Preparing for the Flood

[Natia Adano]

With Team Fortress 2 Classic releasing on Steam in Version 2.2.3, will there be enough Vault F4 servers to handle the MASSIVE influx of new players? Yes, I know the current crashes are on the client side and not on the server; yet I'm curious how the Vault F4 staff are preparing for it. More servers? Larger teams? I'm legit curious to know.

 

[NovaCancy]

TF2C will not be releasing on steam in 2.2.3. 2.2.3 is going to be the last patch for TF2C before the port, and will allow TF2C to properly function on updated SDK. It will not be the port or the steam release.

That being said, the steam release is so far off that we haven't begun to discuss the logistics of adding extra servers yet. We almost certainly won't be doing larger teams though, and we'll work with the development team to ensure we can provide as many servers as possible for the steam release.

 

[Natia Adano]

Ahhh. In Version 2.2.4 then. I see.

 

[AWood]

Personally I think that the major question will be if the moderation team will be ready for more people to ban since people will automatically assume that since Classic is in the name that they can conduct themselves the same way when they were teenagers in 2009 when community guidelines have massively changed since then considerably.
The good news about having more players is that you open the potential for more people to host too, so it's hard to say whether or not actual playercounts/servers being filled will be more of a problem than it already is. Let's be real, as of right now on a weekend night you may have multiple server status windows up anyways set to "Join now" to actually join a VF4 server. Might end up being better because more people that have consistently played on those servers may support them to get reserved slots; I know that I have been considering it since I play almost exclusively on these servers when playing TF2C and since I play pretty much for a month or so out of the year at a time, it works out nicely.

 

[autumnbuns]

Personally I think that the major question will be if the moderation team will be ready for more people to ban since people will automatically assume that since Classic is in the name that they can conduct themselves the same way when they were teenagers in 2009 when community guidelines have massively changed since then considerably.
The good news about having more players is that you open the potential for more people to host too, so it's hard to say whether or not actual playercounts/servers being filled will be more of a problem than it already is. Let's be real, as of right now on a weekend night you may have multiple server status windows up anyways set to "Join now" to actually join a VF4 server. Might end up being better because more people that have consistently played on those servers may support them to get reserved slots; I know that I have been considering it since I play almost exclusively on these servers when playing TF2C and since I play pretty much for a month or so out of the year at a time, it works out nicely.

We've been discussing it. I can't share any specific details, but I will say I'm pretty confident we will be okay. Community servers are very, very likely to get a huge uptick in activity from the Steam release due to sheer volume of players, and therefore moderation will spread a bit more evenly between all communities (hopefully it will not be overwhelming to other hosts.) It may be rocky to start with, but I am very hopeful for the future with the upcoming release!

That being said, yeah, supporter statuses are probably going to be pretty nice to have to easier ensure that you can still play on VF4, but if supporter isn't a viable option for someone then there's pretty much a guarantee that other servers will be open as well when that time comes around. The playercount will also leverage out over some time, once the initial chaos of hype calms down.

 

[VintagePC]

conduct themselves the same way when they were teenagers in 2009

A little tongue-in-cheek maybe, but having been around in the TF2 scene in the late oughts and early 2010s as VF4 staff... the kinds of moderation issues we (as VF4) faced at that time were from a correspondingly simpler time and I wouldn't mind going back to that by comparison. By far the bulk of bans back then were issued for more "mundane" things like cheating, griefing, and micspam. Sure, you had the odd person that thought it would be amusing to shout slurs over voice, but in recent years it seems like racism, directed attacks, and other more vitriolic violations of rule 3 compose the majority of what we see. We've definitely had to elaborate and clarify some of our server rules as a result