FoxMulder24 3 Feb 2023 18:13

I know exactly what to do. If the enemies get their beam cannons off before you can escape that's like 3 to 4 seconds shaved off their. You can't tell me that it is not heavy RNG based.

Enzis 3 Feb 2023 19:31

FoxMulder24 is completely correct. If you see my message above, I struggled with this garbage for hours, as did most people. Again, if you watch the official speedrunner video it's based off of, it's based off intimate knowledge of every rng that's been triggered in game up to the point, including every pixel you've moved. You're ultimately supposed to use this knowledge to "trigger" a battle in a spot where you can't battle. Since no normal person does that, it is absolutely up to rng.

I have a lot of respect for developers (am one myself), and no developer can reasonably be expected to know all this. Which is why taking feedback is a MUST, and this site really needs real amin support to fix or move or delete bad achievements.

Hollandex 3 Feb 2023 21:00

I've tried reporting this specific achievement. The creator just gets mad that you try and bug report it. They also offer absolutely no suggestions on how to get it changed. I started a thread in the forum asking how we suggest edits, citing this specific achievement.

https://retroachievements.org/viewtopic.php?t=20184&c=152313

Maybe if we get enough traction on that thread, we can get this modified.

VSilverwings 3 Feb 2023 21:16

I have no objections to relaxing the achievement, it's not like there's anything specific reason for that exact time. First and most obvious suggestion would be to lower the target time. I can't really offer a time as I have no real issue with the initial target time. Those who do would need to offer a consensus. I don't think you'll get much traction since it's not a specific achievement thread, just a general one.

As for your thread's message, I think you're exaggerating a lot. No skill? So I guess step counting isn't a skill. And no one likes it? Well I do and you're more likely to get people complaining than not since few will take the time to post about it if it's not affecting them. 33% is not a tiny number and I can bet most of the 66% who haven't probably didn't bother or know about it. I'm only posting because I wanted to help and now I'm defending what I find to be an innocent enough achievement that took maybe a few tries. I took longer trying to get Cait Sith game over achievement.

Getting Fat Chocobo is luck based too and has LESS people obtaining it. Many others are below that and aren't luck based so why don't more people have it? Maybe they just don't care.

I think it's safe to say we're not going to get the other person to change their mind though so I'm not going to keep replying trying to. I'm not going to fight any modification but I see no reason to promote it either.

FoxMulder24 4 Feb 2023 14:44

I'm not gonna argue about this. I'm just saying this achievement is heavily RNG based and it's the very first achievement in the set. Could it not just be added to the subset instead of the main set?

Dazzman 4 Feb 2023 14:55

The battles are RNG based, however the encounters are based on the amount of steps taken, so you can get through it if you battle just before triggering the scorpion fight. It's not an easy achievement, but it is doable. I was frustrated with it when I first did it.

Even if you don't like the achievement though, don't report a ticket. That's the worst thing you can do. You can submit a revision and they can get the achievement demoted if it's voted on. However, if you report the achievement it generally winds up the dev because it isn't a bug in the code and the achievement is working as intended. I had someone report one of my achievements because they thought it was too hard. That's not what the ticket system is for.

FoxMulder24 4 Feb 2023 15:15

I am not gonna report it. It's just frustrating, lol.

Dazzman 4 Feb 2023 16:36

Hollandex said they had, though. It's frustrating as a dev getting achievements reported when they work fine.

This achievement isn't the hardest though, just annoying. I'm sure doing a no hit run on Megaman 1 or 2 is more frustrating though.

Wimpyfox 4 Feb 2023 18:12

Its really not that hard imo

Hollandex 4 Feb 2023 20:09

"The battles are RNG based, however the encounters are based on the amount of steps taken, so you can get through it if you battle just before triggering the scorpion fight. It's not an easy achievement, but it is doable. I was frustrated with it when I first did it."

