Now, I know we all are eagerly awaiting or rampageously detesting the release of L4D2, but I had a few ideas that I would enjoy seeing made use of in the game; these ideas consisted of things that would attempt to alter a survivor's gameplay style to a more favorable one, and changing how much supplies a team might get including safe room supplies.

If you have any ideas, feel free to add them whether they be an event that would happen if someone does something, something to change how survivors play, how infected play, or anything that would change how the game plays out!

Here's mine:
(1) Flashlights off! I think it's silly that the survivors use the flashlights so overwhelmingly, when it seems that there is ample lighting in some areas! I would like to see flashlights used less in environments where they aren't needed, to keep survivors on their toes if they are forced into dark lit environments. With the onset of the Jockey infected, he could pull you into a nice, dark alleyway, that could be quickly filled with zombies and would cause a panic for the survivor because it may be near-impossible to see without a flashlight.

Ways to change this? For one, making zombies more 'sensitive' to light sources. If a survivor is out in the street, shining his flashlight at the infected, I'm sure that there would be a bit more of a reaction, even from a distance, and even if the survivor pulled the flashlight away. This would instantly give a bonus to any teams that try to regulate flashlight use where not necessary, and would just add a little tidbit of change in regular play.

For two, creating events that would be triggered instantly by a survivor when a flashlight is pointed in the direction. Say a bunch of the infected are enjoying their time around in a building when all of a sudden a tasty meal walks by outside, and shines his flashlight inside, just asking to be gobbled up. The infected would immediately rush out of the building, and a small panic event would occur, and the survivors would be ambushed from the building.


(2) Randomized/Rationed Resources. Instead of a constant, always expected supply of ammunition, health packs, and weapons, the supply would reflect on more on the area that the objects spawn, as well as a way to encourage certain playstyles on the maps, or just to overall screw with the survivors.

For instance, the survivors may start off in Map1's saferoom with 4 med packs, since the area they begin in is likely to have them (ie: hospital, a previous saferoom where the survivors were killed, etc), but may have a lack in another area (like, perhaps, no ammo or weapons). Or the survivors may not start off with med packs at all, and recieve weaponry instead (ie: a military outpost, a weapon's stash, etc).

And even then, the objects might be otherwise altered; instead of the survivors always finding the same sets of weapons, perhaps they might only find the SMG at the beginning, but will begin getting a supply of weapons as they go on. Or the survivors start off with a limited number of healthpacks, and slowly gain more throughout a campaign (they may start off with 2, making the players attempt to be more cautious on that map; they may find another 2 in the next safehouse, and have used 1 to patch up a teammates injuries, and now have 3, and can play a bit less cautiously, instead moving to explore more and play a little more flexibly).

Of course, we wouldn't want this to be so severe that players are forced to struggle throughout an entire campaign, but it would encourage exploring a lot more if the items were less likely to be given to them, and would encourage assessing the situation and prepping for it accordingly (got 2 survivors under 40 health, 1 health pack? maybe you should heal your better offensive player, and get him to the front of the pack, and bring the lower health player into the middle of the group to protect him from going down)


(3) More importance on each survivor making it out alive. Saving your friends should be a really beneficial aspect of the game; it already is, but is sometimes negligible when only one of your teammates dies and the rest of the team is doing just fine and will be reaching a closet soon. Placing survivor spawns less frequent upon the map could alone cause less of a want to die or to let other dies. Another idea might be to have survivors only spawn from these closets. If Zoey dies near the end of the map and cannot be rescued before the survivors reach the safe house, she would have to wait until the survivors left the safe room and made their way through the map to the closet in question. It would cause a bit harder of a hit to the team when they lose a player just before the map end, instead of brushing it off and having them spawn at the beginning of the map. (Implementing #2 would help with the issue of the newly spawning survivor not getting any of the weapons or health packs from the saferoom, since more of them would be available when exploring as opposed to trying to escort your newly found buddy back to the safehouse, reversing the progress made.)

Perhaps even some events might require all 4 survivors, where if the team is lacking must go through another area, and might take a bit more punishment


(4) Separating Survivors! I think that this one is a winner for making any game a little harder.

Specific map events may force the separation, or the map could encourage the split, promising more items or other bonuses for the survivors if they successfully survive their paths.

Just off the top of my head:

Forced Separation: On a road surrounded by forest, a path is triggerable and causes a large tree to fall and block the path. any survivors that made it through would be a lot more able to deal with incoming infected, whereas the other survivors would need to go through a section of forest and would be hindered by the trees and would be soon flooded by infected with limited space to move; the survivor(s) who were cut off on the other side of the tree would be able to help out the others, and save them a bit of trouble.

Encouraged split: One path offers headway to salvation; you need to go down it one way or another. However, the other promises a good overwatch spot for a sniper to help take out any infected that attack the group from behind, as well as assistance on taking out SI. Perhaps it would be a road-bridge that was once used to cross a small river; one side of the bridge is blocked off at the other end, but is otherwise structurally sound and the blockage will provide some relief from the infected on that section. This will allow a player with the hunting rifle to help provide some support to the others; the end of the bridge on the 'regular' side would have a triggerable device (like a Fire Dept. Ladder truck, which would activate the ladder event similarly to the van on Dead Air; by walking up to the highlighted device, then pressing E) to allow the sniper to climb over to the other bridge, which would make for the sniper both useful and practical.

(5) More uses for sniper! Now, this is partly a continuation of 4; also, L4D2 apparently also has a mechanism for this, however I'm not sure how well it will be used or how many ways it will be applied.

L4D2's mechanic, iirc, allows the sniper to stay at point A, while the remaining survivors move from point A to point B. No infected will spawn behind the survivors' paths, allowing the sniper to take out some of the sneakier few that try to hit the others from behind, as well as some of the SI that try to get the better of the survivors.

However, like I mentioned in Part 4 how the sniping-survivor could have an entire infected-free zone that would allow him not only to advance with the survivors, but not be affected by infected attacking him; this would, again, be balanced by making no way for the sniper to regroup unless he were to go entirely around the obstacle back to Point A, or for a triggerable event, only accessible from the other side, be activated by the survivors and create a path for the other survivor.






Agree? Disagree? Have your own ideas? Post it!