Server Host FAQ

Hi, server owners! Thanks for your interest in comfig quickplay, and your continued support of the TF2 community. This page documents information for you all to better understand the quickplay system here, and how we can work together to improve the experience for our players and the community as a whole.

How are servers selected?

We want to provide players with an experience they expect, and servers must generally follow default TF2 gameplay rules (excluding a few preference-based exceptions), without adverse modifications which players looking for an unmodified casual experience do not want. As long as you strive to give players this kind of quality experience without deceiving them, you will be eligible to receive quickplay players. There is a full set of requirements, and a schedule for when they will be enforced. We are super open with talking to server owners about this and adjusting as needed.

Requirements

The vast majority of our requirements are things already stated to be in effect by Valve, for their own Quickplay eligibility and even server browser eligibility. However, to avoid catching server owners off guard with this new quickplay system, and to improve the server browsing experience in general, we are proposing different milestones of quickplay eligibility: M0, M1, M2, M3 and M4. This is of course subject to change pending feedback from all of you! If you do not meet the eligibility requirements, you will simply be suspended from being listed on quickplay, and we would be happy to reinstate anyone who would like to work on compliance. The current milestone in effect is M0. Meeting higher milestones not in effect gives your server a rank bonus.

M0

• Servers must be listed on the server browser, and must not use tf_mm_strict.
• Servers should not be password protected.
• Servers must have VAC enabled.
• Servers must have a public, non-SDR (Steam Datagram Relay) IP, i.e. do not use the -enablefakeip launch param. This is so your server has an identifiable IP.
• Servers must respond to A2S queries in a reasonable amount of time.
• Servers must be running on a dedicated server (srcds, not a listen server).
• The server must at least have a max player cap of 18.
• The server must be running any active casual rotation map.
• The server must not have the following tags: friendlyfire, highlander, trade, noquickplay, hidden
• Servers must not actively trick players or lie to them or make it difficult for them to find what they are looking for. Servers must report accurate information about itself to the Steam infrastructure and to clients.
• All of the information in the server browser must be accurate: number of players, number of bots, map, ping, region, etc.
• Bots must be easily identified by players as bots. Do not give a bot an avatar or assign it a ping value.
• Servers cannot name themselves according to the naming conventions used by Valve, or any other server organization.
• Servers must not be malicious, by exposing clients to malware or spyware, or by bypassing cl_disablehtmlmotd.
• The engine uses tags to communicate to clients that certain modifications are in effect. Servers must use these tags properly. If a server makes these modifications using built-in engine functionality, they will be set automatically, and all a server needs to do is make sure they don't actively block them from working. However, if the server uses a plugin to make gameplay modifications with very similar effects, it is THEIR responsibility to ensure that the tags are set. Players do not care how the gameplay modification was implemented, they just want to know whether it is active or not.
• Here are some examples of tags that must be set accurately: friendlyfire, respawntimes, norespawntime, increased_maxplayers, nocrits, dmgspread, highlander, gravity, mvm
• No opening a MOTD window (hidden or visible) that is not requested
• No forcing clients to view the MOTD until a timer has expired
• No browser popups
• No giving or selling gameplay advantage to players
• No kicking players to make room for reserved slots
• No modifying stock maps, models, or materials
• No running non-default game modes: prop hunt, dodgeball, class wars, randomizer, engineer fortress, etc
• No running non-default addons like custom weapons, rebalances, reverts, bonuses, x10, all crits, etc

M1

• Usage of Roll the Dice (RTD) must be labeled with the rtd tag.
• Usage of any class limits must be labeled with the classlimits tag.
• Banning any classes must be labeled with the classbans tag.
• Removing/disabling objectives (flags, carts, capture points) must be labeled with the nocap tag.

M2

• No granting or modifying economy items, or taking actions that devalue players' items, or interfering with the TF2 economy. This was enforced in the old Quickplay system.
• You must advertise your game name as "Team Fortress", the default. This was enforced in the old Quickplay system.

