Factorio Forums

That's the question: Can I disable biters but keep Steam achievements enabled?

Some achievements get disabled, but not all. Achievements are map specific, so it's very easy to create some map with your customized settings, then click on the Achievements category at the top of the minimap and see what shows up. All the red achievements are disabled for this map and you also see why they're disabled.

Hint: almost any change on the Enemies tab will disable many achievements. However, changing the size of the starting area doesn't. So increase the size of the starting area to 600% and keep everything else enemy-related at default. This will not disable any achievements but give you much room and time without enemy interaction.

> Achievements are map specific, so it's very easy to create some map with your customized settings, then click on the Achievements category at the top of the minimap and see what shows up.

I know that. But you can also enable mods and have achievements, no? But that disables Steam achievements.

Can you tell me with certainty, that this will not be the case for any achievements that are enabled in a map?

If you want achievements in steam, you have to play vanilla, without any mod.
Certain achievements (the speedrunning ones,...) are disabled if you disable biters or modify other map generation settings. Those rules apply with or without mods. Check the wiki for details: https://wiki.factorio.com/Achievements

I don't know what exactly you're asking, but you will never permanently disable achievements if you once use a mod or a non standard setting. If you load a map with some mod, or a map that once contained a mod, new achievements on this map are not unlocked on steam any more. Existing achievements will stay. But if after using a modded map you load a different map that never contained a mod, this map can still unlock any steam achievement, no matter what maps you had previously.

There is no global flag that says something like: "on this computer/on this account, stop achievements globally". Instead, just start a fresh map with no mods/no setting changes, and you will be able to unlock pending steam achievements again.

Apart making ore patches and starting arena bigger, you can reduce pollution spread to 0, and achievements will still work. Butt bitters will never attack (unless you go to them or they expand)