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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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.
3 Likes, Who?
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.
2 Likes, Who?
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.
1 Likes, Who?
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.
0 Likes
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.
0 Likes
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 ^_^).
1 Likes, Who?
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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