How to Choose a Server for Your Lobby / L4D2 Match to Use

I figured i should make a guide since i see a lot of frustration in L4D2 players with server selection, which is understandable cuz im sure everyone has started a lobby on a custom campaign before and got some crazy modded server, so hopefully this info is useful to some players to choose what they want to play.

(or would rather play at least, compared to what shows up randomly or the crazy modded servers that just dont feel like L4D2 gameplay mechanics anymore, unless the crazy mods is what you wanna pick lol then go for it, no judgement)

============== Intro ==============

Hello guys and girls, i wanted to make a guide real fast and explain what happens when you start a lobby so hopefully it will help some players find the servers they want and avoid some frustration.

Theres a video explination Here,[twitch.tv] but its not very good so id still suggest reading instead lol and its probably faster anyway.
 
 
 
 
So to start with this guide will really only be useful to people playing custom campaigns since the valve Official Dedicated servers dont run custom campaigns, so from the workshop or manually installed .vpk files from other sites like gamemaps which is often seen.
If you only play original campaigns then you probably get an official server so theres no worries. (See the Server Types & Options guide for explination of the types of servers, this guide is about how to select a server if you dont get an Official Dedicated)

Now the biggest issue i find is that the L4D2 matchmaking system doesnt give players any info on what happens, or how it picks a server so when players start a match and get a random server with a mod they didnt want they get frustrated and angry at the "modded server" like its the servers fault for being there.

Which is understandable when they just wanted standard 4 player L4D2 but not really the servers fault cuz Steam Group Servers (community servers) are needed to play custom campaigns, as well as they are privately owned so im sure if you had your own server you would set it up and manage it as you saw fit and if people dont want to play it they dont have to, and theres nothing wrong with that so the issue is the random selection of the servers so ill explain how the lobby works.
 
 

============== Server Options ==============

Lobby ----- So this is where it all happens lol, so the main thing to notice here is if you click edit game settings like your changing the map to the lobby, there is a Server Type option and this is important so ill explain what they do.



Official Dedicated ----- This is a standard L4D2 style server with default settings hosted by Valve, anytime you play an original campaign you can just leave the Server Type on Official and it should find one alright, if it cant find one or your playing a custom campaign then a pop up shows up for the lobby leader saying no Official servers available do you want to choose Best Available Dedicated? at that point you want to click cancel.



Best Available Dedicated ----- This option is actually just a trick pretty much lol, so if you choose Best Available in the lobby as Server Type then all it does is looks for the closest Official Dedicated server, and if it cant find one for an original campaign or your playing a custom campaign then it looks for the closest Steam Group Server that is a Dedicated server as well, and if it cant find that then it will attempt to host a Non-Dedicated Local match which means the lobby leaders pc is like the server and everyone connects to them, which often has problems with ping or mods players use conflicting with eachother and crashes, so you shouldnt need the Best Available option if you pick Official or Steam Group Server as the Server Type in the lobby.



Steam Group Servers ----- So these are usually Dedicated servers that are just hosted by individual people like you or me, or by a clan (gaming community) so they are often modified cuz the owners want something different but there are default 4 player Steam Group Servers. If you play a custom campaign then theres a very high chance when you start the lobby it will end up on a Steam Group Communities server.

Which players get frustrated about cuz they didnt want something changed, but if the lobby is set to the Steam Group Server option, instead of Official or Best Available getting there, then the lobby leader will get to choose which Steam Group Server to use if its public or the lobby leader is a member of the Steam Group Servers steam group.
  
 

============== Server Selection ==============

 
 
 
So now to the good stuff, my advice would be if you playing an original campaign then set the Server Type in the lobby to Official and you should get a regular server and your good to go, but if it doesnt work cuz there all just taken on the weekend or if your playing a custom campaign then Do Not use Best Available.

Change the server type to Steam Group Server since thats where you end up anyway, and when the lobby leader starts the match in the lobby it will give him/her a list of the public Steam Group Servers to pick from. (same list as on the main menu) Do Not let the players in the lobby vote to start though, if the vote to start counts down then it will pick randomly like the other options, so the lobby leader has to start it so he/she can pick, that way at least you can pick something thats not as bad as some modded servers out there and youll know what you get.
 
 
 
 
Now theres a few tricks to the Steam Group Server, if you see 0 Steam Group Servers on the main menu of L4D2 then its probably cuz your Steam Profile View Status is set to Friends-Only or Private which makes it so you wont see any of the 300-400 public Steam Group Server you can use.

So if your Profile View is Public you can see the average 300-400 Steam Group Server players can use publicly, or if you actually join the steam group that hosts the Steam Group Server than its public and private servers will show up for you in the list, and a lot of the steam groups that host regular 4 player L4D2 servers keep them private so only group members can start the match on the server.

So if you start a match on a custom campaign and you like the server you get then open the Dev Console with the ~ (tilda) key and type status and submit it, then it gives you a list of info in the Console and you can find the Name of the Server, that way when you go to start a lobby on the server type Steam Group Server you know its name and can look for that server again, or a lot of servers have a link to their steam group in the MOTD (message of the day) and the H key is the default key to open the MOTD in L4D2.

