Steam Tests "Achievement Sets" So Updates Don't Undo Your Progress

Valve is testing a new Steam feature called Achievement Sets. It lets developers group a game's achievements into collections. Eurogamer says that Valve wants to solve a problem: games keep getting updates, expansions and extra content, and the new achievements can be hard to find. They can even accidentally break the completion status of players who had already finished the game.

Developers decide how many sets to make and what each is for. One game might make one set for single-player and another for multiplayer, while another game might have eight sets, one for each class of character. Players unlock achievements as usual, and Steam then sorts them into the sets. Each set has its own progress bar, and finishing one adds a "set complete" trophy to a player's profile. If new achievements are added later, the completion stays.

There are two kinds of sets. Base Game sets hold achievements that every player can earn, and they are shown in blue. DLC sets, shown in purple, hold achievements that need extra content that has been bought. Achievements from DLC do not count toward a player's overall game progress until the player has access to that content, so they can be tracked separately.

Developers can also archive single achievements or whole sets. Valve says this could suit games based on seasons or holiday achievements that are only available for a short time. People who already unlocked an archived achievement still see it on their profile, while it does not block anyone else from completing a set or the game.

You can now find a new page for achievements by going to the Games List on the website or by looking at your games inside the Steam Library. Search now has filters for sets and for locked or unlocked achievements. Players can compare their progress with up to three friends. Elsewhere, the Perfect Games tab is now called Completed. It shows both finished games and games with completed achievement sets. Games played through Family Sharing now appear in the Games List.

The beta is open to players and developers, and Valve says it will keep making improvements. Games such as Portal 2, Dredge and Left 4 Dead 2 already use achievement sets.