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Hello, Trailblazers of the Unknown,
SHEOL is great to play together, but from the beginning we wanted the game experience to be suitable for everybody who loves to play alone. Furthermore, we wanted our solo experience to be truly different, to create a bond with the chosen character, but at the same time with the possibility to fully experience the adventure.
One option was to have multiple characters controlled by a single player, as is often the case in other games, but this approach did not convince us completely, because in SHEOL you advance in darkness and if you are alone… you must really feel alone. At the same time, however, certain game mechanics, for example control of territory and construction, requires the cooperation of multiple characters on the board. To make ends meet, we designed a solo mode in which the player uses a single scout (so he is reallly alone) and 3 servodroids, which help him to “be” in multiple places at the same time.
Servodroids are anthropomorphic robots produced by factories still operating in the second level of the Citadel. They are mainly used for heavy work and transport of materials, but some of them have been sold to the scouts for use in the Night land. These robots have been specially modified to be available to scouts and used in hazardous areas. The droids are equipped with a very simple AI (almost all the “Great AI” was lost during the submersion), allowing them to perform predetermined actions or to “mimic” the actions of their scout controller. The “head” reproduces with holographic technology the face of the scout which controls it and allows interactions with the inhabitants of the external settlements as if he or she is present on the spot.
In the upper part of the body there are antennas to capture the scout control signal, which also connects them to a network of other servodroids. A gyroscope combined with the massive structure of the legs allows the servodroid to deal with any terrain with perfect balance, even if it is carrying heavy loads (it is ideal for the transport of umbra crystals). The standard battery is installed on the “shoulders” of the servodroid, equipped with hooks for extra batteries or special loads. The arms have been specially modified to make them suitable for handling weapons and lanterns.
In the game, servodroids are the physical extension of the character. They have a dedicated board where their statistics are indicated. They can be used as they were normal characters on the map (so they can move, attack, reveal, etc.), but using actions, movement points and cards from the player.
Servodroids have 1 movement point per turn, but they can also use movement points of the character to move more. When you need to spend a lux for an action of a droid, you can always choose to use from your personal reserve or the reserve of the droid. When a droid is damaged, you can use as well the scout’s lightshields to parry damage, or use the droid’s lux reserve. When a droid has 0 lux, it’s destroyed and removed from play, because there is no corruption state for the servodroids.
When attacking and revealing, droids use stats and patterns of the equipment assigned, which is placed at the side of the servodroid board. Equipment can be changed during the campaign, so they can progress as the character unlocks more powerful items. If they have not the equipment they use the character’s equipment.
The character chosen for the solo game uses the difficulty settings for 2 players (therefore less shadows present and less life for heralds and outer lords); draws an extra lightshield card; and he or she has 4 actions in turn instead of 3. All equipment unlocked, such as weapons, lanterns and accessories, work normally.
The development phase is also dealt with normally: you will be able to unlock new equipment to use for yourself or your servodroids. Finally, it will be at your discretion whether to use the same character during all the missions, or to use a different character in each mission.
We promised that we will include the servodroids as miniatures, and we have done it! Now, you can play solo with these new miniatures that we will added FREE to the Scout pledge if we reach the goal!
But the surprises are not over! More miniatures will be announced this weekend and on Monday, before the -48h mark (the update will be at 14.00 UTC) there will be the last BIG reveal that will be included in the All-in!
Stay with us for the next updates.
Preserve the Light!