L4D Survival Mode: Graphs!

They know what I like at Valve: L4D, graphs.

Today at the official L4D blog, they cover the new survival mode (released late April 09) and then address my first question graphically: how do you create the smooth linear increase in difficulty necessary to make survival mode work? Since survival mode teams are scored by the time they survive, scores will be useless if difficulty increase isn't smooth ... and making it smooth can be hard when the addition of 1 extra special infected (and certainly 1 extra tank) creates a big spike in the difficulty for the team, especially during a horde or in combination with other specials.

They explain how they did it at the blog, and they post this snazzy graph. I can't wait for it to release. I can quit playing payload maps and braid and go back to left4dead .

At the 14 minute mark, they are spanwning tanks & hordes every 15 seconds, and specials practically constantly. Wow. I think I heard the valve team never lived past nine minutes. I wonder if I can find a crew to get beyond 5. I need some L4D regulars to game with.