Updates to Left 4 Dead 2 have been released. The major changes include:

*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.

A required update to Team Fortress 2 is now available. Please run hldsupdatetool to receive the update. The specific changes include:

Engine:
– Increased the resilience of client/server data table mismatches when playing back demos. This will make most old demo files playable again, but with potential visual side effects.

Team Fortress 2:
– Updated CP_Coldfront
– Added map to the default mapcycle and motd files.
– Fixed a server crash issue related to increased maxplayer servers.
– Fixed a couple Engineer building exploits.
– Updated the localization files.
– Improved the performance of the critboost particle effect.
– Fixed a server crash related to carrying buildings at round start.
– Fixed players picking up buildings before a round has started.
– Fixed an exploit where Engineers could create level 3 mini-sentries.

Team Fortress 2

– Fixed an exploit that allowed Engineers to build level 2/3 mini sentries.
– Fixed a bug that allowed sapped buildings to be picked up by the Engineer.
– Fixed a bug where Wrangled level 3 sentryguns would still fire rockets when they were out of ammo.
– Fixed a bug where players would go into reference poses when switching classes while carrying a building.
– Fixed seeing the changeclass label in the spectator HUD when using cl_hud_minmode.
– The amount of revenge crits a player can have at one time is now capped at 35.
– The Wrangler no longer shows the shotgun’s ammo count.
– Engineers can no longer pick up buildings while stunned or in loser state.
– Fixed Engineer shotgun and piston not using team skins for the Engineer’s arms.
– Fixed an issue where Wrangled sentrygun effects wouldn’t be attached to the sentrygun.
– The Gunslinger 3 hit combo now only increments the combo count when hitting enemy players.
– Fixed a crash in the control point progress bar.
– Fixed a server crash in the player death code, related to building carrying.
– Fixing performance spikes that occur at round start, and after each point capture, when TFBots are present in the server.
– Achievement fixes:
– The « Rio Grind » achievement limit is now correctly set to 50.
– Fixed a typo in Six-String Stinger achievement name.
– Fixed a bug in the « Death Metal » achievement that caused it to rapidly complete itself.
– Fixed getting the Six-String Stinger achievement without playing the guitar.
– Fixed sentrygun detection code in « Best Little Slaughterhouse in Texas » and « Deputized ».
– Missed notes from yesterday’s release:
– New response rules and sounds added for some classes

Required update for Team Fortress 2 and Day of Defeat: Source are now available. The updates to Counter-Strike: Source are optional. The specific changes include:

Engine:
– Fixed client crash related flashlight usage.
– Fixed several issues related to alt-tabbing (invisible players, etc).

Team Fortress 2:
– Added The Frontier Justice.
– Added The Wrangler.
– Added The Gunslinger.
– Added The Southern Hospitality.
– Added 35 Engineer achievements.
– Engineers can now pickup & move their buildings.
– Added Engineer main menu music.
– Added 4 new maps:
– Thunder Mountain, a 3 stage Payload map.
– Hightower, a Payload Race map.
– Upward, a Payload map.
– ColdFront, a community built Capture Point map.
– Item tuning:
– The Sandvich now uses a cooldown timer, instead of the health pack recharge mechanic.
– The Gunboats now reduce self-damage by 60% (was 75%)
– The Tribalman’s Shiv bleed duration reduced to 6 second (was 8), and its damage penalty increased to 50% (was 35%).
– Added better feedback sound for Pyros on when their flamethrower is doing damage.
– Fixed blood effect on bleeding player.
– Added a glow effect to Payload carts.
– Added Romanian language support.

