What do you want to see in L4D3?

[bluechirri]

I haven't seen a thread like this yet and I'm curious/bored.

Since the game is pretty much a given at this point, what would you like from it?

I'm hoping the game has more than six original campaigns - it seems like it's been in development for a longer time than either of its predecessors, so I'd really like to see a longer game with more content. Better integration of custom-made maps would be neat, too. And I feel like the weapons system could benefit from some overhauls - more variety, less "shit my teammates beat me to the shotgun and now I'm stuck with the shitty silenced machine gun", maybe a mid-campaign upgrade in the form of a shoulder holster that lets you carry two full-sized guns at once? It'd be nice if there were more weapons and upgrades you could customize a playstyle with that carried over if you and your friends progressed through the campaigns in story order - hypothetically you would finish, say, Swamp Fever, vote to move on to the next campaign, and begin Hard Rain with the same weapons and inventory you finished the last one with, though of course you could choose to switch it up if you wanted.

Another cool thing I'd be interested in would be if they had randomized Special Infected - a few different models for each type with varying clothes and skin colors and genders and such, so your first spawned Spitter in a level might have once been a black woman in a dress and the next one you get used to be a white guy wearing a jacket and jeans, or something. I feel like that would go a long way towards making the game feel more realistic, as opposed to every single Spitter having the same woman-in-dark-pigtails-and-yellow-bra model - it breaks my immersion a little to see the same model over and over.

I'd also personally be interested in a more story-heavy singleplayer campaign mode, but I can't see that one making it in, which is okay. And as long as we're on the topic of personal indulgences, I'd love for the game to be set in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, which is where I live and also where Valve has their offices - maybe the goal of the campaign would be to get from an overrun Portland to a supposedly safer Seattle? It'd be neat to see what's happening on the other side of the country in the L4D universe, and the heavily mountainous well-forested geography would be a nice change of pace as far as level design goes. Interestingly enough, this region is the part of the evac outpost map in Crash Course that's been torn off, and the crossed-out safety zone at the edge of the tear looks like it encompasses Portland, which almost certainly didn't actually mean anything at the time it was made but would be a cool detail in retrospect if L4D3 was set there.

So what do you want?

 

[Max_Payne]

Such a big wish list for most people! lol Here are some ideas that just come to the top of my mind of what could make the game more interesting:

I agree bluechirri of having randomized special infected.. that would be just bad ass, but how bout adding the other human element to the challenge? In the web comics that fill the background gaps for the LF4D 1 characters, they encountered a mirage of paramilitary forces, i think adding another enemy that shoots back at you while they and you have to deal with the undead would be badass.

I would love to see something out of the ordinary from these two other games, such as special infected or common infected animals.. dogs..bears.. anything in the geographical sense that could already be deemed aggressive.. could be fun to throw into the mix!

I also agree with you on carrying weapons over to the next campaign, but having your weapons and attributes stripped is what makes the game challenging and more of a fight to survive : )

It would be cool to see upgrades in the weaponry, like in TF2 man vs machine. You would carry your select weapons, and maybe down the campaign you grab spare parts, upgraded ammo, and before the level starts you get to decide which weapons get special boosts or parts added to them.

One last thing for me, would be to have somewhere in a level where a piece of heavy equipment could be operable to help your friends get through wave after wave of zombies. Would be extremely satisfying to plow through a hoard with a cat dozer while your friends are on your ass providing you with cover fire.

ahhh i can only wish ahahah..

Cheers

Max

 

[bluechirri]

Ooh, I like the idea of branching out with different enemies beyond zombies. I don't know if they'd necessarily throw the military into the mix, because a three-way fight between you and the army and monsters sounds an awful lot like Half Life to me and I can't imagine the military would be too organized or numerous outside of safe zones three or four weeks into the infection (presumably when the game would take place), but I think there are definitely some merits to exploring animal-derived foes. Maybe they'd be infected, maybe they'd just be packs of stray dogs or something, but either way that's a neat idea for diversifying gameplay between campaigns.

All the L4D playable survivors are typically carriers of the infection, too, and L4D2 and supplementary material like the Sacrifice comic both suggest that the remnants of authority have deemed carriers a danger, so perhaps the heroes of the new game have been marked in some way that identifies them as carriers and therefore makes susceptible survivors hostile to them? That could be how they implement uninfected human enemies - bands of survivors who attack you to keep you from getting in a position where you might infect them.

 

[SpotEnemyBoats]

I just want to see a game where Valve doesn't ruin a game with hats and crates.

 

[bluechirri]

Just thought of another thing I meant to put in the original post but completely forgot about, haha - more open level design, where each campaign has alternate paths you can take instead of one main path with a few possible dead-end detours into buildings and alleys to grab supplies, meaning playing it again can be a different experience each time. The big hurdle in this would be trying to prevent players from taking completely different paths from each other, but I imagine they could figure out something with gates for that.

I just want to see a game where Valve doesn't ruin a game with hats and crates.

Okay, I can respect a healthy instinctive mistrust of microtransactions, but how does this apply to L4D? I can't see them implementing a similar system into a game that doesn't revolve around class-based PvP.

 

[Pikminiman]

When people ask what I want in a new Valve game, my answer is always the same, so instead of re-writing my answer for the third time, I'll just quote myself:

The feature I most want to see is dynamic map loading. That is, you could be playing a level, and as you progress through the stage, the game is consistently loading the next map, effectively eliminating load screens all together (aside from one single load screen upon booting up the game).

 

[-smash-]

I want to see a more advanced AI Director in terms of level design. They didn't take the dynamic paths far enough. Imagine if they were able to procedurally generate paths in a game so well that you never took the same path twice during playthroughs.

I wonder if realtime biometric feedback is advantageous over the estimate method currently in L4D2. If so, then give me a pair of earlobe biometric sensors.

 

[pyrodojo]

I want to see legs when I look down

 

[TheWiktor]

I want to see legs when I look down

That will never happen. It's against Valve's philosophy of putting YOU into the shoes of the character as literally as possible while maintaining an interesting narrative.
EDIT: Here's an article on FPP legs in games by the way:
http://intelligentgames.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/dont-look-down-legs-in-fps-games/

 

[DevonWC]

Realistic Necrophilia

 

[kineaesth]

I want all I've ever wanted from L4D, the opportunity to play it stealthily. If you hole up and methodically and quietly clear an area of zombies, the area should not magically fill up again once you've gone a few metres. You shouldn't end up having to essentially sprint through every map, unless there's a time critical objective.

 

[AYKO]

Only thing i don't want to see in future Valve games is BIK video cutscenes. I really hated them in Portal 2 and L4D.

 

[Mididda]

1. New special infected. MOAR CREATIVITAH ! I always wanted to see a mutated zombie who was half conscious/human, and we had to decide to kill ( mercy ? ) or not.... wait.
2. Possible plot progress done by our characters/us ? I dunno, but most definetely new plot elements and scribblings. I want more toilet jokes in the toilets. Also that poem hate wall was cool. ( Like a knife on my back ; w ; )
3. Interesting locations. A new part of US would be nice, or maybe ................................................. Europe ??? :<






Naah.

 

[Lolcomputer]

That will never happen. It's against Valve's philosophy of putting YOU into the shoes of the character as literally as possible while maintaining an interesting narrative.

But it already happened in Left 4 Dead...

 

[TheWiktor]

But it already happened in Left 4 Dead...

Well, my bad then. Never played L4D so I guess I shouldn't have posted in this thread haha