CONTEST: Design the new artifact system

Ideas for improving Starport:GE

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CONTEST: Design the new artifact system

Post by Toonces » Fri Sep 21, 2007 7:47 am

How can the artifact system be made more interesting. Post your idea on how to make artifact hunting more fun. If your idea gets used earn fame and glory plus 50k admiral tokens.

No guarantees. I might go with a system that doesn't get suggested.

Personally, I was thinking of making each artifact represented by a random combination of two groups, like {gloves,hat,sword,ect.} and {"of power +2", "of speed +3", etc.} Actually maybe that would be three different groups if you included the amount-of-bonus-number. The better ones like +5 could be extremely rare.

Please do not post more than 1 reply on this topic. Thank you!
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Post by dirt » Fri Sep 21, 2007 7:57 am

As far as artifact hunting goes, the bar keep meathod is nice but a lil' spontinaity would be cool to, perhaps everytime and igs dies a new artifact is born.

Or everytime you kill an npc in an igs "behold you rummeged through the wreckage and found "artifact". Perhaps you could buy upgrades for your artifact.

As far as Artifact stats ect goes, eh i could care less i'll pwn everyone anyways. :twisted:

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Post by avitohol » Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:34 am

Yeah we need to divide up the properties of each artifact atm. Even though they have a role in the game some are overpowered in turns of value and use.

Like ig suits. They represent why too many factors in the game. With enrgy regen and superior fighting characteristics they are seen as the most valuable. Maybe if the energy regen is toned down or replaced with superconductors it would make them more fair.

They idea of adding artifacts for ship characteristics and personal characteristics might be a cool idea. Like have two that work for the ship and two for the character (person whatever).

For example having an ig suit and sc for the ship. And having a necklace and pulsator for the character. That way makes the game harder due to overpowered artis and more balanced by bringing in another characteristic to your profile.

Again we could just have one arti to represent different aspects of both the
ship and character. Like and oracle that upgrades the chips engines. A superconductor that upgrades weapon's system. And an Ig suit that upgrades pilots prowess. Kinda add more evolution to the arti combos you can have in the game.

Again these are off the head ideas. theres people who have more developed ideas of this aspect. Like Roe's chipset idea.

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Post by Talak.Winstar » Fri Sep 21, 2007 1:25 pm

Ok, I am gonna enter this contest toonces! :)

To make artifact hunting more interesting, some areas where bartenders say artifacts are sighted could have bogus artifacts (think of fishing for a sec. Your line catches something, you get happy, but when you reel it in, it turns out to be a boot or a tire, or some such random crap.). Bogus artifacts may range from an IG toilet to spoons, to so-forth.

Furthermore, If you have like 10 dexterity / 5 wisdom/charisma then you cannot use some of the other artifacts

Listed below are suggested new artifacts and possible rewards for combining them:

IG amplifier: Alone, this artifact boosts your shield strength by 10%. For each shield emanator you carry in addition to this artifact, you gain an additional 16% in damage reduction....at the expense of 2 points of dexterity. (rare)

Sentry drone: This artifact decreases the damage dealt by all explosives (including nukes) by over 25% (Very rare)

Gravitronic booster: Gravitronic boosters boost the strength of your ship's weapons (both primary AND secondary) by over 450 points of damage. However, it increases your vulnerability to explosive based weapons by 5% (cannot be obtained if you are carrying an IG amplifier or shield eminator. And vice versa) (This artifact is EXTREMELY Rare, and provides a slight boost to dexterity [+1])


Expander kits: This artifact expands both cargo holds by 20 holds and equipment bays by 2. (a bit common)

Virtual projection bracelets: This artifact boosts your charisma by 4, and it boosts the income you make from taxi jobs and trading by 8%. (Very rare)


Governor's sash: This artifact (can only wield one at a time) boosts the effectiveness of all colonies under your control by 40% (must have at least 6 charisma to use).

This ones in the spectrum of medium usefulness. :) Its called the mind control gun (work the name) and what it does, is it allows pirates to recruit colonists from ports in much the same way as positively reputed characters.

In response to peterje's succeeding post, but in an attempt to make an original version of his idea... Artifacts should only have 4 colors... White represents a weak/common artifact, red indicates a medium powered/rare artifact, while purple represents, Brown/purple represents a strong artifact/very rare, and dark green represents a very strong artifact/incredibly rare..

Note: if I win, I want the tokens to be deposited to my character Cadin.Giliad on Battle royale. :)[/b]
Last edited by Talak.Winstar on Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:28 pm, edited 4 times in total.

petertje

Post by petertje » Fri Sep 21, 2007 1:33 pm

just an idea:

first of all, all of the old artifacts come in 5 different colors:
yellow, green, blue , red and orange (or any other colors..doesn't matter for the idea)

The color decides how good and how rare every artifact is. Yellow is easiest to find and worst, orange hardest to find and best.

for example: yellow aura necklace would give you +1 charisma, green +1 charisma and a little more colonists from port, blue +2 charisma, red +2 charisma and a little more colonists from port , orange +3 charisma (which would give you more colonists from port than a red one)

could of course also be 3 colors with +1,+2 and +3 charisma.

yellow I.G.map = -0.3 warp/hop
green = -0.6 warp/hop
blue = -0.9 warp/hop
red = -1.2 warp/hop
orange = -1.5 warp/hop


yellow Oracle of wonders = -0.2/hop
green = -0.4/hop
blue = -0.6/hop
red = -0.6/hop
orange = -1.0/hop

as you can see this would mean that some oracles are better than some I.G.maps , making oracle not completely useless (when compaired to I.G. map)

also some extra artifacts could be added;

yellow (name that seems suitable) = +1 char + 1 wis
green = +1 char + 1 wis + 1 dex
blue = +1 char + 1 wis + 2 dex
red = + 2 char + 1 wis + 2 dex
orange = + 2 char + 2 wis + 2 dex

yellow (name) = +turning
green = +turning + thrusting +speed
blue = ++turning + thrusting + speed
red = ++ turning ++thrusting ++speed
orange = +++ turning ++thrusting ++speed

though at these last two the color woudn't have to mean just how good it is, could also be how well it suits you.

yellow = ++turning
green = +turning +thrusting +speed
blue = ++speed +thrusting
red = ++ speed + turning
orange = ++ turning ++thrusting ++speed

etcetera.

Intergalactic artifact (better name please but for now...). These artifacts are extremely rare and only appear in orange form. Ones you have three of them you can buy (1 time ) the I.G.ship at sol (or also at the other bases).
You can also buy these artifacts for 4k tokens a piece at the admiral club. The I.G. ship will cost as much as the scout falcon.



To make artifact hunting more fun you could give clues of where other artifacts are when you find an artifact and show what the artifact exactly does, so newer players won't wonder what they have found

for example:

"you have discovered a green superconductor! this artifacts makes your ship faster. In the wreckage of the ship you also found a report saying there is another wrecked ship within 5 hops of alpha lupi (xxx,xxx)!"

