Valve.. It's Time to Give F2P's Their Chat Back... 

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It's very sad they can't even call for medic, Valve should do something

The least Valve could do is allow F2P accounts use the Voice Lines to be able to communicate in some way. I know that the bots used the voice commands and absurdly long names with spaces to "clear" chat as a way to keep players in a server in the dark and to prevent any coordination between the two teams but if my memory serves me correctly they released an update that changed the way custom usernames worked to prevent these sorts of things. Besides, some bot owners have turned their bot accounts into premium accounts and have spammed chat with both deception, clearing chat, offensive remarks, and even spamming the "Good Shot" voice line pretty much putting F2Ps at a serious disadvantage especially since the last time I played this year name stealing bots made a return and tricked people into kicking innocent players.

For me, it makes new players have a terrible time! When I first started playing TF2, I had no clue wtf I was doing, what to do, the meta, anything! So you know what I did, I got help. I asked people for help. Asked them good weapon combos, what weapons to not use. So imagine playing TF2 the first time, asking how the hell to even upgrade a sentry. And learning you need to SPEND MONEY in a FREE GAME about TEAMWORK to COMMUNICATE! Valve makes plenty of money off of Steam and CS:GO skins. They can just add back the feature to communicate at this point.

sometimes I play medic and the f2p heavies are so used to being ignored, (they eat their sanvich and stuff) but eventually once they realize that I trust them they start playing cooperatively as if they are a whole new player. this specific heavy i encountered was around lvl 90-120. This heavy used body motion and drops sanviches, knows how to avoid sightlines and overall a good heavy. Just from simply not being able to cal lmedic at the start of the round I always saw the guy eat sanviches in the corner

The very least valve can do is let free to plays use voice commands, disabling it made no sense because you can't even spam it and you can't annoy or use hate speech directly towards people with it.

As a F2P that was gifted an Upgrade to Premium, I was very sad that I couldn't speak. At least they could add so if you do get the Upgrade to Premium, you could use the text chat or voice chat, AT LEAST THE VOICE COMMANDS

Disabling Voice Commands for F2P players has done absolutely nothing to stop the bots from spamming the chat(s). As a F2P Medic, every bot I saw at the peak of the bot crisis (the months leading up to #saveTF2) would shout "Good Shot Mate!" on regular intervals to invoke irony, spit pre-generated text into chat whenever someone mentioned "Bot", "Hacker", or "F1", and shouted obnoxious sounds into Team Voice Chat to drown everything else out- all while wearing glowing, jingly hats they bought from the MannCo store. Heck, I made an hour-long video where I tried to find a bot-free server- and in almost every server I joined, I knew within ten seconds if there was a bot due to the spamming! Disabling the chat(s) was supposed to stop that- clearly, it did nothing! If anything, it just made it harder for F2Ps to avoid getting kicked by same-name bots calling votes on them. TL;DR: Bot Hosters are willing to pay real money to allow their bots to spam while they cheat. Giving F2P back their voice commands, even if it is just so we can say "Medic!" or "Spy!", won't change a thing about standard bot behavior or their ability to cheat- so it should just be reverted, for the sake of the real players who might actually need it.

as someone who just started playing this year I was SO confused for the longest time as to why i couldn't talk in casual but I could talk in community servers, so frustrating and confusing for new players

Im a F2P with 400 hours on tf2 and well yes indeed its not so easy when you cant call for medic or spy Sometimes when i see a spy going to stab my team, all i can do is following him and try my best to kill him

as a medic main, it breaks my heart to know f2ps cant call for help it discourages them to keep playing :( edit: ty guys i forgot the autocall was added :>

I think a simple fix for this problem would be to re-enable chat for free accounts, but have automatic chat filtering for them. This would mean legitimate f2ps could communicate, and bots would have a more difficult time spreading hate speech.

As a f2p, I can tell when there is a spy disguised as me when they call for medic.

