lol yea thats happened to me some of them are useless as well and some are reely good.

its a bit like an anomaly in Galatic Civ 2

Yea that would increase the priority of going for a sertain planet

Yeah that's more like it. And, I'd sooner have artefacts you find and bring home rather than having them stay on the planet. And now that I think about it all, why not add the artefact to a specific ship, so as to make the bonus to just that specific ship. And if you lost the ship, someone else could take that artefact and use it on their ships.

Hehe... Nothing wrong with capture the flag. But how about this: There's a special ship "Transport Ship" (dunno) that fetches artefacts from captured planets. This ship then flies back to a station that you've built where they start to investigate the artefact. After an automatic "research" of the artefact once it has arrived, you are able to research the actual bonus.

Transport Ship will be slow so if a rival empire sees it, they will try to intercept it to take the artefact for themselves. In addition, keeping the Artefacts in a station rather than on a planet, encourages a raid rather than invasion.

It'll be rather hard for someone to raid the Artefact Facility if it's in some heavily defended planet on the other side of the Empire that holds it. Not sure how to balance this out. Though I wouldn't want to have a constant "Capture the Flag/Artefact" type game going on. It would however be nice to have this added layer and fluidity in game.

I love the artifacts idea - but I think it can be expanded on to be a bit more fair/strategic/luck then it currently is. I've tried my best to break it down into simple portions.

Artifacts are randomly placed on planets. Instead of the current system of knowing immediately upon discovering the planet it should go one step further. The planet has to be occupied and occupants can "discover" the artifact - however the original method can be returned as long as research to "scan a planet" was done - IE instead of the current talent of just a scout dropping drones - it can be an upgrade to scanners to detect technology/useful stuff.
Summary:
Planet gets occupied - artifact technology "uncovered" by occupants on the planet (it could take time that could be set on how big the population on the planet thus increasing odds of a resident bumping into the technology) and then becomes available - can be seen by ships if they have scanning technology in which it would be the way it currently is in the beta - easy to see.

Utilizing the Artifact:
~Obtaining It - Part 1~
Player can click artifact when it is discovered on the planet then assign a ship to carry it onboard. Since it's powers will apply immediately all ships are eligible including trade/refinery ships (they have cargo space).
-Ship that picks it up receives immediate bonus for itself and is surrounded by an aura - this would indicate to anyone that sees the ship that an artifact is on board and possible this aura can also empower other ships with the artifact powers - if this isn't too powerful
-If this ship blows up the artifact could end up in space and slowly be pulled by gravity by the planet system it was in - it would eventually land on the planet if another ship doesn't grab it. (Time delay to grab it/No hostile combat ships in the area are possible ideas related to this one but without it makes it more like capture the flag when 2 fleets combat each other).
-This technology would be limited to the very first level of the upgrade.

~Obtaining It - Part 2~
-In order to further delve deeper and make better use of the technology research has to be conducted. The artifact should be brought back to a research station (an existing one) in which the artifact is then kept.
-The research station that receives the artifact then receives an option to research the technology to understand it - this will then allow the research station to broadcast it to other research stations.
-If the research station with the artifact is destroyed - the artifact floats in space and slowly gets pulled in by the planet's gravity well.
-Researching the artifact at a research station enables getting to further levels making the technology from the artifact more powerful and apply to all ships/buildings as applicable. Once research is completed it takes a set amount of time to be broadcast to other research stations. An example - using 5 minutes as the total broadcast time. Research station researches 1/3 artifact technology. Countdown of 5 minutes begins - if the research station remains intact with the artifact and the cool down is reached the artifact technology is obtained by all research stations meaning that even if the artifact is lost the research then went into it won't be lost because it was broadcasted to other research stations. This cooldown is seperate and does not inhibit the research process of going on to 2/3, 3/3 etc. Each technology upgrade 1/3, 2/3, 3/3 etc will have its own 5 minute cooldown. This is to ensure the player holds control over the artifact and allows other factions an opportunity to take it.

Overall Conclusion:
By making artifacts discovered by a population and thus see-able only by that particular faction (unless they share seeing with another faction) makes it less a core part of the game. It helps but isn't essential. Players that wish to find it the way the current beta 2 has it simply need to have scanner research (this would also enable them to see targets and defense structures sooner possible ships hyper jumping into the system). Since finding them would take longer - plus getting it back to a research station - and then holding on to it the faction is also able to retain the technology even if they lose the artifact provided the technology was broadcasted. I like the idea of artifacts - I dislike how it can have an immediate impact early on - thus I made this proposal. Feedback appreciated!