How to Mod L4D Server?

Find out how to mod your Left 4 Dead server and install custom plug-ins.


This is not a guide to show you how to add your custom skins, sounds and maps. This guide shows you how to mod your Left 4 Dead server with Sourcemod and allows you to add infected bots, change the number of players, make your game have perks and item system, have admin rights, change most of your gameplay and so on!

Steps
1. Get Sourcemod!
Go to the following link to download the latest Sourcemod version. Extract it to your left4dead folder. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons)

http://www.sourcemod.net/downloads.php





2. Get Metamod!
Go to the following link to download the latest Metamod version. Extract it to your left4dead folder. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons)

http://www.sourcemm.net/downloads/mmsource-1.8.0.zip

You will also need to make a Metamod VDF file! To do this, go to the following link and choose your Operating System. Choose Left 4 Dead and under Game Folder, leave it blank.

http://www.sourcemm.net/vdf

After you got your VDF file, put it in your Left 4 Dead addons folder. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons)






3. Get plugins!
Now that you already have both Sourcemod and Metamod, you are ready to add your own plugins and start the real modding. Go to the following link to browse a list of L4D plugins. Download the .SMX file and place it in your Sourcemod Plugins folder. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons\sourcemod\plugins)

http://www.sourcemod.net/plugins.php?cat=0&mod=6&title=&author=&description=&search=1

After you add the .SMX file, you may start your game. The plugin will run and it will be in your game. Certain plugins will create a .CFG file which can be opened with Wordpad or Notepad in your Left 4 Dead cfg folder. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\cfg\sourcemod) You may edit these to configure the plugin's configuration on your server.

For those looking for timed messages or welcome message plugins, I know you couldn't find it in the link provided above. Look for Advertisements or Simple Welcome Message plugins in the Alliance Modders forums! It's not only for L4D but also for other games so don't only look for L4D-only plugins. You can also find the plugins you like here, so do some real browsing in the forums instead! (http://forums.alliedmods.net/forumdisplay.php?f=123)

Damage Info Display Plugin Menu

How to Setup Admin Rights?
You need to be an admin in your server to take control most of the server functions. To do that, you need to change the admins.cfg file. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons\sourcemod\configs\admins.cfg)

Open it and read what's written in there. After you understand, or even if you don't understand English...scroll to the bottom and you will find Admins. Add a new admin by typing into the space below based on the example. Here is my example, you can even copy and paste it.

Admins
{
"RailKill"
{
"auth" "name"
"identity" "RailKill"
"flags" "abcdef"
"immunity" "99"
"password" "iloveshit"
}

}

This is the NAME authorization method, which means your name is reserved in the server as an admin and requires a password to actually use the name. Now, how do you type the password in-game?



How To Set Password for Admin Name Authorization
Go to core.cfg which is in the same folder, (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons\sourcemod\configs\core.cfg) and find for PassInfoVar. In the same line after a couple of spaces, you should find "_PassInfoVar". Change this into anything you like, but I'll give an example and it works so you could follow.

"PassInfoVar" "_adminpass"

Remember to save it. Then, go into your game and open up the console. Type in the following.

setinfo _adminpass iloveshit

Then you can create or join your server and you'll notice you're an admin! To test whether you're an admin, type in !sm_admin on Chat and a menu should open up at the left side. That is the admin menu.




That's about all to create a modded L4D server, but I'll add a bonus section on how to make many players for L4D for those who don't give a shit about reading words or trial and error.

Pounce Announce Plugin

How to Setup Many Player Versus / Co-Op / Survival / 5V5 Versus
Download Left 4 Downtown extension from the following link and extract it in your addons folder as usual. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons)

http://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=91132

Then download the Slot Management Plugin and put it in your plugins folder. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons\sourcemod\plugins)

http://forums.alliedmods.net/showpost.php?p=829638&postcount=71

Also, download the following bunch of CFG files with pre-made commands to ease your server creation. Place all the .CFG files into the CFG folder. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\cfg\sourcemod)

https://forums.alliedmods.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=42348&d=1242676777



Now that you're all done, create your server. Then type in the following.

sm_execcfg sourcemod/5v5versus.cfg

The server will restart and change its map to Dead Air and you will notice there are 5 survivors. Congratulations! You've just made your 5V5 Versus server. To customize the amount of players, you can make your own CFGs as well and just execute them in-game.



ALTERNATIVELY
You can also download the L4D Super Versus plugin or similar plugins that also do the same thing. They're probably easier and you just have to modify the CFG that the plugin uses.

Player Stats Plugin Menu

That's all! Have fun modding your server as you like. Other players do not need to have Sourcemod or any of this to play in your server. You can even take it to a cyber cafe. I'll be off to KL for now. Will be posting how to add custom skins and maps for L4D when I'm back.