I've had this game since the orange box release, and I agree that preventing any legitimate player from using chat beyond as the temporary measure it should have been is lunacy on level with guilty until proven innocent.

this came as a shock to me, a few weeks ago, I thought to myself, "hey, I should download TF2 again, I kinda miss it", the last time I played the game would've ben around 2018-2019, I joined a match and found out I couldn't communicate in ANY WAY whatsoever... that just SUCKS man. What kind of a company is Valve to lock literal communication in a team based game behind a paywall? (not like anyone actually uses comms besides funny)

I agree that valve should give f2ps their chat abilities back but only if they have a certain amount of hours, like 40 hours gives you the ability to chat and, if you get kicked from a lobby for cheating multiple times in a day, say 4 times, you get a temporary mute for like an hour.

seeing how the bot issue is largely solved, it's probably a good idea to unlock it for F2ps

YES YES as a f2p i completely agree ive seen f2ps like myself who cant kick the few bots that are there

Please bring chat back It's been pretty frustrating to play without communication especially when you need it most like calling for a big push, gathering around for a retake, wanting help to charge up uber, etc.

until recently i was a f2p, i pretty much only played community servers, i had over 500 hours on the game as a f2p, luckily some guy in a server had an upgrade to premium gift and gave it to me, that was one of the best tf2 experiences i’ve ever had

We should start a new trend #letf2pschat

If they were to revoke the change I reckon it will be thrown in with Scream Fortress 2022. That event always brings in new players.

Hey, new player here. I've seen tf2 over the years in forms of memes and random videos I come across. I started played about a week ago now, and boy has it been an adventure. I have no clue what I'm doing and not being able to talk is a bit frustrating, but the people I do hear talking are pretty funny.

Thank you for pointing this out imagine if you are in a battlefield and you need to call for a reinforcements but you have to pay a fee for it

Awesome video, I hope valve takes these points in to consideration. Also what's the music you play in the background? I've heard it somewhere

I cant believe its 2 years since my chat was removed💀

That Date is June 16, 2020 That Developer Who Updates the Game, Nobody Should Shame Himself Without Knowing The Date. Tons of F2P Smashed

You know what fun is like? imagine it's 8:00 AM, you're a F2P player, and you're waiting A LOT to enter a server, after some minutes, you finally find a server and enter it, but then, the moment you enter it, they start a vote kick because "you cheated", 5 people agree to kick you, 1 doesn't Also you can't defend yourself because you are a F2P and can't communicate (based on a true story that happened today)

I believe buying any one item in the Mann co store is enough to promote you to premium. So a key for 2.5$ is enough to grant you access to chat (although I recommend the Jungle Inferno contracker). Basically the way I look at it is that the free version is more like a demo, but if you want the full game you have to buy something. 2.5$ for a game is not expensive. Even those on the tightest of budgets can scrape together 2.5$ if they want really to. It definitely sucks that F2P accounts can't communicate, but I think it's a worthy sacrifice to not have to deal with as much crap from the bots. Remember that this also slows the development of chat-spamming bots, since it will get expensive for the bot hosters real fast. I do believe they should be able to use voice lines though

2 things they could do to make this better 1: make it so you can only use the quick chat for medic or spy (very useful) 2: make it so you can use these features if you're above a certain number of hours (not afk hours)

I find it absolute horse shit that valve doesn't allow F2P'S to use Voice commands, they don't hinder the Chat that much nor does it harm people in any way shape or form, the very BARE minimum they could do is at least let F2P'S say "medic"

as a new player that started playing tf2 4 weeks ago the only thing I wish valve to bring back were the character communication so i can let my teammates know my intentions whether i need a medic, or an uber, etc. even if I don’t have chatting enabled or voice. I’m having so much fun playing this game! Despite having cheating bots in some of the lobbies I join. I hope that valve will find a way to fix the cheating bots first or at least can enable the character message command for new players to be able somewhat be able to communicate their teammates. I am very happy that I got into tf2 as its such a very fun game and I hope that valve fix these bots no matter how long it takes. I’m so glad that I got into this game even though it’s a 15 year old game its a fun game to still play.

