Is Steam Achievement Manager (SAM) safe to use?

[Ais Wallenstein]

Because i want to unlock some of online achievements from a dead game (offline server).

[LowJack_VA1]

I've used it safely on single player games at times to unlock broken achievements. I've never used it on multiplayer games.

[Ais Wallenstein]

Publicado originalmente por LowJack_VA1:

I've used it safely on single player games at times to unlock broken achievements. I've never used it on multiplayer games.

How long have you been using this? Will it become a problem for your account in the future like getting banned or something?

Publicado originalmente por grody_antagonic:

be aware that it will get you flagged and excluded on numerous achievement tracking sites though.

I don't care. I just want to use it for my own satisfaction.

[wuddih]

yes, the program itself is safe to use, if you use the the last release from the official github. with that i mean, it has not malicious code.
the official coder was/is "gibbed"

SAM is basically discontinued by him, so if Valve does crucial changes how achievements work, he might not update it and working forks of his code might come up that might be not safe.

however, while using SAM:

1) DO NOT use it in VAC protected games while being connected to a VAC protected game server. several versions of SAM will trigger a VAC ban.
i am not allowed to say which ones or if the current version also does (NDA).

but as an example:
if you are playing csgo on a vac protected server and for some dumb reason you decide that, at this very moment, you wanna unlock all achievements in cookie clicker with a specific version of SAM, you will get VAC banned in csgo.

So in short ... just dont have any game really open when you alter achievements with SAM.

2) Some games have in-game benefits bound to achievements, a publisher/developer always can hand out game bans "manually" (they can automate this manual process).
Some games did/do this, the only example currently that comes to my mind is Payday2 but iirc they stopped banning people.
But the process for this can be too different to generalize it.

So ... just be careful with such games.

3) everything else should be a non-issue to modify with SAM. achievements are non-competitive on Steam. the max you can do is compare one game with one user/friend. that is how competitive it gets here.
what 3rd party sites do is not really relevant and also arbitrary in many cases.

[Ais Wallenstein]

The only VAC protected game i'm usually playing is Dota 2 and it doesn't have achievement. And i'm not playing other online game that much. Also, like i already said above, only for a dead game server like Saint Row 3, Saint Row Gat out of hell, or Hitman Absolution.

So.. is it safe to use, right?

[kitt]

Publicado originalmente por davidb11:

It should be safe to use, yes.
Be wary though, some people still hate the idea of using SAM even to fix broken achievmements, so you might find yourself besieged by angry people soon. :P

Publicado originalmente por grody_antagonic:

be aware that it will get you flagged and excluded on numerous achievement tracking sites though.

Do you have any evidence of this? This is the first time anyone has said that in relation to SAM.

https://achievementhunting.com/rules#-penalties-for-cheating-

basically Unified rules which like all of the Websites in regards to Steam Achievements use (except Astats)

https://steamhunters.com/ actually will flag your Account on their Website (also quite a few Website do this as well). Also they will invalidate Times etc if you get caught cheating/sam.

But if people don't care for those Sites, whatever.

[kitt]

Publicado originalmente por davidb11:

Seems weird, but okay.

whats weird about it? why would we want cheaters on our Sites/Community?

[kitt]

Publicado originalmente por davidb11:

First, the fact that those sites seem to be a big deal for you and no one else. :P
Secondly, it's weird because again, you're the first person to bring up this random punishment for "Cheating."

It's achievements. No one needs to care about Achievements that much that there needs to be several sites dedicated to them.
SAM exists primarily to help fix broken achievements.
That's it.

Trolling people by punishing them for fixing broken achievements is not what I call a good thing for any website ever. :P

you asked for it and i linked you "our" rules, so not sure why you go at me for being part of a Community and actually link you the wanted cheating rules?

also there is nothing random about it. Don't use SAM on our Sites or other Stuff like downloaded Save Games and so on. If you don't agree witht he Rules, don't use the Sites/Trackers.

Well apparently you care too much about what people should do in their free time or should care about while playing Games.

