Any way to transfer my Achievements from Steam to my local game?

[Harry]

Hi all,

I played the heck out of AI War a year or so ago, and I earned a few Steam achievements -- surprisingly few, given that I had 90 hours of gameplay!  I unlocked 15/234, or so says my Steam Library.  But my PC died abruptly, and I guess I hadn't made any backup saves -- groan!  At least, I can't find any on the external hard disks I was occasionally using for backup.

Anyway, I've now reinstalled the game on my spiffy new PC, and I had no trouble reactivating and starting again.  But as far as my "local" installation is concerned, I'm a complete newb, with no achievements (and, needless to say, no saved games).  Obviously this isn't a big deal, but it would be nice if I could persuade the game to remember that I've done at least a *few* noteworthy things.  Is there any way to tell the game about my Steam achievements?

A slightly more serious issue is whether the mismatch between my local installation and my Steam achievements will interfere with my accruing new Achievements as I play the game now, from scratch.  I guess I'll find out.

Anyone have any thoughts on all this?  Don't worry, I won't be crushed if the answer (as I expect) is: "tough luck, you should have backed up!"

[x4000]

Hi Harry,

In the case of Steam achievements, it's a one-way street for a few reasons. 

One, it would be easy to cheat and "give achievements to other players" if steam could download achievements into your local profile.  Because we support syncing of local achievements with steam, so if you then used your profile on someone else's steam account, it would upload all your achievements back to them and then they have them duped from you.

Two, we sort of figure that some folks might want to start fresh after a certain point -- letting them clear their local stuff without having steam re-download it all lets them have the new experience locally again if they want to.  Such as if, for instance, it's a different family member on the same local steam account and they want to be able to collect the achievements, as one example.

Lastly, you have nothing to worry about in terms of this disconnect getting in the way of your earning any more achievements locally or on Steam.  One achievement isn't a prerequisite for any other, so whenever you earn something new locally you'll get it locally, and if it's not already on Steam it will give it to Steam as well.

Cheers!

[Harry]

Thanks for the reply.  Your explanation makes perfect sense.  I'm glad to hear my new Achievements (if any) should work fine with Steam. 

Also, I hadn't exactly unlocked the hardest of Achievements anyway.  I'll probably unlock the same ones again (24-hour campaign, for example).

I don't know why I worry about Steam Achievements at all.  You don't get "points" for them the way you do on, say, XBox Live.  (This feature of Steam is apparently designed to permit modders to make new Achievements.  Steam doesn't want a modder inflating his own score by giving himself scores of easy Achievements.)  But playing "Deus Ex: Revolution" I obsess about each and every achievement!  Go figure.  I suppose it's human nature.

[x4000]

All good!  And yeah, I think it's just human nature -- I prefer intrinsic rewards of playing a game, but that's just me.  And I do have some fun with achievements, depending on the game.