Valve has rolled out Steam Achievement Sets to everyone. The feature, along with a new achievements page, left beta yesterday and is now available to all Steam users. Achievement Sets let developers group related achievements, so players can track their progress and spot new ones as a game keeps getting updates, without losing their earlier completion. SteamDB flagged the announcement shortly after it went live. Check out the post down below:
What Achievement Sets Do
In its announcement, Valve says Achievement Sets are meant for organizing the achievements inside a game. They also let developers add new achievements, or new DLC with achievements, without breaking the completion that players have already earned. Valve summed up the update in 4 parts:
- Track progress by achievement set: Each set in a game has its own progress bar and its own trophy.
- Keep game completion intact: New achievements added to a game won't break sets that are already complete or take away game completion.
- DLC achievements: Achievements can now be tied to DLC and grouped into their own sets, with progress shown separately from the base game.
- Complete games or sets with retired achievements: Developers can archive or retire achievements and sets once they are no longer available. Players who earned them keep them, and everyone else can still reach full completion.
Developers decide how many sets a game has and what each one is for. Valve's own examples are a game that splits its achievements into single-player and multiplayer sets, or another that uses 8 class-based sets. Players still earn achievements by playing as usual, and Steam then breaks the long list into the sets created by the developer.
Base Game Sets, DLC Sets And Seasonal Achievements
When the beta launched in October, Valve explained that there are 2 types of sets. Base Game sets hold achievements that any player can earn, and their progress and trophies show up in blue. DLC sets hold achievements that require extra content. Those achievements do not count toward a player's overall progress until they own the DLC, and after that they appear as purple progress and trophies.
Finishing every achievement in a set adds a "set complete" trophy to the player's profile. If new achievements are later added to that set, the completion stays. The archiving tool also lets developers add season-based achievements and time-limited holiday achievements. Players who earned an archived achievement still see it on their profile, while players who missed it won't see it, and it won't block their progress.
The New Achievements Page
Valve has also rebuilt the achievements page, which can be reached from the Games List on the web and from games in the Steam Library. It brings together overall game progress, progress in each set, details on each achievement, Global Stats and expanded search and filters. Global Stats, the completion rate for each achievement, is now a toggle on this page instead of a separate page. Search can be filtered by set and by locked or earned achievements.
Players can now compare their progress with up to 3 friends, including rare achievements, completed sets and DLC progress. The comparison uses a more accurate total achievement count based on what each player can actually earn, so the total can be different from friend to friend depending on the add-on content they own and whether some achievements are time-limited or archived.
The beta announcement listed a few other changes across Steam:
- The Perfect Games tab is now called Completed and shows both completed games and games with completed sets.
- Games with completed sets can now be displayed on a player's profile next to fully completed games.
- Games played through Family Sharing now appear in the Games List, and friends with playtime in a game through Family Sharing can be compared.
- Store and Library pages now show whether a game has achievement sets.
Games That Already Support Sets
Valve listed 17 games that had already added Achievement Sets when the beta began, including Against the Storm, Age of Wonders 4, American Truck Simulator, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Crusader Kings III, DREDGE, Euro Truck Simulator 2, Forza Horizon 5, Flock Around, He is Coming, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2, PowerWash Simulator, PowerWash Simulator 2, Team Fortress 2 and Victoria 3. Valve says it kept making changes during the beta based on feedback from players and developers, and that it will keep doing so. It also published a separate Steamworks post for developers who want to add sets to their games.
In other Steam news, Borderlands celebrated a sales milestone with Steam codes, as covered in Borderlands Hits 100 Million Units Sold And Celebrates With Steam Codes.
Which game do you most want to see add Achievement Sets now that the feature is out of beta?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.