Odd Problem Joining

[Llexan 0]

Hey there Lotus Clan. I've recently become a frequent player on your servers. In fact, they've become the main servers and just about only servers I play on. There's a weird problem with joining your servers sometimes though: sometime it seems I join a different game than what is listed. For instance, Steam could say the server currently has 25 players, I join, but it either has 2 or 3, or (most commonly) it has no one! Another weird instance is where after I join the apparent empty server, it'll still show other people joining the actual, 25 player game.

Sorry if none of that made sense. I tried to explain it as best I could. I didn't really know what to search for either, so I apologize if this has already been brought up and solved numerous times before.

So, does anyone just exactly what's going on? I had a feeling it could be firewall related, but since every-now-and-then there are (few) other people in these weird alternate rooms, that's probably not the cause.

[Spartan_0214 18]

In short, a Mana hack. The long version is... complicated.

[Super Sean 1]

At times there's "ghost" players on the severs. If you ever want to see if there's real people, you can always right-click on the server and view the server's info. If it's just ghosts, they will not show up. But, if there are any peeps there, you'll see them.

[Paul Bunyan 13]

Intentional fake player count, ask Mana why.

[Spartan_0214 18]

It's easy to see why. Ask Mana how >.>

[Llexan 0]

Ah okay, makes more sense now. For a while there I thought I was just losing my mind. So I guess the default player count is "ghosting" at 25? I thought it was a little odd to see 25 people playing in the wee hours of the morning.

[Brokkoly 11]

actually, that's not super out of the ordinary