ITEMS ARE BACK - THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING

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Hello, fellow TF2 players. I've decided to summarise at least some known to us facts about the situation with item servers being not in order.

For those, who weren't there - what happened?

It appears that the item servers of TF2 are unavailable for quite some time - first posts about that issue started appearing yesterday around 12AM(This has been happening since at least January 9th 2024 5pm valve time. (american west coast). So, what does that mean? If you're playing on a public server, you have no access to your cosmetics/weapons in game, so basically you are just playing with default(stock) weapons and without any of your personal cosmetics.
Hovever
If you are playing on offline servers, you are able to have access to all of your things.

What's up, Valve?

Apparently, there was no reply/explanation about item servers not functioning as they should from the developers. However, 1 hour ago Mirx of Amper Software posted news about their TF; Source 2 project being taked down by Valve on all of their public GitHub repositories (here is the link; https://steamcommunity.com/app/440/discussions/0/4132682093267059082/)
Another info;
TF2 Source 2 project has been given a cease and desist notice from the company itself. People are speculating about the update still coming or about another reason the project is being shut down - it is so because the game itself is gonna be shut down.

Comment from SimplySmiley - By the way there is a theory floating around about the DMCA strike not being from Valve themselves but either someone impersonating them or a freshly hired law firm acting on behalf of Valve.

First is likely because of how off the public DMCA is to read with spelling mistakes like S@Box instead of S&Box, with case to be made that a strike without warning unlike with all the other TF2 related projects is not something Valve would do.
The new law firm could make sense with the N64 port or whatever of Portal and the whole issue of how law views AI generated content's legality on Steam.

Possible reasons of why is that happening

Different players have diffferent possible explanations of the situation, some of them being;

1. Server maintenance

Servers are probably currently being maintaned by the developers, causing them to be shut down for some time.

2. Upgrade (adding of new weapons)

Some players state, that something like that had happened before when some of weapons were being added into TF2.

3. TF2 is shutting down, Valve started with item servers

That theory was posted by The Impractical Engineer in his post (https://steamcommunity.com/app/440/discussions/0/4132682093265937164/), where he stated, that our game is being shut down permanently, item servers' not working being probab;y the first step in shutting of the game. Most players, however, do not really believe in that version.
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Apparently, people are saying, that the game will be shut down next Tuesday. The source of this information is unknown.
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4. Last upgrade broke everything

Valve somehow messed up and that affected the connection between game and item servers.
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5. Valve are moving TF2 to Source 2

Now that' the most unrealistic version of what's happening, especially with the TF2 Source 2 project of Amper Software being removed. It's definitely not like Valve got jealous because of their players being faster and better that they are...

6. Valve are trying to test new approach to steam inventories and TF2 servers

They possibly tried to modernize them for efficiency sake

7. New items/equip regions are being testes

Unlikely, but that could still be a reason

8. Snow storms in the US

Our problem could also somehow be linked to the snow storms that have been occurring recently in the USA - probably there was some damage caused by them causing the servers to break

Updates on everything/Bugs and Fixes

UPDATE 1, 10.01

User Pantsu Remover posted about item inventory working in Competitive mode./i]

UPDATE 2, 10.01

I just tested playing offline - it is definitely working, however, if you are playing on CREATED server you won't have access to your things.

UPDATE 3, 10.01

steam://openurl/https://steamcommunity.com/app/440/discussions/0/4132682093267378852/ - Check that post. Things are kinda getting back to normal, but i tested it and it didn't work. People in comments said you should mess around with the console but still i haven't tested that yet so dunno./i]

UPDATE 4, 10.01

https://steamcommunity.com/id/pylemet144 - That guy saw some people with hats on MvM, he has a screenshot in his profile. Explanation - VERY FEW people are still connected to the item server, anyone with weapons or hats are normal. Items are starting to show back up in MVM as of 9:30 PM EST

UPDATE 5, 10.01

I have my items back on CREATED server./i]

UPDATE 6, 10.01

Servers are probably overwhelmed, i can’t have my items on a created server.

UPDATE 7, 11.01

74.91.116.45:27015 - items are working on this server! Server hadn't been upgraded, which is probably the reason why the items are still here. This was discovered in this post - steam://openurl/https://steamcommunity.com/app/440/discussions/0/7119694643857575746/ . The items on the last server from the list are, however, not working.

UPDATE 8, 11.01

Server from top isn't really working - i've connected to it and one guy had his items, and me and another one had not.

UPDATE 9, MY TESTING, 11.01

I was trying to connect to some servers. While doing this, i discovered something interesting. If you're the first person connecting to the server (usually it should be the abandoned one, where people haven't played for some time OR the server that wasn't upgraded with game upgrading), you MAY have your items. However, that is pretty random, but you still have the chances. So, basically, i think that the new update of the game had somethingto do with it - when i first updated the game yesterday, my items dissappeared. /i]

UPDATE 10, 11.01

Items are working on MvM servers, specifically on Frankfurt ones - tested and confirmed.

