[BUG - Maybe] Once colonized, the planet will indicate if an artifact is there.

It is a bug, and it's been reported before. It even tells you which artifact it is, if you look at the alert infocard.

Pray they don't take this away.

It's kind of nice, in my opinion. I can't even count the number of times that I've colonized half of the planets before I have 'enough free resources' to warrant planet exploration upgrades.

It doesn't mention anything about the planetary bonuses, unfortunately.

I demand that bug be added!

i noticed that after scouting a planet it shows me if it has an artifact before i even own it.

Though I think this bug is nice, I also think it takes away from the game. Part of finding artifacts is not knowing where they are. It makes you decide weather you want to spend resources on that planet, or on research, your fleet, ETC.
Part of this game is making choices, and I think if they leave this bug in, it defeats that purpose and makes Sins less of a game. Things arent supposed to be easy, and you arent supposed to have 'everything', and not knowing where artifacts are adds to the unpredictability of each game.

I agree with Squiggle. I don't want this to be a kept bug.

I think it was joke when people were saying "Don't take it away".

i think they should keep the artifact alerts, but make it more expensive to excavate/search for it on your planet after you become aware of it's presence. Maybe even make some planets have an artifact built in, and on others give players a random chance to find one by searching via the planet upgrade.

food for thought.

Nope you shouldn't be able to knowbefore hand if their si one or not. This needs to be fixed.

And i would even suggest a change to the way artifacts are distributed. Instead of having them predetermind at game start i would ahve then be generated by exploration. And have it work that the fewer explorations total on all planets by all planets the more likely to discover one. Meaning exploring planets would become a race to see who can get artifacts. But at teh same time a balance act between exploration and defending your self from people who would want your newly found artifact.

Planet bonuses should work the same as well.

I guess my satire was hard to catch for some.  ;p 

Hmm...Was that satire as well? Demanding minds want to know.

I don't think it's a joke. In multiplayer games it's just not worth the risk to spend resources on stuff like this if there is no way of knowing how much the payout will be.

It's not a lot different than the research tree when you think about it. Imagine if you never knew what you'd get from spending resources on research and just got things with luck of the draw and sometimes got nothing.

It makes the game more interesting seeing the artifacts, more options for how I want to expand my empire. (hopefully the artifacts are balanced and don't offer huge bonus's that will throw the game out of whack) My resources are still being spent somewhere but looking for artifacts was basically gambling. Now they are at least in line with the research tree which tells you precisely what you'll get after you research.

I kinda like it. maybe it could become a scouting ability.

The exploration already costs too much and removing this bug/feature just makes exploration never used in real game.

Not true! If the games are longer, it isn't. People begin to explore in larger maps which generally take longer.

I think that in sins there should maybe be a feature where if the map size has some 40 or less planets, then the sensors tell you if there is an artifact. If more than forty planets, then we are left on our own.

Hows about that?

Even in late game, the cost of exploration is wayy too expensive.

Think about this, with exploring one planet, I can make about two heavy cruisers. If I have more than 8 planets, that's for 16 heavy cruisers.

That's really a lot, really.... more than a possible bonus you can get from exploration.

I've seen a planet telling me "you sence some kind of artafact on this planet", so I looked at all the planets I had, and no other ones had that. So I paid to search the one "alerted" planet, and sure enough, found a bonus tech. I got really curious, and searched all my planets (ruined my econcomy, so I had to reload). I did find a tech bonus on another planet that had not alterted me something was there.

So being alerted there is something on your planet seems to be a bug, or a rare bonus you roll up. There are still techs that stay hidded on planets until searched.

This bug seems to effect enemies aswell. As soon as an enmey or ally colonizes a planet with artifact, you get the announcment "Other race has discovered an artifact".

That's been in the game since the beginning and is intended, as far as I'm aware.

Tumbler:

My impression was that's precisely the point of the artifacts. You can take the safe route and research your tech tree, knowing precisely what you'll get, or you can choose to gamble some resources and see if it pays off.

It is supposed to be giving the notice once the artifact is explored, yeah. But since that's what's bugged and you don't need to explore to find the artifact, the player gets the messages as soon as the AI colonizes these planets, too.

So yep, it's a side effect of the bug, not an addition to.

I don't think so. The AI didn't trigger the announcement until it explored in 1.05.
Edit: Stop beating me, Annatar.


I agree.

Let me just say, that if it takes say 4 planets to get you 1 artifact, your gambling will mean your doom if you are playing against me; all those resources will have bought me more ships and more upgrades (or more econ, if you played me you know what I mean). I have yet to see a good player explore for artifacts in a game. And if they do, it's because they are on my team, winning, and have way too much money to know what do to with.

Ah. I misread the post. Yes, that's indeed bugged.

I personally love this bug/extremely wonderful feature. Typically you'd have to search 6/7 planets which is the price of a small fleet to get something that does 15% more of something, totally not worth the small fleet.