TomeNET

(9.4) Artifact creation                                                         
-----------------------
(Also see (5.9b) for details about artifacts in general.)
"Scrolls of Artifact Creation" count to the most wanted items in the game
because of their power to turn a normal piece of equipment into a powerful
random artifact. Often kings and queens look out for these since they are
unable to use static artifacts, so they depend on rand-arts.
The scrolls are very rarely found; occasions to buy one are fair in the
expensive black market, but also the normal BM may sometimes offer some.

It doesn't matter where you are, what level you are, or whether your character
has 'luck' or not when you read the scroll, the resulting artifact's power is
always determined randomly and cannot be influenced by the player,
except for hit point bonus available for characters that have 'winner' status
(defeated Morgoth), which can be suppressed by inscribing the artifact creation
scroll '!L' (also see 'type-dependant mods' list further below).

Note that randarts created by scrolls of artifact creation do not differ in any
way from randarts that are found instead of created. (With the only difference
that scrolls offer you the '!L' option.) The artifacts' power, price, stats,
abilities and curses are generated exactly the same way, by the same program
code, using the same probabilities.


Here is some advice how to use these most valuable scrolls wisely:

DOESN'T ENCHANT WHOLE STACKS:

-Don't use scrolls of artifact creation on item stacks, it would
 reduce the stack to 1.

ONLY WORKS ON STANDARD EQUIPMENT:

-Artifact creation only works on items that can be equipped - with
 the exception of tool items like diggers, picklocks, flints, climbing sets,
 backpack safety locks, tarpaulins, mummy wrappings.
 These won't work!
 Also, it does not work on rings of polymorphing or amulets of telepathy!

DOESN'T WORK ON EGOS / ARTS:

-Don't use them on ego items or artifacts, or you will lose the scroll!

 Watch out: 'Indestructible' and 'Cursed' rings are ego items too, so are
 'Amulets of Telepathy' and Dragon Scale Mails 'of Defense', so you cannot
 art these!
 Also you cannot art 'Rings of Polymorphing'!

-Ammo that is '(exploding)' is actually not an ego item! Contrary to intuition,
 it is technically just a pval. This means that you can artify basic ammo that
 is '(exploding)'.
 Note that using exploding ammo instead of non-exploding ammo for artifact
 creation does not affect whether or not the resulting randart will actually be
 exploding or not, so it does not matter.

THE BASE ITEM MATTERS, ENCHANTMENTS DO NOT (except for jewelry, see below):

-You will want to use the cheapest base item version you can find, because
it will get rerolled randomly anyway. This means that you can even use cursed
items, it doesn't matter (just make sure it's not a ring named 'A Cursed Ring
of...' because that kind of curse is an ego-power!).
For example there is no difference between "arting" a ring of extra attacks
(+3) and a ring of extra attacks (-1) {cursed}. In fact, you should art the
cursed one, because you can still get money out of the (+3) one by selling it
to a store.
However, jewelry that has +hit, +dam or +AC mods is a special case, read on:

HOW IT WORKS ON JEWELRY:

-In general, it's not a good idea to try to turn a ring or amulet that
has high bonus numbers into an artifact, like for example a ring of speed
(+9) because these numbers will get erased and randomly re-rolled. Your great
speed ring will not get more than +7 speed as a randart, much likely less, so
speed rings in particular are very poor targets for artifact creation.
So if you want to use the scroll on say a ring of extra attacks, you should
actually use the cheapest one you can find, like (+1), or even a cursed one.
It doesn't matter, because it will get rerolled randomly anyway, and your
cursed version could just as likely end up as an awesome (+3) high end randart
ring of extra attacks.
However... read on:

-On jewelry (+to-hit,+to-dam) and [+AC] will stay the same, for example a ring
of slaying (+10,+15) will keep the (+10,+15) and an Amulet of Reflection [+13]
will keep the [+13] to AC when turned into a randart, even when it gets cursed.
(Any dice (xdy) as well as _base_ AC [x,+0] on jewelry will always become 0,
but there is currently no jewelry in the game that has damage dice or base AC.)

