Left 4 Dead 8 Player Survival Mode Guide

For those who have been playing Left 4 Dead since it released, you may have found that the latest downloadable content package (Survival Pack) wasn't all what it was cracked up to be. Perhaps you found yourself enjoying Survival Mode and the additional Versus Maps but still are looking for more. Well while we cannot provide you with additional updates to further enhance and refresh the game. We can provide you with a guide to setup a server for playing an 8 player survival mode. Yes you read that right, Survival Mode with 8 survivors. If you think its not going to change the game all that much, you may be right but we reckon if you give it a try you'll find yourself having more fun than you could shake a stick at.

Without further delay, below you will find the instructions to setup a server so you can play Survival Mode with 8 players.

Requirements:

1. Left 4 Dead Server
2. Metamod
3. Sourcemod
4. 8 Players
5. Rcon Access
6. FTP Access

To get your server ready to do this, you will need to make sure you have the latest MetaMod and SourceMod installed. Installation instructions for SourceMod can be found here, and MetaMod here. Once you have that done, you need to grab the extra player plugin for SourceMod. After which you need to drop the plugin in the plugins directory located in the SourceMod directory. Anyone who owns a server should know how to do this so I am not going to go into detail on it.

At this point you need to make sure your server has the following configuration to ensure that players are able to join the game. You need to make sure that sv_allow_lobby_connect_only is set to 0 (zero). If you don't set this to 0 and are using 1 you will find that you will be unable to change the gamemode and you will be given the following "error" message, "Unable to change gamemode to 'survival', it is locked due to lobby reservation"

Once the value is changed save the configuration and restart the server. Please note that you will need to have people join the game via the openserverbrowser (open console and type openserverbrowser and hit enter) in order to get the 8 player survival match to work. Alternatively you can also have them use the connect command via the console and enter the IP address to the server, but the former is easier.

Creating the Left 4 Dead 8 Player Survival Mode Game

• Connect to the server WITHOUT creating a lobby.
• Log into rcon and change the game mode to "versus" (rcon mp_gamemode versus)
• Tell the other 7 players you have waiting to join the game. (they will need to use the server browser to join)
• Spawn the additional players, in this case 4 players. You will need to wait for them to change their names to the normal AI names, so make sure no one on the infected side changes teams until the "I Am Not Real" is replaced with Louis, Zoey, Francis or Bill depending on which characters are spawned.
• Tell everyone to switch to the survivor team. YOU MUST MAKE SURE THERE IS NO INFECTED OR SPECTATORS IN THE GAME. So if there are at this point either ask them to switch over or kick them.
• Once everyone is on the survivor team, open the console and change the gamemode back to survival (rcon mp_gamemode Survival)
• Then kill everyone or slay them to ensure the map reloads properly.

If you want to change maps at this point call a vote to change maps/chapters. If you find yourself loading the map but it appears to return back to Versus mode change the gamemode back to Survival and slay or kill everyone to ensure the maps loads properly.

A few problems you may run into are issues with people who go idle not being able to reclaim their character. Also you will notice that once the survival game is started with 8 players if someone leaves someone else will not be able to take their place unless you change the gamemode back to versus. Additionally if you do happen to start a game with a spectator or someone sitting on the infected team you will find that Survival Mode won't load completely and players may be dropped from the server. You may also notice certain elements don't work as intended, for example the guns and the ammo pile are no longer unlimited and after a single player picks up a weapon it will disappear.  However that's very little to pay in order to play 8 players in a game type that was intended for 4 players. With that said Enjoy 8 Player Survivor Mode!!!

If you find yourself having difficulty setting this up or discover anything interesting drop us a comment, We'll provide assistance in anyway possible.