Game News Solasta: Crown of the Magister Dev Diary - Dungeon Maker Showcase

[Dr Schultz]

I have nothing against good-looking games. But implying that they should spend resources on character FACES when, in a system with exactly zero character customization after level 3, they implemented SIX classes is where I draw the line.

They've already tried multiple time to improve that aspect, and what we have now is the result. This looks almost as unsalvageable as ship combat in Deadfire. The ugly cutscenes/faces definitely aren't the reason people are enjoying Solasta's EA right now, and I think Tactical Adventures should focus on what actually makes their game great.

I don't think we are talking about competing improvements here: the amount of time/money/work required for implementing, testing and balancing the game around an additional D&D class is infinetely larger than the work required for a mere face-lifting.

Obviously I would prefer more classes to better faces, but given that the former improvement is out of the table, they should at least focus on the latter.

Ps: truth to be told, I think that the whole character design is ugly, but faces are definitely the worst offender here.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess the person in charge of creating the faces and the person in charge of implementing classes isn't the same person.

 

[Ontopoly]

Well, it may not be the top priority but it's also quite clearly the single weakest point of their production so far.
A bit more eye candy in that sense would be welcomed, as far as I'm concerned.

On one hand we will have better faces, on the other, better faces will server to bring in the degenerate crowd you see in communities like bg3.

 

[NJClaw]

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess the person in charge of creating the faces and the person in charge of implementing classes isn't the same person.

I'm going to go even further and guess that the company has more than two employees and that someone is in charge of deciding who to hire and how to allocate resources. But who knows, maybe in socialist France the government decides how many 3D artists, game designers, and developers you must hire.

Obviously I would prefer more classes to better faces, but given that the former improvement is out of the table, they should at least focus on the latter.

Except nobody ever said it's out of the table. They said multiple times that they would love to add more classes depending on how well the game sells (link):

Q: You will add some new class post-launch ?

A: Solasta launches in Early Access with the 6 classes available in the Demo, however we have already promised to add the Sorcerer as a free post-launch DLC during our Kickstarter Campaign.

Ideally, we'd love to have all official SRD classes in Solasta - however we don't want to make any promises. We'll likely be looking at DLCs post-launch to add new classes (depending on how the game performs!). As for the order of release, we'll likely involve the community like we did during the Kickstarter!

They didn't plan on giving the players a tool to create custom dungeons (or at least they said they didn't), but now we have it. Thank God they decided to listen to the players who told them that it would have been a cool addition, and not to those who were constantly saying that they wanted better faces. And yes, rusty boy, the person who is in charge of creating the faces can easily have something to do with creating other art assets like, who knows, maybe those you could combine in multiple ways in a tool to create custom dungeons?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm going to go even further and guess that the company has more than two employees and that someone is in charge of deciding who to hire and how to allocate resources. But who knows, maybe in socialist France the government decides how many 3D artists, game designers, and developers you must hire.

So anytime there is an important task they should fire people unrelated to that task to hire employees capable of completing said task?

 

[Ontopoly]

I always thought this game would be a better dungeon crawler without all the extra stuff they either aren't willing to or can't put in like better animations, dialogue, character faces. If they can add verticality to this tool it will be like what I originally thought the game would be like anyways, dungeon crawl after dungeon crawl. I'm thinking of making a Minotaur maze with the tool set when it comes out. Lot's of traps, dead ends and fake outs and winding paths, floors with multiple entrances, and minotaurs.

 

[Ontopoly]

I'm going to go even further and guess that the company has more than two employees and that someone is in charge of deciding who to hire and how to allocate resources. But who knows, maybe in socialist France the government decides how many 3D artists, game designers, and developers you must hire.

So anytime there is an important task they should fire people unrelated to that task to hire employees capable of completing said task?

No, but they can prioritize different things and hire less people for lower priority items and more people for higher priority items.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm going to go even further and guess that the company has more than two employees and that someone is in charge of deciding who to hire and how to allocate resources. But who knows, maybe in socialist France the government decides how many 3D artists, game designers, and developers you must hire.

So anytime there is an important task they should fire people unrelated to that task to hire employees capable of completing said task?

No, but they can prioritize different things and hire less people for lower priority items and more people for higher priority items.

How do you prioritize a 3D modeler towards a task that requires a designer and a programmer?
There isn't some vague "resource" number here you just put towards things.

 

[NJClaw]

I'm going to go even further and guess that the company has more than two employees and that someone is in charge of deciding who to hire and how to allocate resources. But who knows, maybe in socialist France the government decides how many 3D artists, game designers, and developers you must hire.

So anytime there is an important task they should fire people unrelated to that task to hire employees capable of completing said task?

Yes, that's exactly what I'm suggesting. Definitely not using the skills of the employees they already have in tasks related to the more important stuff.

