Randart vs. standard

[dhegler]

The whole point of randarts is that they replace the standard artifact set. They're designed for people who don't want to wait around for the old Cubragol-Thorin-DorLomin-Fingolfin megayawn. You're not supposed to be able to plan ahead and know what you'll get. That's the point.

Everything said about multiple pvals and abilities on egos is true: with enough variation they will become randart-like, albeit not unique because you could always get two identical, however unlikely. (Note that randarts themselves are not guaranteed unique, though I have never seen two identical.)

Once that happens, there is really no need to change the current artifact generation setup, because you can either play with standarts + mega-egos (which is like what the OP wanted), or you can play with randarts + mega-egos, for a game of total randomness.

I would not be averse to changing randart generation so that you could have some randarts and some standarts, but I suspect that my implementation would annoy most people: I would keep only a very small proportion of the standarts, including none of the endgame no-brainers. I would keep interesting ones like Turmil and Avavir and Colluin. Like I say, you're not supposed to be able to plan ahead. That's the point.

Magnate, I would support your implementation... Standarts during a game with randarts would be like travelling somewhere new, then getting a homecooked meal when you find Thalkettoth at an early dungeon level.

[Atarlost]

I'd rather have a random subset of the artifact list randartized than a fixed list.

[SilverD]

Magnate, I would support your implementation... Standarts during a game with randarts would be like travelling somewhere new, then getting a homecooked meal when you find Thalkettoth at an early dungeon level.

Yes, except randarts are more often underwhelming than the standards that they derive from. I have ran a few test generations with a modified executable that gives you immediate knowledge of all artifacts in the game.

A sword with no bonuses, other than a boost to h/d? Egos are better. No other rings with +all stats? While I was pleasantly surprised that one ring had a Slay Giant mod, that was only once. Too rare to be really excited about. Or my luck was frowning upon me that day.

Either way, I guess without truly random artifact generation at drop-time I feel like abusing this until I find a suitable set of randarts before playing.
I guess people like me have a very hard time changing their style of play..

Shrug, I'm pretty happy with standards - looking forward to multiple pvals and maybe some random factors to them, however.

[Magnate]

Yes, except randarts are more often underwhelming than the standards that they derive from. I have ran a few test generations with a modified executable that gives you immediate knowledge of all artifacts in the game.

A sword with no bonuses, other than a boost to h/d? Egos are better.

Sure - but for every stunningly bad randart like that sword, there's a gross one like Eddie's x7 venom-branded crossbow. The balance is in the whole set, not every individual item. The degree of randomness available inevitably allows some poor choices of base items, leading to the gross or the banal. IMO that's better than restricting the randomness, and getting more blandness across the board.

No other rings with +all stats? While I was pleasantly surprised that one ring had a Slay Giant mod, that was only once. Too rare to be really excited about. Or my luck was frowning upon me that day.

Funny you should say that. There are already people who think that brands/slays appear way too often on nonweapons.

Either way, I guess without truly random artifact generation at drop-time I feel like abusing this until I find a suitable set of randarts before playing.
I guess people like me have a very hard time changing their style of play..

Shrug, I'm pretty happy with standards - looking forward to multiple pvals and maybe some random factors to them, however.

You won't get random factors to standard artifacts, I don't think - quite a lot of work for very little gain. But if you're happy with standard artifacts, you'll probably enjoy them all over again once multiple pvals arrive. That'll give ego items a new lease of life too, so you probably don't need to worry about randarts at all.