I do if it's one I needed. Like if someone builds Hosten's Library before I do, I'll be pissed because I need to boost my tech research big time (falling behind ).

But I didn't care too much when Gilden built the Mint and the magical girl built the Abbey.

I like the sort of X-Box achievements, it's just a fun way of tracking progress, seeing what you've done, and creating new goals for yourself. Some of my friends play the games soley for the achievements... they are called achievement whores and they know it.

I also like the Civilization sort of "achievements" because they let you know whats going on in the world and keep you informed. It's also nice to kinda feel like you accomplished something important rather then hear nothing back. It's only one pop-up, it ain't so bad.

I was just thinking the other day how it seems so many games have to have so called "achievements" in them now. If they actually add something to the game, like an unlockable or something like the wonders fine, but the ones that are just icons on a stats screen I usually ignore. The exception being those ones that force you to think outside the box and play differently to get. They can help your overall gameplay when well thought out and designed.

They should really consider doing something Mass Effect-like with achievements. In ME, earning them gave you tangible bonuses (extra shield, damage, whatever). Same could be done here. "Win a Diplomatic Victory with at least 10 AI" could give you a % bonus to your diplomatic capital income. "Earn 500,000 Gildar with caravan trading" could give you a bonus to caravan income. So on, so forth..

The achievements that make you play a little out of orthodox can also award their bonuses. Like from Tridus' example, winning a map without founding a town can give you +1 to all starting stats, etc.

Well, with well designed achievements it would end up that by playing the game that exact same way would give you bonuses to that way of playing. The only "punishment" there is that you won't have bonuses geared towards the other play styles that you don't care about anyway.

The bonuses have to relate to what you do to get it, then as you play more and more you get improvements to your desired style of play.

You know whats awesome about achievements. Thats exactly what they are. If you don't like them, you don't have to do them and the game still plays the same for you.

That being said I enjoy them to a limited extent. I walk away from playing a game with a little more than just a save file and hours of my life gone.

I really hate those hard or retarded achievements. Kill 10000000000 enemies. Or die 150 times by walking off an edge.

Yeah I like to be rewarded for my achievements not punished.

I hate jumping online in a game to see someone whos obviously trying to get ah achievement as he runs around only using a melee weapon and gets no kills in a round. kinda ruins the point of team play.

Unless the AI starts getting achievement bonuses too ("Being killed in Easy Mode 1,000+ times", "Being betrayed by the Player 20,000,000+ times", "Failed to develop properly one of its cities 99,999,999,999+ times"...), no bonuses (and let's not mention MP). Unlocking non afecting game stuff like clothes for the Sovereign, alternate style for your buildings... Yeah, that's fine and cool. Unlocking new techs and/or unit types and/or possible initial spell book options could be even acceptable as long as the AI gets them too (somehow/if possible).

imho (I like ME's style but one is single player action rpg and Elemental isn't)

Why not? It's worked in ME quite well. Sure ME is a different game from Elemental, but neither of you actually said why it wouldn't work.

With regard to the "Those dirty Germans built Stone Henge first!" achievements: I like them. They give a brief idea about how the other players are doing, and add some nice flavor to the game. That being said, I would prefer they be along the lines of news broadcasts (like MOO2). Feel more like news from afar, rather than a big deity telling me to stop building the Great Wall of Italy

With regard to the "List of the top five most militaristic players": I don't really like these, just because they tend to feel pointless. You usually get a better idea of what is going on from just checking the various menus or even looking at the border. That being said, I don't really care if they are in or not. And, if Elemental's ratings system actually has meaning, this could be fun.

With regard to the "Impale five enemies with a single ballista shot": I DO like these, but only if they are done properly. They should either be things that happen over the course of gameplay (Bad Company 2's online achievements are a lot like this) or things that encourage you to try new and exciting things (the recent update for Half-Life 2 encouraged me to try Ravenholm with only the gravity gun. Was a VERY fun experience). But stuff like "Jump off a cliff ten times" or "Knife fifty people with gatling guns" aren't really my cup of tea. Unless it is the kind of game where you are encouraged to do crap like that (Just Cause 2 )

As far as unlocking stuff with global achievements: I am perfectly okay with that in FPSs and the like. But I am pretty sure Elemental isn't the kind of game that would really benefit from (or even work with) that kind of system.

Per-Character "Achievements": These would work great. I love them in the Total War series. In fact, I would be pretty surprised if a feature like this isn't going to already be in the 0-Day patch or capable of being added through scripting. Every time you massacre an enemy (maybe one unit kills off 50% of the enemy force in tactical), you get a chance of getting a trait.

Very different game.

I'm not a fan of it either for a game like Elemental. When you've got a sandbox game and each new map is starting fresh, why would I start with 10% more whatever then everybody else because in the last game I happened to kill 47 summoned units with cavalry under a full moon? The game should be getting easier because I'm getting better at it, not because I've played enough that my achievement bonuses give me a big advantage over the computer.

(And that's just the single player.)

Starcraft 2's campaign did a better job at it, for campaign purposes. You got a pool of resources you could spend, but a bigger pool to buy from and had to make some decisions. Do I want the stimpacks, or the bunker range? If I get both, maybe I can't get Maelstrom Rounds for my tanks (and dear god do I want that!). But you're always working with the same pool, so it's really about which units you use with your playstyle and want to support rather then just piling up bonuses for playing a lot. Also, none of it affects multiplayer.

Comparatively, I hated Demigod's favor items. Aside from the bugginess of favor disappearing several times, some of them were qutie powerful and it made a real difference in someone coming in and just flattening newbies without access to those items.

Your talking about a completely different world.

Raw sandbox is no place for carry-over advantages.

However ... if its a campaign that has multiple stages (and each stage is a new map), then a LOT of carryover can be justified.

For instance, in the original Empire Earth, etc ... wouldn't it be nice to bring the soldiers you managed to keep alive with you to the next map?

Or at least your top 3 unit's levels. (or your hero's levels)

in the HOMM campaigns ... you practically have to start over each time (or are given the exact same carry-over whether you had more or less soldiers/resources at the end of the last map).

So yea ... in multi-stage campaigns I could see some carry-over. But not in Raw Sandbox.

Achievements are things tied to the game as a whole, not to the individual campaigns ... therefore I rest by what I have said earlier.