Dual Stat Artifacts and Artifacts that effect gear

[Commander359]

So, I am sure plenty of us Stalker players have though about this in the past, but has anyone ever noticed how....bland the artifact system is? I mean, the artifacts look cool and all, but I really think that their presence in the stalker series has gone virtually unchanged since the first game. Find an artifact, pick it up, get a buff at the cost of radiation.

So, this leads me to my suggestion, what if we had artifacts with dual stat effects? Not just two positive effects, but a positive and negative effect? Like an artifact that vastly improves physical damage resistance (bullets and claws) but vastly decreases elemental resistance (anomalous). Or perhaps an artifact that helps heal and stop bleeding but at the cost of amplifying ambient radiation when near radiation sources? These would give players much more opportunities to build their characters for different circumstances and create load-outs for specific scenarios.

Also, why hasn't anyone considered making artifacts that effect gear yet? Like an artifact that slowly repairs weapons and gear, or artifacts that improve the effectiveness of armor and gear but decreases the effects of other artifacts. Or perhaps utility artifacts that could give unique abilities like highlighting enemies through bushes and other light terrain, or highlighting invisible enemies like bloodsuckers.

We are led to believe that artifacts are this huge thing in the stalker series, strange items that display amazing properties that could change the world. Yet, when actually collected, the simply act like minor stat buffs with little in the way of actual significance. Even if they just added some more player investment opportunities like the ability to deliver artifacts to malachite to get some lore tidbits about them or maybe enhance their effects would be a welcome change.

[Nite69]

You can get Suit Upgrades at the tech to stop radiation coming off artifacts, one of the artifact slots will be lit up green, put the artifact that has radiation in that slot, I got a Hypercube in mine that is max radiation and max bleeding resistance, not getting any radiation off it :)

[Commander359]

Originally posted by Nite69:

You can get Suit Upgrades at the tech to stop radiation coming off artifacts, one of the artifact slots will be lit up green, put the artifact that has radiation in that slot, I got a Hypercube in mine that is max radiation and max bleeding resistance, not getting any radiation off it :)

That's not the point. I know its easy to handle artifact radiation. My point is that artifacts feel boringly generic, and haven't evolved in any capacity since the first stalker game. The devs have had 20 years to improve on this system and think of ways to innovate with it and they haven't. About the only "New" feature I have seen is the ability to examine the artifacts you are holding, something that is cool, for about 5 seconds, but really isn't groundbreaking.

What I am saying is that artifacts need to be more interesting, and have new mechanics that reward the player for collecting them. What if certain artifacts interacted with each other and gave special buffs or debuffs based on artifact pairings that were more powerful than even legendary artifacts alone? This would incentive players to grow their collection and experiment with different artifact combinations, while adding a layer of risk in creating bad combos. It would also give players a reason to hang on to lesser artifacts rather than ditching them as soon as a legendary one is acquired.

What if we could "upgrade" artifacts using different means like using the scanners or exposing them to different anomalies to create improved, or even altogether new, artifacts that would encourage players to experiment and actually visit different anomalies for reasons other than collecting whatever shiny artifact spawned after the most recent emission.

Stalker 2 isn't just a game where we go to shoot bandits and mutants while combing through abandoned buildings for scraps. It a game about exploration, and experimenting with the unknown. The zone is a place that is constantly talked about with all these legends and stories of experiments, and technological marval's that are intended to constantly surprise the players. So why then are we not given the incentive to experiment and explore, to learn how to utilize the zone to our advantage in ways others have never though of. Isn't that what denotes the supposed "legendary" stalkers like Strelok and Scar from the regular rookies just entering the zone?

[Serpiko82]

I agree with the general principle. Moreover, artifacts DID work that way in CoP: in example, the artifacts boosting stamina would usually in turn decrease protection from electricity.

I, too, think that most artifacts in HoC are somewhat "wasted", having either negligible or duplicate powers (or both).

A few days ago I tried to raise the question in the dedicated section of the official Discord server. Once in a while they give some official answers, with some luck they may tell us something about this.

[HiggsLP]

No tnx to diablo like min maxing.
Gear protecting and nifhtvision would be cool for starters. Though finding 2 TB+ Compass mid game is cool also.

[Serpiko82]

Compass has been quite butchered.

It used to be basically "the" ultimate artifact, providing a wide range of benefits and becoming available only through special quests.

