New Left 4 Dead Patch: The End of Melee Spamming in Versus

[DoctorFinger]

I know what some of you are thinking: another news post about Left 4 Dead? What can I say? It's a great game any any little tidbit about it gets my Spider-Sense tingling. In this case there's a new patch for the game (360 and PC versions) which fixes a few technical issues, and introduces one gameplay change which could have major implications on how some people play the game.
Game & Client Changes

# Introduced fatigue to the melee attack in versus mode. You will see a HUD display when your melee swing is cooling down
# Boomer vomit will now pass through common infected
# Addressed some surround sound detection issues
# Fixed a rare crash when exiting Left4Dead on Windows Vista
# Fixed a case where the complete all expert campaigns achievement was not being rewarded

Dedicated Server Changes

# Corrected an issue where Windows based dedicated were sending spurious shutdown notifications to the master causing them to delist temporarily
# Fixed dedicated servers not resetting the versus team swap correctly--you could join a dedicated server that had a previous game that was swapped and arrive on the other team than what was selected in the lobby
# Renamed the tags for sv_search_key to use "key:" in the server tags instead of "sv_search_key." This should help with issues of the 63 character limit of server tags
# Fixed an occasional server crash related to votingEmphasis mine. It's a small tweak, but ending melee spamming - even if it's limited to Versus and Survivor modes - could honk off a lot of people, but for the better. This fix will go into effect for PC players immediately, and will be a part of the April 21st free expansion for the 360. Valve also says that updates will come more frequently for the PC going forward, with fewer, larger updates for the 360.

Source - VE3D (http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/45759/Left-4-Dead-Update-Adds-Fatigue-Timer-To-Melee-Attack); Left 4 Dead Official Blog (http://www.l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=2377).

[Jackel]

You really think this is going to fix melee spamming?

The only thing this will fix ix people running off on their own. Now you're going to see even more people clustering together in closets, so that they can take advantage of each other's melee spam.

The HUD itself is next to useless as well as its difficult (at least for me) to see when you're facing a horde (which is when it's actually needed).

[bryan]

I've only recently started playing regularly - what's the problem with melee spamming? I'm not sure what it is, is it survivor's just endlessly meleeing?

[Lint of Death]

I've only recently started playing regularly - what's the problem with melee spamming? I'm not sure what it is, is it survivor's just endlessly meleeing?

Yep, just shoving over and over and over and over. It's not particularly lethal, but it does do damage and can make an individual difficult to the point of near-impossible to approach. Depending on how the stamina works, the change could make it easier for Smokers to yank survivors and for Hunters to run in with their secondary claws.

[bryan]

Cool, I've seen some people do it and it looks silly.

[LiquidRain]

Interesting change, indeed. I look forward to seeing how it changes the dynamic.

Valve's been tuning the game to make it more difficult to survive the last few patches. I wonder if the trend will continue?

[Lon Lon Rabbit]

Sounds like a good idea for vs, gives the infected just a little bit more of a chance to succeed when the survivors are held out in a corner. It's quite infuriating as a boomer to hit all 4 survivors then find they made it to a nearby corner and took no or almost no damage at the end of the ensuing rush.

At the same time I'm glad it's vs only, as you need all the melee you can get for vs expert (and I assume the upcoming survival mode).

[Wasson_]

I've only recently started playing regularly - what's the problem with melee spamming? I'm not sure what it is, is it survivor's just endlessly meleeing?

what?...

obviously-
hunters have a wind-up time before they jump. smokers have a pretty long cool down time after a successful grab and boomers have a REALLY long cool down. The Tank as well has an obvious cool down between it's attack. It's only logical that the survivors have a cool down time for their melee. It should have been in the game from the start.

Valve continues to penalize players who lack skill / have no tact. Especially in L4D, Tank Parking would have gotten to be a really gay thing if they didn't nix that right away.

[bryan]

Dude you might have a beef about it, but it's obviously not obvious cause I didn't get it. I've only managed to play six times, and "melee spamming" is hardly specific. My first thought was that it was some kind of exploit. Not to mention as you pointed out yourself that all the classes melee.

[Ink Asylum]

I'm glad to see Valve willing to play around with the balance in bold ways. They keep a close eye on a ton of stats, so they'll know if a change they make results in an unfair shift in difficulty for one side or the other. If Survivors are getting nerfed too much they'll notice and shift it back in another direction.

[Clark]

Sounds like a good idea for vs, gives the infected just a little bit more of a chance to succeed when the survivors are held out in a corner. It's quite infuriating as a boomer to hit all 4 survivors then find they made it to a nearby corner and took no or almost no damage at the end of the ensuing rush.

At the same time I'm glad it's vs only, as you need all the melee you can get for vs expert (and I assume the upcoming survival mode).

I feel the same way. It blows to puke on all 4 survivors in a corner and basically get laughed at because it's near useless.

[TheKeck]

I feel the same way. It blows to puke on all 4 survivors in a corner and basically get laughed at because it's near useless.
On the other hand, it's awesome to blow puke on 4 survivors. :D