Just returned playing this game after a year or so, and I wanted to try out the whole spirituality/temples aspect that has been added. It seems really fun, but once I unearthed my first relic it was the Ark of the Vengeful Dead, which apparently only has negative effects and, according to posts in these forums, is meant to “provide a challenge”.
I found this strange. Firstly, if you want to provide an extra challenge, why not add it before starting a game as an extra difficulty level? If you don’t play on the highest difficulty level to begin with, the relic becomes completely useless because if players “want a challenge”, they wouldn’t be playing on a lower difficulty level. There is no sense of satisfaction for managing to play successfully with the Ark, if you’re playing on Pioneer difficulty anyway.
Secondly, the design is a bit silly. By activating the relic, you’re making an objectively bad gameplay decision to make it harder on yourself. You might just as well send your villagers into the nearest raiders camp if that’s how you want to create “an extra challenge”, or refuse to gather any food.
IMHO, it would be much more interesting if this relic had a very powerful effect with a big downside to offset it, to make it a “deal with the devil” kind of challenge.
For example, have it generate lots of gold or other resources, or increase immigration by a lot, as well as greatly increase aggression of raiders and wildlife. That way, there is a valid reason to use it, you take a big risk for a potential big reward. The challenge is still there and the relic can explode in your face if you’re not careful, but there is a reward if you handle it properly. You can make a bad relic into a good relic by making the right gameplay decisions.
Right now it’s just a one dimensional “things are worse now” effect. After spending all the effort to excavate a ruin it just feels like being cheated out of an actual relic.