TF2 General Chat and Update Speculation Station - One of Several Edition - Games

We should put all Artifact discussion into the Artifact thread :v: This is [I][B]TF2[/B][/I] general discussion after all.

[QUOTE=Gentleman Cat;52555601]I really hate how unfun the game is after coming back after 3 months of not playing it for the fact that it is unfun.[/QUOTE] community servers are still cool

[QUOTE=NeoDement;52555668]community servers are still cool[/QUOTE] The ones that still exist, of course.

[QUOTE=NeoDement;52555668]community servers are still cool[/QUOTE] Let's see: [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/toffyQc.png[/IMG] Oh. If anything, do y'all have any good community server suggestions that aren't 24/7 map and have a good map rotation list and is fairly populated?

I've been a community server operator for 3 1/2 years at this point. Post-MyM (and even PRE-MyM), it's very difficult to run a server that changes maps. Ignore retard randumbizer x17.6 servers for a moment. There is no mechanic to funnel traffic to community servers (except for joining friends via steam, if they are already on a community server.) Good servers (and many bad ones) have regulars that will join and kickstart a server, most days. If there aren't enough of them, the server will limp along with an (at best) 6 v 6 game, and the sputter out and die. If there are sufficient regulars to hit critical malls (say 20 total) then randos will start joining from the server browser. When that happens, the server can stay populated for many hours, usually during the evening, EDT. Many players tend to exit at a round end. A bunch of them [I]always[/I] exit at map change. This is why the few surviving community servers run TDM-friendly maps 24/7, with instant respawn. There are a few community servers that change maps and manage to stay populated in 2017. Most are Skial Payload. Another is Lazy Purple's Silly Server. Until there is a system to direct at least some traffic to community servers that is not the server browser, the situation will not improve.

One of my favourite servers ever was 24/7 payload and it was just the weirdest, yet best made custom maps. None of them will ever get played again.

[QUOTE=Ultravod;52555897]I've been a community server operator for 3 1/2 years at this point. Post-MyM (and even PRE-MyM), it's very difficult to run a server that changes maps. Ignore retard randumbizer x17.6 servers for a moment. There is no mechanic to funnel traffic to community servers (except for joining friends via steam, if they are already on a community server.) Good servers (and many bad ones) have regulars that will join and kickstart a server, most days. If there aren't enough of them, the server will limp along with an (at best) 6 v 6 game, and the sputter out and die. If there are sufficient regulars to hit critical malls (say 20 total) then randos will start joining from the server browser. When that happens, the server can stay populated for many hours, usually during the evening, EDT. Many players tend to exit at a round end. A bunch of them [I]always[/I] exit at map change. This is why the few surviving community servers run TDM-friendly maps 24/7, with instant respawn. There are a few community servers that change maps and manage to stay populated in 2017. Most are Skial Payload. Another is Lazy Purple's Silly Server. Until there is a system to direct at least some traffic to community servers that is not the server browser, the situation will not improve.[/QUOTE] People doesnt get that close to a server anymore, I remember when I bought css and played the same server with the same people every day over 3 years

[QUOTE=Ultravod;52555897]I've been a community server operator for 3 1/2 years at this point. Post-MyM (and even PRE-MyM), it's very difficult to run a server that changes maps. Ignore retard randumbizer x17.6 servers for a moment. There is no mechanic to funnel traffic to community servers (except for joining friends via steam, if they are already on a community server.) Good servers (and many bad ones) have regulars that will join and kickstart a server, most days. If there aren't enough of them, the server will limp along with an (at best) 6 v 6 game, and the sputter out and die. If there are sufficient regulars to hit critical malls (say 20 total) then randos will start joining from the server browser. When that happens, the server can stay populated for many hours, usually during the evening, EDT. Many players tend to exit at a round end. A bunch of them [I]always[/I] exit at map change. This is why the few surviving community servers run TDM-friendly maps 24/7, with instant respawn. There are a few community servers that change maps and manage to stay populated in 2017. Most are Skial Payload. Another is Lazy Purple's Silly Server. Until there is a system to direct at least some traffic to community servers that is not the server browser, the situation will not improve.[/QUOTE] I can confirm what you said. Been running TF2 servers for the game on it's lifetime and since the quickplay change that turned most players to valve only servers 2013 or so, it's been really hard to populate a server, especially in areas such as northern europe. You can propably do that in US easier but not here. Only way to populate a server now is to invite friends and do a steamgroup annoucement. Sitting there might bring few people but that takes hours. Most of the regulars are gone from the game or don't want to come to empty'ish server to play on. Even then, running custom maps is a big no no because people will leave if there are too many. Most likely they disconnect if they have to download a map. What community servers have become, is sad. We used to run the servers for TF2, now Valve does it and there is little variety if you go only the valve servers. No friends or quality games, just players who have no idea what they do or they are completely new to the game where i 9+ years played need preferably more help from team than [URL="https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/860604416504292713/430A8E431A91EEF1E579616CBFFC3C1C51D72B5F/"]this[/URL]! This is daily like this, not just yesterday.

