Searching planets, not effective?

Searching planets is cost efficient for the Advent given you got the tier 3 skill that lowers the search cost.

the only time i ever do it is when i've found myself in a situation where money is no object and acquisition of military power is the only thing left with any relevance on the game state. this usually means endgame situation when i've got all my colonizing and infrastructure already done and i'm just trying to figure out how to destroy my enemies. usually its best to just research more military tech and/or buy more ships but sometimes there's even cash left over after that so you may as well go digging for buried treasure hoping to find an artifact.

The cost of finding artifacts isn't terrible, as it's a bonus that other races can not get without holding that planet. However, the other planet bonuses SUCK for their cost! Why would you want to search for a pipe dream chance of finding +10% trade, or +5% culture spread? Not to mention the chance of paying to find out that your planet sucks. Given the cost of the upgrade, the lucky artifact might eventually pay off. Other effects are simply not worth the cost.

Oh, and most artifacts are pretty lame in effect, so even if you find one, it may not be the one that can help you. The fleet based artifacts seem to be the most effective IMO.

I agree. I once found an artifact that was something like +15% or so anti-matter regeneration, which was quite nice.

12% damage bonus is my favorite.

The 50% travel time between star reduction artifact is the worst just because i most often find it on single star maps.


If find that medium random map averages 3, maybe 4 artifacts. In MP matches i will only explore key planets in the hopes of useful bonus (the extra tactical/logistic slots are very nice).

Today in a Random medium multyplayer map i owned half the planets explored them all and all i found was a penal colony and expert metal miners. Their should probably change the mechanic that the sooner you start searching the more likely it is to find bonuses. Maybe not artifacts those should still be fixed but at least bonus like habitable caverns ect should be more commons when few explorations have been conducted and more rare as more explorations take place. So their would be a tactical advantage to exploring worlds early on to gain an edge on your opponent.

After searching about 40 planets, I didn't find a single artifact, and only 1 special. I've never bothered to search a single planet since then.

Edit: this in the prefab universes, maybe they're more common in the random universes?

i really enjoy the increase phase jump speed, it makes using a defensive fleet much much easier. not to mention u can kill siege frig spams much quicker if u got the damage bonus

My favorite is the artifact that lowers your research costs by 25%. Found that one 2 or 3 times.

I will agree, increasing the number of planet "bonuses" found would be nice.

The culture one helped me break through an Advent culture barrier.

The time getting an artifact sucked was when I was probably third of four and I found one so the three computer players just stomped me.

I,m with transitive on this one, that you find most artifacts late game, as that time you have more resources to waste. So like the research cost reduing artifact, are nice to find early, both the other that work for your fleet are best for late game.

But to me the real problem with artifact is that they are much like culture bonues in the game, and only so up in big battles are in the long run.

It one of the three thinks that needs be fixed.

I think that they put artifacts into the game, to forces you to stop and fight for some of the worlds under your control. A weak boarder world being attack, becomes more important, when a 15% increase in hitpoints is comeing from it.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/301574
to increase the chance of finding artifacts and bonuses and stuff open the .galaxy of the map you are using in notepad++ and change the planetbonusdensity. look for the purple section in the above link

That's why i created this random map pack with 52 maps

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/178375

All maps have tripled artifact chance(3 per player instead of 1) and +10% more planet bonus chance.

What really sucks is when you find two of the same artifacts.

I like the Vasari feedback voice where your "personal assistant" sounds annoyed. "Searrrching the planet has not found anything!" (Why did you waste our forces' precious time, dumbarse?)