a swear or slur, but it's not really a word that is approved of on the server. ) 22. What Doesn't Francis Hate- http://bloodink6.deviantart.com/art/Is-the...g-L4D-105292934 29. Trigger Happy- http://www.vgcats.com/comics/images/081221.jpg And then there's this youtube audio recording about Francis. Francis' Hate- Anyone else got stuff they want to share?

Glad things worked out for you.

I only know of Peeku and JackieChan having (or had) servers for L4D. Maybe one of them dropped their server. I don't know if you're talking about those servers or not.

Haha, that's awesome. I would not want to get crossbowed by Laz when he's wearing that. I'll probably kill an hour with that website. I like having fun with this kind of stuff.

I still see some gc members play L4D; I don't think people have abandoned it completely. If you need a 4th member, and you've run out of options for decent players, you can message me as a last resort. Seriously though, I play CS:S more regularly, but I'm up for hire for L4D if you need someone.

Awesome. New maps sound good, but I wonder if they'll give us new weapons too. Not likely, but it would be fun if they did.

Happy New Year.

NO! NO! TOO SEXY!! But I must....(cue music). (It's an obscure SNL reference if this doesn't make any sense)

Heh, I like how Polar Man is keeping it real with his description of what he does. That's about as far as I would take the superhero thing. This website kinda reminds me of the Mystery Men (1999). Anyone watch the movie or read the comic book (I think they were supporting characters for the Flaming Carrot...don't ask)?

Congratulations.

Le serPENT@lan Steam Id: 0:1:5445397 I think he was muted or his clanmate was on dust2 today (12/28/08). On de piranesi after dust2 at around 11:00pm CST, he joined T side and just said, "F***, you mother****s." If he accidentally swore, that would be understandable. Somehow, I think he probably was already warned earlier that night and didn't care. I don't know if this warrants a ban, but I'm listing this info in case he or his clanmate steps out of line again. EDIT: I checked the server list a couple minutes ago; it seems he's still on the server on piranesi. I guess he's playing by the rules now, so maybe a ban isn't needed.

Lol, I didn't last long either. I tried backing into a corner once, but they started coming from all directions...and I couldn't find the melee button!

If you have to choose between the two, I would say Pizza Hut. I have to agree with most of the other responses though; I'd go with a different pizza pie maker(s).

Happy Birthday.

No matter how awesome a foot/ calf messenger machine sounds, I too would prefer a PS3.

Aw, that sucks. I think some websites let you watch some old movies on the internet for free. You could watch 1 or 2 to kill some time. I forget which websites though; you could probably google some keywords, and something should come up.

Merry Christmas!

Stewie from Family Guy: "Well! The outrages I have suffered today will not be soon forgotten! I will not be forgetting those outrages! No, no! No, they won't be forgotten! Not the..." Brian: "Outrages," yeah. I think we got it." Seriously though, if you need a player, and everyone else is busy, you can message me as a last resort. Most of the time, I see Expert campaigns with gc members are full, but if you need to fill a Versus server, I can join. I usually play CS, but I can switch quickly.

I took nightling's suggestion, and it is definitely the video card. I popped in an old, unused 7300LE that came with my old computer, and it worked fine on my new computer. Picture was clear, and the 7300LE also appeared on my computer information without any drivers installed; the 4850 never did show up, and it had a crazy number of artifacts. I emailed newegg and Sapphire yesterday. Sapphire contacted me back, although newegg hasn't. Even though newegg may not allow me to return it, the email I sent them could still be used as evidence that I tried in case Sapphire suggests I take the RMA up with them. I still have a copy of the UPC code, so I have the information they asked for. Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

I switched monitors, swapped cables, etc, and I'm pretty sure it's the card now. Artifacts still show up even with a different monitor and different cables. Nuts. I actually did download a display driver by accident during the first time I installed the updates from Windows Update (I haven't repeated the same mistake since); it gave me a BSOD too, but I appreciate the suggestion, .fx. I read that some people do that for Windows Vista 64 Bit OS since Vista 64 is kinda picky with drivers. I've used the latest drivers from ATI, the hotfix version for the 4850, the ones from the disk, etc., and none of them work. I've been able to download and install drivers for all the other hardware in device manager successfully, so it confirms for me that it's still the video card that's the problem. Meh, at least the other components/parts are fine. 1 out of 8-9 isn't so bad. Off to RMA and waste money shipping this defective card back. Argh. EDIT: Well, I'm screwed. RMA is void for newegg.com if I sent in a rebate for my item, which I did unfortunately a short time ago. I have a copy of the UPC code, but I doubt they'll take it. Going to try Sapphire, but I'm guessing I won't have success there either. I'm out 150 dollars either way. Nice going, idiot. I actually thought I could build something that didn't suck...

Haha, I really liked this review. Rapid fire delivery made it funny. And yeah, it's a lot funner when you play with people you know. Expert mode is less frustrating, and versus is very amusing.

Tried a number of different ways to install drivers. Nothing works. Installed chipset, motherboard drivers, Windows Update in a number of different orders without a change. Once I install anything from ATI, I get a BSOD. I think it's the card now. I'm getting artifacts at BIOS, Windows loading screen, desktop (oddly, there are less artifacts here than in the other ones), etc.; a couple of vertical blue lines at BIOS, a lot of red lines and green lines at Windows loading screen, a couple red lines at desktop, and some similar problems in between screens. I'm guessing the card is defective since I'm not OCing anything, and it can't be overheating since it happens right as I turn on the computer. Everything is plugged in right, card is seated correctly, 6 pin is in securely, the monitor doesn't seem to be the problem, so I'm pretty sure it's the card. I'm going to switch monitors from my old computer to the new one, switch cables, etc., but I'm pretty sure I know what's wrong now. My 7600GT never showed artifacts when I first installed it in my current computer, just a lower resolution because I hadn't installed drivers yet; the 4850 shows a lower resolution and artifacts. I'm inside the 30 day period for RMA to Newegg. Anyone got any tips for me? It should be a straightforward process, but I was wondering if anyone had experience with Newegg's RMA procedure and had any advice on how to deal with them. Thanks.