Also possible:

a good artifact hunter might soon find more artifacts than he can carry. Not to worry, just put them in your inactive slots!

in your profile (right next to your active slots of artifacts) you will see your inactive artifacts, these are not visible for other people and ones artifacts are placed here they can not be placed in the active slots. They can only be taken out of the active slots by trading. No orange artifacts can be placed here.



right i want to check the new patches now, so if you don't mind i'll just deactivate my idea bubble here and go play. I don't know how good or how possible these ideas are so if someone would kick me in reality about that it would be great. :P

reaction to post below:

hurray! and yes colors is just a way of making an obvious difference between them, could give them any name...
Last edited by petertje on Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by fireblade211 » Fri Sep 21, 2007 2:05 pm

such a nice idea petertje, but the yellow/green/blue needs changed, colors just dont fit wel with it

needs to be something like... godly, superior or something..

have it as a small chance from a alien that normaly when u find artifact its from a shot down ship, have it where a alien took over that ship and stole the artifact and you have to kill a alien for it

basicly- for every alien u kill, you have a small chance of finding a alien, and u can still find it the normal way

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Post by KiT » Fri Sep 21, 2007 5:16 pm

petertje wrote:just an idea:
...
...
And now imagine what would be on some 2-year old premaserver. People will have enough time to collect only orange artifacts. 3 IG maps + 10 wis = -6,5 fuel per jump. When flying a speedstar would that give you 0,5 fuel every jump? But yeah, different levels of artifact is overally a good idea. but enough discussing, i came here to give my suggestion.


== Lifespan ==
The main problem of making very powerful and very rare artifacts is that no matter how rare artifacts are, given enough time player will find all of the arts he needs of highest levels. And this will make him so much stronger that it would ruin the new-old player balance. Newbies would be in even bigger disadvantage than they are at the moment.
What i suggest is giving every artifact a lifespan. It should be about 30 days (can vary on different servers), so it does not affect rebang gameplay, but helps avoid stagnation and overpowering on perma servers. To make it easier to implement and make less things in player menu, you could give an artifact a chance to break instead of giving it a fixed lifespan. So, to make artifact work for 30 days in average, it should have a 1/720 chance to break per hour. The stronger artifacts should have shorter lifespan, making them very rare items that give a player a temporary but very strong advantage.
Also, lifespan will create a constant artifact demand from top players. This will give newbies a new way of earning money - hunting for artifacts and selling them to top players. Its obvious that for a newbie it would be much better to sell a superior artifact for 10mil, probably making him many time richer than he was, than using it for himself.
The problem which may seem to be with the lifespan is that top players may think of it as of pollution - something that constantly makes problems and makes them have to go artifact hunting every time they lose the art. But, unlike pollutuon, where contractors are only about to be implemented, you always can buy needed artifact from somebody else.
There could be a specal common artifact "nano repair robots", which would help save your artifacts - when one of your artifact breaks, robots immediately repair it, but by doing this exhaust their power and break. Basically, its an "artifacts saver" artifact. You have to waste 1 artifact slot for it, and you never know which of your remaining artifacts breaks first, so it would be useful only for people who have very rare artifacts.
Obviously, the artifact regeneration rates should be way higher than they are currently.These can also vary on different servers.

== Artifact levels ==
Pretty much like petertje's idea - there should be 3 levels for each artifact (5 are just too much, higher level artifacts are imbalanced). Chances of finding artifact of higher level should be about 3 times less than of higher level. What i mean is that lvl2 art is 3 times harder to find than lvl1, and lvl3 is 3 times hardew to find than lvl2. In percents that would be 7.7% , 23.1% and 69,2%. To make them more simple these percents can be rounded to 70%, 25% and 5%.
While chances to find an artifact drop geometrically, bonuses they give should rise mathematically - by some fixed amount. For example a IG map would give you bonuses of -0,5 -0,8 and -1 fuel per jump (+0,25 fuel economy per level)
Needless to say, with such low chances it would be pointless to search aimfully for the rarest arts. Newbies would fly with lower level artifacts and sell the better ones to top players for nice price.

== Artifact Sets ==
Idea taken from casual fantasy MMORPG's. Pretty simple one - some groups of artifacts (level doesnt matter) should give an additional bonus when equipped together. The good thing about sets is that it will discourage players from hoarding multiple artifacts of same type. Unlike hoarding arts of same type, a set of artifact gives increase for multiple parameters, making player better overally instead of giving him a bonus in one particular parameter. Some sets should specialise in only one sphere of gameplay, some should give better bonus but for completely different parameters.

Among current artifacts there can be only one set - IG set. IG Map and IG Suit. There could be added an additional artifact, like IG Radar Amplifier which would decrease costs of scanning by 1/2/3, dropping it up to 1 fuel per scan. With full set on, it could give you additional 100 exp per hour for owning every IGP. This set is mixed - it gives bonuses to combat, exploring and exp.
Other sets could be imagined easily:
Trader set:
Aura necklace - gives 2/3/4 additional charisma.
Persuasve pulsator - improves bargaining
Cargo container - Gives 20/30/40 cargo holds.
Set bonus:
Get 15% discount on all hardware items. (shields, cargo holds, defences, weapons, scanners). With this your return price almost equals buy price - you dont lose almost anything when changing ship/weapon/scanners.
Builder set -
Genetical modificator - increases pop change rate by 5/10/15%. This will affect the FINAL pop change rate. Yes, when it drops, it'll drop faster. But when its stable, it'll remain stable, which is important.
Broadcast Amplifier - increase morale by 0,2/0,4/0,6.
Optimal building blueprints - increase building point production by 10/15/20%
Set bonus:
Harvesting on all planets increased by 15%.

And so on... - battle set, some mixed sets... i guess imagining these shouldnt be hard - just think of every variable prameter and imagine a cool name for artifact.

Whew, i think that's all for now. Maybe i'll update this post later if i get any other ideas.

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Post by milo » Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:32 pm

*****summary*****

Image
(you could even squeeze the char, dex, and wis up a little more to make more room for the arti section)

Revisions:

- 6 artifact slots(instead of the 3 we have now); 2 for add-ons and 4 for upgrades
- arti's now come in 2 different sizes, small (takes one slot) and large (takes two slots)(in the example picture the ansible would be a large arti)
- artifacts would generally have 3 "strength" levels
- the new artifacts would be the following: (toonces edit these as you please)

Miscellaneous:

Losing Artifacts
artifacts would be lost when a player dies (non pax). only one artifact would be lost each time the player dies. the artifact lost would be the most recently acquired. on pax servers the artifacts would wear out in 2 stages. in the first stage their bonus would be reduced by 50%. (this stage would last about 10 days. in the second stage they would become useless and have to be jetisoned or traded :twisted: .

Tradeing Artifacts
(new) artifact trading will be short range. this means that they may be traded with other players that are within 15(debatable) hops of your location.
Artifact Viewing in Profile
- see example picture above
- other players can still view arti's in a players profile

Finding Artifacts
- arti's will be obtained in the same way they are now. however to make getting them more interesting i suggest adding a few more methods. through combat with another player(you get the one they lose), a NPC(e.g. = about 1/10 times you would get an arti along with the credits and exp), or as payment for a taxi or escort. i also like rojo's idea of occasioonal news flash of arti locations.
- atrifacts earned by destroying another ship, taxiing, or escorting will be automatically added to your inventory in the appropriate slot(s) unless a proper slot(s) for it is unavailable. if you cannot carry the artifact it will simply not be awarded to you.

Scanning Artifacts
(new) when you find an artifact, a short range scan will tell you what the name of the artifact is.

