Ancient Artifacts

EvilKatia wrote: thatss a good idea, maybe alliance shoudl have a limit on how many artefacts they can hold at the same time ?  maybe artefact should have a timer : after 2 weeks being held they disapear back on the map so someone else can pick it up ?  If during the time an alliance has an artefact it cannot be stolen smaller alliance thus wouldnt be attacked.  People would fight 'on the way' to discover the artefact for ssure thought. once someone grabs it the fight would end....

I was thinking more that the artifacts would be a type of "discoverable" resource. Possibly among critter remains after killing them. Or possibly your miners discovering them while mining a rare mineral spot (extremely rare).

Good points SunStorm...  what if the artifacts gained power the longer they are held?

This is a pretty great idea. It would certainly bolster the recognition of alliances...although I wonder what the side effects would be for unaffiliated players. Do they simply miss out on a whole new element of the game?

You could tie the artifacts to Faction Hubs to fix this. Perhaps each Hub possesses one Major Artifact and several Minor Artifacts. Major artifacts are owned by an alliance, minor ones by a single player. They can be won by either improving faction standing with the Faction, or sending a Raid to the Hub and stealing it. Once won, these artifacts are the property of that alliance or player until someone else comes along and takes it by force.

Obviously, stealing from the Hub is a faster way to win the artifact, but it means the Faction will be passively attacking you by joining the armies of real players going after you who have good standing with them. If you win it through befriending the Faction, you're a bit safer, but it's a race to butter up the Faction.

Great idea! The benefits of each artifact would have to differ to form a priority list. The Major artifacts would each be individual unique effects, while the minor artifacts would have to be stat increases.