AwA and trying to control who gets what achievement

Soarora · March 2023

I stopped caring. It’s way too much stress and makes the game no longer a game. I log my dungeon HM/trifecta clears so I can keep track of what character did what since there’s no way to otherwise and for the rest I just don’t look at who got them. It still brings me some stress but I try not to think about it. It’s not undoable.

Necrotech_Master · March 2023

i use addon to remove that useless tooltip telling me which character i earned it on

really dont care which toon i earned it on, just that i earned it at all lol

if the achievement comes with a title, ill use the title on a character thats appropriate, not only the one i unlocked it on, and really glad this annoyance is a thing of the past

colossalvoids · March 2023

Wish the tooltip gone indeed, kinda stresses me out and making me playing main way more rather than branching out as I did before. This half measure is just bad, if they've decided to go with awa there was no point in extra tooltip.

peacenote · March 2023

Tandor wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

Kesstryl wrote: »

kargen27 wrote: »

Individual achievements on characters has unfortunately become a thing of the past. Almost everything a character does affects every other character on your account.

The way I decided to deal with the atrocity that is account wide achievements is start a new account with only one character on it. Actually I already had the account and it was mostly for extra storage. I deleted all the characters on that account so there would be no achievements at all then created just one character.

I'm not going to pay to create 12 new accounts and buy all over again all the houses and costumes and pets that belong to each and every one of my characters.

Wise, as doing multiple accounts is actually a reward for the AwA design that I am sure ZOS finds more than acceptable.

The best thing to do is just give up and realize that you, the player, are the one getting achievements and that all those characters are just aspects of you.

That's a philosophy that some of us just can't embrace. It simply doesn't fit for us with playing individual characters in different ways. However, I agree that the only options are to find a way of living with it or moving on, if ZOS were going to man up and admit they got the actual implementation wrong and do something about it they would have done so by now. Then again, it wasn't the implementation that brought me within a whisker of just moving on, it was the total lack of community engagement from the PTS onwards.

Came to add that I always "knew" that I was getting all the achievements... but this knowledge doesn't help at all with replayability. If I want to take on a challenge again on another character I can't receive confirmation from the game that I completed it successfully so that "giving up" doesn't really help with everyone's losses in AwA. I can make my peace with not controlling who gets what sometimes (although OP, I totally hear you) but I am still frustrated with the practical loss of functionality wrt to tracking repeated content.

And I haven't given up!! QoL is coming in Q4, right? And it may come every Q4 for a while. We definitely should keep asking for improvements in this space... they may come eventually.

As far as the OP's concern while I understand the frustration I would look at it in the same light as if you accidentally learned a motif or recipe on the wrong character. Surely there were times pre-AwA where many of us did something on the wrong character by accident. It happens. What you described could have happened in pre-AwA, too, so it isn't really an issue with the current implementation (despite all the issues I have with it). Your non-jewel-crafting character would have earned that achievement which isn't aligned with its identity even before all this.

TaSheen · March 2023

I think QOL is in Q3?

Tandor · March 2023

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Kisakee wrote: »

Why do you people even play multiple characters if you don't want them to get achievements?

For some people, they view each character as just a tool they use, such as yourself. Each achievement is earned only by the player. And completing an achievement is completing an achievement regardless of which tool got you there. This group is mostly okay with AWA.

For some people, they view each character as a distinctive personality, and the achievement journal similar to a character diary. So each character shouldn't have achievements that doesn't align with who they are. Their evil vampire is the one that murders people, not their righteous knight. This group is probably mostly angry with AWA.

For some people, they do view each character as a distinctive personality but they also view the achievement journal as an out of lore concern. So while they do try and stick to certain activities only on each character, they don't view the achievement journal as a character diary and are not bothered having an achievement from their vamp on their knight. This group is mostly okay with AWA.

