Achievements possibly coming to KSP

[Norpo]

2 hours ago, SQUAD said:

Work on our upcoming console releases has continued strongly as well, and Dan (danRosas) has been busy making graphics for an achievement system. We’re looking into the possibility of porting that over to the current platforms as well. As you might know the game already tracks your achievements internally and uses this data to do things such as selecting new contracts for you. Let us know what you think.

(quote from devnotes here, emphasis mine)

Graphics are being worked on for an achievement system, currently for consoles (it seems), though the achievements may be ported to the PC versions as well.

What do you think? Do you think adding achievements to the PC version is a good idea, or do you think they would take away from the games experience/immersion/charm? Do you have any ideas for achievements you'd like to see?

I think an achievement system; if well implemented and with good, interesting achievements (not "recover 1,000 pieces of debris") would add a lot to the game, helping add early goals and progress indicators for new players, and add interesting challenges for experts.

[Guest]

Waste of dev time IMO and will make zero impact on how I play.  Besides, not like I use Steam for anything other than a delivery method in regards to KSP...

[cyberpawn]

achievement system for steam? yes please!!!

[AbacusWizard]

We already have an achievement system; it's called

[razark]

22 minutes ago, AbacusWizard said:

We already have an achievement system; it's called

Exactly.  As the devs said: "As you might know the game already tracks your achievements internally and uses this data to do things such as selecting new contracts for you."  This is nothing new.  They're just exposing data already stored in the savefile about where you've been and what you've done. 

Furthermore, this isn't new.  They've mentioned doing this before.

[Endersmens]

I think it will be a fun little addition to the game in any form. It will give another purpose to things besides for science and funds.  

[Superfluous J]

I like the idea. I've never once while playing a game seen an achievement pop up and thought "that's terrible! I hate it!" In fact, just the opposite.

[KerbMav]

5 hours ago, regex said:

Waste of dev time IMO and will make zero impact on how I play.  Besides, not like I use Steam for anything other than a delivery method in regards to KSP...

As it makes it easier - or even possible in the first place (see post in the DevNotes) - to sell the game on console specific vendor platforms, it will help development for sure and is therefore not a waste of dev time.

Adding the system to the PC version too, just gets the most out of the time invested IMHO.

It does not have to be much, syncing with Steam - and the other (console) platforms - and putting the new graphics into the already established system there. And ingame (i.e. PC version) it could be as simple as a notification like any contract and a new tab in the science or administration building.

[RizzoTheRat]

Not being a console gamer or regular Steam user I'm not even 100% sure what this is.

Won't it just be like the "background" contracts in the career game, ie first flight to X altitude, first orbit, firs mun landing, etc?

 

[Superfluous J]

1 hour ago, RizzoTheRat said:

Not being a console gamer or regular Steam user I'm not even 100% sure what this is.

Won't it just be like the "background" contracts in the career game, ie first flight to X altitude, first orbit, firs mun landing, etc?

 

Achievements on consoles and in Steam are tracked on a per-game basis, not a per-save basis. So if there is an achievement for - say - landing on Mun you'll get it the first time you ever land on Mun, and then never, ever again.

One nice thing about it you'll always be able to look up the exact date you first did something. Well, not us, but anybody who starts playing after these are put in place.

Note: I have no idea how they'll work in KSP. This is just how they work in general.

[RizzoTheRat]

I'm not convinced I want to know the first date I did something in KSP, it would highlight how much of my life I've spent on it, I certainly wouldn't want it tracking how many hours I've spent in game, especially if it flagged it up somewhere my wife might see it 

Edited January 13, 2016 by RizzoTheRat

[KSK]

6 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

I like the idea. I've never once while playing a game seen an achievement pop up and thought "that's terrible! I hate it!" In fact, just the opposite.

I'm almost the exact opposite. I'm either indifferent to or actively irritated by achievement pop-ups. For an open-ended game like KSP, I think they're a terrible idea.

Something like the Final Frontier mod would be OK, where your in-game achievements are exposed via in-game crew records. It's somewhat moot because I don't have a Steam account anyway but I would have zero interest in tying those crew records to a public-facing record of what I've done in KSP.

However, in my opinion any sort of pop-up achievements in game would be cheap, immersion breaking and unnecessary. "Congratulations - you just landed on the Mun!"  Yeah - I already spotted that - thanks. And I'm quite aware of how much (or little) of a personal achievement it was.

[Madrias]

I really don't care one way or another about achievements.

Steam Achievements just pop up while I'm playing and get ignored for the most part, and in game achievements, well, I don't pay attention to those.

