One more space artifact status

[NeoDeusMachina]

Currently, artifacts are listed either as "Available" or "Collected" when we select a space POI. After some time, previously "Collected" artifacts become "Available" again.

I think there should be a way to differentiate between "Available" artifacts that will give us an actual artifact and a vascillator recharge after analysis, and those we have already collected and that will only give us a coffee mug. Right now, it doesn't seem possible to know which one we will get unless we remember which POI was harvested for artifacts and which one wasn't.

It could be nice to have a third status "Undiscovered" that would be the starting status for Artifacts, then it would become "Collected", and once the POI has generated a coffee mug it would be "Available". Something along those lines would be of great help in recovering unique space artifacts from POIs and getting those juicy vascillator recharges.

Edit: If this is not how artifacts currently work, please let me know XD

[AndreyKl]

8 hours ago, NeoDeusMachina said:

If this is not how artifacts currently work, please let me know XD

I got an x-ray hand from my second visit and did not get any vacillators from analyzing artifacts from both visits, the only vacillator I have is from an artifact I got on my starter planetoid.

P.S. This is probably a bug, but if you add 3 artifact modules to your rocket, you will get 3 artifacts from single visit. No drill required. I wanted to visit 3 POIs in a single run, but got 3 artefacts from first one (it has yet to arrive back, so there might be some vacillators) 

[NeoDeusMachina]

2 hours ago, AndreyKl said:

I got an x-ray hand from my second visit and did not get any vacillators from analyzing artifacts from both visits, the only vacillator I have is from an artifact I got on my starter planetoid.

P.S. This is probably a bug, but if you add 3 artifact modules to your rocket, you will get 3 artifacts from single visit. No drill required. I wanted to visit 3 POIs in a single run, but got 3 artefacts from first one (it has yet to arrive back, so there might be some vacillators) 

So, you can get "real" artifacts from re-visiting the same POI? I thought it was only on the first visit, and you only got mugs after that. That makes things rather confusing.

When I put more than 1 artifact module, I only get 1 artifact and the rest are mugs. I think that is the general situation from what I have seen on the forums and reddit.

I might have been very lucky because I have got vascillators very consistently from pretty much every artifact I recovered so far (planet or space), except the last one that I've got after creating my previous post. I don't know what the drop rate is when analyzing artifacts at the station, I thought it was 100% for real artifacts and 0% from mugs. Looks like it's not the case.

I wish I could shake a magic wand and have someone from Klei kindly explain what the intent is with the artifacts or how they are supposed to work - it is difficult to know if things work "as intented" or if there are bugs without knowing what the "as intended" is XD

Anybody else experienced similar or different things while collecting artifacts from space POI? Also regarding vascillators? Could be helpful to get some feedback from everyone who played with that mechanic

Edit: So, I literally just witnessed my dupe getting a vascillator recharge from a coffee mug. It is possible to get them, but still have no idea of the drop rate. It's my 1st recharge out of 10 mugs so far, not really enough data to make conclusions.

[AndreyKl]

5 hours ago, NeoDeusMachina said:

So, you can get "real" artifacts from re-visiting the same POI? I thought it was only on the first visit, and you only got mugs after that. That makes things rather confusing.

I'm rather confused now too. I did a second trip to a new POI and rocket returned with 1 module containing a rubic cube, another module with a mug (first one for this map) and third one is empty. So multiple modules getting artifacts no longer looks like a bug...

 

[Dovahkick]

19 hours ago, NeoDeusMachina said:

When I put more than 1 artifact module, I only get 1 artifact and the rest are mugs. I think that is the general situation from what I have seen on the forums and reddit.

Last month, I can tell you that I had done the experiment myself with tons of Artifact Modules on a single rocket. Out of the three trips I had made, I have gotten a Sandstone, a Double Helix Model, a Modern Art and...27 Office Mugs.

