Need to tweak your Steam Achievements? Perhaps a game doesn't correctly unlock them or you want to start fresh again on a game - SamRewritten can help you do that. It's an open source Steam Achievements Manager for Linux and there's a new release out recently.
New features from release 202005 (Version 2.0):
- Implement stats
- Implement showing protected achievements and stats
- Implement CLI support to match the GUI
- Use gtkmm rather than plain gtk
- Implement timed achievement modifications (start a game -> input achievement modifications -> click the menu -> Start Timed Modifications)
- Implement ability to show only locked/unlocked achievements.
- Implement ability to open games in a new SamRewritten window
If you do intend to use it, the usual applies with external tools that hook in with Steam, it's all done so at your own risk. I've never heard of anyone having an issue though, and since you can unlock achievements so easily it would seem pretty odd if Valve ever actually intervened.
Find SamRewritten on GitHub.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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19 comments
Quoting: ageresUgh, cheating software...That seems like quite a small-minded thing to say about it. Changing your own personal achievements affects no one else.
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Quoting: ageresUgh, cheating software...
To be honest, I'm really debating this internally.
My user case is the last Dying Light achievement: "Be the last standing at the end of Bozak trial".
Bozak's trial is a pain in itself but for this achievement you also need co-op partners which can be even worse as even if you do your best, if someone is lost, dies or anything, it's a collective fail.
Anyway it turns out I've done that at least 4 times now, with lovely people who played way too many hours but I can not steal more solid ours from them for them to help me get a bugged achievement.
There are whacky "faith" strategies all over the net to "increase your chances" to get the achievement even though each time your fulfilling the actual condition. Those strategies doesn't work obviously, as a game developer I suspect a bug in the netcode not so obvious or easy to fix but it ain't nothing to do with such things as "crouch 4 times", "turn around", "sing a song", and crappy BS.
I've pretty much done everything in this game, met nice and awkward people, but now it actually is holding a few dozens GB on my SSD and yet I'm here debating if I deserve this achievement or not.
I have a few other examples:
- Dead Rising 2 TIR netcode crashes the game (I manage to unlock the achievements following a very specific procedure which is a pain but still).
- Red Faction: Guerilla, last event up north was never available so you were missing one mission out of your 60h game save. Yes it was on Xbox360 but I haven't gone through the remaster for this very reason.
- Borderlands 2: all arch symbols on slot machine. I spent a few hundred hours on the game, this achievement is totally random and you have a 0.02% chance to get it (provided you have money to spend in the machine) which is roughly one over 5000 tries.
- Jet Set Radio: use all graffitis in missions. I have the achievements for all soul spirits, meaning I unlocked all graffitis, I just had to use them but since then, I lost my save as this game is known to corrupt saves from update to update.
While I will never use it to unlock achievements which I didn't meet the condition.
Currently I think I still won't use it, but I might consider from now on that if I deem I earned an achievement and it is bugged, I will manually unlock it.
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Philadelphus May 25, 2020
Ah, time to update! I first heard about SAM from the previous post on it here some months ago and checked it out. I've used it to unlock a few achievements which I've definitely fulfilled but were bugged and didn't fire, such as the achievement for playing a game on an archipelago map in Civilization V, which is broken. It's really nice to be able to unlock those few achievements which have been taunting with their unattainability.
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I have to agree that this thing feels like a pure "cheating app", even if in most cases you'd just be cheating yourself out of the chanse of earning the achievments honestly.
Even using it to unlock achievments that simply failed to unlock due to a glitch...would still kind of feel like cheating to me.
Like competing in an athletics competition where you win the highjump, only for the whole competition to be canceled due to a fire or something, no medals for anyone. So when you get home you put it an order to the "trophy store" to have them engrave a medal for you, that you feel you did earn, even though technicaly the medal will always be a "fake" not a real one.
Well...that's just how I feel anyway, any kind of cheating has always been a "pet peeve" of mine. But to each their own.
Last edited by Feist on 25 May 2020 at 1:53 pm UTC
Even using it to unlock achievments that simply failed to unlock due to a glitch...would still kind of feel like cheating to me.
