[TF2] [Feature Request] Block feature for matchmaking so players can avoid games with blocked players

[IronFoxGaming]

Due to how most of the bots in casual work, they run off of a system that just sends data packets to casual servers without needing to even have the actual game running. This makes anticheat for them almost impossible. However, one way we could still help fix the bot crisis is by adding a blocking system for players.

Players, like a list of friends, can have a lists of blocked players that they won't recieve steam messages from, and won't queue into official games with. This prevents players from being automatically queued together if either of them is blocked by the other. If a player has a bot blocked and casual mode tries to queue for them to join the server with that bot, it will instead skip that server and look for a different one. Blocks could be done manually through steam's interface or the in-game player list, and an option could also be available to block a player automatically if you vote yes to kick them from a game, and/or for you to block someone if they kick you.

This not only helps to keep players from joining games with other players they don't want to play with, but eventually will be able to put a massive divide between games bots are in and games humans are in, resulting in way less players having to interact with bots whatsoever. Players can block all potential bots, and bots will make other players automatically block them. Then, no bots will ever end up in games with human players.

In the case of bot hosters trying to get around this by having all servers constantly occupied by bots, you could have servers close and reset after a couple of maps, and have vacant servers open up if a player queues for a server but can't join any others because of players (bots) blocking then from all of them.

There's no more bot crisis if bots can't enter human occupied servers.

[IronFoxGaming]

Late addition, I think how this should apply to parties is that servers are skipped in queue if any members in in the party are blocked by any players in the server, or if any of the party members have any players in a server blocked. If a player joins a group that's already in a game to try and get around the queue, or tries to directly join an official server otherwise, they will be disconnected if that player is blocked by any of the server's players, or vice versa.

Since blocks would be handled entirely server side, there'd be no way to cheat around this system without directly accessing someone else's account.

Also adding on due to a recent counterpoint, it would be helpful if there was also options to automatically and/or temporarily block anyone with an account that has existed for less than a set amount of time that you can set, or that might use a specific account name. This can help fight against bot hosters that could retire old bot accounts and create new ones to bypass the existing blocks on old bots. The set time can be any amount of time, like 2 weeks or 5 years or 3 days, etc. and an account would be unblocked once it reached that age threshold.

[JoriKos]

I'm fairly certain this is also going to hurt players who are just good at the game, eventually increasing matchmaking times for them simply because they are playing Sniper at a decent level simply better than some players and they'll immediately assume they're cheating. Meanwhile, bot creators can simply create a new account and have the same impact.

[Platina6978]

Sadly this would be another band-aid to a problem that I'm really surprised to see hasn't been tackled from it's roots after all this time. As I'm not a software engineer, I've come to understood that the issue with the bots isn't as easy to fix as may seem on the surface. However at least having VAC actually do its job in (quickly) tracking down and banning people using "modern" cheats should not be this impossible to achieve. This would easily catch any and all bot accounts and actual human cheaters as well. This supersedes the need for all these band-aid fixes that sometimes even end up hurting actual players (since F2P's are still muted and banned from in-game communications).

Another serious consideration should be to make the game just not F2P anymore. Slapping a 10 dollar pricetag on it won't deter all of the hardcore bot hosters but it will at least be a major roadblock to pump endless amounts of mindless bots into the game. Besides 10 dollars (or something similar) seems like a very generous price for the experience that is TF2 compared to the price of triple A games nowadays.

[JoriKos]

Sadly this would be another band-aid to a problem that I'm really surprised to see hasn't been tackled from it's roots after all this time. As I'm not a software engineer, I've come to understood that the issue with the bots isn't as easy to fix as may seem on the surface. However at least having VAC actually do its job in (quickly) tracking down and banning people using "modern" cheats should not be this impossible to achieve.

As I'm not a software engineer

I think the reason why it's surprising to you that these bots haven't been entirely removed is precisely because of this. I don't want to come off as rude, but many of the DoesHotter bots are/were getting VAC bans immediately when joining a server. Anti-cheat is a constant back-and-forth between the developers of the game and the developers of the cheats. The in-game "band-aid fixes" were most likely intended to minimise the communication abuse that the bots caused or to patch other exploits they used (such as name changing, chat clearing, the quickswitch exploit that caused your cosmetics to unequip, etc.).

Simply "tracking down and banning people using "modern" cheats" is a lot easier said than done and also not a one-time fix that will forever stop bots. Making the game F2P will be infinitely more annoying to actual players than to the bot creators. The real fix to this issue is improving the anti-cheat and dedicating people to it.

[SomeBloodyMinger]

I really like this idea. If you run into well-known cheaters in your community, you could just block them and then never be paired into a match with them again. And make it vice-versa where they cannot join a match you are in as well. If large masses of players start catching on to this new mechanic, less and less reactions will be given to the cheaters overall.

[karmakarmakarmakarmakarma]

retard

[Flpstrike]

Nice idea!