Re-enabling achievments guide [16.25]

[k-Knight]

This will be the guide on how to find the needle in the haystack, or, to put it simply, find 1 bit in your save file (level.dat).
Thanks to the post viewtopic.php?f=5&t=29709.

So, first of all, I want to explain how disabling achievements works in this game:

1. Create new freeplay game
2. Run a console command
3. Get your achievements disabled (profit, lel)

Game itself does so by setting 1 bit, thus disabling your achievements in the game and in order to remember that they were disabled it needs to include that bit in your save file too. Now when we know this, we can make 1 logical conclusion that b finding and setting that bit to 0 in a save file would re-enable our achievements. So now I am going to tell you how to do that exactly.

1. Load you game and say something in the game (using `), for instance, "achievements_plz"
2. Copy your save file and extract it form zip archive
3. Find file called "level.dat" and open it in Hex editor (Notepad++ plugin will do the trick just fine)
4. Search in ascii mode for exact thing that you typed in the game ("achievements_plz" in the example)
5. Find and set desired bit to 0
6. Save, add to zip archive, profit

Now I will show how I do step #5 in detail. What I did is I typed some command in the chat that would fail to execute. Then I searched my save file for "Cannot execute" (in your case it could me not the best idea, so type something unique).

step_4.png (35.92 KiB) Viewed 42943 times

What we need to do here is watch for those "01"s (that can indicate that some sort of the flag is set). As we can see we have several candidates here:

step_5_1.png (36.12 KiB) Viewed 42943 times

After manually trying different save file versions (each with different "01" set to "00") I found that this particular byte is in charge of re-enabling your achievements.

step_5_2.png (36.15 KiB) Viewed 42943 times

So here you go, enjoy. Game version used in this post is 16.25. In further versions the method of finding this bit may change if devs decide to move it elsewhere.

[zytukin]

Does loading the save in a different install of the game no longer work?

[infality]

It worked for me on 16.30.
On saves with a few hours in you have to go to the start of the chat history (I found it by searching my name).
Before the beginning you should see at least two "01"s next to each other. One is for the achievements and the one to the right of it is for the warning.
In my case it was 01 01 01 01 and I had to try out which pair it was (it was the middle one).

[Gergely]

I know one thing that would make it much harder to find such an exploit.

Should I say it?

Never mind, now that it is discovered, it would be hard to hide that flag again. It sucks really. Now people gonna go and ruin the achievement statistics.

Just WHYTHEHELLDOYOUDOTHIS?!

[steinio]

I know one thing that would make it much harder to find such an exploit.

Should I say it?

Never mind, now that it is discovered, it would be hard to hide that flag again. It sucks really. Now people gonna go and ruin the achievement statistics.

Just WHYTHEHELLDOYOUDOTHIS?!

LOL. There are easier ways as using console commands and hexing it away afterwards. You may look at my posts.

[featherwinglove]

I had in one of my games, achievements disabled because I was using a screenshot mod that could only be activated using console commands. It had no effect at all on the gameplay. It wasn't like I wasn't already "cheating", as it was one of very few of 67 mods in the pack that didn't affect gameplay. Another, EvoGUI, exposed information that you can't get without console commands in vanilla and displayed it only the screen constantly.

Anyway, people farming achievements on Steam for profit and/or pleasure are probably not going to be interested in Factorio for a variety of reasons. There are a group of Factorio players who don't do anything with Steam - I'll lead the charge since I loathe Steam to such an extent that if it were to suddenly come out in the news that Valve had filed for bankruptcy, I'd probably throw a party within an hour.

[Gergely]

I had in one of my games, achievements disabled because I was using a screenshot mod that could only be activated using console commands.

If you have Factorio on steam, you can use F12 (by default) to take screenshots and that does not disable achievements.

If you don't have the steam version, you can still register a shortcut to enable steam API in your game which will (again) enable taking screenshots with zero effect on the game. No DRM required.

Otherwise, (in windows at least) you can always press "prnt scr" on your keyboard to copy the screen onto your clipboard. Which you can then paste into and save with virtually any paint or plane graphics editor software.

All three methods ignore your mouse cursor.

[featherwinglove]

I had in one of my games, achievements disabled because I was using a screenshot mod that could only be activated using console commands.

If you have Factorio on steam, you can use F12 (by default) to take screenshots and that does not disable achievements.

That's not how to take tremendously zoomed out over-sampled GUI-less captures of your base centered on a particular spot rather than your character. And do so automatically at regular intervals. I had need.

[Gergely]

I had in one of my games, achievements disabled because I was using a screenshot mod that could only be activated using console commands.

If you have Factorio on steam, you can use F12 (by default) to take screenshots and that does not disable achievements.

That's not how to take tremendously zoomed out over-sampled GUI-less captures of your base centered on a particular spot rather than your character. And do so automatically at regular intervals. I had need.

