Updates (Left 4 Dead 2)

The following is a history of updates applied to Left 4 Dead 2. The updates, when on the PC version of Left 4 Dead 2, will be applied automatically when you restart Steam, and on the Xbox 360, you will be prompted to update the game when you start it up. However, this only happens if you have Xbox LIVE. The list goes from the most recent at the top, and the earliest at the bottom. These are only the specific changes made to Left 4 Dead 2 itself. Note that the PC version gets the updates first, and that the Xbox 360 version gets all of the updates to that point in time in a pack. Due to this, it's possible that some of the more recent updates have not yet be released for the console version.

March 11, 2011
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Encore Mutation: Follow The Liter
 * Added support custom campaign particles. Custom campaigns can specify their own particles_manifest.txt file as well as any per map files. The per map files need to reside in the maps directory and be in the form: _particles.txt

February 25, 2011
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Mutation Classic #2: Bleed Out

February 24, 2011
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Improved performance for a range of ATI graphics parts

February 23, 2011
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Improved performance for a range of ATI graphics parts

February 15, 2011
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Newer verssion of Death's Door Mutation with fewer defibs

February 11, 2011
Left 4 Dead 2
 * New Community Mutation: Death's Door

February 2, 2011
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Fixed a console command exploit that could be used to crash dedicated servers

January 28, 2011
Left 4 Dead 2
 * New Community Mutation: Nightmare

January 14, 2011
Left 4 Dead 2
 * New Community Mutation: Riding My Survivor
 * Added support for raw mouse input on PC. Raw input reads directly from the mouse, bypassing Windows control panel mouse settings. This addresses issues with high DPI mice, and provides for a more reliable controller experience at various resolutions
 * Improved Support for mouse acceleration, for use with raw mouse input
 * Fixes for stability issues on some Intel chips
 * Various rendering fixes for Mac

December 17, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Community Mutation: Special Delivery
 * Added protection against servers executing restricted commands on clients
 * Fixed clients sometimes not getting disconnected from the server after getting a consistency error
 * Fixed an exploit that could cause players to fall through the elevator in No Mercy
 * Fixed the still-crownable witch in Realism Versus

December 3, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Encore Mutation: Hard Eight
 * Fixed dedicated servers not launching if "hl2" was in the installation path
 * Allow m60s to spawn on original campaigns for mod use.
 * Fixed edge case to prevent Infected Players from cycling to survivors whose glows have nearly faded.
 * Tweaks to survivor health glow settings to make states easier to recognize.
 * Fixed a glow color transition point that was off by one.
 * Added cvars to control the behavior of survivor health glows
 * cl_glow_survivor_health_bleed_pulse
 * cl_glow_survivor_health_bleed_pulse_speed
 * cl_glow_survivor_health_bleed_pulse_amount
 * cl_glow_survivor_health_include_buffer

Gameplay
 * Increased spawn times slightly for special infected in Realism Versus.
 * Removed ability to crown witches in realism game modes

November 19, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Encore Mutation: Gib Fest!

The following changes are for the PC and will be available for the XBOX 360 in a future update.

Competitive Modes
 * Removed Special Infected spawn music in competitive modes.
 * Added a glow outline to the witch, visible only to the infected team.
 * Added cvar "director_allow_infected_bots" for confogl and other configs.
 * Survivor health glow changes:
 * Adjusted glow color transitions to match movement speed transitions.
 * Use combined regular and temp health when calculating glow color.
 * Glow pulses slightly when the Survivor is on temp health.
 * Realism Versus
 * Cut Special Infected spawn times by half in Realism Versus.

All
 * Fixed limping Survivors moving slightly faster in water.
 * Fixed voice recording intermittently stopping on Mac OS X
 * Client-side plugins
 * Clients must run with –insecure to load unsigned plugins.
 * Insecure clients cannot connect to secure servers.
 * Servers can opt to allow insecure clients by running with –insecure.
 * Secure clients can connect to both secure and insecure servers.