How do you prioritize a 3D modeler towards a task that requires a designer and a programmer?

You make him work on 3D models for the new class instead that on making the halflings more fuckable? Or do you think they have a guy who's there EXCLUSIVELY to make FACES? I mean, that would be p. funny.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm going to go even further and guess that the company has more than two employees and that someone is in charge of deciding who to hire and how to allocate resources. But who knows, maybe in socialist France the government decides how many 3D artists, game designers, and developers you must hire.

So anytime there is an important task they should fire people unrelated to that task to hire employees capable of completing said task?

Yes, that's exactly what I'm suggesting. Definitely not using the skills of the employees they already have in tasks related to the more important stuff.

How do you prioritize a 3D modeler towards a task that requires a designer and a programmer?

You make him work on 3D model for the new class instead that on making the halflings more fuckable?

Why would a class need its own 3D model?

 

[NJClaw]

I'm going to go even further and guess that the company has more than two employees and that someone is in charge of deciding who to hire and how to allocate resources. But who knows, maybe in socialist France the government decides how many 3D artists, game designers, and developers you must hire.

So anytime there is an important task they should fire people unrelated to that task to hire employees capable of completing said task?

Yes, that's exactly what I'm suggesting. Definitely not using the skills of the employees they already have in tasks related to the more important stuff.

How do you prioritize a 3D modeler towards a task that requires a designer and a programmer?

You make him work on 3D model for the new class instead that on making the halflings more fuckable?

Why would a class need its own 3D model?

Now you're just being dumb for the sake of it. Do I really need to show you examples of how a druid, his tools, and his spells look different from a wizard, his tools, and his spells?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm going to go even further and guess that the company has more than two employees and that someone is in charge of deciding who to hire and how to allocate resources. But who knows, maybe in socialist France the government decides how many 3D artists, game designers, and developers you must hire.

So anytime there is an important task they should fire people unrelated to that task to hire employees capable of completing said task?

Yes, that's exactly what I'm suggesting. Definitely not using the skills of the employees they already have in tasks related to the more important stuff.

How do you prioritize a 3D modeler towards a task that requires a designer and a programmer?

You make him work on 3D model for the new class instead that on making the halflings more fuckable?

Why would a class need its own 3D model?

Now you're just being dumb for the sake of it. Do I really need to show you examples of how a druid, his tools, and his spells look different from a wizard, his tools, and his spells?

They'd need icons(2D artist) and a VFX artist, not a 3D modeler.
3D modelers being generalists who did all of the game's art is something that died a long time ago. Even 3D modelers aren't generalists of 3D modeling anymore, you have people who do various subtypes of it(sculpting/organic, hard surface, etc.,)

And yes, Tactical Adventures does have a VFX artist: https://www.artstation.com/oliviat/profile

 

[NJClaw]

They'd need icons(2D artist) and a VFX artist, not a 3D modeler.
3D modelers being generalists who did all of the game's art is something that died a long time ago. Even 3D modelers aren't generalists of 3D modeling anymore, you have people who do various subtypes of it(sculpting/organic, hard surface, etc.,)

I'm not talking about 3D modelers doing all the game's art, I'm talking about 3D modelers doing 3D models. Or should a poor druid decide between wearing a wizard's robe or a fighter's full plate? And of course they are not going to do icons and visual effects, but who is supposed to create the wolf he is going to summon or the bear he is going to transform into? The 2D artist?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

They'd need icons(2D artist) and a VFX artist, not a 3D modeler.
3D modelers being generalists who did all of the game's art is something that died a long time ago. Even 3D modelers aren't generalists of 3D modeling anymore, you have people who do various subtypes of it(sculpting/organic, hard surface, etc.,)

I'm not talking about 3D modelers doing all the game's art, I'm talking about 3D modelers doing 3D models. Or should a poor druid decide between wearing a wizard's robe or a fighter's full plate? And of course they are not going to do icons and visual effects, but who is supposed to create the wolf he is going to summon or the bear he is going to transform into? The 2D artist?

"should we make the player characters not look like ugly retards or have the modeler focus on making druid robes?"

Yeah, I think those priorities might be a bit mixed up there.

 

[hellbent]

This is great news. Assuming Solasta puts together a decent package of mod tools, it will be fantastic to have a means to create and play custom campaigns. Hopefully they make progress on it while still getting the final product through the EA process. Still holding out hope for Low Magic Age to also release campaign building tools down the road.

 

[NJClaw]

Rusty, time to put your money where your mouth is.

Let's bet here and now that, despite all the efforts they are going to put into this (because you know they will), the day this game officially releases characters will look just as retarded as they do now. Since I don't know how we can exchange money, maybe we can bet tags. At release a poll here on the Codex will decide who won.