Oh wow. Is there a need for that? My bad. There probably is. I can still offer several solutions to your "very specific problem". The game can't appeal to everyone at the same time.
-Use a second player on another computer. Set up a script robot that presses steam's screenshot button at fixed intervals, zoomed out.
-Set up more than 3 auto saves. Make the game save up to 50-100 different saves of your game (instead of 3) at those fixed intervals. Then, use a mod to take a screenshot of every save. (Official method!)
-Set up a timer on your computer or any smart device that warns you at fixed intervals to take a zoomed out screenshot.
-Forget about achievements, because entertaining people is more important to you than random flags on steam's server, or in your local files.

Are you done arguing?

By the way, you were clearly using mods to do stuff in the link you gave me. In the case you want to get modded achievements, there is a final solution:
-Modify the screenshot mod so that it does not need a command to be activated, and works automatically.

Do not try to justify something that is seen as cheating by the game's rules.

[kitty-dragon]

Do not try to justify something that is seen as cheating by the game's rules.

As far as making screenshots is concerned, I'd use common sense over "game's rules".

Personally, I use console commands once in a while to debug circuit networks and such. Usually it isn't a problem, since I can save game and load it back when I'm done. But I can easily imagine a situation where I end up with a wrong save by accident.

[Gergely]

Do not try to justify something that is seen as cheating by the game's rules.

As far as making screenshots is concerned, I'd use common sense over "game's rules".

I could argue the same way over many many games that have simple convenient features missing. And most of those games lack the mod support to even let people add those features.

Personally, I use console commands once in a while to debug circuit networks and such. Usually it isn't a problem, since I can save game and load it back when I'm done. But I can easily imagine a situation where I end up with a wrong save by accident.

Since console commands are not intended to be used during normal game play at all, I think it is still your fault for taking the risk of disabling achievements. You can blueprint your circuit network setups from a save with achievements disabled, and use them in your actual save. Less risky as far as I am concerned.

[fiery_salmon]

Do not try to justify something that is seen as cheating by the game's rules.

Why you care about whatever people get or do not get achievements in a single player game? It is basically flipping bits. I can easily set directly all achievements as done - what would be changed?

[Gergely]

Why you care about whatever people get or do not get achievements in a single player game? It is basically flipping bits. I can easily set directly all achievements as done.

I know more than a single method to get achievements without actually earning them. That's not the problem. I am a programmer. I understand that flipping a single bit can have major effects. For a lot of paid software, flipping a single bit in their files can gap the difference between the "purchased" and the "trial period" states. In that case, a lot of money is on the line. So yeah... a single bit can be very important. And it brings along the frustration of constantly trying to hide it. It is always a game of cat and mouse. But even then, as long as money (or something personal) is not on the line, there is no reason to side with the mouse. (AKA: this topic's header)

What would be changed?

I tell you: The statistics would be changed. If people start to cheat achievements for themselves, the statistics on steam would lose their purpose.

[nevniv]

I don't really think achievement statistics have any purpose as it is. Same goes for those trading cards, I have never met someone who actually admits they buy those things but the people are out there somewhere..

My enjoyment with achievements comes from achieving some arbitrary objective like not using solar power. Sure, I could come up with these myself but my lack of an imagination gets in the way. I don't get any joy out of having higher achievement scores than other people. Feels like an e-peen war with strangers on the internet.

That's just my opinion, though, everyone has their own.

At the same time, I also don't think it should be advertised that it is this easy to re-enable achievements. But, the game also should warn you that you are going to disable achievements when you run a console command. I got burned for checking evolution the wrong way one time.

[radgeRayden]

I thought any mods at all would disable achievements, is that not the case?

[Jap2.0]

I thought any mods at all would disable achievements, is that not the case?

In-game, you have modded achievements (which is what you get with mods) and unmodded achievements (which you get without mods, and sync to Steam).

[Gergely]

But, the game also should warn you that you are going to disable achievements when you run a console command..

The game does warn you when you try it. Though I criticized that fact once, I mostly agree to it now because it stopped being a problem to me.

I got burned for checking evolution the wrong way one time.

I am starting to lose it.

What makes it so common for people to accidentally enter a console command AND then accidentally SAVE it?! There is a warning!! A warning that appears in time to stop you. I just don't get it.

[fiery_salmon]

What makes it so common for people to accidentally enter a console command AND then accidentally SAVE it?! There is a warning!! A warning that appears in time to stop you. I just don't get it.

People are extremely proficient at ignoring warnings, informations, messages, errors etc.

[orzelek]

What makes it so common for people to accidentally enter a console command AND then accidentally SAVE it?! There is a warning!! A warning that appears in time to stop you. I just don't get it.

People are extremely proficient at ignoring warnings, informations, messages, errors etc.

You forgot about tutorials.... and sadly it's true.
Altho how you can repeat the command after it didn't work without reading message on screen I don't get.

[nevniv]

But, the game also should warn you that you are going to disable achievements when you run a console command..

The game does warn you when you try it. Though I criticized that fact once, I mostly agree to it now because it stopped being a problem to me.

I got burned for checking evolution the wrong way one time.

I am starting to lose it.

What makes it so common for people to accidentally enter a console command AND then accidentally SAVE it?! There is a warning!! A warning that appears in time to stop you. I just don't get it.

u mad bro?

It was years ago, maybe it warned me and I reloaded the save, who knows. I don't really care, it was just a suggestion of apparently something that is or was already implemented.