[Software] Archi's Steam Farm (ASF), Steam idler (and much more) [Windows/Linux/OS X]

Current privacy policy

When Statistics are active, following things will happen:

a) Every account being used in ASF will join our steam group. This is done for three reasons:

• It provides you with group announcements, especially new versions, critical issues, steam problems and other things that are important to keep community updated
• It allows you to use our technical support, by asking questions, resolving problems, reporting issues or suggesting improvements
• It allows us to see how many actual steam accounts are being used by ASF

Full text:
https://github.com/JustArchi/ArchiSteamFarm/wiki/Statistics#current-privacy-policy

Please consider the image below as suggestion on your life.

View attached image.

ok, so how it works, how it can launch game on my account without permissions?
I think it's just same VAC possible as idlemaster, less than SAM

Not talking about VAC ban in this sentence.

Yes, you can't get VAC banned for using ASF.

And if you did read Steam ToS, you'd know that you can get steam account banned for anything, including GabeN pointing his finger at you because he randomized your steamID today in his daily "steamIDs to ban today randomizer". ASF only reminds you about this.

Anything can get you banned, even you using your steamID to log in to SteamGifts - ASF can get you banned too in the same context.

But no, ASF can't get you VAC banned by definition of how it works, while IM/SAM can.

Hey Archie sorry the bothering and if you already responded to someone this question
But I'll be on vacation to England this weekend.. the issue is that I won't bring my computer to the trip (too much baggage and little use).. So my question is can I redeem somehow keys to my own steam with only the steam app/chat ?
I'm aware and I use the feature "!redeem" to other accounts but I don't know how to activate on my own account! Thanks in advance! :)

Guarantee of being VAC-free

Is this core feature still guaranteed?

They added Steam Idlers to the list of Disconnected by VAC: You cannot play on secure servers.

There is a discussion about this in another thread, here.

I'm pretty positive ASF should stay safe in that regard because as far as I understand the issue is not idling VAC protected games but idling while at the same time playing a VAC protected game, which is something that is not possible with ASF anyway because as soon as you start playing ASF will stop idling that account.

Could the issue be with the .exe itself? As that you can't run ASF at the same time as playing on a VAC protected game (even if you are idling only other accounts).

lets hope in a few days we'll know more.

everybody VAC banned ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Yes. This is guaranteed by how ASF works, not empty words. Valve can still blacklist ASF but even in this case it can't result in a VAC ban, only an error like indicated above.

And to best of my knowledge it doesn't consider ASF at all, at least now.

deleting tempfiles or shit.

BINGO! If you just have CCleaner open doing nothing, nothing is gonna happen. The "delete trash files scan thingy" deletes something that it shouldnt and that can trigger a VAC kick, not a VAC ban. This has been a thing since forever.

Think positively, no more "never been VAC banned" rule in SGT giveaways! :3

Main point is, every listed software does interfere with Steam assuming that Steam is installed and running. ASF does not require Steam being running, or even installed, so we could always run it on other PC and be 100% safe from this error, but you already know that.

Yes, they could blacklist ASF binary, as I wrote on the wiki, but it's very unlikely that they do, since ASF is not interfering with Steam at all, guaranteed by ASF concept and how it works. I wouldn't say the same about even clean legit software such as CCLeaner, because it does touch a lot of third-party files, including Steam files. They might just want to play it safe and state that everything that directly or indirectly interacts with Steam might be affected.

At the same time they can't blacklist everything, and they can't blacklist software not being run at all on the same machine, so absolutely worst case for user will be running virtual machine with some Linux and ASF in it. But let's hope that won't be needed.

Corrected a bit - it's still primary algorithm since Complex uses Simple in itself as well, but "default" word should be avoided, it complicates things a lot and makes wiki outdated when I change what I consider "default", sigh.

Mainly people noticing that IM causes VAC issues while ASF does not, expect such jumps each time IM gets hit, with the biggest one when it finally stops working. Also my support is slowly getting limited due to number of users and I start relying on community - people like you helping others, so thank you a lot!

Most people do not understand how AVs really work and that false positives happen very often - it might simply be users stupidity once again, spreading false rumors based solely on the fact of ASF binary being detected by given AV. Like stated in the FAQ, this happened, happens and will keep happening, not only because ASF has rather specific code that could be seen as malware (a lot of low-level networking. sockets, serializing/deserializing packets and everything else required to establish connection with the Steam network), but also because AVs tend to report massive amount of the same executable files found on various different PCs - and this is exactly what happens when ASF auto-updates, and because it's generally "unknown" to AV engine, it might be falsely reported as malware due to heuristics.

