TF2 Question: What's the point of "Achievement" maps?

[Adam8281]

I started playing TF2 last week, and I noticed that when I browse public servers some don't have a normal map name, but instead are "achievement" maps. Some will be called something more specific, like "Scout Achievements." I know what achievements are, but what do these maps have to do with attaining achievements? I've played a few and they just seem like giant free-for-all matches; I don't really see what they have to do with getting achievements.

 

[Zenoth]

It allows the lazy players to get achievements easily instead of actually playing normally to earn them. The players usually playing there will actually do whatever is needed to attain specific achievements. For example if you play on a "regular" server, then most players will just... you know, just play normally and if they get one or more achievements then it's usually pure coincidence and they never really did what they've just done to get the achievement they just received, it was luck (most of the time). But on those achievements servers/maps the players will actually do their best to work together to "provoke" the achievements and get them "faster than usual".

At least that's how I've been told it works.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: Zenoth
It allows the lazy players to get achievements easily instead of actually playing normally to earn them. The players usually playing there will actually do whatever is needed to attain specific achievements. For example if you play on a "regular" server, then most players will just... you know, just play normally and if they get one or more achievements then it's usually pure coincidence and they never really did what they've just done to get the achievement they just received, it was luck (most of the time). But on those achievements servers/maps the players will actually do their best to work together to "provoke" the achievements and get them "faster than usual".

At least that's how I've been told it works.

Well yea it's a map just to get the achievements to help you get the unlocks faster and for people who care about achievements.

 

[JSt0rm]

those maps exist so you can also spend time with girls.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

its for lame n00bs who suck at the game and can't get achievements ingame.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad
its for lame n00bs who suck at the game and can't get achievements ingame.

Hey getting them in-game takes too long for me.

 

[LumbergTech]

Originally posted by: zerocool84

Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad
its for lame n00bs who suck at the game and can't get achievements ingame.

Hey getting them in-game takes too long for me.

yea..not everyone has 5 hours a day to try to pump those things out so that they can us the weapons in the near future

i actually get mine legitimately, but its really not that smart of me because its mostly a waste of time

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

I don't use them, but can't realistically condemn anyone who does, for a very simple reason: The achievement requirements have been stupid since day one. Go back and take a look over the medic requirements, and tell me that any medic playing the game normally would ever achieve some of those.

I mean, come on:


Consultation: Assist a fellow medic in killing 5 enemies in a single life.

That's practically the definition of not doing your job.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: PhatoseAlpha
I mean, come on:


Consultation: Assist a fellow medic in killing 5 enemies in a single life.

That's practically the definition of not doing your job.

Yea that'd pretty much never happen while playing a "real" game with people in it.

 

[JoPh]

just use the hack to get the milestone achievments. then just go play with the weapons.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

Originally posted by: PhatoseAlpha
I don't use them, but can't realistically condemn anyone who does, for a very simple reason: The achievement requirements have been stupid since day one. Go back and take a look over the medic requirements, and tell me that any medic playing the game normally would ever achieve some of those.

I mean, come on:


Consultation: Assist a fellow medic in killing 5 enemies in a single life.

That's practically the definition of not doing your job.

thats true...some of them are not realistic available in game. whatever, i unlocked all the medic stuff without getting some of those ridiculous achievements. i like getting the pop up that says you achieved something when you're not expecting it.

 

[Lonyo]

Achievement servers/maps are actually good.
It means that people who want to farm for them have somewhere to do that, instead of playing on regular servers and trying to farm there, thus being non-contributing members of their team.
Imagine if all the people who use achievement maps played on regular maps and wanted to try and farm their achievements there? It would be rather annoying for those trying to play normally.

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

Only takes a lot of enjoyment away from the players who could've tried to earn the achievements legit. It's really not that hard to unlock all three weapons. At first you needed every achievement to get the last one with the Medic, but they eased it up a LOT.

I don't see a problem with trying to get achievements on pubby servers. For every guy on your team going for them, people on the other team are too. It's not like you're in a clan competition match. People just want to have fun. But then again half the time I'm the guy with loud music on who isn't using voice chat or really caring if his team wins but is just having fun (and usually doing really well regardless).