-When arting jewelry, keep in mind that it does NOT work on
amulets of telepathy, rings of polymorphing or on rings that are named
'a Cursed Ring of..' (because that's not a normal curse but an ego-power)!

HOW IT WORKS ON NON-JEWELRY:

-All boni, to-hit/to-dam/to-ac and the pval/bpval (those (+x) bonus) are
randomly rerolled. So it won't matter what stats the item has, only its
base type is important.

ITEMS THAT ALREADY HAVE ONE OR MORE ABILITIES:

-Some items already possess certain abilities even without ego powers.
For example dragon scale mails or jewelry. Important: The abilities of these
items will be added to the randart abilities when it comes to determining the
total power of that random artifact. That means that you're less likely to see
many additonal abilities on an item which already has several abilities in
it's basic form.
For example it's hard to get extra mods on a Multi-hued Dragon Scale Mail, and
in fact impossible to get any extra mod on a Power Dragon Scale Mail, so don't
waste a scroll on this one.

-However, IGNORE_ flags on items are an exception and do not count into this.
Also, when selecting randart mods, the game will not check if that mod already
existed on the base item (example: 'everburning' mod being added to a feanorian
lamp, which already has that by default ie needs no fuel), so if unlucky it
might seem as if an item did not gain any mods, but in fact it just did not
gain any NEW mods it didn't already possess.

-'Activation' does not tax the base power either. It's a free property same as
ignore-flags mentioned above. (Prominent example: Dragon scale mails.)

-Any mod the base item type already possesses will definitely also be on the
final randart.
Examples: Shadow Blades and Witan Boots will modify stealth, Demon Hammers
will always have SLAY_DEMON mod.
However, there are certain exceptions:
1) if an item gains AGGRAVATE flag in the artifying process, it will lose any
   stealth or invisibility.
2) Slay flags can be upgraded to kill flags. So a Demon Hammer will lose its
   granted SLAY_DEMON flag if it gets KILL_DEMON instead.
3) -Resistances can be upgraded to immunities. So a Serpent Scale Mail will
    lose its acid resistance if it gets acid immunity.
   -Confusion resistance is overwritten by chaos resistance.
4) Minor ESP base flags can be removed from the item in these ways:
   -Dragons replaces Dragonriders
   -Evil replaces Orc/Troll/Giant/Undead/Demon
   -Full ESP removes all other ESP flags
5) If the item ends up cursed, certain granted base flags can be removed too:
   -Curse removes blessing
   -Experience drain removes hold-life
   -attribute mali remove the according sustenance (STR/INT/WIS/DEX/CON/CHR)

-Mods provided by the base item, unless they are removed by these exceptions
may limit the final randart mods:
For example the base stealth bonus that all Shadow Blades come with will limit
their bonus powers to the stealth cap of +5. So in order to gain for example a
bonus of +10 to critical hits on a Shadow Blade it'd have to roll AGGRAVATE
in order to remove the stealth bonus.
There is one notable exception: Witan Boots. These have their fixed -2 stealth
malus detached from their actual powers and can hence roll for example a speed
bonus just as high as any other boots.

MULTI-HUED DRAGON SCALE MAIL IMMUNITIES:

-As a specialty, the immunities on MHDSM are actually *retained*! They are not
rerolled randomly but survive the artifying process. So you can pick a MHDSM
with two immunities of your choice and attempt to use an artifact creation
scroll on it to make it acquire additional powers (it cannot gain any further
immunities though, since 2 are the maximum for any type of item).
Note that MHDSM are poor targets for artifact creation though, because their
immunities and resistances already account for a high amount of 'item power',
meaning that it will be very hard to get good additional powers on them from
the artifact creation process.

POWER DRAGON SCALE MAIL:

As mentioned above, it is impossible to gain any additional powers on PDSM, so
don't waste your artifact creation scroll on it!

DISCOUNTED ITEMS:

-Items will lose any discount tag when they are artified.


Also note that randarts cannot get more than two immunities in total.


