Alternative: https://github.com/JustArchi/ArchiSteamFarm
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Idle Master has been abandoned by its developers for quite a while now, making ASF the other real alternative to use.
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Well, according to people it's still fully functional and doesn't need 3 years of ASF development spent on me fixing Steam shit, so... :3
Or at least this is what people that never tried ASF claim. The same people that are advising other to delete IM's app data every time it breaks :3.
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Archi I hope you wont be offended but I never used ASF since with Idle Master I can get all the cards with less then 2 hours in game :)
And cause the last time I checked out ASF it didn't have a nice and easy UI for me that I could jump in and use in a minute. I know that ASF is a great alternative, and most say it is better, but old habits die hard ;)
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aren't card drops supposed to not be influenced by external tools such as idlemaster or asf ? the "less than 2 hours" stuff could be totally irrelevant
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Yes and no.
By default a game wont drop cards before 2 hours of gameplay (or wont drop all the cards, depending on the game) but I, and Yummy as I can see (who knows how many more people) have found a way to get all the cards from a game without having to w8 those 2 hours that are there.
ASF just "opens" your game and checks in the timed intervals if all the cards have dropped, then changes the game (this is from what I heard ASF does and what I read when I wanted to move to it).
But now the change in policy of steam for cards is that now games (new games, from indie devs) can have cards but they won't drop until there are enough copies of the game sold and played (not idled) at least that is what steam said they will do, did they do this, not to my knowledge.
P.S. I usually idle the game as soon as I buy it since I want to be eligible for booster packs so for me the "exploit" of IM is gr8.
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what is this exploit allowed with IM but not ASF ? and if steam really controls the card drops whether or not games are really played and not idled, wouldn't it mean that it's able to "scan" for human vs bot patterns ? then would it scan simply things such as achievements unlocked or inputs to the game ? or do they even check those intervals of time to flag little "pikes" in time from 0 to mere seconds ? if so, would im/asf be used significantly enough compared to those who idle games without external tools and those who simply play the games or don't launch them at all, and would even a low amount of botters be enough for the system to "put penalties" on drop of cards despite the other "legit" users/accounts?
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The system for new games they said they would implement takes just that in to consideration how much unique users played the game (got achievements) and how much did not. And when a set number of people played the game cards drop (depending on the hours you have at that time all of them or some). If you want to read the artical here it is
https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1954971077935370845.
The exploit so to say is ez to detect, but steam doesn't do anything about it for w/e reasons they have.
If you ask me it is the same reason they didn't remove those so called "games" that are asset flips for so long and that is MONEY. When you sell cards on the market steam take a cut.
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would be more obvious that since money is involved and people basically open their paid games the way they want, steam has little to say on it and it's pretty much a non-issue anyway
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If you drop ANY cards before 2hours of gamesplay your account is not "limited" (in terms of card drops) and you would drop cards before 2 hours with ASF as well.
It's totally account dependend... Not on default or anything.
Your account is pretty old so as long as you have never refunded anything you should get drops immideatly (meaning after 20min-2hours depending on game setting). Be it IM or ASF.
Unless you are referring to the "fast switching through games" exploit (which does not let you drop the first card sooner), I have no clue what you are talking about.
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Sry but you are wrong.
The fast switching exploit does drop cards faster then you playing them or idling them by ASF since it can't use that exploit as far as I know.."
And not sure if you misused the word limited but limited steam accounts don't drop cards at all, no mater how long you play.
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limited in this sense means that you have refunded a game before - those that haven't done this are still working with an unaltered account - those that have refunded a game have the 2hr limitation - according to others that have looked into it
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Thx for explaining didn't know that there is such a thing XD
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And not sure if you misused the word limited
That what the quotationmarks and the explanation in the brackets is for. There is no common or official term for accounts that do not immediatly drop cards.
Sry but you are wrong.
With what?
If you drop a card with a playtime under 2 hours your account is not "limited", if you drop the first card with 2+hours, then it is.
Using the exploit does NOT change that and it does not depend on IM or ASF.
When you start dropping cards anyways you can use that exploit to drop them faster. This:
...have found a way to get all the cards from a game without having to w8 those 2 hours that are there.
is just plain wrong. Either you have to have playtimes over 2 hours (or newly 3 hours for some) or you don't.
ASF since it can't use that exploit
Sure it can, it's just not as easy as with IM. But why using that exploit is a bad idea, is written on another page.
