Steam Achievement Changes. Stop the cheating.
This is going to be highly controversial and im sure while most will either not care or they will disagree.

Surely using 3rd party applications to unlock achievements is against the ToS? If its not then why isnt it?

There is a huge demographic of "Achievement Hunters" including myself. Im part of many reddits and discord groups and all the leader boards like SteamHunters ect. The current issue is the sheer amount of cheating that is going on and the worst part is the fact its allowed. People are using 3rd party applications to just unlock achievements they either:

Aint good enough to get it.
Didn't want to grind.
Has multiplayer achievements they don't want to do.
Servers are offline.

Now i understand a lot of people don't care but just because you do not care that doesn't mean a lot of others who do care should suffer with it. The bigger picture to it all is the achievement rarity % being watered down because people just click a button to get the achievement when others put the time and effort in to get it legit. Not only that but if i recall they used to have reward events for achievements and that was stopped and ruined because people just cheated.

I come from a group of thousands of Xbox Achievement hunters and i switched over to PC only to find that in this regard its "Console Master Race" - Console has PC beaten when it comes to achievement hunting because the likely hood of someone cheating is so low. No one questioned your achievements when you was posting your completions on the Xbox pages because the chances of it being cheated was so low. However On all the steam achievement reddits and discord groups everyone questions each other and is in doubt because of how easy it is.

If a console user has a bugged achievement then they either leave it and move on or re do it.
If a console user isn't good enough to get it then they don't unlock it.
If a console user has a game that's dead or the servers are off then that's it. Get what you can and move on.

I cannot believe im about to say this because its something positive about the Ubisoft launcher but even they have it better than Steam. You cannot 3rd party the steam achievements on Ubisoft games because they are server sided. Every game should be like this. I do not understand why it isn't.

I get nothing will probably stop the Save file sharing which is just as bad but the 3rd party apps need to be bannable or at least something that shows the person cheated the achievements on those games.


TLDR: Make the achievements server sided or at least in a way that stops the cheating

or

Somehow come up with some sort of deterrent like a achievement flag or profile warning for using 3rd party apps.

Yea, i get it. A lot of you don't care but there are loads of us that do and our experience should not be being ruined because people are cheating.
最后由 DanRyder87 编辑于; 21 小时以前
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The Steam Achievement Manager, or SAM for short, uses the exact same system that the games use to tell Steam that an achievement has been unlocked.

Steam literally cannot tell the difference between a user using SAM or naturally getting the achievements in-game.
This is like the guy that buys a house next to the dump thats been there for 75 years and then starts complaining about the smell and how something needs to be done about it.

Open platform, horse is out of the barn and so on. Also, achievements have no value. Get over yourself.

From: Someone who just spent 3 weeks grinding out a last achievement for a game
最后由 AmsterdamHeavy 编辑于; 20 小时以前
How would a server know when I should get an achievement in a singleplayer game?

If we're just telling the server and it's setting the achievement, the same "problem" still exists.

If we're running the game on the server, now we've made the game significantly more expensive for the developer to keep running.

if I can back up and restore save files, there's nothing stopping me from using someone else's save file right before an achievement unlocks anyway.
引用自 Hikari Light
The Steam Achievement Manager, or SAM for short, uses the exact same system that the games use to tell Steam that an achievement has been unlocked.

Steam literally cannot tell the difference between a user using SAM or naturally getting the achievements in-game.

Then make them server sided like ubisoft. I honestly cannot believe that a 3rd party application is allowed to be used to manipulate. I refuse to believe that in 2025 nearly 2026 its as hard as they make it out to be to prevent it. I feel likes its more they cannot be bothered.
引用自 AmsterdamHeavy
This is like the guy that buys a house next to the dump thats been there for 75 years and then starts complaining about the smell and how something needs to be done about it.

Open platform, horse is out of the barn and so on. Also, achievements have no value. Get over yourself.

From: Someone who just spent 3 weeks grinding out a last achievement for a game
Achievements hold as much value as the person believes it does. That is not for you to decide or judge. Has nothing to do with getting over myself. Cheating is cheating. In regards to the silly comparison had i known this was a thing BEFORE i moved to achievement hunt on PC i would most likely have stayed. The same as if i knew the dump was there and smelled i wouldnt have bought the house.
引用自 Ben Lubar
How would a server know when I should get an achievement in a singleplayer game?

If we're just telling the server and it's setting the achievement, the same "problem" still exists.

If we're running the game on the server, now we've made the game significantly more expensive for the developer to keep running.

if I can back up and restore save files, there's nothing stopping me from using someone else's save file right before an achievement unlocks anyway.

Well it works for Ubsisoft and i believe Rockstar - They cannot be SAM'd
引用自 DanRyder87
引用自 Hikari Light
The Steam Achievement Manager, or SAM for short, uses the exact same system that the games use to tell Steam that an achievement has been unlocked.

Steam literally cannot tell the difference between a user using SAM or naturally getting the achievements in-game.

Then make them server sided like ubisoft. I honestly cannot believe that a 3rd party application is allowed to be used to manipulate. I refuse to believe that in 2025 nearly 2026 its as hard as they make it out to be to prevent it. I feel likes its more they cannot be bothered.

Did you not read?
SAM uses the exact same system as the games to tell the server that the achievement has been unlocked.