That's not true at all. You may have gotten lucky but I've gone through half a dozen times or so and missed it by mere seconds. And the reason is because you HAVE to escape each battle, and you HAVE to escape it before a full round of attacks has finished. If the RNG denies your escape, even once, that's bye bye achievement.

Anyone saying "this was so easy!" just got lucky on the RNG. But please recognize that, of the 60+ comments here, only a small handfull of you are claiming this is easy. The rest of us are proving that it is fully RNG.

Scott 5 Feb 2023 17:45

So, one of the achievement guidelines is that requiring bugs or glitches is an unwelcome concept. Knowing how the 'step counter' works isn't either of these, but it does require a sort of understanding of the game that you are unlikely to get from just playing the game itself, i.e. it requires research to really understand it.

However, the same goes for many complex achievements and sets on RA. To me this achievement treads the line between appropriate and unfair. I didn't get it first or second time and it upset me enough to ragequit, mainly because I didn't understand what more I could have done, and it felt entirely RNG whether I would get encounters or not. Learning that there is a step counter that can be juggled makes me want to try again.

Ultimately adjusting the time to add just a few more seconds allowance might be enough to push it towards being 'fair'. I'm considering doing something similar here: https://retroachievements.org/achievement/1247

I don't want to reduce a set's more difficult achievements, or gatekeep, but I wonder if a set could be more inviting if the achievements associated with the first 5% of the game were less intimidating. It's something worth debating, there is no right or wrong here, and this achievement fits into RA as-is in my opinion. It's just frustrating (in my opinion) that it appears to be far too heavily RNG-weighted.

Hollandex 5 Feb 2023 20:05

"I don't want to reduce a set's more difficult achievements, or gatekeep, but I wonder if a set could be more inviting if the achievements associated with the first 5% of the game were less intimidating."

This is a very important thing to consider and it's a shame other achievement creators don't.

This is exactly what happened to me with this achievement set. This achievement is the FIRST achievement in the game. I've already beat FF7 enough times, so beating it again just for the sake of it isn't in the cards for me. But to achievement hunt, heck yeah! But this achievement stopped me from even continuing. If this is the first achievement in the set, who knows what other BS is waiting later in the game. I mean, could I eventually get this one? Sure. Do I really want to save scum before a boss and have to deal with the entire first chunk of the game just to find out if I succeeded? Nope.

celestorion 5 Feb 2023 21:20

Yeah, because this achievement right here turned me away from even touching the rest of the game. Even if something like 15 seconds were added to the timer, it'd help out.

Wimpyfox 6 Feb 2023 08:08

This set has an achievement that mandates you play a JRPG in one specific way through the whole game for one achievement, yet the short and easy RNG speedrun at the beginning is somehow what puts people off.

Hollandex 6 Feb 2023 17:43

"This set has an achievement that mandates you play a JRPG in one specific way through the whole game for one achievement, yet the short and easy RNG speedrun at the beginning is somehow what puts people off."

I think the terrible RNG of the first achievement has made people not even see what's later in the game. I'm genuinely not surprised there are other crappy achievements in this set. But most of us aren't going to bother getting that far because we see what BS the very first one is.

Scott 7 Feb 2023 10:27

@Wimpyfox - yep, I believe it put me off

bootmonster 10 Mar 2023 16:26

This should be a bonus set achievement not a mainline one, really strange having it in a main set honestly

assdeper 11 Mar 2023 23:55

Just got near to making it after dozens tries. It's easier than I first thought, but still pretty bad cheevo.

1st because the amount of luck it does involve.
2nd for that time being this short for no reason.
3rd because FFVII, as the first 3D FF, came out with awful direction mapping around the scenarios - at some it just doesn't make sense at all.
4th for making me feel stupid :'(

rlxldk 12 Mar 2023 15:59

This cheevo is not hard, I repeat, set CD-ROM read to x6 in core settings, and you get it in 10-20 minutes. I did

LevelZero0000 16 Mar 2023 17:43

The encounters just eats too much time. Achievement is too RNG based, you just don't know how long an encounter is going to keep your party before u get to run away.