New artifacts: (I'm working on names)

Upgrades (effects)

- Energy regen rate lv1 = 105% lv2 = 110% lv3 = 120% (small upgrade)
- turning rate lv1 = 105% lv2 = 110% lv3 = 120% (small upgrade)
- thrust rate lv1 = 105% lv2 = 110% lv3 = 120% (small upgrade)
- top speed lv1 = 105% lv2 = 110% lv3 = 120% (small upgrade)
- atmosphere cavitation reduce drag effect by lv1 105% lv2=110% lv3=120% (small upgrade) (affects both thrust and top speed but only on a planets surface)

- increase weapon range lv1 = 110% lv2 = 120% lv3 = 130% (large upgrade)
- increase weapon damage lv1 = 110% lv2 = 120% lv3 = 130% (large upgrade)

- increase wisdom lv1 = +.5 lv2 = +1 lv3 = +1.5 (small upgrade)
- increase charisma lv1 = +.5 lv2 = +1 lv3 = +1.5 (small upgrade)
- raise the warp fuel cap lv1 = +500 lv2 = +1,000 lv3 = +1,500 (large upgrade)
- experience bonus lv1 = 105%/hr lv2 = 110%/hr lv3 = 115%/hr (large upgrade)

Add-ons (effects)

- allowing the owner to carry extra shields lv1 = +500 lv2 = +1000 lv3 = +1500 (small add-on)
- increasing cargo holds lv1 = +50 lv2 = +100 lv3 = +150 (small add-on)
- increasing equipment bays lv1 = +1 lv2 = +2 (small add-on)
- increasing equipment bays lv3 = +5 (large add-on)
- Increase on board credit capacity lv1 = +20mil lv2 = +40mil lv3 = +60mil

***note***
- percentages listed as say 105% would mean that the thing that arti affects would be 105% of the default. In other words it would increase the default effect by 5%
- Percentage bonuses do not compound on each other. For example if I had 3 arti’s that increase my weapon damage by 30% each, my total weapon damage would be 190% of the default damage for that weapon, not 219.7% of the default damage.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***explanations*** (this is mostly outdated but the general reasons still hold true)

ok so you want to make the artifacts system more interesting. there are 2 problems with it now. some aretifacts are much more powerful/usefull than others and so once a player collects the ones they want they stop looking for them because they have no need to look for them.

we should definately keep the bar method of getting arti cords, but i think that we should add artifacts as part of taxi payments so the longer the taxi the rarer the arti. this could also be true of escorts.
How to make arti hunting more exciting.....you need some kind of guard for an arti...like a wicked good NPC or something, because hacking your way through 100 aliens is no fun....
this is another good idea. getting arti's from killing npc's. you could even go as far as making it so that killing npc's gets you arti's that affect your ship and character and the artifacts you find on planets are ones you put in your colonies
------------------------------------------------------------
there are a few steps we have to take to improve the system.

first of all we need to divide up each artifact's properties (like avithol mentioned) to make it 1 property per artifact. but since this will decrease the overall affect of arti's on game play so to compensate 2 things should be done
1. introduce levels
== Artifact levels ==
Pretty much like petertje's idea - there should be 3 levels for each artifact (5 are just too much, higher level artifacts are imbalanced).
i don't like colors so lv1 lv2 and lv3
2. increase the number of artifact a player can carry
we would need to increase the number of arti's a player could carry from say 3 to 6. there would be 2 types of artifacts, expansions which would serve as expansions to your ship, and upgrades which would serve as upgrades to your ship or person. 2/6 slots would be reserved for expansions, and the remaining 4/6 slots would be for upgrade arti's. some arti's should take up more than one slot so you would have large(2 slots) and small(1 slot) arti's. these changes would ballence the system a little more. diversity and ballence among artifacts is what increases the importence of individual preference during game play, which in turn creates a deeper and more interesting playing experience. another good idea by jwilson is:
Engines (2 slots)- only artifacts affecting speed, turning, energy regain, warp fuel efficiency, etc... will have any effect
Weopons, shields - artifacts affecting the strength of shields and or weopons will work in this slot
Character (2 slots) - artifacts affecting ur character stats can be placed here

This would make those currently worthless artifacts like cloak of disquise, aura necklace, and others i cant think of have some worth as u would have slots that would be good for nothing else
good idea but i feel that it would dampen individualism a bit too much by forcing a builder to carry weapon boosting arti and vice versa (i based my expansions and upgrades off this idea)

next we need to increase artifact diversity. the following are some suggestions for new artifacts. adding levels to the artifacts would further increase thier diversity.

instead of the ig suits you would have these arti's that increase each aspect of dexterity individually. these would be small arti's.
- energy regen rate level 1 = 110% level 2 = 120% level 3 = 130%
- turning rate level 1 = 110% level 2 = 120% level 3 = 130%
- thrust rate level 1 = 110% level 2 = 120% level 3 = 130%
- topspeed level 1 = 110% level 2 = 120% level 3 = 130%

some other possible arti's include:
- allowing the owner to carry extra shields level 1 = +500 level 2 = +1000 level 3 = +1500
- increasing cargo holds lv1 = +50 lv2 = +100 lv3 = +150
- increasing equipment bays lv1 = +1 lv2 = +2 no lv3
- increase weapon range lv1 = 110% lv2 = 120% lv3 = 130%
- increase weapon damage lv1 = 110% lv2 = 120% lv3 = 130%
- atmosphere cavitation lv1 reduce drag effect by 5% lv2=10% lv3=15%
- increase wisdom lv1 = .5 lv2 = 1 lv3 = 1.5
- increase charisma lv1 = .5 lv2 = 1 lv3 = 1.5
and so on.

finally we need to improve artifact circulation. circulation is important especially on permas. this would instigate the continual search for artis and would produce another economic sector (like barging, and hauling) for players to interact. (<==not enough of that lately!)
i have listed some suggestions below.

- keep the ability for players to trade artifacts. with the added diversity and greater equality players will be more inclined to trade with one another. for example player 1 has their arti's set up for invading, but after taking a half build planet they would like to have some more cargo holds for building. player 2 has some arti's that do this and wants to configure for invading. so they talk it over and make a trade.

- players should be able to trade arti's with players in another system, but not across the entire galaxy. i suggest that we add the "short range" trade ability on the trade menu. this would allow a player to trade certain objects with other players within a certain, say 10, hop range.

- when a player dies they lose their most recently acquired item. this would allow them to arrange their arti's (by trading) in order to safegaurd the ones they like most. this may be problematic on pax servers so i would suggest a time limit on arti's in pax games.(for instance an arty would become old and it's bonus would be halved. the player would be notified in the news so they could search for a new arti to replace it, then a week later it would be usless and have to be jetisoned...or traded :twisted: )

-------------------------------------------------------------

these are some pretty large and i imagine complex changes, so take your time with them like you did the "colony change patches"(they turned out very well :D ) combination bonuses is a cool idea and all but a bit unnecessary and mabe too complex so my proposal does not include them.

if i win tokens go to milo on pv2
Last edited by milo on Fri Sep 28, 2007 6:40 pm, edited 29 times in total.

