So ever since they were introduced, Alien Artifacts showed their art but not their other stat details until identified, usually by using them. Art was a meta method one could rely on to identify one immediately on obtaining it. This was a temporary approach aimed at being a little more lenient when it came to learning which do what before actually using them. Then Scanalyzers became capable of at least identifying anything, so for Alpha 14 I finally removed that bit of meta--no art until they're identified, as with other parts. Of course with experience it's still possible to guess what some are via slot count or mass (though this isn't as reliable as art). And this change also brings to the forefront one of the Core Reset Matrix's many uses--to automatically identify all artifacts.
Now I think the ID situation here is about right, but maybe there is some desire or need to be able to distinguish unique unidentified artifacts from one another, in case you have duplicates? Duplicates aren't all that common, but do happen with a few items. One of the possibilities here would be to assign each unique artifact a random un-ID'ed name at the beginning of each run, e.g. AA04, AA07..., as we see with potions and scrolls in many roguelikes.
Any other ideas on this subject?
