Advanced Mann-Conomy: How to idle with multiple accounts - Games

So I tried making the .bat files for speediness in the startup of the farm, but I get this: [CODE]cmd.exe - Application Error The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142). Click OK to close the application.[/CODE] For all accounts that had to be sandbox'd. Here is what's inside my .bat to start all the tf2's [CODE]start C:\Idle\tlb_willc-idle.bat start C:\"Program Files"\Sandboxie\Start.exe /box:epicidleguy "C:\Idle\epicidleguy-idle.bat" start C:\"Program Files"\Sandboxie\Start.exe /box:idle4hatz "C:\Idle\idle4hatz-idle.bat"[/CODE]

[QUOTE=Gurkenpirat;31237952]Nice one. Added this to the guide and thanks a lot. This saved me about 115GB and all instances of TF2 now load faster. I'm experimenting with other folders than steamapps right now.[/QUOTE] Damn man 115GB? I need to show you a previous post I made in this thread. [editline]21st July 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=jechtman;30866649]So, if I am to understand correctly, these are the essential files needed in the steamapps folder? [img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/31693224/Essentials.PNG[/img] Maybe not the tf2 folder?[/QUOTE] Just remove the two folders in the image and you are set with -10gb.

Ideally what you should do is make a bunch of free accounts and idle, then when one turns up something good, premium it.

[QUOTE=Tim Henson;31244022]Ideally what you should do is make a bunch of free accounts and idle, then when one turns up something good, premium it.[/QUOTE] The only way one would turn up something good would be if it had Premium anyway. You just get common stuff with a free account. [editline]21st July 2011[/editline] Okay now, after switching my idle folder location to my C drive and reconfigured my sandbox setup to use the above method, but I now get this error whenever I try to start up (idle account's) steam: [img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/31693224/Tf2/Capture.PNG[/img] Help?

[QUOTE=jechtman;31244058]The only way one would turn up something good would be if it had Premium anyway. You just get common stuff with a free account. [editline]21st July 2011[/editline] Okay now, after switching my idle folder location to my C drive and reconfigured my sandbox setup to use the above method, but I now get this error whenever I try to start up (idle account's) steam: [img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/31693224/Tf2/Capture.PNG[/img] Help?[/QUOTE] What did you reconfigure? You get this error because you didn't add C to full access.

I have it all up and running fine, works great. I was wondering if anyone came across a simple solution to funding multiple accounts. I have 8 of them with items I want to dump to my main account, but was only able to get one of them upgraded due to the inability to use my card on more than 2 accounts.

[QUOTE=drlarry;31252640]I have it all up and running fine, works great. I was wondering if anyone came across a simple solution to funding multiple accounts. I have 8 of them with items I want to dump to my main account, but was only able to get one of them upgraded due to the inability to use my card on more than 2 accounts.[/QUOTE] Try buying TF2 as a gift for your alts from one account.

[QUOTE=Gurkenpirat;31257606]Try buying TF2 as a gift for your alts from one account.[/QUOTE] You can't.

[QUOTE=Gurkenpirat;31257606]Try buying TF2 as a gift for your alts from one account.[/QUOTE] You can't buy TF2 anymore unless you get the Valve Complete Pack or the Orange Box.

[QUOTE=Gurkenpirat;31257606]Try buying TF2 as a gift for your alts from one account.[/QUOTE] gifting doesn't work, it gives you the proof of purchase hat but doesn't upgrade your account to premium.

I thought someone said Valve added gifting by now.

[QUOTE=Gurkenpirat;31268495]I thought someone said Valve added gifting by now.[/QUOTE] I posted an email I made to Valve where Robin said they were [I]planning[/I] on adding it soon.

[QUOTE=Gurkenpirat;31246378]What did you reconfigure? You get this error because you didn't add C to full access.[/QUOTE] Yeah I found out the problem, had to add the proper steamapps directory. Working fine now.

Those batches didn't work for me, kept getting error "The system cannot find the file specified". After looking around on the steam support website and some other places, I found that this works if anyone else is having this problem: [quote] @ECHO OFF SET SteamLogin="[B]YOURUSERNAME[/B]" SET SteamPassword="[B]YOURPASSWORD[/B]" start "[B]WHATEVER YOU WANT AT ALL[/B]" /low "[B]PATH TO STEAM DIRECTORY[/B]" -login %SteamLogin% %SteamPassword% -applaunch 440 -textmode -novid -nosound -noipx -nojoy -nopreload -sw -width 640 -height 480 +map itemtest SET SteamLogin="" SET SteamPassword="" [/quote] Thanks for the tutorial.