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Post by Jwilson6 » Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:55 pm

hmmm... i doubt i would win but with a 50k tokens prize i got to submit something


how about u have

Engines (2 slots)- only artifacts affecting speed, turning, energy regain, warp fuel efficiency, etc... will have any effect
Weopons, shields - artifacts affecting the strength of shields and or weopons will work in this slot
Character (2 slots) - artifacts affecting ur character stats can be placed here

This would make those currently worthless artifacts like cloak of disquise, aura necklace, and others i cant think of have some worth as u would have slots that would be good for nothing else

add on a few more artifacts like

Tyrolean Shield booster - adds 2k shields (as opposed to the shield emenator that reduces the amount of damage cuased) (does not come in red)

Antarean Suit- Adds 500 speed to whatever ship ur flying

Weopons booster - makes ur primary weopon do 15% more damage (can only use 1 at a time)

Hardware booster - makes all hardware items cuase 15% more damage per hit (includes all mines, lazers, nukes, negs, and flaks,) this item would dissapear after 500 uses, and will only affect items when turned on or off (or for a simpler sollution is always on while in the weopons/ shields slot and remains inactive while in all other slots) can only use 1 at a time

Artifacts can be placed in any slot but only those placed in the correct spot are active

Also there would be 3 different types of each artifact... I kinda liked the color ideas said earlier so ill go with that

Yellow- a yellow artifact will have all the normal bonus's that a regular artifact has, except a yellow artifact will dissapear after 2 weeks of active use... (very common)
Red- The Red artifacts will have twice the benefits of normal artifacts but they will dissapear after 2 weeks of active use... (Rare)
Green- The green artifacts have all the normal bonuses but will remain permanently (slightly more rare than Red)

(I got to go now ill edit this later and add in more)
Last edited by Jwilson6 on Sat Sep 22, 2007 5:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by Spectre » Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:49 pm

Who were the Intergalatics? Where did they live? What kind of beings were they? They obviously had a higher tech level than that of earthlings and Antareans (not to mention who the hell are the Antareans and where are they?) so where the hell did they go? Was it some kind of mass extinction where they all died simultaneously and crashed their high tech ships into nearby planets? If those ships have something left after being destroyed than why aren't there remains of other (more common) ships on planets? I dunno just random musings and food for thought...

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Post by duece » Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:51 pm

I'm not going to go very in depth, but a partial idea to add on to someone else's. Each server should have 1 special arti of each kind, something noticeably better than everything else, but with some draw backs. If someone shoots you down, you lose those arties and they can acquire them. And if you own one you're name will be marked with a special color in the who's online, and rankings page to draw peoples attention to. And if someone ever lands in a port after the owner of the special arties and buys a drink, they'll get a "____ was here recently, he had an amazing ship, i saw him head out to (whatever system they left to next)" or something to that affect..

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Post by Scotty » Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:54 pm

I dont actually have an idea, but I do think that there needs to be some more references to the Intergalactics. There really should be some kind of a story line to follow if the player wants, and artifact hunting should like, go along with that, something like a goes along thing.

Not really an idea, but I think a new arty system should definetly have more referneces and information on the intergalactics.

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Post by RHINO » Sat Sep 22, 2007 5:13 am

when will u pic a winer?
Last edited by RHINO on Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:57 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Post by NoObie » Sat Sep 22, 2007 4:14 pm

I got a good idea for artifacts...would make hunting them mroe fun anyways :P

1. Make aliens capable of dropping artifacts. It'd be the only way to get them, rather than finding them on random planets.

2. Each artifact can add from +1 to +3 bonuses to your character stats. Obviously, the +3 ones would be the rarest ro find.

3. Your character would have a total of 10 artifact holds, and you can pick and choose which artifacts you want to choose from. However, you can only use 3 artifacts at a time, even if you have 10 artifacts in your holds. It'd be sorta of interesting to switch betweem artifacts, depending on whether you're invading, pvping, or jsut building.

4. Each time you die, there would be a ??% chance of losing one of the three artifacts that you were using when you died. It'd sorta of keep the total number of artifacts limited, and make them somewhat more special, rather than having 90% of the server with 3 IGS or 3 SCs :P

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Post by Smeagol... » Sat Sep 22, 2007 5:23 pm

How to make arti hunting more exciting.....you need some kind of guard for an arti...like a wicked good NPC or something, because hacking your way through 100 aliens is no fun....

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Post by RHINO » Sat Sep 22, 2007 7:37 pm

then make the new arts

do some thing cuz if i hafe to find my arts all over agen

it best be worth it paying 5k tokens for the ones i have now would realy piss me off if i had to git new ones and thay dont help me and lets not git started on the fuel i put in to looking for them be for i just payed for them with tokens.... but here is a new idea......

make the art system more fun well when u think of arts u think of junk

in a way all arts are junk thay can be any thing from a vase to a lamp

or a coion or even a book..... but like all things that are old like arts

thay are worth cash $$$ u have the ones that are rare and ur comen ones to lets trow all that out the door........ :shock:

and start with a hole new page for arts..... how about we make the new arts help out in more ways then just building and fighting/invadeing

trun the system in to a new kind of system now take star trek

there there ships take damg there ships has BBQ on it that helps
it in combat and in missons of peace ......
lets have 4 art grops

art grop1=combat/invason

combat art 1=boost weapons:adds 400 damg to weapons fire
combat art 2=boost shelds: adds 1k to shelds
combat art3=boost speed: adds 1.34 to max speed of ship

art grop 2=building
building art 1= adds 50 to cargo houlds
building art 2=cost 30% less to rush
building art 3=res cost 50% less at ports

art grop 3=old arts
we all no the old arts


art grop 4=new arts
new art 1=jack of all trades=adds 2 to dex chr and wiz
new art 2=jammer= one will not show up on radar or in system list but can be seen if passed
new art 3=lower whigt= ur ship will read 150 tons less



ok now the cols arts was a bad idea but this is some thing i was just thinking of as i typed all off the top of my head :x
Last edited by RHINO on Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:34 pm, edited 8 times in total.

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toast
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Post by toast » Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:19 pm

wayyyy to overpowered. but i think your on to something..that is a sick idea.

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Spectre
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Post by Spectre » Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:36 pm

I really like the basic idea Rhino but it needs a little refinement. Lessen most of the effects and clean it up some and you might have something.

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Wound.
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Post by Wound. » Sun Sep 23, 2007 6:19 am

robotchicken wrote:I'm not going to go very in depth, but a partial idea to add on to someone else's. Each server should have 1 special arti of each kind, something noticeably better than everything else, but with some draw backs. If someone shoots you down, you lose those arties and they can acquire them. And if you own one you're name will be marked with a special color in the who's online, and rankings page to draw peoples attention to. And if someone ever lands in a port after the owner of the special arties and buys a drink, they'll get a "____ was here recently, he had an amazing ship, i saw him head out to (whatever system they left to next)" or something to that affect..
lol that sounds an awful lot like my idea :wink:

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Post by duece » Sun Sep 23, 2007 6:23 am

Wound. wrote:
robotchicken wrote:I'm not going to go very in depth, but a partial idea to add on to someone else's. Each server should have 1 special arti of each kind, something noticeably better than everything else, but with some draw backs. If someone shoots you down, you lose those arties and they can acquire them. And if you own one you're name will be marked with a special color in the who's online, and rankings page to draw peoples attention to. And if someone ever lands in a port after the owner of the special arties and buys a drink, they'll get a "____ was here recently, he had an amazing ship, i saw him head out to (whatever system they left to next)" or something to that affect..
lol that sounds an awful lot like my idea :wink:
well i may have gotten some outside inspiration :P

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Post by Elemayo » Sun Sep 23, 2007 7:34 am


Temporary Artifacts


These artifacts provide a small benefit to your ship, but are lost with your ship should you die. They are relatively common, and easily found. And range from weapons and scanners to Hardware items. They wont take up Artifact slots.

