L4D (Left 4 Dead) Multiplayer LAN with Single Account
Written by: NetworkError, on 15-04-2011 20:52 Last update: 15-04-2011 21:20 Published in:Public, Things that go Boom Views: 2909
I love playing Left 4 Dead. I love throwing Left 4 Dead LAN parties from time to time. However, I only have 1 steam account, and many of my friends do not have a copy. What's a geek to do? How shall I go about spreading the Left 4 Dead addiction?
Do you remember the good old days of StarCraft and Warcraft; back when you could install a spawn and play a LAN party on one game disc? Well you can do something similar with Left 4 Dead.
Before I dive into the technical details, let's spend a few sentences on ethics. Is playing a LAN party on one account against the EULA? Probably. Is it stealing? No. Is it a great way to turn friends into paying Steam customers? Absolutely. I have gotten a number of friends to purchase a copy after playing a few LAN parties with me. Now that that's out of the way...
What you will need:
2+ PCs
A LAN (or VPN)
A steam account with a valid license for Left 4 Dead
To pull this off, you need to get all your Steam clients/L4D installs on the exact same version. You have to update one computer at a time since you can't be logged into Steam more than once with a single account. Do this on each PC.
Install Steam, if necessary.
Log in and install the game, if necessary.
Launch the game once to ensure it is up-to-date.
Restart Steam once to ensure all client updates are applied.
Put Steam in offline mode.
Launch Left 4 Dead. Go to Options -> Keyboard/Mouse. Enable the developer console.
Next, you need to run some console commands. First, bring up the server:
Press the ~ key. (It's to the left of the number one.) This will open the developer console.
Type "sv_lan 1" [ENTER] (This turns LAN mode on.) Note: Leave the double quotes off.
Type "sv_allow_lobby_connect_only 0" [ENTER] (This allows a game without a lobby.)
Type "net_start" [ENTER]
Type "map ". Press the down arrow until you find the map you want. Then press [ENTER]. This will start the game.
If you want to allow users to use cheats or change characters, type "sv_cheats 1" [ENTER]
Clients need to run a few commands before they connect:
Press the ~ key.
Type "sv_lan 1" [ENTER]
Type "sv_allow_lobby_connect_only 0" [ENTER]
Once the server is up, you should see an icon appear at the bottom of the screen. Hit ~ to get out of the Developer Console, then click the icon and join the game. (The icon will only appear if broadcast is working. If it's not, use the console command "connect [IP ADDRESS OF SERVER]" [ENTER].)
Here are some other useful commands. Most of these are only usable by the server:
sb_takecontrol [Namvet, Biker, TeenGirl, Manager] (Ex: "sb_takecontrol Namvet" [ENTER] changes you to the Bill character, assuming no one else is using him. sv_cheats must be set to 1 for this to work.)
maxplayers [1-8] (change number of players the server will accept. Default is 4, I think.)
director_no_human_zombies 0 (turn on versus)
director_force_versus_start 1 (Start versus mode.)
Note: Press 'm' during the game to change teams.
z_difficulty [easy, normal, hard, impossible]
z_comon_limit [0+] (how many common zombies do you want in a regular horde event?)
z_mob_spawn_min_size [0+], z_mob_spawn_max_size [0+] (How big do you want your mobs to be?)
z_background_limit [0+] (How many common zombies do you want wandering around?)
sb_all_bot_team 1 (Play versus by yourself.)
spectate (Useful if you're trying to shuffle who is using what character.)
jointeam [1-4] (2 = Survivor, 3 = Infected.)
This is hardly a comprehensive list of console commands, but that's not what I was going for. This is the list of commands I scrounged up from various sources to easily run a LAN game. (I couldn't find a single source that put them together in an easy set of instructions like this. That's why I'm writing this guide.) If you want to find more console commands (there are a ton of them), I suggest googling for them.
Happy Zombie hunting!
Written by: NetworkError, on 07-04-2009 10:25 Last update: 07-04-2009 13:34 Published in:Public, Technical Wootness Views: 1708
How long have you been slaving away at your job? Married? Living a lie? Whatever it is, finding out how long it's been going on is interesting and watching the seconds tick away is even more interesting.
Or do you want a count-down timer to a special date?
In any case, I have the solution. Without further adieu, I give you the "Years of Service" or "Count Up/Down" clock (JavaScript Edition). To use, fill out the simple form below and bonk on the button.
Years of Service Clock:
0
years (decimal)
0
years
0
/
52
weeks
0
/
7
days
0
/
24
hours
0
/
60
minutes
0
/
60
seconds
Start date (ex: Aug 9, 1995 9:15 am)
Num. Decimal Points on Decimal Year
PHP Command Line Version
If you want to run this in a terminal somewhere, try the PHP version...
Written by: NetworkError, on 03-04-2009 12:55 Last update: 01-05-2009 08:45 Published in:Public, Technical Wootness Views: 1839
I recently wrote a ASCII to UTF-8 randomizing program called Crazy Talk that would take a standard ASCII string and randomly funkify it using UTF-8 characters.
