The original Left 4 Dead is four-survivor co-op against the zombie horde, plus 4v4 Versus. You pick the campaign and mode on the deploy form. Left 4 Dead has native Source RCON, so you can also run admin commands from the console with rcon. You deployed the server, so you are the admin.
How your friends join
The server sits on a public IP, no port-forwarding. A real dedicated box also means the game keeps running when anyone leaves. Friends join with:
- Open the console (~) and run:
connect IP:27015 - If you set a Join password on deploy, share it with your friends so only they can get in.
Campaigns and modes
Pick a campaign and a mode on the deploy form. All the original campaigns ship with the server, so nobody downloads anything:
- Co-op: No Mercy, Crash Course, Death Toll, Dead Air, Blood Harvest and The Sacrifice, four survivors versus the horde.
- Versus: 4v4, one team survives while the other plays the Special Infected. Available on No Mercy, Death Toll, Dead Air and Blood Harvest (Valve never shipped Versus for Crash Course or The Sacrifice).
- Survival: Hold out on Lighthouse as long as you can.
Admin over RCON
Open the console with ~, log in once with the RCON password from your server card, then prefix commands with rcon:
rcon_password yourpassword- Log in as admin for this session (use the RCON password from the server card).
rcon changelevel l4d_farm01_hilltop- Switch campaign (use the map id, for example l4d_farm01_hilltop for Blood Harvest).
rcon status- List connected players, their SteamIDs and ping.
rcon sv_alltalk 1- Let everyone hear each other (1) or team-only voice (0).
rcon kick <name>- Remove a player.