Dev Diary: Achievements

What's happening / TLDR: Developer diaries introduce details of Espiocracy - Cold War strategy game in which you play as an intelligence agency. You can catch up with the most important dev diary (The Vision) and find out more on Steam page.

Grand strategy games have no universal objectives or victory conditions (unlike almost all other video games). Instead, players pursue open-ended gameplay, with optional self-imposed and/or externally-suggested goals. In the latter category, special role is played by "achievements": challenging state of the game that can be reached by the player, recognized by the game, and rewarded with notification and a badge.

As always, Espiocracy tries to slightly innovate on various tropes. In this case, objectives are a part of setting up a new game:

You can add custom achievements, based on values and categories (and even roll a new random and custom achievement). You can also mark chosen achievements as your main objectives: these will be displayed in a few places (such as pause menu or quinquennial intelligence report - useful when you return to a save after a break), and upon achieving them, you will be rewarded with a superevent (special flavor event with custom imagery, shape, and music). It's mostly a flavor option for players who prefer achievement-focused runs, it does not influence ability to achieve other objectives.

Speaking of which, achievements generally are not limited to Ironman mode (preventing reloading saves, you are stuck with any mistakes you made), with a few notable exceptions of achievements related to nuclear weapons and one-time actions - so that you can feel the weight of decisions when pursuing, for instance, "Red Spree-Athen" achievement (conquering West Berlin, which has WW3 and nuclear implications).

As you can see from the name of this achievement, the names can get sophisticated. They usually refer to history, phrases, and culture. Another example: achievement for Soviet landing on the Moon borrows a verse from Alexander Pushkin's "Winter Road". We won't explain other references - figuring them out may interesting in itself for our clever future players.

Conditions of achievements focus purely on good gameplay (that is, we reject meme-driven achievements). They are divided into a three main categories, corresponding to gameplay: Espionage, Cold War, "Big Five" (USA, USSR, UK, France, China - countries receiving majority of attention during development of the game).

Espionage Achievements

• Behind enemy lines: Infiltrate a hostile country

• Cambridge Five: Run at least 5 high-value spies at the same time

• Kim's gambit: Plant a mole inside a hostile intelligence agency

• Panopticon: Establish spy networks on six continents

• The Puppetmaster: Recruit an actor with influence 25 or higher

• Eminence grise: Survive 32 years as a single spymaster

• Operation Pimlico: Recover your arrested spy through exfiltration or spy swap

• A wilderness of mirrors: Handle a triple agent

• The craft: Reach level 100 in any specialization

• Grand Slam: Achieve large success in an intelligence operation

Cold War Achievements

• Wirtschaftswunder: Increase State Power Index 2x

• Critical mass: Become nuclear power as one of the countries that did not develop nuclear weapons in the history

• We restored order and constitutional rule: Stage successful coup d'etat

• Partisans are dangerous individuals: In a civil war, change side to insurgents and win it

• What belongs together is now growing together: Unify with another country as the dominating side

• Battle of systems: Switch main ideology from liberal to communist or from communist to liberal

• You can choose your friends but not your brothers: Establish client state as non-superpower

• When the world sleeps, we will awake to life and freedom: Gain independence

• And we call ourselves the human race: Survive one year after global thermonuclear war

• Progress into the Unknown: Master any futuristic paradigm before 2020

Achievements For "Big Five" Countries

• AddedStar-sprangled worldCreate new pro-American views in 25 countries

• We flew into space, and we saw God there: Put an American on the orbit before Soviets

• Our nuclear sword of Damocles: As the USA, preserve lead in the number of nuclear weapons, until the USSR collapses or until 1990

• Nuts!: Win an expeditionary counterinsurgency war as the USA

• Domino theory: From the USA, do not allow any state to embrace communism in Latin America for two decades

• Red Spree-Athen: Conquer West Berlin, from East Germany or USSR

• Through the wavy mists, the Moon makes its way: As the USSR, beat the USA to being the first to land a man on the Moon

• We have buried you: As the USSR, overtake USA in State Power Index

• Comrades of ours: Establish communist client states in Africa and Latin America

• Soviet people are blazing the true way to the triumph: Survive as the USSR until the internet paradigm shift

• Our thoughts move across the seas: As the UK, retain Suez Canal and at least 5 colonies through decolonization wave, until 1970

• Holbrook: As the UK, pursue domestic ICBM program and introduce its fruits into nuclear triad

• Peace in our time: From the UK, do not allow the Troubles to begin, until 1990

• AddedE uno pluresForm CANZUK, as the UK, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand

• Britannia rules the waves: As the UK, achieve higher diplomatic weight than the USSR

• Algerie francaise: As France, establish Algerian client state, and maintain it for 10 years

• Francafrique: From France, initiate and dominate a Pan-African organization with at least 15 member states

• City of Light: Host headquarters of NATO and EU in France

• Force de frappe: As France, develop first nuclear device before the UK

• Vive le Quebec libre: Support Quebec separatists in achieving their goal from France

• Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?: As China, establish diplomatic relations with both superpowers by 1960

• Firm and correct political orientation: As China, develop domestic political ideology and spread it to at least 5 countries

• On this tiny globe: In China, ensure full control of mainland China and Taiwan, either as communists or as nationalists

• Middle Electronic Kingdom: As China, achieve paradigm shift in electronics in 20th century

• Confucian world: From China, develop highest soft power in the world

Other Achievements

• Microcenter: As a non-theocratic microstate, reach diplomatic weight of 50

• I didn't forget you: Hunt down a Nazi war criminal

• Engineer of consent: Control narrative around at least 3 major events at the same time

• In search of a better world: Achieve paradigm shift 5 years earlier than the historical date

• Master of Bandung: Become the most influential member of Non-Aligned Movement

Your Achievements

In addition to 50 achievements above, designed by us, we also plan to include a number (up to 50) of selected best achievements proposed by you, the community. We have already 2000+ (!) nice achievements suggested on our discord server in a "achievement-ideas" channel, from which we are slowly selecting the best suggestions. In addition, we invite you to post your achievement ideas here on Steam Forums and in other places related to the game. The best ideas, in terms of potential gameplay, will appear in the game.

Final Remarks

The next dev diary will be posted on Christmas Eve: December 24th.

If you're not already wishlisting Espiocracy, consider doing it

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1670650/Espiocracy/

There is also a small community around Espiocracy:

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---"The best way to achieve complete strategic surprise is to commit an act that makes no sense"- CIA director, Robert Gates