The artifacts that can be made in the CT lab once they're discovered are WAY too expensive. Outrageously expensive, in fact. Take the hypersatelite, for example. A total of 120 artifacts, including 40 relay tower chassises. I could boost my research and artifact production A LOT more using relay towers on planets than using them to create hyper satelites.

Because of the high cost in artifacts to create special artifacts, and the high cost in research points to discover, I feel very little motivation to attempt discoveries in the lab. The chance of success should be significantly higher, and the cost of creating special artifacts should be significantly lower. What the heck were the developers thinking when they set the prices?!

It is meant for higher levels, who have a lot of these artifacts just sitting around. For example, they don't have one for the Refining Lab, so I have 117 of those left, and I've scrapped plenty.

yeah, i had to save up some continuum beacons cause i crap those alot, but for the most part i had enough artifacts to make a sattelite. there are only 2 artifacts that have been adjusted because the cost outweighed the benefit, and thats the aegis capacitor and the dmc datacenter. when you get a few thousand ap per hour youll see the cost isnt THAT high...

he's got a decent amount of ap production, he's in my legion for a bit. he's not a newbie by any means.

honestly its just how bad you want it... the ct lab was designed for players who have tens of thousands of cargo and never scrap items anymore. but to make it fair it was available to all players who have a level 4 base. if you cant afford it now, then dont buy it. youll be able to afford it eventually. at rank 300 theyre not that expensive. ive purchased almost everything ive wanted from it, now i just need to save xcharge cells and android helmsmen, along with a few spy uplinks.

remember, this isnt a temporary shop, its gonna be here forever. if everything was cheap then the ct lab would be like the battle market. fun for a month and then a huge disappointment.

There are at most only a couple people in your Legion who are high level. The CT Lab is meant for people who have an excess of artifacts, so many that they can't use them all, people who have all the Chassis artifacts on their planets and have gotten hundreds more, or so many ship buffs they could almost never hope to use them all.

I'm not saying he's high level, and I'm not saying everyone in my legion has an over abundance of artifacts, I'm just saying it's not like he's a level 50 something who's not going to be able to use the lab for a while.

You're just saying he's not high enough level to realize that it's not overpriced yet. Level 50, level 200, hardly matters, those are still low for using it. These are meant to be a thing for later in the game when it would be worth it. If you'd be better off using the artifacts now then use them now, eventually you'll be better off using them for this. The CT Lab isn't supposed to be better than the artifacts used to make it (with a few exceptions, like the Aegis Capacitor) it's made for if you have nothing better to do with the research and artifacts. You'll get there, but have some patience.

with a 5k artifact/hour I have 41 helmsmen saved up, and 44 xcharge cells, that may not be a lot to some of the higher levels, but that is still pretty high for me.

I've already made some of the artifacts, a domain walker, a DM79, all useful. someone scanned an exotic of mine so I had to make a tracer to see who scanned it, turned out it was just a level 72. so anyone can get the parts, except for maybe the chassis, but a lot of the other things are tradeable.

So you're saying they're not overpriced? I'm glad we agree, then.

to me personally no, right now if I were to use those artifacts they'd give me a good boost, but the modules they make give % boosts, which I'd rather have because that will just continually increase my defense more and more in the long run.

I'm rank 300 and have about 5k AP/hr. It's probably not great for my level but I've managed to get one of each of the 4 lab creations our legion's found so far. Coadym are a lower ranked legion and I'm one of the only players who can make at least one of all of them.

Our legion spans a wide range of ranks. Average is about 170. I think a lot of them would like a shot at making some new artifacts. I guess the problem here is balancing the game. Players above rank 300 could get loads of artifacts if the CT lab creations were cheaper.

Personally I wish there were cheaper less powerful artifacts from the lab for lower ranked players. I know the lab was meant to solve a problem for higher ranked players but it's sort of created a problem for lower ranked ones or those with low AP who want the lab creations but won't be able to make one for months. I don't know what the solution is to make sure these were balanced artifacts which wouldn't give a massive advantage to rank 300 players who could make loads.

While some of the creations might be too expensive, we have not see those yet in Tortuga. Our lab has the crux amplifier which, as some of us are starting to kill NPCs a lot, those are more easy to make, and all the artifacts in it can be sent to someone to so they can create it. The other is the planet flux-tracer, which shows who has scanned a planet, and their ranks. This is another item that is useful at lower rank, uses items that we tent to have in excess, and several of the larger players can use. It seems like the balance might be a little off for the crux amplifier, as ancient crystal foci are not as common as crimson obelisks, but otherwise it's not too unreasonable. Of course, if things were halved it would be very nice.

I think a good option might be to add some lesser artifacts that don't provide as good benefits (and are either temporary or on the same limiter) as the ones that already exist.