Idling

“

You are like sleeping soldier who just stands at base instead of running to point. Click to listen — The Heavy failing to understand what idling is

”

Idling in Team Fortress 2 refers to the practice of joining or creating a server for the purposes of remaining idle in it, and thus increasing playtime and overall chance of earning unlockable items, such as weapons or hats, through the item drop system. The term idling stems from the idea that the player remains virtually immobile during the game, as they wait for the system to deliver items.

Valve's changes to the item drop system in April 2010 have reduced the effectiveness of idling, through the introduction of a 'weekly item cap'.

History

SteamStats screenshot.

Rise of idling and third-party programs

The early versions of the item drop system was seen by many as unfair, with many arguing that the amount of hours played needed to receive items was not favourable to all. Players sought ways to boost their hours through several means. The earliest method involved simply launching the game, joining a server, and minimizing the game to the background; the player remained idle in the server, increasing their total playtime and increasing their amount of dropped items.

The inconvenience of running the game in the background persistently in order to earn items lead to the creation of third-party programs. The program "SteamStats", created by tf2items creator DrunkenF00l, mimicked the game's engine and connected users to servers hosted by F00l. Intended originally as a method of research into the item drop system, the program quickly gained popularity, providing statistics and notifications to users upon receiving an item. As idling previously required the user to load the game and run in the background, SteamStats appealed to many players as an ideal way to earn items efficiently, without the need to play for large amounts of hours or to place a drain on system resources and power.

Valve ban

On September 2, 2009 blog post, Valve took a zero-tolerance stance against the use of external applications to manipulate the item system, removing all items earned through these applications to date. The announcement stated that around 4.5% of active players would have been affected. All players who had not used external applications were awarded the Cheater's Lament, an all-class hat that appeared as a golden halo. The drop rate for all existing hats was also increased.

The announcement sparked widespread outcry from several parts of the community. In light of the ban, DrunkenF00l took down download links to his program and stopped hosting idle servers.

Changes to the system

Main article: Item drop system

On April 20, 2010, Valve altered the drop system significantly to address its issues. The system now 'rolled' to determine when a player's next drop would occur, as opposed to the previous method of rolling to determine if a drop would occur at all. The changes also included an increase in the frequency of item drops, and an introduction of a weekly item cap.

The cap prevents items from dropping to players who have more than a certain amount of playtime per week, overall reducing greatly the effectiveness of idling. Although Valve has not released any specifics, the amount of items a player can earn in a week is estimated to be around 8-12 items.

Recent times

The release of the Mann-Conomy Update saw the dropping of the Cheater's Lament to a large amount of players, including those who had previously used external applications. There is much speculation surrounding its release, however, there has been no confirmation or announcement relating to the item from Valve at all.

Methods

In-game

Opening the game, entering a server, then minimizing the game to the background was an early method of idling. Servers solely set up to hold idling players are common, however, players can also idle using offline practice mode or via listen server (accessed through "Create a server" in the main menu), provided that they can maintain a connection to Steam.

How to text-mode idle

1. Right click on your desktop and create a new shortcut.

2. Type in "C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" -applaunch 440 -textmode -nosound -window -nopreload -novid -dxlevel 81 +map "cp_dustbowl"

3. Save your file.

4. Open the file.

An alternate method of in-game idling makes use of shortcut\batch commands or the developer launch parameters. To open the launch option, go to your games library, right click on TF2, then select properties and open "Set Launch Options". When a new box appears, place the following text -textmode -nosound -noipx -novid -nopreload -nojoy -sw +map "cp_dustbowl", once that's done you may start your game which will load it using much lower RAM, inside of a Template:W-like window. If you prefer to use a different map just add the name at the end +map "map name here". Going into Steam and TF2 as normal without the commands and lowering the graphic quality with disabling the Steam overlay will lower the use of RAM even further. This method can also be used with various software that spoofs a environment or isolates Steam to idle multiple accounts, depending on how much RAM a computer has. Some things used include Template:W software, running TF2 in Linux with Template:W\Template:W, or using Template:W like Template:W. In April 2011, OpenTrainingDialog was broken with the added class-specific training maps, but the tiny map, ItemTest, is still playable.

External applications

'SteamStats' was one of the earliest third-party idling applications. The program mimicked the game's engine and connected players to idling servers, serving as a hassle-free method. As of September 2, 2009, using any other third-party external program will result in the loss of all the user's items.

See also

• Cheater's Lament
• Glossary of player terms

External links

• TF2 Official Blog- Incoming! – September 2, 2009 blog post by Erik Johnson, announcing the ban on external applications.
• TF2 Official Blog- Thanks for standin still, wanker. – April 20, 2010 blog post by Erik Johnson detailing the changes to the item drop system.