^Title

it's a great map-pack and I've love it :) Haven't seen such fine work in a long time :) Waiting for more ;)

I think, the campagne is to long and when i would play the campagne twice, then i dont know where is the wright way - to much possibilities to go somewhere…! And i have explored a bug, at level with bridge, i wanted stand on bridge, during horde was coming, and it doesnt closed… why? is it not allowed? … ahh i forgot: i found NO tank, NO witch, ONLY crying of hordes.. =/ i´m not very enthusiastically.. but its ok, i think - it is playable, but not my typ ;) BUT OK, only for information :)

( when i wrote this, it includes only the first 3 levels.. )

Well at first i thought the levels were WAYY to long. The campaign is good though. I did notice some issues.

-WTF! i had 4 instances where i had to call the horde in the 1st level!! WTF!! only 2 hordes came out, but still, way too many in the first level. I also had random horde crys out of no where.

-Shotgun disappears after someone grabs it in 1st level.

all in all its a decent campaign but its too long and too many crescendos 3/5

For starters, there are WAY too many places to go. In theory, it sounds great but in practice it's actually a really bad idea. Sometimes I'm dragged out of my way someplace just to explore a really blocky area. This might also be the reason that the maps feel poorly optimized. Lastly, why are there so many panic events?

map is too big.. u might get lost, esp and just chance on a room spawning hordes. your dead.

switches does not synchronize with horde calls/panic events.

but really nice. i hope public servers can host it.

Don't take down the number of panic events… They are what make a good L4D map IMO.

I think the maps are huge as well… and love it…

Well I downloaded this last night and gave it a spin with a few buddies of mine.

First off I gotta say, you got the right atmosphere with the city setting. Especially on the first level, I loved running through those apartments and along the rooftops. And I loved running across the drawbridge on Map 3. =P

I for one, don't think the levels were too long, BUT I do think that there weren't enough health items given to balance it out with the length of the maps, and by this I'm referring directly to Pain Pills. Throughout all of level 1, I was only able to find one set of pills. After that I probably found maybe 2 or 3 in the rest of the levels. (We were on Expert and we probably just sucked, but just remember that you are gonna get different audiences with different skill levels).
Also, we would often come to the safe room to find no medkits to heal with, so we eventually had to turn on cheats to heal ourselves so we didn't die. I'm thinking you don't have the medkits in the safehouses set to Always spawn and so the game didn't give us the medkits cause we were on Expert mode. If thats the case then it should be an easy fix. (EDIT: There were medkits at the end of Map 3)

Again, coming back to the design of the levels. They weren't too long, but also I thought it was too easy to get lost in. When I got into the apartments, I ended up looping back around to the entrance of the building about 2 times because I would enter a room and there would be about 5 doorways, lol. I found this to be an issue on the other 3 maps as well.

I liked how you tried to keep the maps generally dark, it added to the atmosphere of the run-down city feel. But, in some of the larger rooms, at least one or two lights to give the players some direction would help a massive deal. Even something like a dimly lit Exit sign or maybe a floor-based emergency light. Valve used colors and lighting to attract the player's attention to certain areas of the maps, and it was a pretty successful tactic. It could be something to try.

Oh also, on a side note, in the map with the parking garage (can't remember if it was the second or third one… pretty sure it was the second)… just before you begin to go down into the garage from the street level, there is a vent along the left side where a Smoker normally would spawn to try to drag people underneath him. When the Tank attacked us, he broke open the vent. I thought it was just a normal passageway so I tried to go inside, but I died randomly from a trigger_hurt or something. I'm not sure if its intended to break open, but just thought I'd let you know.

Anyway, other than those things I mentioned, I loved playing these maps, the atmosphere was great and I loved the length of the maps.. too many campaigns are too short nowadays, which makes them get boring pretty quick.

I gave these maps a chance and my thoughts are, that maps are way too long for versus as co-op maps they work.

I think that maps were spacious and lacked details. It was good that you could choose either crescendo or the long way, but bots didnt know how to use those ladders in the first map. In the fourth map the stairs is a way too easy way to up, the infected cant do anything to you.

Maps are also pretty heavy, and the fps drops much when you get outside especially in the first map. Way to safe room is also pretty hard to find, you could use arrows to show way there.

I didnt have tanks or witches in the entire campaign … maybe that was good luck..

There are too many door crescendos in these maps.

Thanks guys on your wonderful feedback. It has been some great help. I will continue the new info I see here and make those adjustments.

