Teamspeak Overlay -vs- VAC Concerns

[bigshot 64]

Guys - I've recently been considering the use of the Teamspeak Overlay feature when I play in Arma, but I've been very heistant to do so because I've read reports posted around the internet of Steam users who say they (or someone they know) had their Steam accounts banned for life for using it. Therefore I've been attempting to do a little research on the matter so I've written to Steam Support (which uses VAC as their anti-cheat security) and asked what their official stance is on the use of the TS overlay and asked if they have ever banned anyone for using it. I received this reply:

"We do not provide analysis of third party software for VAC compliance.

Only cheats (modifications designed to give one player an advantage over other players) will trigger a VAC ban.

Teamspeak users have not been banned in the past as Teamspeak is not a cheat."

Ok so now I'm a bit perplexed as to why people are reporting account bans due to TS overlay. Also, if you enable the overlay, TS gives you a "warning" popup that states some games will "see" the use of the overlay as a cheat and that this can cause problems in such cases. I mentioned this to Steam Support as well but they don't comment on it.

Any advice?

[papanowel 120]

VAC doesn't work for A3 (at last not yet). I never heard such a story before.

[Dmented 10]

Guys - I've recently been considering the use of the Teamspeak Overlay feature when I play in Arma, but I've been very heistant to do so because I've read reports posted around the internet of Steam users who say they (or someone they know) had their Steam accounts banned for life for using it. Therefore I've been attempting to do a little research on the matter so I've written to Steam Support (which uses VAC as their anti-cheat security) and asked what their official stance is on the use of the TS overlay and asked if they have ever banned anyone for using it. I received this reply:

"We do not provide analysis of third party software for VAC compliance.

Only cheats (modifications designed to give one player an advantage over other players) will trigger a VAC ban.

Teamspeak users have not been banned in the past as Teamspeak is not a cheat."

Ok so now I'm a bit perplexed as to why people are reporting account bans due to TS overlay. Also, if you enable the overlay, TS gives you a "warning" popup that states some games will "see" the use of the overlay as a cheat and that this can cause problems in such cases. I mentioned this to Steam Support as well but they don't comment on it.

Any advice?

ArmA III does not use VAC, so no VAC ban can be triggered. The Teamspeak 3 overlay will not get you VAC banned on any game using VAC, nor will many other overlays. Cheaters love to lie on the Steam forums instead of owning up to what actually got them banned hoping for pity from the community and an unban from Valve. Valve can see each ban and understand what caused it. Also a VAC ban does not disable your account. It bans you from playing online on the specific engine the game you cheated on is using.

So basically, it's safe on ArmA III.

[spamurai 3]

VAC is merely absent from the Alpha build. It is currently not active

However, in the future this will change.

I can not speak for VAC banning TS users... but considering how popular Teamspeak is.... if it was a concern, you'd have to think that it would a heavily reported issue and likely one that would have been addressed in some fashion by now. The odd report of players supposedly getting banned because of the overlay could very likely be false.

But if you are really that concerned about it... it's not really a deal breaker to simply not use the overlay. IMO anyways.

[deepfried 1]

I've used TS extensively on steam with VAC games. Never any problem.

[tremanarch 6]

is there a free working teamspeak overlay for arma 3 alpha yet?

[SmallBlackSheep 0]

never heard of people getting vac banned for the TS overlay

[seife 1]

Teamspeak Overlay doesnt work in combination with Punkbuster, so his concers are somehow justified.

Would be pretty ugly to get your entire steam acc banned because of using Teamspeak. :p

[tremanarch 6]

is there a working teamspeak overlöay with arma 3 already? could someone give me the link pls?

the two I found didnt work.

[simjedi 10]

Why not just use Steams built in overlay and voice and not worry about it?

[Silent_Thunder 1]

Teamspeak Overlay doesnt work in combination with Punkbuster, so his concers are somehow justified.

Would be pretty ugly to get your entire steam acc banned because of using Teamspeak. :p

Yea but tbh, Punkbuster isn't compatible with itself half the damn time. I've never had Vac simply fail to function the way punkbuster has.

[Suspense 1]

VAC is merely absent from the Alpha build. It is currently not active

However, in the future this will change.

I can not speak for VAC banning TS users... but considering how popular Teamspeak is.... if it was a concern, you'd have to think that it would a heavily reported issue and likely one that would have been addressed in some fashion by now. The odd report of players supposedly getting banned because of the overlay could very likely be false.

But if you are really that concerned about it... it's not really a deal breaker to simply not use the overlay. IMO anyways.

No it wont, Dwarden said in the server admin chat, that there are no plans to implement vac instead of BE. All plans still points toward BE.

[Fuse 1]

Ok so now I'm a bit perplexed as to why people are reporting account bans due to TS overlay. Also, if you enable the overlay, TS gives you a "warning" popup that states some games will "see" the use of the overlay as a cheat and that this can cause problems in such cases. I mentioned this to Steam Support as well but they don't comment on it.

It's probably just bull shit. Teamspeak is used by nearly 20% of Steam users according to the Steam Hardware Survey, and the number is likely higher in reality.

Lots of kids get banned on Steam and they all have some dumb ass excuse. I went to friend a forum user to give him an Alpha Lite key and saw he had a VAC ban showing up. I asked him about it, wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt, and got the standard lie of "I share the account with a friend/brother who cheats at MW3". Even if that's true, which it obviously isn't, it doesn't absolve you. You gave your account info to someone you know cheats. How is that a good cover? :j:

Seriously, poke around the Steam forums when you're bored and look at all the people who complain about their bans. Cheaters are liars, so when people get banned for cheating they'll say whatever they think might get them another chance. I just feel bad for the parents that occasionally show up saying, "My kids was banned for no reason!" No, your kid was banned because you're raising a cheating piece of shit who lies to your face. You should get on that. ;)

[tremanarch 6]

yeah if a cheater said the truth and that he regretts it etc i would trust, but lies wont help

[bigshot 64]

Thanks for all your responses, guys. It doesn't make any sense to me either (that you'd get banned for running TS overlay)...but I think what concerned me and made me think twice was the fact that the overlay feature itself actually warns you that you may be seen as a potential cheater by using it in certain games. So I start to think well, if im mistakenly seen as a cheater then I can mistakenly get banned as well. But by now yea, there SHOULD be some sort of code in place in VAC that protects against an overlay false positive. At least I would hope so!