Mods on the final randart:
--------------------------
The item will gain a random number of random properties. The more powerful it
becomes, the higher a chance of also becoming 'aggravating' will be.
(See (5.8) for more information about AGGRAVATE flag.)

There is always a 10% chance that the resulting randart will be 'cursed'.
Cursed randarts cannot be sold to shops even if the curse is broken. They gain
only very few abilities, which are accompanied by different types of curses.

All armour-type randarts will have at least +10 to AC bonus (except if they
happen to be cursed), usually much more, dragon scale mails especially.
Also, the higher level the base type of an armour, the more +AC it can expect
as a randart, because armour gets baselevel/15 added to its AC.
Base item types that come with +AC (Mithril Helmet always comes with +10 AC
pre-enchanted for example, see k_info.txt) get half of that added to their AC
too. These +AC boni from base item level and base item pre-enchantment do not
factor into the artifact's power, ie they do not "count" in the flag cost
calculation, except when the +AC exceeds +30, which is always costly.
So basically for armour, you want to use the base item type with the highest
pre-enchantment and with the highest base level. Usually you won't need to pay
attention to this though, because the higher level items are automatically the
better items anyway and hence you will pick them without much thinking. :-p

The base item's weight, price or rarity (not to be confused with the item's
base level, which however only matters for armour pieces as explained above)
do not have any influence on the randart creation process.

Possible mods that randarts may get depend on its base type.
Further, there are general mods that may appear on all items regardless of its
type. For each applied mod there is a chance of 50% to be picked from either
type-dependant mods or general mods.
- Ammunition (shots/pebbles, arrows, bolts) will never get general mods but
  only type-dependant ones.
- Boomerangs, bows, crossbows and slings will somewhat less often receive
  type-dependant mods than general mods.
- Dragon Scale Mails will more often receive type-dependant mods than general
  mods.
All types not listed under 'Type-dependant mods' will only gain general mods
(for example all jewelry, ie rings and amulets).

Last but not least certain mods will limit or even cancel certain other mods,
sometimes following general rules, sometimes item-type specific rules:

For example an item that provides critical strike and strength bonus might at
first randomly obtain a +8 bonus for its critical strike mod, but then the
strength mod will cut down the final randart bonus to a +5, because items
aren't allowed to give more than +5 to any character stat (str, int, etc).

On boots, +speed mod takes precedence over most other limiting mods, which
means that speed-limiting mods will be erased from the boots in most cases if
they threaten to cut down the final pval.


Type-dependant mods:
--------------------
(Note: The probability of each mod varies, depending on the item type)

