There is no easy way of "solving the issue with hackers". Any solution that actually solves the problem would be extremely complex and would require basically invading privacy and consumer choice on a level not really seen in any other entertainment market. (e.g. forcing people onto specific systems that monitor literally everything you do ever on them) Considering the massive shit storm Valve received when VAC checked DNS history for a very short time, this is pretty much never going to happen. Even in games where pretty much all important information is server sided (which to keep this short this isn't very easy to do in an FPS), people still cheat with stuff like macros. Cheating is a war that no one realistically can win against, just massively slow it down.

Even if your idea was a good one (and I'd argue it really isn't, I got votekicked on Valve pubs before for being a "cheater" and I'm not even that good at this game mechanically, just being decidedly mediocre at DM from a competitive standpoint is still being a god in Valve pubs, and comp MM isn't much better), it still wouldn't ban anyone instantly because not banning instantly harms hackers more than banning instantly benefits players. The only time VAC instantly bans is if it detects a hack that has been VAC detected for a very long time (like years).

Now looking at your original post, that's just not how VAC works. Valve employees have very little to do with VAC. Employees only real interaction with VAC is adding signatures of cheats to the ban list and reviewing code of anomalies that VAC uploads to their engineers to see if it's a cheat or not.

VAC also doesn't "need a break" to check anyone out, any time you're on a VAC enabled server it is checking you out. The tl;dr simplified way of how it works is every account is assigned a "Challenge Level", and then when you connect to a server you download a specific piece of VAC3 related to your Challenge Level which gives your client a challenge. If your client fails the challenge it is considered an anomaly, will upload that data to Valve for them to determine if cheating is going on via the code it uploads of what triggers the anomaly and cross references it with their already existing cheat list, and then your Challenge Level is increased and it will do increasingly more thorough challenges. If you are determined to be a cheater you are flagged and then banned an indeterminate time afterwards whenever Valve feels like it basically. This is on top of a heuristics RAM/process scan that is always on-going that attempts to detect an anomaly that way to send to Valve and can increase your Challenge Level further. In fact, banning someone like this would actually prevent VAC from checking them out with harder challenges or trying to figure out what they are running (although it is most likely something not detected yet since there's still plenty of private cheats better than lmaobox floating around), since you need to be connected to VAC for it to check you out, which only happens when you're on a VAC Secure server in TF2.

So your suggestion would actually be counter-productive and result in them getting detected less because it's preventing VAC from even searching them and Valve doesn't do manual checks.

Glad it helped Zanthous, hopefully it gets Bary fixed too.

Well, considering there wasn't a client update today and you said you were playing I think config issues can be ruled out, so...

This is a really weird long shot that probably won't work but try disabling Steam Cloud and then going to your tf folder, then scripts, then deleting the item_schema file, and then try re-verifying game cache.

I'm not a hardcore programmer but I do believe your item_schema file is one of the things that Steam Cloud catches (so if you delete the game and reinstall you'll get the same old one back and verifying without deleting it won't do anything) and there have been some updates pushed to it through the Game Coordinator recently I believe. Maybe yours got corrupted or something along the way. If the Item Schema is modified or corrupted, TF2 will crash. It is supposed to throw a different error message though which is why I am saying this is a weird long shot, but with the recent update maybe it's not throwing the correct error message. (very unlikely but not something that can be ruled out either) I'm also not sure how it works with multiple accounts tho since I only use 1.

This is about the only thing I can think of since it's extremely unlikely to be a driver/config issue with no client updates today. Hope you get it fixed though. Seems like a really weird issue since it kinda spontaneously broke on you guys.

Yeah, I've been told that after the post, I was told that Valve still do encourage bug fixes and fixing clipping issues and such in a bigger release if you can though. I also dunno what total stamp sales are like but I do know a few people who buy stamps when they see that maps are updates in the update notes, so in that sense you can benefit from it.

About the stickers thing, there's ways you can fix that, e.g. displaying the stickers on the hud if viewmodels are disabled.

Fair thing to think about though.

Heya Scorpio. Long time lover of Process, first time replier to any of these threads. (although fwiw I like Metalworks more and more every time I play it, it's growing on me) I feel you on the oldish age thing, I'm almost thirty and the grumpiness definitely is setting in, but I think you should consider that rudeness generally comes from the intention of the post rather than the strict wording of the post. Especially when it comes to stuff like balancing or maps as these are the two facets of game design that most impacts a players experience, so they're going to be more verbal about it.

e.g.