[QUOTE=Geist9;31242697]So I tried making the .bat files for speediness in the startup of the farm, but I get this: [CODE]cmd.exe - Application Error The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142). Click OK to close the application.[/CODE] For all accounts that had to be sandbox'd. Here is what's inside my .bat to start all the tf2's [CODE]start C:\Idle\tlb_willc-idle.bat start C:\"Program Files"\Sandboxie\Start.exe /box:epicidleguy "C:\Idle\epicidleguy-idle.bat" start C:\"Program Files"\Sandboxie\Start.exe /box:idle4hatz "C:\Idle\idle4hatz-idle.bat"[/CODE][/QUOTE] Help?

[QUOTE=Geist9;31297587]Help?[/QUOTE] Mate I had the exact same problem. It seems in our case, cmd.exe is unwilling to open in a sandbox. This is when I realised cmd.exe did not need to be opened in a sandbox in the first place, use this batch instead: [CODE]start C:\"Program Files"\Sandboxie\Start.exe /box:BOX1 <STEAMFOLDER1>\Steam.exe -silent -login ACCOUNT1 ACCOUNT1PW start C:\"Program Files"\Sandboxie\Start.exe /box:BOX2 <STEAMFOLDER2>\Steam.exe -silent -login ACCOUNT2 ACCOUNT2PW start C:\"Program Files"\Sandboxie\Start.exe /box:BOX3 <STEAMFOLDER3>\Steam.exe -silent -login ACCOUNT3 ACCOUNT3PW[/CODE] Anyway, thanks a lot to Gurkenpirat, excellent tutorial and really helpful. And thanks to raBBish as well, great tip. Now even, after working around the above problem, I am now having another problem. Team Fortress 2 does not launch in textmode. I can see the process in task manager but nothing appears or happens. If I remove the -textmode parameter, it then works. When I do launch it without textmode, something I noticed is that the TF2 window title is " [#] Team Fortress 2 [#] ". The window title is simply " Team Fortress 2 " when launched normally, so something isn't right. Not sure what the problem is but I think it may be something to do with my Sandbox configuration. Any help would be appreciated. As for now I am idling in non textmode and it does not use that much more resources so I'm reasonable happy. I also had another idea which I wanted to contribute. Wouldn't it use less resources if you ran 1 dedicated server and x clients instead of x listen servers? I am currently doing this but have not actually tested/checked whether it uses less resources. [img]http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/6087/unled2pi.png[/img]

[QUOTE=TheIdler;31305478]Mate I had the exact same problem. It seems in our case, cmd.exe is unwilling to open in a sandbox. This is when I realised cmd.exe did not need to be opened in a sandbox in the first place, use this batch instead: [CODE]start C:\"Program Files"\Sandboxie\Start.exe /box:BOX1 <STEAMFOLDER1>\Steam.exe -silent -login ACCOUNT1 ACCOUNT1PW start C:\"Program Files"\Sandboxie\Start.exe /box:BOX2 <STEAMFOLDER2>\Steam.exe -silent -login ACCOUNT2 ACCOUNT2PW start C:\"Program Files"\Sandboxie\Start.exe /box:BOX3 <STEAMFOLDER3>\Steam.exe -silent -login ACCOUNT3 ACCOUNT3PW[/CODE] Anyway, thanks a lot to Gurkenpirat, excellent tutorial and really helpful. And thanks to raBBish as well, great tip. Now even, after working around the above problem, I am now having another problem. Team Fortress 2 does not launch in textmode. I can see the process in task manager but nothing appears or happens. If I remove the -textmode parameter, it then works. When I do launch it without textmode, something I noticed is that the TF2 window title is " [#] Team Fortress 2 [#] ". The window title is simply " Team Fortress 2 " when launched normally, so something isn't right. Not sure what the problem is but I think it may be something to do with my Sandbox configuration. Any help would be appreciated. As for now I am idling in non textmode and it does not use that much more resources so I'm reasonable happy. [/QUOTE] Thanks, working now. However I'm having the same problem as you. Also I think the [#][#]'s represent that it is indeed sandbox'd and working properly. Anyway the first TF2(non sandbox'd) starts up in textmode fine, then the other two don't do anything and only show up in task manager.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/HttUl.png[/IMG] Running one instance of TF2 in -textmode on my desktop consumes nearly 1GB of memory. Is there any way to limit this? On my laptop it averages around 500MB. [QUOTE=Ruskie;31265721]gifting doesn't work, it gives you the proof of purchase hat but doesn't upgrade your account to premium.[/QUOTE] It worked for me granted there was a near full day delay for premium to take effect.

