Can't pick up this artifact...is this a bug?

[workingmatt]

spoilers:
I am in a small swamp, just south-east of Promin CMD factory. There's an island in middle. my detector registers like 20 artifacts. Obviously not real.
Heavy PSI damage. I keep picking them up, just to have them disappear. Finally, I am down to only one left registering on my detector.....and WTF, the prompt to pick it up is FLICKERING!!
I can't pick the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing up!
I've tried hammering on my interact key, holding it down...everything. That prompt just keeps flickering, and doesn't give me the opportunity to interact with it.

Has anyone else encountered this? It's the only artifact I've seen with this "bug".

[Nite69]

artifact spawns are currently bugged yes, they sometimes spawn under the map the dev's already know about it

[workingmatt]

Oh man...I thought it might be something like that. I've only once encountered an artifact that was clearly below the map and out of sight....but this is the first flickering one I've seen.
OK, I'll leave the swamp and call it a day.

[GatorBait]

It sounds like the "Gathering of Monolith" with the Flytrap artifacts? Is there a Monolith emitter thingy in the middle? It's some kind of illusion / trap. I did end up with one Flytrap, though, I assume from having picked it up there. I'm not sure if you're talking about the same place but I don't think it's a bug, it's part of the game.

[Serpiko82]

Unfortunately, artifacts can sometimes appear under the map or in otherwise bugged / unreachable locations. When it happens, that specific anomaly is effectively "lost" unless you reload from a save where you are still afar, because once an artifact spawns, the anomaly won't generate another or reset until you pick it up.

Anyway, don't be too sad. Those psi-anomaly fields are an interesting twist, but they otherwise provide "ordinary" artifacts. You aren't missing out on any unique piece. You can farm other anomaly fields way more easily.

[m carver]

There are at least 2 such places where multiple "phantom" artifacts will appear. Eventually a real artifact will be gathered. However, after trying for a number of phantoms, psi-generated enemy NPC's will spawn. I am pretty sure these are not bugged as other posters have suggested.

Originally posted by GatorBait:

It sounds like the "Gathering of Monolith" with the Flytrap artifacts? Is there a Monolith emitter thingy in the middle? It's some kind of illusion / trap. I did end up with one Flytrap, though, I assume from having picked it up there. I'm not sure if you're talking about the same place but I don't think it's a bug, it's part of the game.

[Vi'ir Jul K'hane]

Originally posted by workingmatt:

spoilers:
I am in a small swamp, just south-east of Promin CMD factory. There's an island in middle. my detector registers like 20 artifacts. Obviously not real.
Heavy PSI damage. I keep picking them up, just to have them disappear. Finally, I am down to only one left registering on my detector.....and WTF, the prompt to pick it up is FLICKERING!!
I can't pick the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing up!
I've tried hammering on my interact key, holding it down...everything. That prompt just keeps flickering, and doesn't give me the opportunity to interact with it.

Has anyone else encountered this? It's the only artifact I've seen with this "bug".

This is not a bug. It is an artifact that spawns in an area of C-Radiation which causes you hallucinations. There are more than one areas like this. If you think the artifact is outside of the map you can save and reload your save until the artifact is in a place you can grab it. I.e. clear the phantom artifacts, save and then load the save over and over until you can get the artifact. The only perma bugged artifact I know of is the artifact by the Sawmill; you get access to it once via a quest.

[GatorBait]

Originally posted by m carver:

There are at least 2 such places where multiple "phantom" artifacts will appear. Eventually a real artifact will be gathered. However, after trying for a number of phantoms, psi-generated enemy NPC's will spawn. I am pretty sure these are not bugged as other posters have suggested.

Yeah, I encountered another one last play-through but don't remember where it was. I did end up having to fight a bunch of Monolith at the "Gathering of Monolith". I agree, they are part of the game and just another weird side-effect of having the Monolith reintroduced into the Zone.

[Newb]

As said, not a bug. Once enough fake ones are picked, the real one will appear.

[Flachdrache]

if thats the roadside picknick joke ?! the psi is heavy and you have many, many tourists breakfeast 'artefacts' .. its a hallucination .. eventually a real art will pop up ?!

if not .. i have one art in electro anomaly which spawn inside structure and can nor be picked up so far ..

[m carver]

Originally posted by Flachdrache:

if not .. i have one art in electro anomaly which spawn inside structure and can nor be picked up so far ..

This does happen in a couple of locations. One for me is the Scientist's Helicopter in Rostok, where it will spawn on the top of the chopper. The Electric Fields one can do this. Though sometimes it actually spawns on the roof instead of inside the building.

[workingmatt]

OK, I figured it out. I think it's a bug, but not the bug I thought it was.
I looked in inventory...I had already collected the "real" artifact. So, even after the artifact was collected (among the 30 or 40 ghost ones which disappear on collection) it kept showing me one more, but with a flickering prompt, which can't be interacted with.