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If you let IM or ASF idle your game, the average hours for almost all cards to drop is about 2+ hours. That is why I said under 2..
That exploit changes how quickly you can get all cards, for that I know I am right..
As I said as far as I know ASF can't use that exploit, not that I am 100% sure it can't.
If you could pls link me why using that exploit is a bad idea I would appreciate it
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Thats not what you said.
You said
By default a game wont drop cards before 2 hours of gameplay ... have found a way to get all the cards from a game without having to w8 those 2 hours that are there.
And that is wrong. If you meant it differently, then yes. When you start dropping cards, the exploit does it faster. Sometimes, for some accounts...
If you could pls link me why using that exploit is a bad idea I would appreciate it
https://github.com/JustArchi/ArchiSteamFarm/wiki/Performance#steam-glitches
Especially:
Spamming Steam network with constant game opening/closing requests can be considered a DoS attack and directly violates Steam Online Conduct.
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"have found a way to get all the cards from a game without having to w8 those 2 hours that are there."
As I see I said as I meant to all the cards.. I might have to add all to the first part to be more clear..
P.S. Thx for the link will read it
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There still are no 2 hours.
I have a lot of games idled fully in under 2 hours. Shortest somewhat around 40min.
normal (not "limited") is one card every 20min to 2hours (up to the developer)
"limited" is one card every.. starting after 2 hours.
So yes, it may speed up card drops, but it will NEVER make a card drop before 2hours on a "limited" account.
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I tried ASF and worked fine on my main laptop, but didn't work on the other one. It was like a year ago, so it might be fixed already.
I use IM because i made a simple script for turning it on and off so the cards get farmed in about an hour, the only downside is getting my inbox spammed because people are upset with popup notifications that I started playing a game hahaha
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I fixed this by going offline in chat so they don't see the popups :D
One of my friends raged so hard since it slowed his (shit) PC down by spamming notifications XD
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I made a guide to disable pop-ups so whenever someone complains I send them the link lol
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=797766514
Also usually change my first showcase to guides when I farm xD
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It is much easier for you to go offline if you ask me XD
Not it is a habit and I am always offline in chat on steam :D
P.S. love the comment on that post "I just want to block you" XD
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ya it's my former classmate hahaha
I'm always online (when I'm actually on Steam) and doesn't usually take long for people to start talking to me lol
going offline would kinda kill the purpose of turning on Steam for me since I don't even play games that much anymore lol
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When you put it like that I get it why you don't go offline :)
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Nah, no offense intended Archi. :3
I have become used to ASF and prefer it more than IM nowadays. The latter may still be functional, but there is no telling when that usability will last as it has no further support. Plus with ASF I can idle more than one account at once.
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I think the only danger with Idle Master is from a VAC ban if you idle other games while playing a VAC enabled game (something ArchiSteamFarm is specifically designed to avoid I believe).
I'm idling with Idle Master right now 🙂
I keep meaning to try out ASF, as it's still in active development.
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unless you do something like activate a achievement you're fine. just idling wont get you vac banned because your not doing anything in game.
as others have stated idling other games as you play a vac game could be touchy though.
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It's worth noting that [last I heard] there was never actually a single confirmed instance of that happening- it was always just a "what if"-styled, rumored possibility.
It's also worth noting that idling software got added to Valve's list of VAC-conflicting software (which is a soft confirmation on Valve's part that using idling software should consistently get you a disconnection error message [when loading a VAC game while idling] instead of any actual risk of negative VAC interaction).
In short, even if the rumored "random VAC bans" are true, the likelihood of you getting one even if you do decide to run a VAC game with idling software active would be a singularly rare event (and, presumably, no more likely than if you were doing anything else involving a VAC game). As far as your specific phrasing, it's worth noting there's no actual risk to idling a VAC game [as idling software should only inform the Steam client that the game is active, and not actually load the game up in any way (and thus never actually make any connection to VAC servers)].
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Forced kicks from VAC servers while having idle master open was confirmed by hundreds of users, you have it everywhere in IM Steam discussions. ASF doesn't cause any of this.
And when it comes to actual VAC bans for using IM then you're correct - it's a myth that wasn't really confirmed by anybody in the past. But if you got that confirmation then it'd be already too late with thousands of users banned - it's whether IM can cause a VAC and ASF can't, and not whether they're actually doing that.
