Re-enabling achievments guide [16.25]

[Gergely]

u mad bro?

I'm not your bro.

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.

It's people's fault then. You can burn down a forest accidentally because you was never told that fire spreads.

However, trying to cheat back the ability to earn achievements is ... well an even worse form of cheating. This guide literally gives users a method to cheat achievements for themselves. You see why this was never intended?

[nevniv]

I don't think I'm your audience here bro, although I stated I don't care much about achievement stats, I also that I don't think it should be advertised that it is this easy to re-enable achievements.

Might want to redirect your discontent to a mod that can take this thread down if it's really raining on your parade. Life will definitely go on for me

[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.

Oh wow. Is there a need for that? My bad. ... Are you done arguing?

You get butthurt far too easily. I'm providing this opinion as a data point if you find yourself having relational problems which are hard to diagnose.

I have never met someone who actually admits they buy those things but the people are out there somewhere..

Mostly bots from what I've heard, and that it is this automated trading card mining that has driven Steam to be overrun by asset flips and other low-quality junk. Since Steam is the only platform where achievements are recorded outside the game, and its credibility in achievement tracking has been effectively destroyed by this phenomenon (and also many of the low-quality junk games driving their sales by "achievement farming" to feed those players seeking to expand their medal rack on Steam), there is really no point in disabling achievements. I think the best compromise is to mark any game in which a console command is used as "modded" in the vanilla installation. This would have precisely zero effect on me as I have no interest in using console commands unless I'm modding already. I'm also the wrong person to test the feature since I've been staying as far away from Steam as possible since two years before Greenlight became a thing.

About the only field wherein the achievement system becomes important is 100% speedruns, and since I know pretty close to nothing about how 100% speedruns are verified, I don't even know how important (i.e. it is very likely that new 100% WRs are desk checked to make sure that the game conditions for an achievement have actually been achieved and that the in-game bit, display, or even the announcement in a video stream are taken with a grain of salt until this has been done.)

[zOldBulldog]

TBH I think it is pretty stupid to disable achievements for using commands in single player, especially trivial commands like playing with day time only settings and the like, when most achievements stay on even if you set the game to Peaceful from the beginning.

Based on what I see I bet that disabling achievements for using commands was the devs early thinking and that the current plan is to disable only certain achievements for certain settings, but that they have not yet got to it.

[Gergely]

TBH I think it is pretty stupid to disable achievements for using commands in single player, especially trivial commands like playing with day time only settings and the like, when most achievements stay on even if you set the game to Peaceful from the beginning..

Following your logic, I can conclude that achievements should not exist at all. If everyone could get them with the same strength, what is their purpose?

[zOldBulldog]

TBH I think it is pretty stupid to disable achievements for using commands in single player, especially trivial commands like playing with day time only settings and the like, when most achievements stay on even if you set the game to Peaceful from the beginning..

Following your logic, I can conclude that achievements should not exist at all. If everyone could get them with the same strength, what is their purpose?

I don't think you followed my logic. I'm saying:

(1) With few exceptions (I think it is 4 of the achievements), if you tweak a setting during map generation, achievements stay on.

(2) Tweak that exact same setting in the console, achievements get disabled. Use any command that doesn't impact gameplay at all... and also achievements get disabled.

That inconsistency is what doesn't make sense to me. And why my guess is that they devs aren't done with it.

[Gergely]

I don't think you followed my logic. I'm saying:

(1) With few exceptions (I think it is 4 of the achievements), if you tweak a setting during map generation, achievements stay on.

(2) Tweak that exact same setting in the console, achievements get disabled.

That inconsistency is what doesn't make sense to me. And why my guess is that they devs aren't done with it.

That is because the game has no way to determine what you do with a "/c" command. No one has ever written an algorithm that takes a lua script and determines if it does things that fall within a certain category without actually executing the script and finishing execution. This is the infamous halting problem. (Also, it's not about determining what a script calls, because it can crash the game without even calling anything)

Code: Select all

/c while true do end

(It is proven, that you can never write an algorithm that determines whether or not this one ever stops...)
Before running any console command, the game sets the flag because it is nearly impossible to determine what is the command's purpose. That is neither the game's nor the developer's fault.
Oh, by the way, by making printing out variables not count as cheating, you can still get an unfair advantage by printing whether or not biters are within a specified radius.
As a programmer, you are forced to patch in those loop holes by defining rules that do not permit anything that could potentially be cheating. And since your program cannot be sure about this at all, you have to forbid it if you want a fair game.

Use any command that doesn't impact gameplay at all... and also achievements get disabled.

