[suggestion] artifacts

Not bad ideas. The one pertaining shield should not be too overpowered, given advent focus on them.

I always thought there should be some negative artifacts.

Or use artifacts as current news events: "Fighting has broken out on planet" etc........-5% tactical 

how about artifact that buffs PSI with Shields and bonus Mitigation, but hull/armor for Phase/Tech?

Wbino, 7DS has negative planetary bonuses, that's the best way to convey the many different ways things could go wrong on a planet.

this is the ugly people negative bonus.

"Hideous Population"
"Everpresent radiation and toxins mutate colonizing populations, they are so ugly it is a wonder they breed at all by natural means."

TXT
entityType "PlanetBonus"
minUpgradeLevelNeeded 0
maxUpgradeLevelNeeded 0
nameStringID "IDS_PLANETBONUS_LOOKS-_NAME"
descStringID "IDS_PLANETBONUS_LOOKS-_DESC"
floatBonus:AdditiveCultureSpreadPerc -0.200000
floatBonus:AdditivePopulation 0.000000
floatBonus:AdditivePlanetHealth 0.000000
floatBonus:AdditiveSlotsCivilian 0.000000
floatBonus:AdditiveSlotsTactical 0.000000
floatBonus:AdditiveTaxIncome 0.000000
floatBonus:AdditiveTradeIncomePerc -0.500000
floatBonus:MetalIncomePerc 0.000000
floatBonus:CrystalIncomePerc 0.000000
floatBonus:GravityWellRadiusPerc 0.000000
floatBonus:ModuleBuildCostPerc 0.000000
floatBonus:ModuleBuildRatePerc 0.000000
floatBonus:PlanetUpgradeBuildCostPerc 0.000000
floatBonus:PlanetUpgradeBuildRatePerc 0.000000
floatBonus:PopulationGrowthPerc -0.300000
intBonus:ModuleConstructors 0
intBonus:SpacePonies 0
hudIcon "HUDICON_PLANETBONUS_LOOKS-"
smallHudIcon "HUDICON_PLANETBONUS_LOOKS-"
infoCardIcon "HUDICON_PLANETBONUS_LOOKS-"

Obvious question: Why doesn't the regular game have negative bonuses?

Artifact:

Vasari Phase Detection Array

Equivalent to the Tech 8 Vasari phase detection

Artifact:

Advent Psychic Link (or some derivation thereof)

All worlds gain 5-10% increased allegiance 

Artifact

Tec Trader Network Infrastructure (insider trading)

20% Increase to the entire trade network for your empire

Artifact

Mass weaponry Miniaturization

All ships increase damage by 8%, and weapon speed by 12% (includes fighters/bombers/strikecraft/EW)

Artifact

Puppet Corporation

All planets gain 4 logistical slots

Artifact

Vasari Phase Tunneler

This planet acts as a phase node to and from any world in your empire. (....maybe)

Artifact

Ancient Planetary Weapons Array

Planet can now fire a blast that has the effects of all three faction weapons once every 600 seconds, and increases local tactical slots by 15. 

Artifact

Mystical Ancient Wonder

Morale type bonus, ALL bonuses --research speed, ship speed, culture speed, weapon speed, weapon damage, weapon range, weapon armor, shield points, hull points, shield mitigation---everything goes up by 2%

I could probably keep throwing these out, but I need to go to class.

Because they'd make an already bad investment even worse. Unless you're lucky enough to find a data archive early on the reward of finding an artifact versus the chance of actually finding it makes planet exploration a bad deal. More negative bonuses would make the good ones even less likely to appear.

For those that don't play online though, as mentioned plenty of mods add lots of new bonuses, many negative, and my Enhanced 4X Mod even has new artifacts (sorry for the plug, I try to keep them to a minimum ).

your mod works with Rebellion?

Not yet, Diplomacy only. The betas get updated far too often to make moving it over worth while until after release.

really, searching for artifacts should be free/automatic after a certain amount of time. and you should be guaranteed to get something, then we can add in a whole bunch more negative planetary affects.

It's such an underused part of the game that doesn't have to be.

Come to think of it, some sort of researchable that would vary by race that would allow artifacts to be found automatically, or at least semi-so.

Mental Echoes: Echoes of the thoughts of the Unity through planets automatically searches for artifacts.

• Tier: 8
• Prerequisites: Allure of the Unity
• Levels: 2
• Effect: every 180/90 seconds, a random unexplored planet's exploration research is automatically begun free of charge.

Archaeological Tax Credits: By giving tax credits to companies involved in planetary exploration, artifacts may be discovered.

• Tier: 8
• Prerequisites: Pervasive Economy
• Levels: 1
• Effect: every 70 seconds, a random unexplored planet is explored; during exploration, the planet's income is reduced by 20%.

Phase Refraction: By harnessing the ripples in Phase Space created when capitalships, titans, and starbases jump, artifacts may be discovered.

• Tier: 8
• Prerequisites: Returning Armada
• Levels: 1
• Effect: every time a capitalship,titan, or Orkulus starbase phase jumps into the gravity well of an allied planet, exploration automatically begins.

Such things would make them actually decent and worth the code that constitutes them.

you know that the advent already have that scryer's tech, right? 

True, but while playing Advent, I rarely research it.  Maybe that's just me.

where's the face palm icon?!

what i mean is, why make up some new tech when there's already a tech (the only one, in fact) that has to do with exploration?

and yes... it is just you 

.. 

At least add to the startup configuration card (the same place where pirates are active is selected on or off) - shared artifacts or not.

Is the below based on the Dune series by Frank Herbert?????

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel)

 {Advent Promise Land: Discovery of a powerful hallucinogenic spice on this desert world has lead to a massive advent colonization effort. Several trade ports have been built to export the prized substance to share with the rest of the unity, and a powerful psionic has taken residence at the planet to further develop her powers. A few proselytizers have even declared this the successor to the original Advent home world, and are keen on spreading the unity throughout the system. While difficult to take, the spice on this planet will prove to be a valuable boost to your own trade network should you be successful.}

I was thinking that when I saw it too.

Inspired yes, if the Advent ever found Arrakis I'm sure they'd have a field day. Luckily you don't have to worry about giant worms eating your colonists.

Would be funny to have that randomly happen like the pirates

hell, it'd be nice to have a horde of random 'events' that do things like 4x games do.

"Giant Sand Worms have attacked one of our colonies" -20 population...

"a Solar Flare has damaged some of our ships" 3 random ships lose shields or explode...

etc...

A few mods have tried this, certain planets in Maelstrom will randomly have disasters affect them, but they're usually not too noticeable. I have a couple of ideas of how to make them more significant than that, though it will be a bit annoying that we won't be able to prompt the players with a news alert or UI warning like Master of Orion or something...

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/449854/page/1/
There are random events!

There are new artifacts? Is there a desire to make the artifacts common to the team?

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/449939/page/1/#3415756
It's a good idea?