I prefer to sleep well and use ASF rather than using IM and having in my mind dark scenario of somebody fucking up something in the algorithm (as IM indeed hooks into steam client), or GabeN deciding to start IM war out of sudden (but then ASF would be also a target, and that would most likely be steam community ban and not VAC one).
Still, nothing to lose, only to gain.
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I wonder why we get the exact same topic again and again and again and again. Seems like no one is capable of using the search funtion or straight Google...
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but noone would type that
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussions/search?q=Is%20idle%20master%20safe%20to%20use
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No, thats not how a search on the internet works.
If you type that, you should reconsider your lifechoices kidding... somewhat, but srsly, you only search for keywords, always
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People should search by keywords, but most do it by question 'cause old search engines worked like that, and now current technologies are personified as assistants so we're back to asking questions.
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Well said. I wish there was a like button I could click for your post.
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Actually, if you do a google site search [by appending site:steamgifts.com to the end of your keyword search on google] you can be more open about your keyword inclusions. ..I mean, you'd do "idle master safe use site:steamgifts.com" rather than treating Google like Ask.com [On that note, typing "Can I fly" on Ask.com gets you a fill-in of "Can I fly after surgery?" and I'm going to interpret that in the literal sense for the visual image lawls.], but yeah, otherwise Google does allow you to be a bit more precise with your keywords [than most non-Google search setups do].
As such, Google searches are generally preferable to SG's on-site searches.
Still, as you indicate, a lack of awareness in how to utilize precise keyword searches indicates a lack of familiarity with both basic tech and research concepts, and implies a familiarity only with modern voice communication devices (or a very narrow search engine background with the small handful of search engines which actually attempted to encourage question-based formatting). There's certainly value in learning how to properly interact with searches that function under more precise search formats, given that they still compose the majority of the search formats that are out there.
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Well, you shouldn't search is idle master safe to use if you don't know how advanced the search algorithm is.
Most search engines will cut out unnecessary words like is, to. On SG what you search is what you get, so idle master safe use will only match topics that include that exact phrase, but topics like is idle master safe? will not get matched.
Yet in my opinion everyone should be capable of searching for the most logical thing: idle master
and then check those 43 results, of which 8 results contain the word safe (ignoring the current topic)
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Yeah, thats my point. sg just does direct matching which ain't great.
And yeah, people should search by keywords, but most do it by question 'cause old search engines worked like that, and now current technologies are personified as assistants so we're back to asking questions.
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This ain´t nothing compared with searching for Indie Games on the discussions. Just type the word "Indie" and you will find a bunch of old Indie Gala Bundle Threads still open. For me that´s really annoying , since Indie Games are something I´m always interested.
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According to the search in this reply thread the last topic was active 4 months ago.. then the next most recent was active 5 months before that.
Was the frequency of these topics really bothering you?
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There are others that fuck up the title and others that just comment in archis thread.
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/zSqXG/card-idle-remastered-is-safe
But still, why can people not at least try the search?
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It's not just SteamGifts. It's everywhere...
On Steam (2017/10/29)
On Reddit (2017/10/07)
On Reddit 2 (2017/10/04)
Yes, it's bothering me because this is not the only topic with this problem. People are to lazy to search or to google to get an answer, they rather create a post with no description (title says it all) to get the same amount of shady answers without any reliable source as all the other topics.
Funny thing, the title equals the google search in this case. The 2nd result is from 2017-09-28, that's about 2 months old. Does that justify a new topic on SG?
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I'm looking forward to this moment, so I can click the ignore button without feeling bad 😋
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google gets you threads from years ago and can take alot of time to find a relevant post if there even is one about a subject. i got nothing for looking on this site though other than laziness.
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But you can adjust your search and show results from a specific time range only, e.g. last month. That takes literally 1 second...
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or straight Google
Sorry, I only use gender-inclusive google.
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This topic can be time-sensitive. It'd be better to consult from time to time, maybe.
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And we have a main topic for Idle Master on SG. And there is a Steam group for it. Don't you think it'd be better to just comment on these?
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Answers for questions keep changing, especially in software. Consider someone asking "As a casual user, with no monetary concerns, should I buy an OSX or a Windows laptop?" in 2007 (when Vista was around) and now (when you have Windows 10). The average answers would have varied.
There is no harm in repeating old topics, it gives a chance for new people to chime in their opinions and/or provide updated info.