There's a significant difference between someone going

and

Sure it'd be great if people probably didn't say "this is terrible", but that's just wording that the area or thing stands out to them as VERY off, not them trying to be rude to you. And Benroads definitely wasn't doing the former here, jesus I'd love to receive feedback like his posts because even if you think they seem a bit "forceful" or whatever, because getting well written feedback in general is often rare, and you still have the abilit yto say no if you think the clips are important for things like rollouts etc!

Also I have to say that as someone in the game industry right now, directly admitting ANYWHERE you won't improve a map because of some wording in someones internet posts directly is not a good look and is just opening up a massive can of worms. Even if you're not employed with Valve aren't you still somewhat obligated to make sure the map is as perfect as it can be for them since you're receiving payment? Publicly admitting something like that seems bad regardless even if you aren't though.

Like, what if someone else entirely different somewhere else suggests the same fixes? You're going to have to tell them no/ignore them because of someone else? What if someone bugs Valve about the fixes, and then Valve bugs you to fix it? You're going to tell them no because of someone else? (although I imagine Valve can actually overrule you and implement changes themselves now though if they really wanted to) That gets way too complicated, way too easily, over something as pointless as "internet map maker helper cred".

I also think it ends up hurting other map makers because people will see "okay I (or this other guy) submitted really easy and so-obviously-should-be-fixed feedback even the author said it would be an improvement and it still isn't being done, so submitting feedback is kind of a waste of time then".

Regardless though, it seriously impresses me that it doesn't just hurt you to know it's not perfect, directly admit you can make it better, and then just sit there and not fix it (being simple fixes that they are in Benroads case). Every other creator I know would go insane over that. I couldn't do it myself.

thanks for the posts doods, hopefully we can get more and maybe get somewhere with it.

I think viewmodel cvars should be unlocked in matchmaking because they are a preference that doesn't provide a real advantage to players. There are many players in both popular competitive formats that have them on and off on each class, and each person has different preferences on what they like and find comfortable.

Alright, let's try something different. Rather than just outright doing underhanded stuff to bypass restrictions clearly in place (even if we don't like them), let's try something I haven't seen anyone actually do yet now that the system is out of beta and people have had time to try Valve's min models - let's be respectful and show support for something we want. I'm simply tired of seeing people go about this the wrong way still, even with Valve clearly trying to support this community, so let's try the right way.

Matchmaking is new, but Valve is here. They're trying, this entire update is them saying they're dedicated to competitive TF2 for the long term future. We've had regular updates recently they have fixed/changed problems with the MYM update at a quick rate. Jill has shown that they are reading these forums. They unlocked zoom_sensitivity_ratio. People like b4nny are in close contact with the team. By all rights the competitive community hasn't been this close with Valve since 2009's private competitive beta.

So, let's do this, and let's start with something small but important.

Post if you think viewmodel options (both viewmodel_fov and r_drawviewmodel) should be unlocked in matchmaking. (seriously though just post) Let's try and get the actual competitive community behind this, ask your friends to post, get people from other countries communities to post, let's unify over an issue and make a concerted effort to display what we want. Valve will respond a lot better if there's a lot of posts en masse displaying positivity compared to anything else. I'm sure with people like b4nny etc around if this actually does blow up then it can be guaranteed that one of the TF2 guys will look at it.

Just...
1 - Be respectful and polite, there's no reason to call Valve bad things here. No negativity.
2 - Keep it short.
3 - Please don't try to derail, keep it easy for an employee to read.

Yeah as much as I like viewmodels off, just the whole sentence of "it's not an exploit, it's a design flaw" is just weird. All exploits are design flaws, the very definition of it is a bug or glitch (which are design flaws) used to gain an advantage the developer didn't intend.

Okay I found a bug with the TargetIDs.

Spy can't see enemy Medics uber % unless the Medic actually has his Medigun out. (I think? I know I saw it when one healed me.)

Intended functionality is that Spy can see enemy Medics uber % at all times by targeting them.

This actually matters quite a bit for Spy in organized play, especially since the Crossbow increases your uber % now.

#43

The 3D Class Models can be repositioned in uh, if they haven't changed it, HudPlayerClass.res and look for the section customclassdata. You can mess with the angles there to swap them so that instead of facing the player directly the classes are to their side (and thus their weapons). It's mostly only important for Medic as a Spy but it does let you better tell the difference on some of the back items on like Soldier/Sniper.

