Why achievements freakout?

[PwnedDuck]

Let me firstly make something clear: I am not asking for achievements, nor do I care whether they are in the game.

That said, I am a little curious why every time "progress records" or "achievements" are mentioned by the devs there is a hasty qualifier that these are 'not even slightly' like steam achievements. Steam achievements are also mentioned on the wiki as being something that will not be implemented. I don't care if they are, but I honestly do not see them as bad, and when I play other games, all achievements do to me is perhaps make me chuckle if and when they appear, provided they are interesting or funny. Both this reaction, and other people viewing them as minor challenges to achieve seem to me to be positive reactions, so I can't help but wonder why the opposition to them is so strenuous.

Edited July 14, 2013 by PwnedDuck

[Scotius]

Probably to avoid posts like this:" I crashed 100 probes into the Mun, and you only 80. I pwn u n00b!!111lol!!!11"

[neurotoxin]

I recall reading somewhere that squad doesn't want to release features that will only be available to a select set of customers (in this case that would be steam customers). Not that that's the whole reasoning behind it but I'm sure it has a part to play in that decision.

[regex]

Some people want and need artificial goals which, to me at least, defeats the purpose of a sandbox game. I think SQUAD may have a similar mindset regarding achievements.

[Themohawkninja]

I recall reading somewhere that squad doesn't want to release features that will only be available to a select set of customers (in this case that would be steam customers). Not that that's the whole reasoning behind it but I'm sure it has a part to play in that decision.

They could just code their own achievement system that is independent of what the game is played on.

[Juanfro]

Squad doesn't want us to play with achievements in mind. If you reach the Mün for the first time you should be happy because it is an awesome step, not because you get a message. They also don't want achievements like "first launch", "you have reached 15000 m/s" or "Kerbal Puffer: you have smashed 500 kerbals on the ground"

I think the game is good as it it and achievements would spoil the value of many great moments.

[Themohawkninja]

To be honest, I don't see what is so bad either. Achievement systems add goals to the game, and things to do when you get bored, not to mention it gives the devs a chance to make all the silly puns, and references they can think of.

[Epthelyn]

Whilst we have Sandbox only: No need for achievements. The whole idea is that people make their own (or go to Challenges on KSP forums )

When Career mode is released: Goals would be required to make career mode...careery. Then Squad can add achievements to career mode only to avoid making many many people very very unhappy for no real reason.

I honestly can't see what the fuss is about. Achievements providing no ingame bonuses are there simply for aesthetics and bragging rights. You can ignore them if you want to, and people can equally ignore you talking about them

[magnemoe]

To be honest, I don't see what is so bad either. Achievement systems add goals to the game, and things to do when you get bored, not to mention it gives the devs a chance to make all the silly puns, and references they can think of.

One reason for achievements is to get an clue on the skill level of the player base, is the majority struggling with landing on Mun or is the majority busy building cities on Laythe.

The forum is mostly for the hardcore fans and don't give good measurements.

[Scotius]

Then incorporate mission ribbons into the game. That i don't mind.

[Kimberly]

One reason for achievements is to get an clue on the skill level of the player base, is the majority struggling with landing on Mun or is the majority busy building cities on Laythe.

The forum is mostly for the hardcore fans and don't give good measurements.

You don't need achievements to collect statistics about play, surely.

[stupid_chris]

It's not just a question of if achievements are acceptable, it's more "what will it bring to the game?" Adding goals? Well in sandbox there's no goal really, so what would the achievements look like? Break ten landing legs? I don't know, but to me achievements in sandbox games are usually pretty useless. It's like in Minecraft, who hunts for achievements? If you set yourself on a quest of killing the Ender Dragon, it's certainly not for the achievement. And in career, the goals would simply be to fulfill your contracts and you know do your stuff. So what then, you get an achievement when you finish a particular contract? Again I don't see the utility of adding them there, completing the jobs will already be in accomplishment in itself. I'm not against them, I just don't see the point and think it would grudge up on development time for nothing. But whatever wags your dolphin I guess.

[Sir Nahme]

They add the disclaimer so they don't get eaten by a ravenous pack of steam-haters

[NovaSilisko]

Achievements if added certainly wouldn't be "do X 100 times". That's just dumb. They would be more actual, you know, achievements. "Get into space" "Get into orbit" "Land on the mun" etc.

[Scotius]

Y'know, the more i think about it an idea of some sort of trophy system seems more appealing. Just a trophy case somewhere in Mission Control building or Kerbonaut Complex showing mission patches or ribbons. Not so i could gloat on the forum, just for my own satisfaction. Any of you remember trophies hanging in your cabin in X-Wing Alliance? I loved it.

[stupid_chris]

Achievements if added certainly wouldn't be "do X 100 times". That's just dumb. They would be more actual, you know, achievements. "Get into space" "Get into orbit" "Land on the mun" etc.

Nova to the rescue, as always That's nice to know, one thing less I'll have to worry about when going to bed

Edit:

Y'know, the more i think about it an idea of some sort of trophy system seems more appealing. Just a trophy case somewhere in Mission Control building or Kerbonaut Complex showing mission patches or ribbons. Not so i could gloat on the forum, just for my own satisfaction. Any of you remember trophies hanging in your cabin in X-Wing Alliance? I loved it.

This genuinely sounds like a pretty good idea actually.

[Themohawkninja]

It's not just a question of if achievements are acceptable, it's more "what will it bring to the game?" Adding goals? Well in sandbox there's no goal really, so what would the achievements look like? Break ten landing legs? I don't know, but to me achievements in sandbox games are usually pretty useless. It's like in Minecraft, who hunts for achievements? If you set yourself on a quest of killing the Ender Dragon, it's certainly not for the achievement. And in career, the goals would simply be to fulfill your contracts and you know do your stuff. So what then, you get an achievement when you finish a particular contract? Again I don't see the utility of adding them there, completing the jobs will already be in accomplishment in itself. I'm not against them, I just don't see the point and think it would grudge up on development time for nothing. But whatever wags your dolphin I guess.

Achievements are heavily bugged in Minecraft, and they are only there to show what you can do in the game (Minecraft's are used as a tutorial of sorts). KSP's would be more along the lines of "land a probe/rover/Kerbal on the <insert body here>." Perhaps "Put X tonnes into orbit around Kerbin" to encourage docking. Unlike Minecraft, KSP will have a Career mode, and as such, achievements could be: "Complete mission X without spending more than Y currency units".

EDIT: Ninja'd by a dev who said just what I suspected... yeah...

[KWilkiePJ]

The more I think about achievements in the game, I wonder, the beauty of the game is that you define your own achievements and goals in sandbox mode. I would like to see some sort of customisable "mission patch" system added to the game. The idea being that its your space program, you define the goals and objectives. The could be facilitated through a mission control building or something similar, where you can create different sub programs within your main space program (thinking of Gemini and Apollo here as reference) each with a subset of goals, each defined unique to the individual. Mission patch designer could allow people to create there own mission badges that then get displayed within the Mission control screen for example. The same could apply to career mode, where you have to do the missions in sequence to "Learn" how to advance to the next phase through these sub programs.

This has probably been suggested before and probably many times, but it would certainly be something that would appeal to me.