TF2 Idling Application Users Busted

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DigiQ8

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[br]Idling applications are programs that basically simulate idling in a server, so you can earn as many TF2 items as possible.[br]

Well, not anymore. In the latest entry of the Official TF2 Blog, Valve's Erik Johnson explained that over the next few days they will start removing all TF2 items that were earned using external idling applications.[br]

Meanwhile, everyone else who took the moral high road will soon be finding a new hat in their inventory. Kudos to you!
 
Wow Valve.

I only got a single hat after waiting for five days straight on idle.
I think that says more about the system than the idlers.

We really don't have much of a choice if you don't release the trading within months of the community knowing its broken.

Also, I really don't think all the "honest" players were really that honest.
More like they didn't know that the idler even existed. If you're going to make the argument that they did, then remember that this has been out for 2 months, and Valve should be just as aware of it.
This makes you wonder why Valve didn't simply warn people about what would happen. It's like arresting everyone who drank after initiating the prohibition.

It's kind of depressing how small some of the groups are for the opposition to Valve's action, though.
 
Was waiting, just waiting for this to happen.

I, for one, will be enjoying my free hat for being a good boy.
 
So 95.5% of TF2 players get a hat, huh? That's...kinda nice.
 
V-Man339 said:
Wow Valve.

I only got a single hat after waiting for five days straight on idle.
I think that says more about the system than the idlers.

We really don't have much of a choice if you don't release the trading within months of the community knowing its broken.
Click to expand...

Waaaaaaaaaah.

Just play the game properly.
 
"Programs that basically simulates"?

Get rid of the S in programs or simulates.
 
Yeah, sit idle in an actual server and get your hat like a real mang! Pretty patronising blog post, but it's not like this was unexpected.
 
V-Man339 said:
We really don't have much of a choice if you don't release the trading within months of the community knowing its broken.
Click to expand...

You make it sound like the hats are important to the game somehow, its just cosmetic fluff, I dont know what all the crazy demand is. I mean its great to randomly find one, but it hardly effects your game if you dont, people are acting like they gotta have the latest BARBIE SWIMSUIT DELUX PLAYSET!
 
Corp. Sheepo][QUOTE=Shem said:
I'm glad I never used a fake idling program to get my items; I just play on an actual server and hope that I find something valuable. By the way, I feel sorry that your hat's going to be taken away, V-Man. I guess this is a lesson to all of those people who cheated to get items.
Click to expand...

Hardly. It's not like it takes any effort to idle, so it's not like you're losing something you worked for if you just lose your idling items. It's like losing a dollar you picked up off the ground. From now on it will be a lesson though. Glad to hear I'll be getting a hat, though I probably would've idled at some point if this hadn't occurred. I'm too lazy to idle D:[/QUOTE]

From other thread. I just went on to my character setup and it said I didn't have a connection to steam, but steam community is working fine, so..... YAY HAT.
 
So they're removing hats from people who used idle servers too, or just that install thing, that doesn't even require the game to be running?
Wonder which class the hat is for, maybe a multiclass one?
 
I think to be fair this was a really good idea, well at least the giving away of the free hat. I understand why they are taking away the “stolen” unlocks but at the same time I feel they need to really finalise this system. I know something is in the pipeline (no pun intended) but it would be nice to have a more plausible way to collect these aesthetic extras soon otherwise people will continue to find different ways to obtain them.
In a jokey way I have been "punished" by Valve because they gave me the Soldiers Pot, the one class I never play! It made me chuckle.
 
ellimanest said:
So they're removing hats from people who used idle servers too, or just that install thing, that doesn't even require the game to be running?
Wonder which class the hat is for, maybe a multiclass one?
Click to expand...

Probably just a random.... OH GOD IF I GET A SECOND FEDORA...
 
Oh wow, bullshit. It gives you this thing called 'The Cheater's Lament' which pretty much looks like a fake halo to be worn on the head. It gives you one for every class and none of them appear in your backpack. Ingame it appears that they can not be seen at all. I hope this is a bug, otherwise Valve might succesfully alienate idlers and non idlers at the same time.
 
