Maybe make it so that all artifacts have to be activated but some artifacts last for longer, say 30 minutes, when activated? this may require the cooldown to be reduced to say, 6hrs.

How about if you make all artifacts passive. This will equalize all of the artifacts, and not make it annoying to be activating them all the time. I only play passive artifacts because it is annoying to activate them all the time.

Hi

First, we could rename this artifact category, to open new possible ways. I think we may change "active or passive artifacts" as artifacts with "constant or temporary effects"... but why not a third category ?

Secondly, me too I think we may create a new artifact slot system : three slots for constant and three slots for temporaries.

At last, I propose that constant artifacts need a charging time when they start activating, and during the activation time they run with a lower efficacity. For example the lowering could be 50% during 20 minutes, or why not it could start with 50% efficiency and increase gradually during 1 hour.
As well the player could choose between two strategic approaches : keeping strong artifacts wih constant effects without worrying more about, or trying to play an optimization way with weaker artifacts but adjustable.
Maybe, another new stragegy should emerge : preparing a strong and charged artifact combination with constant effects before one or more specific actions, and then preparing an other combination for other "packaging actions". However, a such strategy would need a lot of different artifacts, considering we loose many when we make evolve them... in order to privilegiate the first strategic option.
Concerning beginning players, it could be the same thing than beginning levels : less slots, and possibility to increase the slot numbers thanks to an upgrade or a conquest, so the choice to make the effort to obtain this slot bonus may depend on which artefact we have.

Thank you for all the creating work.

Lot of good, well thought out responses from the community. I agree with many of them.

My two cents: all of fizzers proposals are taking agency away from players. I don’t understand why this is a good OR fun solution. But if the goal is really to stop swapping you should just eliminate passive artifacts entirely. Alternatively rework them as permanent, always on, advances with the only limit being being you get one of each type. Any half measures don’t fully solve the “problem” and will just create frustration for players.

So Fizzer, what say you? Any useful nuggets in what we've provided here?

Synchronicity. I was thinking about this, came to the forum to ask about it and here is a whole thread with lots of opinions already.
I agree with Fizzer that the switching is not fun and I add that it is frustrating when you forget it for a moment and insta-regret an action.
I would like to see the slots gone. The most advanced version of every artifact is always on. The actives can now have their cooldown and still be useful because since they are not blocking anything the only way to waste them is not to use them, the opposite of how it is now.
Artifacts becomes kind of an advancement that you gain inside the campaign instead of after it, but the random element of not knowing what you will get makes it different enough to be its own thing. You have to be constantly digging for better ones (through luck or upgrading). Additionally, I do not see a point in waiting for artifact upgrade.

Additionally, I do not see a point in waiting for artifact upgrade.

Agreed, getting the 4 artifacts together you need to upgrade already takes long enough, so waiting days for an upgrade to finish is just extra painful.

Making upgrading less painful would cause more upgrades to be done, which reduces the number of artifacts and therefore the swaps as well.

Isn’t the easiest answer to just have unlimited slots? May require a slight difficulty tweak to adjust.

You would still need to trade up because only the best version of each artifact would be active - i.e. if you have a Rare and an Uncommon the uncommon doesn’t do anything.

The problem with that is Fizzer didn't want people to have use of all artifacts. He purposefully limited it to 3, and he is trying to limit a workaround.

Artifacts are basically free AP advancements.

If he were to allow use of all, he would have to make levels harder. All this would do is hurt newer players who don't have as many artifacts.

yep, removing the slots is not an option

Artifacts are basically free AP advancements.

If he were to allow use of all, he would have to make levels harder.

Why is this so? I mean, as I said before, you are free to unlock and upgrade as many advancements as you please, and - although I don't know if this has influenced the level's difficulty before - I don't feel the levels getting overly harder although I "wasted" 500 APs into Statisitcs. (*) So, why should having all artifacts operating at the same time, be any different? You can't have unlimited APs right from the start (just like artifacts) and finishing later games grants you more APs than the first ones (just like later games give you higher chances to win rarer artifacts). Granted, both can be "improved" by spending real life cash.

To clarify, I like the limited amount of operative artifacts (hard to find another word for "active" here if I don't want to get misunderstood). If it was my choice, I might not have picked 3 as this number but I probably would have landed in the same ballpark. As you said yourself, artifacts and advancements are mostly the same and (that's my addition to this) can amplify one another.

I don't want to cause a whole discussion about this tiny detail. Fizzer wanted three slots and he wants to keep them (at least that is how it appears to me so far) and that isn't what I would like to be different. I just disagree with the correlation you created between number of operating artifacts and level difficulty, in - as it seems - strong contrast to the correlation between accessible advancements and level difficulty that you imply to already be present. On this note, I can understand everyone who advocates that the slots should be removed (I just don't want it as much as they do).

(*) To clarify: What I mean is that everyone will start the Idle Tutorial with the same advancements (none) and if the level's difficulty would resemble the acquisition of advancements accessible at this point, levels should be harder if you haven't spent your APs wisely. What is in fact apparent is that the speed with which you claim territories decreases over time in each level, but that is nothing the advancements could fully compensate.

They are definitely not free. They cost in game money and real world time.

The problem with that is Fizzer didn't want people to have use of all artifacts. He purposefully limited it to 3, and he is trying to limit a workaround.