You lose, you get a Lariantard tag someone will design for the occasion. I lose, I get the repressed homosexual one. 'K?

COME ON YOU WEASEL

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Rusty, time to put your money where your mouth is.

Let's bet here and now that, despite all the efforts they are going to put into this (because you know they will), the day this game officially releases characters will look just as retarded as they do now. Since I don't know how we can exchange money, maybe we can bet tags. At release a poll here on the Codex will decide who won.

You lose, you get a Lariantard tag someone will design for the occasion. I lose, I get the repressed homosexual one. 'K?

COME ON YOU WEASEL

Why would I bet on it? I'm merely pointing out the absurdity of choosing to design niche models over something that's displayed prominently on the store page itself and affects everyone who plays the game.

 

[Dr Schultz]

Obviously I would prefer more classes to better faces, but given that the former improvement is out of the table, they should at least focus on the latter.

Except nobody ever said it's out of the table. They said multiple times that they would love to add more classes depending on how well the game sells (link):

Q: You will add some new class post-launch ?

A: Solasta launches in Early Access with the 6 classes available in the Demo, however we have already promised to add the Sorcerer as a free post-launch DLC during our Kickstarter Campaign.

Ideally, we'd love to have all official SRD classes in Solasta - however we don't want to make any promises. We'll likely be looking at DLCs post-launch to add new classes (depending on how the game performs!). As for the order of release, we'll likely involve the community like we did during the Kickstarter!

They didn't plan on giving the players a tool to create custom dungeons (or at least they said they didn't), but now we have it. Thank God they decided to listen to the players who told them that it would have been a cool addition, and not to those who were constantly saying that they wanted better faces. And yes, rusty boy, the person who is in charge of creating the faces can easily have something to do with creating other art assets like, who knows, maybe those you could combine in multiple ways in a tool to create custom dungeons?

Except you need a bit of an update: They confirmed only the sorcerer as free post launch DLC. The other missing classes won't be in the final game, henche they are off the table. Until an hypothetical expansion comes out, of course.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I'm with Tuco here.
I'm well capable of enjoying ugly games such Geneforge, Knights of the Chalice or Telepath Tactics, but Solasta's developers made the debatable choice of designing a game full of animated cutscenes, which is both a costly endeavor AND a pain to watch with these character models.
A more cost-effective solution would have been static dialogues with character portraits. Now that they are stuck with these animated cutscenes, they should at least aim for something less "ugly".

Man, those games are masterpieces of art compared to the line vector, ascii, and text adventures I still play.

I still gotta say WOW to that map tool. I played a lot with ACS, ACKS, FRUA, BTCS, and some with Arcanum and Shattered Light, but that tool looks quick and easy. Its like working with some older mappers for pnp or easier. I love hexographer, gridcartographer, and even some in the core rules Ad&d but DAMN!! I can imagine this developing even more. I sure as hell didn't expect it to do what it does. I remember the first time I bought the big book of doom modding and was WTF?!?!?

Spoiler

edit... I sort of got a flashback to Gateway to Apshai & a reverse engineering viewer.

It was fun to play with.

 

[Ontopoly]

You lose, you get a Lariantard tag someone will design for the occasion.

I would happily make something like this if it was to be put on some of these cultists. I don't have the skills yet but I would dedicate the time to learn them

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

You lose, you get a Lariantard tag someone will design for the occasion.

I would happily make something like this if it was to be put on some of these cultists. I don't have the skills yet but I would dedicate the time to learn them

You mean like this?

 

[Ontopoly]

You lose, you get a Lariantard tag someone will design for the occasion.

I would happily make something like this if it was to be put on some of these cultists. I don't have the skills yet but I would dedicate the time to learn them

You mean like this?

That's good but I wanted to call them cultist cunts and have theirs idol's pasty face in it. Also, I would never capitalize larian.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

You lose, you get a Lariantard tag someone will design for the occasion.

I would happily make something like this if it was to be put on some of these cultists. I don't have the skills yet but I would dedicate the time to learn them

You mean like this?

That's good but I wanted to call them cultist cunts and have theirs idol's pasty face in it. Also, I would never capitalize larian.

Don't think I have the fortitude to stare at that face while crafting it. :D
Larian capitalized itself, it's their logo I grabbed from the press kit on their site. And it is a mess, fanmade tier "quality".

 

[Ontopoly]

Don't think I have the fortitude to stare at that face while crafting it. :D
Larian capitalized itself, it's their logo I grabbed from the press kit on their site. And it is a mess, fanmade tier "quality

Now we just need to petition the mods to give it to rusty.
Infinitron, please

 

[Mortmal]

Newspost is about a a dungeon maker tool , thread discussion is about the character model look. Somehow i dont think we are getting many fan made modules no matter how good it is. I dont think we will see something the like of neverwinter vault again .