You can also type openserverbrowser in the Dev Console and it will give you the old Source Server Browser (also known as the HLSW) and you can search for servers like in CS:S, or right now on your own steam program window go to the far upper left corner of the window and click on View, then click on Servers on the little drop menu and you can use the Server Browser on the desktop, then check the History tab on the Server Browser to find server names and ip addresses and once you have the ip address for the server you want to use you can type mm_force_dedicated_servers 000.00.00.000:27015 in the console to make any lobby you start as the lobby leader try to connect to that server first (although i find thats usually harder for most players).

Now if you connect to a L4D2 server with the Server Browser then it usually wont let you vote to kick players, or let public players join through the matchmaking like normal, so you have to start a public lobby and connect to a server to make it show up in the list with all the other matchs when players go to Campaign and Play Online on the main menu.

So hopefully this info helps some players choose the server they want (or would rather use) instead of getting the randomness all the time lol, and i always got annoyed with random servers when playing custom campaigns too till the community im in set up some servers, so then i found out how the L4D2 Lobby picks a server, to how Steam Group Servers work with L4D2 and i can choose one since thats where you end up most of the time with custom campaigns anyway, so everyone have fun shooting stuff with your friends and as always. . .

Happy gaming guys and girls!

   

[Damien gr]

Thanks for this great guide.
However the command is not "mm_force_dedicated_servers" but "mm_dedicated_force_servers " or "mm_dedicated_force_official_servers "
You helped me a lot !

[DG | Tom Da Bomb [S] [D]]

You can also check the Steam Page here ---> https://steamcommunity.com/app/550/discussions/1/

which is a community groups / servers sub discussion forum i guess in the L4D2 steam community hub

although not a lot of ppl post there with info about their Steam Group and servers they run cuz the posts just decay after a few days and nobody see's it

so generally you might be better off just doing a google search for 8 player L4D2 Servers / Groups and see if anyones websites that talked about it might have links to a steam group etc.

[DG | Tom Da Bomb [S] [D]]

but we run them public like the ones you find in-game and theres a Discussion with a list of the workshop campaigns we have installed so you can find out if a map your going to play is on the servers

but if you dont know any good servers for a workshop campaign your going to play just start the lobby using the Best Available server type option, and then when you find a server running that campaign check the MOTD for their steam group to join and use their servers from the Lobby

or open the console and use the status command to see the IP address so you can use it again (or use the openserverbrowser command in the console to see your history and find server IPs)

[DG | Tom Da Bomb [S] [D]]

if your in the middle of the US to the east coast or up in canada we run two 8 player coop campaign servers and one regular 4 player default coop campaign server at Duskgamers, so feel free to check the website at Duskgamers.com

otherwise you can join the DuskGamers Public Group so our 3 servers show up in your Steam Group Servers list on the main menu of L4D2, if your too far west or south you may get a little too much lag till we can get a better server host

joining the group doesnt make you a clan member or anything, so they are usually just free and open groups you can join for the servers and whatever you have to do with the group, then later leave if you want cuz your not using it anymore then come back later, cuz i find some ppl feel weird about joining a group like that i guess but its what they are for, especially with L4D2

[God's Drunkest Soldier]

Thanks!

[DG | Tom Da Bomb [S] [D]]

or you can always make a lobby for versus or coop and change the Server Type in the lobby settings where you would pick the map to Best Available Dedicated, then when you start the lobby on a workshop campaign your pretty much guaranteed to get a Steam Group Server

then you can usually find the servers steam group in the MOTD (message of the day) post that shows up when you 1st join a server (or the H key is default to open the MOTD unless you set it to something else in keyboard settings or with a bind command)

[DG | Tom Da Bomb [S] [D]]

yeah no worries, when it comes to regular servers that have the standard number of players then you usually have to find a group that runs a couple servers to join, that way their servers show up for you and you can see if they have a regular default server or check their groups page, usually the groups that run default servers keep them so you have to be a member of the group to start the match on their server otherwise its always full so they cant use it

definitely check into the Workshop too, theres some new maps and stuff in there but anytime you see a custom campaign being play in L4D2 then its running on a community server which you then might find others and so on

[God's Drunkest Soldier]

Oh and I mean like the standard play count that was intended

[God's Drunkest Soldier]

Does anyone know any good Vs and/or hard/normal campaign servers? Kinda new ( only have 32 hours )

[DG | Tom Da Bomb [S] [D]]

personally my favorite part of using a Steam Group or Non-Steam Group Community servers for custom campaigns or the original campaigns (which thats just me and it makes sense i would wanna use my communities servers) is that they have a ban list

lol so the more you play a community server and the more trolls you see means the more ban reports the servers community gets and the more trolls that get banned, so eventually theyll build a ban list of most of the frequent trolls that show up which helps a lot for original campaigns so your not kicking someone every 5 minutes

the hard part is finding a steam community that runs regular 4 player servers so you can play the original gameplay on custom campaigns, so it just takes time and checking servers when you play custom campaigns, and check the MOTD on a server for a link to their steam group