Arelith

Simple and in two (not necessarily complementary) parts:

-Make artifacts unrepairable.

-Make all artifacts lose repairing points when equiped. (I'm not sure how equipment decay works, so this might already be in place.)

This should ensure that at least some of those items get out of the module, so that it reduces the possible instances of massive artifact stockpiles.

Player made artifacts already disappear at an alarming rate, even though many players do their best to pass things on to characters that they trust to keep playing and pass things on to the next generation.

I wouldn't worry too much about stockpiles. You'd be hard pressed to find more than a small handful of equippable items that are more than 20 IG years old.

I'm speaking about the new artifacts, that can be acquired from [REDACTED], not old items. I already saw a shop with quite a few of them in it. If we don't want everyone decked in head to toe in artifacts, it would probably be a good idea to make them degrade.

I'm aware. Equipment is equipment. More than half of the artifacts you've seen are likely to vanish when this generation of characters dies or departs the island.

The problem isn't that people won't take their artifacts with them, its that said artifacts can be farmed quite easily in the current state of affairs, therefore allowing a single character to basically have very good equipment for most of his equip slots. If all that gear can be repaired, as of right now, then you'll have a lot of out of balance equipment around for a long time. I prefer keeping things fresh and allowing for new artifacts to take the place of the old ones so that if something stupidly powerful is generated, it won't be around forever.

You don't seem to address the crux of my suggestion in any of your posts, mostly saying that the problem it depicts is non existent, rather than discussing the merit of the suggestion itself. Personally, I'd leave it up to Mith to decide whether or not its a worthwhile investment of time, and focus on whether or not decaying artifacts is a good thing (And if not, why).

I personally think it is.

With respect to your suggestion, I'm not sure I understand the need.

I don't know anyone that's walking around bragging about a stockpile of artifacts. Then again, my highest level character is 7.

But here's what I do know. Stockpiles of power attract attention. Flaunting your stockpiles of power can lead to lots of Bad attention. To me, this 'problem' seems to organically generate IC conflict and interaction, and serious problem cases will lead to these interactions resolving the problems IC one way or another. (Whether you are good or evil or even neutral, there are people out there who will want to take these things from you).

I don't see the point in putting an artificial cap on artifacts just yet, although adjusting the rate with which they might spawn, if that is indeed an issue, might be in order.

Artifacts are meant to be powerful and tip the scales significantly in the right (or wrong) hands. So far what you've described sounds like a story waiting to erupt, not a problem to be fixed, IMO.

Is it only me who looks at those Artifacts and thinks "actually those stink"? Because most of them are so very niche, or hold powerful enchantments of a very unusual or specific nature, I've only ever seen one in a shop that I'd ever actually consider using. Why would I want a Good Halfling Wizard only pair of boots with 20/- Cold resistance when I could have enchanted boots with +1 Stat/ +1 stat and +1AC?

I doubt players will manage to fully equip themselves usefully to overpowered levels.

I still think they're cool though, just because they're unpredictable.

The problem is that even if you have a huge engaging story, at the end of the day you can't loot someone's corpse (with many good reasons for that). So they can just move on and not give a crap, there's no real challenge. I agree with you in principle however, this stuff should be self regulated.

Adjusting the rate of spawning would also be a good way to handle it, though I still think it doesn't necessarily invalidate the present suggestion. I like the idea of a powerful item making an appearance, getting used for a while, then disappearing into history.

I like the spirit of your post, but in my experience, things will not go this way. I already saw something like six artifacts in a shop, so stockpiles already exist. I've seen very little rp come of it (Of course, I might be mistaken and there could be a huge plot going on.)

Still, good feedback.

God in action: Many of them are useless, but I've seen rather insane ones. I definitely want to keep artifacts a thing however. I just think they should eventually vanish though. After all, it's not like they actually have a description or any flavour text.

Actually Mith, is it/would it be possible to make artifact description editable by the discoverer?

Making artifacts impossible to repair, faster decay rate or decay on equip/unequip is a humongous buff to caster classes who don't get involved in melee.

(...) a single character to basically have very good equipment for most of his equip slots.

So what? How could that even bother you? Why not just let that man have fun with his artifacts? Is it because he has it and you don't have it?

This is not offensive, but please enlighten me.. because all I can see is grudge.



(And no, I don't have artifacts myself. My highest toon is 12 and the most badass item has 3* +2 skill)

I believe he's refering to how grinding benefits a character even more now than before, over RP.

