Post patch achievements earned by wrong characters

StartledSimian · August 19

Hi,

I've just logged in post patch onto a newish (under level 50) character that hasn't really done very much and they've been given a whole raft of new achievements in spite of never even setting foot in some of the zones.

How can this reversed, or progressed restored on characters that have actually earned them?

valenwood_vegan · August 19

Since accountwide achievements was implemented, there is unfortunately no way to reverse this. Although they rather oddly kept this one piece of the old system where achievements are still listed as "earned by" a specific character, they are actually earned by the account (except for a few that remain character-specific, such as public dungeon group events).

A lot of players asked them to do a better implementation of accountwide achievements, but this is what we got $:\$

StartledSimian · August 19

That's a shame. Some of them don't even make sense. There's a new antiquarian achievement that this character has earned "The Member of the Antiquarian Circle." She hasn't even completed the questline let alone found an antiquity.

Stafford197 · August 19

Some people will read this and think it’s not an important issue, but it really isn’t a small thing.

Elder Scrolls games put a huge emphasis on character stories/fantasy. If your character is supposed to be a Werewolf Fighter’s Guild person and then you download an update to now find you lead the Mages Guild, it’s just immersion breaking. If this kind of thing happened to my saves in TES5:Skyrim it would ruin it for me.

Same especially goes for having NPCs around town compliment you for things you accomplished on different characters…

RexyCat · August 19

Stafford197 wrote: »

Some people will read this and think it’s not an important issue, but it really isn’t a small thing.

Elder Scrolls games put a huge emphasis on character stories/fantasy. If your character is supposed to be a Werewolf Fighter’s Guild person and then you download an update to now find you lead the Mages Guild, it’s just immersion breaking. If this kind of thing happened to my saves in TES5:Skyrim it would ruin it for me.

Same especially goes for having NPCs around town compliment you for things you accomplished on different characters…

You have to think that your are playing an avatar and not a dedicated role for your PC.

The most annoying thing is that achievement system have become bloated with so many achievement that isn't possible to keep track which have done what without using add ons.

colossalvoids · August 19

Stafford197 wrote: »

Some people will read this and think it’s not an important issue, but it really isn’t a small thing.

Elder Scrolls games put a huge emphasis on character stories/fantasy. If your character is supposed to be a Werewolf Fighter’s Guild person and then you download an update to now find you lead the Mages Guild, it’s just immersion breaking. If this kind of thing happened to my saves in TES5:Skyrim it would ruin it for me.

Same especially goes for having NPCs around town compliment you for things you accomplished on different characters…

That's already gone with their idea of account wide achievements and how it was implemented. Not that they are trying to be TES game that much anyway to compare.

StartledSimian · August 20

It's certainly a little jarring when a lower level character is being festooned with accolades and they're barely out of kenarthi's roost.

Perhaps new patches should come with a warning to log in on your main/oldest character after each major update?

virtus753 · August 20

StartledSimian wrote: »

It's certainly a little jarring when a lower level character is being festooned with accolades and they're barely out of kenarthi's roost.

Perhaps new patches should come with a warning to log in on your main/oldest character after each major update?

They effectively do. These patch notes explicitly state that many new achievements were added (79 in all), including 10th anniversary and meta achievements. For those of us with a preferred character to get achievements on, that is the direct cue to log in with that one first.

In general, though, since AWA was first introduced we’ve had lots of achievements added for retroactive content like this. I think it is to be expected that they may be introduced with any major update now. It would be highly inconsistent with AWA — which was designed and implemented in such a way as to dissolve much of the relationship between achievements and specific characters — for the devs to issue an official warning that we should use a specific character to get achievements. That, to me, would send seriously mixed messages about whether those connections are officially supported or not. (Personally I would also not want ZOS to assume which character I want to get the achievements on. For many who care it is likely to be their main or oldest, but that’s up to each player to decide, insofar as it’s still feasible to try to make that connection.)

Jupiter_Storm · August 20

Posting here to throw in my two cents as well. I agree completely that Account-Wide Achievements has been implemented poorly for the following reasons:

1. It is extremely jarring for people who DO care about which character has earned which achievement, and does not (in my opinion) work as intended, in practice. The evidence? This thread, and others before it; Achievements are being handed to characters with each new update that have not completed the pre-requisites to obtain that achievement.

2. Implementing the "Earned by: [Name]" feature serves no purpose for people who DON'T care about which character has earned which.

I personally feel that the AWA system could be done better through the following means:

1. Refer to World of Warcraft's AWA Achievement model:
- Account-wide achievements (i.e. some achievements) do NOT list which character completed that achievement.
- Character-specific achievements (i.e. most achievements) show for the account as well, and DO list which character completed it, however this is over-written with the name of the character you are currently logged in on, if that character has ALSO completed it.

2. Refer to Final Fantasy's AWA Achievement model:
- Character-Specific Achievements just show as either complete / not complete for the character you're logged in on, when viewed in the Achievements window. If unlocked on another char, they do not say which, and remain greyed out.
- Account-Wide Achievements show for all characters once completed on any one of them, and do NOT show which specific character obtained it.

I'm personally an advocate for removing the "Earned by: [Name]" feature entirely. I think that it is harmful for neurodivergent players who like everything as 'tidy' as possible - myself included. I don't think that it serves a positive purpose, even for players who want to track the specific accolades of their characters - for THAT, I think a Character-Specific Achievement model would work better.