Left 4 Dead/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

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== The Bots ==

* The AI Survivor bots. [[We Cannot Go On Without You|If you die (or if you and your friends die), the level has to be redone]], regardless if there is a bot left alive. One can assume that the bots can't "move" on their own since they always follow the player. However, if you set up a Versus match against the Survivors that are all bots, you can see them move fluidly in the level to get to the safe house without the player leading the way.

* The AI Survivor bots. [[We Cannot Go on Without You|If you die (or if you and your friends die), the level has to be redone]], regardless if there is a bot left alive. One can assume that the bots can't "move" on their own since they always follow the player. However, if you set up a Versus match against the Survivors that are all bots, you can see them move fluidly in the level to get to the safe house without the player leading the way.

** It wouldn't be much fun to sit and wait for the bots to get to a respawning closet. In multiplayer at least you can scout ahead (if your have free-look enabled) and tell them what's spawning.

** Actually, as it so happens, they ''will'' move through the level on their own if there's no player alive. They're just really conservative about it in Campaign. As far as why the game restarts if all human players die... well, that's not so much a matter of "in-universe" as "gameplay" reasons. If all the human players die, You Have Failed and should try again.

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* How do the survivors end up at the beginning of each campaign, other than No Mercy and Crash Course?

** Originally Death Toll was supposed to be the direct continuation of No Mercy. In the game files, there is an unused audio file of the pilot at the end of No Mercy talking and turning into an Infected. (In the game itself, while the survivors are waiting to be rescued, he does say he will be a little late and that there was "an incident", implying he was bitten.) The helicopter then crashes and the survivors end up where they start in the Death Toll campaign. The game designers apparently thought this made No Mercy have too much of a [[Downer Ending~~|downer ending~~]], so refrained from making it too obvious.

** Originally Death Toll was supposed to be the direct continuation of No Mercy. In the game files, there is an unused audio file of the pilot at the end of No Mercy talking and turning into an Infected. (In the game itself, while the survivors are waiting to be rescued, he does say he will be a little late and that there was "an incident", implying he was bitten.) The helicopter then crashes and the survivors end up where they start in the Death Toll campaign. The game designers apparently thought this made No Mercy have too much of a [[Downer Ending]], so refrained from making it too obvious.

*** Valve have since added a new campaign that follows on from No Mercy just like that. The helicopter crashes and the survivors have to head out on-foot. It doesn't quite link up completely with Death Toll, but it's pretty close.

** The different campaigns aren't continuations of each other, they're pretty much stand-alone, interactive zombie movies, with the same actors (The exception would be No Mercy and Death Toll, which could just be a direct sequel).

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** My guess is it has to do with the person's genetic makeup. Like someone who geneticaly has a lot of muscle mass would end up as a tank. but that less interesting so which ever you want.

*** Ever notice that ingame, all the common infected are of virtually identical height and muscular build? For instance, we never see very tall, short, obese, or anorexic common infected. But there are special infected who fit each of those categories. If you look at them, each fit a relatively uncommon physical profile. The smoker is a very tall and lanky person; jockeys are very short; and hunters are the very athletic. Tanks being those with insane muscles to begin with. If there are other physical features of the infected person with an influence on the resulting form, it would explain their relative rarity even further.

** I can think of [[A Date ~~With~~ Rosie Palms|another reason]] why the Charger may have a ridiculously overgrown arm...

** I can think of [[A Date with Rosie Palms|another reason]] why the Charger may have a ridiculously overgrown arm...

*** I was under the impression that it was an imperfect conversion to the tank. It has the same sort of pants and muscular deformity, only less impressive.

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** There may have been a CEDA broadcast to that effect. There's also a pile of dead bodies and cows that look as though they were to be burned at the beginning of Swamp Fever.

*** This troper would've liked to have seen zombie cows.

*** You could take them out with a zombie-slaying combine. A [[Half-Life 2 ~~(Video Game)~~|'zombine']], [[Incredibly Lame Pun|if you will...]]

*** You could take them out with a zombie-slaying combine. A [[Half-Life 2|'zombine']], [[Incredibly Lame Pun|if you will...]]

*** [[Postal|Maybe the original infection came from the cows?]]

* It's established that high-pitched frequencies and boomer bile attract swarms of infected. People have learned to take advantage of that by incorporating smoke alarms into explosives and collecting bile to sic regular infected on other zombies. So why doesn't the military just take the simple step of dipping explosives in bile/adding a siren, setting a timer, and carpet bombing entire overrun areas with thousands of them? Even if they wouldn't eliminate special infected, you've removed a vast majority of the enemy's strength with minimal cost in lives.

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** Or maybe they were rushing for the evac so much that they only noticed what they were fleeing when they had to stop and plan their next move.

** Problem is, a few of the lines the survivors can say upon exiting the first stairwell and seeing the Commons are along the lines of "What are these things?" implying this was the first time they ever saw them. On top of that, the intro movie makes it pretty clear that they've already fought through a bunch of Infected before making their way up to the rooftop of the apartments expecting a helicopter evac.

*** I was under the impression most of what happened in the intro movie was a sort of [[Cutscene Power to ~~The~~ Max]]-style rendition of all the campaigns, with the parts not necessarily shown in chronological order.

*** I was under the impression most of what happened in the intro movie was a sort of [[Cutscene Power to the Max]]-style rendition of all the campaigns, with the parts not necessarily shown in chronological order.

* OK, why are people insisting that Bill is going to be the one that dies in the Left 4 Dead 1 DLC/The Passing? The only thing they go by is that how the voice actor didn't record lines for Crash Course, so they assume that the VA isn't doing anymore lines.

** Because he's the grizzled old war veteran who understands the necessity of sacrifice? Nick and Francis get into a fight while Ellis develops a little crush on Zoey. This leaves only Louis and Bill. If you compared the characters by popularity, Louis would come out on top due to [[Memetic Mutation|GRABBAN PEELZ]].

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* When a survivor draws his pistols, what is holding his primary weapon onto his back?

** For some probably hyper-technical reason that I wouldn't understand, straps are a total bitch to render in real time. Most games just completely ignore them and let people fill in the gaps on their own. Notice how guitars float in pretty much every rhythm game for another example.

** Can anyone think of a way that the weapons (and Medkits) could feasibly [[Sticks to ~~The~~ Back|stick to the Survivor's backs]]?

** Can anyone think of a way that the weapons (and Medkits) could feasibly [[Sticks to the Back|stick to the Survivor's backs]]?

*** Straps and harnesses most likely, again, we just dont see them in game because it would be a pain in the ass for the designers to work on little details like that.