Well, from a design perspective you can:
1 - Get rid of the slots; people get all the bonuses and the artifact game becomes upgrading your gear. All artifacts become useful (passive and active).
2 - Stay the way it is; swapping artifacts stay the meat of an efficient gameplay. Not fun for some people (like myself). All passives stay useful, actives become fodder.
3 - Limit swapping with cooldowns or straight up disable swapping; people will probably stay with their best passives unless there is some very specific condition an artifact can help a lot with (I have not played all the maps, but seems unlikely). All but the same three artifacts become fodder.

The third option is what the OP seem to have as his goal, but I think this will lead to the same 3 artifacts being used by everyone and the rest becoming fodder, which is functionally very similar to getting rid of the slots as everyone will have the same setup, but the upgrade game becomes worse because you are simply upgrading those same three best artifacts. The design of all other artifacts is wasted.

If the rationale for limiting artifacts with slots is to generate the emergence of new gameplay styles, I do not think artifacts (as they are now) are powerful enough to do that (maybe they are by the time you get to the late maps, but I remain unconvinced).

If make them all active then it is evem more time management required. Simple thing to do, if you invest the time and resource to purchase artifacts, you should be able to use them. Best thing to do allow more slots like suggested, more slots allow for purpose of attaining and upgrading an artifact in the first place.

I'm thinking something like this: You get two free passive artifact swaps per day. On your third, the artifact takes 3 minutes before its effect kicks in. on the 4th, it takes 8 minutes to kick in. then the time gets progressively longer for the rest of the day.

Note that the battles landing page encourages changing artifacts before a battle.

The artifacts you have equipped (up to 3) when starting the battle will be the only ones you can use during the battle, so make sure to arrange your artifacts before joining.

If there is a daily limit to switching artifacts, I feel battles and challenge levels would need an independent way selecting artifacts to ensure those of us that like to switch artifacts before and after battles/challenge levels are not penalized.

As far as a warm up period, if I have only a couple of minutes to check the idle game, I wouldn't be able to get use out of some artifacts like the hospital boost. I wouldn't mind leaving it in place after using it, but not being able to use artifacts when I have a brief window to play would not be a good experience.

I'm impatient, so posting my ideas before reading the whole thread. I apologize if this been suggested:

To decrease the incidence of switching, implement a "ramping up" period for artifacts. Conversely, create a "bonus" for artifacts the longer they are in a slot.

You could even add a "Super Bonus" or Auto-Upgrade for those who commit long term to keeping an artifact in the slot. I think this would be especially attractive to long term players and ones with a specific strategy such as maxing troops, mining, etc, or minimizing costs. Particularly pointed at those who are slotting the artifact to get a discount, then removing it. If the artifact gives a 5% discount when initially inserted, but could ramp up to a 30% discount over the course of two months, fewer players are going to be swapping them in and out, and more will use them as part of a more permanent strategy.

Examples:

Artifact improves (production/gain) up to 5%, increasing by 1%/hour, until reaching a benefit of ____%/hour.

Artifact decreases (cost/loss) by 5%, further decreasing by an additional 1%/hour, until reaching a benefit of ___%/hour.

*"Super Bonus": Artifact improves additional 1% after 24 hours, and an additional 1% every week until reaching maximum (say double the regular bonus)

*"Auto-Upgrade": Artifact upgrades after being in slot for X days/weeks/months.

Edited 2/18/2021 17:56:09

@MWL

Good point regarding WZIB ... tbh WZIB needs its own mechanism for switching artifacts already independently of the active WZI map. Doesn't make sense to change the WZI artifacts and hence the playing strategy ESPECIALLY for people who use Auto-upgrades, etc, for the purpose of an Active game (WZIB). WZIB artifacts need a different interface to choose the artifacts to use for the battle, while leaving the WZI artifacts in place as-is on the current map.

Eg: assume you have an Epic MINE DISCOUNT, MINE BOOST & ITEM VALUE artifacts in place b/c you use Auto-conquer, auto-mine upgrade & auto-sell, etc ... but in order to play the WZIB you would likely remove all 3, disable auto-mine upgrade & auto-sell to avoid losing money unnecessarily, then after the battle go swap the artifacts back in & re-enable the AP upgrades. This is also not fun (responding to the base concept of this post that swapping is 'not fun').

WZIB and WZIC (battles and challanges) need an option to change artifacts outside of the current level anyway

Forgot about WZIC, but yep, same principle. 100% agree.

WZIB and WZIC (battles and challenges) need an option to change artifacts outside of the current level anyway

Now this is an intriguing idea ... implies that the artifacts have an XP factor to them. Very interesting recommendation. A number of other games use this concept, where instead of just buying your upgrades/power ups/increased damage/efficacy, you simply wield and use the weapon/item which automatically increases proficiency (XP) with them. Would work well for Passives, but may need some rework for Functionals & Actives, else it means that players are punished with countdowns/dead time for wielding them while getting 0 benefits but must invest in them in this manner in order to achieve long term improvement. Also sounds like an opportunity for some new Achievements ... Wield an artifact for 1 day/week/month collectively (not straight). Wield 10 artifacts for 1 year collectively (so 3 artifacts wielded for 1 month each = 3 months collectively). Etc.

*"Auto-Upgrade": Artifact upgrades after being in slot for X days/weeks/months.

wait what? do you see some hiden meaning in my messages?