Achieve@Account

nordsavage

I feel it is time for achievements to become account wide unlocks and cumulative in progress. This includes alliance rank. A majority of players have just one character their "main" that they collect achievements on, myself among them, if they collect them at all. ESO has many achievements many of which are overly time consuming and tedious. Who is really going to collect upwards of twenty thousand or more score worth of unlocks across two to eight alternate characters especially when a good amount of them take weeks and months to get? Few or none and I would wager none. Most if not all other platforms or services use an achievement system that rewards accolades and score at the account level. Xbox, PlayStation and Steam to name the major ones that I have seen or played on. As a collector/hunter I feel this is a logical practice.

Account wide achievements would lighten many negative views of certain content. Take vet Maelstrom Arena for example. It obviously even if unintentionally caters to certain builds and classes. Now if players could use the build that best suits them or the content for completion they would not have to worry about recognition on characters that are less suitable to that situation. You can see this in hard mode trials as well. Say you have a tank or healer as your "main" but those space limited roles are assigned, usually permanently, to certain members of guilds or friends. So if you complete it on one of the many DPS slots on an alt you are still left with that soul sucking grey achievement on your primary character. I feel a lot of the grief would vanish if the progress, achievements and titles were shared at the account level. Only satisfaction would remain.

Achievements as they stand can negatively affect how we wish to see our characters. How many of us have played other Elder Scrolls as a warrior, for example, only to make a separate save file with a magic user for the College/Mages or a stealth for the Dark Brotherhood/Thieves guilds because you did not want to break the spirit of your primary character. I know this is an MMO but I did not relish thieving or murdering five hundred innocents on my nord main and would not have had to if unlocks were account wide. Ideals and principals per character are important to the RPG enthusiast in the community.

There are only so many hours a person can reasonably put into obtaining achievements. Even with a well above average allotment of playtime time, players like me still can struggle to find the time to play what we really want to because we are stuck behind excessive parameters for the achievement goals. So I can only imagine what those who have to budget their time feel like. This is on top of all of the other grinds in the games such as motifs and undaunted sets for example. I for one would definitely participate in activities such as PvP more if I was not too busy sitting on scamp spawns for the slayer achievements and similar grinds. (Fifty scamps would have been a reasonable goal for the end tier on those, twentyish would have been fair.)

So that is a good bit of my logic behind achievements going account wide. I have more thoughts on this topic but I have been sitting on this for too long and wanted to get it posted. So feel free to let me and hopefully ZOS know why this could be a great idea. It really would be a boon to the game with no negative ramifications to any players if it was implemented. If it does not happen hopefully it will at least nudge them to be more responsible and fair in the setting of parameters. I know this was a long read and I thank you if you made it through. Please leave your thoughts or at least click those insightfuls, agrees or awesomes if you think this should go forward.

Oh and throwing account wide lore collections might go well with this.

Solariken

Yes! Please ZOS!

I've actually asked about this a couple times in their "Ask Us Anything" thread and have been completely ignored. I hope you find more success with your thread.

The only caveat others have suggested, which I agree with, is that you should only be able to display titles on characters that actually obtained them. Beyond that, I think the achievement book and points accumulated should be account-wide.

Malmai

Achievements should be account bound from the start, this is just bad...

Abeille

nordsavage wrote: »

I feel it is time for achievements to become account wide unlocks and cumulative in progress. This includes alliance rank.

I don't even have to read the rest to hit the "Agree" button.

Volkodav

While I do agree with the OP's thoughts on account wide achievements,I dont really agree than no one will work to do everything needed to unlock those achievements for each character.
I know I do.I enjoy working for them,and have a lot more to get yet.I look forward to them,actually. I really dont mind doing them for all my alts. A couple of them I mainly do achievements,and other characters just get them as I go along during game play. It gets easier every time I do them for alts because I already know what to do and where to find what I need to achieve them. :}

WalkingLegacy

I agree most achievements should be account wide.

Not sure about how I feel about rare dungeon/mob kills and titles though.

I try to only play one toon since my time is limited but level alts for when the nerfhammer gets too carried away so that I can switch if my fun level is hurt.

Ajaxduo

Agreed!

Acrolas

Most achievements past the basic story guideline are empty time-wasters designed to be a little ridiculous to complete. To balance that a bit, there's shared dyes.

Obsess over achievements at your own risk. An optional hassle that has a nonexistent reward usually isn't worth doing.

Volkodav

Acrolas wrote: »

Most achievements past the basic story guideline are empty time-wasters designed to be a little ridiculous to complete. To balance that a bit, there's shared dyes.

Obsess over achievements at your own risk. An optional hassle that has a nonexistent reward usually isn't worth doing.

The worth of their doing is relative,only to the person who wishes to achieve them.They are fun distractions,if you arent into the constant fighting and PvPing,or doing quests.They are meant for just the enjoyment of doing them.Not for gear,not for gold,or points,etc.They were put there for those who like a break in all the grinding and fighting is all. :}

obscure7

Agree 100% with the OP

nordsavage

Acrolas wrote: »

Most achievements past the basic story guideline are empty time-wasters designed to be a little ridiculous to complete. To balance that a bit, there's shared dyes.

