implement item activation

[hervan]

having acquired an artifact, a player may activate its benefits during their turn, according to a disposition of meeples matching the arctifact shape: the player mark the meeples being activated with cubes, which can be used only once per meeple. the player is allowed to activate the artifact multiple times as long as they can mark the required meeples, and may activate more than one artifact per turn, same restrictions apply. choose powers related to the type of artifact and place of occurrence, but they maybe refined later with further playtesting. extra actions is a candidate power, but if it's not, a mechanic for increasing/decreasing them is required to implement #7. other power effects may be related to existing attributes:

• food
  • resistance may demand food supply, otherwise it decreases (making it not a benefit, but very welcome as it may prevent swarms from avoiding confrontations)
  • or should food not be acquired but consumed immediately?
  • can food be related to the activation cubes? but then they should be easier to acquire, like given instantly upon arrival on a terrain. to deal with confrontation avoidance, they replenish in the terrain as long as it's empty.
• relic
  • related to religions, so they must benefit faith or conversions. this is a nice case study for artifact powers, as it's obvious what they will affect, but it must be well thought out to reduce complexity: it may be evaluated at a glance by the players, must be handled with few actions on a board as well as require few components to represent its state on the board.
• technology
• energy
• ore

[hervan]

what was once know as items (or in-game artifacts) changed to blueprints, a requirement for buildings, and given for free when a city is conquered.