The achievements are already stored server side.
最后由 Hikari Light 编辑于; 20 小时以前
引用自 DanRyder87
引用自 Ben Lubar
How would a server know when I should get an achievement in a singleplayer game?

If we're just telling the server and it's setting the achievement, the same "problem" still exists.

If we're running the game on the server, now we've made the game significantly more expensive for the developer to keep running.

if I can back up and restore save files, there's nothing stopping me from using someone else's save file right before an achievement unlocks anyway.

Well it works for Ubsisoft and i believe Rockstar - They cannot be SAM'd
SAM only affects the achievements on Steam, not in-game or in their separate launchers if they have one.
引用自 DanRyder87
Achievements hold as much value as the person believes it does. That is not for you to decide or judge. Has nothing to do with getting over myself.
And it’s also not for you to decide how people want to earn achievements they’ve decided to see as meaningless to use SAM to unlock them. So getting over yourself would solve this whole issue.

引用自 DanRyder87
Cheating is cheating.
Not all cheating is bad. You’re conflating cheating achievements, which doesn’t ruin other players’ experience, with cheating in multiplayer games for an unfair advantage, which DOES ruin other players’ experience. So let’s not conflate the two.
最后由 Knee 编辑于; 20 小时以前
引用自 DanRyder87
Surely using 3rd party applications to unlock achievements is against the ToS?
It is not.

引用自 DanRyder87
If its not then why isnt it?
The open platform that a PC presents prevents Valve from controlling achievements like that of console.
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/groups/AStats/announcements/detail/687197541732549159
It would require Valve to implement measures that are beyond the means of both users and developers alike.
引用自 DanRyder87
引用自 Ben Lubar
How would a server know when I should get an achievement in a singleplayer game?

If we're just telling the server and it's setting the achievement, the same "problem" still exists.

If we're running the game on the server, now we've made the game significantly more expensive for the developer to keep running.

if I can back up and restore save files, there's nothing stopping me from using someone else's save file right before an achievement unlocks anyway.

Well it works for Ubsisoft and i believe Rockstar - They cannot be SAM'd

Steam achievements can be marked as "client" (which is what most games use for most achievements), "dedicated server" (which means that the host of whatever lobby you're in is in control of your achievements; I don't think this one is used much if at all), and "official dedicated server" (which is like "dedicated server" but limits it to specific IP address ranges that the developer specifies).

Most developers don't feel the need to set up infrastructure to validate achievements. It's a non-trivial cost that is usually not worth any perceived benefit, especially because the vast majority of people won't "cheat" achievements because they don't want to cheat and anyone outside of that category can probably find a way regardless of how hard the developer makes it.
引用自 Knee
引用自 DanRyder87
Achievements hold as much value as the person believes it does. That is not for you to decide or judge. Has nothing to do with getting over myself.
And it’s also not for you to decide how people want to earn achievements they’ve decided to see as meaningless to use SAM to unlock them. So getting over yourself would solve this whole issue.

引用自 DanRyder87
Cheating is cheating.
Not all cheating is bad. You’re conflating cheating achievements, which doesn’t ruin other players’ experience, with cheating in multiplayer games for an unfair advantage, which DOES ruin other players’ experience. So let’s not conflate the two.

Wrong. It does affect other users experience. It inflates the rarity % and also prevents any future "events" or "rewards" Which they have held and stopped in the past because of it. It also prevents any form of overhaul or changes to the system for the better because there is no point. So yea, it does effect experiences just because its not directly in the game itself doesnt matter.

Again has nothing to do with getting over myself.
In my experience, achievements added to the game after launch have a much more "inaccurate" global percentage than anything caused by people messing around with API calls.

Achievement percentages are based on the number of accounts that have played the game after the first achievement was added, but even for games where all achievements were added at once, you can end up with very misleading numbers about a game's difficulty. For example:

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/stats/1062090/achievements/

1.1% of players who played since achievements were added built a single dam in a game about beaver construction workers.

The portion of players willing to "cheat" achievements is much lower than 1%, let alone the 98.9% that this achievement is likely off by.
引用自 Ben Lubar
In my experience, achievements added to the game after launch have a much more "inaccurate" global percentage than anything caused by people messing around with API calls.

Achievement percentages are based on the number of accounts that have played the game after the first achievement was added, but even for games where all achievements were added at once, you can end up with very misleading numbers about a game's difficulty. For example:

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/stats/1062090/achievements/

1.1% of players who played since achievements were added built a single dam in a game about beaver construction workers.

The portion of players willing to "cheat" achievements is much lower than 1%, let alone the 98.9% that this achievement is likely off by.

Interesting. But would that not rectify if the people re opened their game after the achievements were added? They would auto unlock right? So its just a case of people not playing the game once achievements got added to it or am i mis reading?
Odd that you chose to write a lengthy opening post then when replying to another poster you wrote.

引用自 DanRyder87
Achievements hold as much value as the person believes it does. That is not for you to decide or judge.

Very true. They mean zero to me and yet you created a thread deciding and judging what others should do with the games they paid for.

An achievement hunter by definition would complete every game they start yet you only have 1% in Cyberpunk 2077, 33% in Left 4 Dead 2 for example which affects your achievement stats.
最后由 Nx Machina 编辑于; 19 小时以前
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