Why do you lock your Artefacts away?

[Dogma]

I have seen some People talking about Artefacts getting stolen and to prevent that they lock them away.
I am always displaying my Artefacts in crowded areas to increase the Room Value and to prevent Theft since you get an instant notification if the Artefact is being stolen. Am i missing something or isnt that the better way to deal with that Situation?

[Wolfguarde]

In my experience, once an artifact enters the hands of a thief it can't really be reclaimed. It enters a "hidden" inventory, where it just... gets stuck if they die. (yes, I murdered a foreign agent trying to steal one of my artifact jewels to test this)

[Dogma]

Originally posted by Wolfguarde:

In my experience, once an artifact enters the hands of a thief it can't really be reclaimed. It enters a "hidden" inventory, where it just... gets stuck if they die. (yes, I murdered a foreign agent trying to steal one of my artifact jewels to test this)

Cant confirm that, after killing thieves i can display the "hidden" Artefact again

[Shawn]

Because it is annoying to deal with 3 thieving attempts every season.

[Wolfguarde]

Originally posted by Dogma:

Originally posted by Wolfguarde:

In my experience, once an artifact enters the hands of a thief it can't really be reclaimed. It enters a "hidden" inventory, where it just... gets stuck if they die. (yes, I murdered a foreign agent trying to steal one of my artifact jewels to test this)

Cant confirm that, after killing thieves i can display the "hidden" Artefact again

Hmm, maybe it's a bug that's been patched out then. This was around 2 months ago.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Wolfguarde:

In my experience, once an artifact enters the hands of a thief it can't really be reclaimed. It enters a "hidden" inventory, where it just... gets stuck if they die. (yes, I murdered a foreign agent trying to steal one of my artifact jewels to test this)

I've never had it get "stuck" if they die. It just gets dropped. The first instance I had of that occurring was within the first two weeks of release, before any patches hit. I ended up killing the thief, as well. (A member of a criminal gang, associated with the Plot and Villain mechanics, which are not yet fully complete.) I've had to kill thieves twice to recover stolen items and that was before any patches hit. My standard protocol is, until they fix "Thief Spam" (if ever) is that the penalty for Theft is... Death.

Note: For any Dorf that gets caught with an artifact on their person but will not/can't drop it, they are Exiled, first, then hunted down and murderized before they can leave the map. Why? Thief Spam is Real and it's annoying as heck. :)


However... It could maybe be the case that if the thief successfully hides it from some special scrutiny, like being questioned, that it then becomes "hidden" and can't be retrieved unless it is "discovered" via more Questioning attempts or something similar. (Just like with lots of things in DF, there could be multiple mechanics coming to bear on what you experienced.)

[Helios]

Originally posted by Dogma:

I have seen some People talking about Artefacts getting stolen and to prevent that they lock them away.
I am always displaying my Artefacts in crowded areas to increase the Room Value and to prevent Theft since you get an instant notification if the Artefact is being stolen. Am i missing something or isnt that the better way to deal with that Situation?

you can stil increase the Room Value with artifacts behind bars.

[Dain_Ironfoot]

There's a chance they can get away with the artifact without being seen, but yes I display some of mine as well if it's a busy enough area so any theft should not go unnoticed.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Dain_Ironfoot:

There's a chance they can get away with the artifact without being seen, but yes I display some of mine as well if it's a busy enough area so any theft should not go unnoticed.

Just from my perspective, a bit of advice:

Station guards. Create Patrols. Use dogs. Make sure that any potential thief has to move through very active, well-guarded, highly patrolled, areas of your Fortress...

Or, just don't allow Visitors. :)


The only artifact that I have had on display, for its benefits, that has not been either stolen or attempted to be stolded... is a Cage artifact. It seems, at least in theory, that stealing a legendary artifact Cage is beyond the abilities of any criminal or villainous cabal of would-be thieves. It may be because it's seen as installed when I put it on a pedestal. Dunno... But, not one attempt out of the very many other theft attempts I survived has been made against it.

[Erei]

Step 1 : put artifact on display in some random room that have no other use
Step 2 : put a pressure plate linked to a bridge that will smash anything that walk in that area/drop magma/dump people in magma/dump angry crocodile/whatever contraption you can think off
Step 3 : wait for thief
Step 4 : Profit


I didn't do that, but I have a similar trap for gremlins. They go through doors, are invisible until seen, ignore traps and pull levers. Which is very annoying. So I put a lever in an empty room, with the roof of said room only held by a single support. Which is linked to the lever previously mentioned.
Go on little guy, pull that lever :)

[harlequin_corps]

Originally posted by Dogma:

I have seen some People talking about Artefacts getting stolen and to prevent that they lock them away.
I am always displaying my Artefacts in crowded areas to increase the Room Value and to prevent Theft since you get an instant notification if the Artefact is being stolen. Am i missing something or isnt that the better way to deal with that Situation?

Either is absolutely fine, You can lock them away, you can put them on display it doesn't matter, Locking them away, while seemingly pre-emptive still won't stop the actual process because once your lords start naming weapons/shields and they swap to another weapon/shield for whatever reason, the thiefs just take named weapons/Shields.

[Diarmuhnd]

I put all my unsafe artifacts in temples and guildhalls behind gold vertical bars. I'm not sure, but I think some dwarfs still like seeing them even if they are behind those gold bars.
And any artifacts I can place that are immune to theft get placed in high traffic area's.

Haven't had a problem with thefts across my last 2 fortresses. I'm only mid game this 3rd run doing this, but so far no problems with theft attempts.

[captainamaziiing]

Step one: Turn off Strange moods in game settings.
Step Two: Stop losing Dorfs to insanity
Step Three: Don't assign a sheriff
Step Four: Play the game without those 'features'. Artifacts are mostly a pain in the butt. The sheriff stops exactly zero thefts. The added value Artifacts bring in happiness is inconsequential. It's an entire game loop that serves no purpose.

[Erei]

Originally posted by captainamaziiing:

Step one: Turn off Strange moods in game settings.
Step Two: Stop losing Dorfs to insanity
Step Three: Don't assign a sheriff
Step Four: Play the game without those 'features'. Artifacts are mostly a pain in the butt. The sheriff stops exactly zero thefts. The added value Artifacts bring in happiness is inconsequential. It's an entire game loop that serves no purpose.

They are a PITA if you don't know how to use them properly. I haven't lost a single dwarf to madness, and artifacts can be extremely useful. Either to improve the room value, provide unique weapons and armor or unbreakable doors and others things.

[76561188078797539]

Originally posted by Morkonan:

Or, just don't allow Visitors. :)

That's basically my approach.

There are public places (usually above-ground, or with no direct access to my fortress if dug in), and "fortress-dorfs-only" areas (which is most of it). Any entrance to the latter has a pasture/chain post around it for animals to detect any trespasser.

No issues with thieves other than occasional job cancellation.

[Dolph]

I don't really lock my artefacts away. I use them to inflate value of the room/temple/guild hall. That or use them like regular item: legendary billon spear goes to random recruit, ash bucket craftdwarfship of the highest quality menacing with spikes of yak leather and bearing image of itself? in slate go to the well and so on.