On June 19th, 2009 I will be in for surgery. After I get back on my feet I will continue then with my campaign and hopefully get started on the final 5th Map.

I will see you all arround then have fun and peace out.

There are a few problems, like on the 2nd map you can go back to the areas of 1st map, you can even circle around and reach the other side of safe room door. 3rd map, similar problem, can go to areas of 2nd map, all the way to the spawn point of 2nd map!

When will you pack your campaign to .VPK?

This is the current vpk I have created July 5, 2009 uploading files (45min) to be completion of upload…

Thank you thank you thank you!!! I played this campain when it was in dev pak and we all loved it!! I am soooo glad you vpked this bad boy!! I will be uploading it to my server tonight and will post ASAP on the results from the players!!

Oh and did i say THANK YOU!!!

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/51/l4ddeadcity01riverside0.jpg

I'm enjoying every bit of your campaign and thanks for the fast update on the bug fix. however, i do hope that you add more details in various areas of the campaign because currently it looks bland imho.

btw, when is the finale? i hope your finale setting will be as creative as death aboard finale. I'm really looking forward for your next update =D

Hi… played your campaign. It's fun, but I don't know how much of that is just killing zombies. I haven't noticed anything that really sticks out yet as a wow factor. IMO, the lowering of the drawbridge takes way too long… slows down the pace of the game and there's not enough action. The path is really confusing at times, and many things look similar, or identical to that particular level or other levels within the campaign. There's no cues at all to tell you which way to go and on the 4th map I actually managed to make a huge circle and wind up near the beginning of the map. The zombies spawn from strange places, a dead end tunnel, behind a drive in movie screen 15 feet up in the air. A bit more detail could be added to the levels.

It's got an ok start, but it's a little too confusing and peculiar for me. Thanks for making it and don't let me discourage your progress.

Excellent campaign. Can you add some painted arrows with safe room sign (just to let know players where to go)? And … when opening garage doors or waiting the bridge go down, there aren't action. You hear the sound of hordes and zombie didn't arrive.

Btw, great work. Carry on.

The atmosphere of this campaign is nice. Some of the structures in the background (such as the Nuclear Power plant) add a nice ominous feel to the whole thing.

However, I found it very difficult to have fun on this map. A player should not have to spend a majority of their time trying to find the right path through the map when they are being constantly (and I emphasize CONSTANTLY) being harassed by the horde. I don't mind getting ammo-stressed while pushing away the bad guys, but it frustrates me to no end when I circle endlessly trying to find the right way out through a bunch of dark rooms.

This campaign needs a few things to make it good…

1) Path out needs to be much easier to spot.
2) Each maps needs to be made considerably shorter (nothing pisses people off more than working all the way to the end of a long map only to start over if they all die.
3) No more than 2 creshendos per map. This campaign overdoes it on the panic events… big time. Especially on the draw bridge series. Players need breaks between panic events to rest up.

Overall, I'd give this a D+. The map has great visual atmosphere, but suffers greatly from a lack of "fun factor" due to the large amounts of frustration it generates from it's terrible path layout. The players have very little time to get breaks from the intense points in the map, making for very poor pacing.

I do not agree with the last comment.
I think that what was missing in the maps was a little more difficulty and that are longer. I think this time we have a campaign just for good players because of the difficulty it presents, but this does not imply that the map should be easier for others. On the contrary, I feel really good challenge. Besides, who wants to change the difficulty you can do it, no?.
I am fascinated with the visual end of the maps, everything worked perfectly and very caring.
Maps long was what was missing, again, because my campaign personally, I was too short.
And look, I do not agree with the comment above, because the constant fear and oppression that is generated at all times to be exposed to attack from the hordes, we always be alert and in constant participation during our journeys each map.
-Don 't like it is done the part of the bridge? I love, I think is the best I've seen!.
I would also say to find room between the output seems phenomenal. Enough of linear paths, or by the challenge of something more complicated, more unstructured.
My rating is A - and (-) because it lacks optimization, as they tend to fall a little FPS, but I'm sure it will solve. Congratulations to you for this great work you have done.

Great work!

I hope you take the following as constructive critique:

Pluses:
I love the drawbridges - saw it and thought Wow!
Multiple pathways to same objective.
Tanks ! but you cant move them — awww

Minuses:

-The maps are overly complex with too many dead ends. Slightly smaller areas would allow you to really polish what you've got. I can't help think that loads of people are going to walk past hours of your work without seeing it. Also this means the Director spawns zombies in areas you'll never see or they can't get to you…

-Seem to be a number of broken crescendo events in particular the bridge coming down ended up sitting there while it slowly came down.