November 12, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Encore Mutation: Taaannnkk!!!
 * A vote-kick ban is now applied to players even if they disconnect during voting
 * Additional script commands are cheat-protected

November 5, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * New Mutation: Healing Gnome
 * Pressing E while in ghost mode will teleport you to the next visible player
 * Voting has been restricted to stop vote spam

October 29, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * New Mutation: Bleed Out Versus
 * Tank speed is no longer reduced when on fire
 * Fixed team votes passing without a majority from both teams
 * Fixed a bug where the add-on list could become unresponsive to mouse input
 * Protected against some console commands that could be used to lag or crash servers

October 23, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2 Xbox 360 dedicated servers
 * Fixed versus servers sometimes shutting down before both teams have fully connected.
 * Fixed No Mercy door exploit

October 22, 2010 (2)
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Fixed versus servers sometimes shutting down before both teams have fully connected

October 22, 2010 (1)
Left 4 Dead 2
 * New Mutation: Lone Gunman

October 20, 2010 (2)
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Fixed lobbies not being able to join Steam Group servers

October 20, 2010 (1)
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Fixed the fix of the fix of the fix of the door exploit in No Mercy

October 15, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * New Mutation: Hunting Party
 * Fixed door exploit in No Mercy
 * Now Allow thirdperson settings in cooperative game modes
 * Fixed add-on campaigns not always appearing in the campaign selection screen
 * Restored dedicated server support for add-on campaigns
 * Fixed some rendering artifacts on Mac
 * Added support for Russian audio in The Sacrifice and No Mercy
 * Game correctly recognizes the audio language set in Steam

October 7, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Fixed missing subtitles
 * Re-enabled the "wait" command, fixes a hang at startup
 * Fixed several crashes that were reported to our crash database
 * Fixed some addon content eclipsing game content even when not playing an addon campaign. This resolves several issues with missing or incorrect models, textures, and effects. This fix temporarily affects the ability to host custom campaigns on dedicated servers. We are working to restore that functionality as soon as possible.

October 5, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Game is fully playable on the Mac platform.
 * Fixed a few third person camera cheats.
 * Added "The Sacrifice" content.
 * Added "No Mercy" content.
 * Versus: Infected players will get a respawn time reduction against teams that rush.
 * Removed need for Left 4 Dead 2 Add-on Support for Community Campaigns

September 24, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Dev Choice Mutation: Versus Survival

September 17, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Dev Choice Mutation: Healthpackalypse

September 10, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Dev Choice Mutation: Follow The Liter

September 02, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Developer Choice - Hard Eight.
 * Fixed a remote DLL loading exploit (MS KB2264107).
 * Fixed a crash when disconnecting a rcon connection due to an invalid password when multiple sessions were already connected.

August 27, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Encore mutations: Gib Fest (PC) and Chainsaw Massacre (Xbox 360)
 * Fixed accessing corrupted sentence data after flushing sound caches, likely the cause of an audio crash.

August 20, 2010
Mutation
 * Developer Choice - Last Man On Earth

UI
 * Added vote option to enable All Talk in Versus.
 * Added vote option to Restart Chapter in Versus.
 * Added the ability in the lobby for all players to vote on starting the game.

Gameplay
 * Removed Defibs and First Aid Kits in Realism Versus. Survivors start with a First Aid Kit, but all world spawns are disabled.

Addons
 * To avoid conflicts between Community Campaigns, only content vpks get loaded when starting a campaign.
 * Added console command "show_addon_load_order" that prints out the order of loaded vpk files.

Authoring Tools
 * VPK files now support their own sound.cache file.
 * Use the command "snd_buildsoundcachefordirectory " to create the sound.cache file that you should include when you create your vpk file.

August 13, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * New Mutation: Iron Man
 * Fixed Russian localization strings

August 6, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * New Mutation: Gib Fest!
 * Localization updates and fixes

July 31, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Fixed bug in Versus-Survival where a team could get 5 survivors

July 30, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Encore mutation: Versus Survival (PC), Four Swordsmen of the Apocalypse (Xbox 360)
 * Added a setup timer to Versus Survival
 * Fixed an exploit that dropped players from dedicated servers

July 28, 2010
Addons
 * Client's custom HUDs will be reloaded when changing between Official and Non-official servers.

GamePlay
 * Bullets that first pass through an infected character before striking a Survivor are now ignored as friendly fire.
 * Fix for survivors speaking The Passing Finale lines in other campaigns.

Versus
 * Charger now receives 300 points for any Survivor that is insta-killed.
 * Charger now receives 100 points for any Survivor that is insta-incapped by a charge.
 * Any infected that causes a Survivor to stumble into a "ledge hang" situation will receive 50 points.