For some people, they view each character as a tool and don't roleplay. But they view each character as a separate tool, and their achievement journal as a record of their proficiency of each tool. So since they don't view each achievement as just generally accomplished, but accomplished by their specific tool. The same way someone might treat a bow vs a crossbow. It is not good enough to just know you hit a bullseye at some point, you want to know each weapon you hit it with. This group is mostly angry with AWA.

Those are the major viewpoints that I have noticed. There's probably some I am forgetting.

How each group views AWA seems to depend both on how they view their characters and how they view the achievement journal in general. This makes AWA fairly divisive as an update.

I think another category of player comprises those who want specific achievements to be done on one character and complete most of the achievement - say 99 out of 100 particular things - on their main character for that particular content, and then often without having any control over it (as experienced by someone in another thread last week or so) they find that a different character has then done the outstanding thing that completes the 100 and he is the one credited with the achievement, not the character that did the other 99. Those players may or may not like the account-wide achievement system but not the way in which it is implemented.

rpa · March 2023

For me the problem is not which character has done the achievement, but simply the huge loss of replay value introduced with AWA. Playing alt characters got a lot less rewarding without getting any less grindy.

Elsonso · March 2023

rpa wrote: »

For me the problem is not which character has done the achievement, but simply the huge loss of replay value introduced with AWA. Playing alt characters got a lot less rewarding without getting any less grindy.

What I have discovered is that the grind is there, but just with fewer reward points during game play. In all, leveling up a character is more boring when the account already has all of the achievements for the area. I guess the "dopamine hit" is real.

Aztrias · April 2023

Got an Achievement on the wrong character today and I remembered that I still hate AWA

Being quite the immersionist having an achievement "earned by" the wrong character is enough to stop me in my tracks

Compared to some other mmorpg's it feels like ESO characters have so little indviduality and 'awa' just made it worse.

Kind of wish they'd just remove the 'earned by' or make it 'earned by userid' at this point and then maybe I'd be less bothered by it.

Xarc · April 2023

AwA is one of the worst decision ZOS took about TESO

I can say after this, I've lost a part of fun and motivation playing my 16 characters

AzuraFan · April 2023

Xarc wrote: »

AwA is one of the worst decision ZOS took about TESO

I can say after this, I've lost a part of fun and motivation playing my 16 characters

For me, it was more the implementation that they got wrong. If they'd limited it to achievements that involve doing something X times (like the dailies) and hadn't involved the zone maps, I'd be fine with it. But they used a sledgehammer, with no regard to different playstyles and motivations (a recurring theme with ZOS), and blew away the motivation to play alts for me. On the up side, I've spent less money on the game. I used to buy crowns (in addition to my ESO+ sub), but I haven't bought crowns for a while now.

Zyva · April 2023

I used to be an Achievement junkie. And I seriously enjoyed getting them over and over again on my alts. Each alt was their own story. And I ran achievement discords and guilds and groups dedicated to "ticking the boxes" for the hundredth time. In some cases, I was working through storylines with my partner and were using the achievement system as a way to keep track of what we had done together, with the ultimate goal of completing the whole game together.

Now? AWA ruined it for me. I rarely if ever go to get a second achievement on alts, literally only if a close friend asks me for help. I stopped doing quests multiple times unless im spamming through them for skill points. Ironically I stopped buying as much stuff and trying to collect everything, even sticker book and motifs. It just doesnt matter as much anymore.

I feel like the game itself is just something I play now to be with the friends I have made, and otherwise go to other games. I figure when the next "big" MMO launches I will go to that simply because I really enjoyed the feeling of "character progression" that is gone with AWA.

katanagirl1 · April 2023

Just the other day I got a Monster Trophy on a new trials character, and that got me worried that she would unlock the achievements instead of my main character with (I think) 1700 hours of playtime.

It’s sort of a big deal to me that my main has done so much in the game that she get the credit. So I’ve been farming Stony Heart unsuccessfully for several days.