 

[ivan2]

Originally posted by: ArmchairAthlete
Only takes a lot of enjoyment away from the players who could've tried to earn the achievements legit. It's really not that hard to unlock all three weapons. At first you needed every achievement to get the last one with the Medic, but they eased it up a LOT.

I don't see with trying to get achievements on pubby servers. For every guy on your team going for them, people on the other team are too. It's not like you're in a clan competition match. People just want to have fun. But then again half the time I'm the guy with loud music on who isn't using voice chat or really caring if his team wins but is just having fun (and usually doing really well regardless).

i dont understand how achievement server takes enjoyment away for the so called "legitimate" player, unless your idea of enjoyment includes bragging rights and such.

unlocking will be much easier when you have a few friends to help each other out on a instant spawn server, for people without helps, achievement server facilitates that.

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: ArmchairAthlete
Only takes a lot of enjoyment away from the players who could've tried to earn the achievements legit. It's really not that hard to unlock all three weapons. At first you needed every achievement to get the last one with the Medic, but they eased it up a LOT.

I don't see a problem with trying to get achievements on pubby servers. For every guy on your team going for them, people on the other team are too. It's not like you're in a clan competition match. People just want to have fun. But then again half the time I'm the guy with loud music on who isn't using voice chat or really caring if his team wins but is just having fun (and usually doing really well regardless).

So enjoyment is lost for players who get achievements in a legit manner, but wouldn't be lost if the farmers were all playing medic and not healing any members of the team and causing the game to suck?
I think more enjoyment is lost from more people by farming on pub servers than is lost from farming on dedicated servers.
I don't play pub to absolutely have to win, I like a challenging game, but if it's a challenge because all our medics are off trying to kill scouts, that's not fun.

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

Think you guys misunderstood me a bit. What I mean is that with a little patience it's actually a lot of fun to earn the achievements on regular servers. In a rush to get the unlocks people will miss out on that when IMO they should just give it a shot unlocking stuff normally. It's not that hard, and you only need a fraction of the total achievements meaning you can skip the ones that require friends if they're not around or the ones that just make you do really crazy stuff like Consultation.

You can always have medics who don't heal, doubt there are many nowadays doing so because of achievements. A couple teammates trying to earn the few oddball achievements that require you to do things that don't overlap with helping win never got in the way of my fun.

It would still be cool if the last unlock was crazy hard and that seeing a guy who had the weapon was rare and interesting, and you really had something to work towards over more time for people really into the class. But enforcing "legit" earning of achievements is probably not feasible.

 

[JTsyo]

Originally posted by: JoPh
just use the hack to get the milestone achievments. then just go play with the weapons.

From the official site:

...
This time it seems a number of you used an external application to unlock all of your achievements in order to get items unfairly. Coming as a surprise to no one with the ability to retain memories of the recent past, I have taken these items from the perpetrators for one week.

Can I trust that this episode has finally taught you a lesson? I should live so long. Having watched how the sorry lot of you comport yourselves on the battlefield and in the forums, I would consider it a small miracle to trust one of you enough to lick stamps without asphyxiating.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

I can't get a lot of the achievements on the achievement servers, so I can't imagine trying to get them in a normal game.

The point is to get them quicker tho, and since I'm married with kids and a job and a social life that involves not pushing a mouse around a little square, I have logged on a few times trying to score 1-2 achievements here or there that would allow me to unlock the first tier at least of the revamped classes.

I got the new shotgun for the scout, but it doesn't work half the time when I choose it in the load-out screen, so I still end up with the old one when I play.

Go figure.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: Krakn3Dfx
I can't get a lot of the achievements on the achievement servers, so I can't imagine trying to get them in a normal game.

The point is to get them quicker tho, and since I'm married with kids and a job and a social life that involves not pushing a mouse around a little square, I have logged on a few times trying to score 1-2 achievements here or there that would allow me to unlock the first tier at least of the revamped classes.

I got the new shotgun for the scout, but it doesn't work half the time when I choose it in the load-out screen, so I still end up with the old one when I play.

Go figure.

If you are switching in the middle of a game, you need to just switch classes quickly and it will give you the new gun.

So for example you spawn as Scout, then hit 'M', change the gun, then hit "," and change classes. Change right back to Scout after that and you should have the new gun equipped. Do this in spawn obviously so you don't hit with respawn penalty.

KT