Daggerfall Unity Achievements

Talk about the mods you'd like to see in Daggerfall Unity. Give mod creators some ideas!
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Jay_H
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Daggerfall Unity Achievements

Post by Jay_H »

A short discussion on Discord today brought up the idea of achievements in Daggerfall. I'm posting it as a mod idea since, though I haven't asked Interkarma, I'm assuming this idea wouldn't be baked into the main game.

Just like with Minecraft, FTL, the vast majority of Steam and AAA titles that have come out in the last 10 years... Actually, I don't need to explain this any further, right? :D

The difficulty is in choosing appropriate achievements. If anyone wanted to "platinum" Daggerfall, what kind of character would they need to make? And what kinds of achievements would we tailor to that? I'm thinking:

Bad: "Kill a werewolf with a silver weapon" (some characters have silver prohibited)
Bad: "Kill an enemy while paralyzed" (some characters are immune to paralysis)
Good: "Homeowner: buy or be gifted a home"
Good: "Globetrotter: visit every region in the Iliac Bay"
Good: "Fate of the Empire: finish the main quest"
Good: "Servant of the People: do 50 quests for commoners"
Good: "Knight in Shining Armor: achieve rank 10 in a knightly order" (I consider this different from the two bad ones above, since any character could potentially join a knightly order)

I don't mean "good" in quality since I don't judge that very well, but "good" in the sense that they'd be possible to achieve.

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Interkarma
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Achievements

Post by Interkarma »

Just want say this would be amazing. Not something I have the bandwidth to consider right now in the base game, but would be amazing to see started as a mod.

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Jaiysaun
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Achievements

Post by Jaiysaun »

For the record, I don't think "Kill a werewolf with a silver weapon" is a bad achievement. You shouldn't limit them all to things you can do in a single playthrough or with any character build. My mage that reaches the highest rank in the Mages Guild isn't likely to also do so in the Dark Brotherhood and Fighters Guild, but I don't think those shouldn't be achievements because of that.
Also on the subject, achievements should be things you strive to accomplish, not things that passively happen in normal gameplay. Those bug the hell out of me. "Get a letter from Lady Brisienna" for example, would be terrible.

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Jay_H
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Achievements

Post by Jay_H »

I'm not well-informed on such things, so it's good to hear some experienced thoughts on it.

I'm wondering about some of classic's alternate quest endings, where you can make things go really wrong. Like waking up the hibernating mage you're supposed to protect in the Mages Guild, or stealing the magic item you're supposed to be guarding.

...Those are probably bad ones, aren't they? :lol: Some of you are probably going to be a lot better at this than I am.

"Journey Aborted: Beat the master of "An Unexpected Journey" without getting teleported."

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Jaiysaun
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Achievements

Post by Jaiysaun »

Achievement are just for bragging rights. They're proof that you did something. What I've found most fun are the ones that are like quests themselves. Going to Cybiades, for example, I did just because a guy on the internet pointed out that you could brag about 100%ing an entire kingdom that way. No other reason to go there except to say you did it. That's what achievements are for - to say "I did this."
The only achievements that I would consider bad would be ones where the response is "Who cares? Everyone did that."
>Cast a spell: Terrible
>Join the Mages Guild: A typical "Achievement" but you haven't really achieved much of anything
>Become the Archmage: Shows you put in some effort and earned something
>Do a Mages Guild Quest in Every Kingdom: You'd only do this for the achievement. Less effort than becoming Archmage but adds gameplay by giving you something to do that you'd likely not consider otherwise.
Ones like the last one should be fun though and not too entirely ridiculous.

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Jay_H
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Achievements

Post by Jay_H »

I feel like some part of it should give a sense of "100%"ing the game, which gives players both a sense of completeness (in a game as endless as Daggerfall, that might be oxymoronic) and also an evidence of their passion for it. Achieving max awards in a game is a good design goal from a dev's point of view, at least for showing popularity.

BansheeXYZ
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Achievements

Post by BansheeXYZ »

I love achievements, it gives completionists more things to accomplish over just finishing quests, which prolongs gameplay. But some of this is dependent on past suggestions for lack of a photographic memory. In other words, we're putting the cart before the horse. For example:

-an achievement for completing all Mage Guild quests almost requires offering quests from a selection window and cycling them differently. How else do you keep track of what quests you've never done?
-an achievement for contracting all diseases requires a "Disease History" mod and a UI to fit it in. How else do you know what diseases you haven't contracted?
-an achievement for killing all monster types requires a bestiary book. How else do you keep track of what monsters you've killed?
-an achievement for finding all potion recipes needs a recipe book.
-And so on...

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Jaiysaun
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Achievements

Post by Jaiysaun »

I feel that a sense of completeness is reachable without being too specific. Trying to do absolutely everything would be too much of a chore for most players, but the basics like reaching highest rank and therefore "finishing" each of the guilds should be achievements, with checkpoint achievements along the way as they climb in rank, as should the different routes and endings of the main quest. So someone that beats the game can look back and say, "Huh. I never did that before." And instead of moving on will give it another playthrough.

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Jay_H
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Achievements

Post by Jay_H »

Very good points from both of you.

Hoarder: "Max out your wagon's weight capacity." (probably giving a 2 kg allowance so it's not just tedium)
On High Seas: "Buy the expensive ship." (why else would you choose it over the cheaper one? :lol: )
Ready to Retire: "Store over 10,000,000 gold in one region's bank."
Useless Person: "Accept 10 quests from commoners and let them time out."
Communing with the Profane: "Have every daedric artifact in your possession (wagon or person) at the same time."
Home Defense System: "Engage an opponent who has spawned within a home you own."
Freeloader: "As a member of a knightly order, set apart a free room for yourself in the same tavern for over 100 days."
Not Supposed to Happen: "Enter the Mantellan Crux on foot instead of through the main quest."
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: "Break any weapon of Mithril quality or higher, excluding bows."

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jayhova
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Achievements

Post by jayhova »

Jay_H wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2019 6:37 am
Freeloader: "As a member of a knightly order, set apart a free room for yourself in the same tavern for over 100 days."
  • Super freeloader: have a free room for over 100 days in over 10 inns at once
  • Ultra freeloader: have a free room for over 100 days in over 100 inns at once
  • Ultimate Freeloader: have a free room for over 100 days in an inn in every town of a province at once
Remember always 'What would Julian Do?'.

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