Example: Tɥis is a ŧypical střing thåŧ has ʙeeʼn Ƭunʞified uƨing Crazȳ Ʈalƙ.
I wrote it for a few reasons:
I wanted to make my FaceBook posts a lot more annoying.
I wanted to play with UTF-8 character encoding a bit more.
I wanted to write an OpenSearch service (and this seemed like a good candidate).
Written by: NetworkError, on 07-01-2009 12:00 Last update: 09-02-2012 18:49 Published in:Public, Technical Wootness Views: 14110
Update:
I have added search functionality. You can search for any UTF-8 character (within the first 1,000,000 characters) and it will take you to the correct page and highlight the right row. I've updated the source code below.
I recently needed to write tests using some UTF-8 characters from specific ranges. I couldn't find a character map I liked out on the Intertubes, so I whipped one up myself. It's not what I would consider "well written", but it does work so I thought I would share it here.
You can see the UTF-8 character map in action here.
You can download the code here. (It's a bit ugly. It started as a pet project and grew out of control. You know how it is.)
Written by: NetworkError, on 11-12-2008 11:10 Last update: 09-04-2009 16:18 Published in:Public, Musings and Soap Boxes Views: 1422
If you haven't seen these quizzes, you should check them out.
“Piracy is bad.” - Corporate America “Piracy is good.” - The Pirates “Piracy is only as good as the pirate doing the pirating.” - NetworkError
On today’s issue of the soap box, I’d like to explore “Ethical Piracy”. My target audience is pirates. My hope is that a few will read this and take it into consideration when choosing how to conduct their black-market activities.
Fact 1: Pirates often operate outside the bounds of the law because they demand a product or service that either isn’t available for the right price or isn't available in the desired form. This is a failing on the part of the content producers.
Pirates who conduct themselves ethically can effect positive change in the market. Pirates can put enormous pressure on content producers to fix prices, quality, etc... Pirates can cut out greedy middle-men by obtaining content illegally and contributing money directly to the artists who produce the work. Pirates can negate the effectiveness of consumer-controlling business practices by circumventing technologies like DRM.
Fact 2: On the flip side, there is a tendency for pirates to get greedy and refuse to pay a fair price for goods and services. This is a failing on the part of the pirates.
Pirates who conduct themselves greedily cause trouble for everyone. Their failure to contribute harms content producers and gives the pirate community a bad name.
So how can pirates operate ethically?
I think there are two guidelines that each pirate can follow to fix the problems in the pirate community.
First, it’s important to understand that pirates operate on the honor system. Since they’re usually beyond the reach of the law, it is up to each individual to conduct himself or herself in a manner that is not harmful to content producers, whenever possible. Unfortunately, “honor” isn’t something that’s taken very seriously in today’s culture. I think this cultural deficiency is the root this problem (and many others, IMO). However, among the pirate community, a pirate’s honor should be closely guarded and of paramount importance. Honor before greed. This means exercising restraint and not pirating when you feel it is wrong.
Second, it’s important to understand that producers must be paid a fair price for their goods if they are to stay in business. Caveat: You may decide middle-men who artificially inflate prices to pad margins may not be entitled to full payment. (I’m looking at your, RIAA and MPAA members!) Or you may decide the product isn't worth its list price. However, you shouldn’t rob the content producers. You are empowered to pay content producers what you think a product is worth.
Written by: NetworkError, on 03-11-2008 22:48 Last update: 10-04-2009 10:12 Published in:Public, Technical Wootness Views: 4626
For Halloween this year, I was a Pyro. I based my costume on the Pyro from X-Men. Naturally, I needed to be able to throw fire from the palm of my hand.
I wasn't able to engineer as advanced of an effect as I wanted, so I stuck to basics. Initially, I had a remote cable to activate my system, but I wasn't able to work the kinks out in time.
In the end, I settled for a basic fuel delivery system and a very stone-aged ignition method.
Fuel Source:
For my fuel source, I used an aerosol can of starter fluid. It's highly flammable and comes conveniently packaged with a simple valve and propellant built in.
For the flow-control valve, I ended up using the little plastic deal that comes with the can. I bored the nozzle out a little to accommodate my hose.
Fuel Line:
The fuel line was a little more complex. The smallest hose I could find was 1/4 inch which proved to be far to large. (The fuel would "glop" out of the end and form big, burning pools on the ground.) Instead, I used wire insulation from some small gauge, 2 pair wire. I pulled the wire out and fed the insulation through the 1/4 inch hose (which acted as a protective layer to prevent kinks and leaks). The small hose kept the fuel pressure high. This ensured it would fly further, stay airborne longer, and burn a bit quicker. Last, I put a piece of straw from a spray can of motorcycle chain lube in the end of the wire insulation. This keeps the stream of fuel focused and helps it fly even further and burn even quicker.
It's vital that your fuel disperses cleanly and is propelled quickly. If this stuff pools at all, it burns for a long time. You want it all to burn while it's flying through the air.