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So you say it's okay to have the same topic every month because people are too lazy to even search?
I'd understand if the latest reply on that would be years ago, but we're speaking of less than 30 days. Also, as mentioned, Idle Master has its own main topic on SG, which would be more appropriate to ask there, or in the Steam group.
Also bad example, the OP was clearly to lazy to search or to even write a description and only ended up with the title.
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Yes, it's safe.
It's even been updated by someone else since Jshackles stopped updating it.
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except idle master is very user friendly and all you need to do is open the program.
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It you need a GUI, create your settings in old asf and import them into the new one. asf is more of a start and forget user friendly, than Idle Master ever was.
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ive used both and i would say that idle master was 1000x more user friendly. ive heard all that omg features of asf but all i want to do is idle my games, not setup a bot to take over the world. no tinkering, no setup. login and done, it doesnt get much easier than that
"It you need a GUI, create your settings in old asf and import them into the new one." <---- is not user friendly (though i can do it, yay me)
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Well IM is easier to start. But I just have to remember how often I came back to my PC with IM beeing logged out and nothing idled.
How often I had to enter my credentials, then that didn't worked for a while and I had to use the cookie thing...
After I set up ASF a pretty while ago, I didn't had to do ANYTHING (it's in my autostart) and it ONCE stumbled upon a prerelease and I "wasted" idle time. Meaning for just idling I didn't had to update the config or anything. Just start ASF, which my PC does automatically).
So yes, getting started is easier in IM (but for minimal ASF ist mostly installing the dependencies, what takes a few minutes).
But for usage after that? ASF is way more user friendly and requieres significantly less interaktion and babysitting.
SO:
IM: Just download and run, invest your time over the years and "loose" idle time if you're not careful.
ASF: Download, Install dependencies, for just idling check out the minimal.json and change stuff, from that on fire and forget.
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with IM beeing logged out and nothing idled
I've not had that happen, even when idling 100 games in succession. o.o;
Still, the benefit of having alternative options available is that differing circumstances can be catered to. :)
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I had that problem pretty regulary every few days.
I circumvented it by logging out and back in, when I wanted to leave for a while. Dunno what caused it, but had that at least once a week.
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Isn't that just a Steam Community issue? I know it's been reliably logging me out of browser after just 2 hours since two-step authorization got added. (Which is a pain for SteamTrades, since it doesn't store login info like SteamGifts and Barter do.)
The computer I idle on is turned off when not in use, and it does typically require a fresh login after rebooting, so I may just never have had it on for long enough (since two-step-authorization got introduced) to have noticed any random automatic logouts. I didn't have any issues in the past (eg, when I idled those 120~ games the first time I turned IdleMaster on), but lately I've been turning the computer off after about 12-20 games (ie, after a full day or two of idling), so if you're running it for longer than that, it may explain our differing experiences.
Sounds like you're wanting it to be on in the background all the time, rather than be something you toggle on when the mood strikes you? I know I used to be able to run IdleMaster like that, but two-step authorization may have made that require more manual involvement. Since ASF has its own internal Steam client, it likely acts like a client (in maintaining a persistent login), and thus doesn't have to worry about Steam Community expiration at all.
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If I remember correctly (its been a while ;-) I checked the "stay logged in" box.
But yes, my Browser basically has the same Problem (but if I vist steam regulary, I am sometimes logged in for 2 or 3 weeks straight).
But so far I never got logged out while browsing steam (as IM seemed to do), only "over night".
If I remember correctly I had that problem even before 2FA (don't get me wrong. It stayed logged in for a couple of days with beeing shut down a couple of times, but got logged out after a while independent of IM running or "on the next start").
I used IM as I use ASF right know. when I started my PC I started IM and only closed it when playing. (But my PC is usually on for only half the day, so I shut it down when sleeping as well ^^).
But like you describe it (login after each start) its even more bothersome. Ok, I often forget my phone downstairs, but thats my problem. Especially since I do not have any card drops remaining atm. In that case I would not start/log in to IM. Since ASF runs in the background (for my tradebots anyways) I'm back at farming instantly, when a games gets cards added.