Like competing in an athletics competition where you win the highjump, only for the whole competition to be canceled due to a fire or something, no medals for anyone. So when you get home you put it an order to the "trophy store" to have them engrave a medal for you, that you feel you did earn, even though technicaly the medal will always be a "fake" not a real one.
Well...that's just how I feel anyway, any kind of cheating has always been a "pet peeve" of mine. But to each their own.
Last edited by Feist on 25 May 2020 at 1:53 pm UTC
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Philadelphus May 25, 2020
From my point of view, I got the achievement—it's not my fault the game's bugged and doesn't recognize it. And while in a perfect world I would absolutely report these to developers, realistically some of these are never getting fixed. (Civ V, for instance, will never have its Linux port updated, and incidentally has a few such bugged achievements.) I only use it in cases where I absolutely, positively, and unambiguously met the requirements for getting an achievement, where it's 100% certain that it must be bugged (where people have sometimes even checked the code and seen that it's bugged). It definitely doesn't feel as good as seeing it pop up in-game, but at least I can finally rest easy knowing that I've got an accurate achievement completion percentage.
On another, perhaps more positive note, the new ability to see stats is going to be super handy for those achievements which need them but are bugged and don't show them. Now I can finally see exactly how many more tiles of forest I need to cut down in Civ V for that Paul Bunyan achievement. (Yes, I know there's already a way to do that for Civ V, that's just an example. I know there are other games out there which don't show stats properly.)
Last edited by Philadelphus on 25 May 2020 at 2:11 pm UTC
On another, perhaps more positive note, the new ability to see stats is going to be super handy for those achievements which need them but are bugged and don't show them. Now I can finally see exactly how many more tiles of forest I need to cut down in Civ V for that Paul Bunyan achievement. (Yes, I know there's already a way to do that for Civ V, that's just an example. I know there are other games out there which don't show stats properly.)
Last edited by Philadelphus on 25 May 2020 at 2:11 pm UTC
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Quoting: PhiladelphusFrom my point of view, I got the achievement—it's not my fault the game's bugged and doesn't recognize it. And while in a perfect world I would absolutely report these to developers, realistically some of these are never getting fixed. (Civ V, for instance, will never have its Linux port updated, and incidentally has a few such bugged achievements.) I only use it in cases where I absolutely, positively, and unambiguously met the requirements for getting an achievement, where it's 100% certain that it must be bugged (where people have sometimes even checked the code and seen that it's bugged). It definitely doesn't feel as good as seeing it pop up in-game, but at least I can finally rest easy knowing that I've got an accurate achievement completion percentage.
Yeah, I can agree that is a fair way to use it. Personally, it's not that I think using it in such a way is wrong at all, it's more of an "uneasy gutfeeling" kind of thing. :S:
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Quoting: GuestIf global stats can be messed up so easily, then it's not exactly a very good system is it. I still remember the days where games came with cheats out of the box, often in the manual and it was a very normal and accepted thing. Now people are far too quick to judge.Quoting: Liam DaweWhile it's not particularly harmful and game-breaking for anyone else, it still skews global achievement statistics which are useful for real achievement hunters.Quoting: ageresUgh, cheating software...That seems like quite a small-minded thing to say about it. Changing your own personal achievements affects no one else.
And IMO buggy achievements are not an excuse for such tools - bugs should be reported to developers, not workarounded by essentially "cheating" tool which breaks stats for everyone. Especially when it's not a really game-breaking bug.
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bradleypariah May 25, 2020
I understand that some people find value in trophies/achievements. I personally find zero. I actually dislike them a little.
I don't need a picture of an icon that is stored online after I press the right button enough times to tell me I achieved something. The only thing I want to achieve is having fun. I know when that's happening, without Steam or the game devs telling me. When an achievement pops up in the bottom-right corner of my screen, I sigh with a little contempt. I don't want to think about me playing the game, I want to be immersed in the game world. Achievements are distracting.
I have never once talked to someone about which achievements I've earned. I have never once tried to get all the achievements for a game. That sounds really repetitive and boring to me.
To each, their own. I understand that chasing an achievement is fun for some people. It's like a badge of honor for beating a game within the game.
