Why not make the artifact go up by itself when you play instead of "collecting" items? I played Path of Exiles a while back and on that game the glyphs only evolve when you play, basically, play = XP. Given that the game is very quickly abandoned by the community in just a few weeks after a DLC, wouldn't this be a more motivating factor to keep players and motivate them to stay? We can still keep the tier system, but to get the artefact only by playing. On POE I found this process very pleasant, as long as you don't make it even longer than it is now, because Daybreak knows you well!
The current system in place is already similar albeit every 8-10 minutes an NPC death gives nth metal that can be fed to one artifact. (Double the nth after the membership updates goes live when coupled with a nth metal detector)
Dimensional Ink announces that the game will be made Truly Free to Play....only took you a week to come up with a method to on the surface "make our lives easier/More pleasant" while taking away their biggest money maker to date. What was your plan to replace this tremendous loss of income? Let me guess...not your problem??? Think again. You're a funny guy.
What’s wrong with the system we have now? We have the option to save the dropped nth and use them during double exp week. We have the option to wait for free seal of completion for the higher breakthroughs. They are even adding a way to get seals from the vendor using the new login in currency. The system itself is fine and getting better with this update. The issue with the system is from the users who are impatient and want everything right away.
