Problem with achievements

[lemon-lime]

For some reason the game is not registering achievements. I'm playing on mostly standard settings with only a few cosmetic mods. Any advice on what the issue might be?

[malogoss]

Using any one mod will disable Steam achievements.

[fred spaghet]

Originally posted by malogoss:

Using any one mod will disable Steam achievements.

Is it possible to somehow take the save file and start playing on a computer without mods and start getting the previously disabled achievements? Or is it the case that once a mod is installed on a save it becomes impossible to ever get achievements again on that world?

[malogoss]

Originally posted by fred spaghet:

Is it possible to somehow take the save file and start playing on a computer without mods and start getting the previously disabled achievements? Or is it the case that once a mod is installed on a save it becomes impossible to ever get achievements again on that world?

Just a guess, so don't sue me, but if a save file has or had any mod active at any time, then it probably can't unlock achievements. Else "cheating" would be too easy.

So go back to main menu, disable all mods, start a new game.

Also worth noting that even in vanilla, the game settings picked when creating the map can disable a few achievements. But on default settings, for example, it will not lock any achievement.

If you need more details:
wiki.factorio.com/Achievements

[^4Steel ^1Jackal^2~FYANB~]

Originally posted by malogoss:

Originally posted by fred spaghet:

Is it possible to somehow take the save file and start playing on a computer without mods and start getting the previously disabled achievements? Or is it the case that once a mod is installed on a save it becomes impossible to ever get achievements again on that world?

Just a guess, so don't sue me, but if a save file has or had any mod active at any time, then it probably can't unlock achievements. Else "cheating" would be too easy.

So go back to main menu, disable all mods, start a new game.

Also worth noting that even in vanilla, the game settings picked when creating the map can disable a few achievements. But on default settings, for example, it will not lock any achievement.

If you need more details:
wiki.factorio.com/Achievements

i dont know if its changed, but i used a waterfill mod back in 0.16 to get a water source for oil processing. afterwards i uninstalled the mod and kept playing that world, and i was still able to get achievements on it even in 1.0+

[malogoss]

Originally posted by ^4Steel ^1Jackal^2~FYANB~:

(...) i uninstalled the mod and kept playing that world, and i was still able to get achievements on it even in 1.0+

There's "getting an achievement" and then there's "getting a Steam achievement", in Factorio.

If you play modded or vanilla or whatever, you'll always have those pop ups in game, "X achievement unlocked".

However, it doesn't mean you necessarily got a Steam achievement. Playing vanilla, yes you did. Playing modded, you didn't.

So back to your example, yes, add mods, remove mods, play vanilla on the same single save file and those pop ups in game will happen. My assumption is, if a save file was modded at any time, reverting it back to vanilla does NOT enable Steam achievements again.

So unless you can guarantee you got Steam achievements from a save file that once was modded, I'll keep believing things should work as I said. I'd be surprised if you did.

[Chindraba]

With a mod installed, game changing or not, Steam will not acknowledge the achievements earned. In game there are actually 2 lists kept, with and without mods enabled. If you have a mod turned on and open the achievement list it will say at the top that it is a modded game and the achievements are recorded separately.

As for turning on/off mods, that works just fine, most of the time. if you use a console command, most of the good ones anyway, it will warn you and require you to try the command again because that is permanent. There are some console commands which don't disable achievements, such as turning on the research queue or pinging a set of coordinates on the map. And, that disable is for all achievements for the remainder of the game - in both lists.

The only problem with turning mods on and off for achievements is the one-time achievements and the collected stats achievements. The victory can only happen once in a game, so if mods are one when it happens, you can't get the victory again. Well, you could save just before the win. get it, reload without mods and get it again. That applies to all the finish the game without "this" like Steam all the way or Raining bullets. It also affect the one for researching oil processing, Eco unfriendly, and the Tech maniac.

The other group can be earned twice, just take twice as long. Circuit veteran is to produce some number of electronic circuits, different for each level. The ones made with mods on are counted for that list, and the ones made with mods off are counted for the other list. To get the gold level, 20M circuits, in both lists you end up having to make 40M circuits. Run forest run and Steamrolled are a couple more in that "count" list.