[QUOTE=GreenDolphin;31321548][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/HttUl.png[/IMG] Running one instance of TF2 in -textmode on my desktop consumes nearly 1GB of memory. Is there any way to limit this? On my laptop it averages around 500MB. Try reducing all the graphical settings ingame to lowest and then textmode again? Mine is at 300mb. It worked for me granted there was a near full day delay for premium to take effect.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=jechtman;31322324]Try reducing all the graphical settings ingame to lowest and then textmode again? Mine is at 300mb.[/QUOTE] Thanks. I'm exactly at 400MB now.

[QUOTE=GreenDolphin;31323011]Thanks. I'm exactly at 400MB now.[/QUOTE] Disable the in-game overlay to save some more memory.

[QUOTE=GreenDolphin;31321548] It worked for me granted there was a near full day delay for premium to take effect.[/QUOTE] So gifting DOES work to get premium?

[QUOTE=Geist9;31327302]So gifting DOES work to get premium?[/QUOTE] Yes.

[QUOTE=TheIdler;31305478]Mate I had the exact same problem. It seems in our case, cmd.exe is unwilling to open in a sandbox. This is when I realised cmd.exe did not need to be opened in a sandbox in the first place, use this batch instead: [CODE]start C:\"Program Files"\Sandboxie\Start.exe /box:BOX1 <STEAMFOLDER1>\Steam.exe -silent -login ACCOUNT1 ACCOUNT1PW start C:\"Program Files"\Sandboxie\Start.exe /box:BOX2 <STEAMFOLDER2>\Steam.exe -silent -login ACCOUNT2 ACCOUNT2PW start C:\"Program Files"\Sandboxie\Start.exe /box:BOX3 <STEAMFOLDER3>\Steam.exe -silent -login ACCOUNT3 ACCOUNT3PW[/CODE] Anyway, thanks a lot to Gurkenpirat, excellent tutorial and really helpful. And thanks to raBBish as well, great tip. Now even, after working around the above problem, I am now having another problem. Team Fortress 2 does not launch in textmode. I can see the process in task manager but nothing appears or happens. If I remove the -textmode parameter, it then works. When I do launch it without textmode, something I noticed is that the TF2 window title is " [#] Team Fortress 2 [#] ". The window title is simply " Team Fortress 2 " when launched normally, so something isn't right. Not sure what the problem is but I think it may be something to do with my Sandbox configuration. Any help would be appreciated. As for now I am idling in non textmode and it does not use that much more resources so I'm reasonable happy. I also had another idea which I wanted to contribute. Wouldn't it use less resources if you ran 1 dedicated server and x clients instead of x listen servers? I am currently doing this but have not actually tested/checked whether it uses less resources. [img]http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/6087/unled2pi.png[/img][/QUOTE] Sorry can't help you with that but yeah [#] means it's sandboxed. I did some server testing and got mixed results but the memory usage didn't change most of the time so I'd say it isn't worth the effort.

[QUOTE]Step 4. Open cmd.exe as an administrator Step 5. Navigate into each Steam folder without steamapps and run the following: mklink /D steamapps <main steamapps path> For example: cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam mklink /D steamapps "D:\Games\Steam" Or if you didn't move steamapps: cd C:\Idle\Steam1 mklink /D steamapps "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps" Step 6. A shortcut should appear, named steamapps. Double-clicking it should show you the contents of the main steamapps folder. Step 7. You're done! Now you can run all the idle accounts while only maintaining a single steamapps folder[/QUOTE] All these steps are made outside sandboxie? The shortcut is permanent, I won't need to execute these steps again?

Brilliant, I've now set up a few more accounts for idling. I was having some issues setting up symbolic links to use the same steamapps folder but I figured out how to fix that in the end so if anybody else was having trouble there I suggest just restart your PC and try it again would be the easiest option to get that set up.

When trying to make the links to the steamapps folder i keep on getting a message saying i don't have privliges to do that. I'm administrator, and i cannot edit the permissions on the folder.

[QUOTE=Crimson Head;31396506]When trying to make the links to the steamapps folder i keep on getting a message saying i don't have privliges to do that. I'm administrator, and i cannot edit the permissions on the folder.[/QUOTE] Start CMD.exe as admin by typing cmd into the search bar and right clicking "Run as Administrator".

Well, now that seems obvious. Thanks. Edit: i'm also having problems making the bat files it works fine without the text to log in, but when i add the text to log into steam it just says that the file cannot be found

First off, great work on this thread. Yet I am having a slight problem. I can use Sandboxi to launch 2 Steam profiles, but I can not get both to run TF2. One will constantly validate the TF2 files and I'm not quite sure what to do about that (your suggestion didn't help out). Any help will be great!.