Tank
 * Tanks go into a stasis when they spawn and leave stasis when the human player takes over.
 * Tanks in stasis are invisible but still show a glow to the infected team.
 * Tanks do not attack when they are in stasis.
 * Tanks in stasis cannot be set on fire or damaged.

SDK Tools
 * Fixed crash whenever a VMT was loaded in L4D2 tools mode.

July 23, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * New mutation: Healthpackalypse!

July 21, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Added additional protection for critical files
 * All add-on files will be loaded when connecting to a Non-Official server regardless of game mode
 * Only approved custom maps will be loaded when connecting to an Official server
 * Player's can print the contents of the consistency list with "cl_print_consistency_list". If the server has sv_consistency disabled, the user will be notified when they attempt to print the list
 * Improvement to Hammer load times

July 16, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * New mutation: Hard Eight

July 9, 2010 (2)

 * Removed left4dead2\pak02_dir.vpk from the whitelist.

July 9, 2010 (1)
Left 4 Dead 2
 * New mutation: Four Swordsmen of the Apocalypse

Addon Changes
 * By default in single player and co-op gamemodes custom content will eclipse game content.
 * Addon campaign's custom content now loads first to avoid conflicts.
 * In competitive modes addon loading is a server option.
 * Fixed an exploit that allowed people to modify materials on pure servers.
 * Default consistency checks now include pak01_dir.vpk. Addon authors should not hack the pak01_dir.vpk directly but instead include content in a VPK.

Server changes
 * The "whitelist.cfg" file located in the "steamapps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2" directory is now functional. Instructions on how to use this file are located in the file itself. Basically this allows the server operators to decide what files need consistency checks.

July 2, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * New mutation: Versus Survival
 * Updated default configuration for Intel HD Graphics card

June 25, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Encore Mutation: Chainsaw Massacre

June 18, 2010
Addon Update
 * Fixed a crash when the vpk file limit was reached.
 * Fixed an issue where wireframes were displayed while playing Addon Campaigns.

Versus Updates
 * Added a 25 point scoring penalty for using a Defibrillator.
 * Scaled dynamic Defibrillators based on map length with a maximum of 1 per map.
 * Removed dynamic Pill conversion to First Aid Kits.
 * Removed Explosive Ammunition.
 * Increased Jockey damage per second.
 * Removed Jockey’s damage delay.

June 11, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * New mutation: Room For One.
 * Improved SurvivorBot's ability to support players who stop moving to fight infected.
 * Improved SurvivorBot’s ability to support players in tight spaces.

Match Making Changes
 * Server searches for Official Dedicated servers no longer automatically fall back to Best Available. Lobby leaders will be given the option.
 * Lobby leaders can select "Steam Group Server" as a server option. This will allow them to select individual servers.

June 9, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Changed Survivorbot item hunting behavior
 * SurvivorBots now stay closer to human players in all game modes
 * Fixed Survivorbot navigation issue in The Passing: Riverbank
 * Fixed bug where a SurvivorBot could become catatonic when attempting to save another Survivor from a Smoker
 * Fixed condition where SurvivorBots would not enter the saferoom
 * Increased self-inflicted friendly fire damage from the Grenade Launcher
 * Fixed bug where the M60 would reset its ammo if dropped in certain situations
 * Car Alarms will now trigger anytime a Special Infected pushes/pulls/rams a Survivor into an alarm car. This change only affects game modes with human-controlled Infected.

June 4, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * New mutation: Chainsaw Massacre
 * In Versus Special Infected bots spawn within 10 seconds of the Survivors leaving the safe room
 * Shortened spawn times for human Special Infected when the Infected team isn’t full. The time difference is added to the timer of the next bot in line to spawn
 * Exposed client console variable cl_viewmodelfovsurvivor to let players adjust their viewmodel FOV
 * To use this type cl_viewmodelfovsurvivor ## in the console. ## can be any number from 0-128 the default is 51

May 21, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Encore mutation: Last Gnome On Earth
 * Realism Versus added as a permanent game mode
 * Lobbies now default to "Official Dedicated"

April 30, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Fixed original survivors cheating in Bleed Out mode by throwing first aid kits

