TF2/Left4Dead crossover

You know, I love Valve. Everything about them is utterly amazing. I love what they did for Left 4 Dead. I also love watching videos of Team Fortress 2. It makes me want to go out get an XBox 360 to play both games on. I managed to play a good amount of L4D and L4D2 at Job Corps, so I know that reasonably well.

OK, so I have this outrageously brilliant idea for a crossover fic, where the survivors (Coach, Rochelle, Nick, Ellis, Louis, Zoe and Francis, because canonically Bill died in The Passing) run from the Infected horde into Red Team's base of operations.

In the outline I have stored in my head, there's a conversation between the survivors about the sudden change of scenery. Cut to Red Team around a large conference table where they discuss the daily victories and losses against Blue Team; this time though they discuss how to handle the Survivors that wandered into their territory. Sy and Scout report Blue mysteriously vanished, but there's blood splatter all throughout the base. Eventually, it leads to Pyro's decision, explaining in Kenny McCormick fashion how it would be beneficial to aid tHe Survivors. The Survivors and Red Team get acquainted, and fight off wave after wave of Infected Movie-verse!Helm's Deep style. Helicopters come to lift the Survivors to afety, loose ends are tied up, laughs had by all throughout.

What I would like to hear is other's opinions on the matter. Any changes to the concept? Any adding to the concept?

And don't give me the whole, "It'd be a good story if it was written well" treatment because Optimus Prime almighty knows I haven't heard that enough times.

TheIan wrote:

And don't give me the whole, "It'd be a good story if it was written well" treatment because Optimus Prime almighty knows I haven't heard that enough times.

That's exactly all I can say.

Other than don't buy TF2 or L4d for 360. PC is the only way to go for Valve games

the asylum, you are very good at being a voice of reason in the midst of wank.

TheIan wrote:

You know, I love Valve. Everything about them is utterly amazing.

Day of Defeat: Source. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

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OK, so I have this outrageously brilliant idea for a crossover fic, where the survivors (Coach, Rochelle, Nick, Ellis, Louis, Zoe and Francis, because canonically Bill died in The Passing) run from the Infected horde into Red Team's base of operations.

Except that the L4D cast, especially Louis, would immediately recognize the TF2 setting. Louis makes references to Counter-Strike in-game, and the official comic has him in his pre-apocalypse office with a little Heavy statue on his desk.

Yeah, get them for the PC and we can face off against each other.

Oh, and one more thing - when it comes to Team Fortress 2, nobody seems to mind Gender Bending a whole lot, as long as the personalities remain the same.

Penguin wrote:

TheIan wrote:

You know, I love Valve. Everything about them is utterly amazing.

Day of Defeat: Source. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Quote :

OK, so I have this outrageously brilliant idea for a crossover fic, where the survivors (Coach, Rochelle, Nick, Ellis, Louis, Zoe and Francis, because canonically Bill died in The Passing) run from the Infected horde into Red Team's base of operations.

Except that the L4D cast, especially Louis, would immediately recognize the TF2 setting. Louis makes references to Counter-Strike in-game, and the official comic has him in his pre-apocalypse office with a little Heavy statue on his desk.

That could be problematic...

Unless I mention in some way, the RED and BLU conflicts aren't necessarily known in the world and that the game itself is just a ruse to dissuade any from seeking the truth. That work, you think?

Also, progression-wise, I've establish Francis, Zoey, Louis and an original character, Jake. He joins the group after Bill died (figure the group of four formula needed to be kept) and leaves soon before The Passing, where they meet Nick, Ellis, Rochelle and Coach. After leaving the safe-room, they take a wrong turn into an industrial area that turn out to be the RED and BLU battleground on the outskirts of the city.

Why no one bothers to come this way often? Roads aren't paved to carry in that direction, leaving the whole place open for RED and BLU conflict.

Weak plot-hole? Yeah, I guess, but I think it's slightly believable.

TheIan wrote:

Unless I mention in some way, the RED and BLU conflicts aren't necessarily known in the world and that the game itself is just a ruse to dissuade any from seeking the truth. That work, you think?

I suppose the important thing to ask in this case is what, exactly, you're trying to accomplish with this story, and think long and hard about whether or not it's worth trying to overcome some major hurdles. What's the point? And if RED and BLU exist in this universe, what exactly is going on? Why does the rest of the world know of RED and BLU but not the conflict? Why do none of their employees have a problem with slaughtering each other in some sort of 60's/70's time warp?

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Also, progression-wise, I've establish Francis, Zoey, Louis and an original character, Jake. He joins the group after Bill died (figure the group of four formula needed to be kept) and leaves soon before The Passing, where they meet Nick, Ellis, Rochelle and Coach.

That doesn't make any sense. Canonically, The Sacrifice and The Passing take place within just a few minutes, maybe an hour or two, of each other.

When the original Survivors raised the bridge, they were trying to make room for a sailboat, so they could GTFO to the Florida Keys. The L4D2 Survivors showed up just after Bill's death and their success, needing the bridge lowered so they could continue on their way.