Not everybody believes in my good intentions, not everybody listens when I say that ASF is open-source and not everybody understands that ASF can be compiled from that source and used if somebody doesn't want to use pre-built binaries. The only thing we can do is try to fix those mistakes by correcting false theories, invalid facts and absolute lack of knowledge how ASF works, that can be found in some replies considering ASF everywhere.

Oh yeah, and there is also that small "IM squad" getting annoyed a lot that everybody is switching to ASF, so when they started losing the battle, they decided to spread false rumors about ASF - I even found out that ASF is "Steam idler" and causing VAC like Valve stated in the article, while IM does not, so it's hard by now to shock me with something new - I feel like I heard it all by now, after 2 years of development I got used to several things that are happening constantly, so I'm simply taking it easy. I always said that ASF is not for everyone, and I'm not trying to make it for everyone either - if somebody wants to waste his time in order to spread false lies, I know that sooner or later he'll lose with massive ASF community that will correct his lie anyway, and I shouldn't really bother with small group of haters when there are hundreds of thousands of happy users.

If I want to say anything regarding any matter - it's in the FAQ. If I say that ASF doesn't have malware, it doesn't. If somebody doesn't believe me and doesn't understand technical aspects that verify what I'm saying, then it's not like I'll convince him anyway.

It was the first time I ever saw that message, and I've been using ASF for over half a year so I also suspected that. Just wanted to be sure that it wasn't some sort of known recent change on steam's side, I'm still a bit paranoid after they added idlers to their list of software that had conflicts with VAC.
Thanks for the answer Archi.

ASF might trigger VAC too...

No VACations here.And you are still playing it... so... no
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198201524635

The Problem should be a "you can not play on VAC Servers because something is blocking VAC" as it can happen when you have CCleaner running, any other program open or the steamclient just is in a bad mood.

Does not result in a VAC ban.

Yeah, I was just looking stuff up because bots weren't sending cards over, then read something about a new way of doing it. I saw a screenshot of the generator and it was completely different so I went to update it.

Then I got curious but I think I only looked at General then saw stuff about Security/VAC and thought it was all going to more or less stuff about that / Errors people got. I suppose I'll have to pay attention if it has major updates in the meantime.

Edit: Also, found it a bit interesting the bot resets if you open the 'SteamUserPermissions' and then hit cancel

https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/Wq3sq/valve-added-steam-idlers-to-a-list-of-vac-conflicting-software

https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/gCxhN/archis-steam-farm-asf-steam-cards-farmer-and-much-more-windowslinuxos-x/search?page=49#GKM2CE4 - Archi's comments

He only play games so I think it's fine. But i will tell him to carefully with game on VAC protect. Thanks for your help!

It depends on the game, since the dev can chose the drop time. The minimal time is 15 or 20 minutes. So after 45-60 minutes you have recieved all three card drops from a game. On the other hand the maximal droptime is 2 hours, so the third card drops after 6 hours.

Most games keep it somewhat around 20+-5 but some make it longer.

I would assume, that when you play two games the drop time is doubled, Maybe if one game does not have drops it's less than doubled.

But you definetly will drop slower.

PS: Depending on the game (VAC) idling while playing is impossible anyways.

Okay you dont know how to idle.

lel
Works not for everyone and not reproducable.
It's most likely a not intended steam glitch.
It works even faster if you bring all games to 2hours simultaniously and then skip through games, like discussed here for 20 times.

See last chapter here
https://github.com/JustArchi/ArchiSteamFarm/wiki/Performance

Btw. half the time I am doing other stuff while idling. Checking all games for "how many card drops and when to close" is a waste of personal time.
Besides ASF can run on a server as well. Guess idling 24 hours without intervenining beats closing a game once in a while.
Oh, and did I mention, that I need to farm more than one account?

If you think for your case it is the best you play while running idlemaster, thats fine.
But ASF has so many advantages. and as I mentioned. for VAC protected games you can not idle while playing.

Greetings, i would ask something i never used any idle farm program... i ahve only 1 account, and i have it form beginning of Steam..so lot years and i never had any issue\problems \vac bann..and i wuold continue that way.
.is there any chance to get a Vac ban?
i can farm cards and play another game in the same time?
i need to hav all games i want the cards installed?

Thanks for the help