From Jason Ruymen

A required update for Team Fortress 2 is now available. Please run hldsupdatetool to receive it. The specific changes include:

Added new community weapons and hats.
Updated CP_Gorge
– Added nobuilds to the awnings outside BLU’s forward spawn to preventing players building up there.
– More clip work and model collision work based on community feedback.
– Fixed BLU forward spawn door appearing through roof.
Updated PLR_Pipeline
– Added new stairwell in Stage 1 and window access to both teams’ platforms by main choke point to help alleviate stalemates.
– Reverted the starting position for the cart in Stage 3 if a team had won the first 2 stages to where you no longer get a big cart-start-position advantage.
– Fixed rare cases where stage would break when cart had no nearby capper(s).
– Fixed carts not always moving to their starting locations correctly.
– Fixed respawn times in Stage 3 not being set to the proper values.
– Fixed the map not finishing correctly in Stage 3 if the two teams capture the final point at the same time.
Removed sv_showhitboxes to avoid players confusing it with the method by which we do hit detection (see http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_Multiplayer_Networking for info)

Jason

From Jason Ruymen

Required updates for Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Source Beta are now available. Please run hldsupdatetool to receive the updates. The specific changes include:

Engine:
- Improved crash reporting system to enable more detailed crash reports
- Fixed a client crash caused by a buffer overflow while processing temp entities

Counter-Strike: Source Beta:
- blabla on s’en cogne

Team Fortress 2:
- Fixed a case where the Spy could start taunting and cloak at the same time
Flamethrower changes:
– Increased base damage 10%
– Afterburn duration increased (from 6 to 10)
– Flares that hit a burning player at mid-to-long range will crit
– Reduced Backburner damage bonus from 20% to 15%

Jason

From Jason Ruymen

A required update for Team Fortress 2 is now available. Please run hldsupdatetool to receive the update. The specific changes include:

- Mann Co. badges updated
– Added new « Primeval Warrior » employee badge
– Moved badges start date to the official TF2 release date of October 10th, 2007
– Gave « Primeval Warrior » badge to anyone who played in the TF2 Beta prior to the official release
– Adjusted existing badges based on the new start date
- Fixed player avatars being squashed in the Arena win panel
- Fixed a client crash caused by players calling for a Medic
- Fixed a server crash caused by receiving invalid data in player commands
- Fixed wearables attached to ragdolls not setting their skins and bodygoups correctly
- Fixed deflected remote-detonate pipebombs becoming mini-crits when detonated
- Fixed deflected remote-detonate pipebombs becoming full crits if the Pyro is critboosted
- Prevented custom models from showing domination particles in PropHunt

Jason

From Jason Ruymen

Required updates to Team Fortress 2 and Day of Defeat: Source have been released. Please run hldsupdatetool to receive the updates. The specific changes include:

Dedicated server
- Linux optimizations.
- Fixed Linux servers not relisting correctly after a master server restart.
- Fixed a case where servers could have « ghost » players consuming player slots.

Engine
- Marked the « snd_show » convar as a cheat.

Team Fortress 2
New content:
- Added new community map cp_freight.
- Added missing physics models for several items.
- Added jiggle bones to the Sam & Max items, and The Buff Banner.
- Added Crit-a-Cola.

