Saturday, April 18, 2009

Left 4 Dead Survival Mode Analysed

 

Valve’s Kerry Davis and Scott Dalton posted on the Let 4 Dead blog about the challenges and the lengths they went to balance the upcoming survival mode.

 

Survival Mode draws on the planning and communication aspects of a successful Finale or Crescendo event, while taking it to another level. It rapidly hits a fever pitch that only a well coordinated team will be able to successfully survive. Everything from simply covering a reviving teammate, to making every shot count to minimize reloads becomes crucial in Survival Mode.


Given the importance of pacing in Survival Mode, we need to define as precisely as possible how the difficulty ramps up during the course of a round. We have numerous variables to work with: mob spawn frequency, special infected spawn frequency, number of each type of special infected, total number of special infected, tank spawn frequency, total number of tanks, and so on. We need all of these variables to work together to create a fairly smooth difficulty curve.

 

 

Read the entire entry here

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