Artefact (and talisman) disambiguation

Shecks

Just a humble request / suggestion for a small change to some of the help scrolls / talisman info sections of artefacts. As it stands today, quite a lot of them are (in my opinion) pretty vague. Some are worse than others, but I would bet that in virtually every single case, one could find mechanics or important factors on artefacts or talismans that are critical in the determination of whether or not it would be useful, and/or worthwhile, for your character.

Currently, if you are unclear about one of these, you have two options:

1) ask someone who owns one (I find issues with this because quite frequently, I cannot find such a person - especially for some of the more obscure talismans / artefacts. Examples of this might include things like dala'myrr claws, quisalis cloak, hunter's blind, scorpion's tail, etc).

2) ISSUE ME to ask about it, or to request to "trial" one out. (My main issue with this is that it has, historically, often taken me 1-2 RL months to get an answer to this question - and even then it's only a specific answer to a specific question - not a full overview of everything you'd want/need to know).

Essentially, I think clear mechanics of each artefact, including critical information like balance times, conditions to use it (e.g. works prone, requires 1 arm, etc), mechanics of its effects, cooldown(s), ownership rules (shareable or not) and so on would be very beneficial to both the player community as well as the game admins (probably a big reduction in inquiry issues / emails, and also probably more artefact purchases). I would think that if any player has to ISSUE ME or email to ask about an artefact, that's probably something that should be listed in the information screen, unless it's something super obscure or obvious.

I think a half-measure here would simply be to put all of this information on the wiki, however 1) the wiki isn't really well-maintained and is often missing information or out of date, and 2) Some people may not know about it or have direct access to it, so it seems better to just provide the info in-game.

Naturally if some artefacts are intended to be obscure, then it could be left as such, but I don't think there's much benefit in concealing the balance time of Scorpion's Tail, for example. It gives a single loki affliction, on a 2-ish second balance. Knowing that it's 2-seconds, instead of something more "normal" for a single aff like 1.0 or 1.2 second balance, might save a lot of people headaches (players and admins alike). There's nothing quite like buying something, then 5 seconds later saying "aww damn I really don't want this..." (at which point you have to trade it in for a huge loss or maybe get a refund, 1-2 months later).

This is a bit out there, but another idea might be to code in some way for players to "rent" an artefact purely for the duration of one arena spar, for a gold fee. This way, any ambiguities / mechanics could be directly tested by a player themselves, IG and IC. Think of the amount of daily questions like "Does anyone know how much faster my Scims will be if I upgrade L2 to L3?" type questions this would be able to eliminate, or others such as "How long does crier's bell take to complete its execution?".

Just throwing it out there. Would even be happy to participate in documenting these things, if it'd be helpful. 😀

Van

I had to reference the Achaea Wiki to remember how my Canopic Jar worked so I'm all for a revamp of the TALISMAN INFO <TALISMAN> to include the syntax for each one, at the very least. There are simply too many friggin talismans in the game. I started playing again at a time when there were several sets already, and each year gets more and more cluttered with these things, which is a shame because I love the system. I love the flavor around them and their RNG nature, well..lootboxes for lack of a better word.

Shecks

https://forums.achaea.com/discussion/comment/453118#Comment_453118

Indeed, this isn't explained in talisman info canopic, nor is there a help blackwave talismans unlike some other sets. I think the only way to find it is to search Announces (or ofc, ask someone).

This isn't really what I'm talking about though. A better example specific to Canopic Jar would be disclosing the cooldown on it as well as balance times to clasp and open it, up front. Without knowing, it very well could have a 1 week cooldown or no cooldown at all. There's no way to know, essentially, without 1) asking someone, or 2) ISSUE ME, and as mentioned above, both of those methods have serious downsides, especially for less common artefacts. The TALISMAN INFO for it doesn't mention a cooldown at all, nor balance requirements / consumption at all (let alone durations).