Hardware:

Cannot be dropped off in a weapons factory.


Anti-Matter Missile- An Intergalactic weapon that deals roughly twice the amount of damage a normal nuke does. It also has increased speed, thrust, and maneuverability.
Disruption Torpedo- A missile that deals about as much damage as a negotiator, but also produces combined EMP and No Energy regen effect for 3 seconds. 3 seconds isn't very long, compared to the usual EMP length.

Gravity Mines- Single explode mines that deal around 3000 damage. They have a noticeable gravitational attraction, in the range of a large Gas Giant to a Medium sized star. Can be deployed on planets.

Concussion Mines- Compound mines that have a Galaxy Whale Repel effect when they explode. Damage of these mines is reduced by 1/3. Can be deployed on planets.

Missile Platform- Turret that fires Vulture like missiles, but deal twice as much damage as them. Missiles are only attracted to Ships and not other turrets. Can be deployed on planets. This can take twice as much damage as normal turrets.

IG Mirror- A turret that emits a Merchant Freighter like special, but instead of eliminating them it deflects them in the exact opposite direction homing towards any enemy of the owner. Of course the speed at which it can deflect depends on military settings, meaning it's not invincible. Same amount of hit points as a normal laser. Can be deployed on planets.



Equipment:

This includes Scanners, Weapons, ect. When collecting these you are prompted if you want to equip them or not. (Alternatively, you could provide that the player could collect these in some way, without them equipped, and sell/trade them to other players)


Rail Gun- This weapon requires that the player have Metal Ore in their cargo bays, as it would use them for ammo. Comparing it to a Fusion Blast, it would do about 175% damage and would fire twice as fast.

Proton Lance- A beam that homes just like the Grav, but drains the enemy's energy at the twice the rate as yours, and does twice the damage until they're out of energy.


Inteli-Scanners- Resembling Neutrinos, but instead of coming back a tonnage, it lists out exactly what's on the planet. The number of aliens, turrets, mines, etc. Costs 8 fuel.

War Scanners- Scanning the system will return back the shield level of anyone in the area. Rather then needing to be in proximity of the enemy to see their shields. It also reveals what kind of hardware the enemy is carrying, ship type, and weapons.


Matter Digitizer- Increases Cargo bay capacity by 20. Can only carry one.

Plasma Collector- Doubles Energy regen when around a star. Can only carry one.

Shield Amplifier- Increases shield capacity by 2000. Can only carry one.


(Remember, they aren't over powered because these are lost along with your ship, should you perish)



Permanent Artifacts

Pretty much the same idea, maybe throw in some new ones. Now as far as leveling goes, as many people pointed out, on Permas this would mean that everyone, with time, could get the top level of everything. This is my solution...

Semi Permanent Artifacts

Upgraded Versions of artifacts, but there's a limited number of them and they can't be found by bar tips. To prevent people from hoarding them, when the owner dies, a wreckage of his ship is deposited on the nearest planet with the artifact in it. Therefore this allows a chance for them to recover it, or for another person to.

And with the advent of being capable of seeing other's artifacts, people would hunt you to get their hands on it.



I dunno, it's a little past midnight, and my ideas are kind of shuffled. But I hope you get the jist.

Should any part of my ideas be implemented, I'd be up for designing any needed sprites.

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Arti system

Post by DaRsHaN » Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:59 am

1.0: The general idea

This system keeps in mind that artifacts are actually alien in nature. We have no idea why they were actually made, nor what they were meant to do. Heck, perhaps this one was originally made to keep the ship clock accurate? Maybe it's supposed to be a gourmet cooking utensil? We don't know. All we know is that if we experiment a little, we may find a use for it that could help us in our captaining career.


None of the artifacts have a straightforward use. They give add and/or subtract values from a set of fields(that may or may not be visible) which are only affected by artifacts.


Therefore, you will never see an artifact of just +2 dex because the intergalactics would never have designed an artifact with human attributes in mind. You may be able to find an artifact of +1 flux delineation which enables slightly greater ship turning speed once you hook it up to your engines. However, this may have the additional side effects of greatly increased top speed, slightly increased afterburner energy requirement and crippled shield strength all as a result of the unexpected boost in the ship engine's abilities. You may also wear the artifact, to different effect. This will be further explained in section 3.3 and 3.4.


Also, this suggestion (which may span several posts. Wall of text alert!) will not include any mathematics. This is left open for discussion.


2.0: Nature of an artifact

Artifacts can have a - or + random number in any number of fields. It may be possible to find, for example a -2 energy concentration/ +3 local spatial distortion, “two-facet” artifact or maybe a +1 flux delineation/ -5 spatial distortion/ +3 sub-molecular kineticism “three-facet” artifact. Artifacts that have greater + or - in a field are slightly rarer than those with smaller magnitudes. Artifacts that increase/decrease multiple fields (has multiple facets) are exponentially rarer compared to those that change one or two fields (have one or two facets). The number of facets possible per artifact is unlimited (providing there are enough corresponding fields).


Also, every +1 to a facet gives only small increases/decreases to ship aspects when linked up. The names and number of fields is developer’s choice. I’m of the opinion that 18 fields may be a reasonable number.


2.1: The effect on your ship and attributes

All artifact fields or “facets” can be used to modify any portion of your ship, with vastly different results. +1 flux delineation incorporated into engines may increase turning speed and top speed with the side effect of added afterburner energy usage and decrease in shield strength, but incorporated into shields may cause a slight decrease in shield strength, some shield regeneration, and the side effect of a large decrease in weapon energy usage. The effects are the same for identical fields.


Artifact incorporation into a ship aspect will always affect something, but not always that ship aspect that you specified. +1 flux delineation into hardware bays will do absolutely nothing to the bays themselves, nor the hardware inside and hardware energy requirements, but may increase top speed.


2.2: Reinstating general idea.

The idea is that all artifacts are unpredictable and will do extremely different things depending on how you use them. After all, if you attach a gourmet cooking utensil to your cargo bay, the cargo bay won’t be affected except probably by having a cargo slot filled up. But the food freezing part may help with overheating in your internal energy transfer to your primary weapon.


3.0 Getting the artifact to work:


Incorporating an artifact into one's ship requires a bit of effort and ingenuity. After all, nobody is sure how it is they are really supposed to work.


3.1 Finding:

Before a starship captain can use an artifact, they must find it. This is done in the exact same way as the old system. You may randomly planet hop, fighting aliens for their resources when you suddenly come upon an artifact. Or maybe the bartender at a starport has heard a rumour. Again, the artifact is found inside the wreckage of an intergalactics' ship. Once you have found it, you now have an artifact doing absolutely nothing sitting in the ship inventory.


Other possible methods of finding artifacts mentioned in other posts can be possible. This particular artifact suggestion places no emphasis on the methods of finding artifacts.