However, if you use a tool like this to gain achievements you didn't earn, I think it means you value Steam achievements about as much as I do. They're worthless if you think you deserve them without putting in the work. I can see the practicality of awarding yourself a badge that you earned, but Steam failed to activate. Whatever. The world isn't any better after hearing my opinion. Not sure why I'm sharing it.
I don't need a picture of an icon that is stored online after I press the right button enough times to tell me I achieved something. The only thing I want to achieve is having fun. I know when that's happening, without Steam or the game devs telling me. When an achievement pops up in the bottom-right corner of my screen, I sigh with a little contempt. I don't want to think about me playing the game, I want to be immersed in the game world. Achievements are distracting.
I have never once talked to someone about which achievements I've earned. I have never once tried to get all the achievements for a game. That sounds really repetitive and boring to me.
To each, their own. I understand that chasing an achievement is fun for some people. It's like a badge of honor for beating a game within the game.
However, if you use a tool like this to gain achievements you didn't earn, I think it means you value Steam achievements about as much as I do. They're worthless if you think you deserve them without putting in the work. I can see the practicality of awarding yourself a badge that you earned, but Steam failed to activate. Whatever. The world isn't any better after hearing my opinion. Not sure why I'm sharing it.
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Quoting: GuestChanging your own achievements, does not directly affect anyone else. It's that simple. Apart from the already mentioned global stats issue. Frankly, I don't get why people care so much. It's a thing, has been for years, on Windows long before Linux had it and Valve never stopped it.Quoting: Liam DaweIf global stats can be messed up so easily, then it's not exactly a very good system is it. I still remember the days where games came with cheats out of the box, often in the manual and it was a very normal and accepted thing. Now people are far too quick to judge.How is it different from situation with multiplayer games with no anticheat? "If it's easy to hack, then it's not exactly a good game".
Edit: I do think this is an interesting debate though, and I'm glad we're having it. I'm happy to have my mind changed on such software, as I haven't felt like changing your own achievements is really such a problem.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 25 May 2020 at 3:41 pm UTC
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Stupendous Man May 25, 2020
I used this once for Euro Truck Simulator 2 since one of the achievements wouldn't trigger even though I had all the conditions for it (own a garage in all cities). Turns out just having had a map mod installed once messed up the game and made the achievement unachievable.
Call it cheating if you wish, but since I already had all the conditions for the achievement I felt it was perfectly legit to use SAM.
Call it cheating if you wish, but since I already had all the conditions for the achievement I felt it was perfectly legit to use SAM.
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Quoting: Liam DaweChanging your own achievements, does not directly affect anyone else. It's that simple. Apart from the already mentioned global stats issue. Frankly, I don't get why people care so much. It's a thing, has been for years, on Windows long before Linux had it and Valve never stopped it.Global stats are actually pretty much the only part I care about with regards to achievements. It’s interesting sometimes to see how many people have beaten the game, how many of those did a certain side quest, which NPC they chose to help, how rare a certain thing I did by chance is, etc. If people can just push a button to tick those boxes, the stats become untrustworthy and that’s a shame.
Even with the broken achievement use case, that means people who don’t know about those cheating tools will look at the global stats and wonder why only, say, 2% of people have unlocked that last achievement and why they can’t get it to work.
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Personally I enjoy achievement hunting in lots of games but not exclusively. Of my most played games two of the highest are sword of the stars: the pit at 184 hours which is designed to not really be humanly possible to get all the achievements as far as I can tell and xenonauts at 108 hours which doesn't even have achievements. Both thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless.
Generally I'd agree that what other people do doesn't affect me directly and I couldn't really care except for the fact that if people use this to get achievements that are bugged and don't unlock normally it can make things difficult trying to get developers to look into and fix things when it appears to them that things are working at least for some people.
I have contacted lots and lots of developers over the years about broken achievements resulting in some being fixed and at least one that I recall being permanently removed allowing people to get 100% completion. That was for a smaller game, too angry to space, where the developer could see that 0% of players had gotten a particular achievement so agreed to look into the code and found issues that wouldn't have been straightforward to fix so instead agreed to remove that particular one.
