The old shooter Team Fortress 2 is currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity. But bots are spoiling this enjoyment. They have even developed such annoying features that they can’t be kicked.
What’s happening with Team Fortress 2? The old shooter from 2007 is currently experiencing greater popularity again. Although the shooter according to Steamcharts has always been well attended, TF2 is now seeing an average of 68,318 players per day, reaching the highest numbers since the analysis website started in 2013.
This allows the title to consistently rank among the 20 most popular games on Steam. Reasons for this are likely the larger Smissmas update in December 2019 as well as the restrictions due to the coronavirus.
However, with the increase in players, the number of bots has also grown. And while there have always been bots, they are currently so annoying that many players are urgently expecting a response from Valve.
Lag bots cause server crashes during kicks
What is the current issue? On the subreddit for Team Fortress 2, there is now a megathread addressing the topic of lags, crashes, and bots. They are said to be a significant problem currently, as described by the user DerpyEinstein:
March was honestly just the calm before the storm. April is 10x worse than it was just 2 weeks ago. Besides the regular bots, there are also cheaters hiding among them…
What can be done against the bots? A popular method is to kick the bots using a voting system. If enough players agree, they get kicked. But that’s no longer effective, as the TF2 podcaster Argo shared on the website PCGamer.
According to his description, the bots would crash the servers before they could be kicked. Players apparently have no way to counter this, except to escape to community servers. There, significantly fewer bots and cheaters are said to be present, and those can also be kicked more easily.
Players expect a response from Valve
However, escaping to community servers cannot be the solution, argues reddit user fivesofclubs. He hopes Valve will respond to the issues:
A quick reminder that one really shouldn’t have to escape to external community servers just to play the damn game.
Valve is solely responsible, and it is their job to create a functioning product for their users. We should stop making excuses for them.
On reddit, many players express concern about Team Fortress 2 because it does not hold a high priority for Valve. However, during a bug in the economy in the summer of 2019, a relatively quick response was made. Some still believe that the game may never be fun again.
Team Fortress was one of the first hero shooters. There are now a number of them. The latest title is Valorant and comes from Riot Games. We have already tested it and believe you will play it too.
