Valve went through and banned a whole bunch of bots yesterday and when I last checked a couple hours ago, the Casual servers are still 99% actual people! If you want to try out TF2 DO IT NOW while you have the chance! Believe me when I say that having matches this clear of bots is RARE. They'll be back in force inevitably in probably a couple days so the window of opportunity here is small. Take the chance to play a normal round of TF2 Casual while you can!
In excellent news bots are still (at time of writing) just getting zorched clean off the face of the Earth faster than they can get spun up! Not only are major bot-farm accounts getting VAC banned, but even major YouTubers with evidence of botting in their history are getting blown apart from behind cover. It's an absolute massacre and it couldn't be happening to a more deserving group of CHUDs.
Given how constantly the bots advertised their youtube channels in chat this is very satisfying to hear lol.
I checked Casual about an hour ago and still no bots. I got curious about the numbers and went to teamwork.tf to see what's been going on (teamwork.tf's player count is based on people currently playing in a server, thus it's more accurate than Steam's official count that also includes all the idling/trader bots, see this video for more details. As far as I know the idlers/traders are still around but no one cares because they aren't actually being disruptive, they just idle in the main menu or trade).
On the 26th, Wednesday, the peak player count in official Valve servers was around 7700 at noon. This includes bots. The banwave I think hit that day around 10pm. On the 27th, the peak player count in Valve servers was 9700 at noon, no bots. The 28th, 10500. Today, 11800. The number of real people playing the game is going up every day as word gets around that the game is finally playable again. 4k new players coming in over the course of three days! REAL players!
And this isn't counting people in community servers, this is just in official servers. Adding in community servers, the numbers go from around 13k players to 17k.
I want to believe this will stick, that this will actually mean something... but even if it doesn't, for a few brief glorious days, TF2 was beautiful again.
BREAKING NEWS i saw some bots today (June 30th)!! Around 5:30 pm.
They were in an apparently empty server (unless they drove away the humans?) in a group of six, which is the same thing I saw someone else report about spotting bots. Weirdly, these were mostly Soldiers, with one Sniper and a Heavy (bots are almost always all Snipers). I wonder if they're trying other classes to get around whatever system Valve is using to identify them? Anyway, the rest of Red team filled up with real people who quickly voted the bots out, at which point the team filled up with real people and the round went back to normal. One of the bots tried to get back in but couldn't.
All the other games I've played today have been normal, and everyone in chat said theirs was normal too, EXCEPT one person who reported seeing an Omegatronic bot (many bots used the same series of names when they joined in huge groups, and -tronic was a big one. You can see me fighting a ton of Hexatronics in this vid on Halloween) in a server that also got kicked.
Concerning! But there are some things to keep in mind:
The bot hosters are furious and are trying everything they possibly can to get back into the game to ruin it and get revenge. TF2 has to be facing an absolute onslaught of new bots with new methods trying to get around whatever Valve did.
People have been sending in reports of TF2 cheaters to Valve support, and the cheaters are actually getting banned a few hours later. So Valve is actually reading reports shockingly enough, but it DOES still take some time. The real question is if anyone will see this particular group of bots again after this point. Rumors are the banwaves are happening every 24 hours, so this group may have gotten through for now, but will soon get banned like the others.
There are always a few bots that are going to get through the net, there's no 100% effective solution. These bots were disruptive for maybe a few minutes, as long as it took for the Red team to vote them out. After kicking four of them, the other two just left on their own (or were automatically removed?). What matters here is that 99% of the rounds I've played lately have been bot-free and normal, and that's been the case for almost everyone else I've asked. Running into a rare bot or group of bots is annoying, but it's not making the game completely unplayable as it was before.
The real worry here is if this is the start of a trend and not just a few bots slipping through the cracks. Maybe the bots are starting to crack the defenses, or maybe Valve is going to abandon TF2 again, or maybe this is just a small group that made it through that'll get banned in short order. There's no way to know right now! All anyone can do is watch and try to keep tabs on how many bots are appearing. I know I'm posting about this a lot right now but this is really fascinating to me and also I keep checking Casual like it's a wobbly Jenga tower to see if it'll keep standing lol.