Bottom line is that, other than console commands, cheating on Steam achievements is rather easy in Factorio. Of course there's nothing gained from them either - no extra awards or benefits. I suspect that's one of the many reasons why the Speedrun rules include recording the entire game from start to finish - easy to see if mods were used or not.

EDIT:
There is one "counting" achievement which does count things in one place for both modded and unmodded games: Lazy bastard. Using the mods won't get around that 111 hand-crafted item limit. It counts as a craft whether you have mods enabled or not.

[PunCrathod]

Originally posted by malogoss:

Originally posted by fred spaghet:

Is it possible to somehow take the save file and start playing on a computer without mods and start getting the previously disabled achievements? Or is it the case that once a mod is installed on a save it becomes impossible to ever get achievements again on that world?

Just a guess, so don't sue me, but if a save file has or had any mod active at any time, then it probably can't unlock achievements. Else "cheating" would be too easy.

So go back to main menu, disable all mods, start a new game.

Also worth noting that even in vanilla, the game settings picked when creating the map can disable a few achievements. But on default settings, for example, it will not lock any achievement.

If you need more details:
wiki.factorio.com/Achievements

Cheating is too easy. You can just go to the install directory and change all recipes to take one stone to make 1 million of all products. Easy all achievements in a few minutes. The game has no anti cheat whatsoever. All it checks for is if the mods list has a single mod with the name "base" and it will give you steam achievements. It does not even check any hashes or even version numbers for that mod. change the base game files all you want and it just won't care.
And of course you can install mods. Get a bunch of stuff and then uninstall the mods and you will still get achievements on steam. Some steam achievements like produce x circuits etc will not count the amount made when the mods were active but most achievements you just get straight away as you load the map without the mods installed.

[malogoss]

Well, then it's easy to "cheat". I'm surprised but 100% fine with it.

Modding single player games (well, you can play coop but, you know) is meant for people to play what is the best version of the game to them, at that time.

Some people give way too much importance to achievements. They'll like a game, then realise that because of skill issues or because of the time investment needed, they'll never 100% the game. So they enjoy a game for say 200 hours worth of playtime, then they add another 40 hours out of habit, and they end up leaving bad reviews or flooding forums with negative remarks about the game.

That's a mentality I can't understand. I'm not necessarily speaking of Factorio here, but it would apply to it too.

By the way, thanks for the clarifications. The more you know, the better.

[PunCrathod]

Originally posted by malogoss:

Well, then it's easy to "cheat". I'm surprised but 100% fine with it.

Modding single player games (well, you can play coop but, you know) is meant for people to play what is the best version of the game to them, at that time.

Some people give way too much importance to achievements. They'll like a game, then realise that because of skill issues or because of the time investment needed, they'll never 100% the game. So they enjoy a game for say 200 hours worth of playtime, then they add another 40 hours out of habit, and they end up leaving bad reviews or flooding forums with negative remarks about the game.

That's a mentality I can't understand. I'm not necessarily speaking of Factorio here, but it would apply to it too.

By the way, thanks for the clarifications. The more you know, the better.

Thankfully you can't cheat that much in multiplayer without other players knowing. If you edit the files you just get a desync error and if you use mods all the others have to download the same mods and the game will tell you before it downloads a mod. Almost all the traditional cheats like cheatengine giving you infinite health, high speed, flying etc are out as well since those just make the game give a desync error... The best you can do without letting others practically instantly know you are cheating is maphacks aka seeing beyond the fog of war or using a bot that plays for you since they do not alter the game state beyond what a player can already change just by playing legit. Maphacks can be detected by watching replays and seeing the player make multiple decisions that do not make competitive sense unless they have information they are not supposed to have. And bots usually have the problem of not playing like a human would.

One of the biggest advantages of lockstep multiplayer. It is really hard to cheat without getting caught.

Edit: Also my stance on cheating is that it is totally fine if all affected parties knew about it beforehand and everyone agreed to let the player cheat. Cheating while trying to pass it off as not cheating however should get you in trouble. At least a short term ban and requiring more than usual proof that you are not cheating in the future.

