Valve to Update Steam Achievements With Achievement Sets - News
by William D'Angelo , posted 4 hours ago / 401 Views
Valve announced it is updating achievements on Steam with Steam Achievement Sets as a way to improve the feature.
Steam achievements until now have been in a single list that includes the base achievements, as well as any new ones added with updates and DLC. The new Steam Achievement Sets will let developers separate achievements into groups.
Read details below:
Introducing Achievement Sets
This beta enables developers to group their game's related achievements together in collections we are calling Achievement Sets. Devs can specify the number of sets and the purpose of each to match their game's specific needs. You can imagine one game grouping its achievements into single-player and multiplayer sets, or another into 8 class-based sets.
In games that support sets, you still unlock achievements by playing the game as usual. But when you browse what you have unlocked afterward, Steam will break the long list of game achievements into the developer-created sets, making it easier to see what you have completed and to find other related achievements you can unlock next.
Each Achievement Set also has its own progress bar showing how far along you are in that area. Once you have unlocked every achievement in a set, Steam will commemorate the moment and add a "set complete" trophy to your profile. If new achievements are later added to the set, your completion is preserved.
As a game grows, developers can create new sets to hold achievements for the added content. These new sets make it easy for returning players to see what new things they can unlock, while also preserving their prior completion status until they play again.
Base Game Achievement Sets
Base Game sets contain achievements that can be earned by all players who play a game. Their progress and trophies are displayed in blue on your achievements page.
DLC Achievement Sets
Some games contain achievements that can only be earned once you have purchased additional content (DLC) for that game. These achievements can now be grouped into new DLC sets, allowing you to separately track what you have unlocked in the new content.
DLC achievements are not included in your overall game progress until you have access to the content. Once acquired, they will be displayed as purple progress and trophies on your achievements page
All possible achievements for a game can be explored from the new achievements page, so if you are curious, give the page a skim to see what the game's DLC has added.
Seasonal Achievements
We are also introducing the ability for game developers to archive individual achievements or entire Achievement Sets. We think there are a lot of fun ways games can take advantage of the temporary nature this can add, such as adding achievements to season-based games or enabling time-limited holiday achievements.
A New Achievements Page
Bringing this all together is an updated achievements page, accessible from your Games List on the web and from games in your Steam Library. The new page gives you a summary of your overall progress, progress in each achievement set, and details on individual achievements.
Global Stats, or the per-achievement completion rates, are now available as a toggle here rather than on a separate page.
Search has also been expanded with filters for specific achievement sets and for locked or unlocked achievements. Plus, there's a little extra joy when you complete all your achievement sets.
You can now compare your game progress with up to three friends, including rare achievements, completed sets, and progress in DLC sets. You'll see both the number of achievement sets you've completed and a new, more accurate total achievement count, making it easier to compare your progress with friends. This total is based on achievements each player can actually earn, which may vary depending on the add-on content they have and whether certain achievements are time-limited or archived. As a result, the total can differ from friend to friend.
And More
We've rebuilt a few areas where achievements are displayed, to show off your overall achievement and set progress throughout Steam. You'll see your completed sets on your profile in the Recently Played section, your Games List, your Library, and more.
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The Perfect Games tab is now called Completed and expands to show both completed games and games with completed achievement sets.
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Games with completed achievement sets can now be added to the Completionist Showcase, in addition to completed games.
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Games played via Family Sharing are now displayed in the Games List.
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Friends with playtime in a game through Family Sharing are now eligible for friend comparison.
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Store and Library game pages will now show if a game has achievement sets.
Try It Out Now
These updates are now available as a beta for both players and game developers. Here's how to join the Steam Client Beta. We'll continue making improvements during the beta, so make sure to let us know what you think.
As developers begin using the new tools, you'll start seeing these changes appear for supported games.
The following games have already added achievement sets:
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