Absolutely this, As a medic main I'm tired of trying to decipher the desperate head shakes of F2Ps trying to communicate vital information.

a couple of months ago i played the game for the first time (shooter games aren't my cup of tea, and i was really just into the game for the lore/characters) and went pyro cuz they're my favorite. someone kept trying to tell me how to play, saying "airblast enemy rockets when you see them" etc etc. it was very sweet but i felt so stupid because i couldnt tell them hey, yes, i know what to do, i just suck at it LMAO

I have an alt account on steam and a couple of friends I want to introduce to the game, but without communication, it's dry of the funnies that make it so charming. The interactions with other people by spamming voice commands, calling out for a medic, even just saying something in chat, the whole community part of the gameplay is inaccessible. The only freedom of communication is sprays and certain movement patterns, which is extremely limiting.

Im an fp2 player that kinda just started playing. And the fucking times i want to ask some one "can some one help me learn this game" but i cant? or even the times i need medic and i cant call them out is fucking outrageous i need to SPEAAAAAKK!!!!

There's no goddamn way F2Ps still can't call for medic, this should be illegal

Who plays it in 2024 and and still can't communicate in chat?

I remember a while ago in a youtube comment when I talked about how after coming back to tf2 after a year (aside from the bot problem) I couldn't talk anymore and how annoying it was despite playing since around 2017, fortunatelly a user donated to me a premium account pack and aside from the backpack and drop benefits now I was able to finally play the game the way it was intended, it's sad to think how many F2P players dont have a chance like this and have to play a team based game as a solo because of it. god bless you my friend for your generosity

In the controls there is a call for help option that you just have to bind and you can call for medic with it even if you're f2p

>have electricity >have fiber internet connection >have gaming pc >have #1 gaming platform installed on your system >can't spend 5 bucks on TF2

Whoever's reading this, i pray that whatever you're going through gets better and whatever you're struggling with or worrying about is going to be fine and that everyone has a fantastic day! Amen

as a f2p i think valve wouldnt change this because i saw a video that says a community server that can give ypu all achievement items and i tried it (i got 29 items but now i have 3 empty backpack slot i wish i didnt make that). İ told steam to this server and i add something like they can make those items and achievements gone but i can still get them. They replyed me something like " you can delete achievemwnts and items" but they didnt say something about video and bug. İ gave them the link of the video too but they didnt say anything about it. So they even not caring about cheats too.

I see everyone saying that valve should have kept the voice commands, and while I'm sure there is a way for them to do it and still keep free2plays from using text chat, I'm pretty sure the reason they're also disabled is because voice commands automatically post a text chat message of the voice command, so they probably just got caught in the crossfire of disabling all text chat functions, and it might be too complicated to fix without changing how voice commands work

Yes we f2p's suffered because of a single button the "y" button. The button allows non f2p's chat or atleast use the voiceline in 'z,x,c'

I mean, current bots aren’t even f2p anymore. Thay are even putting music on the voice chat and spamming the text chat, so not allowing f2p to chat isn’t really affecting them anymore.

Been playing since 2015 and I recently got my little brother into the game. When I saw that he could use voice or text chat I was pissed cuz it actively hindered his experience.

Hey guys, actual f2p here (my steam purchase failed and I'm still waiting on my refund so I can get a premium steam account) not being able to chat didn't make much of a difference to me, what hinders me the most is not being able to hold any more than 50 or so items in my inventory before being forced to delete something for more space

