AlliedModders - L4D Hidden CVars

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Re: L4D Hidden CVars

I've decided to complain to Valve about the grief I get from trying to connect to my dedicated server from a lobby. Here's the conversation so far. I invite others to send similar support requests at support.steampowered.com if you're annoyed by this as well.

1: Message by you on Wed, 10th Dec 2008 6:59 pm
How do you connect to a specific game server from a lobby?

2: Message by Miles on Tue, 16th Dec 2008 3:24 pm
Hello Daniel,

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

Please follow the link below for information:

Title: Setting Game Launch Options
Link: http://support.steampowered.com/kb_a...1040-JWMT-2947

Please use -serverbrowser to find specific servers while in-game.

If you have any further questions, please let us know.

3: Message by you on Tue, 16th Dec 2008 3:27 pm
How do I connect to a specific game server FROM A LOBBY?

4: Message by Miles on Tue, 16th Dec 2008 5:18 pm
Daniel,

You will only be able to join friends or group servers from the normal lobby.

If you would like to locate specific servers that no one you know is playing on, you will need to use the server browser.

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

5 Message by you on Tue, 16th Dec 2008 9:34 pm
There appear to be some features which are only accessible if you start your game with a lobby, such as setting the game friends-only/public, and choosing to start a versus match or coop game if the server is not already set to that.

Am I supposed to do without those features if I want to connect to a specific server?

6 Message by Miles on Wed, 17th Dec 2008 8:08 pm
Daniel,

You can always setup your own match and then find a Dedicated Server or run a Local server.

If you want to connect to a specific third party server, you will have to use their current setup.

7 Message by you on Wed, 17th Dec 2008 9:00 pm
There doesn't appear to be any way to toggle a server (Local or otherwise) between friends-only and public without using the lobby. What you seem to be telling me is that feature is simply not available to me unless I allow your software to pick a server at random.

I've always been impressed with the third party server support of Valve games, and that was a major factor in my decision to purchase Left 4 Dead. I'm EXTREMELY disappointed here, and I don't think I'm asking for something unreasonable. I can't be the only customer of yours who wants to play on a server hosted by my clan/group, and people in my situation are being denied a feature that seems pretty elementery and essential.

Can you at least get me an explanation of why such a simple feature was omitted? Is there some technical limitation I'm not seeing that prevented you from just adding a third selection to the local/dedicated pull down menu?

UPDATE:
I just got this one today.

"I am sorry but this is not an option for Left 4 Dead at this time. You would need to connect to this server first and then your friends can join your game in progress."

The answer shows that there still seems to be some difficulty understanding what I'm talking about even though I worded it three different ways :/ Oh well... at least it's finite. I'm going to ask this guy if there's some way to escalate the problem to a bug, or otherwise make sure someone from outside of tech support hears about it.

Re: L4D Hidden CVars

Why don't you try linking the server to a Steam Group and use sv_steamgroup_exclusive 1?

Re: L4D Hidden CVars

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fyren (Post 728540)

Based on my experience with sv_search_key, your client gets the master list of servers and then looks through that for servers with a matching key. My home DSL totally flakes out if I try to use the server browser and queries time out, so if I try to list servers my list is way shorter than it should be and the servers that do get listed have massively inflated pings. When I play with friends, I get someone with a better connection than mine to make the lobby and set the key. I don't know if lowering your client's rate would help with queries.

I tried cranking up that maximum allowable search ping (sv_search_max_ping or something like that) as well as the max search results way up... and it seemed to greatly improve results.

Re: L4D Hidden CVars

We are, as we have said already.

Re: L4D Hidden CVars

Was talking to dbenoy with his big post (unless by "we" you mean him as well).

Re: L4D Hidden CVars

Quote:

Originally Posted by bl4nk (Post 731523)

Was talking to dbenoy with his big post (unless by "we" you mean him as well).

Yeah that was part my complaint.. that sv_search_key didn't work reliably. The support guy never suggested that though, so I never rebutted him.

Although if you'll look at my most recent previous post.. the fine people of this board helped me out in finding a way to make it more stable :)

Re: L4D Hidden CVars

Those can be accessed/changed using sm_cvar command. You can even put it into autoexec.cfg. Example:

Code:

sm_cvar survivor_limit 9001

sm_cvar z_max_player_zombies 9001

sm_cvar director_afk_timeout 10

Edit:
Argh, I'm too late. Didn't notice there were 3 pages already.

Re: L4D Hidden CVars

Code:

sm_cvar survivor_limit 9001

sm_cvar z_max_player_zombies 9001

sm_cvar director_afk_timeout 10

does this in crease allowed players in l4d?
what do these cvars control? or what is the effect?

Re: L4D Hidden CVars

Code:

....

mp_weapon_deagle_price = 650

mp_weapon_elite_price = 800

....

Nice Valve. If this is still in there then there has to be some way to bring up the buy menu, right? That would be a sick mod, you get say a buck for each zombie you kill and $100 for each boss infected, and more for special boss's like the tank. Then the players can buy their own upgraded weaps!

@develsreject: I wouden't think so, I believe the only way to add more survivors is to add boss infected then force change-team them. Things can get really messed up like that, but its fun when you have a 6 person LAN party and nobody wants to be infected! :D Its funny the game takes the abuse and dosen't crash or anything! Plus, if you wanted to have more then 8 people join your server, you'd need something like this.