TybaltKaine · April 2023

In my head canon, all of my alts belong to the same guild (the one I made) so that way it's less individual achievements and more, "Nice, [guild name redacted] accomplished this". It sucks that I can't control who unlocks what without keeping a spreadsheet of all of my activities, but I just had to learn to roll with that punch.

It's even more fun when you have achievements get unlocked by a character/class combo that you were experimenting with and deleted. Now you have an achievement that belongs to literally no one, but there it sits, squatting on your list like an obscene gargoyle, mocking you every time you look it over.

Elsonso · April 2023

TybaltKaine wrote: »

In my head canon, all of my alts belong to the same guild (the one I made) so that way it's less individual achievements and more, "Nice, [guild name redacted] accomplished this". It sucks that I can't control who unlocks what without keeping a spreadsheet of all of my activities, but I just had to learn to roll with that punch.

Interesting thought. What happens with divergent character morality, like someone who opposes crime and a hard core criminal?

Zyva wrote: »

Now? AWA ruined it for me. I rarely if ever go to get a second achievement on alts, literally only if a close friend asks me for help. I stopped doing quests multiple times unless im spamming through them for skill points. Ironically I stopped buying as much stuff and trying to collect everything, even sticker book and motifs. It just doesnt matter as much anymore.

What I dislike about repeating achievements post-AwA is that if I try to do them again, the entire burden of tracking progress falls on me. That is not always easy to do accurately, and on 2/3rds of the platforms, could result in the player being surrounded by piles of post-it-notes. So, I don't.

Tamriel Once is not nearly as fun to play as One Tamriel.

TybaltKaine · April 2023

Elsonso wrote: »

Interesting thought. What happens with divergent character morality, like someone who opposes crime and a hard core criminal?

My guild (and by extension my alts) all fall into the same spectrum of alignment, from Neutral, Chaotic Neutral and Neutral Evil. None of them is outright evil in the cartoonishly villainous sense, but more out for themselves, which is my interpretation of Neutral Evil. This motley crew of former pirates are all united by their shared history, and the fact that they had their souls ripped out by Molag Bal but managed to somehow escape.

Saving the world is a byproduct of their revenge. All the other plotlines that follow are seen from the perspective of risk vs reward, accumulating political and personal capital (wealth, status, favors) or positioning themselves to be seen as heroes so they can exploit that belief to make more money.

They aren't nice people. I tend to leave the "shining bastion of hope" for single player games. It's easier to play a morally flexible character in an MMO.

Kesstryl · May 2023

Well, it just happened again, after a couple weeks of really controlling who gets what. My antiquities guy was sent to Kenarthi's roost to dig up something, only Kenarthi's roost is not part of his story, and I haven't finished it on the character who is doing that story. I wasn't careful about discovering locations and he discovered the last location I needed for the pathfinder achievement. He was not the one who explored this place, my other character was the one who did all the locations and most of the work. Whoever thought that one character should get credit for the cumulative achievements of all the others should have just made it so no achievement goes to any character, but only to the account.

I wish we could either get the credit on all characters who get it and pick one to keep it, or none at all. I wish at this point they would just delete the names and keep only the date as this is now an account thing and not character.

Necrotech_Master · May 2023

Kesstryl wrote: »

Well, it just happened again, after a couple weeks of really controlling who gets what. My antiquities guy was sent to Kenarthi's roost to dig up something, only Kenarthi's roost is not part of his story, and I haven't finished it on the character who is doing that story. I wasn't careful about discovering locations and he discovered the last location I needed for the pathfinder achievement. He was not the one who explored this place, my other character was the one who did all the locations and most of the work. Whoever thought that one character should get credit for the cumulative achievements of all the others should have just made it so no achievement goes to any character, but only to the account.

I wish we could either get the credit on all characters who get it and pick one to keep it, or none at all. I wish at this point they would just delete the names and keep only the date as this is now an account thing and not character.

if your on PC i would suggest "exoy's achievement anonymizer" this removes that useless "earned by" tooltip

i been using that since the account wide achievements came out (and i actually like the account wide achievements, but this tooltip is just dumb)

ghastley · May 2023

The situations I don’t like are where the actions of the alts are accumulated meaninglessly. You should have to find a complete set of anything on the same character to get the achievement, not fill in each other’s gaps. I have no issue with that achievement being “done” for the account if a single character has completed it.