April 27, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2
 * Fixed addons content not loading if coop was the first game mode loaded
 * Fixed versus modes sometimes using incorrect game rule settings after server hibernation
 * Fixed a crash in The Parish: The Park on Linux dedicated servers
 * Updated dlc1 Russian UI text

April 24, 2010
Left 4 Dead 2:
 * Fixed the localization sound caches
 * Fixed AI tanks sometimes not getting assigned to human players
 * Fixed exploit in C5M2 where players could jump through a gap in the fence
 * Fixed commentary maps crashing on load

SDK:
 * Removed Perforce integration and Manifest UI when running Hammer under and SDK deployment
 * Removed Version control menu for SDK
 * Material nudging only works if the user has nudging enabled

April 22, 2010 (2)
Left 4 Dead 2:
 * Fixed SDK load Issue
 * Fixed Mutation Achievement display

April 22, 2010 (1)
The first game add-on for Left 4 Dead 2 brings the original Left 4 Dead Survivors down south for a meeting with the L4D2 cast, while delivering new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay.

Left 4 Dead 2 will be automatically updated with this free add-on. To celebrate this release, L4D2 and the 4-Pack will be 33% off until Monday.

About the update:

"The Passing" features 3 new maps, new weekly game modes (Mutations), a new "uncommon common" zombie class (the fallen survivor), melee weapon (golf club), firearm (M-60), support for infected bot play in Versus, 10 new achievements and more!

February 24, 2010

 * Fixed a Linux dedicated server crash.

February 19, 2010

 * Fixed all bot teams not leaving the starting area if sb_all_bot_team 1 was set.
 * Fixed a case where survivor bots would fail to rescue a friend from charger attacks.
 * Updated Thai translations.
 * Fixed an issue where servers wouldn't relist after the master server was bounced.
 * Fixed Charger jumping exploit.
 * Fixed Spitter bug where spit could emit from a location several inches from the head, causing the spit to unexpectedly strike nearby objects and fall.

February 5, 2010
Gameplay:
 * Now ghost PZ's can never be staggered.
 * Enabled PZ bots.
 * PZ bots use their more aggressive survival mode behavior in versus and scavenge.
 * Enabled finale manual spawn by default.
 * Fixed human PZ players not getting counted when they were dead, allowing extra PZ bots to spawn.
 * Reduced effectiveness of melee weapons against the Tank ( 5% of max health, from 10% )
 * Fixed a case where a player who dies, then is rescued from a rescue closet, and then is revived from a ledge hang receives the secondary weapon that he lost when he was initially killed.
 * Improved SurvivorBot AI in cases where the bots refused to shoot through their teammates and became non-responsive.
 * Fixed issue with witch sometimes taking on uncommon common properties.
 * Fix for cheaters quitting before the vote to kick them would succeed and avoiding ban on server.
 * VAC banned users can now play L4D2 single-player, commentary mode and credits.

Map Fixes:
 * Dark Carnival Fair Ground: added env_player_blocker to keep special infected from getting stuck.
 * Dark Carnival Fair Ground: added navigation area that was missing.
 * Dark Carnival Fair Ground: Disconnected drops that were blocked by the top of a fence.
 * Swamp Fever Plank Country: Deleted 2 nav areas that connected between tree trunks you can't pass through.
 * Swamp Fever Shanty Town: Redrew ladder thinner so special infected could climb up to the roof.
 * The Parish Waterfront: Fixed various navigation areas.
 * Mall: Tuned spawning for difficulty.

SDK Content:
 * Added missing nature/blend tooltextures.
 * Added missing cs models/textures.
 * Added missing acunit01 model/texture
 * Added missing ammo_can_02 model/texture.
 * Added missing patio_chair model/texture.

January 12, 2010
Gameplay:
 * Fixed where last round of upgraded ammo didn't have upgrade effect.
 * Survivors driven by a Jockey now glows for infected team in all cases.
 * Fixed exploit that allowed Jockey players to get instant recharge of their ability.
 * Fixed Charger ability timer not resetting when killing a survivor with low health on their third strike.
 * Charger now applies a small amount of damage when charging through physic props.

Match Making:
 * Changed how requests are made to master server for group servers.
 * Fixed sorting on group servers UI.
 * Reduced update work on group servers UI.

Miscellaneous:
 * Made the water shader support splitscreen on the PC.
 * Miscellaneous fixes in the subtitles.
 * Updated system tray icon.
 * Fixed Survival timer issue caused when voting for round restart.