There's no time for some dude to just show up, play filler hero and then bounce.

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After leaving the safe-room, they take a wrong turn into an industrial area that turn out to be the RED and BLU battleground on the outskirts of the city.

Which leaves one to wonder how the fuck nobody noticed an artificial desert environment with daily combat just "on the outskirts" of New Orleans.

Penguin wrote:

TheIan wrote:

Unless I mention in some way, the RED and BLU conflicts aren't necessarily known in the world and that the game itself is just a ruse to dissuade any from seeking the truth. That work, you think?

I suppose the important thing to ask in this case is what, exactly, you're trying to accomplish with this story, and think long and hard about whether or not it's worth trying to overcome some major hurdles. What's the point? And if RED and BLU exist in this universe, what exactly is going on? Why does the rest of the world know of RED and BLU but not the conflict? Why do none of their employees have a problem with slaughtering each other in some sort of 60's/70's time warp?

What I'm accomplishing with this story is to have a decent action/comedy. How many stories have you read of Heavy beating down a Tank that were good? I just want to experiment with whether or not a TF2/L4D shoot-'em-up would be any good or not.

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Also, progression-wise, I've establish Francis, Zoey, Louis and an original character, Jake. He joins the group after Bill died (figure the group of four formula needed to be kept) and leaves soon before The Passing, where they meet Nick, Ellis, Rochelle and Coach.

That doesn't make any sense. Canonically, The Sacrifice and The Passing take place within just a few minutes, maybe an hour or two, of each other.

When the original Survivors raised the bridge, they were trying to make room for a sailboat, so they could GTFO to the Florida Keys. The L4D2 Survivors showed up just after Bill's death and their success, needing the bridge lowered so they could continue on their way.

There's no time for some dude to just show up, play filler hero and then bounce.

Quote :

After leaving the safe-room, they take a wrong turn into an industrial area that turn out to be the RED and BLU battleground on the outskirts of the city.

Which leaves one to wonder how the fuck nobody noticed an artificial desert environment with daily combat just "on the outskirts" of New Orleans.

... You like to fuck with people, don't you?

OK, I understand you're obviously pointing out the flaws in my concept. This is leading me to reconsider just creating four original characters to work within the parameters and utilize my creativity. If I have to change the settings and characters to work within the parameters while keeping with canon, then so be it.

Ian, the problem isn't that this can't be done, the problem is that it can't be done the way you want to do it. L4D is not as much a pastiche of the zombie genre as Resident Evil and, as such, it has a certain grounding in reality. TF2 was intentionally built from the ground up to be as nonsensical as possible; the characters are all giant stereotypes, the maps are plays on retro-industrial archetypes, and the plot is essentially an intrafamily feud taken to its most batshit illogical extreme. Your mistake is in trying to port TF2 to L4D. You can't just make a silly setting more serious because it has no legs to stand on as such. You can go the other way around; as a silly stereotype, a Scout can't look at L4D and say "Yo, wassup wid dis?" and be taken seriously. As a complex character, Ellis can look at 2Fort and say "Man, whut is goin on here, it's like some messed up through the lookin' glass dream or somethin, I bet even Kieth wouldn't believe this" and be taken seriously.

Creating original characters will not fix this. Creating original characters will cause any potential audience to shift from "Well, this could be fun and entertaining" to "Zzzzzzzzz." It might as well not even be a crossover anymore, there's no point.

If you want to make this work, stop taking it seriously. Learn a lesson from TF2 itself; it is sometimes better to create a world where it makes sense for two identical opposing fortresses to be seperated only by a tiny rive and a footbridge rather than attempt to explain how such a situation could fit in reality. You should not be trying to make sense of it; you are worldbuilding, you do not need to worldbuild for TF2.

How do the survivors stumble into RED's base that no one before now has ever stumbled across? Instead of explaining this, WHO CARES? You shouldn't be thinking in terms of "how do characters from game A and game B meet," you should be thinking in terms of "characters from game A and game B meet because it would be entertaining, so let's run with it." It's like boobies. Baywatch had a lot of girls, but not so much in the way of boobies because someone's dog went missing every episode, and this was annoying and distracting from what people expected when they thought "Baywatch." Compare to Lexx where the producers just said "Boobies, just run with it," and there were consequently more boobies without excuses to hide them.

Do not make original characters. CTRL-F "Jake" and click "Replace All" with nothing in the replace field. Game dynamics are not important. What's important is that the existing cast is in-character in relation to their situation. Original characters in this concept are nothing more than a distraction; there is no reason to have them and they would only take screen time away form the characters who are supposed to be perpetuating a silly and entertaining crossover.

Till Deer: The more you insist on taking this concept seriously, the more it sounds like Psy-4's old "Deconstruct Kingdom Hearts by writing in myself as a fat self-insert with the following list of (planned and balanced, really!) powers" idea.