-You don't know there are multiple paths available. Coupled with the complex terrain makes it difficult to know if you're going down a dead end or a genuine optional path. How about some signs telling you there are optional routes. It wouldnt be out of place to have a sign saying "Skybridge" or "car park" and an arrow

-Nav map seems to cause the director trouble and the bots get stuck. for example behind the broken truck next to the drawbridge.

I have just played through Dead City in Single Player mode. I would say you are getting very close to something Valve would have turned out. I am glad to see there are now witches & tanks which were missing from the version I played in April. Also having a real tank driving down the road in one of the later levels was a nice & unexpected touch but I didn't really get a chance to see what happened to it as I was rushed by a mass of zombies.
I have found a couple of issues which I am guessing are not just affecting me:
1) Sometimes the bots don't follow when you drop down through a hole in the floor.
2) Sometimes the bots don't replenish their ammo from a stash.
3) Sometimes the bots don't pick up the first aid kits either. Both 2 &3 even happened in one of the safe rooms.
4) I think it is in the first level where there is a spare pistol by one of the police cars. If the bots pick it up then it disappears. Normally the second pistols stay on the ground so that everyone can pick them up (I think).
5) Quite often the horde rush in as soon as you get to an action point without waiting for the button to be pressed.
6) A cosmetic point but the names of the levels are missing from the summary screens when you get to the safe rooms.
7) Personally, I found there were too many zombie rushes. While playing on normal difficulty I took a wrong turn and ended up way off track. By the time I got back on the route, I had been rushed so many times that we were all almost dead & did subsequently get killed off by another zombie rush. I think either have more health kits or fewer horde attacks or have fewer zombies in the attacks apart from at the action points.
8) Personally, I quite like the non-linear approach it gives more to explore. I do agree with an earlier post that it would be nice to have a few markings on the walls showing the way to the safe house.
Good job & keep up the good work.

I'm really eager to play this for the first time, although I'm holding back till the Finale is posted so we can get the full experience.

So I didn't wait and I dl'd vpk 5 but am having a huge issue with it.

Unknown version 538976257 for vpk ..\left4dead\addons\redsea.vpk

L4D will not start past this until I delete the vpk.

Please help?

http://www.deadcitymaps.com/deadcity.html
Automatically download Can not find ..

Hey, it would be nice if you mentioned the file size on here, because It took me a long time to download an unknown file size with an "unknown time remaining". PLEASE POST THE FILE SIZE! It really screws with my mind when I don't know the file size or how much time is remaining. I don't know if that's just me, though.

The installation didn't go as it was supposed to. I extracted first using Winrar, to the dektop. However, .vpk was not in the file name after it was extracted there. It just said deadcity_campaign. When I double-clicked it, it said "Access denied." I tried using 7ZIP and the same thing happened. SO…Did I do something wrong? I followed the instructions, I mean, that's pretty easy to do, it's only three steps, but I couldn't get past the second.

at http://www.deadcitymaps.com/deadcity.html "left 4 deadcity survival" has not the good link

I played like 6 - 8 hours in total on map 4 combined in different times to finally get a team that will worked together and competent enough to get us to the saferoom.

Its a very very long map and the difficulty is way higher 2 notch then map 1 - 3. Hordes just keep coming like every 15 - 20 seconds in 2 waves. And at times when tank + horde comes, it was almost a sure die for the whole team. But glad to have finally completed map 4.

Hope that map 5 comes out soon :)

I enjoyed playing this campaign, it is well tohught out, and implemented…well done!!

I had a few minor irritations suce as bot getting stuck in baths and bots not entering lifts but they seemed to sort themselves out.

I would want to upload this to my server but it is co-located and i do not have permissions to execute the vpk file. Is there a way round this or will the final release hold the bsp and nav files?

Without the next level when we start in the plant safehouse but couldn't do a thing. Would you be able to just end game here until final level is released.

Here it is guys the 5th map is now here… Thanks for all your time and I need to rest. :) I will continue to watch the comments to update maps. But for now please enjoy!

Remark: As I read some of the earlier feedback for the older versions I was a bit surprised because the critique points of the older 4 map version were massive in my view so I just didn't like the campaign.