SDK/L4D2-LD/Hammer changes:
 * When browsing for a func_instance filename, the proper path relative to the current bsp will be returned. This allows level designers to use instances from the base game in dlc maps without having to manually fix up the filename.
 * Changed base.fgd default skybox to one that exists in L4D2.
 * Added env_instructor_hint to fgd, as well as content/game icon images.
 * Deadline URL fix.
 * Added missing vmt for env_instructor_hint.
 * L4D Addon Support - restored missing delivery van modified VMT.
 * L4D Addon Support - restored missing shelves metal 3.
 * L4D Addon Support - restored floodlight generator switch.
 * L4D Addon Support - restored missing airliner content.
 * Updated vbsp to correctly handle instances within instances.
 * Fixed the fullscreen engine changing the Hammer views, requiring a restart of Hammer.

December 18, 2009

 * Reduced Dedicated Server max search ping to 150 ms.
 * Teams that prefer listen servers will no longer be matched with teams that prefer dedicated servers.
 * Official dedicated servers are now preferred when searching for team matches.
 * More populous lobbies are now preferred over less populous ones when searching for games.
 * Players who crash or have failed to load are no longer banned if they have been kicked.
 * Update Russian subtitles.
 * Fixed not being able to interlink teams in team-on-team mode.
 * Fixed not being able to properly migrate team lobby after team leader would leave the lobby.
 * Fixed not being able to invite friends if player was not team leader in a team-on-team game.

December 12, 2009

 * Fixed players getting a bad spawn position after a level transition.

December 9, 2009

 * Changed rules for ghost placement in Scavenge Mode.
 * Player controlled Special Infected are no longer forced to un-crouch and lock strafe when they crouch attack.
 * Spitter spit that damages players on a moving elevator will now fizzle quickly.
 * Allowed the survivor and infected to rotate the camera view while being attacked by a Charger or Smoker.
 * Smoker that has dragged a survivor to the end now gets the same cinematic flashlight as the Hunter and Charger.
 * Fixed a crash in physics.
 * Updated the Charger's hit boxes.
 * Updated the Jockey's hit boxes.
 * Updated the Spitter's hit boxes.
 * Fixed player health on being revived after a Charger slam over a high ledge.
 * Fixed versus scores not resetting after a vote to change campaigns.
 * Fixed being able to use defibrillator on dead players who were far above or below you.
 * Fixed pink glow on dead survivors.
 * Fixed being able to hold crouch while incapacitated to get better weapon accuracy.
 * Fixed players pushing against some props causing them to accumulate downward velocity and then take falling damage when they let go of the forward key.
 * Fixed a case where an incapacitated survivor inside a rescue vehicle would trigger both the escape sequence and a round restart.
 * Fixed the helping hand from getting stuck when extended.

December 4, 2009

 * Fixed crash on startup when using FAT32 file system.
 * Fixed in-game chat input where the local encoding differs from the input language's.
 * Fixed bug where Survivor Bots would sometimes become unresponsive in Scavenge games.
 * Updated subtitle localization files for Hungarian, Portuguese, Romanian and Russian.
 * Fixed exploit that allowed players on the Infected team to spawn directly next to the Survivors.

December 1, 2009

 * Fixed case where game failed to launch in certain machine configurations.
 * Fixed bug where a burning witch could get into a state where she's invincible.
 * Fixed bug where bots would not shoot at Jockeys and Chargers while approaching to save a teammate.

November 27, 2009

 * Updated stats collection and related steam pages.
 * Fixed issue where players could be stuck if caught in charger pound.
 * Updated CPU detection.

November 21, 2009

 * Fixed performance problem when rendering lots of decals, notably when fighting tanks with shotguns.
 * Fixed rcon response not working on Linux dedicated servers.
 * Fixed matchmaking problem matching into Advanced and Expert games.
 * Fix bug that would cause other specials to try to pummel a player a Charger disconnects or reconnects.
 * Fixed versus mode results panel being cut off in transition stats screen in non-English.
 * Found games: fixed non-player entries drawing the wrong type of icon in the selected item name label.
 * Game mode selector on main menu now takes keyboard input.

November 17, 2009

 * Fixed stability problem during level transition experienced by some users.