info_director

info_director is a point entity available in Left 4 Dead series.

Class hierarchy
CInfoDirector ↳CPointEntity ↳CBaseEntity

It's an entity that has some control over the AI director (the "gamemaster") using I/O.

The AI director is almost entirely automated. This entity exists for situations like forcing survivors to their respective info_survivor_position at the start of a campaign for camera intro sequences, starting panic events, scripted panic events or changing the Director's behaviour using DirectorOptions.

Tip:the Director is capable of writing and executing Journals. Which can be used to trigger things on a coming map, based on things you have done on the current map.

logic_director_query can output the director's anger level, allowing level designers to adjust conditions according to how well the players are doing.

Forcing Survivor Positions

The director is capable of forcing all survivors to stand still at info_survivor_position, if they have a survivor name set.

This is used at the beginning of a campaign, to prevent the survivors from spawning underneath the map, or in finales to teleport the survivors out of the map to imply they are inside the escape vehicle.

For this to happen, go to the info_director outputs and add the following output:

	My Output	Target Entity	Target Input	Parameter	Delay	Only Once
	OnGameplayStart	!self	ForceSurvivorPositions	<none>	0.00	No
	OnGameplayStart	!self	ReleaseSurvivorPositions	<none>	0.20	No

Caveats

• Using the changelevel console command to restart the map will cause the director to ignore the ForceSurvivorPositions input.

If you are restarting the map after a fresh compile using changelevel and you need to test out your intro sequence, use the kill console command afterwards to have the mission fail, this will cause the map to restart in a way that allows the info_director to use the ForceSurvivorPositions input, which will also allow your cameras to function.

• logic_auto cannot trigger ForceSurvivorPositions unless the map was freshly loaded from the game menu as a campaign, or is restarting after mission failure.

To get around this, have the director call ForceSurvivorPositions and ReleaseSurvivorPositions on itself using the OnGameStart input. When your campaign is ready for release, you can safely change it back to using a logic_auto before final compilation if you wish, since players will be loading your campaign from the game menu.

Keyvalues

Name (targetname) <string>

The name that other entities refer to this entity by, via Inputs/Outputs or other keyvalues (e.g. parentname or target).
Also displayed in Hammer's 2D views and Entity Report.

See also:  Generic Keyvalues, Inputs and Outputs available to all entities

Inputs

PanicEvent

Fired when a major event happens to make the director spawn infected waves. In battlefields, the number of waves depends on the campaign length and chapter number. For example, campaigns with 4 chapters have one-waved battlefield panic events only in the first map while campaigns with 5 chapters have them in the first and second maps. Non-battlefield panic events are always one-waved.

PanicEventControlled <integer> (only in )

Like PanicEvent, but allows for some control of intensity, via the number of waves.

Tip:In Left 4 Dead 2, ScriptedPanicEvent can be used instead and offers much more freedom.

ForceSurvivorPositions

Make each survivor stand at an info_survivor_position.

Note:Also hides HUD, except Survival and Scavenge specific HUD overlays.

ReleaseSurvivorPositions

Allow survivors to move freely again.

Note:Also enables HUD again.

FireConceptToAny <string>

Fire a speech concept to any survivor that is capable of speaking it. Allows survivor dialogue to be triggered by map entities (e.g. No Mercy's elevator with parameter hospital04_path4)

StartIntro

Fire when the intro starts. Players are immune to damage while this is active. No mobs or SI will spawn.

FinishIntro

Fire when the intro ends. Players will now take damage. Mobs and SI can spawn given that the player is no longer standing in a nav square marked as CHECKPOINT.

EnableTankFrustration

Can be used to enable the Tank frustration meter.

DisableTankFrustration

Can be used to disable the Tank frustration meter.

BeginScript <scriptlist> (only in )

EndScript  (only in )

Begin/End Director VScripts. BeginScript will automatically end any running scripts to start others.

ScriptedPanicEvent <scriptlist> (only in )

Run a scripted panic event, a staged event similar to a finale.

Note:The scripts of the above inputs must reside under the "vscripts" subfolder. Events will play out only the 1 second DELAY "stage 0" otherwise.

ForcePanicEvent  (only in )

Trigger a panic event, no matter what else is going on.

EndCustomScriptedStage  (only in )

End a scripted type finale stage.

Bug:In scripted panic events, sending this input or alternatively running Director.ForceNextStage() ends the whole event.  [todo tested in?]

IncrementTeamScore <integer> (only in )

Increment a team's score. (2 = survivors, 3 = infected)

CreateNewJournal <string> (only in )

Create a new journal.

WriteToJournal <string> (only in )

Add a task to the I/O Journal.

ExecuteJournal <string> (only in )

Execute all tasks in the specified journal

RefreshInitialSpawnPositions  (only in )

Todo: seems to teleport survivors to the positions they spawned from.

Outputs

OnGameplayStart

Fired when a map loads, all players join and gameplay begins.

OnPanicEventFinished  (only in )

Fired when a panic event is finished.

Bug:Doesn't fire?  [todo tested in?]

OnCustomPanicStageFinished  (only in )

Fired when each stage of a custom panic event or custom finale finishes. Relies on vscripts.

Warning:If scriptedmode is active (for example a mutation is played) this output fires right as the map starts

OnTeamScored  (only in )

Fired when a team places a scavenge item in the scavenge goal.

OnScavengeRoundStart  (only in )

Fired when a scavenge round starts.

OnScavengeOvertimeStart  (only in )

Timer has run out and game went into overtime.

OnScavengeOvertimeCancel  (only in )

Time was added to the clock, ending overtime.

OnScavengeTimerExpired  (only in )

Time has run out, game did not enter overtime.

OnScavengeIntensityChanged <integer> (only in )

Intensity level has changed. 1 = highest intensity, decreases as number gets larger.

OnUserDefinedScriptEvent1-4  (only in )

Generic user defined event fired from a squirrel script (UserDefinedEvent1()-UserDefinedEvent4())

See also

• info_survivor_position
• L4D Level Design/Panic Events
• L4D2 vscripts
• Director Scripts
• logic_director_query
• trigger_finale