Will achievement unlockers get you VAC banned?

[Chara the Explorer]

This may sound like a dumb question, but on another thread here people were giving another person a hard time for mysteriously having unlocked all achievements for TF2, mocking him for "pretending to be innocent". So, is it possible that he was actually banned for such a decision?

For the record, I have NOT used any unlockers yet, let alone screwed around with hacks on VAC servers (though I did get a very funky mod that makes the medic flip everyone off when using the MTM taunt), but Offline Mode tends to screw around with achievements. For example:

Walking Dead, 100% clocked, no achievements.
Bastion, 100% clocked, only missing "finished game" achievement (despite having "finished New Game+ Achievement)
Darksiders, Completed Story mode on Normal, Some achievements have not unlocked (notably ones otherwise impossible to miss)

While I know it's not the end of the world or anything, I'd like to know that I can get the achievements I "deserve" (yeah, I'm gonna get mocked for saying that) without being punished for it.

Actually, now that I think about it, this IS bloody a dumb question since VAC bans are only for multiplayer games XD. Um. Perhaps someone would like to confirm that doing such a thing, like for TF2 or CounterStrike, can or can't get you banned? Now just out of curiosity more than anything, I suppose

Update: So I've downloaded one and used it to unlock that pesky "finished story mode" achievement on Bastion that I really didn't feel like playing the game a forth time to get. 100%, yay! I have to admit, it's pretty damn tempting to sweep down some achievements I just plain don't feel like getting (e.g. Wonderful End of the World: Explicately reset the game and play to the last level in one sitting. Really?). But meh.

Thanks to everyone who posted.

[Getty]

as far as i know, the achievements unlocker can get you banned only if you use it while connected to a vac secured server

[Dr. UnKn0wN]

Originally posted by Getty:

as far as i know, the achievements unlocker can get you banned only if you use it while connected to a vac secured server

This is where common sense comes in use.

[Chara the Explorer]

Originally posted by UnKn0wNK1LL3R.:

Originally posted by Getty:

as far as i know, the achievements unlocker can get you banned only if you use it while connected to a vac secured server

This is where common sense comes in use.

This is why I edited my post. Lol XD Though it would be interesting to know if a game that ran off VAC servers would pick up a trace of it LATER (i.e. long after you have used the unlocker) and get it banned. I've heard of people who use hacks for screwing around but never in VAC servers, only for them to get banned anyway (though of course that's an entirely different discussion so I'd rather not get too far into that).

[ChaosBahamut]

Used it to unlock an achievement I earned but didn't get a little while back (like ~ 2 weeks ago), no ban here. You should be fine so long as you don't use it while running a VAC protected game.

[NL]

Is it really worth risking your account just to cheat? For one thing it is going to be obvious to everyone that you did cheat to unlock your achievements. Also these guys do not really know if you will get a VAC ban or not. Valve will not tell you and plenty of people that have used unlockers have been banned. Did everyone of them use it while connected to a VAC server? I don't really know. Do you want to take that chance?

Originally posted by ChaosBahamut:

Used it to unlock an achievement I earned but didn't get a little while back (like ~ 2 weeks ago), no ban here. You should be fine so long as you don't use it while running a VAC protected game.

Most likely you are correct but I would like to point out that VAC bans are always delayed. It might take over a month to get your ban even after you have been flagged. It is pretty obvious when people use the unlockers because it shows the date of the unlock. Unlocked it all the same day? Obvious.

[Chara the Explorer]

Originally posted by NL:

Is it really worth risking your account just to cheat? For one thing it is going to be obvious to everyone that you did cheat to unlock your achievements. Also these guys do not really know if you will get a VAC ban or not. Valve will not tell you and plenty of people that have used unlockers have been banned. Did everyone of them use it while connected to a VAC server? I don't really know. Do you want to take that chance?

From what I understant, hacking in general only gets you banned from the game's multiplayer VAC servers (unless it shares an engine with other games, like Valve's games). I'm not sure if I'm supposed to care if I get banned from playing on The Walking Dead's VAC servers.

And I'm lauching a pre-emptive "You're an idiot" to anyone who tries to explain to me there's no TWD multiplayer.

Originally posted by ChaosBahamut:

Used it to unlock an achievement I earned but didn't get a little while back (like ~ 2 weeks ago), no ban here. You should be fine so long as you don't use it while running a VAC protected game.

Most likely you are correct but I would like to point out that VAC bans are always delayed. It might take over a month to get your ban even after you have been flagged. It is pretty obvious when people use the unlockers because it shows the date of the unlock. Unlocked it all the same day? Obvious.