Obsess over achievements at your own risk. An optional hassle that has a nonexistent reward usually isn't worth doing.

This thread is not about those who do not wish to collect. Some of us find satisfaction and completion in achievements. By your logic gaming itself is a waste of time because there is not real world reward for digital actions.

Gidorick

Why must every character have every achievement? What do "achievements" do besides

• Pat you on the back
• Give you a dye color

?

Acrolas

nordsavage wrote: »

By your logic gaming itself is a waste of time because there is not real world reward for digital actions.

Yeah, pretty much.

But wasting time in moderation is a nice little unproductive treat.

NewBlacksmurf

I would like account progress/achievements for many things. Not all but I definately agree with a lot of what the OP suggests.

AngryNord

nordsavage wrote: »

I feel it is time for achievements to become account wide unlocks and cumulative in progress..

Why should they give us even LESS initiative to make alt characters?

AngryNord

Gidorick wrote: »

Why must every character have every achievement? What do "achievements" do besides

• Pat you on the back
• Give you a dye color

?

Because Entitlement




Oh damn... I used that word.... I'll go wash my mouth now... Sorry

nordsavage

AngryNord wrote: »

nordsavage wrote: »

I feel it is time for achievements to become account wide unlocks and cumulative in progress..

Why should they give us even LESS initiative to make alt characters?

You can still do the content on the alternate characters. You make alternate characters to use the different class, have stamina or magicka builds per class type and to make alternate story line choices. You do not need the achievements to play the campaign over again. You do not go and reset achievements every time you play Skyrim. Nothing about account wide achievements means entitlement since you earned them already. You are being contrarian just for the sake of it. Maybe they should character lock all equipment so you cannot transfer it to your alts since you did not earn it on that character because that is "entitlement". Do you see what I mean.

nordsavage

Gidorick wrote: »

Why must every character have every achievement? What do "achievements" do besides

• Pat you on the back
• Give you a dye color

?

If you are not an achievement collector than this thread is not for you because you do not understand.

phairdon

All for this too.

Ra'Shtar

I agree i just got the dolmen general achievement and...god 4 hours closing dolmen after dolmen just to get the last 5 i needed.

daemonios

Nope. Don't agree that achievements should be account-bound. Achievements are tied to a specific character's progression/effort. They're just fillers, you don't need them for anything except to use the titles as bragging rights. Other rewards (dyes, costumes) are already account-wide. Leave them be.

nordsavage

daemonios wrote: »

Nope. Don't agree that achievements should be account-bound. Achievements are tied to a specific character's progression/effort. They're just fillers, you don't need them for anything except to use the titles as bragging rights. Other rewards (dyes, costumes) are already account-wide. Leave them be.

Bragging rights that we want access to on all of our alts. Again this thread is not for casual collectors like you. This is us hardcore collectors who chase big game wanting our recognition and a sense of completion without needless gaps in our lists or redoing work that we already did across alts that do not see the same amount of use. It may be just filler to you but it is a hobby to us.

daemonios

nordsavage wrote: »

daemonios wrote: »

Nope. Don't agree that achievements should be account-bound. Achievements are tied to a specific character's progression/effort. They're just fillers, you don't need them for anything except to use the titles as bragging rights. Other rewards (dyes, costumes) are already account-wide. Leave them be.

Bragging rights that we want access to on all of our alts. Again this thread is not for casual collectors like you. This is us hardcore collectors who chase big game wanting our recognition and a sense of completion without needless gaps in our lists or redoing work that we already did across alts that do not see the same amount of use. It may be just filler to you but it is a hobby to us.

Casual collector? Muahahahaha I have over 15500 achievement points on my main. Only missing a couple collectibles, lots of alliance war ranks (though I did make it to rank 20) and the odd miscellaneous achievement, so guess again.

Still think achievements should be character specific. If you really were "hardcore" as you claim to be, you'd understand the logic behind it. Instead, you come across just as entitled as the people asking to level PvP or PvE skill lines without playing the content.

Gidorick

nordsavage wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

Why must every character have every achievement? What do "achievements" do besides

• Pat you on the back
• Give you a dye color

?

If you are not an achievement collector than this thread is not for you because you do not understand.

So... because I don't have your particular desires... I can't ask questions? I'm not trolling, man. I'm actually asking.

If it's because you want to check-box every achievement then why can't you just get different achievements on different characters (A way to see what you have on what character WOULD be nice IMO) and when you get them all... DING! done.

Is it that you want to see all the checkboxed filled on all the characters? How would simply having them checked on all characters be more rewarding? It's not like you earned them on all characters... wouldn't that just be a false sense of accomplishment?

The only other reason I can think of is you have a compulsion to complete the achievement list on any character you play. You feel like you MUST achieve everything on each character and you can't do that because different achievements require different skills/tactics/builds/etc... if THAT'S the case then I'm curious if a system that shows you what you have completed AND what each character has completed on every character might be a good solution.

There are many of us that like the idea of each character having their own checklist. It builds that specific character's narrative and story. It's like that guy's adventure log. Of course... I'm not an achievement "collector"... so I guess I just don't understand.

