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So how do you think Artifacts such as Saviors hide, Wabbajack, Azuras star and the like are gonna work out in TES:O?
I for one think that they should be really hard to get (obviously) and hard to find, and only one person can have it at a time, so imagine you and a few friends are dungeon diving and you come across some sort of one of a kind artifact, and you all just turn on each other and last man standing gets the artifact (of course if you are with your friends you could probably come to some sort of agreement ).
Also if you die with one such artifact, you drop it on the ground, so in the middle of cyrodiil in a battle, everyone goes for the person with the artifact and then just start fighting each other over it, completely forgetting about trying to take over cyrodiil.
of course, I don't know if they will implement this but i think it would be awesome
and if they make more than one of the same artifact so that people dont feel left out, I'll fight Zenimax IRL lol, but I digress

how do you think/want them to be implemented?

Good question, but I don't think they will be implemented. At least, I don't think they will be implemented the way I would demand they be implemented. I don't plan on buying TES:O, as my standards for what it should entail are very high. How they implement the artifacts is just one part of this.

If "top-tier" artifacts (Daedric, Aedric, a few others) were in the game, I would want them to remain unique. Only one player at a time could have Azura's Star or the Wabbajack. Zenimax should demonstrate the daedric artifacts' capacity to abandon their owners after a random amount of time (or in response to someone earning it in a special event). Players who successfully accomplish certain very difficult tasks would get a better chance of receiving a famous artifact the next time it decides to leave its owner. Special events could lead to a guaranteed chance of getting a specific artifact, which may lead a few months later to another special event to get a different artifact.

The lucky player's conduct should have to have some behind-the-scenes effect on how long the artifact remains with him/her. Any given daedric artifact would spend less time with a person who doesn't utilize it frequently, and each daedric artifact should have its own quirks; for example, the Ebony Blade wouldn't stick around long with a do-gooder character. But still, artifacts should stick around for an appreciable amount of time; anywhere from 3-6 months to several years depending on the player's conduct and the artifact in question. So, while Zenimax could include every artifact they possibly could without contradicting existing in-game lore, and maybe even throw in some new ones, possessing such artifacts should remain very, very rare and special. A person planning on playing TES:O heavily for its entire lifespan should not have any expectation of ever receiving a top-tier artifact.

Further, the power of such artifact should not be diluted. If anything, many artifacts should probably perform even better than the incarnations in previous games. The person who possesses one should be something of a celebrity (or a target?) within the community. This could hypothetically lead to some extreme but very interesting co-ventures, teams, and rivalries. Possessors of artifacts (especially non-Daedric ones, which can't necessarily just abandon their owners) should expect to eventually be dispossessed of it, perhaps by becoming targets of Dark Brotherhood contracts.

The overall effect I would implore Zenimax to try and achieve would be to illustrate how important the artifacts are supposed to be in the lore. Someone who possesses an artifact should, if they play their cards right, have the power to change the course of history. The past games have always sought to impress upon players the importance of many artifacts, but it's hard to consider them special after you've collected twenty or thirty of them. Players in TES:O should feel very honored and special for possessing just one of the top-tier artifacts, even if their specific artifact's utility is limited.

yea definitely, i like the idea of someone being so protective of their artifact and so they just leave it at home and then some random thief breaks into their house and steals it.
imagine role playing a thief character and you're used to pulling in, say, 500 septims per 'job' and then one day going about your regular routine of breaking and entering and the owner of the house just happens to have Azuras Star in a chest.

I think you're expecting a bit too much of the game. Is there anything to say that Hircine cannot bestow his Hide on more than one person at a time? Sure it should rare and hard to get, we don't want everyone running around in the same armour, but to only have one per server would cause fan outcry, and frankly I wouldn't enjoy that either.

Mr.Argonian wrote:I think you're expecting a bit too much of the game. Is there anything to say that Hircine cannot bestow his Hide on more than one person at a time? Sure it should rare and hard to get, we don't want everyone running around in the same armour, but to only have one per server would cause fan outcry, and frankly I wouldn't enjoy that either.

maybe i am expecting too much but i do not agree, there is only one saviors hide, only one wabbajack, only one Auriels bow. 2 people cannot have it at once
and there is only one server

There are multiple servers. They're just called shards. I don't think we'll be able to play with a million players on one server at the same time.

Also the artifacts. I heard something along the lines of 'when a faction is in possession of the Elder Scrolls, that faction will be granted certain bonuses and boosts'. I don't know the exact details of this mechanic and I don't know if there will be multiple artifacts.
And don't forget that this will be an MMO. I'm pretty sure stealing from other players will not be available. And unique items (1 per server) doesn't sound really MMO-like either.