Checked Casual today, no bots at all! Also a well-known cheater got banned today, so the bans are still ongoing. Some are theorizing Valve finally did something about the bots because of the Funko Fusion TF2 DLC that dropped yesterday, which honestly I think would be very funny. What really matters is that Casual is currently bot-free and the game is playable. Still, lol.
TODAY'S BOT NEWS REPORT: No bots! Haven't seen any since that last batch of them three days ago. If you haven't gotten in to play in bot-free Casual then do it while you can!
Cheaters are still getting banned each day, so Valve is apparently still paying attention to reports. A few bot-hosters have threatened to spin up new bots with a variant of their bot software but I haven't seen any of their new bots and neither has anyone else I asked. Other hosters have sworn they'll spend however much money it takes to get their bots back into TF2, but so far, none of them have succeeded. It's been about a week and everything is still quiet and peaceful... I don't know how long it'll last but after years of bots maliciously ruining everything it feels so good, you have no idea. Everyone is so happy. Older players are happy to see noobs, noobs are happy to see older players, Spycrabs and friendlies and dance parties are back... it's all so nice. Nature is healing! The summer update should be happening soon, so we'll see how things go when it drops. Can Valve hold the front line? I hope so but at this point, no one knows.
As a nice bonus treat of schadenfreude, many of the bot-hosters and cheaters had valuable items in their TF2 inventories which are now totally useless, so they've lost hundreds of dollars (possibly more) to this banwave. A lot of them are privating their Steam profiles to try and hide, even though Valve owns Steam and can see whatever they want. lol. lmao even.
I know no oneEVERYONE wants a TF2 bot update SO HERE WE GO
I haven't seen any bots since the last time I updated this, it's amazing! Whenever I ask other people in chat they also report not seeing any. It's now been more than a week and everything is still quiet on the western front... how long will it last...
Cheaters are still getting banned as of a day or two ago, and bot hosters are still trying valiantly to get back into the game to ruin it with no success. Every now and then a few bots will slip through - the most recent one spotted was a group of bot Heavys using a new type of botting software, but the youtube vid advertising it got deleted, the person who posted it got banned, and the new bots haven't been seen again yet as far as I know. Doesn't mean they won't come back or the bot hosters won't keep trying of course, but so far the defenses are holding.
The player numbers are steadily trending upwards as word gets around that TF2 is playable again. Some popular cheating software is warning its users not to use certain features until they figure out exactly how Valve is detecting it. Meanwhile, in the bot hoster discords, rumor has it that they haven't been able to identify who the Valve spy is and they're all turning against each other "He could be you! He could be me!". One bot hoster went to 4chan for sympathy after getting banned and got torn to shreds lol. get wrecked.
It's been over two weeks and the bots still seem to be gone! This is way longer than anyone expected. I did see some odd behavior though... in one round I saw three people with matching names, with two as Snipers moving in lockstep with just stock and the Cozy Camper. The third seemed to be a real person playing as Engie. They might have been people trolling as bots but maybe they were actual ones... hard to say. Suspicious. Still, very rare occurrence and no one else I've talked to has seen any bots lately. A few bots slipping through is to be expected, but it's something to keep a sharp eye out for anyway.
So what's the strange thing? In terms of bots, there are aimbots who play as Sniper and make the game miserable for everyone (these are the ones that got banned), and there are idlers/traders that don't actually play, they just wait for drops on the main menu. Idlers make up a huge chunk of the reported steam numbers and skew them, but they aren't disruptive (except to the hat economy but who cares). But at some time on the 12th, a MASSIVE chunk of players disappeared. Like 70-80k.
When they do maintenance on the Steam servers (which is on Tuesday, this drop happened Thu/Fri), this can knock bot farms offline for a while, but usually within an hour or a day they come back to where they were. This banwave seems to be sticking though.
