Why is this Steam bug not fixed, and not complained about more?

[imaheadcase]

This bug has been around since steam old HL1 deathmatch days, yet still not fixed.

When you go to servers for Team Fortress 2 for example and auto-refreshes list, yet even if server says 30-34 you join it and its empty. Or if its 33-34 you join it says reserved slot..now reason and common sense would dictate that if its a reserved slot..why not just show it freakin full because a reserved slot kicks that user anyways!

Is this some sort of network limitation, or what because its very annoying trying to find a populated server.

Even other clients you use to find games have the same issue. The only way around it is to remember when a server is normally full, but that is a problem say at 4am in the morning and want to get some tf2 on and shows servers populated yet are not.

Back in the day when I used Kali to play games online, it was never like that, is it just something broke or one of those "features" that is really not a feature at all that they just don't know how to fix. :/

 

[manutdc]

I'm quite sure it's actually not a bug...it's something server admins do to get people to join their servers. They can change if it they want, but they don't.

 

[imaheadcase]

The empty servers saying they are full? Why would they do that, yet sometimes they are full like they show though..

 

[JTsyo]

I right click and do server info before joining.

 

[PepePeru]

i agree. extremely frustrating.

i thought they implemented some scoring system that would eventually remove those servers that lie from the master server lists.

i don't know what's worse, the reserved slot shit or the empty ones.

 

[Genx87]

This happens in every MP game I have played. I think some of it is set at the server. Basically the server says 30 people are connected. Probably in an attempt to keep randoms off the server. I know admins can also reserve slots. Not really a steam thing. More like an Multiplayer thing that happens across many games outside of Steam.

 

[Red Storm]

Right click the server to view info. However, you must wait to see if the displayed info is actually changing (score, etc) because there are plugins that can also fake that info with static names and points.

Yes, it really sucks. But it will continue to be used as long as there are players out there who join these servers and then stay on even after finding out they've been duped.

Your best bet would be to find some servers with a good community and stick to them. I don't even remember the last time I had to search for a server because I only play in servers on my favorites list.

 

[stag3]

same, find a few good servers and become a regular, issue almost solved

what i HATE is reserved slots, you cant just set the server to autojoin when a spot opens up
because there's always 1 slot open for a reserved !

 

[flashbacck]

Yeah, same here. It's extremely annoying and I hate server admins who do this. I'm guessing the browser just uses whatever the server is reporting because it's far faster than querying every server for more detailed info.

 

[Red Storm]

Originally posted by: stag3
same, find a few good servers and become a regular, issue almost solved

what i HATE is reserved slots, you cant just set the server to autojoin when a spot opens up
because there's always 1 slot open for a reserved !

Talk to your server admins about using hidden reserved slots. If a server is 24 player with 2 reserve slots, it will only show up as a 22 player server in the browser. I believe it's not used all that often because those 2 reserved slots become unavailable to regular players at all times.

 

[darom]

I just disconnect from such servers. It is some sort of cheating to invite players.

Since you mentioned a bug.

Does anybody have this annoyance: connect to a server, the server shows the web page with, say, stats. My TF2 switches back to the damn desktop. Then I have to wait for a few minutes to switch the window back to the game! Every time there is a web page with stats, I get switched to the desktop with the TF2 in the background.

I used to have Steam invitations pop-ups that used to do the same crap, but I disabled them. Any ideas?

 

[DarkForceRising]

Both of the issues you're talking about are not Steam bugs, but are Admin plugins.

http://forums.steampowered.com...howthread.php?t=786998
This hasn't been updated in a while, but it contains a link to TF2 servers that were known to use false player count plugins. These, btw, are mainly used to get people to join the server and keep them full. Supposedly, these were one of the things that Valve implemented a server delisting system to deal with. They are also one of the big reasons people have been begging valve for a server blacklist feature, just like there's a favorites list.

The other issue is an issue with reserved slots. As far as I can tell, and I've looked, there is no way to implement reserved slots so that no space is taken up on the server. If I remember correctly, you can implement a reserved slot that always stays open, and people with access swap in and out of that slot while kicking other people and moving into their slots. The other method is to always have a set number of reserved slots that can fill up with admins/privileged members, but only up to that number. There is a way, however, to keep your reserved slots hidden, which is what I do on the server I run. We have 21 slots, but the 21st slot is a hidden reserve, so there are only ever 20 players.

Edit:
@darom
Those MOTD pages are supposed to be loaded through the in-game browser, which is built to use IE, as I recall. If it's not opening in game, either something is set up wrong, or you disabled something. Or it could be a bug.