Merry

To the naysayers:
WoW has account wide achieves and it doesnt stop anyone from making/playing alts. In fact, since alts can contribute to the completion of them, it encourages it. /shrug

M

Gidorick

Merry wrote: »

To the naysayers:
WoW has account wide achieves and it doesnt stop anyone from making/playing alts. In fact, since alts can contribute to the completion of them, it encourages it. /shrug

M

So the old "wow did it so that's how it should be" argument? There's a better way. Especially since many TES players are invested in the "story" of their characters.

I really think the best way to have a system where we can see the achievements of all our characters on every character. Heck, I'd even be down for a master list that shows what your account has achieved as long as I can still see what each individual character has achieved.

Abeille

Merry wrote: »

To the naysayers:
WoW has account wide achieves and it doesnt stop anyone from making/playing alts. In fact, since alts can contribute to the completion of them, it encourages it. /shrug

M

Same for GW2. PvP rank and WvW experience are also account-wide in GW2.

It encourages people to play alts because then they don't feel they are "wasting time" that they could be playing on their main caracteres to progress on the ranks instead.

Tavore1138

nordsavage wrote: »

I feel it is time for achievements to become account wide unlocks and cumulative in progress. This includes alliance rank. A majority of players have just one character their "main" that they collect achievements on, myself among them, if they collect them at all. ESO has many achievements many of which are overly time consuming and tedious. Who is really going to collect upwards of twenty thousand or more score worth of unlocks across two to eight alternate characters especially when a good amount of them take weeks and months to get? Few or none and I would wager none. Most if not all other platforms or services use an achievement system that rewards accolades and score at the account level. Xbox, PlayStation and Steam to name the major ones that I have seen or played on. As a collector/hunter I feel this is a logical practice..

What I would support for people like you who care about account rather than character is the option to have a view of 'Combined Account Achievements' so that if you made a a bad choice on one character that caused you to miss a particular achieve you can get an overall view for that warm fuzzy feeling that I know achievement hunters need. But achievements should still be primarily linked by character so that those of us who enjoy taking a fresh character through the content can do so. It is not about having every achieve on every character but about each character having it's own flavour and the achieves it owns reflecting that. However I see no reason why achieves could not be displayed per character AND per account so we could all be content.

But caveats should exist:

Alliance ranks achieves can be on your account summary but your alts should not get the associated skill points or actual ranks.

A character should only be able to use the achievement related titles they have earned - no level 1 'Alliance Overlords' please.

This should only be about achieves not skills or riding level or getting vigour without having to go into PvP with an alt or all the other 'gimme it now' threads we get here.

Otherwise as long as this is a cosmetic thing to satisfy the achievement hunters that still allows each character to maintain it's individual list then fine.

Merry

Gidorick wrote: »

So the old "wow did it so that's how it should be" argument? There's a better way. Especially since many TES players are invested in the "story" of their characters.

I really think the best way to have a system where we can see the achievements of all our characters on every character. Heck, I'd even be down for a master list that shows what your account has achieved as long as I can still see what each individual character has achieved.

No, not "they do it so we should too". It is normal to use examples to make a point and wow is a good one since they do it and it absolutely does not discourage alts. Someone else added that GW2 has them as well and it has the same effect there.

Wow did a lot of things right. The shared achievements is one of them. (shared mounts is another thing people love, well here it would be shared training of mounts. The shared pets I actually dont like in wow but you can still go get the pets even tho you already have access to them). When you have to kill 1000 orcs for an achieve it is very cool that all of your alts contribute to this number.

Anyway, just because another game does it does not mean this one should, but it doesnt mean it shouldnt either.

M

Gidorick

Merry wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

So the old "wow did it so that's how it should be" argument? There's a better way. Especially since many TES players are invested in the "story" of their characters.

I really think the best way to have a system where we can see the achievements of all our characters on every character. Heck, I'd even be down for a master list that shows what your account has achieved as long as I can still see what each individual character has achieved.

No, not "they do it so we should too". It is normal to use examples to make a point and wow is a good one since they do it and it absolutely does not discourage alts. Someone else added that GW2 has them as well and it has the same effect there.

Wow did a lot of things right. The shared achievements is one of them. (shared mounts is another thing people love, well here it would be shared training of mounts. The shared pets I actually dont like in wow but you can still go get the pets even tho you already have access to them). When you have to kill 1000 orcs for an achieve it is very cool that all of your alts contribute to this number.

Anyway, just because another game does it does not mean this one should, but it doesnt mean it shouldnt either.

M

I agree with this @Merry but since ESO is character based NOW I don't think it would be a wise change... there are those that like the way achievements work now.

If ESO was designed with account wide achievements from the get go, that would be different. There's nothing wrong with account wide achievements in general. However, changing it now would be changing a system that some players enjoy to satisfy other players. ZOS would end up with a zero sum... so just leave it as is.

Troneon

Is why I will only play one character, game is too much content, achievements, spread out, heavy RNG for different characters....

Aint nobody got time for that...

Plus I refuse to grind vet ranks multiple times....once is enough...