Bows, crossbows, slings
        Extra shots
        Extra might
        +hit bonus
        +dam bonus
Weapons
        Blessed (usable for priests without penalty)
        Hit point bonus (+LIFE)   (*)
Weapons, boomerangs
        Elemental (acid/elec/fire/cold/poison) brands
        Increased damage dice/dice sides
        All SLAY mods (also have a chance to add the corresponding ESP)
        All KILL (*SLAY*) mods (will also add the corresponding ESP)
        Critical hit bonus
        Vorpal mod (only swords, see (5.8) for details, and razor boomerangs)
        Extra attacks
        Extra +hit and +dam bonus
        Extra +AC bonus
        Vampiric life leech
        Chaotic (same as ego power)
        Reduced weight
Mage staves
        Sustain wisdom
        Sustain intelligence
        See invisible
        All possible ESP mods (including ESP_ALL)
        Extra +mana capacity bonus
Boomerangs (also see 'Weapons' above)
        Extra shots
Dark swords (also see 'Weapons' above)
        Increased anti-magic (not over 30% in total, see (5.9)).
Ammunition
        All elemental brands (acid/elec/fire/cold/poison)
        All SLAY mods
        All KILL (*SLAY*) mods
        Vampiric life leech
        Exploding property. The type of explosion damage is randomly picked
                            from this list:
                            Acid, electricity, fire, cold, poison,
                            light, dark, confusion, plasma, sound, shards,
                            force, inertia, mana, meteor, ice, chaos, nether,
                            nexus, time, gravity, stone-to-mud, teleport away,
                            scare monster, nuke, disintegration, hellfire.
        Extra +hit and +dam bonus, this caps at +12 hit and +6 dam.
        Either +1 extra damage die sides or +1 extra damage dice.
Boots
        Feather falling
        Levitation
        Climbing
        Extra +AC bonus
        Stealth
        Speed
        Reduced weight
Gloves
        Free action
        Mana capacity bonus
        Auto-ID
        Strength bonus
        Dexterity bonus
        Extra attacks (+1 or +2)
        Critical hit bonus
        One of the elemental brands (acid/elec/fire/cold/poison) or SLAY mods
        Vampiric life leech
        Hit point bonus (+LIFE)   (*)
        Extra +AC bonus (less common than on other items)
        +hit and +dam bonus
Caps and helmets
        Resist blindness
        Auto-ID
        All possible ESP mods (including ESP_ALL)
        See invisible
        Intelligence bonus
        Wisdom bonus (less common than on crowns)
        Extra +AC bonus (somewhat more common than on other items)
        Infra-vision
        Resist confusion
        Resist fear
        Hit point bonus (+LIFE)   (*)
Crowns
        Resist blindness
        Auto-ID
        All possible ESP mods (including ESP_ALL)
        See invisible
        Intelligence bonus
        Wisdom bonus
        Extra +AC bonus
        Mana capacity bonus
        Infra-vision
        Faster mana regeneration
        Resist confusion
        Resist fear
        Hit point bonus (+LIFE)   (*)
Shields
        All basic resistances (acid/elec/fire/cold)
        Reflection
        Reduced weight
Cloaks
        Stealth
        Feather falling
        Levitation
        Fire/cold/acid/lightning resistances
        Chance for either lightning or fire aura and corresponding resistance
        Chance for shard resistance
        Hold life
        Invisibility (see (5.14) for details.)
        Extra +AC bonus (somewhat more common than on other items)
Body Armour (except for Dragon Scale Mails)
        Stealth
        Hold life
        Constitution bonus (has a chance to include constitution sustenance)
        All basic resistances (acid/elec/fire/cold)
        Hit point bonus (+LIFE)   (*)
        Reduced weight
        Extra +AC bonus
    Royal Armour (Heavy mithril/adamantite armour only usable by winners):
    (these mods may spawn additionally to body armour specific mods above)
        Reflection
        Mana resistance
        somewhat increased chance to spawn base immunities or +LIFE.
Dragon Scale Mails
        Hold life
        Strength bonus (has a chance to include strength sustenance)
        Constitution bonus (has a chance to include constitution sustenance)
        Hit point bonus (+LIFE)   (*)
        Extra +AC bonus
Rings/Amulets
        Rather basic (up to 12000 Au value in k_info.txt) rings and amulets
        that already come with one of the four base resistances (fire, cold,
        lightning, acid) or poison resistance in their base (non-artifact)
        version will have an especially high chance to obtain the according
        immunity when turning into a random artifact.
        Higher-value jewelry is not affected by this rule and does not obtain
        an immunity easier than any other generic item would (which means, it
        can obtain immunity only via 'General Mods', see further below, same
        as any other item - which actually rules out poison immunity as that
        one is not among the generic immunity mods).
Light sources
        Increased light radius
        Everburning (no fuel needed; applies only if item usually needs fuel)

(*): This mod (+LIFE) may only spawn on a randart (no matter how it is created,
     be it via scroll or via killing of monsters) if either
     a) the player is a winner (Queen/King/Empress/Emperor) or
     b) the server has the 'Fallen Kings Etiquette' enabled, meaning that
        players who won once but then died cannot use static artifacts either
        (press '~' followed by 'i' to check the server settings), and the
        player is actually a fallen winner who lost his title due to death,
        AND his level is at least 50.
     If a player actually wears/wields a +LIFE randart, the +LIFE mod will only
     have an effect on winners (Queens/Kings/Empresses/Emperors).