[QUOTE=Gentleman Cat;52555792]Let's see: [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/toffyQc.png[/IMG] Oh. If anything, do y'all have any good community server suggestions that aren't 24/7 map and have a good map rotation list and is fairly populated?[/QUOTE] When I played last month The Furry Pound was literally the only active server with 24 players, good map rotation, and no gimmicks. and I mean literally. I didn't find anything else that wasn't trash.

Community servers have to offer something different than casual in order to survive, even with quickplay traffic. The average pub-tato player, assuming they're not idle on all crits 24/7 cp_ponysexdungeon thinks: "Why would you join a server with the potential for admin abuse/degenerate custom content/ads that's doing it's best to conform to what casual already provides?". The trick is to offer a *better* experience than casual, and use that sort of quality to become well known as the premier game, something players will want to join over the stock experience. Unfortunately that's a lot of work for not a whole lot of reward without quickplay traffic.

Triggerhappygamers - IP Server 1#: 87.98.254.85:27015 IP Server 2#: 87.98.254.85:27025 Located in Europe. Server 1# is the "fun" server, often running stupid maps sometimes, but most of the time very chill. Lots of users on voice. This Server is the most populated. Server 2# is tryhard mania with Crit-vote. Stock maps, sometimes custom ones, but not of the meme kind. Voice lads included, expect a dude that constantly screams with enthusiasm to push with uber. Often lesser populated, and if, only for 2 hours~ or so around 20:00 UTC+2. TF2.hu Servers - IP 1#: 217.113.57.7:27015 IP 2#: 217.113.57.6:27015 Located in Europe. Kind of weird. Feels like a timecapsule. Is kinda like a Valve Server, kind of not. Often populated, playing primarily Valve Maps. Hungary playerbase. TFPublicFerret - IP: 85.236.100.38:27215 Located in Europe. Sometimes populated, has a guy commentating the gameplay in Voice-chat sometimes. Neat gimmick, plays valve maps. Nemu's Battleground - IP: 67.213.222.179:27015 Located in the US. 32 Slots, from what I have seen sometimes plays real maps, sometimes plays meme maps. TF2Maps - IP: 31.186.251.51:27015 Located in Europe. Plays custom maps. Be part of what could be the future of TF2 - expect unfinished maps to be playtested.

[QUOTE=Segab;52556101]When I played last month The Furry Pound was literally the only active server with 24 players, good map rotation, and no gimmicks. and I mean literally. I didn't find anything else that wasn't trash.[/QUOTE] Yeah, I find myself playing on it a fair amount because it's the only one there, even though it's on the other side of the Atlantic...the only other one I've been able to play consistently on is some russian payload server. Still miss the single digit ping I got on UKCS.

Maybe it's the cynic in me, but after reading the last few posts it seems like people who want the old pub experience are screwed. MyM killed pub play on an official level for many. Some people cry out "BUT COMMUNITY SERVERS!!", however those servers don't run standard modes because without gimmicks they die. So really there is no bastion for people who just want to play the game like they used to. That's not a good sign. Honestly if it wasn't for the private server I'm on, I'd probably have stopped for good a while back. Having a large group of friendly regulars who actually play is the only thing that kept me around after MyM.

[QUOTE=RetroMike;52556191]Maybe it's the cynic in me, but after reading the last few posts it seems like people who want the old pub experience are screwed. MyM killed pub play on an official level for many. Some people cry out "BUT COMMUNITY SERVERS!!", however those servers don't run standard modes because without gimmicks they die. So really there is no bastion for people who just want to play the game like they used to. That's not a good sign. Honestly if it wasn't for the private server I'm on, I'd probably have stopped for good a while back. Having a large group of friendly regulars who actually play is the only thing that kept me around after MyM.[/QUOTE] why dont just open a server for all that people? jesus is not that hard you just need someone with a job and willing to do it

[QUOTE=turshitposter;52556211]why dont just open a server for all that people? jesus is not that hard you just need someone with a job and willing to do it[/QUOTE] Because it wouldn't be worth the money to have a server if it's eventually going to die out as expected.

[QUOTE=turshitposter;52556211]why dont just open a server for all that people? jesus is not that hard you just need someone with a job and willing to do it[/QUOTE] The server I play on is kept alive with donations and I'm glad it's still alive.

