That's how it currently works within Dominions_3(Fantasy_TBS)...  the more rare and powerful the item then it's more likely to be found at the end of battle.   I would recommend playing its free demo for anyone waiting for the arrival of Elemental:War of Magic.

In regards to items...  I think a similar system should be introduced as what was provided by Age_of_Wonders:SM.  Here the game editor allowed you to create any type of item which could be placed on a map.  Also in the game itself it was possible to eventually build a magical forge where you could create your own unique items which depended on the type of magic spells you knew.  The cost of each magical item should have included some type of cumulative cost because in AoW:SM it was too easy for a human player to eventually spam many items for all his heroes(champions).

No, artifacts should most definately not be destroyed. I'm a bit torn, however, between having the original hero keep the artifacts in "limbo" (having them returned when he is resurrected, if at all possible) and having the artifacts fall to the one that killed you.

Yes that's why for Elemental the more artifacts a player creates the cost should cumulatively increase otherwise the larger the map the easier it will be to mass produce items.  

I agree with Capn, if there are player created artifacts they should die with the hero, but world artifacts should remain in play.

A good method of preventing a massive amount of items would be if the less powerful items have a small percentage chance of being destroyed during a battle.   A low level paladin champion who is killed from a dragon should have one or more items which don't survive such as a holy wooden shield.

Another idea would be if there was an easy trading system between players regarding items...  say the items can be teleported for a small mana fee. 

I'm mostly with Swicord here, he kinda beat me to the punch. I'm gonna use "should" here, could have used "could" or "maybe" instead.

regular magic items should be easy to medium hard to produce but would have obvious level/power caps. Fighting would destroy an X% of them so as not to have everyone have several of them. Part of the remaining percentage could be captured intact and used or "deconstructed" for a percentage (not too high) of the original construction cost. Part should be damaged - giving even less in deconstruction or have a %age of the original cost for repairing them. Part of them shoud be "lost" (see bottom)

minor artifacts should be far more resistent to destruction, but might have a still significant chance of being damaged. Or maybe minor artifact should be "attuned" to the new channeler before they allow themselves to be used. Attuning would ofcourse require mana/time. This prevents them from being instantly turned on their creators and excessive "artifact hunting". Level caps are off. can be very powerfull. Are also quite expensive to construct (you might even have them cost a certain amount of upkeep - the channeler has to keep feeding them -> prevents overproduction). Occasionally one should be "lost". (see bottom)

Major Artifacts - not player manufacturable - serious quests to even get them - remnants from before the last great war - destroying them is not viable (otherwise they would hev been destroyed in the cataclysm) - at least untill very late game or with at least as serious a quest as for getting them. Extreme powerfull. Upon finding or capture needs to be attuned - very willfull things, so heaps of mana and/or time required. For a cost these items could be "hardened" - with that increasing the cost/time for others to attune them (giving you time to win them back or prepare for them to be used against you). WILL cost channeler from his pool to have around, perhaps even more when used. Only very rarely or not at all one should be lost, people tend to keep track of things like these.

Stuff going into limbo is weird. If one gets killed he drops his stuff. In order to prevent getting killed he's gonna go all out with those items, not spend energy in removing the items that he needs to fight from his posession. Besides...one of the "good" feelings in games like this is when you get to loot something good of the body of a vanguished foe.

As to the "lost" ones: They can be a continuing source of "minor" quests - just find the bloody thing. Should take some turns for the "legend" to occur. Might allso be a continiung source of "medium" quests....something found it after its been lost...and is not gonna give it up without a fight.

just my 2 cnt

It might be interesting to allow artifacts to be damaged rather than destroyed in some cases. For example, a magical sword is shattered in combat. In order to reforge it, it has to be taken to a particular person or place. So, the breaking of an artifact would spawn an optional quest to restore it.

I'd want artifacts to be rare. Really, really rare - as in a couple per game per side. I have no problem with them being player created, but doing so must take a not insignificant amount of your essence such that making one is a significant choice.

To me, a potentially cool idea that could be used to make powerful, player-created artifacts (that aren't destructible) a double-edged sword is that they could have a chance of converting whoever is using the artifact to the original creator's side (sort of like the Rings of Power). And it isn't a one-shot chance, but rather having it in your possession, using it, etc. keeps triggering the chance to convert (and the longer you have it, the higher the chance).

Then again, I'm crazy like that - I generally slow the tech progression in games where I can so each "age" lasts longer and it's not just a footnote on the way to the "real" techs.

I think you're probably right about that. A rarity slider and "player createable/destructible" checkboxes. Possibly even some sort of "power" slider, that either limits which artifacts will show up (based on some calculation of the artifact's power) or scales the power of all the artifacts one way or the other. After all, if you have rare artifacts but they aren't powerful enough to matter, then rare artifacts wouldn't be very fun.

Are you sure it wasn't actually in this thread?

I guess I should've been a bit clearer... This thread has gone farther into creation/destruction of items than I think any other, but the ideas of rarity and power sliders were discussed in another thread for sure.

If the item can be taken by the victor in battle maybe they could add a spell on the item that would curse the new user. I would enjoy that...

Thou art CURSE!  mouahahahahahaha

note to self:   remember to take your pills...

Personally I think that making items customizable (like everything else) but requiring a certain amount of essence that scales based on the items power is the way to go.  If you want to put a large quantity of essence into producing a very powerful artifact or two then that should be one course of action, or a small amount of essence into each of many minor artifacts that should be another course of action.

However that being said, powerful artifacts should be difficult to destroy (much like the one Ring in LOTR), but they should be lost if the character who possesses them dies.  Then you could fulfill a quest to get the item back, or if someone else managed to end up with the powerful item through capture (or simply stumbling upon it) they could fulfill a quest to destroy it (or risk losing it or having it corrupt whichever hero possesses it).  Minor magical items on the other hand should be treated as relatively disposable and easily damaged or destroyed.