My friend fake idled and got one hat - but she just told me her other hat, which she got through normal play, is gone too :/
 
A few screens of the 'The Cheater's Lament' if you haven't already seen it:

egqrsi.jpg


2j124oj.jpg


(Sorry, not the best shots)
 
The Halo is pretty funny, although I can see it getting old after a while with pretty much everyone running around with them on.

Also warning to Spies, the glow from the halo doesn't cloak :)
 
Another seemingly typical Valve response; absolutely retarded and completely over the top. By their new logic they should've done the same thing to anyone who even graced an achievements map months ago. If anything idlers should be rewarded by Valve for displaying just how easy it was to exploit their completely flawed 'finding' system. So what if a few hats were obtained, they're only for aesthetic purposes anyway, it's not as if idlers were upsetting game play in any way shape or form. Would you rather an influx of AFKers taking up real spaces on servers?

Now I have to grind back my sandman I legitimately obtained, cheers Gabe!
 
So Cheater's Lament is supposed to be the free gift hat...? I'm receiving conflicting reports from my operatives.

EDIT: Yeah, guess so.
 
Is this halo for real? because if it is... It's ugly ¬¬

anyways... I've used the idler program... Yeah, call me a cheater... But the thing is... This system is completely flawed... But we have to live with it, right? I never even been to an idle server since the fisrt hat update was released... But one day I got a pissed after one guy got TWO hats in like 5 minutes in a server I was playing... And the worst part? He was a noob... He had purchased the game like a week before... He didn't even knew how to deploy a ubber charge... and he got TWO hats... Nothing agaist noobs, thats not what I'm saying... What I'm saying is that I played a lot more then he could have played and never got a hat... To get a Bonk! it took me like a month... (I wasn't doing scout achievs). So my friend told me about this idle servers and I joined one... Then I saw this idlers program, and I tested it so I wouldn't have to keep the game minimized while doing other stuff... I got some weapons, but deleted all of them... And now... I'm called a cheater :/

Lame
 
Idlers demonstrated what a stupid, broken, ****ed up drop system is implemented and get punished because Valve can't make something that's more reasonable? Oh well. Y'all can thank idlers for the increase in hat drops. I think Valve's dropped the ball on communicating their position on this matter. They should have done a better job. It could be worse though. At least they're not banning players.

I managed to use the prog for probably a total of thirty minutes prior to patch. Wonder if I get a halo or not.
 
Cheaters lament is given to players who never used the fake idle.

If you did, idled items are deleted, and your account is flagged. Stop doing it (like I said a few days ago).

Merry christmas!
 
MaximusPM said:
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Click to expand...

SLOW DOWN ON THE ELLIPSES THERE BOYO YOU'LL HURT SOMEONE

MaximusPM said:
But lately I've been watching a lot of series, and then I got a bit pissed after one guy got TWO hats in like 5 minutes in a server I was playing
Click to expand...

It's probably worth mentioning he was a noob.

Anyway, Jintor hit the nail on the head.

Jintor said:
It's like losing a dollar you used an automatical dollar-finding machine to find.
Click to expand...
 
So the “Halo” is for the idle server users but as I said in an earlier post I now have the Soldiers Pot after this “update” and I hadn’t been playing today. Could have been completely random but it defiantly wasn't there last time I looked. Anyone else get anything?
 
Just to clarify, if you did use fake idle you get NO HAT (Cheaters lament).

Hunter, you may have got that drop 1 second before you disconnected from a game of TF2 without noticing. If it's still there, you got it properly. Congratulations, the saucepan hat is one of the most rare hats.
 
I have no sympathies for the people who used a third party program to subvert the system, you deserve what you get regardless of how you feel about the current item system. To Valve's credit they have increased the probability of finding hats and are aware of player frustration with the item system as it stands but they rightly draw the line at third party apps that modify TF2.
 
Double click a program or leave TF2 open running all day whilst idling on a real server.

I'm such a cheating criminal!
 
KineticAesthetic said:
It's probably worth mentioning he was a noob.
Click to expand...


What I meant is that the system supposedly rewards players for playing the game a lot... And this guy had like 3 game hours... While some people spent like 160 hours on idler servers to get a single hat. I'm kind to noobs... have absolutely no problem with them... i actually help them a lot, unlike most players... But It's a bit frustrating.