Now it's "downgraded" to top tier artifact, randomly spawning around with a bit of luck; its powers were reduced to the usual "1 thing in exchange for radiations"; and furthermore, not only was its single benefit nerfed already, but the hard cap for the maximum protection level makes it useless once you can achieve a high enough physical resistance with suits and upgrades.

Unlike other top tier artifacts, whose extra powers stay relevant even in endgame.

[SHOKKERZ91]

The game is watered down compared to the older ones to make it more accessable to game nomads. Take armor for example. Back in the day, you had blast cap, bulletproof cap and rupture. That was mashed into physical protection, with the added protection to gravity based anomaly damage. Less stats to take care of, for a wider audience so they don't get overwhelmed i guess.

[Commander359]

Originally posted by SHOKKERZ91:

The game is watered down compared to the older ones to make it more accessable to game nomads. Take armor for example. Back in the day, you had blast cap, bulletproof cap and rupture. That was mashed into physical protection, with the added protection to gravity based anomaly protection. Less stats to take care of, for a wider audience so they don't get overwhelmed i guess.

How frustratingly disappointing, though i will say it also likely has alot to do with simplifying development. Not saying that justifies things, but I do think its a combination of reaching for that mythical "wider audience" and lack of development resources and time.

[FilthyAnimal]

Also we need to get back like in CoP the ability to find two or more artifacts in one anomaly field

[Commander359]

Originally posted by FilthyAnimal:

Also we need to get back like in CoP the ability to find two or more artifacts in one anomaly field

Definitely agree here. Whats an even bigger kick in the teeth is you can find NPC stalkers mention that they found three artifacts in a single anomoly, so its dumb that we cant do so as well. It honestly feels like an artificial time-gating thing to push out gameplay and limit player income.

[Tritol]

I saw discussion about elemental weapons once, since there are already weapons that use artifacts, but I think that would be too far into some diablo style territory.

But mutants doing elemental damage could work, some swamp bloodsuckers doing poison damage as chem dmg, polters doing electric damage instead of physical, you could have chimaeras or tarks eating fire artifacts to deal bonus fire damage with attacks.

That would suddenly make elemental resist artifacts not a total garbage, since 99,9999% of the time you are not taking elemental damage, so entire class of artifacts is completely pointless.

But yeah, artifacts feel little boring considering they are one of the main elements of stalker. In SoC you can make that perma sprint build or super healing, but in CS and CoP I basically ignore artifacts, if I find something cool, like stamina or carry weight, I use it, but outside of that basically ignore entire system.
Proper balancing for artifacts and anomalies was on my wishlist for S2.

[DarkFire]

Interesting idea. I wish that more of the artefacts were designed like the unique "weird" artefacts: they have strong powers but come with interesting opportunity costs that aren't just simple nerfs. The drunk effect from being overloaded that comes with the weird water, or the need to recharge the weird bolt in emissions for example. They're all much more interesting than generic "+2 to chemical protection" type buffs that come with the majority of the artefact set.

[Serpiko82]

Originally posted by Tritol:

polters doing electric damage instead of physical

There are already elemental poltergeists in game.

Originally posted by Tritol:

you could have chimaeras or tarks eating fire artifacts to deal bonus fire damage with attacks.

Chimeras definitely do NOT need a buff right now.

[Tritol]

Well regular polters deal mostly physical dmg, since they throw stuff at you. They could electrify those objects, or straight up just throw lightning bolts at you.
Same with controlers or burers.

There was one place, Idk if it was bugged or intentional, but I triggered fight with bloodsucker and suddenly gas clouds for anomaly appeared around.
If mutants could do that as normal ability that would be cool.

It would be nerf to their damage, because now your elemental protection works against them too. Instead of doing 50 damage, they would do 30 physical + 20 fire, for example.
So investing into elemental protection would actually be worth it.

Pretty much since the first game, taking armour with higher physical protection was always a nobrainer.

Human enemies could use molotovs or gas grenades to smoke you out, instead of just headshoting you with frags and your elemental protection would help with that.

[Myztkl©-Kev]

Originally posted by Tritol:

Well regular polters deal mostly physical dmg, since they throw stuff at you. They could electrify those objects, or straight up just throw lightning bolts at you.

that's what that person is saying, there are poltergeists that spawn electric or fire anomalies under you.

[Tritol]

Damn, I know about pyrogeists, but never saw normal polter do that.