[^4Steel ^1Jackal^2~FYANB~]

Originally posted by malogoss:

Originally posted by ^4Steel ^1Jackal^2~FYANB~:

(...) i uninstalled the mod and kept playing that world, and i was still able to get achievements on it even in 1.0+

There's "getting an achievement" and then there's "getting a Steam achievement", in Factorio.

If you play modded or vanilla or whatever, you'll always have those pop ups in game, "X achievement unlocked".

However, it doesn't mean you necessarily got a Steam achievement. Playing vanilla, yes you did. Playing modded, you didn't.

So back to your example, yes, add mods, remove mods, play vanilla on the same single save file and those pop ups in game will happen. My assumption is, if a save file was modded at any time, reverting it back to vanilla does NOT enable Steam achievements again.

So unless you can guarantee you got Steam achievements from a save file that once was modded, I'll keep believing things should work as I said. I'd be surprised if you did.

let me clarify, i added the waterfill mod, put in a small pond, uninstalled the mod, then got steam achievements while playing vanilla in a world that had at one point used mods.

i used the mod back in 0.16, so its possible that back then the game didnt check that the save had ever used mods, only if its currently using mods.

[malogoss]

Originally posted by ^4Steel ^1Jackal^2~FYANB~:

let me clarify, i added the waterfill mod, put in a small pond, uninstalled the mod, then got steam achievements while playing vanilla in a world that had at one point used mods.

i used the mod back in 0.16, so its possible that back then the game didnt check that the save had ever used mods, only if its currently using mods.

What you describe is 100% coherent with others' explanations on the subject.

As I said, I'm surprised it works that way. Even if it has no impact on me. It's more like a theoretical surprise, if you get what I mean ;)

[RiO]

Originally posted by PunCrathod:

And of course you can install mods. Get a bunch of stuff and then uninstall the mods and you will still get achievements on steam.

You can't. If you save the game when mods are present it leaves flags set in the save game that will persist when the mods are removed. It's a poison pill.

[PunCrathod]

Originally posted by RiO:

Originally posted by PunCrathod:

And of course you can install mods. Get a bunch of stuff and then uninstall the mods and you will still get achievements on steam.

You can't. If you save the game when mods are present it leaves flags set in the save game that will persist when the mods are removed. It's a poison pill.

Since what version? I checked all the patchnotes since the last time I tested this and there were no mention of anything being done to achievements in any way. No poisoning of save files or anything even remotely close to that.

Edit: Just did a check. I loaded up a save that had mods enabled without the mods and steam instantly updated that I had reached 4.5k processing units per hour and all the produce a total of X of something started to tick up as well. So I guess the myth that mods "poison" save files is still busted.

[Chindraba]

The only case of poisoning the save is using console commands. Doing so will not only disable any future Steam achievements, it will disable any future achievements in that game for both the modded and un-modded lists.
Other than the console commands you can do something as extreme as to load the Editor extensions mod, rebuild half the visible map with ores where you want them, instantly place 5 or 6 massive green circuit factories save the game, uninstall Editor extensions, restart the game and let it run until you have 40M green chips made and get the Circuit Veteran 3 gold achievement on Steam.
You could, also with Editor Extensions, place a rocket silo, load it with modules and cover it with beacons. Place a few infinity chests with the stuff to make rocket parts and let it run. Once you have 99 rocket parts made, change the infinity chests to steel chests, which will keep their current inventory, just not keep making more. Save the game, unload Editor Extensions, Load the game, and have There is no spoon earned on Steam with something like maybe 10 minutes.

Edit: Make that 12 minutes.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3246771504

Of course, now, when I'm ready to do it for real I'll have to wipe out those fake achievements. I'll leave them there for a while so interested parties can verify that they do show there.

Edit 2: Time's up. Wiping these fake achievements from my profile. I'm gonna try to actually earn them and it helps to see my progress rather than seeing them as "done" already. The screenshot will have to do for the future.

[RiO]

Originally posted by Chindraba:

The only case of poisoning the save is using console commands. Doing so will not only disable any future Steam achievements, it will disable any future achievements in that game for both the modded and un-modded lists.

Hmm..

I swear I had this happen by just adding a mod before.
... ah; is it possible that said mod itself executing a console command in a particular way could trigger this as well?