Some advice/tutorial for TF2 server owners

[BnD|Sleeper]

This is meant to be advice for Team Fortress 2 server owners as there are new concepts VALVe has implemented into the TF2 game that have not been implemented before.

The most important thing you should know is that modifying many of the "basic" CVARS (Console Variables) in your server.cfg located in /orangebox/tf/cfg/server.cfg will result in your server being immediately re-located to the 'Custom' tab of internet game server searches when a player has TF2 loaded. The 'Custom' tab was designed to allow players to see what modifications servers were running without having to read the long names of the servers... However, I do not suggest you utilize these CVARS directly as being listed on the custom tab is a curse and you will hate it; your server will probably get virtually no attention as many players either 1) do not understand custom tab or 2) don't care what servers are on it... This brings me to advising you on getting a "workaround" like CBaseServer extension for Sourcemod which allows the CVARS to be manipulated WITHOUT placing the server into the custom tab.

Best of luck,

Sleeper @ bndclan.com (slmclarengt)

[Edge100x]

Thanks, Sleeper -- this is very useful information.

Tagging and the custom tab has been a real thorn in the side of admins since Valve introduced it back in February. It was a decent idea but flawed; in my opinion, Valve should have either more prominently advertised the tab and more effectively enforced relegation to it, or, even better, implemented tags as an optional system built into the internet tab.