TomeNET

(5.9b) Artifacts and artifact resets                                            
------------------------------------
(For information about the 'timeout' on true artifacts, see 'Artifact resets'
further below.)

Artifacts of any type cannot be enchanted by any means, nor harmed by elemental
attacks of any type. Also they have a high chance to resist disenchantment
effects. (If the player actually resists disenchantment already then they are
completely safe.)

Artifact types in general
-------------------------
Some items are 'named', those possess especially great magic powers and are
also called 'Artifacts'.
Different from other items artifacts will pseudo-ID as 'special' (given
sufficient combat/magic/archery skill) or as 'terrible' if they are cursed.

The artifact name can either be given as a real name, for example:
    The Dagger 'Nimthanc'
or it can be in the form of a description like for example:
    The Whip of Gothmog
The 'The' indicates that this item is one of a kind, aka an artifact.

To find out all about the magic powers of an artifact it needs to be
*identified*, for example by a 'Scroll of *Identify*' or in one of the *ID*
shops that occur in most towns, which will usually cost around 2000..3000 gold.

Some artifacts can be 'A'ctivated for a special effect. This will be shown
in the list of its powers that you get when *identifying* it.

Artifact ammunition never breaks or (in case of boomerangs) falls down to the
floor instead of returning. Artifact weapons are harder to get disarmed.

There are two classes of artifacts, 'true artifacts' (also called 'static
artifacts') and 'random artifacts' or short 'randarts':


True artifacts
--------------
True artifacts are predefined in the a_info.txt file and will always sell for
their defined value even if they have not been *identified*.
You can search a list of all true artifacts in game, by pressing  ~ 6 .

True Artifacts are unique. If an artifact is owned by a player, noone else can
find it anymore until it's lost (for example if the player dies) or sold to a
shop, or if the player drops it to the floor and leaves it behind.
Depending on a server's configuration artifacts that are sold to shops usually
stay a while in the shop and can be bought by other players before they finally
disappear from the stock.

Usually true artifacts may not be dropped into a house (will just disappear!)
and may not be carried by winners, ie characters that have beaten Morgoth.
Since static artifacts are predefined and have fixed abilities, their number
therefore is limited. Thanks to the existence of random artifacts (see below)
this won't be able to cause any shortage of artifacts that can be found though.

Static artifacts will also be erased if they are left on the ground and the
dungeon level or worldmap sector gets 'unstaticed', that means it gets reset
because no players have been on it for a while (can be a few seconds for world
map sectors or dungeon floors that are left without any players on them, and up
to many hours in case someone ghost-died on a dungeon level, which can render
the dungeon level 'static' for that time to allow others to retrieve the loot).

Note that some cursed true artifacts can be sold to stores after you removed
the curse.


Random Artifacts
----------------
Random artifacts are composed randomly and even if they happen to bear the same
name might have totally different powers. Randarts need to be *identified* to
sell for what they are really worth.
Randarts can be dropped in houses and used by anyone just fine, with the
exception that randarts that give a hit point bonus can only be found/created
by winners (characters that have beaten Morgoth), and that the hit point bonus
will not apply if a non-winner character happens to use them.

As was just mentioned, randarts can actually be created by players, using a
'Scroll of Artifact Creation' which are somewhat often sold in the 'Expensive
Black Market' in Minas Anor, but also may very rarely spawn in normal black
markets.
The advantage of creating an artifact is that the player can determine the base
item type he wants to use. For more information about artifact creation see
(8.4).

Note that randarts that don't auto-curse themselves can be sold after you
removed the curse (except if the base item type is already worthless).


Artifacts vs Nazgul
-------------------
Artifacts greatly resist Nazgul, which cause most other weapons to break more
or less instantly. So even if an artifact weapon you find seems not very
appealing in particular you might want to keep it just for slaying Nazgul.
(See (1.3a) for more information about Nazgul.)

Note: 'The Stormbringer' is not a real artifact but it will show the same
resilience as true artifacts and random artifacts vs Nazgul.


Bonus from wearing similarly named artifacts
--------------------------------------------
If you wear/wield multiple artifacts of similar name, you will receive a luck
bonus (see (5.8), 'LUCK', for details about luck). For example if you equip
    The Whip of Gothmog    (which happens to be a true artifact)
and also
    The Hard Leather Armor 'Gothmog'    (which is actually a random artifact)
You'd get a small luck bonus, or 'set bonus'. The more artifacts of similar
name you equip the greater the luck bonus will be.
The exact luck boni for those 'artifact sets' starting at two items are:

  Number of artifacts equipped  |  Luck bonus
  ------------------------------+-------------
                    2           |    + 3
                    3           |    + 6
                    4           |    +10
                    5           |    +15
                    6           |    +21
                    7           |    +28
                    8           |    +36
                    9 or more   |    +40 (cap)

..which is actually the sum of all numbers from 1 up to the number of artifacts
you have equipped. Eg 2 artifacts -> 1+2 = 3. 4 artifacts -> 1+2+3+4 = 10.

Multiple equipped sets don't stack, only the biggest set counts!


Artifact resets
---------------
The old system of resetting all true artifacts at once every 3 months has been
replaced by a new "fluent" reset system:

Artifacts will last for 5 weeks after they have been found (ie dropped by a
monster/chest/just being generated on the dungeon floor, and picked up by a
player), after which they will "time out" and disappear. This timer is specific
for each single true artifact, depending on when it is found (again).

No compensation is given when an artifact times out and disappears, since that
would encourage hoarding, so sell an artifact to a store in time before it
actually vanishes.

To check the timeout of an artifact, inspect it ('I' to inspect).
For your character to 100% "know" if an artifact is a true artifact or not it
needs to *Identify* the item. So this will be required to see the timer on it.

The timer will also continue to run out while the owner/carrier of an artifact
is offline.
Trading artifacts between characters has no effect on the timeout.

Grond and Morgoth's crown do not time out.

Artifacts that can only be found by winners (kings/queens/emperors/empresses)
have twice the timeout delay (10 weeks).

If a character who is carrying true artifacts wins the game, ie beats Morgoth,
all the true artifacts he is already carrying will from now on time out at
double speed.

Characters that are inside the Ironman Deep Dive Challenge dungeon will always
have all their true artifacts time out at double speed. (This is not cumulative
with the doubling from 'winner' status mentioned above.)

All artifact timeout delays are actually doubled on the Ironman server (5 weeks
for regular true artifacts, 20 weeks for winners-only true artifacts).

The Ring of Phasing has no timeout (!) but will instead immediately reset when
someone else kills Zu-Aon. Until then its owner can keep it indefinitely.