As far as the class icons in the VOIP thing goes, that sucks, I know avatars are doable but kinda lame there isn't class icon support. Hopefully they'll add it.

Thanks for the reply though.

Heya, I'm sure you're aware of most of this already but.

Suggestions
* Enable Ping on the Scoreboard (how do I do this manually btw and have it not look crappy? No netgraph in comp mm means you can't tell there.)
* Turn the 3D class models sideways, this is very helpful for Spy because it makes telling named mediguns apart far easier.
* Not sure if actually possible but changing the hit indicator on a crit to a red X like in OW would be cool.
* While I know it's probably just hard to make look good, having an OW themed Disguise UI would be cool for people who don't play Spy that much / use Concise Disguise kit and might misclick.
* Having the class icons on the VOIP bar would be cool since OW does that too.
* Advanced Options UI needs slight adjustments to the coloring of the font/checkmarks, it blends in with the background currently.
* The recent update removed the Create Server option, and I'm not really sure if they removed adding that back but it could fit in as "Custom Game" if you wanted to emulate Overwatch or just adding it back to the main menu would be cool in some form, maybe?
* Having an icon/strikethrough/anything when the Game Coordinator is down on Casual/Competitive would be dope.
* On the kill feed for kills you did/assisted on, it's near impossible to read the blu team's names.
Bugs I've Found So Far
* In matchmaking KOTH it tries to display the frames of the normal KOTH UI which doesn't do anything and just wastes space.
* In matchmaking games prior to the game starting from the mass ready up it's a jumbled mess up top and you can't really see who is readied or not or anything.
* The Alerts button on the main menu does not work. It plays the sound but does not open.

Love it though, thanks for the hard work. :)

e: Also the 5CP interface doesn't look like the diamonds in OW like the screenshots show in competitive :s.

If Valve communicates like this more often then this game will go places.

#276/#277

By real competitive game I mean every major e-sport at the moment with good prize money, not the tiny ones, but the big ones that people hope this game will be. So, as of this post that includes League of Legends, Counter-Strike Global Offensive, DotA 2, Hearthstone, StarCraft 2, with Overwatch on the way.

Things these games all have in common:

* People are mostly playing the competitive format when they play the actual game.

* The developer is supporting the game both monetarily and by working with their players to improve it further.

(conversely all the tiny ones also lack both of these things pretty much lol)

These are things that obviously current 6v6 has never had. Current competitive TF2 is a completely different game than actual TF2. Valve has helped out the competitive community with many options over the years and a little bit of visibility, but they never made the grand gestures to really improve it.

Trust me, you're preaching to the choir here when it comes to doubt about Valve in this game. I personally am very cynical about this big balance update coming shortly and am unsure if Valve can actually do all of this from the get go. History tells me this balance update might suck because of absurd decisions like buffing Crit Cola 3 times in a row or buffing Crusader's Crossbow even though statistically, even in pubs, it is overwhelming equipped over Syringes.

But, this is a grand gesture that Valve has never given this community before. This transcends the private competitive beta, adding all those options, all those blog posts, anything. This is a Competitive Matchmaking queue built right into the game. This is Valve officially saying, yes, this is a competitive game - and not just that they are changing Quick Play to use competitive-esque settings. For the first time in 9 years likely 90+% of this community will be playing with no random crits, no shotgun spread, and Stopwatch. Valve making this gesture means a lot when you look outside of TF2, look at how big DotA is, look at how big CSGO is. Valve did something that even the CS community themselves thought was impossible and united two communities that disliked each other and got them into one game. They are 2 for 2 when it comes to making hugely successful e-sports when that is actually their intention. So, historically I think we have to look past previous TF2 history - where they were trying to balance the game more towards the casual minded with some nice scraps for the community competitive scene - and look towards the rest of their history. DotA/CS embraced their choices and worked with them to fix the stuff they didn't like (and from everything I've seen Valve is very good at this in both of those games) and they are massive.

I'm not going to try to convince you to change your cynicism because I have it too in spades, but logically what they are doing here means a lot and I think you are completely underselling it. The only way this winds up being a completely unbalanced stupid mess, again, is if the competitive community at large abandons Valve on this junction. People aren't going to be happy at first, no, because there is absolutely zero chance this is going to be perfect at the first step, but this first step means everything in the long run.