Valve Anti-Cheat misconception

[IanTheStanMan]

Hello, my friends.

It has come to my attention that some people have been confused as to how the VAC, or Valve Anti-Cheat system works. The Valve Anti-Cheat system ONLY bans upon an account using any type of cheats, or messing with the Executable files, or Dynamic Link Library (.exe and .dll respectively) files.

Here is how it works: When you connect to a Valve Anti-Cheat secured server, for example, VAC makes use of client challenges. It sends them to the computer. If the appropriate response isn't received, a possible violation has occurred. Once it has sent the client challenges, your PC will reply back the information to Valve. They then will take the memory they have obtained from your PC, and then compare it with other banned players. However, if it is something that Valve has not seen before, they may ask their engineers to take the code, and run it under their own copies of the game, (such as Team Fortress, CS:GO, etc.) AND, if it is confirmed as a cheat, the player will be flagged as cheating immediately. However, the player will not know of it. Only after Days, or even Weeks, then it will kick in.

This means that if you connect to a Team Fortress server, and you have cheats, AND the server is VAC secured, this means you will be flagged as cheating. After the time period, your ban will be publicly visible; it can not be hidden. After you have been VAC'd, a recent study has shown that if you have any friends, they themselves are likely to be banned. Afterwards, they lost more friends, increased privacy settings, and had a higher chance of being VAC banned themselves. (More likely to increase privacy settings.)

In the long run, VAC will not ban you for using certain programs, such as Teamspeak, for example. It will ALSO not ban you for updating your computer's drivers. It will only ban you if you cheat, or screw with the DLL or EXE files of the game. Just because you used Teamspeak, does NOT mean you will be VAC banned.

I hope this was helpful.

Sincerely,

8bitIan

[The Giving One]

Publicado originalmente por 8bitIan:

The Valve Anti-Cheat system ONLY bans upon an account using any type of cheats, or messing with the Executable files, or Dynamic Link Library (.exe and .dll respectively) files.

Not "exactly" correct. There is the phone number ban system now.

VAC and Game bans apply to all accounts on a phone number

If an account that has a phone number registered to it receives a VAC or Game ban, all other accounts that used the same phone number at the time of the infraction will also receive a ban. If the other accounts do not own the game they will still receive the ban and be unable to purchase the title on that account. The phone number on an account that receives a ban will be suspended for three months and cannot be applied to another account during that time. The cooldown duration for applying a phone number after a ban will increase each time a cooldown is applied.

This feature is not enabled for all games and will be used at the discretion of the developer.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7849-Radz-6869#banbyphone

[IanTheStanMan]

That was also something I forgot to mention. However, I was mostly trying to aim to people using their PC, if they don't use a phone linked to their steam account. You are correct. Also, don't try to use L-M-A-Obox: I recently discovered that, according to one screenshot, it was said that the developer would re-create the cheat, to make it undetectable, like how it was when the spike of bans hit players in May 2016.

[Silicon Vampire]

what makes you think anyone will read this more than the official information already available?

Hint: they won't.

[IanTheStanMan]

Well, you do make a good point. I can't blame you that anyone would necessarily care to read this anyways. Besides, people are kinda dumb as of steam things: Even I thought that using something on one of Medic's servers, for TF2, would cause me to get VAC banned. It unlocked all achievements, and gave you all unlockables. Instead of EARNING IT. I do kinda feel regretful...but that's not the point. The point is that probably nobody gives a damn about reading this anyways.

[The Giving One]

It is not that you don't make a good effort here, it is just that some of us are used to people not reading information that is always available to them, such as pinned threads. This thread will eventually be several pages on in this forum and lost unless searched for using the search, and trust me....most don't read the info, much less search for it.

But I thank you for making your effort here just the same.

[IanTheStanMan]

Well, my pleasure, mate. I just feel that sometimes, people think they get banned for things that would not normally ban them. And, since there are other discussions out there on "got vac'd for playing with controller", and other things like it, it usually frustrates me. It's not that I don't want to help: I actually want to provide assistance. However, some people couldn't give a damn anyways.

I do have enough common sense to realize that using controllers, for example, will not ban you. It's sort of like in the US, people always say "Well, I should at least get credit for being in math class!". However, my reaction: "You can't get full credit just by being there, or just because you turned in your paper; they have to be correct answers in order to pass. You are not just going to be GIVEN it, you have to EARN it". Or, in martial arts. Most of them "give" their students their black belts, instead of them EARNING it. However, in my martial arts school, you would have to actually EARN your belt.

But you know, some people just don't necessarily understand. And that's why I'm here to give em help.