Has any extensive thought been given to artifacts (I'm referring to the artifact that colonist found in the trailer)? Will artifacts have any potential uses besides spawning a cult or otherwise driving your colonist(s) mad? If not, exploring might become an activity players do only if necessary or if they want their colony to undergo severe waves of fun.
Extensive thought in regards to in-game features? I've been assuming they've been coding willy-nilly and suddenly a game popped out :v
I've been assuming they've been coding will-nilly while brainstorming ideas and putting things into "NO," "NOT UNLESS WE COME UP WITH BRILLIANT IMPLEMENTATION," "MAYBE," "WE'LL SEE HOW MUCH DEEPER TO GO WITH THIS BASED ON PLAYER FEEDBACK," and "DEFINITELY!" categories. It's kind of impossible to work on a game without giving any further thought to it. We're humans, after all.
lol I feel like I've read or heard in an interview that they're not limited to negative things. I have no idea where though. It would be silly only to have negative things in artifacts. You need more incentive to seek them out other than to kill yourself.
I'm pretty sure I've read about artifacts in an article or post somewhere, but that was in the context of item quality, I think? The memory's too vague, maybe even an invalid memory. I think it would be silly, but I also wouldn't be surprised if artifacts only had negative effects. The latter probably stems from a combination of the impression I get reading the blogs and the Lovecraft inspired elements. These two conflicting thoughts incited my curiosity which demanded I receive clarification.
From what I gotten from the updates and interviews, some artifacts/ruins/inventions can also have both negative and positive effects, like an artifact that boost production of, say for example, cheese wheels by 35% but at the cost of a random colonist being disintegrated once a month by a death beam that emits from the artifact if they happen to wonder too close.
I think it's something the exact specifics of which they want to keep hidden until the time comes. Or something. It's more fun if we can't prepare for losing our sanity, is it not? Not that I don't see your point, though. I'm curious too. I'm just trying to be patient (and being busy helps with that).
As long as they answer the question, whether it be a reply here when they can disclose this information, in a blog post, or with the game itself, I'm fine.
I think from what they've been teasing at in the stories/blog post is that in the pursuit to destroy your colony to seek advancement artifacts both help boost production and help initiate the catastrophic failure. For example not only will a random citizen be disintegrated, but in a years time all disintegrated citizens will appear as one, Shguleheth the Beast of Brie.
Julienned brie beastlets with Quag'garoth calamari canapes. Yes, the 50 previous attempts at getting the Imperial Colonial cocktail party going have been less than ideal, but this 51st plan will work I just know it! For great culinary science! Yeah, I'm totally going to be first against the wall when the Quag'garoth revolution comes.
I'm certainly hoping artifacts have both positive and negative potential, a sort of nice risk/reward scenario. After all, if artifacts only ever have negative effects, then what would be the point of keeping one around? (Other than pure entertainment value of watching your colony fail in hilariously hideous ways.) If somebody gets an artifact the first thing we'd do is banish that member, lock up the artifact in something big, heavy and unbreakable, and hope for the best. But if there is a fairly even mix of possible good and/or bad effects then we as players will have to make the decision: do we do the above and lock away an artifact? Or do we keep it around long enough to see if it's worth it?
The age old question, do i have enough booze to justify using this whispering gem to ensure better harvest?
Booze? Oh, please. Humans don't need booze to do that. It gives some sort of boost? Cool, humans will use that. Side effects, like everyone losing sanity or starting to combust spontaneously? Yeah, well, will have to try to do something about that, since we can't stop using something that gives a boost. Want an example? Coffee and tea with their caffeine, which gives us some sort of boost but increases the chances of insomniac episodes and sends our immunologic system to hell. Does that stop us from drinking coffee and tea? Nay, not really. Now, I don't want to turn this thread into an “is coffee good or bad” argument because that is not the point. The point is that humans are really weird. Ah, but then again, I'm fairly certain most players will justify using whatever whispering gems they find to enhance whatever they can in the game because the potential for side-effects will make it funnier.
No, only green tea today. A lot of green tea. And a fair amount of insanity while I was at work. Oh yes, today was quite a mentally taxing day … . And the worst thing is, most of the mental fatigue—and irritation earlier on, albeit that part of the package is already gone—came from people acting moronically, being irresponsible and arrogant, ignoring OSHA in the stupidest ways possible in situations when it would be common sense not to do so, or being plain incompetent. Had I not wasted half of my shift getting things back to “normal” because of the aforementioned factors, I would have been in a much better condition now. But I am fine, just … talkative in the weird direction and a bit prone to complaining about things of barely any relevance. But still (relatively) harmless.
