why are achievements not account-wide?

ravisana

I was sulking over all the skirmishes I missed. I figured I'd take a look at my lvl 5 character and see if she had all the achievements my lvl 50 has. To my surprise I found that achievements are per character not per account. Titles I understand... kindanotreally those should be account based too. but it seems to me that achievements should be game/account wide, not character based. No need for both characters to kill 500 trolls right?

But the main benefit would be all the complaining about skirmishes going away. If they don't want to make lvl 60 versions of skirmishes then it seems like letting players get the achievements and titles for their account on another character would fix the problem. You would just make your second character and make sure you got all the titles and achievements you missed out on and then your other character would have them too. And there would be no more butt hurt feelings.

Anyone else think this would be good? You think it isn't good? Why not? Should players be forced to get every achievement on each character even when you outlevel the skirmishes?

axer128

Yea they should be.

Oddly the foundry community and authoring achievements are account-wide - you'll automatically get them on any alts you log on to once they've unlocked.

runebane

axer128 wrote: »

Oddly the foundry community and authoring achievements are account-wide - you'll automatically get them on any alts you log on to once they've unlocked.

The authoring achievements pretty much have to be account wide. As you don't use one of your regular characters when making a foundry quest.

I'm not sure why they decided to go on a character by character basis on the others. Don't think it'd hurt to have them account-wide. But I don't know what they have planned for achievements in the long run. May be a reason.

adinosii

It makes sense for certain achievements to be on a per-character basis - consider for example the achievement for doing most damage or healing in a dungeon 50 times. One is easy for a TR, the other is easy for a DC - but the other way around is, well...quite a bit of work.

valeriob80

I think too that achievements should be account-wide, all of them. Having to find the 3 orbs in all the maps with each of 8 characters is stupid ^_^

fondlez

I disagree. This is a Role Playing Game.

It is your character that is getting these achievements, not your account.

It is your choice to do it more than once and commit per character. Just because this game makes it relatively easy to do so does not change the type of game.

Any form of sharing between characters for anything should be extremely limited, e.g. certain purchases or where you add content to the game so are not acting in-character anyway, and should be the exception not the rule.

I think partial shared mail is about the only form of sharing by default across characters that exists in the game and it was probably just a technical convenience due to being an account handle-based game rather than traditional name-based game.

Also, nothing is more satisfying than getting certain unexpected achievements like Paingiver title on a Cleric or Field Medic title on a CW or GF!

runebane

fondlez wrote: »

I disagree. This is a Role Playing Game.

It is your character that is getting these achievements, not your account.

I don't really see it as an RP issue. Many of the achievements seem very anti-roleplay oriented in nature. And of those that aren't, opening up the achievements would give players more tools (like titles) to RP their characters with.

fondlez wrote: »

Also, nothing is more satisfying than getting certain unexpected achievements like Paingiver title on a Cleric or Field Medic title on a CW or GF!

This I can understand. Not sure I agree with it. But I understand wanting to have something be rare for certain character classes.

As for the actual desire to make them account wide. IDK. Like I said, I don't see anything wrong with it. But we don't know what is coming. I could be wrong, but I'd swear that PW use to have a store for achievement points at one time. They may be planning something like that for Neverwinter. If so, they already have a plan on how they'll handle it. And little we say could change that. I get the feeling we'll just have to wait and see.

xelliz

While I don't completely agree with the RP aspect of achievements, there are definitely achievements that do NOT need to be account wide, especially since many grant titles. This is not xbox live, and each char needs to earn this stuff.

axer128

adinosii wrote: »

It makes sense for certain achievements to be on a per-character basis - consider for example the achievement for doing most damage or healing in a dungeon 50 times. One is easy for a TR, the other is easy for a DC - but the other way around is, well...quite a bit of work.

No it doesn't. I've a person earned that achievement, they've earned it.

I could understand for the titles.. But they could easily separate the titles from the achievements.

mrclayde

It is just ridiculous how you depend on other people to get all the achievements.

