Is artifact hunting a waste of time?

Ethian

Exploring has always been my favorite part of MMOs. In RIFT I've found it actually has purpose suprisingly. I've spent afew nights only exploring and actually find usefull stuff around such as artifacts (which can be very well hidden) and random things to loot. A few nights ago I acutally found a blue sword in a chest high atop a mountain that sold for 3plat which is a fair bit of money for me at this point. So to sum it up, exploring in RIFT for me has been alot of fun and I recommend it to any avid explorer. 

Now heres the catch...I found out last night that if finish 100 artifact sets I get a epic mount!! But....its a foch'n white turtle of which every player who ordered the collection edition has except its a different colour. Finishing 100 sets is hella lota work so once I found this out it just about ruined the fun of artifact collections for me. Everything else on the vendor from what I saw wasnt all that great unfortionately.

So ya..finish 100 sets you get a stupid looking turtle. And to make matters worse, the same turtle of a different colour is running all over the Sanctum. :-/

servedogg

I found artifact hunting and exploring to be my favorite part of Rift.  I had more fun collecting that stuff than I did with the combat.  Any rewards on top of that were more of a perk and were not my main drive for collecting artifacts.

Panther2103

I thought artifact hunting was severely boring. I mean sure some completionists would enjoy it, but it gives hardly any reward vs time.

Ethian

Originally posted by servedogg

I found artifact hunting and exploring to be my favorite part of Rift.  I had more fun collecting that stuff than I did with the combat.  Any rewards on top of that were more of a perk and were not my main drive for collecting artifacts.

I'm enjoying it as well but lets be honest. Theres needs to some sort of insentive to want to do it. I guess I can sell duplicates on the AH for extra gold but all the stuff on the vendor for the lucky coins seems like junk.. I'll be able to put down a campfire and turn into a bush? Woohoo!! Oh and I'll be to summon all sorts of different adorable pets lol. To top it all off....my epic reward is a white shiny turtle :-D

Bladestrom

I also found the artifact search interesting and gave some much needed value to exploration.  The only issue with this is that Rift world is tiny so it undermines this value.  Good idea that I would love to see replicated in future mmos though.

popinjay

Some people like it, and I collected them for awhile but there really isn't a point to stopping to pick them up after awhile.

It's pretty boring and the reward you get for finishing it is even more boring than the actual activity:

Unless you like your Founder's turtle mount to have a white twin brother.

xpiher

Artifacts are for designed for the collectors among us. If you complete all the sets, not only do you get all those items in a book you can show off, but you also get vanity gear, pets, and mounts.

Tardcore

I think that the way they implemented the feature it is. There are so many of the damn little widgets, and they are so common in the world areas, it feels more like virtual garbage (or aluminum can) collecting rather than finding something unique and interesting.

Archeminos

Its still more interesting than achievement farming. And more of a reward.

centkin

The rewards for turning them in are nowhere near good enough for the effort involved.

That said hunting artifacts is wonderful money -- IF you sell them on the AH as opposed to turning them in. 

You are better off just buying the mount. 

Really the only good thing you get is that deep one form with the water breathing.  But again if you get attacked it drops.  It would be far better if it didnt unless YOU attacked.

It would have been better even if they had rewards that were faction with your choice of towns, or something. 

Bladestrom

Artifact collection is not about big rewards, it is designed for explorers. Start giving it big rewards and you get other types of players hunting them for the wrong types of reasons.

Bladestrom

And collectors ofc.