34 replies to this topic

[jayserp]

 

We've made a pretty comprehensive change to TF2Center in response to hackers and spammers who created new accounts to hack, cheat, and generally cause trouble to an otherwise fantastic and friendly community.

 

As a result, we've decided to enforce a 300 hour minimum for players to login to the site. This makes things a lot harder for griefers to simply create new accounts while we run around chasing Steam ID and IP bans, and allows us to focus on developing the community, implementing new features and making TF2Center a better place.

 

This effectively requires potential griefers to invest 12 days worth of idling, while in comparison we can ban an account in 5 seconds. This tips the scales in our favour when dealing with them, and reduces our workload.

 

However, some players with private Steam Community accounts may find they are impacted. This is because our hours count relies on reading their public profile to obtain the hours of TF2 played. As a result, you may find that when you login, you are required to verify the account by temporarily making the profile public. You may turn your profile back to private as soon as this is complete.

 

If you are unwilling to make your profile public for whatever reason, then please contact us and we will do our best to assist.

 

This was not a decision taken lightly, and we did our best to ensure we researched the situation and made sure that this was the right route to go down. In terms of statistics, we ran the numbers in the database and found that only ~150 users would fall under the new limit, of which the majority were alt accounts, and close to the 300 hour threshold anyway.

 

We will continue to keep an eye on this limit, and may be lowering it in the future if we find too many new players are impacted. Of course, we welcome your feedback on the issue, so feel free to post in public on the forum, or if you prefer, via a PM on the forum.

[DudeMartin]

Awesome! I've had multiple lobbies be ruined by some guy who had like 50 hours and added up as Demoman only to play Sniper the whole time. I don't think this will hurt anyone who is not a troll.

[Bjosx]

Good idea but will people who say, get their account hacked and make a new one be able to appeal for the ability to enter lobbies? And also would people who were going into reserved slots be able to play regardless of their hours? 

[FromZero2Hero]

What happens with private profiles? They're not allowed I suposse?

[Timon]

What happens with private profiles? They're not allowed I suposse?

 

Did you even read the post?!

[R.E.M.]

Whilst I think this is required, it's certainly not a solution I like. I'm not really happy with judging people on the hours they've played because they mean very little in relation to skill. I regularly see people who are much better than their hours suggest and they are NOT alts.

 

I would suggest lowering it to around 100.

[iFY]

thanks god

[fabulous]

I have roughly 262 hours logged on tf2 but I practice on tf2center just about daily with teammates. I have over 100 games played on tf2center. Is there anything that can be done?

[YungDesk]

Atleast lower it to 150 or 200 hours. I enjoy competitive play and this is like a direct slap in the face. Also, ~150 users affected is actually a significant chunk when the site typically only has ~500 to 600 players on during peak times.

 

If you're not willing to give some people a pass, let me donate money and pay my way in. I am an adult and do not have hours on hours to invest in a game. I'm not a troll and I want to play with my team/comp friends.

[Bozboy204]

While I understand the idea behind the 300 hour requirement, this isn't a good fix. My UGC team has 2 players below 300 hours and we always try to play as seriously as possible. Center is the main way that we get practice together as a team and now 2 of our players can't play with us. They both have 50+ lobbies.

 

300 hours is pretty arbitrary, and there are many players with low hours that play seriously and plenty of players with high hours that don't. This decision really hurts our team and many other players who were using center to get practice in the comp environment. Please either implement a system to submit tickets for re-entry or lower the hours to 150 or 200. 

[Some_Thing]

This is the type of feedback we are looking for, thanks everyone!

[Quicky]

Hey, my name is Quicky i play steel scout and have been with tf2 Center since day 1 some of you love me most of you hate me: ) First of all i want to thank all the players who made this wonderful site happen. Recently i logged on to tf2center hoping to play some organized 6s i realized i was signed out on tf2 Center so i went to login and i keep loging in but i dosnt reconize me so i went to the fourms here i found that a new rule had been made that players must have 300 on tf2 to play in the lobbies. this fact alone single handedly ruined my life ... i only have 211 hours and have started competitive early. simply beacuse i was sick of dropping a med on a pub and then 3 more meds walk around the corner ; ) but now this has ruined my whole gaming life. i was in every mumble to every lobby and didnt leave much. i cant get more hours beacuse sadly my parents only allow me to play 1 hour day (i know right!)All i ask is that you consider this i know you have been dealing with alt accounts but thats not the case with me.. 

 

 

Sensiourly, Quicky

 

 

 

[Some_Thing]

Hang tight everyone. This subject is a hot topic amongst the team and we are listening to all the feedback we get. I realise this is having an effect on some people and do note we are trying to balance quality players/lobbies vs keeping cheats/illegitimate alts/griefers out. As we are still in beta, we are using this time to test and tweak things. Not everything we try will always work out nor make it into the final version.

 

If you have any other concerns regarding this, please PM me on the forums or add me on steam for a chat

[Kenneth]

From the looks of it, It could be worth it to automatically allow players who already have 50+ lobbies and are in good standing a pass to the 300 hour requirement as a stop-gap. However it could be worth it to look at 200 hours instead in my opinion. 

[ZiN]

Could you not have a 3 tier option?

 

Pug type 1 requirement = 100 hours+

Pug type 2 requirement = 300 hours+

Pug type 3 requirement = 1000 hours+

 

With the pug host determining the requirement based on what they want.

[TheMattgician]

Could you not have a 3 tier option?

 

Pug type 1 requirement = 100 hours+

Pug type 2 requirement = 300 hours+

Pug type 3 requirement = 1000 hours+

 

With the pug host determining the requirement based on what they want.

 

Not sure this is necessary, since the host can put any requirement they want. Also, the point of the minimum is to prevent hackers from simply making an alt.

 

By the way, does it make any sense to check if the player is 'premium'? Not sure this is even possible, but the idea is that hackers wont spend money to make new alts. The question is, are there any who still don't have premium but aren't hackers? Its a reasonable assumption given some people play TF2C with less than 300 hours.

[Kenneth]

I quite like the idea of a premium requirement. That way it costs something to make an alt, not just idling for two weeks.

[R.E.M.]

I quite like the idea of a premium requirement. That way it costs something to make an alt, not just idling for two weeks.

 

Yeah but it only costs 6p (or whatever that is in other currencies). Gift-a-pults are really cheap and I'd bet that some trolls are willing to pay that to get a reaction.

[TheMattgician]

Yeah but it only costs 6p (or whatever that is in other currencies). Gift-a-pults are really cheap and I'd bet that some trolls are willing to pay that to get a reaction.

 

It would be an added feature to the 100 hours (Which I think should probably be 150). The more I think of it, the more I doubt players with 100 (150) hours wouldn't have fallen into the Valve trap of buying a key.

[Kenneth]

Yeah but it only costs 6p (or whatever that is in other currencies). Gift-a-pults are really cheap and I'd bet that some trolls are willing to pay that to get a reaction.

You have to add 5 dollars at minimum to steam wallet. So it costs 5 bucks.