Group servers listings overlap

[FurtadoPires]

When I first open the servers list it usually won't happen, but after leave a server and browse the list again, some servers start to get on top of the other

[shqke]

Can you describe steps to reproduce the issue?

[FurtadoPires]

Can you describe steps to reproduce the issue?

1 - Join a game 2 - Leave the game 3 - Browse the Steam group servers list

This was the steps I was doing yesterday, but It's not happening today... I suspect this might be related to some specific server on the list using some special character on the name that might trigger this, but this server might not be on today.

If It happen to me again I'll post here, is there a way to save the name of all the servers on the list in some txt file?

[FurtadoPires]

Happening again, might be related to those chinese server s

[worMatty]

I usually get this if I leave the Steam group server browser open for more than a few minutes. Same servers with Chinese characters, too. Windows 10/11.

[alexiscoutinho]

Recently, there has been a good discussion about this in the L4D Scripting Discord server. Here's the transcription:

Mk — 03/18/2023 5:17 AM (EDT)

odd Question guys anyone know how to get rid of this issue i cant get rid of these asia servers from my list and i am in Zero Asia groups i have to wait like 5 minutes before all these group load to join the one i want to

Shadowysn — 03/18/2023 5:19 AM (EDT)

Those leeching servers attach themselves to as many groups as they can, including groups of games that aren't related to L4D

Mk — 03/18/2023 5:20 AM (EDT)

but how to get them gone wastes so much of my time waiting for this BS i am only in 8 groups ok wait

Shadowysn — 03/18/2023 5:22 AM (EDT)

a guide about it says to leave affected groups it's just something that can't be fixed any other way unless valve adds an option to blacklist such servers

Mk — 03/18/2023 5:22 AM (EDT)

i got rid of 2 of them i see at first i didint understand i had 430 servers i got it down to 143 i misread the tutorial ty tho for the speedy answer grateful and i think i found a way to get rid of them but loading into them one at a time but the time it will take to do so.......

solved — 03/18/2023 5:51 AM (EDT)

Should be illegal lol

Haigen — 03/18/2023 3:49 PM (EDT)

This really needs a fix from Valve. Its way too easy to find out a steam group ID and leech from it.

Shadowysn — 03/18/2023 11:22 PM (EDT)

I agree. Leaving groups just to fix this issue isn't a favorable solution, and the steam group server search is rendered almost useless for many people due to these leeches.

ag3_killstreak — 03/19/2023 3:57 AM (EDT)

They could fix it by adding a randomly generated 256 bit key to the steam group.

Add a protected cvar to the game that when nonempty, sends this key to auth to steam group list. Then allow the group to regen their key if someone finds it. You aren't bruteforcing a 256 bit key anytime soon.

Midnight — 03/25/2023 7:37 AM (BRT)

This problem is long overdue, and its not like it couldn't be solved, as you pointed out some of possible solutions yourself. Sadly just no one cares as i have had personally raised this issue with valve ages ago and there hasn't been any change ever since. I only wonder how come it does not affects other games groups.

Tsuey — 03/25/2023 7:47 AM (BRT)

the issue has been discussed a lot, and there's countless ways to fix it, but Valve typically follows the path of least resistance, and in this case the pitch is to update sv_steamgroup to only use the first group ID, to match the description, and fix the bug so group ID's can exceed 16777216

it will still allow leeching, technically, but it's far less likely since the trade-off would be that the server can't even list their own group ID we probably won't see anything happen for a while, back in May there was talk of Valve overhauling the stats pages, the consequence being L4D2 would lose its stats pages, to the benefit of modernizing groups etc. that never happened... yet

[lDrDooml]

Hi, I wanted to give some information here that I discovered about this situation For some reason if you click on play campaign and then on the option "play on the steam group server" this problem is solved, apparently this only affects when you go directly to the steam group servers, in a few minutes it will stop pictures to make me understand better

[lDrDooml]

so, one normally does this and gets this

but now with the other way

the problem is gone

[Kaze1027]

so, one normally does this and gets this所以，人们通常会这样做并得到这个

but now with the other way但现在以另一种方式

the problem is gone问题消失了

address the symptoms but not the root cause, all the leeches server are still there, and you have to stand them every day.