 

[NeoDeusMachina]

14 minutes ago, Dovahkick said:

Last month, I can tell you that I had done the experiment myself with tons of Artifact Modules on a single rocket. Out of the three trips I had made, I have gotten a Sandstone, a Double Helix Model, a Modern Art and...27 Office Mugs.

 

Yes, this makes sense with what I have experienced and read others have experienced as well. If you have more than 1 artifact module and send your rocket on POI, only 1 will store an "actual artifact", the rest will all be mugs. From your screenshots, it seems like this is what happened to you as well, except you had a LOT of modules, so you got a LOT of mugs XD

[Dovahkick]

That explains...but I find that to be rather anti-productive. What's the point of adding more modules that weight your rocket, which makes it slower, if all of the possible artifacts you get are mugs except one? Once even, after the Breath of Fresh Air update, I had done a trip with one single Artifact Module on the rocket, towards a man-made POI to the border of the map...only to get a poor mug.

At this point, I should be nicknamed as "The Mugman".

[AndreyKl]

22 hours ago, NeoDeusMachina said:

Yes, this makes sense with what I have experienced and read others have experienced as well. If you have more than 1 artifact module and send your rocket on POI, only 1 will store an "actual artifact", the rest will all be mugs. From your screenshots, it seems like this is what happened to you as well, except you had a LOT of modules, so you got a LOT of mugs XD

I did one more trip to a field I visited before, rocket had three modules, I got moon's moon and one mug, third module is empty. Everything within 5 tiles of starting planet returns with 1 of 3 modules empty for me.

Either my first trip with 3 modules was a fluke of luck or there is some kind of threshold, after which mugs become more common. Perhaps related to the fact that some artifacts should be one of a kind? In such case the more artifacts are discovered the less options randomizer has and the more likely mugs become, up to getting only mugs after revisits (ex: randomizer selects Fossil, Fossil is already present, defaulting to Mug).

Another option is that POIs are different. The one I got 3 artifacts from was a bit further, would make sense for further POIs to be more rewarding either in quantity or in rarity.

18 hours ago, Dovahkick said:

What's the point of adding more modules that weight your rocket, which makes it slower, if all of the possible artifacts you get are mugs except one?

Those mugs still might produce charges. Also I'm getting empty modules, so past certain point there is no gain.

[Dovahkick]

3 hours ago, AndreyKl said:

Those mugs still might produce charges.

I know, mugs have a 10% chance of giving out a Vacillator charge...but it would've been better if the trips would get me actually random artifacts, and not 8-11 mugs all at once.

[AndreyKl]

On 9/28/2021 at 5:35 PM, Dovahkick said:

but it would've been better if the trips would get me actually random artifacts

While the point is likely 'Vacillator charges', would indeed be nicer if there were more 'common' artifacts to get, even if it is just some basic office supplies.

By this point I'm getting mugs even from planetoids:

Spoiler

 

P.S. Explored 5 planetoids fully (6 with starting one), and found no Vacillator yet(

[Dovahkick]

I don't want plenty of mugs, because they have the lowest chance of giving out vacillator recharges (which is 25%, not 10% like I said above 'cause I was wrong) and also because their decor bonus is minimal. I don't like getting mugs because they have one of the lowest rarity tier of all the artifacts, tied with Sandstone and Rubik's Cube.

If the aquisition of artifacts was more randomized, that mugs wouldn't be so bountiful, then we'd be getting higher rarity artifacts who have not only higher decor bonuses, but also higher chances to get a vacillator recharge, the highest percentage being 100% for the most rarest of artifacts (AKA 100% being a guaranteed recharge).

Each artifact have a level of rarity, the mug being of the lowest rarity at 0, tied with Sandstone and Rubik's Cube. The highest rarity ones are the Moonmoonmoon, the Self-Contained System and the Model Nuclear Power Plant, all three with a rarity of 5. That means there are 6 levels of rarity.

Each level of rarity adds 15% chance of getting a vacillator, you go from 25% at tier 0 to 40% at tier 1, to 55% at tier 2, and so on, you get the point.