The worst case is True Style Master, where the same motif on two characters counts twice. There may be others just like that, but there are plenty of cases, like Skyshards, where the same character has to find them all before you get that zone’s achievement.

Ulvich · May 2023

rpa wrote: »

They did AWA without properly thinking it through and it can't be fixed any more. You better not worry about individual achievements if you have more than one character per account.

If I remember correctly there were hundreds (if not thousands) of posts warning them not to go through with AwA. In the end they (obviously) went through with it causing so much grief. That patch was so filled with so many problems.

LadyLethalla · May 2023

What I'm annoyed about is that This One's on Me is now only achievable by one character, under AWA. Since this was a source of Undaunted points, it's disappointing that I can't get these on my new alts. And yes, I know they adjusted the points for pledges and rnds.

LalMirchi · May 2023

To me, replayability died.

I never go into the Achievements tab anymore as it is useless for me.

How do I track the progress of my alternative characters? In this game I cannot anymore.

Kesstryl · May 2023

SERIOUSLY!!! I can't do anything without needing to check my achievements to carefully curate exactly where I am! I just got Expert Resin Harvester on my JEWELER just from harvesting a node! I can't even harvest without needing to curate my every move! It's infuriating! Three achievements to the wrong alts even after trying to carefully select who gets what!

Braffin · May 2023

I own 8 characters at the moment (I know, not much for some of you) and roleplay all of them (if not doing group content).

To do so I use various possibilies the game offers:
- Every char has his own unique Outfits.
- Each char lives in his own city, even it's not one of the effective ones (my dunmeri NB chose wayrest for example and the upcoming orcanist will be fine in orsinium).
- Not every char does all quests but only the ones which fit his personality.
- I don't share mounts, personalities (the ingame ones) and similar stuff between them and so on.
- I'm not using titles in general for various reasons, but they are also a nice possibility of distinction.

But it really doesn't mean anything to me on which toon I reached which achievement first. And it doesn't mean anything to my toons too, because they simply have no idea that something like lists of achievements exist. That's not something a resident of tamriel care about.

Sure, I respect and understand, that someone have another opinion on this topic. But abandoning a whole account because of a name inside a little toolbox in a secondary menu (I mean you have to give up control of character while looking at this. Not very immersive to me.) seems a little harsh, doesn't it?

But whatever, play as you want it is, I for myself was in all honesty extraordinary happy as I wittnessed AwA happend and individual achievements were gone for good.

TaSheen · May 2023

Braffin wrote: »

I own 8 characters at the moment (I know, not much for some of you) and roleplay all of them (if not doing group content).

To do so I use various possibilies the game offers:
- Every char has his own unique Outfits.
- Each char lives in his own city, even it's not one of the effective ones (my dunmeri NB chose wayrest for example and the upcoming orcanist will be fine in orsinium).
- Not every char does all quests but only the ones which fit his personality.
- I don't share mounts, personalities (the ingame ones) and similar stuff between them and so on.
- I'm not using titles in general for various reasons, but they are also a nice possibility of distinction.

But it really doesn't mean anything to me on which toon I reached which achievement first. And it doesn't mean anything to my toons too, because they simply have no idea that something like lists of achievements exist. That's not something a resident of tamriel care about.

Sure, I respect and understand, that someone have another opinion on this topic. But abandoning a whole account because of a name inside a little toolbox in a secondary menu (I mean you have to give up control of character while looking at this. Not very immersive to me.) seems a little harsh, doesn't it?

But whatever, play as you want it is, I for myself was in all honesty extraordinary happy as I wittnessed AwA happend and individual achievements were gone for good.