Abel wrote:There are multiple servers. They're just called shards. I don't think we'll be able to play with a million players on one server at the same time.

No, there are no shards. This has been one of their huge selling points. Everyone plays on the same "megaserver" which just breaks itself into multiple worldspaces as needs and player preferences change. If someone plays TESO, you can meet up with them.

Which is practically my point? The so called 'mega server' is just a series of different servers (or shards) linked to eachother. You can easily hop between them yes, but they're technically still different servers. A real 'mega server' would mean all players can meet and fight eachother simultaneously, which is clearly not the case.

The way I understand the word "shard" or "server" is that it's a barrier to meeting up with someone, which is not the case. They are not isolated from each other, which is what matters for this discussion: There being multiple instances of the same artifact would appear to contradict lore, because you shouldn't be able to meet up with someone who has the same artifact as you, which you could do on the megaserver.

Dream Crusher - 10 Kills with a gravity Hammer...lol
and yea I heard that Elder Scroll thing, and they go in your teams main base of operations or something
as for the stealing thing, i'm not exactly hoping for it, I still like the idea though

How I see it, things can go three different ways in how MMOs deal with artifacts:

1. Extremely rare drop chance for a particular instance (1-5% chance of dropping off of one "boss") to ensure that while it may be 'possible' to see two people with say Goldbrand, but the likelihood of even seeing one would be down there with getting struck by lightning
2. "World Firsts" i.e. a reward for being say the first person to take down the first Malog Bal underling boss, first to finish a ridiculously long questline involving Meridia that spans many levels/instances/achievements, or say becoming the first emperor of Cyrodiil
3. Short term loans, "quest items" lent to you for either the duration of a quest or for a time after finishing said quest (3 hours alone with Azura's Star to jack up your enchanting), "mysteriously" disappearing from your inventory to be given to the next hero sent out on the whim of a Daedra

I think the most likely thing will be artifacts might beunique to each server, but they will fade away after a few hours or a day, kind of like how the artifacts eventually fade from Mundus. Perhaps at the end of a particularly dangerous dungeon?

I hope there is the possibility of multiple copies but extremely rare (or difficult) to obtain. Like out of 10m players, only 1% have a artifact.

It's a good idea to give the artifacts a certain awareness too... say you start veering from the ideals of the prince that gave you the artifact then it'll disappear.

all_freed wrote:I hope there is the possibility of multiple copies but extremely rare (or difficult) to obtain. Like out of 10m players, only 1% have a artifact.

It's a good idea to give the artifacts a certain awareness too... say you start veering from the ideals of the prince that gave you the artifact then it'll disappear.

I had a similar thought regarding Artifacts. My plan was that most artifacts could only be obtained at max level (why would a Daedric Prince hand them out to any old Joe Shmoe? - except maybe Sheogorath), that the player would have it exclusively for a week (so no more than 52 players would have it in a year), and (like you said) after that week it has a chance of randomly disappearing if not being used in a way it's Prince would approve of.

For example, the Ebony Mail or Goldbrand being Artifacts of Boethiah, whose sphere is basically vanquishing your rivals by any means necessary, it might involve using them to get kills in PvP; For Dawnbreaker it might involve how many undead you dispatch with it, etc.

For the artifacts that lend themselves to PvP type combat (Ebony Blade, Mehrunes' Razor, Umbra, etc.) there would only be one copy, which would be obtained in Cyrodiil; for ones that are more non-combat/utility (Azura's Star, Masque of Clavicus Vile, Wabbajack, etc.) there would be one copy available for each faction; some of the others (Spellbreaker, Volendrung, Sanguine Rose, etc.) could go either way.

I like the idea of them being one of a kind, with them disappearing shortly after you get them. And I do mean rather quickly, like a day max. It would make them stay a bragging right, make sure others get them, and would make certain items like King Orgnum's Coffer perfectly reasonable to bring back. Of course this would mean they'd all need to be buffed so they were basically always the best version of whatever item they were to make them useful, but that just makes it more fun. Imagine challenging a guy to a duel, only to learn he had the Ebony Blade? Just think of the look on a mage's face when they learn they got into a fight with the bearer of the Staff of Magnus and Spell Breaker. Think of how awesome it'd be to see some guy with Volendrung leading a charge against an enemy stronghold.

