What can we do to fix TF2 effectively (without calling out to valve)

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Before someone jumps into conclusions based on the title. I am not going to complain about the petition created by #FixTf2. All I am going to say about it is it both has its supporters and haters, but one can't forget that they are trying at least. I see it slightly skeptical, but nevertheless its good to see that so many people are trying to do something.

however, I do see better sollutions to at least the bot problem in casual, which is (as already said sometimes) creating a network of Vanilla Community Servers.

Some people would call it a bypass of the problem rather than an actual fix, but it would at least be something that helps the problem right now instead of waiting for unsure response from valve for yet another eternity.

The idea would be like so:

SERVER NUMBERS AMOUNT AND LOCATIONS

The movement of dedicated players hosts about 2 - 3 servers at the start. It could be expanded later on to allow more players to join.

1 for america

1 for europe

1 for asia

An alternative is to run 3 servers in the us or eu only, but then we would neglect players from other regions.

SERVER RULES AND FEATURES

The network would host it as closely to casual as possible:

- default rules, spawn time and objectives (no pointless games like on skial)

- map rotation (same as on casual)

- gamemode rotation ( after each 10 games on 1 gamemode) to save costs of hosting multiple gamemode servers. For now only the most popular ones would be included.

- plugins kept to minimum (no rtd, taunt, unusual etc) allowing for the server to run with a good performance and allowing moderators to keep bots and cheaters in check

- Minimal donation perks without too flashy stuff (donors still need to get some recognition for their support)

NETWORK UPKEEP

Maintainance is some of the problem I heard a bit about, since people behind the movement seem to be a bit poor.

I would suggest a common contribution within the movement.


- Members would pay about 2-5 USD each to hold a total amount of 3 servers

- 1 average server with 24 players costs about 20 USD in total to keep up. The community would need to pay 60 USD monthly to keep all 3 of them up, which would require about 16 members on average to share the costs.

- People would be able to contribute mannco keys / tf2 items to help with keeping these 3 up and let it grow over time.


With enough marketing (#savetf2 is really good at getting loud) and enough people willing to support that idea, we would ease the bot crisis a little bit and finally give players some proper progress on the topic.

I hope the people pushing for saving / fixing the game will consider the idea seriosly.

[Mina]

Various community servers for everyone’s taste. Perhaps a migration of population to healthy alternatives to continue to play

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Originally posted by Juliet:

Various community servers for everyone’s taste. Perhaps a migration of population to healthy alternatives to continue to play

They are quite disorganized and are not good enough at attracting enough people to be seen. A network unified under the movement banner would be more recognized overall.

Skial and Wonderland do not make for a good alternative for their 24/7 map running and various fancy plugins. Simply too diffrent from casual. Uncletopia is closer, but sadly not a good replacement either.

A proper network is needed that really replaces the casual.

[^_^]

this, i was the guy trying to launch a community server not too long ago
if needed i'll definitely host

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Originally posted by realsnakeeye:

this, i was the guy trying to launch a community server not too long ago
if needed i'll definitely host

It will be easier if the movement will help promote that . They can attract people. But its cool to see people like you willing to help out this quickly.

[^_^]

Originally posted by |★| Veteran:

Originally posted by realsnakeeye:

this, i was the guy trying to launch a community server not too long ago
if needed i'll definitely host

It will be easier if the movement will help promote that . They can attract people. But its cool to see people like you willing to help out this quickly.

i'm willing because i try to care instead of yelling out into a void :P
anyways, if you want updates on the server just add me on steam; i'm setting everything up again

[/I\]

Originally posted by realsnakeeye:

Originally posted by |★| Veteran:

It will be easier if the movement will help promote that . They can attract people. But its cool to see people like you willing to help out this quickly.

i'm willing because i try to care instead of yelling out into a void :P
anyways, if you want updates on the server just add me on steam; i'm setting everything up again

thats definetly a better approach.

Sure I can add you, I would want to host to host same vanilla server, but unfortunately it would be too big expense for me right now (but maybe later who knows).

I will be def interested seeing a proper alternative growing. If you get it all set up, I will help promote

[WWIA7062]

save.tf is better imo because if valve fixed the botting problem themselves people wouldn't need to pay extra for community servers and anyone who wanted to try tf2 who doesn't know about this in the future can try it out.

[dat_potatoe]

There are ALREADY like over two thousand community servers currently empty. Lack of servers isn't the (primary) issue here.

If people cared beyond lazy performative activism, they could get actually ORGANIZED and try to work something out with the owners of those empty servers for ideal settings.

[hipposeducer28]

This is a good idea but idk if the 50 or so people on tf2 steam forums are gonna be enough, some kind of youtuber needs to pick this up like how uncletopia started. The first step for this would be organizing a method of reaching out to tf2bers and trying to convince at least one to try and make something like this work.
Working something out with owners of existing servers is a good idea too