Chapter 13 - Miscellaneous 

13.1 Artifacts | 13.2 Locks and Keys | 13.3 AI Settings

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13.1 Artifacts

(NOTE! Only premier members may acquire and use Artifacts.)

Artifacts are powerful items with a story behind it. They can be weapons, armor or shields as well as wands, statues and pieces of jewelry. They may not have a profound combat value (although many of them do either directly or indirectly), but they always provide some useful benefit.

There are many artifacts in the game, and they can be acquired in many ways. They may be rewards from specific quests, treasure from a lair or items found in ancient ruins or dungeons. Once acquired, they can be transferred between realm characters in the same dominion (although not henchmen) or even given away to other dominions (as long as that dominion is controlled by a premier member).

Not all artifacts are unique, though all are limited in number. There will never be more then a certain amount of that artifact in existence at any given time. Although some artifacts only exist once at a time, more are limited to 3 or 5 in number. Once an artifact is lost or destroyed, another one is available for someone else.

Note that all artifacts have one drawback - they are always temporary in nature. Although the method of removal varies greatly from one artifact to another, there is always some way the artifact is eventually lost. For example, some artifacts simply exist for a number of month (game turns) before simply vanishing at the end of a turn. Others are lost when used a certain number of times, or when some outside force eventually has its way.

Another "drawback" (if you wish to see it as such) is that Artifacts by their very nature are obvious to anyone. So when it is used in battle, a generic name is not used to describe it. For example, someone using a Long Sword +5 in combat will only see "Long Sword" as the description of the weapon (in case you face another realm character, they would not know the power of your item). However, if you wielded "The Emperor's Iron Sword", then it would be described as such in battle. In addition, other dominions will get wind of those artifacts as well even outside of combat (rumors will go around about you).

Some artifacts may have additional drawbacks, but these are rare. For example, some items attract the attention of undead, so you may have an inordinate amount of undead encounters. Information on these items are available by researching the item when it is recovered.

(If a Premier membership expires when in control of an artifact, the artifact is not immediately lost. Ten turns will pass, and if no renewal is made, then the artifacts are lost immediately as the dominion reverts to a basic members.)

13.2 Locks and Keys

There are many places in Storm World that are locked. Just like there are containers (treasure chests) which require unlocking to open. This makes the use of the lock picking skill and the use of keys important.

All locks are rated between a level 1 lock (Shoddy lock) to a level 7 lock (Masterful lock). In order to open them, your character must have a combination of skill and key that adds up to the minimum level of the lock. The skill level you have with a given lock depends upon your Stealth knowledge level and your physical strength score.

For example, if you have the ability to open level 1 locks, then any level 1 lock that appears in your way is automatically bypassed. If you encounter a level 2 lock, then you cannot bypass it unless you have at least a level 1 key. This way, your skill level of 1 adds to the key's level to meet the minimum required to open the lock.

There is no need to issue a USE action to unlock something. The game will automatically recognize the need for a key, and will select the minim key required to open something when you attempt to access it. However, this comes with a caveat. The game automatically selects the minimum key required, but it also selects the standard keys first unless your RC recognizes the need to disable a trap. In other words, if you have a standard key, plus a rogue key, then the standard key is used so as not to remove the more expensive key from your inventory.

If the chest is trapped, and the RC recognizes it (either it is revealed when originally found, or it is found by the person attempting to open it), then the game determines whether the trap is avoided (using skill alone). If failed, then the game will looik for a rogue key before using a regular key.

Note that if the lock is magical in nature, then the game is smart enough to only use magical keys.

Unlocking an entrance is temporary. If you return to the location again, you must unlock it again. Once a key is used, it is lost.

Example

A RC discovers a treasure chest when attacking an enemy. It is reported as a Locked Treasure Chest. Since the RC has no levels in Stealth, he does not have a chance of discovering any traps. He transfers the chest to another RC who does have Stealth, as well as a level 1 key and a level 1 rogue key.

That RC then issues an OPEN ITEM action on the chest. The RC discovers that a trap is there, and for whatever reason, the RC is not able to disarm it himself. If that RC did not have a rogue key, then the game would not attempt to open it, and instead change the inventory report to reflect the fact. This way, it gives you the opportunity to decide if you simply want to "trip the trap" or not. If you then decide to open it, the game no longer stops you.

In our example, the RC does have a rogue key, so the chest is automatically opened using that key instead. There is still a chance that the trap goes off, but with the rogue key and the RC's skill, the trap was avoided.

13.3 AI Settings

Although you have control of what your realm characters do throughout the month, once the turns start processing, events may change what your intended actions should be. Because of this, there are a few settings in the game which allow you to have better control over the behavior of your RCs during processing.

Default Intent - Your default intent setting allows you to change your intent in response to events which may change your intent away from what you want. For example, if you are set at Crusade but lose a battle, then your intent automatically resets to Passive for the remainder of the turn (and in fact stays that way until you submit an order to change it). However, if you want to make sure you change back to Crusade, you can set your default intent to Crusade.

This setting is used in conjunction with the Trigger Default Intent setting below. Once you reach the noted health level, the game automatically changes your intent to whatever is set as your default intent. Note that if this setting is set to "None" (the default), then the game will not change your intent away from Passive regardless of your health rating.

Note that your intent may inadvertantly change to something other then Passive (like if you are cursed to automatically set to Aggressive), so even Passive may be allowed as a default intent.

Trigger Default Intent - This setting is used in conjunction with the Default Intent setting above. If your default intent is set to "None" then this setting is ignored. If not, then whenever your health equals or exceeds this setting (ranging from 10 health up to your maximum health), then your current intent automatically changes to whatever is set in your default intent. The change occurs at the end of the day.

Lair Hunting - This setting can be anywhere from "0" to "5". It determines the difficulty of a lair that you are willing to automatically enter. Since all lairs are rated as to its difficulty (1 to 5), then you will automatically enter any lair which is equal to or less then this setting.

Note that when set to "0", you will ignore all lairs. When set to "5", you will enter all lairs regardless of consequences. Also note that your intent must be something other then "Passive" for this to even be considered.