Relicnews: the definitive source for all things Relic

Buggo posted up the details about the contest Relic is holding. All the information is being pulled from Buggo’s blog. The grand prize includes,

* A round-trip ticket to Vancouver, BC, Canada for the Relic Open House on March 9th, 2007
* 2 nights hotel accommodation downtown Vancouver
* A studio tour of Relic Entertainment
* Meet and greet with Relic staff
* An exclusive look into an upcoming Relic project (requires an NDA to be signed)

To enter into this contest,

* Nominate yourself (or someone else) to win the title of Relic’s Biggest Fan
* Use words, pictures, and/or videos to show why you’re a more dedicated fan than anyone else!
* Submit your entry through e-mail to ahenze@relic.com with the subject heading “Biggest Fan Contest” by 12:00 PST on February 1st, 2007.
* Think BIG!

Pretty sweet right? Well if you don’t win the contest, you still can attend the open house event on March 9th. I know I am!

Relic would like to invite members of the community - from avid gamers to fansite forum members and administrators - to visit the Relic studios on Friday, March 9th, 2007. Please note that all visitors must sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) before gaining access to the studio grounds.

More information regarding this contest and open house can be found on this page.

IGN posted their “The Best of 2006″ article. Relic was on top and overtook most of the competition.

Company of Heroes
- PC Game of the Year
- Best Strategy Game
- Best Use of Sound
- Best Online Game

Dark Crusade
- Best Expansion

Lastly, IGN gave Relic their Best Developers Award. Company of Heroes also earned a runner up in Best Innovated Design and Best Graphics Technology. Check out the Best of 2006 here.

Great job to Relic again for a job well done!

Thanks to Mokona for the heads up.

Relic has announced that they will reset user stats and leaderboards for Company of Heroes on Monday, January 8th at 11:00 AM PST. After users exploited various issues with the reporting system, the current leaderboard has often been accused of no longer accurately reflecting the true player ranking. With the reset Relic is reacting to this development.

Patch 1.4 has resolved issues of rank reporting, therefore we would like to give the community a fresh start. Please note that both ranked and basic stats will be cleared on this date. On March 1st, 2007, we will recognize the top three players with prizes. At this time, ranked statistics will be cleared.

We also want to bring to your attention that we there was code added to Patch 1.4 to track drop hacking. Please be aware that this tracks accounts, not profiles, so �smurfing� will not circumvent the tracking. Cheating will not be tolerated in Company of Heroes.

Thank you!

The Relic Team

You can comment here.

Buggo, our lovable Relic Community Manager, posted up the last video interview for the year. She interviewed Rob Cunningham, the Director of Concept and Visualization and a founder of Relic Entertainment. Highlights from the interview includes his daily grind at Relic, concept art tips, the love for his zippy and fast Lotus, and not knowing about the forestry sim.

Along with the interview, Rob C works out Homeworld-ish some concept art on the camera. Very interesting to see how he works his magic.

You can discuss your thoughts of the interview in this thread.

Here are the links to the video (right-click save as)
Buggo’s Rob C Interview
Drawing with Rob C!

Rob C concept art

Thanks for the interview Buggo!

Rob C’s tablet is so freaking awesome!!!!!

Gamespy released their annual Game of the Year 2006 article. Lots of surprises as Relic’s games overtake a lot of the competition

Dark Crusade earned 7th best PC game along with best expansion.

Company of Heroes was award the Best PC Game of the Year overtaking Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Half Life 2: Episode One. In addition, Company of Heroes took Best PC RTS, Best PC Multiplayer, and Best Sound.

Lastly, Gamespy award Relic with the Developer of the Year award. Here is a quick snip about what Gamespy said,

No one ever doubted that Relic was a top-tier developer. Since the release of their first product (Homeworld in 1999) they’ve been widely acknowledged as a force in PC strategy games. They’ve also led the way when it comes to developing relationships with their fans through their open and enthusiastic embrace of the mod community via the Relic Developers Network. But 2006 was Relic’s year. With three product releases, this development house launched itself into the rarified territory occupied by Valve and Blizzard. Here’s a quick look back at a few games that helped make 2006 Relic’s banner year.

Congratulations on a wonder year Relic!!! So much fun and joy!

Pick your article and enjoy!
Gamespy’s PC Game of the Year Index
Best Developer: Relic (on the bottom of the page)
PC Game of the Year: Company of Heroes
Best PC RTS: Company of Heroes
Best PC Multiplayer Game of the Year: Company of Heroes
Best PC Sound: Company of Heroes
7th PC Game of the Year: Dark Crusade
Best Expansion: Dark Crusade (in the middle of the page)

Thanks to Retroboy for posting all this stuff up on the forums. Everyone can discuss it in this thread.

Have a happy holiday :D

Good news, the Company of Heroes 1.4 Patch has been released!

v1.4 11/21/2006

General Fixes
- Both Ranked and Custom games now support random starting locations.
- The in-game server status URL now points to http://www.relicrank.com
- Fixed a bug pertaining to unranked matches counting as Ranked matches.
- New performance and lag indicators have been added to the Online UI.
- A new loading screen has been added which incorporates player names, ranks and loading bars.

Gameplay
- Light Vehicles can no longer be blocked by Allied Barbed Wire and Sand Bags
- Light and Medium Vehicles can no longer crush Axis Tank Traps.
- Fixed bug where Allied AT Guns could destroy Axis Flak 88s in a single registered hit, regardless of the Flak 88’s health.
- Fixed issue where unfinished defensive structures had 100% health. Also, Now all unfinished defensive structures take much more damage from all weapons.
- Fixed bug where the Axis Halftrack Flammenwerfer upgrade cost fuel. This was an attribute data error.
- Allied and Axis Snipers can once again kill each other with single registered hits.
- Improved Sherman Crocodile damage against infantry units not in cover

I can also confirm that this patch fixes a couple of crash issues that folks have been experiencing in rare situations.

You can get the patch by signing into Relic Online. It’s about 6MB in size if you’re already on 1.3.

I played a game last night on Relic Online and the new online features are great! Especially the horse race screen on loading! We had a big laugh on Teamspeak as it loaded up. Just like Homeworld almost (they need to add chat to the loading screen though)!

Gamereplays.org has posted three strat guides for Dark Crusade Players. Specifically, they’re to aid new players in their understanding of the three races being discussed.

The three guides are as follows:

The Vior’la Academy, The Strategical Index of The Tau Empire


The Codex Astartes, The Chapter’s Guide to War


The Bible of Chaos, A Tribute to the Dark Gods

Enjoy!