Valve Struggling with Cross-Play Between L4D DLC and L4D2

Keane Ng

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Sep 11, 2008
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Valve Struggling with Cross-Play Between L4D DLC and L4D2



Will you be able to play Left 4 Dead's new DLC, Crash Course, in Left 4 Dead 2? Valve's working on a solution for cross-compatibility, but they admit that they're "struggling."

While those who are ardent in their refusal to support Valve's Left 4 Dead sequel will settle for enjoying the new DLC campaign, those who don't have a problem with Left 4 Dead 2 have probably got to be wondering if they'll be getting a taste of that new content without having to jump back into the first Left 4 Dead. Well, Valve's working on it, but it's not easy.

"We're still struggling with how interoperability is going to work, right now," Valve's Chet Faliszek said. "When we talk about L4D, the story stuff - there's actually a lot of character dialogue that's based in each map."

In addition to having to replicate all that dialogue, there's the problem of the game's stories not being exactly compatible. "We have a world sketched out and we have an understanding of where everything is and what's going on, you know, so story-wise it wouldn't make much sense," Faliszek ssaid. "But equally there's a whole group of the fans who don't care. So we could put new characters in old places and old characters in new places."

Yeah, I really don't think fans are going to get too bent out of shape about breaking the lore if the content stays the same in essence. Don't count on anything, though: Faliszek says that Valve "haven't fixed on what we're doing yet, so we don't want to talk about it and make people think something is going to happen when we don't know ourselves."

This issue could exemplify the gap between how the public perceives Left 4 Dead 2 and how Valve sees it, on a technical level. The difference between the first game and the sequel is really quite larger than meets the eye. "But I think people don't understand that, L4D2 versus L4D - we redid so many systems," Faliszek said. "When you look at why the authoring tools took so long, it's because it wasn't a simple Source game, like Team Fortress or Episode Two where we use the exact same tools."

[Via Edge-Online [http://www.edge-online.com/features/interview-chet-faliszek]]

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Assassin Xaero

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Jul 23, 2008
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"and old characters in new places."

Wait... does that mean they are working on getting the old characters in the new game? That would get me to buy it...
 

Rogun11

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Apr 10, 2009
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I was never fully against l4d2 its the way they anouced it which left me uneasy. The fact it came out of the blue shocked me. But if they do this im just gonna count it as a exspansion and buy it right away.
 

ChromeAlchemist

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Aug 21, 2008
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So much trouble for such ungrateful bastards.

If they did new characters in old maps, there would probably be another damned boycott.
 

HardRockSamurai

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May 28, 2008
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The strange thing about this news is that it reveals that Valve is taking a brand new approach to the way it makes sequels. Back in the day, Valve would just use the Source engine to make a game's improved sequel; does this mean that Valve is changing the way it works entirely? If that's true, we can either expect their future products to get better and better, or worse and worse.

Regardless, Valve doesn't usually struggle with these road bumps for too long. Hopefully, Left 4 Dead 2: Episode 3 will be out in no time!
 

TaborMallory

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FastFoot92 said:
Christ Valve stop trying to screw us over......
Yeah, how dare they slack off. You know, at least they're fucking trying.

Plus 0.5 respect points for Valve.
 

Amnestic

High Priest of Haruhi
Aug 22, 2008
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Struggling still means they're trying. No objections here.

Regardless of whether they make an 'official' movement of old characters to new maps, I'd be surprised if there a mod didn't emerge which did that for you on the PC version anyway.

I confess, if I could play with Zoey a bit more (hurr hurr hurr) I'd be more inclined. I'll still buy L4D2 anyway, but there's a certain charm around the L4D1 characters that thus far I haven't found in the new ones - that may change of course, the game isn't even out yet.
 

SebZero

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All the work they're putting in for the fans...

Gotta respect Valve, assuming your head isn't so far up your own ass from complaining and boycotting.
 
Sep 24, 2008
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People got upset that it seemed like Value was going to leave L4D in the dust. check.

People got upset that it seemed like they were going to Reneg on their promises for interplay between One and Two.

Not only are they making a brand new campaign for us... but they are still toiling away to make good on their promises, even if their fervent hopes wrote checks reality couldn't cash.

Yup. Horrible [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sarcasm] company.

Value, I almost implore you people to get out of the business while you can. You produced well for us and we are doing nothing but being ungrateful.

.. need to find a way to get my copy to work so I can play this new DLC.
 

HobbesMkii

Hold Me Closer Tony Danza
Jun 7, 2008
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You know, there's probably some other developers out there going "See Valve? See what happens when you do a good job? People start expecting things out of you. Your good games should always be balanced with a healthy does of crap games, so people will be pleasantly surprised when you do a good job."
 

darthzew

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Jun 19, 2008
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Nice to know they're keeping us updated! Valve really is an awesome company.
 

Ralackk

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Aug 12, 2008
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I may be wrong but I was under the impression all the fans of the game wanted was for l4d not to become obsolete when l4d2 come out. Not interchangable characters in the story or anything like that, just a search funtion that will allow you to join both l4d and l4d2 games from the same menu. That way any map makers out there working hard on a map will still have an audience to play it when the second game comes out. Like I said I could be wrong but thats all I want out of it.