RuneScape Forum Archive | Mac Steam Client Ban?

2_Tron

Posts: 23,025 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Still being a firm Mac-User myself, having experience for many years in a row with lots of devices, standard out of the box, equiped with standard mouse/keyboard and standard Operating System, I can confirm that you won't be banned for macroing or any other rulebreaking matter whatsoever.

I use '
Jagex's Official Game Client for RuneScape 3 or OldSchool RuneScape
' and i can confirm that nothing will hit me in the back or on the head in terms of bans/permenent bans.

26-Jan-2023 15:49:59

IronRiemann

Posts: 29 Bronze Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I have been in your case of playing Macs out of the box with standard mouse/keyboard, with the official client, along with occasionally playing on an out of the box iPhone with a standard touch screen, until I switched to the Mac Version of the official C++ Steam Client shortly after it was released in September 2022. I have never used Runelite or any other 3rd party client, approved or otherwise.

However, the Steam Client is not just approved by Jagex but is created and run by Jagex, so if something resulted in me getting a blackmark for using it unmodified, with the only area of question being having played on a Mac OS version of 10.14.5 rather than an 11 or higher, there's a serious bug in either the client or the methods of bot detection that needs to be fixed before other players are banned for using Jagex's own created and run software unmodified. It feels very strange to me that the Steam Client could be detected as 3rd party, but with its lack of users, especially on Mac, I suppose it is possible it could have fallen into disrepair or lost attention.

For a case of extra reference, playing RuneScape on the Steam Client is almost my only use of Steam: I have no friends added on Steam, and my entire use of Steam has been connecting my RuneScape account and playing on the Mac Version of the Steam Client, along with a little bit of playing Quantum Chess by Quantum Realm Games, but never simultaneously with RuneScape.

26-Jan-2023 16:49:09 - Last edited on 26-Jan-2023 16:49:53 by IronRiemann

IronRiemann

Posts: 29 Bronze Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Additional piece of information: I have never used the Jagex Launcher. When I was using the Steam Client, I used the "Play" button for Old School RuneScape on the Steam Mac App, which opens the C++ Steam Client as a separate application, after it loads I clicked "Sign in via Steam" and began playing.

31-Jan-2023 21:38:20

2_Tron

Posts: 23,025 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

'
Jagex Launcher
' is a successful piece of software you are able to use and start playing RuneScape as it doesn't create any issues whatsoever.
Worth to consider as it doesn't create any issues on a Mac.

01-Feb-2023 09:56:19

IronRiemann

Posts: 29 Bronze Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Kinda said that on the opposite assumption of why, not that the Jagex Launcher would have been for some reason dangerous to use, but in case not using it in this context would somehow be wrong, and for the sake of giving all information that could be relevant. But point taken.

01-Feb-2023 11:28:30 - Last edited on 01-Feb-2023 11:40:00 by IronRiemann

2_Tron

Posts: 23,025 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

IronRiemann said :
Additional piece of information: I have never used the Jagex Launcher. When I was using the Steam Client, I used the "Play" button for Old School RuneScape on the Steam Mac App, which opens the C++ Steam Client as a separate application, after it loads I clicked "Sign in via Steam" and began playing. I have started with an account using the Steam Client on a Mac.
I must say getting it to work, ... I had to make a few attempts before I saw OldSchool RuneScape appear, which is something Jagex/JMods might look into.
For the rest I must say it is doing well and I will play through the weekend on said account to see if I am able to get banned by just playing. We'll see.

02-Feb-2023 12:04:40

IronRiemann

Posts: 29 Bronze Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I had a similar issue with a weird number of first attempts when I first set it up sometime in September 2022 I think (was pretty soon after it came out on Mac). I had fairly recently turned on most of the Clue Helper features of the client (within a week of the ban) if that would be specifically relevant. FWIW (admittedly not much) the other Mac Steam Client 2-day ban claimant said they hadn't ever used that particular feature.