Pretty much this, though I wasn't either happy or unhappy because I don't give two flips about achievements. However, there are people I've known through this forum, not to mention a few RL friends, who were and still are devastated that ZOS chose to do this. So my empathy is with those who are most unhappy and still trying to play the game.

"Play as you want" - until ZOS changes the rules....

Braffin · May 2023

TaSheen wrote: »

Braffin wrote: »

I own 8 characters at the moment (I know, not much for some of you) and roleplay all of them (if not doing group content).

To do so I use various possibilies the game offers:
- Every char has his own unique Outfits.
- Each char lives in his own city, even it's not one of the effective ones (my dunmeri NB chose wayrest for example and the upcoming orcanist will be fine in orsinium).
- Not every char does all quests but only the ones which fit his personality.
- I don't share mounts, personalities (the ingame ones) and similar stuff between them and so on.
- I'm not using titles in general for various reasons, but they are also a nice possibility of distinction.

But it really doesn't mean anything to me on which toon I reached which achievement first. And it doesn't mean anything to my toons too, because they simply have no idea that something like lists of achievements exist. That's not something a resident of tamriel care about.

Sure, I respect and understand, that someone have another opinion on this topic. But abandoning a whole account because of a name inside a little toolbox in a secondary menu (I mean you have to give up control of character while looking at this. Not very immersive to me.) seems a little harsh, doesn't it?

But whatever, play as you want it is, I for myself was in all honesty extraordinary happy as I wittnessed AwA happend and individual achievements were gone for good.

Pretty much this, though I wasn't either happy or unhappy because I don't give two flips about achievements. However, there are people I've known through this forum, not to mention a few RL friends, who were and still are devastated that ZOS chose to do this. So my empathy is with those who are most unhappy and still trying to play the game.

"Play as you want" - until ZOS changes the rules....

I completely understand what you mean. Years ago, during the time of my active endgame participation, there were times I enraged over development decisions at least every second patch. For example when the new shiny sets, I just completed, got nerfed that hard that any further usage what out of the question, it sometimes was infuriating at least and more than once I wanted to take the "play as you want" slogan and put it [better snipping myself here].

But in the end this changes nothing. That's part of an online game, either live with it and make peace with developers decisions or leave. I decided to do the latter and only returned a few month ago.

Now the game is fun again and I didn't even touch most of the content which is new to me. I simply rediscovered the world I know. From a different perspective this time and it's just a blast for me again

Being grumpy about things you can't change helps nobody. It's just harming yourself, and that's not what a game is made for.

TaSheen · May 2023

Yeah. I just play the game parts I want to play, just get the fun out of it now. I don't get mad at people. Or myself.

Kesstryl · May 2023

Braffin wrote: »

I own 8 characters at the moment (I know, not much for some of you) and roleplay all of them (if not doing group content).

To do so I use various possibilies the game offers:
- Every char has his own unique Outfits.
- Each char lives in his own city, even it's not one of the effective ones (my dunmeri NB chose wayrest for example and the upcoming orcanist will be fine in orsinium).
- Not every char does all quests but only the ones which fit his personality.
- I don't share mounts, personalities (the ingame ones) and similar stuff between them and so on.
- I'm not using titles in general for various reasons, but they are also a nice possibility of distinction.

But it really doesn't mean anything to me on which toon I reached which achievement first. And it doesn't mean anything to my toons too, because they simply have no idea that something like lists of achievements exist. That's not something a resident of tamriel care about.

Sure, I respect and understand, that someone have another opinion on this topic. But abandoning a whole account because of a name inside a little toolbox in a secondary menu (I mean you have to give up control of character while looking at this. Not very immersive to me.) seems a little harsh, doesn't it?

But whatever, play as you want it is, I for myself was in all honesty extraordinary happy as I wittnessed AwA happend and individual achievements were gone for good.