Did make the first account while still using IM, THAT was a pain in the ass ;-> Made the rest only after switching to ASF ^^
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Sounds like your stay-logged-in wasn't set properly. One thing you could have tried was setting it via IdleMaster's config file, by editing in this:
<setting name="steamRememberLogin" serializeAs="String">
<value>True</value>
</setting>
Certain cookie settings (such as ones set by anti-spyware or anti-virus, not necessarily just browser settings) can also cause the data to clear prematurely. Ergo, checking your browser settings (including for IE, if you're using Windows pre-Win-10) along with your security settings would be the next course of action.
Put more simply, IdleMaster works the exact same way that Steam Community login through your browser does- it creates a community login session cookie, and lets you remain logged in so long as that remains active. If anything is interfering with that cookie being stored, then you'll end up getting logged out. Or, post two-step authentication, you may end up getting logged out prematurely just 'cause that's what it seems to do now. Though, again, while browser almost always logs me out right at 2 hours (typically right in the middle of using community, so it's never an issue of the session not being active), I haven't had IM ever log me out during use. Of course, Steam services being what they are, it's entirely feasible that we've got the same issue, just with different areas of emphasis.
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Jep, since I did stayed logged in for a couple of days, problem was most likely on steams side ^^.
But well result is the same. ASF didn't required a new login for like idk ~5 months now, which is pretty comfortable in my opinion ;->
So going to the hassle of setting it up once paid out for me ;->
But I guess that depends on how often you idle, and how experienced you are with PC stuff in generel. (And how "bad" you rate having to login again^^).
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I wouldn't call telling all people in IM Steam discussions to delete IM's app data folder every time it breaks as "user friendly".
On the other hand I'd call a youtube video where guy is setting up ASF in 5 minutes, together with using brand new web-based config generator as user friendly that even a non-tech folk can input his Steam details, hit download, move file to config directory and launch the program. Sure it's not sign in into Steam like in IM, but ASF never tried to do anything like this in the first place, as ASF focuses on completely different goals, such as being reliable without a need of fixing it every month. Whether people prefer one-click run and fixing the shit every time it breaks, or spending 5 minutes once and having idler for next years to come, is really up to them, but times when ASF was for geeks ended with release of V2, and was further simplified with V3. I received positive feedback regarding improved user experience regarding this new way of configuring, therefore that's already a huge step forward and satisfying outcome for me (as I've never tried to do anything that IM offers, and will never do).
Is it more to do than in IM? Of course, I won't even come close to it since it's not my goal. Is it some ancient knowledge reserved only for greatest hackers of the century? Definitely not.
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except idle master is very user friendly and all you need to do is open the program.
Streamlined and user-friendly, perfectly functional, and none of the negative community that surrounds ASF.
Unless you're looking to utilize ASF's expanded functionalities (such as activating games through it [rather than through client or steam community], or idle-farming multiple accounts at once, or idle-farming on a computer where you can't load client), IM is arguably the hands-down superior option.
Of course, if ASF's benefits are of use to a specific individual, then yes, ASF would be the one for them to go with (ifthey can tolerate the slimy feeling down their back every time they come across its developer rubbing people's noses in how great he and his software are, while putting down anyone with different opinions). There are some admittedly rather useful features in there, if you're the sort to have a more.. involved approach to Steam usage than the average user presumably has.
Having never had any issues with IM, I can't really reliably speak as to how bad the issues were for the handful of users that indicated having some right after two-step-authentication got introduced; for me, however, IM is the ideal client. Rather, each of IM and ASF cater to a different user base, and that's perfectly fine- it means more demographics are being specifically catered to, and that's never a bad thing.
However, the conduct of ASF's promoters and their negativity and slander toward IM (and to a lesser degree, SAM) and its users really makes for an unnecessary, unpleasant element to considerations involving picking an idling software.
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Yes, it's safe and you can play games while farming cards.
Unless you want to play CS:GO, you better use ASF to avoid the conflict. (Not VAC ban, just disconnect from the server.)
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Idle Master is perfectly safe and functional.
Edit: To elaborate, I've been using it consistently for about 2 years now, never had any issues.
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`every time someone make a thread about idle-master, somebody will write "use asf" comment.
There's no question what soft is better or what soft u recommend 😐
Is idle master still safe to use?
yes, works great
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Are you really shocked that somebody is asking "can I ride 50 km to work on bicycle" and somebody else replying with "just use a train instead"?
Yes, of course you can ride 50 km on bicycle, you can even swim through the sea!
It's a common thing to see people suggesting solution to a problem, and not direct answer. When somebody is asking how to kill himself, do you suggest him taking drugs or asking about his problem? "It's annoying that people cannot just tell me how to kill myself instead of suggesting me to call some shitty suicide hotline, happens every time".