I've also found achievements that are definitely bugged and proven this to developers but as people had obviously used SAM to unlock the broken achievements it takes a lot more persuading by sending log files, save games, screenshots and stuff and some don't even want to know then if even a miniscule percentage have obviously used SAM to unlock a broken achievement. I forget which game it was now but a certain game that gave you achievements for each level completed had one level had a global percentage of less than 1% when the levels after it were all at least double digits and you couldn't skip levels in any way but as the developer hadn't heard of and didn't believe in SAM they insisted it was obviously working correctly. Really frustrating.
Still not a particularly big deal and people are going to do what they want anyway but that's my only minor frustration with this bit of software and I'd personally never use it. I can understand why someone would feel the need though if they want to get 100% achievements but find something broken.
I'd suggest trying the developer though in that case as a lot of them I've found to be really friendly and helpful especially the smaller ones. I've even received several free steam keys over the years for pointing out bugs which is really nice. I would advise emailing them directly though and being patient. Lots of people complain developers don't fix things immediately after posting in the steam forums/discussions. Firstly lots of developers don't even have time to scour the many messages there and secondly lots of these bugs take a long time to resolve anyway even if they are willing.
Generally I'd agree that what other people do doesn't affect me directly and I couldn't really care except for the fact that if people use this to get achievements that are bugged and don't unlock normally it can make things difficult trying to get developers to look into and fix things when it appears to them that things are working at least for some people.
I have contacted lots and lots of developers over the years about broken achievements resulting in some being fixed and at least one that I recall being permanently removed allowing people to get 100% completion. That was for a smaller game, too angry to space, where the developer could see that 0% of players had gotten a particular achievement so agreed to look into the code and found issues that wouldn't have been straightforward to fix so instead agreed to remove that particular one.
I've also found achievements that are definitely bugged and proven this to developers but as people had obviously used SAM to unlock the broken achievements it takes a lot more persuading by sending log files, save games, screenshots and stuff and some don't even want to know then if even a miniscule percentage have obviously used SAM to unlock a broken achievement. I forget which game it was now but a certain game that gave you achievements for each level completed had one level had a global percentage of less than 1% when the levels after it were all at least double digits and you couldn't skip levels in any way but as the developer hadn't heard of and didn't believe in SAM they insisted it was obviously working correctly. Really frustrating.
Still not a particularly big deal and people are going to do what they want anyway but that's my only minor frustration with this bit of software and I'd personally never use it. I can understand why someone would feel the need though if they want to get 100% achievements but find something broken.
I'd suggest trying the developer though in that case as a lot of them I've found to be really friendly and helpful especially the smaller ones. I've even received several free steam keys over the years for pointing out bugs which is really nice. I would advise emailing them directly though and being patient. Lots of people complain developers don't fix things immediately after posting in the steam forums/discussions. Firstly lots of developers don't even have time to scour the many messages there and secondly lots of these bugs take a long time to resolve anyway even if they are willing.
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Hey, does anyone have an idea if I can change playtime for my Steam games with this? Arguably that is another horrible invalidation of the pride of the achievement of some people having poured thousands of hours of their life (arguably a societal resource) into that game, but I have my reason.
Specifically I once upon a time wanted to idle cards. Now I'm finding it annoying that I have more hours in some games I have never played than games which I really care about and appreciate, but which just don't possess much replay value.
Specifically I once upon a time wanted to idle cards. Now I'm finding it annoying that I have more hours in some games I have never played than games which I really care about and appreciate, but which just don't possess much replay value.
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This is quite nice actually, maybe I'll actually finally fix the Portal 1 achievement that's been broken for me since release.
I've unlocked the achievement for beating all the advanced maps, also the one for beating four advanced maps, but not the one for two advanced maps.
And as I've already beaten them all I have no non-cheating way of getting the achievement, the game code doesn't actually allow it.
I've unlocked the achievement for beating all the advanced maps, also the one for beating four advanced maps, but not the one for two advanced maps.
And as I've already beaten them all I have no non-cheating way of getting the achievement, the game code doesn't actually allow it.
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I think the creator of the Stanley Parable got it all right, he made an achievement you can't earn unless you you purposely hack the game.. Says it all, can you stand a to only achieve 99% of a game ?
