Selecting A Specific Official Server

weblink: GameTracker[www.gametracker.com].
Console command : "mm_dedicated_force_servers" Note: there must be a space after it .
How many times have you made a lobby and start a game, but when the game loads everyone, it is a some random server far away from you and thus you get a bad ping/connection? This happens to everyone sometimes including myself, so rather than relying on some flawed server matching system, you can PICK AN AVAILABLE OFFICIAL SERVER using this guide. You can be anywhere in the world, Australia, China, United States, Germany, France, etc) this guide will show you servers in the area and their IPs for connection. You pick whatever works for you, the server can be official or nonofficial (being modded).
REMEMBER! you have to be the lobby leader in order to pick a specific server.

Scenerio

Many times the bad automatic server selection been placing me into a server where mostly everyone has a bad ping and therefore we have to relobby or change the lobby leader. Obviously this applies to Private games or Public.

This method will allow you to search for whatever server you want and select into the game. You may choose to have an Official Valve server (Free of mods) or you can actually choose a modded server (like DLR server or Hentai AI Survivors vs Player infected).


This guide will show the steps needed to selected your server using a very useful webpage.

Enabling Console

First things first, you need to have Console enabled to do use this method.
You may skip this step if you have console enabled.

On the main menu, click Options > Keyboard/Mouse , Then under Allow Developer Console, click Enabled.

Choosing the server

Ok, normally people say to use "openserverbrowser" but that does not work when it comes to searching for a nearby official server for me.

1. There is a good website that list servers for Left 4 Dead 2. GameTracker, a link to the website is here[www.gametracker.com]. You may use an outside webrowser or Steam Overlay ingame.
   
   
   
2. In the Matching Text box, use any of the following:
   Note: this is for Official Servers
   
   for Players in the United States:
   • "US East" or "US West"
     These will bring up servers in the your choosen critia.
   for Players in Europe:
   • "EU North" or "EU South" or "EU West"
     You may further filter the list by click on the country flag or select country on the top right (to see if there is one in your country that is)
   for Players in Austrlia: "Austrailia"
   for Players in Japan: "Japan"
   Note: That I found no official servers located in South America, so if you are hoping for a server there you will have to use a nonofficial one which may or may not be modded. Remember that it is still better than local hosting a game.
   
   
3. If you want a modded server you may just search the modded servers' name.
   
   
4. Look under the Players column for a server that has 0/4 , 0/8 , 0/10 anything as long as the first number is 0 to indicate that the server is unoccupied.
   
   
5. Mouse and click over the Ip : Port of the choosen server and copy it (Ctrl + C, or right click and pick "copy")
   
   
6. Ingame, create a lobby in your chosen game mode.
   
   
   REMEMBER! you have to be the lobby leader in order to pick a server.
   
7. Press the ~ Key on your keyboard to open console.
   
   
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8. Paste the IP into console.
   
   
   _
   
9. Now copy this command "mm_dedicated_force_servers" and paste it into console BUT BEFORE the ip:port and with a space between them (command and ip not the port) press enter, and you are done.
   
   
   
   You may start the game when you have enough players and you should see a good ping for yourself and for the other players, their ping depends on their location relative to the server location you choose.
   
   
   Here we all had good pings in this game where I was the lobby leader and choose a server. Everyone here is on or close to the East coast of the United States with the exception of two players: GENDOR, who appears to be in the middle of the US and Steph Curry, who is probably in Europe or the West Coast of the US.
   
   
10. Remember that you have to be playing base maps to select any of the servers. You will most likely NOT be able to use any of the servers if you are playing a map from workshop.

Update: September. 2016 Server Problem.

I am writing this section because of problem everyone seems to have as of September 2016. The game freezes when you "Start the game" with a full lobby and have it set to Official. The game freezes while loading. As a result 95% percent of all games going are on (crappy) modded servers with ads flooding console.

Well, I feel like I am the 1 percent to say the problem is not with official servers themselves. If it really was, NONE of the 30 IPs I have used within the past week of me writing this section would have never worked. We had a similar problem years ago where the master server went down and no one could connect to any official server without forcing an IP in lobby. The servers were there and up and running BUT undiscoverable by the auto server selection.

Here is screenshot to prove that this works. I do not feel like posting 30 different screenshots to prove that the servers are still up and running. I have used both East and West coast US servers as well as some European servers since the lobby requested that.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=764269607

Closure

The guide is simple and straight forward for anyone. I am hoping to find individuals who are willing to translate this into other languages to help them out in finding a suitable officlal server in their country when they are the lobby leader. If this worked for you please rate up so that other people will be inclined to try this method.

I suggest FAVORITE this guide so you will have quick access to this guide on steam overlay menu while you are ingame and then you can click on the weblink to view the server list and copy and paste the IP and the force server command quickly and easily without having to scroll through the guide to the end since it is now viewabled at the GUIDE summary.

Here they are again: GameTracker, a link to the website is here[www.gametracker.com].

Console command : "mm_dedicated_force_servers"
Note: there must be a space after it ^

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

the main reason the official servers arent "working" well since 2016 is the steam pipe update for the workshop, at that time valve lowered the # of servers out there since players have to use community servers for custom campaigns, so i made a guide myself to inform players about how the lobby works and connects to a server, which better helps them understand what they should be trying to choose for what theyre playing

so if your playing a custom campaign and you try to start the lobby it will say no officials, choose best available dedicated? which then just searches for the closest steam group server (same thing as a community server thats not connected to a steam group) and if that doesnt work it tries to start a local host match on the lobby leaders pc which is where you get the black screen freeze, and sometimes it just messes up on the official servers if you have a mod that tries to enforce sv_consistency 1

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

so if you start a custom campaign lobby and you actually like the server you get to then type status in the console and check the servers name, then you can connect to it from the lobby by changing the server type to steam group server so when the lobby leader starts the match they get to choose from the list, so at least you know what your getting instead of a crazy random server thats modified so much it doesnt feel like L4D2 anymore lol

there are some steam groups that run 4 player servers that are default but they keep it so you have to join the public group to start a match on those servers so their members can use them or random players are always filling them

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

the biggest issue i find is that most ppl dont know that you cant use official dedicated servers with workshop campaigns (or any custom campaigns) so any time you try to play a custom campaign you will get a steam group server or a community server (which is the same as a steam group server that just doesnt have a steam group connected to it)

so if you play original campaigns leave it on official dedicated and you should be fine (unless its the weekend and all the official dedicated servers are being used by players) but if it doesnt find one or your playing a custom campaign then youll have to choose a steam group server since thats where it puts you anyway

[ed66]

god

[Caçadora07]

.

[yumadT]

nice

[LegacyMµ'se]

It's a... long guide, sorry but I rather leave if it find a bad server and search for a new one. Plus, your guide only works if you're hosting.

[某水一圣]

well,it is a little hard

[Frog Engineer]

good

[PӨLICΣMΛƬЯЇЖ]

@Marcus101RR make your own lobby then????? hate people moaning who cant be arsed to wait in there own lobby