/shrug
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You do realize that I don't even know anybody who posted in this thread, right? ASF is used by 320k people, far more than IM ever had. It actually makes me proud seeing completely new people I've never seen before recommending my software to others, so of course I'm happy about that, can't deny it. Although it still doesn't change the fact that I can't see anything wrong in this - if there was a thread of user asking how to run directx 10 games on windows XP and people telling him to install windows 7 then I wouldn't find anything wrong in that thread either. Does it answer the question? Perhaps not for you, but it's actually better solution for almost every use case, so people are recommending it. Same here.
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The developer of ASF delights in shameless self-promotion, and his products appear to have a handful of singularly devoted fans that similarly promote the products in a similarly baseless, non-constructive fashion. As shown in this thread, such individuals would much rather speak negatively about IM and its users and insist on the usage of ASF than provide a more balanced, more on-topic response.
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Idle master safe ? yes.just don' run any vac enabled games while farming.
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I never thought about making my status offline while running IM... Then my problem of making other people confused about whether I'm running a game or farming for cards would disappear. You sure offline mode does not inform your friends even if IM keeps updating which game it is running?
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ASF has this functionality since ever, and you can be online in your Steam client at the same time (or not, up to you, since it's not affected by your Steam client at all).
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Well the reason I don't use ASF is because I only farm cards after a few months, have just one account to idle, IM is very simple to use and does what it is supposed to do. People would rather click on one button for IM than to do all the tutorials needed to get ASF started. If IM also allows farming cards while we can switch to offline mode then its all what I need tbh.
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By "all the tutorials" you mean that youtube video where guy is showing how to configure and run ASF under 5 minutes? :3
Well, you see, turning my entire Steam client offline being unable to answer to messages sent by my friends while idling TOTALLY doesn't satisfy me. I want to be shown as online while idling, so my friends can see that I'm not playing a game, I'm online to respond, and ASF is silently idling in the background. This is my wanted use case, and this is what ASF offers that IM does not, unless you run IM in sandbox or virtual machine with one client, and your own steam client on your desktop, but then calling it less hassle than ASF is hypocritical.
But of course, if IM satisfies you entirely then there is no reason for you to waste time on running ASF, even if it's less than 5 minutes of following youtube video if you don't like reading.
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Trust me, I know ASF is superior but most people love to be spoon-fed nowadays. I haven't tried it but heard that ASF can also be used as a mobile authenticator. Now one of my steam friend didn't have a phone and still has to wait 2 weeks of trade with me so I tried to convince him to use ASF as he already knew and used IM before. But he didn't. Simply for the fact that he is lazy.
Why do you think that people give all the negative reviews for a wonderful game where they have to setup things manually for a game to run as it should be? Simply because they don't want to do any effort from their side. And I believe too as long as IM provides simplicity of use, it will be more popular to common users than ASF.
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And that's alright, I'm not here to force anybody to use ASF if they consider that 5 minutes of watching youtube video is too much, they'd only suffer anyway. I'd rather add another functionality or bugfix for those who care, rather than for those who don't :3.
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Yeah. If i do use it i can't play CSGO online until i restart my computer though. It will just kick me from games.
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Genuine question, why do people need software for idling?
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To generate Steam trading cards, which could be used to either sell on the market, create badges or trade with other users. The effectiveness of said software scales with the size of the person's library, so this mostly appeals to collectors. By having Idle Master or ASF run in the background while the user is doing other stuff, the person can at the very least claim some money back through the cards or prepare themselves to craft badges during the Winter/Summer sale. There is also the additional benefit of being qualified for booster pack drops, but that is mostly a bonus rather than a reason to idle in the first place.
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Ah fair, thanks for the clarification. So no real use to me LOL
I assume it automates switching between games after all the cards are dropped for the currently running game or something?
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Yup once all the cards are dropped for current game it switches to next game
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I'll keep it in mind if I reach that point in my library!
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That it does. Both Idle Master and ASF are smart about how they work, so they switch games as soon as possible to reduce the overall time.
IM is best for personal, single account use since it is easy to set up and User Friendly. While ASF has more functionality, it is not intuitive to use and the true value lies in the ability to idle multiple accounts at once via a single client.
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Sounds pretty neat and under the hood. Thanks for the summary!
