Artifacts and Team Benifits / Map Editor Update?

Yeah I'm with you on the artifact sharing.

Heck I even remember all the way back to the old vanilla SoaSE Beta where there WAS a share artifacts option in the diplomacy screen. Why did you guys remove that option again?

I would enjoy artifact sharing also

Artifact sharing would be a researcheable or a pact? what benefit would the artifact owner receive?

Allies who are not less effective than you???

Also, i don't remember being able to share them ever.

-Exile(\/)

I'd like to see shared artifacts as well.

Also, you can make certain artifacts appear on certain planets 100% of the time in the Galaxy Forge. Read the link or ask about it on the forums.

Artifact sharing is a good idea, perhaps you could use it as a reward for a mission provided you had peace treaty, that would be a big insentive to complete a mission. An other ideas would be good to hear as I havn't played the diplomacy beta so I'm not 100% sure how the new pacts and diplomacy options work.

First of all, at least one of the Artifacts must be made valuable enough to make it worthwhile to explore for them.  Right now, its a gamble to explore for them, when on average, that doesn't pays off for an individual.  And it would be a further gamble in hopes of sharing it, to make it cost effective. 

SO... IMPROVE THE ARTIFACTS.   Or at least one, be made very valuable, so it is worthwhile gambling on them!

Well, the phase drive one,  (May be more than one, idk) gives star travel for free, which is like...tier 4?  It is regardless a distinct edge for the military expansionist, in a multi-star map.  You can catch the unowned stars before your opponent has the chance to even research star travel, or crush their tiny fleet if they rushed for it.  Not sure what the other artifacts do, as i've not seen all of them, even through my combined games...I have a bad habit of negelcting planet exploration...

Though i can see how this is very circumstantial.  Anyone know where a list of Artifacts and their abilities is?  THere's where we need to start getting ideas.  Actually, I'm gonna make my own thread pretty soon covering this...

-Exile(\/)

1. Kinetic Intensifier

Effect: Damage Increase 12%

Affected Ships/Structures: Everything that can fire

2. Relativistic Factories

Effect: Ship Build Rate Increased 25%

Affected Ships/Structures: Frigate construction bay; Capital ship construction bay. (Hangars/strike-craft carriers - unknown?)

3. Resilient Metalloids

Effect: Hull Repair Rate Increase 15%

Affected Ships/Structures: Everything

4. Manifest Domination

Effect: Culture Spread Rate Increase 25%/Culture Resist Increase 10%

Affected Ships/Structures: Broadcast Stations - culture spread; Capital ships/planets - culture resistance.

5. Jump Drive Relic

Effect: Between Star Phase Jump Speed Increase 50%

Affected Ships/Structures: Every ship

6. Power Core Relic

Effect: Antimatter Regeneration 10%

Affected Ships/Structure: Everything with an antimatter pool

7. Phase Accelerator

Effect: In-System Phase Jump Speed Increase 50%

Affected Ships/Structure: Every jump-capable ship

8. Data Archive

Effect: Research Cost Decreased 25%

Affected Ships/Structures: Civil research centres; Military research centres.

9. Jump Field Generator

Effect: Phase Jump Antimatter Cost Decreased 30%

Affected Ships/Structures: Every ship with antimatter pool

10. Ion Field Generator

Effect: Planet Bombing Damage Reduced 20%

Affected: All colonizable planets

11. Matter Compressor

Effect: Trade Goods Value Increased 15%

Affected: All trade ships (NOT Refinery Ships)

12. Planetary Organic AI

Effect: Tax Income Rate Increased 10%/Population Growth Rate Increased 20%

Affected: All colonizable planets

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Here is hoping they add 3 more for Diplo!!!!!!!

Thanks, Carbon.  Don't usually give 2 karma in one day, but you did the same ammount of work as SageWon as far as i can see, from a different thread, so .  And i agree, add more artifacts.

I gotta rethink the direction of my thread...Needs to cover the entirety of modifiers i think.

-Exile(\/)

I like you thinking

if this were the I would give karma game thread I would put I would give karma but I have none to give away

Exile, here is a picture of all 12 Entrenchment artifacts.  And a link to the Wikia artifact page.

Yes, it is of value, but generally not enough to cover the cost of finding it.  There used be a very detailed analysis of artifact's worth at that link in my old picture post.  Its' basic conclusion was that as a whole, artifacts weren't worth the cost of exploring, given how many planets you had to explore on average to find an artifact. 

His conclusion was that the Data Archive artifact which reduces all research cost by 25% was the most valuable artifact.  Of the new entrenchment artifacts, Planetary Organic AI is the most valuable, increasing tax income by 10%. 