I mean, yesterday I tried to queue for Pit Fight skirmish.

Minimum Level to queue: 38
Maximum Level to queue: 41

One bar away from lvl 42. So I queued before the Skirmishes event. I waited a long time and NOTHING.
Ok, so let's wait for the event and try again. Waited the whole hour.. again, NOTHING (I was in a party with 3 other ppl this time).

I couldn't complete quests, hell I couldn't even kill mobs or I would level up and would NEVER be able to do that skirmish again with that char. I would lose the achievement "Vellosk: Complete" and the title "Leader of the Pack" wich I really wanted btw.

So, after waiting hours, and hours, I gave up and moved on.

The same happened on the next one "Garrundar the Vile". Although this time I didn't have the patience to wait that long. And I knew I would not have all the achievements anyway so I was like "screw it".

This has to change. We should not have to make that choice.

You can either stare at the screen waiting for other people good will to get your achievements, or move on and have some fun playing but lose it FOREVER.

dardove

Once they start adding more Call To Arms events it will be easier to get the skirmish achievements.

bioshrike

dardove wrote: »

Once they start adding more Call To Arms events it will be easier to get the skirmish achievements.

Indeed! Though I must say that certain achievements should *not* be account wide. Just because you got leadership to 20 for one character doesn't mean all your characters should be able to go around calling themselves "General". Just because your cleric got top healing for a bunch of dungeons doesn't mean that all your characters should be able to wear said title.

I could see some of the limited time event-related titles being account wide, as they are not as attainable as others, which are always available.

fondlez

bioshrike wrote: »

I could see some of the limited time event-related titles being account wide, as they are not as attainable as others, which are always available.

That is indeed a good exception which to a certain extent already happens, e.g. Caturday.

ordensmarschall

No, achievements should not be account wide. It is not easy separating titles from achievements either. In order to get the Master of Monster title you need to have killed the maximum amount of 20 different monsters and gotten those achievements. It would like very silly for a level 1 character to be walking around with a "Master of Monsters" title. Plus I play my 2 characters quite differently, so each one will have earned titles that the other will not have earned. I don't want them sharing titles, that would defeat the purpose of playing them differently and earning different achievements.

punkatt

mrclayde wrote: »

It is just ridiculous how you depend on other people to get all the achievements.

I mean, yesterday I tried to queue for Pit Fight skirmish.

Minimum Level to queue: 38
Maximum Level to queue: 41

One bar away from lvl 42. So I queued before the Skirmishes event. I waited a long time and NOTHING.
Ok, so let's wait for the event and try again. Waited the whole hour.. again, NOTHING (I was in a party with 3 other ppl this time).

I couldn't complete quests, hell I couldn't even kill mobs or I would level up and would NEVER be able to do that skirmish again with that char. I would lose the achievement "Vellosk: Complete" and the title "Leader of the Pack" wich I really wanted btw.

So, after waiting hours, and hours, I gave up and moved on.

The same happened on the next one "Garrundar the Vile". Although this time I didn't have the patience to wait that long. And I knew I would not have all the achievements anyway so I was like "screw it".

This has to change. We should not have to make that choice.

You can either stare at the screen waiting for other people good will to get your achievements, or move on and have some fun playing but lose it FOREVER.

This is the problem I am having with completing achievements. Some people, like myself, like to get all of them, and lose interest if we miss out on one, and the fast levelling doesn't help - getting exp for invoking has tipped me over the top of levels on more than one occasion.
I was looking for a party to do Lair of the Mad Dragon, when at nearing the end of level 35 I got inside, only for the party to dwindle to 2 players and myself, and consequently to disintegrate, so it didn't get finished (the 2nd time this has happened to me - why is "the Lair" so hard for parties to complete, btw???) - so now, at level 36 I won't be able to complete Helm's Hold as I'm past the level 35 cap for the achievement. Or is there any way I can do it outside the level limits?

zebular

. . . . . Yeah, some are account wide (Community) and some are character specific. The Skirmish achievements are part of the reason why they are doing the CTA (Call to Arms) Events. Once they get done going through all of them, expect them to start cycling them as regular Events. Keep an eye on the Calendar for future ones!

beckylunatic

Skirmishes, you can't access outside of queues, but they are gradually holding weekend Call to Arms events that are all-level version of a skirmish, and which will fulfill the achievements. It will take some time to get to all of them though, or for the ones they've already done to repeat. We just had the Vellosk Pit Fight.

