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Chestburster

Player-Made Artifacts

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So I've had an idea for a game mechanic since I first started playing years ago with the mindset of a long time dwarf fortress player. I'm not completely set on how it could be implemented because I'm not really the best when it comes to balancing parts of this game, so if anyone has any ideas I'd like to hear them.

 

I think it'd be really interesting for certain players to create an item with a sort of "legendary artifact" type rarity. Here would be the goals I'd imagined you'd have in implementing this.

 

 

  • Player made artifacts would be similar in design to the artifacts we have now. They would be less notable and powerful, but more customized, numerous, and player driven.
  • The point would be to have a sought after item with an interesting history and reputation attached to it along with having another way for players to be immortalized in the game in some way.
  • These items should be good to have and likely be the best item of that type on the server created by another player but completely unique and really not that much better or different in functionality than a well made item of that type in non-artifact variety. They will be more difficult to acquire however.

 

 

  • Player created artifacts would need to exist in a way that adds legend and importance to them. Here are some thoughts and ideas I had.
    • The item could receive a unique name entered by the person who created it. (Ex. Artifact Forge gets named Crematory of Evil) This will not be able to be changed. To help fix issues with bad names entered there could be a 24 hour grace period for its creator to rename it and admins can possibly also step in later if it is named something disgusting or horrible or a spelling mistake still exists for some reason after that.
    • The artifact could have an examine text that shows the player who created it titled with any titles they may have in the skill used in its creation, what wurm date it was created, and any other potentially unique circumstances behind its creation.
    • The artifact could be inspected to bring up it's history in a detailed interface showing interesting statistics relating to the item (Examples: Notable users of the item, animals groomed with a grooming brush artifact, notable kills and number of kills on a weapon artifact, etc.) Players who get notable use out of an artifact might also be allowed to add a single message of their own to this interface to get passed on and seen by its later holders and wielders.
    • Players could also not be able to log off with the item. They would either need to put it in a container or somewhere or it gets dropped at their feet. They probably should only exist on PvP servers where players can be killed and places broken into.
    • Most items probably should not be able to be destroyed, be damaged and or decay. In case of any unavoidable circumstances where it does get removed from the game it will be able to be found again with the same original creator, name, and format, possibly by a skilled person hitting a special rarity roll.
    • Certain artifacts might still need to be destroyable for balance reasons like lockpicks but could also still be immortal, take longer to damage, and still be able to be acquired again by a skilled person with a special rarity roll.
    • Possibly only one artifact variant of each item should exist for each item in the game per server. I'm not sure whether or not raw materials and such should be artifacts, and whether this would mean that they are just eye candy trophys for a deed or if they can actually be crafted into artifact items.
    • Probably only one artifact should be able to be created per player.
    • Player made artifacts should probably be the best performing item a player can craft, but they won't be nearly as spectacular as the artifacts we already have relating to the gods and will be more numerous.
    • They should either be the same or only marginally better than a fantastic item but maybe only the same as a normal item if used for combat. They won't have any real specific or unique mechanics or properties in the same way current artifacts do. A legendary grooming brush is still a grooming brush after all and a artifact weapon or shield created by a mortal should not be on the same level as those created the gods.
    • Advantages over fantastic items in this case would be that they are created at 99QL and wouldn't be able to be damaged or reduced in quality. This also means that they won't be good for training in most cases.
    • It might be necessary to have a unique material for artifacts, or have certain artifacts default to certain materials to avoid disappointment and taking up a slot in creating an artifact with a crappy material.
    • Enchantments should probably be able to be added with the same decay rate and could also be dispelled. The item will be completely shatter resistant.

 

 

That brings me to the most difficult part to come up with: How an artifact gets created. Here are some thoughts and ideas.

 

  • The main difficulty would be deciding on a creation method that balances the uniqueness of an item's way of creation with keeping a high amount of customization to an items backstory.
    • Having the creation method be a random chance adds a lot of excitement to every crafting job in the game because you or any other player can create an artifact at any time. 
    • I don't think any circumstances necessary should be for someone to be the best at something on the server or to be the first in doing or achieving something. While it might make sense for the world's best blacksmith to create one item as the magnum opus of their craft, that would mean taking the excitement from everyone and giving it to a few people that grind the most hours. Having a high skill level could potentially raise someones chances though.
    • The circumstances for creation could potentially be a a completely random set of things happening at the same time like planets aligning, wurm time and weather changes, gods or kingdoms having a certain amount of influence on the server, deeds being drained, a high amount of wounds of a certain type inflicted on multiple people, terraforming changes, and deaths of a certain type of animal, kingdom, or god follower, and probably a lot more.
      • These things combined together and happening on different parts of the server could raise or lower the chances of creating an artifact depending on the player and the god they follow, the kingdom they belong to, their skill levels, meditation path, and any other things currently in the game that can differentiate a player from others.
      • Inspecting an artifact will list these circumstances forming together as the reason for the item's creation.
      • The factors that compete with one another could be kept secret at first, but looking at the reason for the creation of any artifact will reveal any relevant factors and connections between them. The ways each factor can align in different ways with each other could branch out into a complex web to make sure every item has a unique reason for creation, and so it would be too difficult for any player to keep track of every possibility.
      • Strategically causing these things to happen in order to create an artifact would not be very effective as they only give you a chance to create one at the least or raise these chances slightly at the best.
        • It would take a large amount of effort to make any one of them happen on purpose and any other criteria being met and thrown into the mix can nullify any efforts you make.
        • Even with the maximum amount of good circumstances happening chances would still be low so it'd make more sense to have it happen one day by accident when everything just happens to align a certain way.
        • Players with a high amount of dedication, resources, and time probably still will try to utilize these methods which would be another unique way of adding backstory to an artifact. Libila's followers going out at night with an eclipse involving Jackal to murder and sacrifice animals and destroy nature to try to create and have claim to an artifact scythe because they have the highest chance of creating the very item that is the symbol of their god would be very interesting, especially when it lists all these actions as the reason for its creation to anyone who obtains it throughout the server's lifespan.
      • The purpose for these unique circumstances' existence would mainly be for the item to have a certain story behind it, and not as a strategy needed to be enacted by players. 
    • Artifacts might also instead be tied to the Valrei system in a similar way to how players gods were. This could fill in the concept for immortalizing players the old one had without the immortalization being something that throws everything out of balance. It would also help shape the feel of religion and the influence of gods granting their followers certain boons which also helps fuel an artifact's backstory. As far as I've seen it took a good amount of time to accumulate a pantheon of player gods compared to how many players had the ability to work to become one. This probability might also work well for artifacts if raised a bit.
  • The chance of creating artifacts should probably be calculated in a way that it would take around the maximum lifespan of a server for an artifact of every type of item to be created or less if resets are a possibility or planned. There should always be a good amount of artifacts left to create to keep things exciting unless the server becomes ancient and full of history like chaos. Chances likely would be that not every item will have an artifact variant over the course of a server unless it becomes really really old.

