Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Add an "Achievement mode" which restricts certain gameplay aspects in order to make sure achievements reflect the current player's actions.

What?

Add a selection during map gen to "Enable Achievements" which would do something like the following:
* no external blueprints - start without global blueprint book and no imports allowed
* default settings only (or at least restrict what can be changed while keeping achievements - predefined modes only?)
* no map previews / hidden map seed
* single save only - like eu4 does. No save scumming
* No mods except dev-approved non-game changing mods (this is more or less done with steam achievements already)

Tangential suggestion to add some interesting additional achievements due to the existence of achievement mode:
* add a win the game without dying achievement - obvious sub-achievements to escape nauvis without dying / etc.
* add achievement for earning all achievements in a single playthrough

Why?

This originally came up in response to a question of "how would you improve factorio for those who find it too easy." After some thought, I wanted to bring the suggestion over here for consideration to actually happen. I have long found some things with achievements baffling - prime example the ability to earn them with an external blueprint. IMHO, achievements should reflect work and ... well, achievement by the player themselves. So I would like to propose the addition of a way to make achievements more meaningful to the player

I 100% don't think the base game should be changed for casual players. I think it's balanced very well, and the devs have done a bang-up job, as usual. But I do think that restricting achievements to those earned by the player themselves without importing a base / etc. would make them mean more / be more impactful. My two best experiences with factorio are my 100% achievement run - which I failed the first time by 10 minutes, and running with seablock (Yeah, I like a challenge!). But overcoming that was an even better experience than the ability to load an hour old save and just tweak a couple things.

Anyways, interested what the community thinks about the idea. I didn't see it in any searches for achievements, so sorry if this overlaps an old suggestion. I at least couldn't find it when I looked.

why no external BPs? i can just search up stuff and rebuild it from picture
why single save? how that would even work
why even apply restriction to per save achievement when they mean nothing but that you did something on that specific save

achievement for all achievements in a single run kinda fun

No need to add anything of this to the game. If someone want challenge they can always go to speedrun.com, which already has much more refined rule sets for factorio.

-1. -2, even. I don't want anything like this, to impose artificial challenge on me, the player, when I can enforce it on myself if I want to. Sounds like a challenge you can do by yourself though!

I feel like i answered some of the why above, but…

Why no external blueprints? Because earning achievements with external blueprints doesn’t reflect your work and understanding.

Why single save? Because the existing time based achievements actually matter when you can’t save scum.

Why no map previews? Because customizing your base to a fixed environment lets you re roll infinitely for a map that trivializes the achievements.

I’m not saying any of these should be set by default - nor that they be forced on anyone. Only that earning achievements be linked to them. Obviously some details in the restrictions might change, though the one i really feel must be in there is the blueprint one.

Do you truly feel it is justified to be earning achievements by pasting down someone else’s base? I honestly dont get why you think that’s a good thing…. Maybe you can educate me.

evandy wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2024 12:09 pm Why no external blueprints? Because earning achievements with external blueprints doesn’t reflect your work and understanding.

The way this reads it sounds like it would also lock out using my own blueprints if I didn't make them in that save. Also, nothing stops me from copying a build by hand if I wanted to.

Why single save? Because the existing time based achievements actually matter when you can’t save scum.

Segmented speedruns are a perfectly valid approach.

Why no map previews? Because customizing your base to a fixed environment lets you re roll infinitely for a map that trivializes the achievements.

This wouldn't stop rerolling for a favorable start. It only slows it down.

Do you truly feel it is justified to be earning achievements by pasting down someone else’s base? I honestly dont get why you think that’s a good thing…. Maybe you can educate me.

This whole idea gives off a feel of "If you don't play in exactly the way I want you to, you don't deserve to get achievements". One of Factorio's strengths is that it accommodates a wide range of player types and playstyles thanks to the options it gives to those players. Certain achievements already get locked out if you change some settings in certain directions. There's no need to apply a blanket "Achievements can only be earned with this /exact/ configuration" to all of them.

evandy wrote: ↑Tue Dec 03, 2024 10:46 pm * single save only - like eu4 does. No save scumming

I've never figured out why people think having multiple saves in Factorio is "save-scumming."

The game could've been designed not to allow multiple saves. It wasn't.

So what's the issue with having multiple saves?