YES

Honestly, the problem is that there's very few community servers and zero Valve servers running these custom Workshop maps, at least the 'serious' ones that aren't trade/minecraft/achievement/orange/joke maps. The Workshop right now makes it seem like its just subscribe-and-play, but it isn't, since you need servers to actually regularly run these maps - and they're very few and far between these days.

Community public servers that used to run maps like this are getting less and less player trafic because most of it goes to Valve servers that only play official maps (via Quickplay, players are lazy and just use the 'Play Now' button instead of the full server browser), and even community servers rarely play custom maps these days because they empty out servers even faster as plenty of players leave when a map they're unfamiliar with shows up or they have to DL it between map changes.

Some of these top-rated maps are played often in competitive games or practice/PUG matches, but those take place on private servers behind passwords or with pre-determined groups of players. Not public servers that anyone can join.

Try using the full server browser to find servers that run Workshop maps - there's an option for that below the server list. You can also serch for servers running a particular map, in this case putting pl_borneo into the map search window.

But you're unlikely to find many servers like that at the moment - maybe things will start to improve now that the workshop might remind players that decent custom maps and non-Valve servers exist.

Also, try adding a server called Dirsec (https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/Dirsec), it's in Europe and regularly plays a large rotation of custom maps, many from the Workshop. But it's rarely full, just on evenings occasionally.

Originally posted by Stric_Matic:

Honestly, the problem is that there's very few community servers and zero Valve servers running these custom Workshop maps, at least the 'serious' ones that aren't trade/minecraft/achievement/orange/joke maps. The Workshop right now makes it seem like its just subscribe-and-play, but it isn't, since you need servers to actually regularly run these maps - and they're very few and far between these days.

Community public servers that used to run maps like this are getting less and less player trafic because most of it goes to Valve servers that only play official maps (via Quickplay, players are lazy and just use the 'Play Now' button instead of the full server browser), and even community servers rarely play custom maps these days because they empty out servers even faster as plenty of players leave when a map they're unfamiliar with shows up or they have to DL it between map changes.

Some of these top-rated maps are played often in competitive games or practice/PUG matches, but those take place on private servers behind passwords or with pre-determined groups of players. Not public servers that anyone can join.

Try using the full server browser to find servers that run Workshop maps - there's an option for that below the server list. You can also serch for servers running a particular map, in this case putting pl_borneo into the map search window.

But you're unlikely to find many servers like that at the moment - maybe things will start to improve now that the workshop might remind players that decent custom maps and non-Valve servers exist.

Also, try adding a server called Dirsec (https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/Dirsec), it's in Europe and regularly plays a large rotation of custom maps, many from the Workshop. But it's rarely full, just on evenings occasionally.

exactly.

its been like this for years. Its the same as CS:GO. In reality the map makers are just making maps for valve to cherry pick on all valve games.

if you go back to cs:source you will notice the custom map scene is bigger there as the game has been both

a.) out for longer and only the custom peoples are left

and

b.) the game is designed more around the server browser where you hunt for games.

basically custom maps have been designed out of the games from valve via UI changes to make casual players be able to instantly jump into a game from their bigpicture TV mode etc..


its a shame as some maps are really cool and offer something different. But you said it yourself, I cant even get a different map from DUST hardly ever on CS:GO ! so its not even just about custom maps, it even comes down to default maps.

the game needs to be designed from the ground up about custom everything for that to be its main focus ( minecraft, crafting games ) FPS games dont get a look in for custom Since the days of Unreal Tournament.

well it gets anoying how that happens but someone shuld start up a server

I wish they would add CS:GO-esque lobby system. Just invite some friends and bam, run a server yourself with any map! But I guess that's too much to ask huh Valve?

Just Play

Originally posted by Stric_Matic:

Honestly, the problem is that there's very few community servers and zero Valve servers running these custom Workshop maps, at least the 'serious' ones that aren't trade/minecraft/achievement/orange/joke maps. The Workshop right now makes it seem like its just subscribe-and-play, but it isn't, since you need servers to actually regularly run these maps - and they're very few and far between these days.

Community public servers that used to run maps like this are getting less and less player trafic because most of it goes to Valve servers that only play official maps (via Quickplay, players are lazy and just use the 'Play Now' button instead of the full server browser), and even community servers rarely play custom maps these days because they empty out servers even faster as plenty of players leave when a map they're unfamiliar with shows up or they have to DL it between map changes.

Some of these top-rated maps are played often in competitive games or practice/PUG matches, but those take place on private servers behind passwords or with pre-determined groups of players. Not public servers that anyone can join.

Try using the full server browser to find servers that run Workshop maps - there's an option for that below the server list. You can also serch for servers running a particular map, in this case putting pl_borneo into the map search window.

But you're unlikely to find many servers like that at the moment - maybe things will start to improve now that the workshop might remind players that decent custom maps and non-Valve servers exist.

Also, try adding a server called Dirsec (https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/Dirsec), it's in Europe and regularly plays a large rotation of custom maps, many from the Workshop. But it's rarely full, just on evenings occasionally.

Thanks, Stric_Matic.
I hope something changes then. I would love to play on the custom maps as much as possible.

Does anyone know if it is possible to play these maps in Practice mode?

Click on "Servers" >> Then click on "Workshop Tab" and select "Workshop Maps" or "Subscribed" >> Then click on "uptate all / refresh". Fingers crossed and... good luck