Meanwhile, the teamwork.tf numbers are completely steady. So whoever this banwave hit, it didn't hit any of the people actually playing the game. The only real conclusion is it hit the idlers, which is very unexpected! As I said they aren't disruptive, so there's little reason to go after them except to clean up the numbers and market. Valve cracking down on them after all this time is strange! Supposedly some other games got their botting numbers hit hard during this same wave (CS2, Dota, that ridiculous Banana "game"), so it was probably not a TF2 specific thing, but it seems like TF2's numbers are the only ones that haven't recovered. Something to do with how old TF2 is or the botting software idlers use? No one knows right now. :o
Schadenfreude enjoyers are probably asking, how are the aimbot hosters coping right now? They're still furious of course and still struggling to get in. Recent reports have them joining games with usernames like #killtf2 and spamming slurs themselves because they can't get bots in to do it for them, which is absolutely deranged. Enjoy your bans i guess?? Some people are also trolling by pretending to be aimbots for kicks, although that seems like a risky game to me.
Remember, if you're playing TF2 and you see bot-like or cheating behavior, report it! Valve seems to be paying attention for now and who knows how long that'll last, so you might as well take advantage of it to help shore up the frontlines against the bots.
The Summer update dropped this Thursday and so far, all is well! Jumped in several games on the new maps over the past few days and no bots! No one I talked to reported seeing them either. The last idlebot banwave seems to have stuck, although the numbers on Steam the past day or two have been kind of screwy, and the teamwork.tf ones are also a bit odd.
My guess is these random spikes and drops are idlers/aimbotters trying desperately to get back in. Bot hosters LOVE the seasonal updates because idlers want to farm the loot crates to sell and aimbotters want to make people miserable, and a lot of new people play when an update drops. They ruined the Christmas event for me last year. >:( But so far, haven't seen any of them! The numbers could just be normal post-update activity, idk. I'm just keeping an eye on things.
The bot hosters meanwhile have been trying a new disruptive tactic where they get their bots into a game and then don't pick a class. This means that they take up a slot on the server, but you can't votekick them because they aren't playing yet. So they have their bots just take up space to force people to requeue to a different server. This is really just mildly annoying at best (it takes like 5 seconds to requeue), and people have already found a way to force a votekick on someone doing this so, good work bot hosters, you failed again.
A fairly major bot hoster got banned recently, so Valve is still cracking down, and I heard that Omegatronic got banned on their main and is begging their cheating friends for steam accounts to use to get back in. I don't know if that's true but I want to believe it is, screw that guy. People have reported seeing those hardware address bots I saw up the post though, so they seem to still be creeping in in places. As long as people keep reporting them, we should hopefully be able to keep them under control.
Speaking of, in another surprise move with this update, TF2 now sends you an in-game notification if someone you reported got banned!
So now you know FOR SURE that your report did something! And it looks like they're going through a backlog too, with some people reporting getting over 100+ notifications about people they reported being banned! So more than ever, if you see any kind of suspicious bot-like activity, report it! There's a very good chance Valve will take action!
Again, if you haven't played TF2 (it's free) or have ever thought about doing it, this is the time! Casual is bot-free, the new Summer maps are cool and pretty, lots of energy and people playing, everyone's just having a good time and enjoying themselves. There's no telling how long this'll last so strike while the iron is hot!
4 WEEKS AWAY FROM THE SECOND ANNUAL SCIENCE PARTY WEEK, HOSTED BY YOURS TRULY!!
that's right babey, i’m gonna be hosting science party week 2021! i was overjoyed by last year's turn out and i'm so excited to be doing it again!! once again just your standard ship week but for everybody's favorite science nerds <3 make sure to tag submissions with #spw 2021 so i can find 'em!
more info + prompts in txt form under the cut!!
prompts:
monday, 11/29: food/blood
tuesday, 11/30: home/pets
wednesday, 12/1: dream/nightmare/memory
thursday, 12/2: FREE SPACE!
friday, 12/3: swap/balanced
saturday, 12/4: date/disaster
sunday, 12/5: heal/fix/explosion
you can combine prompts, do multiple submissions for one day, choose just one, do something completely different, whatever floats your boat! interpret them however you damn please!! submissions can be in any media (digital/traditional art, writing, sfm, what have you) and adding demo is 100% ok!!