     If you don't want to create a randart that has a chance for +LIFE, you can
     inscribe your scroll of artifact creation:  !L


General mods:
-------------
(Note: The probability isn't equal for each mod)

        Bonus on any stats
            (has chance to include sustenance for that stat;
            wisdom might also include 'Blessed' flag)
        Sustenances on any stats
            (has chance to include bonus for that stat)
        Stealth
        Searching
        Speed
            (cannot spawn on shields or boomerangs)
        Any base immunities:
            Acid, Electricity, Fire, Cold.
            (A randart cannot have more than two immunities at once.)
        Free action
        Hold life
        Any base resistances
            Acid, Electricity, Fire, Cold.
        Any of these medium and high resistances:
            Poison, Light, Dark, Blindness, Confusion, Sound,
            Shards, Nether, Nexus, Chaos, Disenchantment
        Feather falling
        Glowing
            (+1 light radius)
        See invisible
        All possible ESP mods
            (including ESP_ALL aka full 'telepathy')
        Slow digestion
        Faster mana regeneration
        Faster HP regeneration
        Anti-magic shell
            (Legendary saving throw is raised to 95% cap,
             also see 'NO_MAGIC' in (5.8) for more details.)


Mods that appear only on cursed randarts:
-----------------------------------------
        Drain HP
        Drain mana
        Drain experience
        Teleport randomly


Item Mod Limits:
----------------
Certain power limits are applied on items, depending on mod-combinations or the
item's base type.

Items cannot give more than 2 immunities.
Items cannot give more than +11 to speed, crit or mana.
Items that give two of speed, crit or mana cannot give more than +6.
Items that give speed, crit and mana cannot give more than +4.
Items that give +speed via base-item enforced mod (eg Rings of Speed) cannot
 get more than +7 speed (which is already *extremely* rare).
Items cannot give more than +6 luck.
Items cannot have more than +5 stealth, except for cloaks which can have +6.
Items cannot give more than +5 to stats (STR/INT/WIS/DEX/CON/CHR).
Items cannot have more than +4 searching.
Items cannot give more than +3 extra attacks. Gloves can only give up to +2.
Items cannot give more than +3 life (+30% base hit points).
Items that give both extra attacks and life are capped at +1.
Items that add mana, give mana regeneration or are blessed will never have an
 anti-magic shell.

Headgear cannot give more than +6 infra-vision.
Headgear cannot give more than +3 speed.
Headgear cannot give more than +3 mana.

On items other than boots you cannot get more than +7 speed and getting that
high a value is already *extremely rare*. Realistically think of +5 as superb.

Gloves cannot get more than +6 to-hit or to-dam bonus, so (+6,+6) is max.
Gloves cannot give more than +2 extra attacks.

Amulets cannot give more than +3 to stats.

1-handed weapons and shields cannot give more than +3 speed.
1-handed weapons cannot give more than +1 life (+10% base hit points).
1.5- and 2-handed weapons cannot give more than +2 life (+20% base hit points).
2-handed weapons cannot give more than +6 speed.

Shields cannot gain +speed mod.
Boomerangs cannot gain +speed mod.

+Hit points mod (LIFE) caps at +3 and can only spawn on..
 melee weapons (caps at +1 if the weapon is one-handed, +2 on 1.5-/2-handed),
 hats, gloves and body armour (up to +3 is possible on any of these).

Reduced weight mod can stack up to a maximum of three times (which results in
0.9 * 0.9 * 0.9 = 72.9% weight or a 27.1% reduction).


Technical internals
-------------------
More details about how randart creation works internally:
First, a 'target power' is chosen randomly, usually in the range from 40..120.
Then, TomeNET tries several times to generate a randart that approximately
fits into that target power. To do this, after a randart is randomly created,
all its abilities are checked and calculated into a single number, the
'artifact_power'. If this approximately matches the 'target power', the
randart is finally created. If the numbers differ a lot, the randart is erased
and randomly recreated until its powers are fitting. The higher the target
power is, the more likely the randart will be 'aggravating nearby creatures'.
(See (5.8) for more information about AGGRAVATE flag.)