I know hats are nothing but looks... But I've been waiting for the pyros brigade helm since pyro's achievs(there is an icon with a pyro with brigade helm that looks so cool). And the only other I want is engies cowboy hat... 2 among 27. And all I get is several blutsaugers and ubbersaws... I get a blutsauger EVERYDAY.
 
Operational said:
I have no sympathies for the people who used a third party program to subvert the system, you deserve what you get regardless of how you feel about the current item system. To Valve's credit they have increased the probability of finding hats and are aware of player frustration with the item system as it stands but they rightly draw the line at third party apps that modify TF2.
Click to expand...
Quoting myself from the other thread:
Laivasse said:
The problem with that, as it stands, is that fake idling creates no real detriment to any other players while real idling (occupying actual player slots) and making frivolous servers (filling up the server list with lots of passworded, 1 player servers) potentially could.

It's all very well to crack down on people who aren't putting in that crucial missing bit of effort in running the actual hl2.exe, but why bother since:
-the drop system isn't meritocratic or really 'effort' related anyway
-Valve probably have no way of cracking down on AFKers who are actually annoying
-the fault lies with the way the system has been designed in the first place
...?

Just change the way it works and have done with it.
Click to expand...
That said, it's no loss to say goodbye to items gained through fake idling. However, apparently Valve's 'moral high road' still includes a couple of other ways to get hats which have little to do with just playing the game properly.
 
Pulse said:
Double click a program or leave TF2 open running all day whilst idling on a real server.
Click to expand...
One violates the steam subscriber agreement, the other does not.

Restricting the use of third party applications interfacing with your software is a perfectly reasonable thing to enforce. I know of no major gaming company that allows it, especially for something as brazen as this.
 
Operational said:
Restricting the use of third party applications interfacing with your software is a perfectly reasonable thing to enforce. I know of no major gaming company that allows it, especially for something as brazen as this.
Click to expand...
Yeah, well the irony of that is that Drunken_F00l, who coded the app, is actually pretty chummy with Valve atm [strike]and he has about 6 hats.[/strike]
Drunken_F00l said:
The good news is they've agreed to help me work on tf2items.com and give me a "public blessing" of some sort. More details later.
Click to expand...
 
Laivasse said:
However, apparently Valve's 'moral high road' still includes a couple of other ways to get hats which have little to do with just playing the game properly.
Click to expand...
In my mind the weaknesses of the current item system (and I think we all agree there are some major ones) is pretty much a separate issue to maintaining software integrity.

In other words if someone made an idleing program which deleted every item (including hats) as soon as they were found I still think Valve would be well within their rights to take action, including incentives for players to avoid that kind of thing in the future.
 
I think this is freakin' hilarious and awesome, and I'll take a new hat thank you very much.
 
i got busted.

halo looks dumb. never got a hat anyway. no regret.
 
I like how we've now got 2 concurrent threads on the exact same subject with people talking about the exact same things.
 
I really wouldn't have a problem with this, except for the fact that they had no policy to really justify this.
Just to make the cheaters a vocal minority, though, they gave everyone else a freaking halo. That really does it in for me. You could have just taken the weapons away and I would have made one complaint about it, but no, Valve had to give everyone else some one time only item, like the medals, to make the cheaters that much more isolated.
 
V-Man339 said:
I really wouldn't have a problem with this, except for the fact that they had no policy to really justify this.
Click to expand...
Uh... No.
Operational said:
One violates the steam subscriber agreement.[...]
Restricting the use of third party applications interfacing with your software is a perfectly reasonable thing to enforce. I know of no major gaming company that allows it, especially for something as brazen as this.
Click to expand...

V-Man - They had no policy to restrict the use of third party applications to essentially hack the game? Are you serious? Of course they did, it's called not allowing hacks and cheats.
 
V-Man339 said:
I really wouldn't have a problem with this, except for the fact that they had no policy to really justify this.
Just to make the cheaters a vocal minority, though, they gave everyone else a freaking halo. That really does it in for me. You could have just taken the weapons away and I would have made one complaint about it, but no, Valve had to give everyone else some one time only item, like the medals, to make the cheaters that much more isolated.
Click to expand...
They shouldn't cheat in the first place.
 
So I'm wondering if a new player signs up for Steam and starts playing TF2, do they get a halo?
 
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