3.2: Identifying:

The next step is optional (optional for the starship captain, that is). Since it’s impossible for you to know what the artifact does, you must find somebody who can give you an idea of who it may be used. This can again be done by asking the bartender at the local starport, preferably with the use of a new button. One bartender only know a fraction of all there is to know about artifacts and the amount of information they yield will depend on how good a customer you have been. Examples:


No previous custom at that starport:

“This artifact is triple-faceted” (This is also immediately obvious to the starship captain. Therefore, it is the equivalent of no info.)


Some custom (a few drinks):

“The second facet of this triple-faceted artifact allows you to boost shields”


Quite a lot of custom (around half price inn mark):

“This triple-faceted artifact includes –2 flux delineation as the second facet. Put it into shields to strengthen them, but the side effects are very bad.”


Extreme amounts of custom:

“This triple-faceted artifact’s second facet: –2 flux delineation will boost shields, cripple your acceleration and slightly increase weapon energy use when connected to shields.”


The bartender may have more information that this if you ask multiple times (In the case of no custom, the bartender will simply ask if you wanted to buy drinks). Some bartenders may also tell you how they recognised the –2 flux delineation, in which case you will be able to identify that artifact field yourself from then onwards. (If individual bartender knowledge would take too long to implement, random bartender knowledge could be fine as well. What the bartender actually says is up to developer). This ends the optional step.


3.3: Ship Incorporation:

Now the artifact must be incorporated onto the ship or person. Firstly, the not-so-confusing option: ship incorporation.


A captain must buy hardware (before use, this may occupy either a hardware or inventory slot; developer’s choice. It is also up to developer whether hardware needs to be bought at all, but it is essential that making a connection costs something) that allows one aspect of the artifact, e.g. facet 2 (which just happens to be -2 flux delineation) to be connected to one ship aspect e.g. shields. Another piece of hardware may be added that connects facet 2 to engines, and a third may connect facet one (+1 energy concentration) to weapon systems. Connections may also be made to the artifact that specifically disallows it to affect a ship aspect. For example, you may not want –2 flux delineation to cripple your acceleration when connected to shields. Therefore, you install a disallow hardware between the artifact and engines. It is now impossible for any facet of that artifact to affect engine sub-aspects. It is also impossible to connect any facet of that artifact to the engines.


The total number of artifacts + total number of connection hardware will have a limit. This limit is your ship inventory (Exact limit to be determined). For example, the inventory limit being 6, you may have 2 artifacts on board, leaving you room for 4 connection hardware. It is possible to have a 16-facet artefact in one inventory slot, leaving you with five connections to a maximum of five of the facets. Shipbound artifacts do not affect captain’s attributes in any way.


Connection components can also take damage from enemy fire, but may be repaired. Connecting a facet to a ship spec more than once allows more damage to be taken before the hardware is destroyed. Artifacts never take damage, but may be lost with the ship if it has been connected using hardware and not intentionally moved back into captain’s personal inventory. Connections, damaged or undamaged, may be removed at no cost.


3.4: Wearing an artifact

In the case of wearing an artifact, a single artifact may be sewn into a single piece of clothing, to a maximum of three pieces of clothing (therefore, maximum of three worn artifacts. This is exactly how personal inventory works now. Whether it is actually three is up to developer). The artifact will affect captain’s attributes and if a ship is destroyed, the artifact will never be lost. However, when wearing an artifact, ALL facets of the artifact will act as though it is connected into ALL parts of the ship (alternatively, if this is unreasonable and may cause lag, it could just be connected to the bridge). But all connections now have a lesser strength of half the original rounded down. So an artifact of –2 flux delineation will have the effects of –1 flux delineation. A +5 spatial distortion facet will have the affect of +2 spatial distortion on all ship specs. Yes, that means +1 and –1’s are halved and rounded down to +0 (Rounding down need not occur if balancing issues arise).


Clothing does not need to be bought. Worn artifacts will not affect the shipbound artifact inventory.


3.5: Artifacts side by side

Alternatively, an artifact facet could be connected to the ship inventory itself. This will add or decrease a small predetermined number (never larger than the absolute of the facet connected to the inventory) to all artifacts in the inventory not including itself or any others that are also connected to the inventory. It may also increase or decrease inventory size.


4.0: When you no longer need artifacts

Artifacts must be separated from connection hardware/clothing before they can be jettisoned or traded. Clothing can not be traded or jettisoned. You can also offer all your knowledge of that artifact’s facets. A bit like “teaching”. It is not possible to trade knowledge about a facet without also trading an artifact with that facet.


5.0: Fixing an artifact connection

You can pay somebody to fix it or you can buy equipment to do it yourself. Equipment used in fixing an artifact is used up.


6.0: Ship aspects:

These are a list of the possible ship aspects that can be affected by artifacts:

Connections are made to the aspects (before the colon), but it is the sub-aspects that are affected (after the colon)


Attributes (only affected by worn artifacts): charisma, dexterity, wisdom

Afterburner: modified thrust, modified top speed.

Cargo Bay: maximum cargo capacity

Energy: Energy regeneration, “bounce” energy cost

Engines: Thrust, top speed, turning

Hardware Bay: number of hardware slots, energy needed on hardware deployment

Primary Weapon: energy use, damage, range, number of weapons fired

Secondary Weapon: energy use, damage/magnitude of effect, range

Shields: shield strength, shield regeneration (negative shield regen optional)

Warp Drive: fuel per warp, spice conversion per day

Inventory: shipbound inventory size, artifact facet magnitude (this one is optional development)


7.0 Additional definitions:

Connection: The ship aspect that a particular artifact facet is linked to. This does not necessarily mean that there will be changes in that particular aspect.

Clothing: Reason for amount of Personal Inventory.

Facet: One part of the artifact that changes the value of exactly one field. An artifact can have more than one facet, but single-facet artifacts are the most common.

Field: a particular parameter that, when applied to different ship aspects, will have different results

Inventory: There are two types of inventory; shipbound and personal. All found artifacts start in the shipbound inventory and can be kept there or moved into personal inventory any time.

Magnitude: the number before the facet, for example, +1.

Ship Aspect: see section 6.0.


Whew! It’s finished!

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Josus
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Post by Josus » Sun Sep 23, 2007 9:15 am

i dunno what u guys are thinking so far, but the only one i've botherd to read is Rhino's and it seemed like a pretty sick idea

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NeatLogs
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Artifact system (previously posted by DaRsHaN)

Post by NeatLogs » Sun Sep 23, 2007 12:14 pm

Note: there is a shortened version on page 3. Read that one. Everything else is details.

Firstly, thanks DaRsHaN for posting for me.
Explanation for everybody else: I previously wasn't able to register for the forums because of crappy connection screwing up my registration attempts.

*Warning! If you have read DaRsHaN's post and/or feel no interest whatsoever, don't read this one!*

This post is just so that I can freely edit grammatical mistakes, details, explanations, presentation and just edit in general without having to contact DaRsHaN every time I wanted something changed.
Alright, here is my idea (That you may have already read)!~

1.0: The general idea
This system keeps in mind that artifacts are actually alien in nature. We have no idea why they were actually made, nor what they were meant to do. Heck, perhaps this one was originally made to keep the ship clock accurate? Maybe it's supposed to be a gourmet cooking utensil? We don't know. All we know is that if we experiment a little, we may find a use for it that could help us in our captaining career.
None of the artifacts have a straightforward use. They give add and/or subtract values from a set of fields (that may or may not be visible) which are only affected by artifacts.

