WARNING! TO ALL IDLERS!

by **GTFO. Luckyg** » 01 Sep 2009, 11:11

With the recent update came some more code in some of the .cfgs

I found this all over at the tf2 forums,

"TF_CheatDetected_Title" "WARNING"
"TF_CheatDetectedMinor" "Your account has been flagged for circumventing the item distribution system. We have removed the items that were illegally obtained.\n\nFuture violations will result in the loss of all your items."
"TF_CheatDetectedMajor" "Your account has been flagged for circumventing the item distribution system. We have removed all items in your inventory.\n\nFuture violations may result in your account being disabled."

also to all those that don't think the idle program is a bannable offence, then i have to say it is, you are using a 3rd party program to trick steam into thinking you are playing tf2,

anyways i'm stopping idling till valve post a new blog post today probably,

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/s ... p?t=953306

EDIT: oh and in the time this was posted yesterday,

At 8pm there was 10000+ idlers,
This post was posted,
At 9pm there was 8000 idlers

by **McGinge** » 01 Sep 2009, 11:24

Ouch... I only idled for like a few days between the initial update and when they patched the game to use achievements too. It sounds like they're cracking down on past users too though.

by **Dev** » 01 Sep 2009, 11:41

8:50 PM - Nine: Will we be seeing a blog post from The Announcer in the near future that will clear up this Cheat Detection mess for the large amount of angry and confused players?
8:50 PM - ErikJ: Who are the angry and confused players
8:50 PM - Nine: Pretty much anyone who used the idle program, it seems
8:51 PM - ErikJ: That would be cheating the item system, so yeah, they will lose their items.
8:51 PM - ErikJ: But we're going to post tomrrow.
8:52 PM - Nine: ...and what's with the tf_wearable_item associated with cheating?
8:53 PM - ErikJ: It will give people a message letting them know that their items they got using the idling program are gone.

Later today Valve will make a post about it

....lets get our pitchforks ready :twisted:

Youtube · by **DataStorm** » 01 Sep 2009, 11:48

Some stay idling to have that badge....

by **stethor** » 01 Sep 2009, 12:04

Oh Shi-, i just found my 1st hat a few days ago... on the idler! :cry:

by **McGinge** » 01 Sep 2009, 12:08

So every item found using the idler gets removed? Hahaha lucky's gonna get pwned :lol:

by **GTFO. Luckyg** » 01 Sep 2009, 12:46

McGinge wrote:So every item found using the idler gets removed? Hahaha lucky's gonna get pwned

nope i got all my items from achievements

by **GTFO. Coxy** » 01 Sep 2009, 12:46

Hehehehe I've never used it!!!!!

by **GTFO. Luckyg** » 01 Sep 2009, 12:50

that sums it all up basically

by **r3loaded** » 01 Sep 2009, 14:25

I call bullshit. How the hell can Valve tell you used an idler program instead of TF2?

by **McGinge** » 01 Sep 2009, 14:29

I'd imagine there's a number of ways. Maybe the servers used by drunken f00l were blacklisted?

by **r3loaded** » 01 Sep 2009, 14:41

Not exactly a solution - drunken fool will just change servers, and push out updates as needed.

by **GTFO. Irritant** » 01 Sep 2009, 15:08

I'd imagine Valve have some sort of log system and could tell that a server was hosting 500+ connections. That'd stick out like a sore knob.

by **GTFO. G** » 01 Sep 2009, 15:18

Ha, Dev!!!

Valve can't 'ban' as in VAC ban anyone for using the idle app though.

by **GTFO. Luckyg** » 01 Sep 2009, 15:22

GTFO. G wrote:Ha, Dev!!!

lol, dev was laughing at us for not having a hat,

BUT WHOS LAUGHING NOW EH?

by **GB-UK*Hayley** » 01 Sep 2009, 15:25

When is Valve's "official" response going to be?

by **GTFO. Luckyg** » 01 Sep 2009, 15:27

GB-UK*Hayley wrote:When is Valve's "official" response going to be?

today sometime, keep a look out on the blog

by **GB-UK*Hayley** » 01 Sep 2009, 15:35

Thats too much effort and confusion for me to do! Link it on here? I don't follow Valve blogs...

by **Sepp** » 01 Sep 2009, 15:41

http://www.teamfortress.com/

by **GB-UK*Hayley** » 01 Sep 2009, 15:44

Ahh didn't realise you meant that one, I can handle that

I got all confused following links to steam forums etc. Sorted now though

by **GTFO. kk20** » 01 Sep 2009, 15:56

I didnt even know about the new idling techniques until I read this. Valves predicted response of banning/removing items isnt surprising though.

Youtube · by **DataStorm** » 01 Sep 2009, 16:05

seems there are 2 different Idle systems

the DF one grants you it and places it in your inventory.... dunno bout the other, but when some joins with that he earns all those "idle" items at once...

by **GTFO. Irritant** » 01 Sep 2009, 16:22

"All at once" is the same with the DF system, Data. If you keep the items you get with that system, when you play the game normally on a real server, it announces them all in one go.

by **<--Random-->** » 01 Sep 2009, 16:30

GTFO. Irritant wrote:"All at once" is the same with the DF system, Data. If you keep the items you get with that system, when you play the game normally on a real server, it announces them all in one go.