Nobody is forcing you to be part of them but then don't ask for proof if you just crap talk a Community you dislike for whatever reason.



On another Note: we have literally hundreds of Users on our Sites who just 100% SAM their Games.

also IF a Achievement is broken it will be flagged on our Sites (and removed if fixed), so no need to use SAM if you part take on Trackers.

[ElvisDeadly]

Publicado originalmente por davidb11:

Publicado originalmente por grody_antagonic:

be aware that it will get you flagged and excluded on numerous achievement tracking sites though.

Do you have any evidence of this? This is the first time anyone has said that in relation to SAM.

Because it is phrased badly.

What it should say is GETTING CAUGHT CHEATING will get you excluded from such groups/sites.

They have no automatic way to know that someone has used SAM

[kitt]

Publicado originalmente por Phoenix's Hellfire:

Publicado originalmente por ElvisDeadly:

They have no automatic way to know that someone has used SAM

This ^^
It's basically an idiot test, if you unlock all the achievements of a game simultaneously, then you are obviously cheating, whereas if you space them out, it's pretty much impossible to detect unless you have really low play time. But honestly, you would have to be really pathetic to cheat achievements with such complexity.

and wrong..

even if you unlock 1000 achievements with 0 seconds playtime and at the same time that doesn't mean you cheated (using sam).
It could mean that you played offline, you used your own Save Game on a different Account yada yada yada


Also 1$ "trash" Games are not excluded on Trackers, they just don't give any points really for Leaderboards. I don't even start with restricted Game etc

But I think the OP got their Question answered, no need to assume more Stuff about Achievement Hunting with so many false Ideas...

[Sazzouu]

Publicado originalmente por wuddih:

1) DO NOT use it in VAC protected games while being connected to a VAC protected game server. several versions of SAM will trigger a VAC ban.
i am not allowed to say which ones or if the current version also does (NDA).

Irrelevant since SAM only manipulates locally stored solid files. Plus it does not even need the game to be running or even installed at all. VAC only overwatches main memory (RAM) which is no business of SAM by any meanings.

Therefore...

Publicado originalmente por wuddih:

but as an example:
if you are playing csgo on a vac protected server and for some dumb reason you decide that, at this very moment, you wanna unlock all achievements in cookie clicker with a specific version of SAM, you will get VAC banned in csgo.

NO it does not!!!

Publicado originalmente por wuddih:

2) Some games have in-game benefits bound to achievements, a publisher/developer always can hand out game bans "manually" (they can automate this manual process).
Some games did/do this, the only example currently that comes to my mind is Payday2 but iirc they stopped banning people.
But the process for this can be too different to generalize it.

Rarily happens these days because Valve changed the way how gamebans are handed out by developers after several abusements and blackmailings of studios such as Digital Homicide. If the user fights a gameban by developers and the developer can't provide any evidences or anything it will be revoked. And since Achievement manipulation is hard (if not impossible) to track down the user will win the case in 99%.

Publicado originalmente por wuddih:

3) everything else should be a non-issue to modify with SAM. achievements are non-competitive on Steam. the max you can do is compare one game with one user/friend. that is how competitive it gets here.
what 3rd party sites do is not really relevant and also arbitrary in many cases.

If that argument was of any value at all then cheating in general would be no issue. Steam Achievements are just as competitive as matchmaking ranks in CS:GO or levels in Call of Duty or... well you name it.


@Topic
SAM is ultimatively and 100% safe to use. However a big chunk of people will hate and avoid you for using it. Officially - given the SSA - using SAM is forbidden... however as mentioned already tracking down cheated achievements is nothing waterproof. Sever issues, connection issues as well as other issues can cause fishy looking achievements. As well as poor implementation can lead to randomness such as randomly unlocking all achievements at once. I had several games where you can beat all achievements in one playsession but the unlocking happens when you close the game so even the timestamp says NOTHING about whether those were cheated or not.