Therefore, you will never see an artifact of 'just' +2 dex because the intergalactics would never have designed an artifact with human attributes in mind. You may be able to find an artifact of +1 flux delineation which enables slightly greater ship turning speed once you hook it up to your engines. However, this may have the additional side effects of greatly increased top speed, slightly increased afterburner energy requirement and crippled shield strength all as a result of the unexpected boost in the ship engine's abilities. You may also wear the artifact, to different effect. This will be further explained in section 3.3 and 3.4.
Also, this artifact system suggestion (which, I am surprised, can fit into one post) will not include any mathematics. Actual numbers and applicable maths is left open for discussion and interpretation.


2.0: Nature of an artifact
Artifacts can have a - or + random number in any number of fields. It may be possible to find, for example a -2 energy concentration/+3 local spatial distortion, “two-facet” artifact or maybe a +1 flux delineation/-5 spatial distortion/+3 sub-molecular kineticism “three-facet” artifact.

Artifacts that have greater + or - in a field should be slightly rarer than those with smaller magnitudes, because greater "levels" doesn't actually mean that the artifact does something better, just that it does more of what it did. Artifacts that increase/decrease multiple fields (have multiple facets) should be exponentially rarer compared to those that change one or two fields (have one or two facets), because they allow for more choice. The number of facets possible per artifact is limited by the number of fields; there can only be one facet per field.
Also, every +1 to a field gives only small increases/decreases to ship aspects when connected (for ‘connection’ info, see section 3.3). The names and number of fields is developer’s choice. I’m of the opinion that 18 fields may be a reasonable number.


2.1: The effect on your ship and attributes
All artifact facets can be used to modify any portion of your ship, with vastly different results. +1 flux delineation incorporated into engines may increase turning speed and top speed with the side effect of added afterburner energy usage and decrease in shield strength, but incorporated into shields may cause a slight decrease in shield strength, some shield regeneration, and the side effect of a large decrease in weapon energy usage. The effects are the same for identical facets on different artifacts, i.e. field changes are not totally random.

Artifact incorporation into a ship aspect will always affect something, but not always that ship aspect that you specified. For example, +1 flux delineation into hardware bays may do absolutely nothing to the number of bays, the hardware inside or hardware energy requirements, but may increase top speed as a side effect.


2.2: Reinstating general idea.
The idea is that all artifacts are unpredictable and will do extremely different things depending on how you use them. After all, if you attach a gourmet cooking utensil to your cargo bay, the cargo bay won’t be affected except probably by having a cargo slot filled up. But the food freezing part of the utensil may help stop the overheating in your internal energy transfer to your primary weapon, which just so happens to be next to the cargo bay.


3.0 Getting the artifact to work:
Incorporating an artifact into one's ship requires a bit of effort and ingenuity. After all, nobody is sure how it is they are really supposed to work. That's why there are side effects. In fact, side effects are a key component of this system.


3.1 Finding:
Before a starship captain can use an artifact, they must find it. This is done in the exact same way as the old system. You may randomly planet hop, fighting aliens for their resources when you suddenly come upon an artifact. Or maybe the bartender at a starport has heard a rumour. Again, the artifact is found inside the wreckage of an intergalactics' ship. Once you have found it, you now have an artifact doing absolutely nothing sitting in the ship inventory. This is essential. Without doing either the steps mentioned in section 3.3 or 3.4 (or maybe 3.5), this artifact does nothing whatsoever.

Other possible methods of finding artifacts mentioned in previous and any later posts can be incorporated here. This particular artifact system suggestion places no emphasis on the methods of finding artifacts.


3.2: Identifying:
The next step is optional (optional for the starship captain, that is). Since it’s impossible for you to know what the artifact does, you must find somebody who can give you an idea of how it may be used. This can again be done by asking the bartender at the local starport (new button: “ask about artifact”; then select the artifact you want to ask about). One bartender will only know a fraction of all there is to know about artifacts, so you will need to ask multiple bartenders to get all the relevant information. The amount and quality of information they yield will depend on how good a customer you have been.

Examples:
No previous custom at that starport:
Bartender: “This artifact is triple-faceted” (This is also immediately obvious to the starship captain. Therefore, it is the equivalent of no info.)

Some custom (a few drinks):
Bartender: “The second facet of this triple-faceted artifact allows you to boost shields”

Quite a lot of custom (around ‘half price inn’ mark):
Bartender: “This triple-faceted artifact includes –2 flux delineation as the second facet. Put it into shields to strengthen them, but the side effects are very bad.”

Extreme amounts of custom (drink captains' stashes until refusal, wait a day, do it again, wait and then do it again. Yes, extreme amounts of custom):
Bartender: “This triple-faceted artifact’s second facet: –2 flux delineation will boost shields, cripple your acceleration and slightly increase weapon energy use when connected to shields.”

The bartender may have more information than this if you ask multiple times (In the case of no custom, asking multiple times will cause the bartender to simply ask if you wanted to buy drinks). Some bartenders may also “teach” how it is they recognised the –2 flux delineation facet for what it is (usually only by buying extreme number of drinks), in which case you will be able to identify that artifact field yourself from then onwards (He doesn't actually tell you, the game just allows you to see the names of facets with that field from then on).
(If individual bartender knowledge would be too difficult to implement on current permas, random bartender knowledge could be fine as well, but that makes it a lot easier. What the bartender actually says is up to developer).

It is possible to see what sub-aspects the artifact affects either by trial and error.
Recognition of a facet and what it does could also happen as a result of having handled many artifacts before.
It’s impossible to /t, /s or /c how to recognise a facet.
This ends the optional step.


3.3: Incorporation onto ship:
Now the artifact must be incorporated onto the ship or person. Firstly, the not-so-confusing option: incorporation onto a ship.
A captain must buy hardware (hardware may occupy either a hardware or inventory slot before use; developer’s choice. It is also up to developer whether hardware needs to be bought at all, but it is essential that making a connection costs something, but not necessarily credits) that allows one facet of the artifact, e.g. facet 2 (which just happens to be -2 flux delineation) to be connected to one ship aspect e.g. shields. Another piece of hardware may be added that connects facet 2 to engines, and a third may connect facet 1 (+1 energy concentration) to weapon systems.
Connections may also be made to the artifact that will specifically disallow that artifact to affect a ship aspect. For example, you may not want –2 flux delineation to cripple your acceleration when connected to shields. Therefore, you install a “disallow modifications” connection between the artifact and engines. It is now impossible for any facet of that artifact to affect engine sub-aspects. It is also impossible to connect any facet of that artifact to the engines.

The total number of artifacts + total number of connection hardware will have a limit. This limit is your shipbound inventory (Exact limit to be determined). For example, the inventory limit being 6, you may have 2 “one-facet” artifacts on board, leaving you room for 4 connection hardware. It is also possible to have a 16-facet artefact in one inventory slot, leaving you with five connections between facets and ship aspects. Shipbound artifacts do not affect captain’s attributes in any way.
It is also impossible to pick up more artifacts once the shipbound artifact limit has been reached unless you sever a connection, drop an artifact or transfer an artifact into an empty personal artifact slot (see next section)

Connection components will also take damage from enemy fire, but may be repaired. Connecting a facet to a ship aspect more than once allows more damage to be taken before the hardware is destroyed. Artifacts never take damage, but may be lost with the ship if connections have been made or the artifact has not intentionally been moved into captain’s personal inventory (see next section). Connections, damaged or undamaged, may be removed at no cost.