 

All these bullet points are simply ideas I had for such a feature and isn't a fully fleshed out way to implement it so let me know what you guys think of my suggestion and if you have anything more to add please do so.

Edited by Chestburster
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I like this idea better then player gods for a valrei reward. Artifacts are one of the few things that are removed from the "all things player driven" mechanics of Wurm. Adding some amount of agency to the system, along with immortalizing important or active players with it, would be amazing. As it stands, artifacts are game changing, but not completely insane in power. Maintaining that balance with player made artifacts being slightly weaker would make this system fun, game changing, but not intensely overpowered. 

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9 hours ago, nitram20 said:

Tbh an fantastic item should immedietly become an artifact

 

Yes, I was thinking along these lines.  

 

This should be tied in to the rarity system.  The rarity system itself should be more than just random, too.  The higher the QL of an object the better the chance to improve its rarity. Supreme could have name of the player incorporated into the object name "Adam's Supreme Hatchet"  Fantastic could qualify a new object name "The Atomic Termite (Adam's Fantastic Hatchet)."

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9 hours ago, nitram20 said:

Tbh an fantastic item should immedietly become an artifact

 

Fundamentally that is kinda shitty for the person who made a fantastic item for it to disappear after some time. I urge you to read the actual mechanics behind artifacts first. You do not get to keep it indefinitely. 

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I don't think the OP had that sort of artifact in mine.  Certainly, I didn't.  Yeah, rarifying something would be a bummer if it just disappeared a week later.

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1 hour ago, TheTrickster said:

I don't think the OP had that sort of artifact in mine.  Certainly, I didn't.  Yeah, rarifying something would be a bummer if it just disappeared a week later.

 

17 hours ago, Chestburster said:

Players could also not be able to log off with the item. They would either need to put it in a container or somewhere or it gets dropped at their feet. They probably should only exist on PvP servers where players can be killed and places broken into.

 

He specifically listed 2 features of artifacts that already exist in game.

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13 hours ago, GorgonKain said:

 

 

He specifically listed 2 features of artifacts that already exist in game.

 

I actually wasn't sure what system was in place for currently existing artifacts to keep people from logging off with them so that bullet point wasn't based on any knowledge I had on current artifacts. The idea in my head that I had for player artifacts was sort of to have kind of a "demi-artifact" that wouldn't be the same as normal artifacts in terms of functionality.

 

In terms of my idea players would be able to keep the artifact that they create. What I suggested there was having the player artifact be dropped at the feet of the person who logs out with it so that they wouldn't be able to be held onto indefinitely by someone who is offline. The other bullet I listed of having a player artifact be rediscoverable through hitting as rarity roll was more of a failsafe that could be put in if an artifact got deleted due to a bug or something or if the artifact needed to be damageable for balance reasons. Otherwise they'd pretty much exist as a sort of permanent world feature that could be moved from place to place, or lost in the woods and refound a year later, but ideally never be destroyable.

 

Having them replace fantastic items is an option I also thought of. The only thing with that is that it wouldn't create much of a backstory for the artifact and any item of legend needs a good backstory like the one armyskin posted. I absolutely love how pvp servers just form their own history, tales, and legends overtime. I think it'd be really cool to nurture that kind of thing more through certain game mechanics.

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I suggested something similar.  The issue with thi sgame is you all have the same skills.  Some people have more time, and thus are vastly better at making almost everything than you.  This gives you almost no market clout beyond bulk good selling.

 

By allowing people to create artifacts (not random chance, but a considerable amount of time to complete) you could have end game content and allow people with less time to contribute to the market on an individual level.  These items could develop experience, and become well known in the community.

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to elaborate, imagine a sword that's been around for 5 years in the community "Rageblade, sword of thunder" artifact. 

 

It's so powerful from years of use and hundreds of kills that the minimum strength required to wield it is over 50!

 

So basically it grew so powerful it's just on display :P

 

 

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