Goonhub
09-07-2013, 03:16 PM
My problem with ArtLab are:
1. Artifacts are generally useless.
2. A lot of the time even when you activate an Artifact you still have no idea what it does (the X-ray scanner sometimes give some clues, such as "Cavity Contents" meaning it's a ranged weapon, but that's so obscure and limited).
3. The machines in the ArtLab are often insufficient to activate an Artifact (I suggested a while ago that a stationary taser/phaser/laser be added).
4. As far as I could tell fiddling with machine parameters does nothing when it comes to activation (if an Artifact is going to be activated by a machine it will do so on the default settings).
5. As far as I could tell the machine readings mean nothing when it comes to activation or Artifact function (I think that the values are similar for Artifacts with the same function, but Artifacts with the same appearance always have the same function anyway so that's useless).
In my opinion, what ArtLab needs are:
1. More Artifact effects/Useful or interesting effects need to come up more often.
2. The machines should give you more of an idea (an actual idea, not a vague arbitrary reading that you only know how to interpret with meta-round knowledge) of what an Artifact does.
3. You should be able to activate all Artifacts in the ArtLab. So, more machines covering every single possible Artifact activation method.
4. To tie in with 3, parameters should matter more. At the moment I don't think it matters at all if all you want is to activate it (either make it important in figuring out function, activation, or preferably both).
1. Artifacts are generally useless.
2. A lot of the time even when you activate an Artifact you still have no idea what it does (the X-ray scanner sometimes give some clues, such as "Cavity Contents" meaning it's a ranged weapon, but that's so obscure and limited).
3. The machines in the ArtLab are often insufficient to activate an Artifact (I suggested a while ago that a stationary taser/phaser/laser be added).
4. As far as I could tell fiddling with machine parameters does nothing when it comes to activation (if an Artifact is going to be activated by a machine it will do so on the default settings).
5. As far as I could tell the machine readings mean nothing when it comes to activation or Artifact function (I think that the values are similar for Artifacts with the same function, but Artifacts with the same appearance always have the same function anyway so that's useless).
In my opinion, what ArtLab needs are:
1. More Artifact effects/Useful or interesting effects need to come up more often.
2. The machines should give you more of an idea (an actual idea, not a vague arbitrary reading that you only know how to interpret with meta-round knowledge) of what an Artifact does.
3. You should be able to activate all Artifacts in the ArtLab. So, more machines covering every single possible Artifact activation method.
4. To tie in with 3, parameters should matter more. At the moment I don't think it matters at all if all you want is to activate it (either make it important in figuring out function, activation, or preferably both).