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So no real use to me LOL
It took me maybe nearly a year after joining SG to look into idling, but then I realized the actual benefit of it-
The sooner you get cards, the higher value you can typically sell them for. This can mean anything from two to ten times the sale rate you'd get by the time you get the cards from actually playing the games.
Even that wasn't enough to sell me on it (especially since I didn't want to leave any GA creator I won from on SG the impression I was only after games for their cards), until I realized I wanted extra funds to be able to give back on SG, and not idling whenever I got the free chance to do so was both wasteful and more of a disservice to the people I interacted with.
If you don't move much past your current library size, it likely wouldn't be much of a concern to you, but for those of us that spent way too much on bundle purchases, it ends up being a rather convenient tool. Plus, it helps farm out those shorter games which end way before their cards stop dropping, so that's a bonus from an even more basic perspective. :P
Also, I recall having had some difficulties with cards not dropping from my offline play (which I engage in regularly still, but was nearly exclusively how I played games back when I first started using idling software) in the past, so if I'm recalling that correctly, idling software is of benefit there, as well.
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I wonder who considers himself a real "collector" when really not even playing the game.
Can only see this as a way to earn some pennys - but I'm not into idling and stuff at all. Should be prohibited IMO.
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Idling does not negate ability to play a game. ASF idles everything I add to my account, and it doesn't make me unable to play said game when I feel like it. In fact, I almost always play games that were already idled.
And good foil cards can go for as much as several dollars each, I made more than 200 USD from this cards business alone, and I'm not even serious about entire thing - I have barely a few accounts together with archibot, while people are making 100+ accounts farms :3. If you don't want to get free money that you're already eligible for by buying a game, then that's your loss. When I first started idling I had more than 1000 cards to drop, by counting just 0.10$ each (back then there were even higher prices), you have 100 USD alone. Not a fortune, but definitely not just a few pennies either.
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Yea, I see Archi, I personally don't mind at all because I'm not into the trading card thing. It's honourable that you play the games you idled, but I think there are a lot of guys out there who just idle, or even worse, buy games just to idle for cards.
As stated above, I see your point but I'm just not into idling for cards, that should be earned (IMO) by playing a game. I probably could earn some $ myself with idling my games I didn't play at all, but that simply doesn't feel right for me. Maybe Valve should change the way cards drop, like adding some "milestones" in games, where you get them or attaching the drops to some kind of achievements.
Edit: All that said, I'm not hating on your work here. Always feels good to have some creative guys on board.
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Well I'm pretty neutral towards this. I needed a good and reliable Linux idler because I was too lazy to do anything on my PC in order to get card drops I'm already eligible for, so I created one. My personal opinion on the system doesn't really matter here since I'm not Steam engineer responsible for designing the platform - fact is that there is free money to pick up, and I wouldn't call people that are spending 5 minutes of their life configuring app to pick it up for them as something unethical. ASF is not generating you any profit you're unable to get yourself - it only automates the collection process. Whether you want to idle manually, use IM or ASF, is really up to you. I don't see any difference of a person spending 2 hours of real gameplay vs using ASF, at least not with flawed Steam design that makes you eligible for card drops the moment you get the game.
Personally I'd love to see it changed, this way I could create another idler that would incorporate archibot's AI and actually play vidya :3.
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I've been actively uisng Idle Master for years. Actually, I'm using it right now. Never had a single serious issue with it. I've had it crash on me once, all I needed was to reinstall. As far as I'm concerned, the app is perfect. Farms me some cards, works conveniently, no setup required.
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Never had a problem, honestly, just once it wasn't working perfectly and I chose to reinstall it, but probably it would have started working properly on his own, I'm just not patient at all :)
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Of course, with the new refusal of VAC games to start when its running there isn't even the possibility of a VAC ban anymore. Stubbornly still use it because the air of smugness around ASF drives makes my teeth itch.
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From my experience you can't play a CS:GO match after launching IM. It doesn't matter whether it is running or not at the time you are trying to play, running it once is enough. Restarting Steam, PC etc. doesn't work either. The solution to this is to mess with some game files and try to recover default files (through CMD), which from my experience didn't always result in success. Can't remember the exact process, but that's how it goes more or less.
I'd strongly suggest ASF, as many people in this thread already did. I too was hesitant at the beginning, but after setting it up it works like a charm and it does it's job way better than IM ever did.
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