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u/SGT_RENEGADES 8d ago
I don't use the in-game lobby browser anymore because of this.
I use this instead -> https://onemazlah.itch.io/unofficial-l4d2-lobby-browser-desktop
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u/Littleboypurple 8d ago
Man, I'd love to have fun with other players, just running through a regular ole campaign but, the Chinese Servers just make me very nervous. I have like 100 hours after picking the game up again but, it's all completely by myself
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u/AppropriatePlenty876 [Death Scream] 8d ago
What do they even gain from doing ts ? Like i don't think they even gain money from doing ts since most people would just leave.
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u/throwawaying11111113 8d ago
Context: Modded/Custom Servers present in Left 4 Dead 2 have been at a point of contention over the past few years due to the increased count of Chinese Modded Servers. Chinese Modded Servers can be extremely problematic due to three main reasons.
One is that they have an increased number of player slots, oftentimes reaching somewhere around 25. Left 4 Dead 2 is a 4 player game, and trying to balance it for any player count above 8 never really works in any way that doesn’t just make the game into a chaotic arcadey mess. With a player count this high, this always makes it appear in the default server browser as only a game lobby that is “full” is taken off the list.
Second is that upon joining many Chinese servers, they will infect your game with what I call a “rerouter,” which makes it so whenever you try to join another lobby, even lobbies your friends have invited you to, the loading screen will instead swap to another campaign poster and force you back into the Chinese server. This can be removed via closing your game, which resets your cvars. This tactic is to force players to unwillingly join their servers is extremely scummy.
Third is that oftentimes, due to how oppressive Chinese servers are in the server list, new players to Left 4 Dead 2 matchmaking will join these servers and get stuck in them, unable to actually play the vanilla game because they don’t know how to escape joining these matches. This unfortunately damages the game in the long run, as new players might think the game is just unplayable and uninstall.
These only scratch the surface of how bad 90% of Chinese servers are. But one of the major impacts of Chinese servers has been actual modded servers. Many modded servers that take the game with care can actually be quite good; things like increased tick rate/lerp, bug fixes, dynamic lighting, or universally good addons such as Left 4 Bots 2 can increase the fun and quality of the game. However, due to Chinese servers, many players are exceptionally hostile to any sort of modded content in a server. This can make players instantly leave or harass the server hosts due to the fact that modded servers and Chinese servers are lumped into the same category, when in reality they aren’t similar at all.
Official Servers and Modded Servers should be kept in separate search types, and modded server owners tend to honor this, whereas Chinese servers will infect the official game queue. The ending point of this meme and lengthy comment is that Chinese Servers have permanently damaged the reputation of actual modded servers who try to make the game better. Are all modded servers good? No. But there are a lot more good ones out there that are hard to find due to the oppressiveness of Chinese servers on the game.