Welcome to the third Development Diary for the Legacy of the Firstborne Empire® grand strategy game. Today we will be talking in depth about the Relic System.
Relics are objects and structures that empires throughout the universe can create over time. Every relic grants some effect while active. These effects can be beneficial or harmful depending on the relic. If a star system falls to the control of a different empire, every relic in that star system now belongs to the new empire. Sometimes these new owners may try to destroy these relics if they do not agree with their purpose or function. Over time relics will be deactivated and must be reactivated through research and study. Some relics can only be built by certain empires. Additionally, all relics have a minimum technology level that must be met before they can be built. And activating or destroying a relic of higher level than the current empire’s technology level will take more time. There are also relics that spawn naturally around the universe.
An example of relics is the Droid Factory which all empires can build at Tech Level 3. The Droid Factory increases a system’s defensive capabilities while also creating a droid population in the system.
Another example is the Ring World, which can be built by all empires at Tech Level 13. The Ring World greatly increases a system’s population limit, allowing for more people to live there.
An example of a top tier relic is the Time Gate, which can be built by any Tech Level 20 empire. The Time gate allows armies to be sent into the future. When that future date comes, the armies will pour out of the gate and attempt to claim the system for the past empire. Time Gates also have a chance of receiving armies from possible far futures who seek to conquer the past, the very act of going into the past making their future very unlikely.
Other example of relics are things like the Interdimensional Gateway built by Tech Level 17 Scientific Empires, which increases technological advancement at the cost of having interdimensional travellers showing up; The Engine of Miracles built by Tech level 17 Friend of All empires, that can heal a resurrect VIPs as well as preform other miracles including providing a relationship boost to almost every other empire.
As for building relics, relics require time to build. As of yet there are no final plans for empires to have resources, though I am experimenting with the idea, so the primary cost is time. Lower level relics take less time for higher tech level empires. Where as technology at level may take quite a number of turns to complete.
For reactivating relics, first they must be studied, which also takes time. Lower level relics that the empire tech level take less time, and higher-level relics that the empires tech level take more time. Also, to actually activate a relic of higher level has a failure chance depending on how much higher. If the activation fails, then it will take more time to try again. In addition, there is a critical failure chance. If a relic critically fails to activate, it could do various things, detailed further below.
In terms of empires destroying a relic. Sometimes an empire will want to destroy a relic for whatever reason. To do so, a relic must first be activated, and then destroyed. Empires will typically not activate relics they want to destroy, since while deactivated they don’t cause any harm. Destroying relics also costs time, and just like with activating there is a failure chance and a critical failure chance.
Critical failures for activating and destroy the relics can do various things, chosen randomly. Some of the worst things that could happen include wiping out all life in a system, turning a system’s population into primitives. Some of the more minor things include a small population loss including a VIP or two, or perhaps the system’s natural population limit decreasing. Some relics also have their own critical failure event that is added to the table, such as the droid factory producing a killer droid population that slowly wipes out organics, or the Time Gate sending the star system itself into the far future.
Primitive civilization, such as those who haven’t reached inter galactic travel yet, can also build their own relics. Each of these relics adds to the chance they will gain a specific empire trait on reaching tech level 1. For example, building a church would give them a small chance of becoming Religious. Or building a University might cause them to lean towards being scientific. Also, many relics build by those with specific empire traits that are on a primitive world will have a higher chance to influence what they become upon reaching tech level 1. And even some natural relics have a chance to influence them.
As mentioned previously there are also naturally forming relics. These relics start out deactivated, and must be activated to receive their effect. Some of these relics come about right at the start of the game, while others come about due to events. An example of a natural relic is the Fossil Fields, which when activated give a bonus to advancement as well as giving available random special genetic engineering traits and additional genetic engineering points to any genetic engineering done on the system. Some of these natural relics are not destroyable, while others are.
One of the most important Natural Relics are the Hearts of Corruption. These tech level 30 relics start our inactive, but once active have a chance to corrupt empires that control it. To win the game all of these Hearts of Corruption must be destroyed, and with 300 spread out across the universe, that will prove difficult, since even max level Religious empires may find them difficult to destroy. Thus wining the game is no easy feat.
That’s all for this week’s Dev Diary. Join in two weeks from now where I’ll talk about races in Legacy of the Firstborne Empire. Join in next week where I’ll talk about the Universe the Avala series takes place in as well as share any updates. Farewell.
-Caleb Teal