So here's the thing. Bots and cheaters WILL NEVER go away. Unfortunately, the bots will just improve; better aimbot, better anti-aim, more efficient pathfinding, more efficient software in general, allowing for more bots to run at once, etc etc, so to sit and wait until everything will sort itself out is ridiculous and downright ignores the reality of things imo. As someone who's played TF2 for a long time (and is f2p) I think it's obvious what I think. Edit; something I forgot is that I can see how, eventually, f2p accounts not being able to communicate will lead (at least contribute) to the game's decline. Imagine; you've heard amazing things about this game, how fun it is, how high the skill ceiling is, etc, and best of all - it's free on steam, so anyone can get into it, sweet! You download it, and are greeted by... well, tf2. It guides you to casual, and so you join a match. You've never played an FPS game before, so aside from the shitty tutorial, you know nothing. So you run, and you die. Over and over again. You look up guides for the game, but every single one of them assumes you already know most everything there is about the game (from your perspective). But no worries, you're in a match, you have a team, (who has an incentive to see you succeed). And see there's a pretty busy chat section, so you decide to ask for help. Except you can't. Looking up your problem on Google, you see that you must spend money, on a 15 year old f2p game, in order to use functionality offered by any other game for free. Keep in mind, you're already very frustrated at the game. Would you keep on playing, in favor of other f2p fps games? Ok, maybe you played some FPS games before, so you know the basics, run, gun, die, repeat. You still can't communicate with your team. You encounter sentries, and ubers, and try to ask your team what in the WORLD were THESE, but can't. And the fact that you've played FPSs before means you KNOW how CRUCIAL communication is to a team's victory. The question still stands; will you keep on playing? If so, for how long? Would you go back to the games you already know and love, mainly ones that make you pay up front, and give you everything you need to enjoy? Also something to note, is when people PAY for anything, they're less likely to give up on it. It's called the "sunk cost fallacy". But when something's free, what did you lose, other than a few frustrating hours. You have no mental obligation to stay.

tf2 is a class based game where the word TEAM is in the name of the game, so imagine half your team cant even say SPY. and there always a way to disable text chat in the game..you just had to use a dev command for it. Even if paid players could send out a few invites to f2p for them to have the ablitity to use voice commands...aka "i vouch for this person". But i do think that muting someone should also mute their voice commands (real players spam the same lines hundreds of times in a short space of time for no reason)"Build a dispenser here""Build a dispenser here""Build a dispenser here""Build a dispenser here""Build a dispenser here""Build a dispenser here""Build a dispenser here""Build a dispenser here""Build a dispenser here""Build a dispenser here""Build a dispenser here"

They should at least be able to use voice commands, calling for medic is valuable if medics don’t have the auto call on

2 years after the "update" and nothings changed. It was never about the bots, it was always about squeezing money out of players because how dare people not pay to play a *FREE TO PLAY* game.

the thing that gets me the most about this is the fact a cheater can use my account name to spam in text/voice chat and end up getting me kicked for it instead despite the fact i can't use it myself for anything. i'd also love to be able to discuss intentions and strategies in mvm but nope. imma have to play other games until some day they bring chat back for f2p or allow a more convenient way to join community servers.

As a free to play, I perfectly understand why valve did it and I do want it to be lifted, but if this is what it takes to make the servers safer I would be fine suffering through it, although as you said, it isn't necessary anymore, plus most bots just use voice chat and insult other people in chat still, the ban hasn't fixed a fucking thing in the servers I play on, if you're a medic and you want to help your fellow F2P players like I did, there's a feature in advanced settings that will automatically show you who's under 50 health or so, I believe this works with F2Ps although I might be wrong, but I would recommend turning it on, it's been useful to me as a medic

As an Engie main the ammount of times i saw a Spy about to kill the charged medic are just countless so in natural situations i have no choice but to go and save the medic but my sentry is now alone and gets blasted incredible fast and we lost and according to my entire team is my fault!? GOD FK DAMMIT WHY I CAN´T JUST PRESS A BUTTON AND TELL THE MEDIC TO WATCH HIS GODAMN BACK!!?

I live in indonesia and 1 dollar is 15K, (15 IDR Or 15k IDR) so basically i have to SPEND 74K TO CHAT OR USE VOICE COMMS ON A GAME THAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE FREE

It sucks cause the bot problem of them spamming really bad stuff on the chat has been surpassed by the bots, i keep finding Omegatronics everywhere who have chat accesss and keep spamming loud sounds on voice chat BUT i can't say anything cause i didn't spend a dollar on the game

I think the perfect solution would be if the F2P will not be able to chat but still will be able to use the voice menu to call for medic and all until they hit level 5 casual

Completely agree im fairly new to tf2 and i got banned for a week since the whole server got me banned for “cheating” since they thought i was just a bot and i couldn’t chat to say anything

I am f2p,i don't have a single paid game on my computer,phone or ipad which means I'm huge f2p,and i am sad that a lot of games do this kind of stuff

