My unoriginal Artifacts idea

The goal is another element of keeping people logged in and online.

Artifacts.

I'll begin be reiterating that the concept isn't 100% original, but the implementation of it within a codebase like Abandoned Realms certainly would be. The basis is a combination of ideas that exist in Racewars style muds and Godwars (not original GW, but the Dystopia base) style muds.

At the end of the post, I'll explain their implementation on the respective muds, but for now I'll continue with my thoughts on how it could be implemented and why I think it could offer player engagement.

In AR, everyone would either have the argument artifacts (OR make it required to speak to a mob like a town crier). The output would show the player which artifacts are in the realm and either the room they're in, or the player who is holding it)

There would be a large and potentially ever-expanding list of artifacts which can be any one item type (e.g. held item, shield, weapon, armor, etc).

At any given time, only X number of them are in play. For AR, that number would be small like 3-4.

There is also no way to hoard or logout with the items. There could be a few different ways to implement this, a player quits out with it and it crumbles. A player drops it, and it crumbles. A player tries to give it to a NPC/PC and it crumbles.

When an artifact is removed from play, by crumbling/sacrificing, after X amount of time a new artifact appears within the realm. The only way to get an artifact other than the room it spawns in, is to take it from a player's corpse (ideally if they are the ones that killed the player - but merely suggestion).

If an artifact remains not acquired by another player for X amount of time, it will crumble and a new artifact will enter the realms someplace.

An artifact also needs to be fed in some way, or it will crumble. NPC of viable level to the person using the artifact will suffice but would never be as potent as killing another player. That would sate the artifact best. (The idea is to prevent someone from just sitting on an artifact within their lair/guild or remote corner of the world doing nothing)

The items are meant to be very cool, very fun. They would/could proc spells, even outside of combat. If possible, they would provide a room echo reflective of their satiation. (e.g. An ethereal blade of light and darkness vibrates hungrily with audible energy.) Ideally, these types of items could produce a lot of effects (hopefully already doable in the code, but that I'm not 100% certain of). Using an ethereal blade of light and darkness, one could expect that it produces a solid beam of light that does good damage and can blind occasionally in combat at times. At other times, a beam of negative energy that does good damage and can curse the victim. Another example could be a worn about body item, A shroud of polished golden chain. Such an item could produce a sanctuary around the wearer when struck (likely requiring a cooldown because I'm not trying to suggest perm sanctuary). But ultimately, the sky is the limit going a little extra on items that are intended to rotate A LOT.

The benefits I would see, is this could offer a bit of fun especially when nobody is on. It means that any given player could get an artifact to play with, and it would help a lot with leveling and things. With a lot of players on it's another element of thing to fight over outside of silent pking and/or cabal wars.

Just another random-ish idea


Disclaimer about original ideas:
Racewars Muds: They have the artifiact command, plus the uniques command, plus ioun command. Each provides a list of those items and who has them, but in those muds you keep the item on logout. And there's a large number of each that are always in existence. In that implementation, I'd see the regulars always hoarding the "better" ones, although because of the style of the game, they sometimes exchange hands. They have to be fed by pvp only there.

Godwars Dystopia Muds: These have the large pool of artifacts, but only a couple are ever in play. No feeding required, and because that mud type doesn't have equipment like diku-based (each class there can make their own class gear, or everyone can make quest gear with quest points) it's the ONLY type of thing you fight over other than decapitating players to raise your status level. The artifacts often switch hands there due to the nature, and in those muds you cannot log out with the item.

A command to list who has the rares? Why have we never thought of that?

Can't tell if that's sarcastic or an actual admission. There's a probably a boatload of commands I know nothing about, however, rares as they are here have nothing to do with the idea I put forth. But honestly don't know how to interpret the response

Err no, it wasn't sarcastic. Can I get some benefit of the doubt here? haha. It just sounded like a lot of what you wrote was like the mythic rare items and then we also tend to all be asking ourselves "who the hell has the major globe ".

I promise I do error towards the benefit of doubt side of things, and that's very much how I read it the first time. But I can be pretty analytical when it comes to texts/emails and without emotes to depict tone, I started to take into account other threads where you have no problem being blunt (I figure that's usually because of history I know nothing about) haha.

And as mentioned, combined with my limited knowledge of Abandoned Realms maybe I was suggesting something already somewhat implemented. So at that point I dislike making an assumption and would rather cut to the chase personally. :)