Done right, they could make the artifacts into some of the coolest items in any game as they'd truly change the balance of power for anyone who possesses them.

AKB wrote:I like the idea of them being one of a kind, with them disappearing shortly after you get them. And I do mean rather quickly, like a day max. It would make them stay a bragging right, make sure others get them, and would make certain items like King Orgnum's Coffer perfectly reasonable to bring back. Of course this would mean they'd all need to be buffed so they were basically always the best version of whatever item they were to make them useful, but that just makes it more fun. Imagine challenging a guy to a duel, only to learn he had the Ebony Blade? Just think of the look on a mage's face when they learn they got into a fight with the bearer of the Staff of Magnus and Spell Breaker. Think of how awesome it'd be to see some guy with Volendrung leading a charge against an enemy stronghold.

Done right, they could make the artifacts into some of the coolest items in any game as they'd truly change the balance of power for anyone who possesses them.

^This
except I would make them have the artifact for a week so that people can kill them and claim it for their own
because the only thing cooler then finding it would be finding the person that has it then killing them to earn it.

The only issue with that is that I can instantly set it up so I would never lose the artifact. How? Well, if they drop on your death, what's to stop me from throwing a fight to a friend and then just having him return to me? Say they throw in some arbitrary rules like you can't get it back after a certain period of losing it (or at all) or they make it so that someone who is in the same alliance or guild as you can't take it from you, well that's still easy to exploit. Have friends from a different alliance/guild take it from you. That way you can at least keep it in the same group of friends. This would create an issue where specific groups of people could basically have complete control over artifacts.

That's why the time limit has to be short as possible. It ensures you have to give it up. Having it also disappear on death or something like that would also be a nice touch.

The real issue with this style is when it comes to artifacts like Azura's Star, which have few immediate uses. Realistically, if you had it only for a day, all you could really do to profit from the short possession of it was spend time grinding souls and enchanting or try to kill a god (see Morrowind).

I think that players should be able to get artifacts, but I don't think that only one player should be able to hold them at a time. I think artifacts should be available to everyone who does the specific quest for them, but the quests to get them should be grossly high tier quests so only dedicated players that make it so far in ESO can get them.

I remember them saying daedric artifacts would be implemented. As for how, my guess is there will be quests for them similarly to the single player games. I doubt they will be rare.

How about this? Multiple people can have the same artifact, but it will look like a normal piece of equipment to everyone but the owner.

There is precedent in other games (namely WoW) to have a "legendary" class of items. While not unique, these items are (or were) quite rare, and took significant effort to achieve. Sometimes, the fact that there is only one instance of an item in lore has to be set aside when creating a multiplayer game. It is a function of game mechanics that can't really be avoided. I can't see them limiting daedric items to a single player, though I admit that the suggestion about the item randomly leaving the player is an interesting one.

Merix wrote:I remember them saying daedric artifacts would be implemented. As for how, my guess is there will be quests for them similarly to the single player games. I doubt they will be rare.

One of many reasons I bid "Good day, sir" to TES:O.

Or, for fans of South Park, "Screw you guys, I'm going home."

I doubt they will be common. They COULD make them quest specific, so you get to use them on a specific quest and that's it, or inside of a particular dungeon. That way, there would still only be one of them, yet many people would use it.

Jeancey wrote:There is precedent in other games (namely WoW) to have a "legendary" class of items. While not unique, these items are (or were) quite rare, and took significant effort to achieve. Sometimes, the fact that there is only one instance of an item in lore has to be set aside when creating a multiplayer game. It is a function of game mechanics that can't really be avoided. I can't see them limiting daedric items to a single player, though I admit that the suggestion about the item randomly leaving the player is an interesting one.

Why should the game be limited by what other games have done? There are a ton of ways for them to work in truly top-tier gear that isn't an artifact. Elder Scroll's setting is really the primary selling point when it comes to anything ES from where I'm standing. Devaluing the setting by further devaluing the artifacts (an ongoing process in the main series) just isn't a good move. There is absolutely no reason the artifacts can't truly be unique.

I am just happy with a stick with an ultimate enchantment of DOOM!!
Shall I call it the Zepher Blade=_=
Anywho, I can see a rise in rare, semi unique gear over one of a kind artifacts. Then again it would be very unpopular seeing so many people have their own deadric artifacts.. and would still be unpopular if only one player could have it at a time. I can see many people getting cocky due to having near god powers thanks to one artifact. Surely the only one that would be balanced is the Oghma Infinium, seeing as it has a one time use.. though it would fetch a hefty price