Valve: money first, communication comes after

As someone who wants to get into TF2 (especially with the cleared bot invasion) It sucks trying to go into a Casual game and you cant even say "MEDIC!" Or "Spy!" Without seeing "Voice Communication is not avalible for this account" while Im at 3 hp, and that medic is looking at me dead in the eyes and wont even put his medigun to heal mode!

funny enough, there was a bug that could’ve ended the bot crisis.the custom achievement bug or something (idk what it’s called). shounic made a video about it. basically bots unlocked achievement numbers that doesn’t exist example achievement #9999, then bot scans everyone in the server for anyone who has this achievement number and basically doesn’t target them. think of it like a secret gang sign or tattoo this achievement bug is also the reason why in some community server the bot gets instantly kicked because they have a plugin that scans anyone who has an achievement number that doesn’t exist and kick them. i believe this achievement bug doesn’t affect normal players because i think you need a third party software to do this meaning there’s no way to accidentally get it.valve patched this bug instead. i was gonna make a video about this but i have a “disease” called procrastination lol

My friend spent money on the game, and he still wasn’t able to talk for like four days. I definitely think valve should give f2p’s chat functionality back. Or at the very least let them have the right to make the key bind call outs like spy, engineer equipment placement, and requesting a medic. If nothing else.

as a F2P player, this is extremely annoying with the current bots right now. one time one of those bots which accuse other people as bots while votekicking the accused player and I was accused by the bot. and because i’m F2P i couldn’t say i was not a bot so they all did F1 and i got kicked.

I can't even begin to explain the amount of times I've been accused of being a bot in matches because of this lack of communication. And, as I don't wanna spend money in-game, I have the default skins and weapons which doesn't help my attempt to convince others I'm actually a player

I've been around since 2012 and it's sad to see that they can't chat. I was a free to play once, and it was the goofy times I had really experiencing online communication for the first time that made me buy and stay.

I'm a newer player who was unaware the only way to get chat was to pay. I thought I could earn access over time or gameplay in some way but I cant. I cant communicate, I have a harder time finding people who need me [I play medic], I cant call for other medics, I cant alert people of spies. I have resorted to having running around spinning and jumping like a madman several times while being chased in an attempt to beg for help when I need it to pretty much no avail. It's really frustrating. Even if they just gave us the ability to call for medic or yell spy, it would be SO MUCH BETTER. So many bots pay anyway, it's really just a hindrance to the newer players in the community. I play mute in a lot of games either way, so even my perspective is warped from some, but when I need help, I'd like to be able to at least ask for it.

Today I Learned: F2Ps can't call for medic. That's a basic fucking feature.

I never knew this was a thing or have ever seen anyone talk about it, thanks for bringing some awareness to it even though we know valve won't do anything.

Funny about some bots : when a bot makes a vote to kick an innocent , He will write something like "vote F1" ,which will cause ANOTHER bot (if existing) writing something like :please dont , im not a bot" Causing sometimes ANOTHER bot to write "im not a bot" usw (not always , just a Chance, ive seen it often)

I got the game like a week ago, and I didn't know how to pick up that brief case thingy, and I couldn't ask how, so some people got pissed at me. How fun.

I feel like the least they can do is let F2P’s call for a medic. When I joined tf2 in 2020 I had no clue what the *HELL* I was doing, also didn’t help that I couldn’t ask for help or call for a medic.

This is such a huge thing that they deprived us f2pers, as just a simple MEDIC or SPY or even HELP is enough to clue teammates on your situation, but without that the match can go from mildly infuriating to downright lost with the lack of in game communication It also doesn't help that the majority of TF2' player count only spent less than $5 or none at all in anything, and now they require in game purchases as well smh

I can't tell you how many times I have died to afterburn while a medic is literally right next to me

I have a Question: I ply tf2 for a Year now and i cant use Voice Commands like Call medic. What can i do? Do i have to pay for something to become use it? Or what? Because i think its really sucks when you cant use that Voice Commands and Chat.

i have to dance infront of the medic to see my hp is low. and i died countless times while just trying to get the attension of meds just to heal me when im 5 hp

TF2 Classic has voice chat and it's quite active

As a f2p engineer, I agree somethings, Valve must do something like making blocking player chat, or like nerf Cheater damage so they can't kill us, and much more

I think Valve should let F2P players use the chat again. I am a F2P player and it doesn’t feel good not to call a medic in a game with others (in training you can call a medic). But if Valve wants to prevent the bots from using it, maybe at least add a verification if you’re a human or not just like the reCaptcha and make it free.

