Blog Entry Part 1: The Problem

The process for creating relics has proven to be more complex than initially expected. We plan to implement a wide variety of relics with different functionalities, but I began with the base relic class and our first functional relic — the "Capture Relic," which allows players to capture defeated Shadows and add them to their team. However, I quickly ran into a major issue: our Shadows do not inherit from a common parent class, which prevents me from using a single TArray to manage all captured Shadows.

Since capturing Shadows is one of the core mechanics in our game, this issue directly impacts a key part of the gameplay loop. If we can't reliably store and interact with captured Shadows in a unified way, it will make team management, battle logic, and progression systems far more complicated, potentially leading to bugs or limitations for players down the road. Addressing this problem early on is critical to ensure modularity and scalability for our creature and relic systems.

Blog Entry Part 2: The Solution

After evaluating several options, I decided the best course of action was to create a common interface or base class that all Shadows could implement or inherit from. This way, even if the Shadows originate from different parent classes, they can still be treated uniformly when it comes to capturing, storing, and interacting with them in gameplay systems. Using an interface allows us to define expected functionality  without forcing a strict inheritance structure on every Shadow class.

I’ve begun refactoring existing Shadow classes to implement this new interface. Once complete, I’ll be able to use a single TArray<class ABaseShadow>  or something similar to manage the player’s team and captured Shadows. This approach ensures all Shadows can be stored, looped through, and interacted with in a consistent way, regardless of their original implementation.

This solution not only solves the current relic capture issue but also sets the foundation for a more modular and dynamic team system. It’ll allow for greater flexibility in how we design Shadows and how they’re used in-game, which will ultimately lead to better variety, replayability, and a smoother experience for players.