That explains a lot for me... :roll:

by **Dev** » 01 Sep 2009, 17:10

luckyg wrote:
GTFO. G wrote:Ha, Dev!!!

lol, dev was laughing at us for not having a hat,

BUT WHOS LAUGHING NOW EH?

We'll See...... But for now i'll enjoy my hats!

Youtube · by **DataStorm** » 01 Sep 2009, 17:39

GTFO. Irritant wrote:"All at once" is the same with the DF system, Data. If you keep the items you get with that system, when you play the game normally on a real server, it announces them all in one go.

never happened to me, and I mostly start playing and then remember: oh yeah, some items to remove... .but NO messages on the chat window....

by **GTFO. Fractus** » 01 Sep 2009, 21:00

What a way to fix a 'problem'. I don't even see that as a possibility - banning people. They should have taken the reaction of all the community who made the program and realised it was their own fault.

Why release a system that only what? 15% of the game population can enjoy?

My TF2 Backpack · by **Aperture Science Employee 23** » 01 Sep 2009, 21:30

I made a post that similiarily about this topic on steam.

Anyone that thinks that they would ban the account are foolish, rethink of that time when people used the command to complete all achievements, in your sense, why didn't they just ban those people? That would be a stupid move, instead they took a less drastic measure and just disabled their unlocks for a while.

Think about it, do you really think they will BAN a LARGE amount of their community, The worst they will do is delete their stuff.

Plus real men continue to idle in the face of danger, muahahhahah!

by **Keith Moon** » 01 Sep 2009, 23:29

I've not got any hats from idling or even from playing, so they can delete away the 5 Cloak and Daggers and 4 Jarate etc. :p

Youtube · by **DataStorm** » 02 Sep 2009, 01:47

since I used the idler, I've trown away all the new items coming from idling cos the high level weapons I had already from normal gameplay. The only thing they can remove from the idle items is the frigging Sniper hat which is almost exactly the same as the normal one.

by **Malteserr** » 02 Sep 2009, 02:06

I've continued Idling on my spare account that has TF2 in case something happens to my main account. We'll see what happens - but I personally still think this is all bullshit... Where's the so-called blog post that was meant to be posted today? I don't see anything*

*waiting to be proven wrong

by **Reines** » 02 Sep 2009, 08:06

GTFO. Fractus wrote:What a way to fix a 'problem'. I don't even see that as a possibility - banning people. They should have taken the reaction of all the community who made the program and realised it was their own fault.

Why release a system that only what? 15% of the game population can enjoy?

If everyone got hats they would be common and no-one would care about them. The problem is, human nature being what it is, everyone thinks they deserve one.

by **Malteserr** » 02 Sep 2009, 08:19

Reines wrote:
GTFO. Fractus wrote:What a way to fix a 'problem'. I don't even see that as a possibility - banning people. They should have taken the reaction of all the community who made the program and realised it was their own fault.

Why release a system that only what? 15% of the game population can enjoy?

If everyone got hats they would be common and no-one would care about them. The problem is, human nature being what it is, everyone thinks they deserve one.

I don't really think hats should be exotic items more than they should be fashion items for the classes you like to play. They look nice in screenshots and they're definitely a change from the same old monotonous gameplay.

Besides, as I said, the current system is flawed because it relies heavily (or perhaps entirely?) on luck - so you might as well pick a religion and start praying. How about a system that gives you a hat every 10 hours of playtime maybe? That would TRULY reward players who play more not the current piece of shit they force down our throats...

by **GTFO. Clymout** » 02 Sep 2009, 09:24

I'm with you on that Malteser, I was thinking the same. If they had a reachable goal for attaining hats then all this crap wouldn't be happening.

Personally I think this is a big wind up.

by **McGinge** » 02 Sep 2009, 12:28

Well, no blog post as people were saying... Although knowing Valve's watch on the community I'd imagine they would post about it one way or another.

My TF2 Backpack · by **Aperture Science Employee 23** » 02 Sep 2009, 13:37

[quote="MalteserrHow about a system that gives you a hat every 10 hours of playtime maybe? That would TRULY reward players who play more not the current piece of shit they force down our throats...[/quote]

You have to understand from their side, they want to make a system that can't be cheated. Unfortunately that does not exist.

What you suggest would still be farmed, simply by idling on a real server as said class. This method would be providing more hats than the current system, WAY more hats. Easily farmed.

by **ELEA|Willyfxp** » 02 Sep 2009, 17:02

yup, im with cymount, they just trying to get us scared

by **Malteserr** » 02 Sep 2009, 17:37

Aperture Science Employee 23 wrote:You have to understand from their side, they want to make a system that can't be cheated. Unfortunately that does not exist.

What you suggest would still be farmed, simply by idling on a real server as said class. This method would be providing more hats than the current system, WAY more hats. Easily farmed.

Yeah but I came up with a slightly more sensible system in 30 seconds. I'm sure the amount of developers they have can come together and think of some fucking system that works better than the current one...

by **GTFO. SiR-ROUND** » 02 Sep 2009, 18:09

|MWS|Willyfxp wrote:yup, im with cymount, they just trying to get us scared

No, they want all of you to stop this bullshit, get over it and go play!!!

It's just hats, djeez!

by **ELEA|Willyfxp** » 02 Sep 2009, 19:04

i dont idle now anyway, now that school started again, no point really