I'm not sure if anyone's going to care that I happen to get all the achievements in one day for a single player game that I've already spent many hours on. I've got nothing to hide anyway. It's only for stuff like TF2 where it's literally impossible to get EVERYTHING that people care or notice.

Though you have a point with the whole "delayed ban" thing... at least for games with any VAC servers.

[Τhe Rolling Cheese Wheel]

The achievement manager doesn't get you vac banned as long as you practice common sense and not use it while connected to a VAC server.

That is a fact and is the definitive answer. As long as you make sure the "process" of the achievement manager is dead before launching a vac server, you should be 100% safe.

[«Gғм» Kid Of The Century]

As far as I -and possibly most of us- know so far no one has been VAC banned by using an achievement unlocker.

That being said, Valve does know when one is used and they already took action in the past.

Considering achievement unlocking constitutes a clear circumvention of the item drop system, because in certain instances you get stuff without doing what you're supposed to do to get that stuff, IMO it is not so unlikey to see harsher consequences in the future.

And it's sure as hell I don't want to find out first.

[Chara the Explorer]

Originally posted by «Gғм» Kid Of The Century:

As far as I -and possibly most of us- know so far no one has been VAC banned by using an achievement unlocker.

That being said, Valve does know when one is used and they already took action in the past.

Considering achievement unlocking constitutes a clear circumvention of the item drop system, because in certain instances you get stuff without doing what you're supposed to do to get that stuff, IMO it is not so unlikey to see harsher consequences in the future.

And it's sure as hell I don't want to find out first.

A circumvention of the item drop system, eh? Well, good thing I'm not interested at all in unlocking achievements for TF2 (and come on... it's damn well near impossible to get 100% in TF2 anyway. I love it when someone who's only played for, say, twenty hours thinks that noone will notice).

But other than that and VAC servers, unlockers are A-OK, right?

[NL]

Originally posted by The Milkman Conspiracy:

From what I understant, hacking in general only gets you banned from the game's multiplayer VAC servers (unless it shares an engine with other games, like Valve's games). I'm not sure if I'm supposed to care if I get banned from playing on The Walking Dead's VAC servers.

Thats true except some games have plugins admins use to kick anyone that has a vac ban on any game from the server.

[«Gғм» Kid Of The Century]

Originally posted by The Milkman Conspiracy:

A circumvention of the item drop system, eh? Well, good thing I'm not interested at all in unlocking achievements for TF2 (and come on... it's damn well near impossible to get 100% in TF2 anyway. I love it when someone who's only played for, say, twenty hours thinks that noone will notice).

Well, you could join an achievement server and grind all TF2's achievements (or any other game) in a matter of hour, and Valve won't mind.

It's the "third party progam" part that they usually frown upon, though.

Originally posted by The Milkman Conspiracy:

But other than that and VAC servers, unlockers are A-OK, right?

If you mean "harmless" achievements (those which don't grant stuff), I'd say yes.
However, after my personal experience about the SteamStats program four years ago, I prefer to avoid such kind of programs.

[The Longest Rose]

Originally posted by «Gғм» Kid Of The Century:

Originally posted by The Milkman Conspiracy:

A circumvention of the item drop system, eh? Well, good thing I'm not interested at all in unlocking achievements for TF2 (and come on... it's damn well near impossible to get 100% in TF2 anyway. I love it when someone who's only played for, say, twenty hours thinks that noone will notice).

Well, you could join an achievement server and grind all TF2's achievements (or any other game) in a matter of hour, and Valve won't mind.

They shut those achivement servers down for TF2, actually.

[Chara the Explorer]

Originally posted by NL:

Originally posted by The Milkman Conspiracy:

From what I understant, hacking in general only gets you banned from the game's multiplayer VAC servers (unless it shares an engine with other games, like Valve's games). I'm not sure if I'm supposed to care if I get banned from playing on The Walking Dead's VAC servers.

Thats true except some games have plugins admins use to kick anyone that has a vac ban on any game from the server.

I'm not going to get VAC banned from TWD servers no matter how hard I try. Trust me.

Though thanks for that tidbit, I didn't know that. Some admins REALLY don't wanna take chances, eh? For good reason I guess...

[«Gғм» Kid Of The Century]

Originally posted by Port_A_Build:

They shut those achivement servers down for TF2, actually.

I'm not aware of that. I find a bunch of them still up and running ( http://www.gametracker.com/search/tf2/?query=achievement#search ). They maybe now are not as hot as Trade Servers are, though.

[Snowtrain]

any game that uses vac yes for all games acount ban read tos 3 party progams