02-Feb-2023 21:41:18

IronRiemann

Posts: 29 Bronze Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Looking back at this thread I noticed it did not include a potentially very useful piece of information that I did give in some of my other areas like my earlier Reddit thread: my account FreeFossil, which is a purely F2P OSRS Fresh Start World account I started when OSRS Fresh Start Worlds came out, was active from the October-Early December period and has not received any blackmarks, and I was playing it on the same computer as IronRiemann except on the regular client rather than the Steam Client since the Steam Client only supports one account (I played it a few times on the same mobile as IronRiemann, but not much since doing the switch is finicky). I never played both accounts at once. I was mostly active on it from the October-Early December period and hadn't really played it in a week before the ban happened, while I was active on IronRiemann. Since the ban I've used it for clan chat on the regular client and nothing more while IronRiemann after the ban was just check inventory/stats/bank for evidence of hack and then log out.

I thought I had remembered to included it in this thread's discussion. It's no clinching proof of anything, but it is data.

Once I'm willing to play the game again, I'm planning on playing on it first to "test" that upgrading my Mac and/or avoiding the Steam Client has gotten me out of it (though, if that were the difference, those aren't 3rd party software so that's a bug), since it's less personally valuable to me were it to be banned, but that still feels risky and wrong to me, since rulebreaking would be rulebreaking regardless of the "value" of the account and, for the sake of game integrity, if I am really doing something wrong I don't want to keep doing it. On the other hand, I would still want to play on that account anyways independent of this affair.

05-Feb-2023 18:04:39 - Last edited on 05-Feb-2023 18:33:28 by IronRiemann

2_Tron

Posts: 23,025 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

OK, I've played OldSchool RuneScape for 4 days, when time available, and created for this '
Steam Client
' a new fresh account but I didn't play on any FSW.
I created an '
Ultimate Ironman
'-account, which is a great challenge, I have no bank access, no Grand Exchange, extreme shopping limits, no advantage as to buying myself levels etc. etc.
Just play and skill myself to the next of levels and be cautious to not make any mistake and loose my 'Ultimate'-titel. So far I did a total of 324 levels to get this far, for this test, as you can see.

...

Below there's my computer status.

...

As for testing if I would be banned for any obscure reason I have not experienced anything whatsoever that came even close to being a '
warning-ban or instant-ban
'.

I do not think that I will find anything else in the future, as I am sure this account will continue its 'OldSchool Adventure' ... that's for sure.
The client functions well, although I am not a person who would play this client as my favorite client, because there's too much things (2 for certain) that I do not like about this client but that hasn't anything to do with getting banned but moreso with account-security.

The reason players might receive/have received a 'warning-ban/ban/permanent ban' is something that has to be searched in the way how they manage their hardware/software and where they obtain said software.
If you simply update/upgrade your computer to the latest possible factory standards there's no problem whatsoever that will bring your accounts into problems.

Other software players will use simultaneously with playing RuneScape/OldSchool RuneScape should be avoided if a player isn't certain that it will cause harm to their accounts, in terms of software that starts to interact with Jagex's Servers, or create a severe security risk in general sense.

06-Feb-2023 11:00:26

IronRiemann

Posts: 29 Bronze Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Catalina is below Big Sur, which is stated as the Minimum for using the Steam Client.

I'm glad for sake of both you and the state of Jagex's products that you weren't banned and now that we do have an empirical example of a user using the Steam Client below Big Sur without a ban after mine, that looks like a far, far less likely possibility.

More recently I've been considering if it might have been mobile related somehow, given as that's the only other software difference between how the banned and unbanned account were played, but I haven't found anything unusual about how I was playing mobile at all so there's no lead there. Having played a run of Universal Paperclips, followed by a run of Trimps simultaneously in my browser on a different Wi-Fi than usual (but a secure one that was my main one half a year before this) while fletching is another, smaller difference between the playing of the two accounts, but that was just the day before the ban and those idle games should be contained in the Chrome browser without having any effect anywhere else, and according to other discussions on this forum there normally is some time between the incident and the ban.

This has remained a very weird personal mystery and I'm disappointed in myself as a real QA Engineer for being unable to solve it despite my efforts. It really sucks that I'm left with a blackmark without having any intention of breaking the rules or perfectly solid closure about how to avoid another ban, but, there's just no other leads. I wouldn't quite ask to lock this thread just yet, though the title statement is out of question.

06-Feb-2023 13:24:59

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Mac Steam Client Ban?