M3

• You must respond to A2S pings from the game server. You may respond to A2S through a proxy, but all responses must not be cached and be traceable directly to the game server per request. Anycast solutions which improve client routing and reduce ping are commendable, but players must be able to see an accurate ping in the server browser to the actual game server.
• Your sv_region must either be the default 255 or be accurate to the server's actual region.
• No using invalid characters in the server name to increase its sorting order.

M4

• Servers must be registered with a game server account tied to an owning Steam account, and log into that account when the server boots using sv_setsteamaccount.
• Server accounts must be in good standing on Steam.
• Servers that violate the community guidelines may be delisted, i.e., if there has been a trade or community action/ban taken against you on Steam, the server associated with your account may also be delisted.

You said there was a map requirement?

Yes, if your server is running a map which is not in the active casual rotation, then players will not be directed to your server through quickplay. It's fine to switch to a custom map afterwards, and players can stay on your server in this case, or they can choose to leave. Once you switch back to an active casual map, players will be directed to your server again. Work and investigation is ongoing in this area for custom maps.

What's the active casual map rotation?

Any map that is listed in the Casual matchmaking group will be eligible for quickplay. This updates dynamically, so holiday maps like for Scream Fortress and Smissmas will only be active during the holiday.

There are a few exceptions for holiday maps which do not contain any holiday gimmicks. These are: ctf_doublecross_snowy, ctf_haarp, ctf_frosty, ctf_snowfall_final, ctf_turbine_winter, cp_frostwatch, pl_frostcliff, pl_chilly, pl_coal_event, pl_rumford_event, pl_wutville_event, plr_hacksaw, koth_maple_ridge_event, koth_megalo, koth_snowtower, pd_snowville_event, pd_galleria.

There's also a few community maps allowed. Right now these are ones which are release candidate or later, and have a variant already accepted into the game, i.e. a holiday version. These are: cp_stoneyridge_rc2, cp_ambush_rc5, pl_coal_rc23, pl_fifthcurve_rc1, pl_millstone_v4, pl_rumford_rc2, pl_rumble_rc1, pl_sludgepit_final4, pl_vineyard_rc8b, koth_bagel_rc9b, koth_brine_rc3a, koth_maple_ridge_rc2, koth_megasnow_rc1, koth_moonshine, koth_slaughter_rc1, koth_synthetic_rc6a, koth_undergrove_rc1.

You may be asking why there are exceptions. There are some regions where being strict on maps would completely obliterate the server pool due to low server population. Players can also ban maps of their choosing, so keep in mind that it's probably best to avoid some of these holiday/custom maps even if they are allowed by the quickplay system.

Note: We're also currently experimenting with being looser with these restrictions, and allowing even more community maps, so that quickplay users aren't excluded from important parts of the server population, especially in regions where servers are hard to come by. This is an area of active investigation and we're gathering feedback from both server owners and players regarding this. The allowed maplist thus is in active flux and there are maps allowed in quickplay which may not be listed on this FAQ yet. The current criteria for this is mostly a mix of player playtime and regional server availability.

Are there restrictions to the Core game mode search type?

We exclude some gamemodes in the Core game mode search type. If you want your server to be available for this search queue, you cannot run the following gamemodes: Arena, Robot Destruction, Passtime, Mannpower, VS Saxton Hale, Zombie Infection or Medieval Mode.

How do you get this data?

We use the public server browser list and server query information. If you're open to players from the public, quickplay will evaluate your eligibility and send players your way.

How does reputation actually work?

Right now, reputation is not implemented. There is no server that is preferred or unpreferred over others, besides from players and ping. The plan is to implement reputation as a monitoring system for player satisfaction, and ideas are welcome for anything that you think could work!

Are floating IPs ok?

Yes.

How can I opt-out?

We provide a few ways to opt-out. Some are explicit, like the noquickplay tag (which you can set using tf_server_identity_disable_quickplay 1), or the hidden tag (which removes you from public server lists, can be set using hide_server 1 or tf_mm_strict 2).
There's also some implicit ways. If you run a server which isn't eligible for quickplay, like a surf, jump, or other custom gamemode server, obviously you don't have to worry about opting out.

How do I talk with you?

Join us on Discord and report your issues or questions to the #tf2-quickplay channel. You can also email me any questions or feedback at [email protected].