VAC cannot be triggered by SAM since that is technically impossible given the nature of how VAC (or literally ANY anticheat system in the shape of VAC) works. So if you feel like it then go ahead and use it but as mentioned you should keep in mind that there is a huge amount of people actually caring about such things

[Sysgen]

Publicado originalmente por Phoenix's Hellfire:

Publicado originalmente por ElvisDeadly:

They have no automatic way to know that someone has used SAM

This ^^
It's basically an idiot test, if you unlock all the achievements of a game simultaneously, then you are obviously cheating, whereas if you space them out, it's pretty much impossible to detect unless you have really low play time. But honestly, you would have to be really pathetic to cheat achievements with such complexity.

Not all. Just read a review of a game where all the cheevos pop after finishing the game. ZUP as an example will pop 5 or 6 cheevos at the same time.

[crunchyfrog]

Yes, it's safe.

Used it myself a number of times. You aren't likely to get banned because it's darned near impossible to check how you unlocked an achievement (unless you're stupid and make it obvious like doing impossible things such as unlocking ALL achievements at precisely the same time). Even then I've not seen anyone get banned over it.

There were some examples where the devs of Payday 2 (and another game that escapes me) did this, but they stopped doing it quickly. No doubt because they got threatened legally for the obvious reasons

The real question you should be asking is to yourself. Namely "am I going to use this wisely?"

It might seem like a great idea now to unlock and go mad, but in the future you WILL be pissed off if you end up really enjoying the game and regret doing it in the first place.

What I use it for is when I'm into a game and going for an achievement or too, and it bugs out and doesn't unlock. I'll simply go in and unlock it manually. That and NO MORE.

Never cheat yourself, basically. It's guaranteed disappointment.

[Ais Wallenstein]

I don't get it. Why would people care so much about the way you get your achievement anyway? Lmao. Did you get paid by completing it or what?

And like i already said before, i just want to use it to unlock broken achievements from some dead game server. Ofc, i won't regret anything as long i don't get banned from using it.

[grody_antagonic]

Publicado originalmente por Phoenix's Hellfire:

It's basically an idiot test, if you unlock all the achievements of a game simultaneously, then you are obviously cheating, whereas if you space them out, it's pretty much impossible to detect unless you have really low play time. But honestly, you would have to be really pathetic to cheat achievements with such complexity.

Most people who chose to use SAM regularly get caught eventually. Since on an achievement tracking site your whole stats with all data regarding that is fully visible (if you have a public profile at least), your path through a game and its achievements can be taken apart by anyone who cares enough. If any inconsistencies are discovered things can get taken further and eventually you WILL be banned there.
astats for example may not fully follow the unified achievement rules, but they have the highest number of blocked players (afaik) "because of suspected achievement hacking.", currently at 51.904, steadily rising.

Of course it doesn't matter at all, if you don't want to play that way. I fully respect the OP in that regard. Just wanted to make sure he knows, before he may regret something afterwards.

Publicado originalmente por Ais Wallenstein:

I don't get it. Why would people care so much about the way you get your achievement anyway? Lmao. Did you get paid by completing it or what?

It's mainly because if people want to play achievement-hunting on a (more or less) competitive level, that would simply be impossible if cheating (with SAM) would be allowed. No offense to you though, if you simply don't want to play it that way.

[grody_antagonic]

Publicado originalmente por Phoenix's Hellfire:

Wrong, I can see you've never used a leaderboard that tracks achievements, any respectable one (e.g. Astats) intentionally exclude games that give tons of achievements for doing nothing
Edit here: I love how in a huge twist of irony you use an achievement tracker on your profile and guess what?
https://completionist.me/steam/profile/76561198022964310

9,323 …in Restricted

You have achievements in games that are restriced, irony!

Restricted just means that they have that "Steam is learning about this game" thingy and they don't count (yet) for the overall on-steam stats, but may count on tracking sites regardless.
Also astats does in fact not exclude spam-games, but they usually limit their points to 10, so that it does not give more than 10 points at any circumstances (+1~ bonus for 100%).