Aside from a general improvement for them, I would like to see the the Jump Drive Relic replaced with something else entirely.  Finding this in a single star game makes you bang your head on the wall, and even if you actually find it on the right map, the bonus still isn't very useful.  Out of all of them, less than half are actually worthwhile.

Merge the jump relic with the phase accelerator- and add a new artifact to boost refineries, as trade ports already have one?

I'd like artifacts to be reworked so that they were separate from the bonuses, and you got a fixed number of them depending on the size of the map.  You could then have new win conditions based on artifact possession. 

Has anyone else noticed that all of the artifacts in Diplomacy have new effects?

For example: Manifest Dominion adds a 1.00 relations boost with everyone.  Phase Jump Accelerator now improves phase jump charge up time.  The Planetary Organic AI is just buffed now.  It gives +25% taxes and +40% population growth. 

I'm actually curious about all of the rest of the changes as well.  I had a game with both the Phase Jump Accelerator artifact as well as the Vasari Phase Jump Pact running and difference to mobility was quite nice.  So it seems they are buffing artifacts to make up for the huge cost of planetary exploration(for non-Advent races).

what if they made exploration empire-wide? so instead of choosing each planet and one-by-one going through 2 levels of exploration, you could just spend some money and every planet in your empire goes through a level of exploration? theres alot less time that you waste this way, and the cost is much more straightforward.

or maybe have a guarantee that you will get something like resources/artifact/affect everytime you explore. And/or they could eliminate a level of exploration. Or exploration could just occur on its own very very slowly, and the upgrades speed up the process (think of a progress bar filling up).

Of course these all have different repercussions:

• The guarantee way means there are more times that you are going to want to synergize with the affect (eg. trade port bonus) when the overall plan you might have had might have called for something else instead (which is debatably bad because it changes they way people play the game). strategically, you would run into alot more non-military hurdles when invading because of things like porus/dense core.
• The idea about eliminating a level of exploration means that your planets will not have 2 affects on them (well, i suppose they could make it happen, but it seems wierd to explore once and discover 2 things).
• The exploration on its own idea i kinda like, as it means you dont have to do anything but hold on to that planet and you get some bonuses/affects for it. And if you did discover something, and someone takes that planet it will take time before they get the same thing you found unless they spend money on an accelerated exploration.  both of which you could use to your advantage (assuming that its something valuable).

I appologize for half my post there being unreadable. I tried to correct it, but something went screwy everytime i tried to edit. just select the unreadable portions and it should be good

To add the post Tiberius made, the Jump Drive Relic now gives a 10% mass decrease in Diplomacy.

Yeah, I think I'm going to compile a list of all the effects and post them up in a dedicated topic. 

Here are some of the others I've confirmed in the meantime:

Resilient Metaloids - Hull Repair Rate + 50%, Armor Increase + 1.0

Data Archive - Research Cost - 25%, Research Upgrade Rate + 5%

Phase Jump Accelerator - In-system Jump Speed +50%, Phase Jump Charge Rate + 25%

Relativistic Factories - Ship and Structure Build Rates + 30%

Manifest Dominion - Culture Spread Rate + 30%, Culture Resistance + 20%, Relationship Bonus + 1.00

Power Core Relilc - Antimatter Regen + 25%, Maximum Antimatter + 10%

Planetary Organic AI - Tax Income + 25%, Population Growth Rate + 40%

I also came across some interesting things by Dominating pirate ships.  Their raw stat upgrades are reduced back to pre-Diplomacy levels when you acquire their ships, save for the range increase.  Apparently Corsairs have a modified Gauss Rail Gun while Cutthroats have a special Plunder ability.  Also the attack ranges have been modified for the Reapers, Pillagers, and turret platforms.  The ability stats are as follows:

Gauss Rail Gun(targets structures and starbases):

Cooldown 18, Duration 10, Range 6500, Damage 125, and it inflicts Passive Regen Disabled

Sadly you cannot use this, since it is considered a research upgrade for the pirates.

Plunder(targets enemy frigates and capital ships):

Antimatter Cost 80, Cooldown 90, Range 2500, steals credits from the target ship

This ability can be used, making Cutthroats a nice target to Dominate.  Though in the heat of battle grabbing Corsairs may be preferable to quickly take them out of the fight.

Kinetic Intensifier is now +15% weapon damage and +10% weapon range.

Nice, I found the Matter Compressor to be +25% trade goods value, up from 15% IIRC. 

I like the Jump Drive Relic, myself. Gives a real edge in system-to-system warfare.

I think, however, that there should be more simple planet bonuses. Those are great fun!