I'm pretty sure there were numerous discussions about VAC on SG, so you could have just searched discussions instead. Albeit the best place to ask about VAC-related things would probably be Steam's VAC Discussion sub-forum.
Anyway, VAC stands for Valve Anti-Cheat and you obviously can't get VAC banned in a game that doesn't use it. Cheating in a VAC-protected game is what gets you VAC banned.
As far as I know you shouldn't get VAC banned for using SAM or card idlers.
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This should be in Off-Topic, not in General.
Should it, though?
According to cg:
To clarify a bit, the General category should be used for SteamGifts and Steam related discussions
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Yeah, it's not really officially stated anywhere so I'm not surprised it's not common knowledge. I only know about this from the "help us categorize threads" announcement. :P
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SAM is, explicit, forbidden and cheating archivements. All Team Fortress 2 Archievements in 80h gametime.... and such stuff at many games.
I seen more then one that got a punishment for it. Don't know for which game exactly because they used the SAM not only at one.
But don't question me about there accounts. Its over 1 year since i looked into it but i was happy that they punish this people that cheat and exploit like hell.
In my eyes SAM users that use it for cheating/exploiting and not for getting broken archievements (the last is ok and understandable) are little weaklings that aren't mature enough to work for there success. Lower the worth of archievements for all people (more % have it) and i don't know at what they are proud by there archievements. That they can say "my program" have more success then you/your program ? :-D
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and not for getting broken archievements (the last is ok and understandable)
Interesting. I always considered it the only surefire way to announce you're a SAM user. Unlocking an achievement that can't be unlocked.
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Sure you see it that way "easy", at least when you know that archievement XYZ is broken and can't get on a normal way, but trust me you see it easy too when people have ALL archievements from games like Team Fortress 2 with only 80h playtime, at least when you know that other people have 2k hours and not all archievements...
I don't use SAM in general but i can understand when people want to get the archievements from a game when they are broken and dont let them reach the 100% with normal playing.
I don't need 100% at games but i know a lot, mostly females, that "need" them at 100% and get crazy when something is broken and stops them from reaching it.
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You're right of course. I didn't mean it's the only way to spot achievement manipulation but it's the only one where there is no other explanation. (Of course there are achievement / playtime combinations that are just as impossible.)
We're obviously talking about a grey area here and everybody has to decide for themselves. But for me once you start manually unlocking achievements because you think you have done them it becomes an issue to tell when an achievement is actually broken or if the description (if one exists) is just (maybe even intentionally) vague or misleading.
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Santa Gaben watches over you, and if you were nasty, he puts a VAC to your account.
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just curious what make a ID got banned by VAC?
Trade secret. We can only assume. No point in doing that.
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Sometimes Gabe gets bored and likes to VAC ban people for laughs. He has a room sized supercomputer with all sorts of levers, buttons and dials on it and he presses them at random.
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can someone get VAC without cheat?
According to everyone who's cheated and been VAC'ed, yes.
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Haha. Yup. I knew one guy back when I was playing BF3 in a clan, and he got punk busted, then claimed his account had been hacked by a Russian, going so far as writing russian swear words on his battle profile like it had been defaced by a hacker, and posting screenshots 'proving' someone had logged into his account from a Russian IP. Anyone who had played with him didn't believe him, because some days he was the noobiest noob, and others he was doing headshots across the map with a sub machine gun. EA didn't believe him either, and last I saw his profile was still in 'Russian'.
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SAM is, explicit, forbidden and cheating archivements. All Team Fortress 2 Archievements in 80h gametime.... such stuff.
I seen more then one that got a punishment for it.
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Cheating, or somehow triggering VAC. Basically, if you use any software that modifies or attempts to modify a game while you're playing - false positives such as using SAM while playing may also trigger a VAC ban, so it's also the user's responsibility to not have some shady software running while playing a VAC-protected game/server.
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SAM isn't false positive. It is not allowed to use it for cheating archievements.
But the rest of your sentence is true :o)
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I've never seen or heard of anyone being VAC banned for unlocking achievements by using SAM. Last I checked, there were no official statement from Valve claiming that unlocking achievements with SAM (or anything else for that matter) wasn't allowed. I'm pretty sure it's unwanted, but it's not explicitly prohibited anywhere.
I've heard of people claiming that running SAM while playing a VAC-protected game resulted in a VAC ban, but also other people saying otherwise, which makes me believe either people cheated and lied to cover it up, or VAC sometimes gets triggered by SAM - I'm not sure whether or not either side is correct, but I'd avoid risking it nevertheless.
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At least 1 year+ (maybe 2) ago was SAM explicit named as "not allowed".
Maybe the rules have changed to it. I never used it and only hunted down a few that used it at Team Fortress and such games.
Maybe the people that got caught for using SAM got instead caught for cheating and covering it with that, i don't know that but it is a possibility that really "only" using SAM are enough for a VAC or using it under special conditions -i think at this at extensive use of it-.
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Well, you probably know more about it than I do since I've never really looked into it more than out of curiosity.
Although I would like to see whatever official statement explicitly made SAM prohibited to use. Like I said, I haven't seen anything that prohibited its use last I checked (and still can't, after a quick Google search) aside from a vague "don't use software that affect or modify online play or the market" section of the terms of agreement, which also does not explicitly mention unlocking achievements, so I'm curious to know when and where it was addressed by Valve.
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I've never seen or heard of anyone being VAC banned for unlocking achievements by using SAM
You're correct. SAM accesses the Steam API, which is completely independent of anything VAC-related. However, many people have claimed that it was SAM that caused their VAC nudge nudge wink wink
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Besides cheating, VAC is triggered by using tools for displaying skins you don't own in your inventory.
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SAM can get you in trouble if you use it on VAC games or while playing VAC enabled games.
Otherwise you get VAC for cheating in VAC protected games or for some external stuff for displaying skins that you don't own
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VAC..?
Mods.. 1strike
ChatTools 1strike
Performance Tuning 1strike
RemotePCtools 1out
Bad child 1out
VPN 2out
RMT&Cheat&BOT etc 3out
This is my prejudice and has nothing to do with the actual judgment.
However, it is better to have the perception that it is better to avoid something that may act in violation of the rules.
Even if you don't intend to do anything wrong, false positives exist, and after being detected, you have no choice but to respond appropriately with the Steam's VAC Discussion.
Over time, it is understood as false positive and may be canceled.
(Oh, of course I don't think you are detected in VAC. It's a problem with translation equipment.)
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obviously only cheating can give you vac ban. :O
the system is 100% perfect and no mistakes will be made!!! except when people mod mw3 with skins, or when they install mods to play single player in dying light. ^^
but since i love to be an authoritarian i will keep siding with valve and jump the bandwagon. 👍
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VAC more or less is just a list of "known cheating behaviour" and when they detect this behaviour, then VAC will flag your account and when confirmed ban you.
By behaviour I mean both stuff like "detecting suspicious mouse movements" and stuff like "running cheat.exe" and tons of others.
But beside obvious cheats, there's bunch of software that will kick you from servers when you join VAC-protected server: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2117-ilzv-2837
Notice it will only be a kick, not a ban. If you play some single player game with Cheat Engine and forget to turn it off and join VAC-server, you won't get ban.
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NOTE : im not get caught by VAC
just curious what make a ID got banned by VAC?
can someone get VAC without cheat? for example when you use SAM for other game that had VAC server or use idler to idle game with VAC server
someone always get VAC when he in game with VAC?
is there ever someone get VAC without in game with VAC?
thanks before :)
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