You can see some of the discussion in a steam thread:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=934563

The new fully mapped version changed my view of the campaign at least in some points for the better:

- I noticed that you get far less random panic events, which the older version made really annoying

- As far as I noticed the mapper tightened some formerly annoying double actions like double time crescendo at gates or draw bridge. Thus the pace of the gameplay has improved significantly

- The campaign was polished in terms of weapon, ammo and item placement

- The last added 5th map, the finale, has a really adequate playtime length. (I found the trigger after I searched for it)

- The pathfinding of the CI and SI has significantly improved and is on high level now.

- The background, a dirty, big factory city, was polished(I guess) and is one of the most exciting campaign backgrounds.

Overall I give it a 4 out of 5 atm.

Although I wont play it a lot because I still dont really like the simple lengths of the maps except that of map 5.

I noticed that the background is clearly visible but not the middle range view. Is it intended that all geometry in mid range fades nearly to a grey mass?
I don't like this grey fading and would like to see the "real" colors or some other lighting by floodlights for instance.

Played on single, coop, and VS modes. All are awesome!
Thanks for a great set of maps. Good work.

Ok, I just want to say I am also making a map, and so I know having negative feedback isn't fun.

However, there are a few things that I think you must know.

As others have said, (and a few disagreed on), there are WAYYYYYYY too many panic events and hoards. And when there are, they are usualy opening a sliding gate, elevator, or garage door. Actually, that might be it.

In my opinion, a map should have maybe one panic event per map, with possibly two in the last one. Yes, a long map is nice, but when there are constantly pauses in the gameflow to sit and shoot the zombies while you wait for a door it gets frustrating. It seemed every other room had a hoard, and me and my friend and two dumb bots were once again stuck shooting zombies that blocked the path. On some maps there were at least 4 tanks, and the only reason we surived it was because we have sv_cheats on. With four people, it's possible, but with only two….way too hard.

2nd, the levels 2-4 all seemed the same. I wouldn't have a problem with the city landscape as much if they didn't seem to go back through areas I was just in. for instance, to get to the draw bridge you go back through the same exact place. Huh? It took me 20 minutes to figure out we were actually supposed to be there. And the bridges over the streets we had to have gone across at least 4 times, while having gone down to the streets at least 3. I'm not saying that going up and down is bad, I'm just saying don't use the same street again. It felt like I was going in circles (and I was)

Enough of the criticism, I realize it's a work in progress. Here are more constructive advice:

1. The continuous hoard level 4? is too hard. If we had 4 people playing, it would be possible, but maps should be operational for 1-4 players. In the first couple minutes of the hoard our bots had died, and we were all out of ammo. It was not clear that the hoard would go on forever so we waited it out for at least 5 minutes, only surviving because of sv cheats, until we decided to just noclip around and figure out where the hell we were actually supposed to go, while thousands of zombies came. I like zombies, but theres a limit.

2. Train tracks in finale won't let you resuce the person, because it's continuous damage. Not sure how to fix this, but once your down, your down till the train runs you over.

3. Little hard to find the trigger for finale.

4. Change the lighting up a bit, because my eyes were really tired of darkness, dark blue, and grey. Maybe it's just the lenght of the maps that made this a problem.

5. Cut down on doors that call hoards. Maybe make them just doors that must be opened, but no more than that.

Last: Cut lenght down a bit. It's nice having a long map, but if you are g oing to keep the hoards at what they are at now, the lenght needs to go down a bit. Maybe some people like killing zombies enough to go through a whole campaign like that, but it was getting a little monotonous towards the end.

Ok, I appologize for the harshness. Here are things I liked

And remember, at least you were able to make a map. I havn'et even gotten one working yet.

When there comes a siren sound, I nothing hear , the sound is muffled and is badly audible shots, approach of the zombie. My sound driver the latest, DirectX last. Please, correct this bug.

Hey there. It's Thorn Phoenix from the Survivors Diary Left 4 Dead Podcast, this campaign has been the first reviewed campaign of the new Season of our podcast. For our feedback please check it out right here: http://www.supacomm.net/survivorsdiary/podcast/2009/09/28/survivors-diary-season-2-episode-1/

hey dude, great map!

is there any chance u could change the file format from .rar to .zip as most servers can handle .zip files, so the file can be direct downloaded and extracted on the server.

saves 2 hours uploading it from home.

"When there comes a siren sound, I nothing hear , the sound is muffled and is badly audible shots, approach of the zombie. My sound driver the latest, DirectX last. Please, correct this bug."

VPK 10 - no problems
VPK 11 - Agane siren :(((

My hardware and software: Sound Blaster X-Fi ExtremeGamer (last drivers), in Windows 7 - 5.1 mode.

In another maps and campains - all ok.