Gameplay Changes:
- Pyro changes:
- Flamethrower direct damage reduced 20%.
- Burn duration reduced (10 -> 6 seconds).
- Airblast re-fire delay reduced by 25%.
- Airblast ammo usage reduced by 20%.
- All reflected rockets/grenades/arrows now mini-crit.
- Airblasting enemies into environmental deaths now awards the death credit to the Pyro.
- Heavy changes:
- Minigun spin-up/down time reduced by 25%
- Minigun firing movement speed increased to just under half-normal (from 80 to 110).
- Throwing a sandvich to a teammate now earns a full bonus point (was half a point).
- Bonk! changes:
- Post-use movement penalty removed.
- Now has a re-use cooldown time, like The Sandman.
- The Chargin’ Target changes:
– Direct charge hit now does 50 damage + 10 per head (up to 5 heads).
– Capped the turn rate from +left and +right while charging.
- The Huntsman changes:
- Removed restriction that arrows need to be aimed before they can be lit by a Pyro.
- Bow can now be lowered without losing the lit arrow.
- Changed bow so you can start charging it while you’re jumping, but you can’t fire until you’re on the ground.
- Fixed bug where flame effect would get stuck on if you change weapons with a lit arrow.
- Backpack changes:
- Moved Crafting button out to the root class/backpack selection panel.
- Dragging and dropping items in your backpack now makes appropriate sounds.
- Bot changes:
- Bots don’t retreat to gather health as readily if they are in combat.
- Bots no longer retreat when moving to block a point capture.
- Bots should now equip an appropriate combat weapon and fight while moving to collect health.
- Bots who are roaming the map and hunting now chase down their victims, following them around corners.
- Bots That fire projectiles (ie: rockets/grenades/etc) don’t hold down their fire button for a minimum time. This was causing Soldier bots to fire rockets into nearby walls as they strafed, killing themselves.
- Soldiers bots now switch to their shotgun after firing all four rockets when engaging an enemy.
- Added a few more bot names from community suggestions.
- Fixed a behavior loop with Engineer metal gathering.
- The Sandman change:
– Added a slight speed reduction to stunned players.
- Community requests
- Added ConVars log_verbose_enable and log_verbose_interval to report player positions in the server log at regular intervals
– log_verbose_enable default: 0
– log_verbose_interval default: 3 secs
– « Last-weapon » initialization on respawn now sets itself to be the melee weapon if you don’t have a selectable secondary weapon (like The Razorback).

Bug Fixes:
- Fixed an case where The Gunboats didn’t apply their damage reduction properly.
- The amount count in the HUD now flashes red when you’re low on ammo.
- Extinguishing a burning teammate now earns a full bonus point (was half a point).
- Fixed a permanent overheal exploit involving dispensers.
- Fixed a bug in spectator mode where the user aborted out of freezecam, setup a spec mode (like IN_EYE), and would then have the setting stomped after the freezecam timer expired.
- Fixed bug with disguised spy sometimes seeing his own name in the disguise status HUD.
- Fixed a client crash that could result from players with arrows embedded in them.
- Fixed items that can be worn by any class having the wrong model when worn by a disguised Spy.
- Added missing map prefixes to server browser game types.
- Killing yourself with your own sentry no longer increments the sentry’s kill counter.
- Fixed dropped hats sometimes having the wrong team color.
- Fixed crit-boosted players not getting critical hits if their weapon has custom no-crit behavior.
- Fixed the achievement dialog taking a long time to pop up, and completed achievements now sort to the bottom of the list.
- Fixed Spies disguised as Medics hearing the autocaller sound.

Jason

From Jason Ruymen

A required update for Team Fortress 2 is now available. The specific changes include:

Engine:
- Fixed servers being inappropriately delisted from the master server

Team Fortress 2:
- Updated CTF_Doublecross
- Improved clipping to prevent players from getting to unintended places
- Updated CTF_2Fort
- Fixed Blue players being able to block the Blue spawn room doors to lock in teammates
- Moved the Blue team Sniper wall down to match the Red team Sniper wall
- Updated Russian localization strings
- Fixed the Pyro not being able to deflect enemy flares
- Fixed pipebombs not being removed if they explode in a func_nogrenades zone

Jason

Engine
Enabled Steam Cloud support for key bindings and custom spraypaint images
– Added Options->Multiplayer->Advanced option to toggle off/on: default is on

Team Fortress 2
Added new Highlander mode.
– 9 players allowed per team.
– Restricts each team to 1 of each class.
– Use mp_highlander (0/1) to toggle off/on: default is 0
Added « bots » to the server’s sv_tags convar if the server is running bots.
Fixed a weapon name localization issue.
Fixed the « tf_teamtalk » server convar not controlling text chat between living/dead teammates.
Updated the map CTF_DoubleCross
– Fixed the map not ending correctly when using mp_timelimit.
– Changed to prevent Engineers from building on top of the shack in each base.
Updated the map Arena_WatchTower
– Fixed a case where players could open and get stuck on the starting gates before the round start.
– Improved clipping to prevent people from getting out of the map.
– Optimized the map for better performance.

Jason