Don't set checkpoints that make re-attempting achievements impossible

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

One of the things that I've always hated about the story programming is that we're not given a chance to start over when going through it.  Whether we quit an episode or resume it later, our progress in an instance is saved no matter what we do.  This poses a bit of a problem if the instance sets up checkpoints in the middle of a section that has an achievement for completing it.  There's a couple of these in the story, probably more than I encountered, but it is frustrating to no end when Anet does this.

To take a particular example, in the story step "the only one," there is an achievement for climbing the tower within 14 minutes, as well as an achievement for not getting downed while doing it.  The gimmick of this particular section is that the player receives immense buffs to make them all feel powerful.  I encountered an immediate problem in that these buffs don't extend to the Mechanists Mech.  This made the time achievement potentially impossible, since a third of my outgoing damage has been effectively nullified.  I had already died upon learning that my shield didn't block the large area attacks.  So, I decided to just leave the instance and come back in.  But, lo and behold, I'm started back in the middle of the fight, with all achievements now unavailable.

I hate this to no end.  Now if I want the achievements, I have to go through the entire rest of the story, sitting through endless prattling dialogue, and then I have to re-start the story, go through endless prattling dialogue, and then I can make one attempt.  If that attempt should fail, I again have to go through endless prattling dialogue at the start, because the checkpoint still starts me in the middle.  I don't care what the characters have to say anymore.  I am angry because I want the achievement, and for some reason Anet has designed the game so timely re-attempts are impossible.  It wastes far time having to go through the entire story to repeat this one step than it does simply letting people re-attempt these achievements on their first run through.

The Only One isn't the... only one to have this problem.  The achievement for Laser Show Off in the middle of the story step Weight of the World has a similar issue.  There are arbitrary checkpoints in the middle of the puzzle, and if something should happen that achievement gets turned off.  An older example is the instance of "Be My Guest", wherein the Dexterous and Flexible achievement can be failed when an invisible laser spawns right at your feet during the boss fight, but it cannot be re-attempted anymore due to the way the in-story checkpoints are placed.

I don't know why Anet keeps designing stories like this.  There's many ways to fix this kind of problem, such as keeping track if the achievements were still flagged prior to the checkpoint, or only putting checkpoints at places that conveniently let players re-attempt it if they fail.  But, every time, Anet doesn't do this.  You're not somehow getting more money out of the game by making it as inconvenient as possible to re-attempt achievements.  Just let the players fail, so then they can win.  

[Taygus.4571]

you don't have to replay the entire instance. When you finish the story and go to replay, you can select 1 of 4 checkpoints. The second or third one should put you where you want to be.

[Healix.5819]

You can reset the checkpoint by starting a different chapter. That said, you're meant to come back after you've finished to replay it for achievements, which gives you access to selecting which checkpoint you want to start at.

[Keymaster.7362]

This Story achievments were never meant to be completed in the first run.

If you choose to play an already finished cheapter again, you will see pink stars instead of green ones on every instance entry. On them you can choose a specific Story check point for your achievments.

Edited March 17, 2022 by Keymaster.7362

[mythical.6315]

3 minutes ago, Keymaster.7362 said:

This Story achievments were never meant to be completed in the first run.

For LS2 story achievements and others that conflict with each other, yes.

Edited March 17, 2022 by mythical.6315

[Taygus.4571]

7 minutes ago, mythical.6315 said:

For LS2 story achievements and others that conflict with each other, yes.

that was because people raged about not being able to do achieves on first run.. its still intended, that you finish the story, nab achieves if you can.. repeat after finishing via checkpoints if you couldn't 

[mythical.6315]

1 hour ago, Taygus.4571 said:

that was because people raged about not being able to do achieves on first run.. its still intended, that you finish the story, nab achieves if you can.. repeat after finishing via checkpoints if you couldn't 

Do you have a source stating that it’s not intended?

[tmorrow.5189]

I completed the 5 and 14 minute challenges a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure if things have changed in recent patches but there's something you ought to know that may be relevant to your own issue.

 

I found that if you replay from the checkpoints, you aren't given the power you get by doing the entire instance. I can confirm this because I replayed for the 5 and 14 minute achievements from the replay checkpoints and could not get them after several tries. The problem was that I could never do enough damage to the rolling sphere and ran out of time.

 

I then resorted to 2,3,4,5 player attempts and could not get them even after knowing the fights pretty well. The friends that helped said they had no problem with the achievements when they played them through solo and they were scratching their head as to why the spheres took so long to destroy. They thought it might be problems with scaling but weren't sure.

 

Finally I resorted to doing the entire instance from the start (all with same character, no changes) and I BREEZED through both the 14 and 5 minute achievements. You are definitely given more power than what you have restarting from the replay checkpoints.

 

Hope this helps.