if you can’t/don’t want to participate every day or are early/late completing things, do not feel obligated to and don’t worry about it! i want this to be an opportunity for people to have fun, not to stress people out ^^ all i ask is that you don’t start posting things before 11/29, even if you get stuff prepped in advance
reminder to tag your submissions with #spw 2021 so i can rb them! if for whatever reason i miss one when you post it, feel free to send it my way!
and i think that’s all! if you have any questions, feel free to dm or ask me! i await you all on the 29th!!
4 WEEKS AWAY FROM THE SECOND ANNUAL SCIENCE PARTY WEEK, HOSTED BY YOURS TRULY!!
that's right babey, i’m gonna be hosting science party week 2021! i was overjoyed by last year's turn out and i'm so excited to be doing it again!! once again just your standard ship week but for everybody's favorite science nerds <3 make sure to tag submissions with #spw 2021 so i can find 'em!
more info + prompts in txt form under the cut!!
prompts:
monday, 11/29: food/blood
tuesday, 11/30: home/pets
wednesday, 12/1: dream/nightmare/memory
thursday, 12/2: FREE SPACE!
friday, 12/3: swap/balanced
saturday, 12/4: date/disaster
sunday, 12/5: heal/fix/explosion
you can combine prompts, do multiple submissions for one day, choose just one, do something completely different, whatever floats your boat! interpret them however you damn please!! submissions can be in any media (digital/traditional art, writing, sfm, what have you) and adding demo is 100% ok!!
if you can’t/don’t want to participate every day or are early/late completing things, do not feel obligated to and don’t worry about it! i want this to be an opportunity for people to have fun, not to stress people out ^^ all i ask is that you don’t start posting things before 11/29, even if you get stuff prepped in advance
reminder to tag your submissions with #spw 2021 so i can rb them! if for whatever reason i miss one when you post it, feel free to send it my way!
and i think that’s all! if you have any questions, feel free to dm or ask me! i await you all on the 29th!!
it's your friendly neighborhood science party curator and i'm BACK with science party week 2021!!
THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS, spw 2021 is taking place from NOVEMBER 29th to DECEMBER 5th!! i'll make a more formal post about it at the beginning of november, this is just to lay out basic info!
THE PROMPTS FOR THE WEEK ARE AS FOLLOWS:
monday, 11/29: food/blood
tuesday, 11/30: family/pets
wednesday, 12/1: dream/nightmare/memory
thursday, 12/2: free space!
friday, 12/3: swap/balanced
saturday, 12/4: date/disaster
sunday, 12/5: heal/fix/explosion
all types of submissions are welcome, whether they be digital/traditional art SFM/GMOD pieces, or written work! additionally, YOU ARE NOT obligated to participate every single day, post your submissions on time for their designated days, or even follow the prompts exactly! you're also free to combine prompts, add other ships, or do multiple pieces for one day, as long as medic x engineer (x demoman) is the main focus, i'll take any content you got >:)
all i ask is that you don't post any submissions BEFORE the 29th! and do keep in mind tho that i'm still an sfw blog!! so any nsfw submissions will likely be ignored
tag your submissions with #spw 2021 so i can rb them all! if for whatever reason i miss one of yours, feel free to send it my way via dms!
and that's all for now! if you have any questions, feel free to dm or ask me! you guys really blew my socks off with spw2020 last year so i'm super stoked to hopefully get some submissions this year too!! i'll see you all in november! ^^
Sorry to disappoint, but this is not a roleplay blog! I'd suggest checking first before sending in asks to anyone, haha. Our actual roleplay blog is @gently-backstabbing, though we haven't used it in a long time.
Hi. J j ust medic with his doves :)? I think he let's them sit on his head which annoys everyone else cuz it makes the doves think they're allowed on everyone's head
jbbartram-illu
vaporwave
prguitarman
ellievsbear
blakekathryn
annaxmalina
germansingergirl
janainaart
