SYLEN GUIDE TO ARTIFACTS

SYLEN GUIDE TO ARTIFACTS

Ok so let's talk about this feature of the game. I'm not that good and qualified to talk about, but after capturing more than 50 of them and loose a chance to capture hundred times, i can say a little, just my humple opinion on the question.

Let's start talking about what the artifacts are: they're a kind of "building" on several map you can enter like shops, banks, ecc ecc

Only factions can gain the control of them since they need a squad of a team leader plus at least two members to try to capture an artifact.

The fight to conquer an artifact is just like other squad fights. If the artifact is unguarded, the squad will take the control without any fight (but the squad is gone anyway). If one or more player of the faction that control the artifact at the moment is on it, there will be a fight, in which were compared the stats of the attacking and defending squads.

Let's see how defense work. The lead defender (player with highest level on the artifact site) receives a 50% bonus to their stats (except health) when attacked (providing his faction do not control any other artifacts - note also if control 3 or more artifacts, the lead defender will suffer a 25% reduction to their stats at each artifact).
Each additional defending faction member will apply 20% of thier stats when calculating the total defense (in the same ways a squad attack) providing they have been active (logged in) withinthe last 7 days.

To increase stats of defending squad, a faction can build defense systems on the artifact site. At this time there are 4 kinds of "artifact upgrades". Your faction can buy each from the Artifact Information page (so you have to be on artifact site and open the artifact page to buy them). Each level of them provides a +10 stat bonus to the defending group however the hourly upkeep increases by +1,000 credits per upgrade level. Each upgrade level also costs 2,000 credits immediately upon purchase. (Note all credits are taken from the faction bank). These upgrades appear next the the Artifact on the map so Attackers will see you have them however, they will not be able to see the level of the upgrades!
If your Artifact is lost, the upgrades are lost too and will have to be re-purchased when the artifact is captured again.

These upgrades are:
Attack Turret (+10 attack\level)
TK-4500 Shield Generator (+10 defense\level)
MRL Platform (+10 damage\level)
Bunker (+10 armor\level)

Why artifacts are that important? Because they can provide Artifact Requisition (AR). Once an Artifact is controlled, each hour (on the hour), Artifact Requisition is awarded to the Faction currently in control (different Artifacts give different amounts of Artifact Requisition). Artifact Requisition can then be used in the Artifact Shop (accessible from the Faction Management screen) to purchase various items for the Faction.
Note that there's a "time multiplier" that must be considered. Zero to six hours gets you the base AR points (wrote on artifact page). After six hour up to twenty four hours, your AR points gained are doubled. After 24 hours, your AR gain is tripled.

So gaining the control of an artifact and keep it over time is really important, but is it worth?
Let's do an example:
Upping the Defense by +500 (with many defenders also in location) could ensure holding an artifact for long time. However that would cost 50*2000 = 100.000 immediate cost + 50*1000=50.000 increase in the upkeep. If the artifact have +1 AR base award, those credits are used to gain 6*1+18*2 = 42 AR in 1 day (24 hours).

Items that can be made using AR points at the moment are (their blueprint can be bought on taulin city shop):
Mk2 Absorption Stim
Mk2 Deflect Stim
Mk2 Kinetic Reserves Stim

In fact they require an "Artifact Sphere" (Part) to be made. This sphere is bound (non-tradeable) and it's made from "Artifact Northern Hemisphere" (Part) and "Artifact Southern Hemisphere" (Part). Both of them are bounded and can be bought on faction artifact shop for 1 AR each. They need to be put together on an assembly factory using an "Artifact Sphere Blueprint" (that can be bought again on faction artifact shop for 1 AR).
So each stim cost 2 AR each plus 1 AR used at the beginning to buy the blueprint (you don't have to buy it again so to optimize AR use only few faction members, the less the better, should invent AR stims). Stims are not bounded so they can be sold or transferred to other players.

So, here my 2 cents:
- AR points at the moment aren't that fantastic, just a way to use energy and try to get your faction in the top rated ar points factions...Nice stims, but not that overpowered items that we may expect, and are 1 time use only...
- defences are too expensive and aren't that usefull, since there are a lot of att\dmg based set and so a decent squad of 3-5 people can destroy even a well upgraded artifact
- trying to stay on an artifact to protect it isn't a really good idea, i saw an entire faction trying to defend their artifact wiped out by my squad of 6-7 members (me included).

I hope you can make your own idea of the question reading this :)
See ya in SS2 ^^