This statement is false. I can safely check the evolution factor of the enemy force and avoid setting the flag. Same for setting the color of the player.

Also, excuses like "common sense" do not apply here. This is the world of computing.

[nevniv]

Yeah, common sense would be if this thread died.

[zOldBulldog]

LOL gergerly. Chill out.

I am a programmer and have been for a very long time. If I got a penny for every time someone told me that something can't be done and I proved them wrong by doing it, I'd be very rich.

If the game has no way to determine something, it isn't that it can't be done, just that it hasn't been done "yet". It is just a matter of willingness or priorities. Sooner or later they will get to it.

In the particular case of console commands it would be a very simple matter of parsing the command, comparing with a list of "acceptable commands" and if it is one of those *not disable*. Of course any other command would still default to disabling the achievements.

BTW, common sense not only applies to computing, it is Paramount to any good application. Any developer that ignores common sense is doomed to failure and deserves it. Based on what I see of factorio, they are pretty good developers and that *do* listen to common sense. The only likely reasons to temporarily ignore it are usually competing priorities and pressures from marketing and management when they want something done before it is reasonable to do it right.

[fiery_salmon]

It is not changing that your answer is true, but...

Code: Select all

/c while true do end

(It is proven, that you can never write an algorithm that determines whether or not this one ever stops...)

You can write an algorithm that determines whether or not some type of programs halts (and in this case it is quite simple).

"Halting problem" is about determining it for any input program - and it is really impossible.

[featherwinglove]

I think the best compromise is to mark any game in which a console command is used as "modded" in the vanilla installation.

Is this not a good idea?

[Gergely]

I think the best compromise is to mark any game in which a console command is used as "modded" in the vanilla installation.

Is this not a good idea?

This is a good idea. I agree.

[zOldBulldog]

I joined the criminal cabal that re-enabled achievements. My heinous crime was to pick the wrong settings at generation and then to use the command line to set one or two of them to what they should have been since generation. Oh horror!

I think the easiest (and maybe most reliable) method to reset the "you executed a command and thus we'll treat you like scum " flag is the oldest I've seen recommended and it still works on 0.16:

- In game type an invalid command, like "/c Factorio is great!".
- Save the game.
- Exit the game.
- Make a copy of the save file just in case you mess up.
- Open the zip, then the file mentioned in the thread with a Hex editor. I used HxD, my thanks to the person that recommended it.
- Search for the string you typed.
- Look up a few lines (about 2 to 10 lines) and you will see half a dozen to a dozen values in sequence that are all 00 or 01. That is the general area you want. It should be fairly obvious because it is the only such long sequence of 00 and 01.
- Here is where trial and error comes, you will try by changing one of those 01 to 00 at a time. I got lucky, for me it was the first one.
- After each change, save the file, reinsert it into the zip, place the zip where the original game save file was, start the game and click on Achievements to see if it got re-enabled.
- If you found the right one... make a new save and enjoy... you are done.
- If you didn't, get a fresh copy of the file from your backup (you made one, right?!!!) and repeat, this time with the next 01... and so on.

I hope that helps those still suffering through the problem.

Woof!

[varaco]

Used a program called HxD, I looked for the 00/01 bits right above the comment I typed after using cheats and I can confirm this still works with the latest version

[Hannu]

Following your logic, I can conclude that achievements should not exist at all. If everyone could get them with the same strength, what is their purpose?

They are entertaining for many players themselves. Achievements give some idea how good I am compared to some average level. They may also hint that there are different ways to play and get different things or give a feeling that L made something right But they are not purposed to be evidence of competitive abilities. Most achievement systems can be hacked and unfortunately there are always people who want to hack them. Therefore competitions have rules and ways to referee if players obey them or not. But in my opinion it is not reason to forbid achievements from all (even I do not personally care them, for me it is more important to use commands for quality of life purposes and avoid long tedious tasks (for example clear all biters from map when I make large expansion, someone may think it is "cheating") than get official confirmation I have achieved some artificial goal predefined by someone else). You should just not take them so seriously.

[Hornwitser]

There was a time when I cared deeply for my achievements. But then one day I joined a multiplayer server and a saw a couple of them just fly by me without ever giving me the chance to earn them (yes this was before the time limit was introduced.) It left a sour taste. Some time later I finished the game earning the Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast, Steam all the way, Raining bullets, Logistics network embargo, and Lazy bastard achievements at once (at 4:20am, no less.) But the sour taste was still there.

Just because you follow the rules, it doesn't mean you get the best experience out of the game.