[QUOTE=Gentleman Cat;52556222]Because it wouldn't be worth the money to have a server if it's eventually going to die out as expected.[/QUOTE] Not if the people asking for a server like that actually played on the damn server

[QUOTE=Fluury;52556167] TF2.hu Servers - IP 1#: 217.113.57.7:27015 IP 2#: 217.113.57.6:27015 Located in Europe. Kind of weird. Feels like a timecapsule. Is kinda like a Valve Server, kind of not. Often populated, playing primarily Valve Maps. Hungary playerbase. [/QUOTE] I can only recommend these. Maybe just because I'm Hungarian, but even if you can't talk with a lot of people ( I can confirm, many Hungarians speak terrible English) I still believe they give you the purest TF2 experience since quickplay's shutdown. Respawn times are normal, default 24 player capacity and [B]NO RANDOM CRITS[/B]. These servers make me still enjoy [B]REAL CASUAL[/B] TF2 for 5 years now.

[QUOTE=Gentleman Cat;52555792]Let's see: [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/toffyQc.png[/IMG] Oh. If anything, do y'all have any good community server suggestions that aren't 24/7 map and have a good map rotation list and is fairly populated?[/QUOTE] I see you're in the US, if you like Payload TF2 dev Jill runs a decent mostly stock* 24 player Payload rotation server that actually includes Cactus Canyon (which is the main reason I checked it out since I felt like playing CC again after it's been so long) and is often populated with higher skilled people than the average Valve pub: 67.213.222.178:27015 *Engineers can build in spawn.

[video]https://youtu.be/iuhiBR_E1zs[/video] The fact that this spy feigned 8 times under a minute is disgusting. When the update finally drops, I hope it kills the number of DR spies because having a 95+% chance of running across a spy running the DR is depressing.

I've always acted as if every Spy I kill has the DR on. It's like the whole "Treat every gun like it's loaded" thing, but with the French.

If valve makes the dumb decision to hide the server browser, tf2 death will follow it. [url]https://www.teamwork.tf/community/statistics[/url] That's scary to see 11k players on valve's, 500 on comp, 14k on community servers. Killing community servers will kill half of player base.

[QUOTE=ComodoreBluth;52556484]I see you're in the US, if you like Payload TF2 dev Jill runs a decent mostly stock* 24 player Payload rotation server that actually includes Cactus Canyon (which is the main reason I checked it out since I felt like playing CC again after it's been so long) and is often populated with higher skilled people than the average Valve pub: 67.213.222.178:27015 *Engineers can build in spawn.[/QUOTE] That feel when you're an EU player, who can choose between Valve servers or shitty skial servers, since every other decent server has been drowned out by them.

I play a lot of Skial 2Fort+ (32 player, instant respawn, utter shit show) at night, because ...the lights are on. The best one is in LA. At any given point in TF2 there is one "after hours club: 2Fort server, and currently Skial LA is it. The old dogs who only play 2Fort are all there. There are certainly a bunch of assholes but the good people outnumber them. My second choice is the Skial NY server. It's has both fewer assholes and fewer good people than LA, and therefore doesn't have as much character. Most of the time, it's just fine. The Skial EU 2Fort+ server is actually quite toxic. There are some good players on there and some decent people, but holy fijuck do people get salty in text and voice chat. I get called the N-word and a bundle of sticks (and a kurwa, a "big noob" and a cyka blyat non-ironically) far more often there than every other Skial server I play on, combined. Us Americans may have a well-deserved reputation for being rude and boorish, but we've got nothing on Europeans when it comes to behavior in a TF2 server.

[QUOTE=RetroMike;52556234]The server I play on is kept alive with donations and I'm glad it's still alive.[/QUOTE] What server is it, if you don't mind me asking?

[QUOTE=Segab;52556101]When I played last month The Furry Pound was literally the only active server with 24 players, good map rotation, and no gimmicks. and I mean literally. I didn't find anything else that wasn't trash.[/QUOTE] I did the same thing with a brony server that had a good rotation, only they were using pony models stretched over the tf2 skeletons and it was a nightmare of stretched limbs and broken necks.

[QUOTE=Infernox-;52556548][video]https://youtu.be/iuhiBR_E1zs[/video] [/QUOTE] That spy is repulsive. There is absolutely no justification for the """"stealth"""" class being able to evade death this many times, let alone out in the open without a disguise and tank enough damage to kill 2 overhealed heavies.

[QUOTE=Infernox-;52556548][video]https://youtu.be/iuhiBR_E1zs[/video] The fact that this spy feigned 8 times under a minute is disgusting. When the update finally drops, I hope it kills the number of DR spies because having a 95+% chance of running across a spy running the DR is depressing.[/QUOTE] that was mildly infuriating to watch, I'm willing to bet he thinks he's "Good"

[QUOTE=Man in the Moon;52556842]that was mildly infuriating to watch, I'm willing to bet he thinks he's "Good"[/QUOTE] scout disguise-only fits the stereotype aswell

[QUOTE=Hell-met;52556848]scout disguise-only fits the stereotype aswell[/QUOTE] Why would someone even try to disguise yourself in such a situation? You're just stressing yourself out with useless button combinations that will not fool anyone.