The hell?

[FlareKitsune]

Went onto TFP #2, said there was 25 players. I check the status, there are only 7 people on.

What on earth would possess you to use the false server number plugin?

You're no better than Lotus. Seriously.

[iller]

OP's Server/Steam client was clearly not updating correctly. (that, or everyone was still downloading).

[NikkyVix]

First off, welcome to the forums FlareKitsune. Now, to address your post:

(1) We don't use false server login counters, a sign of community status-farming.

(2) TFP #2 is prone to random crashes which may also reduce the number of returning players (also applicable for mapchanges when people generally file out)

(3) We don't use false server login counters, a sign of community dick-wagging.

(4) Are you sure your client window information was refreshed by you within the past minute or less? They do not auto-refresh, and old information remains long after changes.

(5) We have never used false login counters, as we have no interest in having our servers blacklisted or made less palatable to new players.

(6) You bring no proof to the table to support your accusations, and I guarantee you will find you are the very first person to formerly accuse us of this. If we had used such counters, you'd think someone would have brought it up in anger before.

(7) In a community as big as ours, have I mentioned the lack of a need for false login counters?

Hope that addresses your concerns. Please let us know if there's anything else you need cleared up.

[Purplecat]

The only bot we have on the servers is the SourceTV player, and that slot is ignored by the TF2 client server browser (but not by the one in Steam, they need to make it ignore bots later). And that bot is for busting unruly players/cheaters, not to fool people onto a server.

And yes, Steam/TF2 only updates server stats only if you blatantly tell it so. I had server stats in my Steam client that were only valid literally 36+ hours ago or so. Make sure to actually press the refresh button in the server browser... or even better, rightclick on a server and select "view server info". That gets you live server stats that is updated every five seconds or so.

I even took a quick look at all the plugins installed on TFP2. I saw Sourcemod, the anti-DDOS plugin and Sourcemod plugins like Autoalltalk but nothing about faking players.

[FlareKitsune]

Oh okay. Sorry for the confusion.

[NikkyVix]

[Endeavour3d]

It's also probable that people were downloading a custom map that had been updated or rarely played and the only people in the server were the ones that already had it.

[Arcalane]

[TarenFox]

I had the same problem yesterday with a couple of the TFP severs I played on yesterday, and it's still giving me this problem.

[Tehrasha]

I have often noticed a distinct difference between what the Steam game browser tells me, and what actually exists in game. ESPECIALLY with the friends game-list.

My friends game-list will populate with a group of servers, and when I check the users list for the games, I dont recognize any of the players. This in itself is not unusual, as -in game- names are so easy to change. I wish the game-info pane would highlight 'friends' in some way..

On top of that, nine times out of ten, when I join one of these servers, NONE of my friends are currently there. Worst of all, after I leave the game and refresh the friends game-list, the server is STILL there!!