UPDATE 11, 11.01 - MvM servers

Apparently i've been testing if items work on every single MvM server - i visited Hong Kong and Madrid - items weren't working. Also i visited another Frankfurt servers - only one of them had no items (there was one person with items though). So - Frankfurt servers are the only ones casuals that are working with items.

UPDATE 12, 11.01

Just saw a guy with a hat on casual 2Fort - https://imgur.com/RPkaRl8 or check it on my page

UPDATE 13, 11.01

Does everyone has this bug when playing? - https://imgur.com/mC37aVX

UPDATE 14, 11.01

https://steamcommunity.com/app/440/discussions/0/7119694643858462384/ - player rin appears to somehow have the access to items

UPDATE 15, 11.01

Artur6768 - the latest update from 2 days ago modified these two files:

tf/scripts/items/items_game.txt.sig
tf/scripts/items/items_game.txt

Source - https://steamdb.info/depot/441/history/?changeid=M:310401172695269575, update - using old version didn’t help, all that was changed were xmas effects

UPDATE 16, 11.01

Can’t write comments. About the same time the TF2 issues started, other Source-based games on Steam (ala Fistful of Frags) started having some Steam-dependency issues too - specifically with number of players active on servers shows-up incorrectly in the server browser. Allegedly effecting other Source-based games similarly - a comment under this thread.

UPDATE 17, 11.01, still cannot write comments

New stuff:
-It was confirmed that VALVe DOES have a new legal team
-Youtube video's spreading awareness of the S2 port are being taken down via Copyright Strikes
-The DMCA's and copyright strikes are official, no matter the spelling mistakes it is 100% VALVe, although not every video is down
-People are drawing similarities between the OTHER fan Source 2 port, the CS:GO S2 port. Which has similar, if not the same story as this TF2:S2 port, being taken down via a DMCA only for the official CS2 to be dropped later.

UPDATE 18, 11.01, still cannot write comments

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2305346639391098355/3DC6A0196EF755E8D9EA032BB495D5E4E2D7AD77/ - CASUAL SERVER WITH ITEMS, https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2305346639391111301/953B26EECFFC5B1E7788680185FBAFEC92998CE9/ - here u see the moment where everybody spotted the items. THEY ARE BACK

Servers that has been tested

74.91.116.45:27015 - for some time it was possible to have items on that server
147.135.6.22:16100 - same
194.247.42.61:27067 - had accsess to items on that server, sadly i can't connect to it anymore

Basic and very short summary

We don't have our things in matches and we don't know why

Thanks for reading

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if you have some updates - please, post them here

[Mina]

It will most likely be fixed, the game doesn’t have the best awareness from situations like these or in general.

[Dye&]

Im pretty sure impractical engineer is a baiter

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Originally posted by gary:

Im pretty sure impractical engineer is a baiter

pretty sure as well, but still

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Originally posted by padmé:

It will most likely be fixed, the game doesn’t have the best awareness from situations like these or in general.

sure

[raccoon butt]

the impractical engineer should follow the item servers' example and go offline

[XoNiX #SaveTF2 #FixTF2]

I still think that Valve just messed up with the latest update and broke everything (actually, everything broke after it)

[RollieMcFly27]

People are stating that the game is going to be shut down next Tuesday. I don't know where they got this information from, but I keep seeing "Tuesday Shutdown".

Another is that the TF2 Source 2 project has been given a cease and desist notice from the company itself. Hopeful ones are speculating that the Source 2 update for TF2 is coming really soon while most are opting that the project was stopped because the game is being shut down.

If it is, I'd say it's been a good run and the game deserves to rest with any dignity it still has.

[Gubbington]

They wouldn't shut the game down after they just put a seasonal update out one month ago. I'm sure this'll be sorted out eventually.

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Originally posted by Gubbington:

They wouldn't shut the game down after they just put a seasonal update out one month ago. I'm sure this'll be sorted out eventually.

i think you're kinda right

[green sheep]

wait the s&box TF2:S2 port was shut down??? I mean I guess it makes sense.

[UNBREAKABLE]

Originally posted by trade children for lasagna:

Originally posted by padmé:

It will most likely be fixed, the game doesn’t have the best awareness from situations like these or in general.

sure

Servers were out for almost 2 weeks when the WAR! Updated dropped. This outage is like a kiddie pool, just be patient.

[XoNiX #SaveTF2 #FixTF2]

Originally posted by drunk driver:

wait the s&box TF2:S2 port was shut down??? I mean I guess it makes sense.

Yep, Moonly wright about this in his Telegram

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Originally posted by evil:

the impractical engineer should follow the item servers' example and go offline

hahahhahha bruh

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21:52 updated some info