"How many more people need to die at medic's feet" - wasn't expecting to feel the way I felt after hearing that but here we are

Being f2p and being unable to call for medic is just pain, my parents wont allow me to buy stuff online (or do online payments cuz ill go crazy and buy random stuff)

The only reason why I bought something small is just to be able to call the fucking medic.

This affected me alot. I started playing tf2 4 days ago and i cant even communicate as a f2p person... if they made the f2p accounts accessible to comms, it will be easy to communicate with one another.. This is injustice made by the devs. Not everyone can cause alot of havoc in the chat.. there are some who are not like the troublemakers. If this carry on, it will create a imbalance on TF2 and maybe it could be shutdown

As an F2P I need this feature back because in mvm i cant communicate with my own team and they keep getting mad at me for not doing what they told me to when i couldn't even respond and disagree.

It's very frustrating when me (a player who started literally today) is teased with chat in training but the moment I get into a casual match I can't even ask for advice or call for a medic. Atleast allow the commands like war cry, yes or no

I've played the game for a year now. Snd joined first when this update just was brought out. I was lucky enough a friend of mine got me a premium upgrade for my birthday. But i think this should be reverted. At least the 'no voice commands' i can understand text chat and voice chats being disabled. But voice commands are important! Everyone should get access to them!

This change literally had no positives, considering that bots can use chat anyways.

Restricting core mechanics like the quick chat, THE FREAKING QUICK CHAT (which, in itself, is a method for restricting chat options to stay limited and clean throughout any game, like in Among Us if you have no acc) of the game is just a crappy all around alternative to get players to pay for stuff within it

I never call for medic because i usually play as him but it's still so weird like imagine being stuck in a cave trying to scream for help but a guy covers your mouth and says "pay 5 bucks first" 😭😭

I Feel Like It Would Be Better To Have More Players Even If They Cant Speak Then Spend 15$ On A Game, And If They Want To Talk, They Have To Pay away Less Than The Game Costs

This is why i play almost only on community servers . For a 150+ hours btw

so nice when vid is just enough for mid roll ads, then 1/4 is a pubg ad, then saying everything we already know, great video!

As a free to play player another thing that I find really annoying is that in community servers you can talk perfectly no paywall there

Someone needs to bring valve to this video, AND NOW

As f2p, we need to know how to use the chat while fighting when we start to play so it will be easier in the future. I couldnt have the luck to have that so, for me or for others f2ps player, even if they put the chat available, it wont be easy to use it, we gonna lose time and others more experiente players will take advantage...

I feel like a good alternative would be quick shout so like add a key bind that when you press it while looking directly at someone to shout spy double tap engi or medic for a support shout. Idk what's your guys ideas I used to play a lot of battlefield so that's why I said this.

If valve fixes this i would be happiest man in the world ngl i cant start vote kick nor use voice commands this is bad u cant even imagine i have been playing this game almost 3 month or more

so I, as of yester day of writing this, downloaded tf2 for the first time. so far its been as fun as I've heard. I heard about this feature around when it started, but I figured they got rid of it because when I started the first tutorial with soldier I was able to use voice chat, text chat, and voice lines. so I was really disappointed when I joined my first casual and had no access to them anymore. I looked up to find out the reason why and found out/remembered you have to pay a small sum to have access. Despite that, I downloaded this game with no intention of buying anything, and I still intend to do so. I'm sure that they will give free to play players back the communication feature in the future, although I have heard about how slow valve is when it comes to tf2 updates.

As a free2play, I want to become the *Medic-less Master* (basically playing the game with no need for a medic) by having to memorise maps, find health and ammo and actually manage to play without the need for a medic and I think that this is just a superior way of playing TF2