I still can't see why you'd take something away from a player, that obviously brings him joy, while he's absolutely not doing harm to anyone.

But maybe that's just me and my very narrow line of sight.

That is not exactly a valid arguement, as what brings joy to one may be harmful to another's fun, examples of this are the PvP/Be Nice rules, mechanical balance fairness, etc.

I think these artifacts are awesome and hope they continue as they are. Sure, many of them are not super useful to those who can use them, but they are unique, cool, and have already led to various "expeditions" to find more.

I believe that the general server sentiment goes against the OP's suggestion and personally hope things stay as they currently are.

IndifferentPerson wrote:That is not exactly a valid arguement, as what brings joy to one may be harmful to another's fun, examples of this are the PvP/Be Nice rules, mechanical balance fairness, etc.

That's why I added the ", while he's absolutely not doing harm to anyone." part.

I can totally see how PvP can be harmful. But this said guy goes places, killing monsters and looting chests. How does that harm someone else?

Your example has nothing wrong in itself. It is the consequence of creating an abnormal amount of artifacts that causes an issue.

I'm not speaking from a personal point of view, mostly from a server balance point of view. I think it's important to be somewhere in the middle of the "realism and fun" axis. If characters farming non stop brings them an advantage which they can then use to shape the roleplay of the server (Through wealth and pvp), then there is a problem. Also, artifacts are exactly that, artifacts. They should be rare things of wonder and work should be put into their acquisition, for the same reason you bother levelling up your character. Struggle, intelligently managed, is a part of why games are fun, and make rewards all the sweeter.

However, IndifferentPerson, your point about how it benefits casters a lot more is true, I hadn't thought of that. I still maintain that artifacts should decay, or at least be more limited in accessibility, but perhaps another option would be better.

Also Griefmaker, given that a very limited subset of players gave their opinion here, I don't think you can speak as to the "general sentiment" of the server. My suggestion is certainly not perfect (I thank those who took the time to point out the holes in it), but while this theoretical majority you speak of may or may not exist, you certainly don't speak for it. Not that Devs base their decisions on popularity either way, its been mentioned many times before that Arelith is not a democracy.

Bolded the important part.

I do understand the " artifacts are exactly that, artifacts." thing. And I certainly do agree there. They should be rare, I second that.

Here's my two cents and something I sent to Mith in a pm a couple days ago reguarding artifacts.

"So, I've been to a few different places with artifacts, and seeing different strengths and weaknesses of them.. I just wanted to say that I think they should be kept only in places that have adamite. Places like xxxx, xxxx, xxxx, xxxx are just too easy. For one all you need for an area like that is to be a mage with a pixie and run to the end invis and blast the crap out of anything guarding it and unlock/disarm traps with pixie for a basically free artifact. So simple suggestion would be to keep artifacts in spots that adamite spawns since those are the hardest areas. Like to know what you think!"

(the xxxx are areas I mentioned to him that I changed the names too)

His response. "Balancing accessibility and rarity is a tricky thing. Most artefacts will be weaker than other gear options so I am ok with them being uncommon rather than rare. But we're monitoring "

I think the real culprit is pixie familiars being rogues-in-a-box. It'd be a more palatable system if a mage actually had to bring a rogue to open the chest (or spent some precious skill points on rogue skills), rather than summoning their free class perk to do the job.

But, that's another age-old topic.

Random side suggestion: why should epics get all the fun? Most characters don't ever go to areas with Adamantine. Some level appropriate Artifacts in earlier dungeons would be cool too.

Yes I love this idea, although it's not that. Artifacts are only kept in chests that have a higher trap dc then any normal pc can disarm that isn't a rogue. The dc is always above 35 for disarming traps. and Unless you're a rogue you can't disarm them. I'm totally find with that, but when you bring pixies, and apparently druid/ranger rats? into the equation, those things can allow you to get artifacts solo. Only other thing that could ever solo artifacts is a pc with rogue levels in it.

God In Action wrote:Random side suggestion: why should epics get all the fun? Most characters don't ever go to areas with Adamantine. Some level appropriate Artifacts in earlier dungeons would be cool too.

Hey it was just a suggestion and it got rejected! So no worries! ^^

Suggestion to the suggestion!

Make Artifacts drop on death. Akin to gold dropping.

Tashalar wrote:Suggestion to the suggestion!

Make Artifacts drop on death. Akin to gold dropping.

Yeah. No way that will backfire.