Dungeons, you can simply walk to the entrance and enter the door with any party you like. They tend to be easier when you're overlevelled and overgeared, and sometimes people even go at level 60 specifically for purposes of achievement completion.

Module 2 will see the queue requirements relaxed by two levels in either direction, iirc.

serengetti

I don't really care about achievements or titles being account wide or single character only; they don't give any extra stats anyway.

And about the topic of missing skirmishes due to overleveling and difficulty in finding parties: one more reason to just solo through the regular game content and not worry too much about ignoring optional low level content.

pitshade

Like beckylunatic mentioned, I've been running through the Heroic dungeons with my lvl 60s to get the achievements. Use zone chat or lfg to find a party and go to the front door. (use zone only when on the associated map, some people frown on using to form parties in PE) Frankly, I would recommend doing that for dungeons even if you are at level. The people you find that way tend to be a little better and it avoids bots.

The changes to skirmishes on the Preview server should help with not missing skirmishes. They are broadening the level range by 2 either way. People who are lower level are supposed to be getting a temporary buff to make them effectively equal to the original minimum level. Also, the restrictions on party composition seen in the last CTA are going to be for all skirmishes, which should greatly diminish time waiting in queue.

knightfalz

Many achievements shouldn't be account wide. What you can do on one character doesn't imply what you can do on all characters. Each character should be required to do such achievements to have them, to show that each character with it is capable of the achievement.

thesensai

mrclayde wrote: »

You can either stare at the screen waiting for other people good will to get your achievements, or move on and have some fun playing but lose it FOREVER.

I have come to the conclusion that any achievement that can be missed FOREVER, is not a true achievement, and not worthy of a completionist such as myself. I consider it dirty, underhanded game development.

thesensai

punkatt wrote: »

This is the problem I am having with completing achievements. Some people, like myself, like to get all of them, and lose interest if we miss out on one, and the fast levelling doesn't help - getting exp for invoking has tipped me over the top of levels on more than one occasion.
I was looking for a party to do Lair of the Mad Dragon, when at nearing the end of level 35 I got inside, only for the party to dwindle to 2 players and myself, and consequently to disintegrate, so it didn't get finished (the 2nd time this has happened to me - why is "the Lair" so hard for parties to complete, btw???) - so now, at level 36 I won't be able to complete Helm's Hold as I'm past the level 35 cap for the achievement. Or is there any way I can do it outside the level limits?

Level scaling for skirmishes and other content NEEDS to happen. High priority.

thesensai

serengetti wrote: »

I don't really care about achievements or titles being account wide or single character only; they don't give any extra stats anyway.

And about the topic of missing skirmishes due to overleveling and difficulty in finding parties: one more reason to just solo through the regular game content and not worry too much about ignoring optional low level content.

Achievements should offer something. Why give a point value to them otherwise? What's the point?

zebular

thesensai wrote: »

Achievements should offer something. Why give a point value to them otherwise? What's the point?

. . . . . I'm guessing that with the coming of ARC, Achievements will be tied into the ARC profile just like other PWE Games. If this is what is come, that would mean the possibility of claiming in-game rewards by spending some form of Achievement Currency through the ARC/Core Profile Achievement System.

beckylunatic

thesensai wrote: »

Achievements should offer something. Why give a point value to them otherwise? What's the point?

It's very easy for people to miss, but earning achievements actually grants character experience. During the Midsummer Festival, my youngest character levelled on two separate occasions not from combat or quest XP, but from unlocking achievements.