ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Some artifacts have powerful effects that can influence the entire course of the game, yet, because of their tier level, they cannot drop after the early game. Examples include the Spellhunt Remnants, the Blood of Life, the Wintertide Phial and probably quite a few others I'm not thinking of.

I suggest that the Last Hope Merchant should stock all Tier 1-3 fixedarts after you return from the Far East, if they have not already dropped. At that point, their hefty price tag is competing directly with purchased randarts, so it's hardly a free lunch - but it prevents unfortunate players from being at a permanent disadvantage relative to ones who can, say, remove magical shields or detrimental mental effects, or who have an extra life.

Edit: Another way to accomplish the same thing would be to have the Sludgenest universally available.

Spellhunt Remnants are actually droppable up to level 25.

There's a belt that's potentially pretty important as well. I'd suggest though - rather than being a merchant thing, have it be a farportal thing. Somewhere along the way (not sure what to unlock it with) you get the ability to farportal to a location with a guaranteed T1(/T2?) artifact (or perhaps multiple guaranteed low-tier artifacts) as the reward. If there's one you know you need, you can scum for it, using energy and risking just as much as a normal portal run (perhaps more). If there isn't, you'd be better off with standard portal runs.

I dislike the idea of any specific artifact being reliably obtainable. This game is about variety.

I concur

Yeah ideally the things that those t1 artifacts fix would be fixed BETTER and HARDER by awesome t5 artifacts.

Maybe. I dislike making artifacts that can be summarized as "the t5 version of x", though

I don't mind the randomness. I mind the fact that things happen 15 minutes in that then determine the course of a fight 30 hours later.

Let's say I'm a Doomed. I'm planning to go antimagic, so I won't be able to wear gloves of dispersion. The Spellhunt Remnants are the only thing I'll be able to use to remove sustains, so once I've missed the window to find them (I've never found them later than about level 10 on Insane), I have a choice - do I restart, or do I risk dying to Elandar because I can't remove her sustains?

That's a very different matter from, say, failing to find a given T5 mindstar.

Personally I don't like this idea, this kind of games are about adaptability, you can have a general battle plan but you are never supposed to know what the game will throw at you, with respect to artifacts, enemies and maybe someday, dungeons.

Having a good chance to find this early "unique effect" artifacts would remove a lot uncertainty from the game subtracting from what is in my opinion the most unique and interesting aspect of roguelikes(likes likes).

You do have a good chance of finding it already.

Okay - so we should handle this another way. We identify which low-level artifacts convey which otherwise inaccessible benefits, and then we make sure that there are at least one or two high-level artifacts that do the same. I agree with Doctornull on this. Now, PureQuestion also has a point - I'm not saying "let's make T5 versions of X" - just make artifacts (not even necessarily the same slot) that fill that same need. I'll head over and start a new thread going, and we can throw around some ideas. More artifacts more better, right?

PureQuestion wrote:I dislike making artifacts that can be summarized as "the t5 version of x"

Good thing nobody was talking about that, then

Unless you are objecting to a t5 artifact solving the same problems that some t1 artifacts do solve.
You're not, right?
There can be different solutions for the same problem, right?

I really hate the idea of a way to guarantee an artifact drop. More randomness is good, I think if an artifact is better than most other options it should be made rarer not more common! Finding something great is better if it happens rarely and it makes each run varied and you have to adapt to the drops.

Depends on the problem, Doctornull!

There's only so many ways to approach certain mechanics in unique ways.