First thing I'd do is go to the store page for all three of those games (make sure you're logged in to the Web site, or go there in the Steam client); in the trading cards section it'll tell you if you have drops left.

If so, and you really do need to target a specific game for some reason, there's a standalone executable in the distribution called "steam-idle" that'll idle until you manually stop it. I'm not sure exactly what the command line would be if you're using the MS Windows install, but it's in there somewhere. I think there's docs on how to do it on the Web site. You can get the game ID number by looking at the URL on the store page, it's the number right after "http://psteamproxy.yuanyoumao.com/app/":

In the UNIX/Python version, you can run these to idle Arma 3, Speedrunners, and Super Meat Boy respectively (you have to do them one at a time):


Good luck!

I think I've done enough testing and trial-and-error now to say that this problem is definitely caused by logging in a second time (i.e. with a Web browser, or probably also with a Steam client other than the one IM is piggy-backing off). That's not to say it couldn't also be network issues (there could be two causes of the same symptom), but from my experimentation it's safe to say that a second login will eventually knock IM off (presumably when its session cookie expires, it goes to get a new one, and finds out it's been superseded somehow by your newer login).

Ultimately, that may not be a solvable problem. If Valve's backend is revoking its authentication token for whatever reason, the only way IM could recover would be if it stored your Steam username and password locally in its own memory (at which point it could conceivably re-submit the login form for you). I could see where that's a direction the author may not want to go, just to avoid the inevitable "I saved my password in IM and three days later my credit card got stolen" stuff.

More data!

I noticed that I didn't have the problem for a couple or three days, and I thought maybe you'd fixed it and IM had auto-updated itself via this weird one-click whatever it is. But tonight I've come home and it's hung again. Now, it could always be coincidence, but given how clockwork it's been up to now...

I can tell you, the one thing that changed over the last few days is that I didn't log in to the Steam Web site while I was at work these last two days. Generally-speaking, I pretty much always take a look at Steam (the Web site) at least once while I'm there -- funny enough, lately one of the reasons I've been doing it every day is to keep a handle on the incoming trading cards.

Could this be some kind of session deal where I'm timing out a token when I log in to the Web site from a different machine?

Chizu: Yeah, overall this is not a hard problem to solve manually; I figured if it'd take five minutes to write something like "for game in games do if playtime < 5m then idle 5m done" then it'd be worth it, but other than that, yeah...I'm certainly not writing so many reviews for games that I haven't got 5 minutes of Steam play time on, that it's a catastrophe to do it manually.

Ursprungligen skrivet av jshackles:

I've identified the issue that causes this, and I'm working on a fix. It can happen when Idle Master checks the card drop status and has an issue connecting to Steam's servers. It could be an issue with your internet connection or with Steam's. Hopefully I'll have a solution for this soon.

I think I may have a new data point that contradicts this. I just came home to a cycling Idle Master (as I do every day...not complaining, just giving historical data) and when I clicked on the "advance to next game" button, it did correctly identify the next game and start idling in it (my "In Game" status changed to reflect the new game) but it immediately went back to hanging on the timer. When it initially switched, it started counting down from 15:00 but I clicked the "check now" link and that's when it hung on 0:00.

Also, whereas I used to be able to simply pause and resume to "un-stick" IM, I now have to quit completely out and restart (just IM, not Steam or the computer).

Hey, look on the bright side...if somebody gives you grief for having 27 hours played in HuniePop, you can blame IdleMaster!

Actually, I've been monitoring remotely (by refreshing my "recently played" list :P) and it looks like this time it stalled out after three instead of eight. Looks like you win this round, jshackles! *shakes fist*

OK, another largely-anecdotal data point; I've seen this happen three times now, and this time it's again hung on the 8th one. I'm beginning to wonder if it's been eight times every time and I just miscounted when I thought it was seven. You're not using a three-bit storage location to hold a counter, are you? :D

Ah, right on; yeah, if it's that much work then definitely don't bother (not that you needed my permission :P). Thanks for looking into it!

Ursprungligen skrivet av Sepioth:

There was a way posted somewhere back about how to idle any game you want. The subject was about padding game time.

Yeah, I'm aware of that ("steam-idle.exe <appID>"). That doesn't fit my need very well as it would require me to manually identify the list and run the command manually for each one; similar to the problem that IM in its current form solves for the trading cards.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Sepioth:

Having this as an actual feature is not what this program was meant to do so I do not ever see it getting added to IM.

Not saying you're wrong, but...with all due respect, I think I'll wait for the dev to tell me that. :)

Ursprungligen skrivet av Sepioth:

But if all it requires to review a game is you have 5 mins on the play timer then why can't you just run it for a few mins before reviewing it.

Yup, obviously this is not nearly as much of a gotcha as idling for the cards. I just figured it'd be nice to have if the dev saw it and it was a quick enough feature to just knock out.

Understand that I don't mean this in a mean way, but...the fact that I want a feature makes it a valid feature request, regardless of whether you or anyone else agrees. :) Of course that doesn't mean the dev is under any obligation to _implement_ the request.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Sepioth:

To actually give a good honest review one would actually need to download and play the game. I would think it would take at least 5 mins of play time to even consider a point of view on a game.

Oh yeah, for sure. This would just help with corner cases where I've played the game before (outside of Steam), or if the reason I want to give a review is because the thing crashes to desktop every time it tries to start, etc.

Again, not specifically disagreeing with any of your points per se...and I'm not saying it's a huge deal to work around. Just a thought that if it's easy enough and quick enough to do, it would come in handy sometimes for me and probably a few others.