Hi Guys,
I've been playing playing EU4 for ages now, off and on again. Now I'm looking forward to HOI4, but in reflection to my time with EU4, I just have one thing I'd like to see implemented - and also appreciate to see other opinions on the topic.
Achievements (and modding)
It all comes back to "what are achievements anyway?" and what a game gains by introducing them. Basically, achievements reward player-effort in a way that is
a) Cheap for the developer
b) Emotionally rewarding for the player
This grants a few benefits:
Now let's contrast this with the system as used in EU4:
You only get achievements when playing the game in Ironman Mode.
Let's compare this - and a few consequences - with the benefits achievements generally bring:
Now, with the context set, let's get back to my personal feature request:
I want achievements while modding the hell out of the game (any paradox-game, really, though I'm especially concerned with HOI4 now, seeing as it is just beyond the horizon now). They are fun, but I'm a casual player and cannot find pleasure in the strict Ironman Mode. But I don't want to take away the prestige and satisfaction of earning them the hard way for players who are willing to duke it out the hard way. Sooo ...
Introduce two sets of achievements. One that is visible in Steam (and must be earned in Ironman Mode) and one that is only visible in the game client.
The requirements for earning an achievement are identical for both sets, except for in the one you need to play in Ironman mode. Which leads me to the second part of the request:
Moddable Achievements
While the original achievements cannot be touched obviously, how about allowing players to create their own achievements? Custom achievements can of course only be earned client-side and not published, but they too come in two flavors (Ironman and non-Ironman) and are themselves of course checksum-neutral.
Benefits
I believe, this setup would bring a few significant benefits to the game:
Cheers,
Bosparan
I've been playing playing EU4 for ages now, off and on again. Now I'm looking forward to HOI4, but in reflection to my time with EU4, I just have one thing I'd like to see implemented - and also appreciate to see other opinions on the topic.
Achievements (and modding)
It all comes back to "what are achievements anyway?" and what a game gains by introducing them. Basically, achievements reward player-effort in a way that is
a) Cheap for the developer
b) Emotionally rewarding for the player
This grants a few benefits:
- Increase replayability of a game (and of course a corresponding greater willingness to invest in expansions / dlc)
- Induces players to stretch their horizons and discover other ways to enjoy a game they might not have experienced otherwise
- Give some fair statistics for how a game is played, how popular some features are, etc., and do it in a way that is universally accepted with privacy laws
- Give players bragging rights, for having gone the extra mile
Now let's contrast this with the system as used in EU4:
You only get achievements when playing the game in Ironman Mode.
Let's compare this - and a few consequences - with the benefits achievements generally bring:
- Achievements are limited to a subsection of players (I don't know how big or small it is), those willing to stomach Ironman Mode. Not everyone is the type for that mode. This diminishes benefit 1 by reducing it to a smaller part of the player segment, which is a loss.
- All players that hunt for Achievements gain the full benefit of playingstyle-stretching, which is working as benefit 2 requires.
- By selecting a special subsection of similar inclinations, Achievements aren't earned by "the average player", but by players of that subsection. Analyzing this is difficult, as it gives a very slanted view due to its filter, effectively eliminating - or at least severely diminishing - benefit 3.
- Finally, for benefit 4 it is a main requirement. By imposing the specific environment under which achievements can be earned, a fairly objective basis for comparison between players hunting for achievements can be provided. Which is required for doing any bragging with those odd-ball achievements.
But is that really true? Nope. It is fairly easy to cheat using tools outside of EU4 (try attaching a cheat engine and do some digging). This again undermines benefit 4, as cheating can only be made more difficult, but not prevented.
Now, with the context set, let's get back to my personal feature request:
I want achievements while modding the hell out of the game (any paradox-game, really, though I'm especially concerned with HOI4 now, seeing as it is just beyond the horizon now). They are fun, but I'm a casual player and cannot find pleasure in the strict Ironman Mode. But I don't want to take away the prestige and satisfaction of earning them the hard way for players who are willing to duke it out the hard way. Sooo ...
Introduce two sets of achievements. One that is visible in Steam (and must be earned in Ironman Mode) and one that is only visible in the game client.
The requirements for earning an achievement are identical for both sets, except for in the one you need to play in Ironman mode. Which leads me to the second part of the request:
Moddable Achievements
While the original achievements cannot be touched obviously, how about allowing players to create their own achievements? Custom achievements can of course only be earned client-side and not published, but they too come in two flavors (Ironman and non-Ironman) and are themselves of course checksum-neutral.
Benefits
I believe, this setup would bring a few significant benefits to the game:
- Open up achievement-style rewards for all players without infringing on what bragging rights remain in beating ironman.
- Allow players to create their own, even greater challenges.
- Enable modders to create achievements tailored to their own mods
Cheers,
Bosparan
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