As for that comment, that the more artifacts the more money the bigger the world the better it gets?... Achaea is bigger, but I think it is far from better. to Me its like a more nerdy form of Everquest. Might be fun but the RP is gone.

I don't blame this on artifacts, but I think there is a definitly loss when you go for qauntity over quality.

Artifacts grant a character an advantage. It would appear their cost is commensurate with the advantage, with a factor added in to tweak their rarity.

Should we get rid of all artifacts? Any artifact would 'imbalance' a character by providing them benefits that their guild and race do not. Even Flowerpots - an item that provides a saleable or giftable product on a regular basis. I would consider artifact pipes to be almost -necessary- for PvP if you can afford them. Yet, they are grossly imbalanced. They reduce the advantages of those who can readily cure underwater. As cheap as they are, they can easily be acquired, yet they destroy a whole tactical avenue for some. (Note, sarcasm.)

People who acquire and spend credits, either through OOC purchase or ingame purchase, are going to be more powerful. This is a given. I think, in comparison to spending credits on lessons, spending credits on artifacts already provides far less benefit for the money spent.

Consider: An artifact that, for 10 power, will instantly kill any target player in the room with you, useable once a game month. Overpowerful? Not if it costs 5k credits. When I hear the word 'artifact', I immediately envision something 'wow'. Shouldn't they be?

Is it fair that someone who threw a wad of money at IRE can acquire this artifact for their character and so easily ruin another character's day? No more or less fair than someone spending credits on mass skill gains doing the same.

People who buy credits directly pay for the game development and bandwidth. Indirectly, everyone gives the credit buyers a reason to buy credits. More money to Lusternia means more time spent making great events, new lands, cities, communes and other fun stuff for everyone. When there are credits flowing into the game, credit prices drop, putting them in easier reach for those who don't buy credits out of game. Good thing all around.

Your leaving out one very important person, the idiot....I mean person who really loves the game(maybe loser is a better word....jk). I've known more then one person that bought credits in other worlds, not for artifacts or skills. They just sold them. Why? Because they really like the place and wanted to support it, and the damn rich bastard had enough money to do it(yup, jelous of all you rich bastards). Those type of people will always buy if they like the game, and provide a much needed source of cheap credits for all of us that can't afford. They may be rare, but I'm sure we have one or two around there somewhere.

I help support the lusternian staff, and got cool stuff in return.

I can go to sleep at night now.

As to Eldanien's post: Yes, that's true. It's business, and Lusternia needs the monetary support. A better title for the post might have been "Artifacts you would be irritated to see," perhaps.

I don't like plain +stat, +bal recov, +willpower recov, etc.

Why? It's -boring-.

And the only artifact I can think of that would be -truly- overpowered would be buckawn bootsish (with how many people can web by nature of their skillsets?). IF there are going to be any sort of thing, I'd want them to be 50% chance of resisting web or the sort.

Feh, web isn't a problem, it's the damn hangedman/shackles combo that is overly annoying. Most races writhe out of just web within two seconds. That's why there's enlarge and diminish, to writhe faster, buckawns seems a bit useless here. I think stat boosters, end and wp recovering, etc, should be an option here, they won't unbalance stuff too much. Wether a Tae'dae is bashing you with 20 strength or with 23 strength isn't gonna make a whole lot of difference, you end up in a heap of pulp either way.

True, but in some cases, it can make more of a difference. Some races have disadvantages built in to counter their advantages. When you eliminate those disadvantages using artifacts, it's completely different (like faster balance recovery for tae'dae, or some large intelligence boost for a race with low intelligence but high defense).

I think most credits are bought with cold hard plastic, for convinience.

artifacts arn't even out, and city leaders had over 300 credits pretty quickly, not to mention all the credits baught before city leaders were appointed.

While we're at it, let's reminisce about stupid artifact purchases.

Anyone remember when Thakren bought that printing press artifact in Achaea at one of the early auctions? I seriously wonder if that thing ever got much use at all.

Rhysus, I know for a fact that you know Lamar. That right there explains enough, he's probably bought over 40k credits.

That's the reason they cost thousands of credits. Why would anyone spend hundreds of dollars on an artifact if it doesn't even help him?

*grin Silvanus* Yeah, but it's Lamar. I mean, give me a break. The only person who wasted more money on artifacts and made a complete waste of them was Shoimoro. He should have just kept them all and distributed them to his comrades as bribes and they'd have gone to much better use.

It made him a better fighter too. Was always nice to have Lamar as my uncle

I have some -great- quotes from when I played with his title...

Lamar will now be known as Fluffy Bunny, Lamar, Chaser of Tails.

He wanted to kill me!

I don't mind stat altering artifacts. I just wonder why there are so many abilities that change strength and con but none that changes int, please don't mention the change some races go through when they master one of their skills. I wonder if int has that much impact on game balance that there is no ability to boost it by 1 or 2.

Well, int affects magical damage, strength affects physical damage, all physical assaults are blockable, dodgable or preventable by various means, magical assaults cannot miss, and the amount of ways to lessen their damage are few, conclusion, improving int has a much greater effect on pvp balance than strength.

Also, while str gains affect damage only and con gains affect durability only, int gains affect both magical damage AND total mana, so you can cast better and more often/longer.

Especially with the wealth of ways to lessen physical damage, I personally don't see any real issue the way it is set up. Although admittedly I am a strength knight with level 3 weakness to magic, soooo I may be a little biased

The (ex-) achaeans amoung us all know what boosted intelligence will do with the game balance...