I do most of these things too, and true my characters don't know a thing about these achievements, but it is me as the story teller (player who RPs in my head) that somehow cares about what the database says because that is the last bit of data left that tells the stories. It's like writing a journal using the coding mechanics. That's how the original achievements were used for me, and when that got nerfed like it was a golded out meta set, I adapted in my own way by trying to at least get the story right with the deconstructed pieces we have left which is one character only gets one shot at it.

It may look pathetic to some, but this is my way of moving on and adapting to AwA. It just really limited how I explore, play, now with apparently farming mats too. The only saving grace I will have is at least the quest story achievements will all be correct. I'm basically feeling the opposite of what the people with a single Main Character feel when an alt gets the achievement and not the main. I have no main, I only have a cast of characters for my pocket head cannon, each with their own places and professions and stories in Tamriel. It just bites that I only have one shot at this.

edited for clarity

wenchmore420b14_ESO · May 2023

Ulvich wrote: »

rpa wrote: »

They did AWA without properly thinking it through and it can't be fixed any more. You better not worry about individual achievements if you have more than one character per account.

If I remember correctly there were hundreds (if not thousands) of posts warning them not to go through with AwA. In the end they (obviously) went through with it causing so much grief. That patch was so filled with so many problems.

Below I have links to most all the AwA threads we had going before it went live.
Just the PTS Feedback thread went 95 pages and over 2800 responses just in that one thread.
Nobody wanted it. Period. Yes, my playing was reduced by 75%. I love ESO too much to quit all together, but ZoS's idea of "Play how we want you to play didn't fly with me.
Hopefully, @ZOS_Kevin will see how this is still a touchy subject even today.

Braffin · May 2023

Kesstryl wrote: »

Braffin wrote: »

I own 8 characters at the moment (I know, not much for some of you) and roleplay all of them (if not doing group content).

To do so I use various possibilies the game offers:
- Every char has his own unique Outfits.
- Each char lives in his own city, even it's not one of the effective ones (my dunmeri NB chose wayrest for example and the upcoming orcanist will be fine in orsinium).
- Not every char does all quests but only the ones which fit his personality.
- I don't share mounts, personalities (the ingame ones) and similar stuff between them and so on.
- I'm not using titles in general for various reasons, but they are also a nice possibility of distinction.

But it really doesn't mean anything to me on which toon I reached which achievement first. And it doesn't mean anything to my toons too, because they simply have no idea that something like lists of achievements exist. That's not something a resident of tamriel care about.

Sure, I respect and understand, that someone have another opinion on this topic. But abandoning a whole account because of a name inside a little toolbox in a secondary menu (I mean you have to give up control of character while looking at this. Not very immersive to me.) seems a little harsh, doesn't it?

But whatever, play as you want it is, I for myself was in all honesty extraordinary happy as I wittnessed AwA happend and individual achievements were gone for good.

I do most of these things too, and true my characters don't know a thing about these achievements, but it is me as the story teller (player who RPs in my head) that somehow cares about what the database says because that is the last bit of data left that tells the stories. It's like writing a journal using the coding mechanics. That's how the original achievements were used for me, and when that got nerfed like it was a golded out meta set, I adapted in my own way by trying to at least get the story right with the deconstructed pieces we have left which is one character only gets one shot at it.

It may look pathetic to some, but this is my way of moving on and adapting to AwA. It just really limited how I explore, play, now with apparently farming mats too. The only saving grace I will have is at least the quest story achievements will all be correct. I'm basically feeling the opposite of what the people with a single Main Character feel when an alt gets the achievement and not the main. I have no main, I only have a cast of characters for my pocket head cannon, each with their own places and professions and stories in Tamriel. It just bites that I only have one shot at this.

edited for clarity

Thanks for your explanations.

Would maybe a journal where you can write down the biography of your character (as oldschool rpgs like baldurs gate had) help to get back a little bit of the fun which was taken from you with AwA?

That's indeed something that could be implemented quite well, if enough people support it.

Hmm, as I think about that: Top notch would be of course having a book to write in, which one could also place on a desk at home. But that's just dreaming on my side now