[xOR]

Originally Posted by Wolfmark Secondary, the solution used for TF2 does not work for HL1 games, because things are a little bit different. Most of those fake servers don't have too much uptime, they are hosted by some kids for few hours only (when they don't play CS for example), the kids usually don't have a static IP, so you cannot score the fake servers, track their activity etc...

new servers would'nt be blocked right from the start, that's correct. but

Originally Posted by TF2 Blog New servers start with a score of 0 points

they would still never get above servers running for a while, so don't disturb you when trying to find "serious" servers that always at least have some points. they get their chance and trick a small amount of players into joining them, but then they are losing points fast.

and who wants to actually have public servers on hosted home connections with dynamic IPs in the global list anyway? the quality of such servers is usually poor. and some friends who want to start a small fun game on their own connection can still do that, they don't need the master server for that.
so simply extend the TF2 solution: when a server registers to the master server, show it after 24 hours if it is still running on this IP. if not, then not.

and also think of a second effect: sooner or later many abusers might give up on that when they notice their servers never get a good ranking in the list. some intractable idiots will always stay but the overall number of abusers will decrease.

Originally Posted by Wolfmark The only practical solution is to block the connect command.

you only spoke about TF2. what about CS:S? that at least gives players a choice. there are many people who only have their 10 regular servers, often these servers belong to the same community or at least some of them, so such players are especially likely to use a plugin like xREDIRECT regularly.
furthermore in CS:S afaik you can show a dynamic HTTP screen from out of a plugin mid game (not only MOTD at start). i believe i have seen a plugin similar to xREDIRECT using this feature, showing a list of serves with a steam:// link that can be clicked to connect to it. as hl1 is lacking such a possibility that is just one more reason to think twice about how a solution to the "connect" problem can work.

simply asking the user would also be a possibility. either with a popup window/menu or at least in console where the user can answer by pressing "y" or "n" and enter.

of course there are also several other possibilities. but as long as you people act like valve is bringing out sophisticated updates when they are just dumping some waste in good old HLDS noone will think about such things. it's like there is 100 good possibilities but valve chose number 101, the only one that's bad. but not everywhere, only in the old HL1 which suprisingly happens to be the same version that probably isn't leaving much of a margin anymore. i'm not saying it's active HL1 sabotage, i rather think they try to put as little as possible effort into a dying product.

and now i find myself in a weird situation: from an economic point of view i understand valve. so in the end i understand them much better than you people who seem to be happy with what you get.
could you explain again why you are still fighting on valve's side? i am really confused here, are you working for them or something? it seems to be simply illegitimate to still behave like they are doing the right thing.