Some people have compulsory behaviour and game marketing divisions know that, and surely they'll have more people playing longer if you put in something like "Unlock max level in multiplayer" or "Unlock all content"...
Anyways on the other hand, global stats are SO valuable to game devs and marketing as it allows them track where most people stopped playing. It usually goes like that:
- Finish tutorial: 85% (a few people never played)
- Complete 1st chapter: 70% (a few people didn't like gameplay or what they've seen of it so far)
...
- Kill last boss: 30% (okay story and gameplay weren't this good or game was too long)
- Achieve game in difficult mode: 10% (these people liked challenge, should we have more or less in next game ?)
- Unlock 100%: 0.9% (these guys will buy DLC)
While it's just interpretation and roughly inaccurate, I doubt a fistful of people using SAM would actually change the stats significantly.
Last edited by a0kami on 26 May 2020 at 7:48 pm UTC
Some people have compulsory behaviour and game marketing divisions know that, and surely they'll have more people playing longer if you put in something like "Unlock max level in multiplayer" or "Unlock all content"...
Anyways on the other hand, global stats are SO valuable to game devs and marketing as it allows them track where most people stopped playing. It usually goes like that:
- Finish tutorial: 85% (a few people never played)
- Complete 1st chapter: 70% (a few people didn't like gameplay or what they've seen of it so far)
...
- Kill last boss: 30% (okay story and gameplay weren't this good or game was too long)
- Achieve game in difficult mode: 10% (these people liked challenge, should we have more or less in next game ?)
- Unlock 100%: 0.9% (these guys will buy DLC)
While it's just interpretation and roughly inaccurate, I doubt a fistful of people using SAM would actually change the stats significantly.
Last edited by a0kami on 26 May 2020 at 7:48 pm UTC
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Quoting: aokamiI think the creator of the Stanley Parable got it all right, he made an achievement you can't earn unless you you purposely hack the game.. Says it all, can you stand a to only achieve 99% of a game ?
Some people have compulsory behaviour and game marketing divisions know that, and surely they'll have more people playing longer if you put in something like "Unlock max level in multiplayer" or "Unlock all content"...
Anyways on the other hand, global stats are SO valuable to game devs and marketing as it allows them track where most people stopped playing. It usually goes like that:
- Finish tutorial: 85% (a few people never played)
- Complete 1st chapter: 70% (a few people didn't like gameplay or what they've seen of it so far)
...
- Kill last boss: 30% (okay story and gameplay weren't this good or game was too long)
- Achieve game in difficult mode: 10% (these people liked challenge, should we have more or less in next game ?)
- Unlock 100%: 0.9% (these guys will buy DLC)
While it's just interpretation and roughly inaccurate, I doubt a fistful of people using SAM would actually change the stats significantly.
Actually, Stanley Parable is lying. I got that achievement fair and square. I don't know what exactly happened and there's no way I can reproduce that, but it was a result of answering the phone once. I have 7/10 achievements for that game btw. Also if you look at the global stats then more people have the Unachievable achievement than the "entire tuesday" one. Of this might be hackers trying to be funny, but I agree with you and think people editing their achievements is a minuscule part of the population.
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Philadelphus May 27, 2020
Quoting: GuestBasically, think about achievements as some kind of "offline" competition.Yeah, that wouldn't be a healthy attitude for me personally. I can't control what other people do, so I'm not going to let my happiness be contingent on their actions. :)
These kinds of tools have been around for over a decade now, so I can either sit around and worry about the integrity of Steam's achievement system, or realize that the integrity was an illusion all along (though a pretty passable approximation) and get on with my life (and earning more achievements for myself ^_^).
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JSVRamirez May 29, 2020
Quoting: ageresUgh, cheating software...
This hadn't even occurred to me, though it seems obvious now it is mentioned. I was actually going to download it to use for some games (12 is better than 6, is the first that comes to mind) where achievements were broken on Linux when I played it, to make Steam reflect the actual situation. I've also known games not trigger achievements sometimes (like a bonus achievement for unlocking all others (DOTT Remastered, I'm looking at you,) so there's a few legitimate reasons someone might want to use this that aren't about cheating.
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