3.4: Wearing an artifact
In the case of wearing an artifact, a single artifact may be sewn into a single piece of clothing, to a maximum of three pieces of clothing (therefore, maximum of three worn artifacts. This is exactly how personal inventory works now. Whether it is actually three is up for discussion).

The artifact will affect the captain’s attributes aspect (whereas shipbound artifacts do not) and if a ship is destroyed, the artifact will not be lost. However, when wearing an artifact, ALL facets of the artifact will act as though it is connected into ALL aspects of the ship (alternatively, if this is unreasonable and may cause lag, it could just be connected to the “bridge” ship aspect). But all connections now have lesser ability: half the original magnitude rounded down. So an artifact of –2 flux delineation will have the effects of –1 flux delineation. A +5 spatial distortion facet will have the affect of +2 spatial distortion on all ship specs. It also means +1 and –1’s are halved and rounded down to +0 (Rounding down need not occur if balancing issues arise).
Clothing does not need to be bought. Worn artifacts will not affect the shipbound artifact inventory.


3.5: Artifacts side by side
Normally, artifacts don't affect one another. However, an artifact facet could be connected to the shipbound inventory itself. This will add or decrease a small predetermined number (never larger than the absolute of the magnitude of the facet connected to the inventory) to all artifacts in the inventory not including itself or any others that are also connected to the inventory. It may also increase or decrease inventory size, if this is not too overpowered.

Another alternative is to allow connection between facets of two artifacts. The two facets change each other, possibly into other facets. Then the changed facets affect the magnitudes of the unconnected (between artifacts) facets of opposing artifact (if there are any). If it is at all developmentally practical, multiple connections made between artifacts, although it might be too hard to connect one facet to more than one other artifact/facet.
At no point will it be possible to modify an artifact using one of its own facets.


4.0: When you no longer need artifacts
Artifacts must be separated from connection hardware/clothing before they can be jettisoned or traded using the normal method. Clothing can not be traded or jettisoned. You can also offer all your knowledge of that artifact’s facets. A bit like “teaching”. It is not possible to trade knowledge about a facet without also trading an artifact with that facet.

When trading, the item traded would be seen as e.g. “triple-faceted artifact”. With this system, it would be pretty pointless to be able to see what artifacts another person has in their inventory, unfortuantely.
I realise that this may slightly encourage misdirection, baiting or even some scamming but that’s the way it is. It encourages a captain to either find artifacts themselves or to buy from a trusted friend.

(Edit: Actually, now that I think of it, there's nothing wrong with being able to see what the other person has in their inventory, but only those facets that the bartender has told you how to recognise)


5.0: Fixing an artifact connection
You can pay somebody to fix it or you can buy equipment to do it yourself (again, there needs to be a price. The exact amount or object needed is up for discussion).


6.0: Ship aspects:
These are a list of the possible ship aspects that can be affected by artifacts. Connections (with hardware) are made to the aspects (before the colon), but it is the sub-aspects that are affected (after the colon) by the fields that the facets modify. Again, the idea is that connecting a facet to a particular aspect does not mean the related sub-aspects are necessarily affected (subject to developer opinion, of course), because you have no idea if the artifact was supposed to be connected in that way in the first place.

Attributes (only affected by worn artifacts): charisma, dexterity, wisdom
Afterburner: modified thrust, modified top speed.
Cargo Bay: maximum cargo capacity
Energy: Energy regeneration, “bounce” energy cost
Engines: Thrust, top speed, turning
Hardware Bay: number of hardware slots, energy needed on hardware deployment.
Primary Weapon: energy use, damage, range, number of weapons fired
Scanners: Scanner fuel usage, scanner ability
Secondary Weapon: energy use, damage/magnitude of effect, range
Shields: shield strength, shield regeneration (negative shield regen optional)
Warp Drive: fuel per warp, spice conversion per day
Bridge: this is just a alternative for saying “connected to every ship aspect at once”. Does not include inventory (see section 3.4).
Inventory: shipbound inventory size, artifact facet magnitude (this one is optional development)


7.0 Additional definitions/Glossary:
All terminology can be, and should be changed upon development, because "facet" and "connection" is a bad name for this kinda thing. But for the sake of understanding the above post:

Connection: The ship aspect that a particular artifact facet is linked to. This does not necessarily mean that there will be changes in that particular aspect.
Clothing: Reason for amount of Personal Inventory.
Facet: One part of the artifact that changes the value of exactly one field. An artifact can have more than one facet, but single-facet artifacts are the most common.
Field: A particular parameter that, when applied to different ship aspects, will have different results
Flux Delineator: A field I made up. It does not matter whether this field is used when developed or not. It is only used as an example. This is also the case with 'Spatial Distortion','Energy Concentration' and 'Sub-Molecular Kineticism'.
Idea by: Logs of a dark future. Thanks, DaRsHaN of same server for posting this for me.
Inventory: There are two types of inventory; shipbound and personal. All found artifacts start in the shipbound inventory and can be kept there or moved into personal inventory any time.
Magnitude: The number before the facet, for example, +1.
Ship Aspect: See section 6.0.

Whew! It’s finished! Again... I will be editing this a lot. More than 2000 words = many edits for coherence.
Last edited by NeatLogs on Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:52 pm, edited 5 times in total.

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HangMan
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Post by HangMan » Sun Sep 23, 2007 7:14 pm

RHINO
just got the best of the best idea ever in star port


ok u want to help planets right like volcnics and rockys


the new art system is here


ok u got the arts for u profile
how about we make arts for cols

ARTS FOR COLS!!!!!!!! you say?

thats a sweet idea good job :wink:

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dan
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Post by dan » Sun Sep 23, 2007 7:19 pm

rhino:
harvester:this art will help save the volcanics and outher col typs for it lets ur col make 50 of all res as long as harvist is over 30% u will make 50 of all res

thats all i need to hear .. sick idea rhino :lol:

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Jwilson6
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Post by Jwilson6 » Sun Sep 23, 2007 7:39 pm

am i the only one that doesnt like the idea of planetary artifacts? And dude whoever u are that posted like 10 pages of info there i read bits and pieces of it and it doesnt look like theres even an idea in there... if you want to better explain it shorten it up dont lengthen it

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Wound.
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Post by Wound. » Mon Sep 24, 2007 5:32 am

Jwilson6 wrote:am i the only one that doesnt like the idea of planetary artifacts? And dude whoever u are that posted like 10 pages of info there i read bits and pieces of it and it doesnt look like theres even an idea in there... if you want to better explain it shorten it up dont lengthen it
/second that motion

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dan
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Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2007 4:38 am

Post by dan » Mon Sep 24, 2007 5:59 am

Jwilson6 wrote:
am i the only one that doesnt like the idea of planetary artifacts? And dude whoever u are that posted like 10 pages of info there i read bits and pieces of it and it doesnt look like theres even an idea in there... if you want to better explain it shorten it up dont lengthen it
wound wrote;
/second that motion
why dont u two not like the idea he has found a way to have a new art system + save cols this would stop a lot of ppl crying about there cols dieing off and wut nots :roll: or is it u like his idea and are up set a newb thout of it befor u two :wink:

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