Heya folks!
Let me introduce you to the concept of Relics. The demo during the Steam Summer Festival featured a couple of these, the Grail being the first one you always get at the start, and several others obtainable during normal gameplay. Relics were created to fill gaps in character builds, and as a way to improve the characters attributes outside of the fixed upgrades per class. Originally they were just stat boosts, but after a while, we found we can make them also have abilities. The original roster featured 22 Relics, spread across granting a single attribute (like +1 Power or +2 Accuracy), granting multiple attributes, and granting abilities. An example of an ability Relic would be the old "Refilling Flask of Dragonfire", which created a fire ground effect that damaged all units caught in the blast.
As we moved to the Serious Engine, we had to reimplement most of the Relic functionality, and doing so didn’t focus on reimplementing all of the old relics. Recently we started looking more into them as we’re gearing up for the next demo which will feature the entirety of Albion. Their role had to be reevaluated so they're not doing the same thing as Spells and unit Skills. In the end, we decided to make Relics be a weaker version of both Spells and Skills. Since none of them are tied to a specific unit type and can be swapped between units at any point in time, they have to provide a more generic boost to any unit that has them equipped.
So our current direction is to create stat-boosting Relics that don’t overshadow the importance of gear upgrades (which are permanent for the duration of the run) and ability-granting Relics that don’t overshadow Skills nor Spells. Spells are designed to be strong abilities that are capable of winning you the combat or at least tipping the fight to your advantage. Skills are the baseline capabilities units have, and once chosen during the ranking process cannot be changed for that run. Relics provide the flexibility to fill any gaps your characters might have, by getting a healing effect that can be used once per combat, or creating area denial effects before you pick the Mystic Skill which grants it.
Some Relics might also have some unique abilities not seen elsewhere, and we hope that being able to get Relics often will provide the players with the interesting choices of which Relics to equip to the characters. Of course, as you progress through the game, you’ll encounter stronger Relics or Relics that provide more things at the same time, providing a sort of natural progression of power. Some Relics will also be consumable, meaning once used they are permanently gone, but will provide a stronger effect to compensate.
A special type of Relic will be the Grail, and we have only recently decided how it will work and how it's represented. At the start of the game, you’ll get a Grail Relic which you have to take all the way to the end of the game to save the world from the Cataclysm. The Grail has to reach the final zone and will be the focus of the travel. We decided to not treat the Grail as a special thing, and make it a loss condition: if you lose the Grail, you lose the game because it will then be impossible to save the world. Our intent is to make equipping the Grail a big choice: do you stash the Grail and not bring it with you into combat, or do you equip it on a hero to gain its bonuses and risk it being lost if that hero dies? I just hope nobody sells it to a vendor. :)
Thanks for reading. I’m interested in your thoughts on this decision we made for the Grail. Do you expect this to be a pain in the ass or provide an interesting choice as you play? Give us your thoughts on our Discord server, or send me a message on Twitter.
MarkoP