Spotlight features

Artifact scanning

Artifacts are the buried treasure chests of Nia that you can find with your good ol' geoscanners. We are starting out with 5 different artifact types for each of the 3 factions, all with 3 different rarity levels, adding up to 45 different types. This is only the beginning, we intend to add more types in the future.

Please see the ingame help for all the details and howto.

Some important things to note:
Artifacts are individually placed for all Agents. You cannot search for someone else's artifacts, but they will of course become visible to everyone when they are found.
Every zone contains a maximum of 10 artifacts. When you find one, a new one will be created at a random position.
There is no difference between alpha and beta islands regarding artifact loot types, but beta artifacts have a higher chance to drop higher level loot.
Observer spots are what the name implies. You have been warned.

Mk2 robots and new item tiers

Coupled with the artifacts, we are introducing Mk2 robots. These beasts have one additional head and leg slot compared to their regular counterparts, and also come with additional robot bonuses. The only way to obtain them is to find their calibration templates in artifacts, together with the CPU cortexes that are required to build them.

Artifacts also bring two whole tiers of new item variants: "flawed" modules are not the best around, but they are usable and can also be recycled to precious minerals. "Niani" modules are a new tier somewhere between T2 and T3 - they are generally just as good as T3 items, but have somewhat less ideal fitting parameters.

To sum up, a little list of what this patch brings in numbers:
45 artifact types
27 new beginner-level assignments
26 Mk2 robots
120 new module variants

Gameplay
New: It is now possible to use the corporation account when repairing items.
Fix: You cannot transfer NIC to a deleted character anymore.
Fix: You won't get the "in combat" status on NPC aggro anymore, only when it starts attacking you.
Fix: When NPCs run back to their homerange, they won't do this at ridiculous speeds anymore.
Change: Container interaction range increased to 100m.
New: Tiles are now checked for fertility when planting noralgis, so from now on when you plant one you can be sure that it will be on a suitable tile. Note though that the proximity of other plants can still affect them negatively.
New: Added a "Free camera rotate" hotkey assignment. You can use this to rotate the camera independently from your movement direction.

Robots and modules
Change: Terraforming cycle time bonuses changed to demobilizer resistance bonuses (Laird, Gargoyle).

Extensions
New: "Basic geochemistry" now affects artifact scan charges as well.
New: Added the "Artifact scanning" extension, which affects artifact scanning range.

Industry
New: Repair prices are now based on raw material average prices.
Fix: The factory sometimes required slightly more raw minerals that it displayed, due to an inconsistency between server and client calculations.

Corporations
Fix: The corporation storage cancel rent button didn't work.

Assignments
New: Added 9 new repeatable tutorial assignments for all 3 factions.

GUI
New: Item tier levels are now shown on icons and in information windows.
New: Added coordinate tooltip on the world map.
New: Added item information and market information right-click menu options to buy and sell windows (on the item icon and name).
Change: Relevant extensions are now shown separately for every bonus in robot information windows.
Change: Accumulator charge display is now directly controlled by the server. Previously the client itself was continuously calculating recharge as well, which could cause false readings. The downside of this is that it's now updating visually less frequently.
Change: Moved the chat channel list button from the main menu to the chat window.
New: Chat tabs are now "squishy", so you won't miss a new tab anymore when your chat window isn't wide enough.
Fix: Opened equipment window parameters are now properly updating when upgrading an extension.

General
New: CSV file export is now available generally for all chart-type data in the game. Hold the shift key, and look for a floppy icon appearing in the top right of the chart. Press it, and the data will be saved into your Perpetuum game directory.
New: Local settings (keyboard, sound, window positions) are now saved separately from the main datafile (Local.gbf). Useful if you need to reinstall the game but want to keep your settings.

Searching for artifacts

There are not just useful industrial materials but also artifacts under the surface of the Nia. These artifacts can be revealed by using geoscanners, but you need to load special artifact scanner charges. These charges come in three variants, with different scanning ranges.

After you've purchased a bunch of these charges (finding an artifact will need quite a lot of charges) deploy onto the terrain and activate your geoscanner loaded with the new charge. You can then see a list with all the artifacts that are within your scanning range. In case this list is empty, move your robot somewhere else and perform another scan. The position of your scanning is also immediately shown on the terrain by a red marker, so you can use it as a reference for your next scanning.

At first you can only see a distance from the artifact. To determine the location, you should choose a direction, move a few meters and perform another scan. On the new, updated list you can see the distance(s) changed, you are either closer or farther from the artifact. Follow this method over and over again until you get so close to the artifact that it appears on the terrain (this distance is usually 100 meters, can be shorter or larger as well). To help keeping track of the artifact you desire, you can also left-click an artifact on the result list, which will mark it with a yellow color. It is also important to note that the geoscanning accuracy affects these range readings as well, and they might not be accurate below 100% accuracy.

The type of artifacts vary, but it is very important that revealing artifacts is the only way to obtain items of the ancient Niani civilization, or the calibration templates (CTs) of the new, advanced Mk2 robots. Of course there's no guarantee that you always find something useful.

Artifacts on the terrain are seeded for individual Agents, no one else can see the artifact that you are searching for. Some artifacts are protected by tough NPC robots, you should always be prepared to defend yourself.

Good luck, gold digger!