Wish and artifacts

[Blasphemous]

I had BoW and Preserver too. One I put on and didn't notice much difference, the other I forgot to put on after using amulet of light to illuminate a dark room on D:50.

[taickyto]

I had BoW and Preserver too. One I put on and didn't notice much difference, the other I forgot to put on after using amulet of light to illuminate a dark room on D:50.

I can understand you, but I can't think of a situation where I get BoW and tell myself "no big deal".

It is the best artifact in the game.

[mjkittredge]

Additionally potions of uselessness only have an actual use at the point in the game where it doesn't matter what artifact you get since you're already set for D:50.

I wonder what the game message would be if you'd already found every artifact in the game by the time you got to that ice level and threw the potion. It would probably crash the game, can't make a duplicate artifact, right? Or maybe some amusing comment from the god "Mortal, ye art clever, but already well equipped. Carry on!"

[Blasphemous]

I wonder what the game message would be if you'd already found every artifact in the game by the time you got to that ice level and threw the potion. It would probably crash the game, can't make a duplicate artifact, right? Or maybe some amusing comment from the god "Mortal, ye art clever, but already well equipped. Carry on!"

I did that once. Actually you don't even have to posses (or generate) all artifacts in the game, merely the artifacts from your current PC's pool, which is determined upon character creation.
The pool I mentioned consists of ~21 artifacts selected from among all available artifacts.
Those 21 artifacts are then used when special circumstances take place - greater vaults, precrowns, surges of power and mino emp.

I once played a heavily scummed cheated archmage in the days when you could technically precrown 15 times and together with 3 greater vaults, I generated all artifacts in the pool, then threw the potion of uselessness on D:49.
The result was the same message but instead of an artifact I got a random heap of high DL items, much like something that would drop after killing a great wyrm.
There was eternium stuff in there, including some with prefixes and suffixes. So I guess the game anticipates such an extremely rare case of all pool artifacts generated and acts accordingly when they have been exhausted.

What baffles me is why the artifact pools exist at all, why not just make it possible for *any* non-guaranteed artifact to appear in greater vaults or precrowns instead of selecting a limited pool upon character creation?
I guess only TB can answer that.

[anon123]

I once played a heavily scummed cheated archmage in the days when you could technically precrown 15 times and together with 3 greater vaults, I generated all artifacts in the pool, then threw the potion of uselessness on D:49.
The result was the same message but instead of an artifact I got a random heap of high DL items, much like something that would drop after killing a great wyrm.

Some years back, ternal from #adom did the same with his 1.1.1 archmage, and got a blue dragon scale mail. I guess TB indeed thought of madmen who would try to generate as many artifacts as possible (something pretty much impossible on a "normal" game) and coded a special case for that. Just another example of ADOM's depth.

What baffles me is why the artifact pools exist at all, why not just make it possible for *any* non-guaranteed artifact to appear in greater vaults or precrowns instead of selecting a limited pool upon character creation?

My guess is replay value. Every new character will have access to artifacts unavailable in your last adventure - another reason to play again and see what you generate this time.

[Blasphemous]

I don't see how that improves replay value.
After ~10 or so wins, you will have recycled virtually all random artifacts and it instead becomes a hindrance when you realize you won't ever get BoW or Preserver with that one char that you really wanted to get it with.

[auricbond]

when you realize you won't ever get BoW or Preserver with that one char that you really wanted to get it with.

So every char, then.

[gr3ybird]

Anyone else like the idea of adding randarts? Seems like it would make things less predictable, and they couldn't be much less balanced than the existing ones.

[psy_wombats]

Anyone else like the idea of adding randarts? Seems like it would make things less predictable, and they couldn't be much less balanced than the existing ones.

I remember an RFE (or was it a blog post?) from a few years back where Biskup discussed the idea, and the conclusion was that randarts would always be less flavorful and less logical than actual artifacts, and it'd be better to make more by hand. (I haven't seen a really good randart system myself, although I suppose it could be possible)

[mjkittredge]

I remember an RFE (or was it a blog post?) from a few years back where Biskup discussed the idea, and the conclusion was that randarts would always be less flavorful and less logical than actual artifacts, and it'd be better to make more by hand. (I haven't seen a really good randart system myself, although I suppose it could be possible)

TOME has them. As the random nature works, they can be really underwhelming or very powerful. Seem to be rare enough so it doesn't throw the game out of whack