[Evanitis]

I'll might go and get a Steam version of the game too because of that. I couldn't care less about the achievments of most games these days - level 100 in Fallout 4? 100% completition of all GTA titles? Pretty knife in CS:GO? Ye, you have no life, who cares.

But I wouldn't mind KSP badges on my Steam account. RL and digital friends of mine would go "- ahh, you are still playing KSP after all these years? Is it that good?" "- didn't I tell you it's the game of the century?" "- yes you did, but it had no lasers or e-sport championships so I skipped it. Is it really better than all those early access indy games you play?" "- yes."

It will bring even more popularity to KSP, and bragging rights to me.

Edited January 13, 2016 by Evanitis

[radonek]

If achievements were really achievements, I'd be all in. "You just made perfect suicide burn with  damaged lander to top port of rover rolling downhill!" Hell yeah,  shoot screens, spam my friends, make it a music video… but no. Current breed of games have me making so called achievements within an hour after start. No challenge - no bragging rights - no purpose.

[worir4]

If there are going to be achievements, this will probably be the only game on Steam where I can actually get them all.  I hope there will be some fun ones like @radonek said. Also there must be a grand tour achievement!

[Evanitis]

24 minutes ago, radonek said:

"You just made perfect suicide burn with  damaged lander to top port of rover rolling downhill!"

Yeah, that probably has too much variables to make it into an achievment. But there's Eve return, Grand Tour and a few others that will be nice to aim for.

[Renegrade]

I'm torn between 'not caring at all' and 'absolutely effing no'.

My feelings when I see an achievement pop up varies on a spectrum between ennui and absolutely murderous hatred, depending on now obnoxious they are (as defined by the presence and volume of any noises made, and the percentage of screen real estate they occupy, and how close said real estate is to important things such as dangers or important HUD elements etc).

The existing World's First things or a typical Steam achievement (given that I have the moronic overlay off) are closer to 'ennui'.  That stuff that the 360 does is about a third of the way to a 'Trevor incident'.

[Dunbaratu]

We all know the common statement along the lines of this:

"It's a single player game so who cares if you make it easier or harder for yourself?  There's no such thing as cheating, and it's pointless to claim someone is cheating just because they use a mod you don't, or visa versa.  Let them play the game their way.".

That sentiment goes right out the window once you start publicly tracking achievements for bragging rights, especially if they actually might *do* something in the Steam Store.

So... bad idea I'd say.

 

[Guest]

7 hours ago, KerbMav said:

As it makes it easier - or even possible in the first place (see post in the DevNotes) - to sell the game on console specific vendor platforms, it will help development for sure and is therefore not a waste of dev time.

Selling it on consoles is a waste of dev time too, IMO.  I mean, I'm pretty much indifferent to it at this point because the window for the game I was hoping for was shut long ago, but I still think it's a waste of space and time.

[Gaarst]

Voted "yes" to this before thinking about Steam. I'm not using Steam for KSP so I couldn't care less.

[monstah]

13 hours ago, AbacusWizard said:

We already have an achievement system; it's called

I originally undesrtood the Devnotes statement as meaning they were making a better UI for already-existing world firsts stuff. It seems to me the majority of people interpret it as a Steam-like or PSN-like achievement system (player has achieved something at least once, as opposed to this career save has had this achievement).

Interpreting it that way, I'm not opposed to to having it in the game, but I couldn't care less.

[Evanitis]

1 hour ago, regex said:

Selling it on consoles is a waste of dev time too, IMO.  I mean, I'm pretty much indifferent to it at this point

Well, sure it won't matter nothing to us who already play it on computers and can't live without mods. But it's the type of game parents who doesn't want the little ones to play yet another shooty/slashy game buy to their kids. And kids like consoles - no hassle with files and operating systems and such. I bet it will sell.

[adsii1970]

I read the dev notes and didn't take it that they were adding STEAM achievements to the game. I took the talk about achievements as meaning they would be in-game. After all, to have achievements in the game and on PC, Mac, and gaming consoles makes more sense within the scope of the dev notes than having Steam achievements that would only be able for those who have purchased the game through STEAM.

Although I do a lot of my game purchases through STEAM (and is how I discovered KSP), STEAM isn't for everyone nor if the achievements were only through STEAM, it would undermine the intent of KSP - which is to be available on multiple platforms.  Personally, I believe that whomever started this thread about STEAM achievements simply did not read the notes through enough to understand the achievements will be internal (think Final Frontier kind of achievement recognition) and that is the ONLY way such a change to the game could be logically accomplished across the various platforms, which this forum has been designed to support.

[monstah]

Great, at least someone interpreted it the same as me. I'm not insane.