Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

KickStarter Solasta: Crown of the Magister Thread - now with Palace of Ice sequel DLC

Rean

Head Codexian Weeb
Patron
Joined
Nov 14, 2020
Messages
1,913
Strap Yourselves In
This flaming trash pile is just the gift that keeps on giving, very entertaining to read the thread through. Reminder that there are 'some' individuals that think such matters constitute an RPG:

image.png


Everyone quickly forgot about pronouns and devs saying shit that trans people have rights to exist.

I haven't! DOGSHIT GAME that's heralding in more decadence than it's worth.
 

Rean

Head Codexian Weeb
Patron
Joined
Nov 14, 2020
Messages
1,913
Strap Yourselves In
Literally even BG3 is better than this, at least you get to play a (worthless) story in it that keeps you (not really) grounded, in the context of trash.

Divination on how the average Shitlasta reddit player will be griefing tabletop in the future:

Solasta player: 'I want to stab this goblin in the guts, rolling d20 for damage and d20 investigation for all the awesome loot I'm gonna get. Get ready to roll from your loot table GM!'
GM: 'Wait, what? There are no goblins in this world.'
Solasta player: 'SHIT BRO, I HAD A HALF HELMET OF +3 SMITEJOBS THAT MIXES JUST AWESOMELY WITH MY PIKEMASTER+SENTINEL FEAT. BTW, MY DWARF'S BEARD IS DETACHED FROM HIS FACE, GIVING HIM A +1 TO ALL CHARISMA SAVING THROWS. MY BUILD IS FUCKIN TOP-NOTCH, AIN'T IT?'
GM: 'We're not even in combat.'
 

Ontopoly

Disco Hitler
Joined
Jan 28, 2020
Messages
2,993
Location
Fairy land
There are no +3 helmets in the game
Also, is a game having equipment a flaw or something to make fun of? Maybe he's use to J"RPGs" where the equipment doesn't really matter, you just buy the one with higher numbers. If the game even lets you control your own equipment.
 

Rean

Head Codexian Weeb
Patron
Joined
Nov 14, 2020
Messages
1,913
Strap Yourselves In
I was drunkposting.
Regardless! An inebriated man is an honest man and I shall not apologize for speaking the truth. Solasta is dogshit.
 

Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
14,478
Location
Frostfell
Anyone tested this build?



What I din't liked playing with 3 sorcerers in my party is that I need to click in "ignore" every time that I don't wanna to use metamagic. Would be cool if a button similar to the button to cast the spell as a higher levle was available. TBH I din't liked sorc subclasses.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tacticaladventures/solasta-crown-of-the-magister/posts/3259390

KS Digital Rewards sent & Solasta Hotfix 1.1.11

Hi there people,

We're back with your Kickstarter Digital Rewards and a new 1.1.11 Hotfix before summer break rolls in full force, to fix a few bugs that you folks brought up to our attention.

a22697479a26720701f733f3240cd29f_original.png

Someone just rolled a natural 20 on their Perception Check.

Kickstarter Digital Rewards:
We just sent the Kickstarter Digital Rewards through CrowdOx, you should receive a mail within 24h with a link to download them! Those are (depending on your backer tier):
  • The Digital World Map (2 of them)
  • The near-complete Sourcebook PDF (Standard version, not proofread yet)
  • The Dev Docs
Note: If you are still having issues with redeeming your rewards please make sure you read the FAQ update on Kickstarter. Also as a reminder, we discussed about the Physical Rewards in the previous update.

Patch Notes:
  • [Sorcerer] Added Blue Dragon Ancestry (Lightning) in Character Creation.
  • [Sorcerer] Draconic Sorcerer Elemental Affinity should now properly apply to all spells that deal their ancestor's elemental damage, such as Fireball and Burning Hands for Gold Dragon Sorcerers.
  • [Sorcerer] Empowered Spell Metamagic now correctly costs 1 Sorcery Point instead of 2.
  • [Sorcerer] Empowered Spell Metamagic now correctly rerolls 1s and 2s instead of only 1s.
  • [Sorcerer] Fixed a rare crash on level-up if the Sorcerer had too many spells known for their current level.
  • [Item] Potion of Fly should now correctly grant you Fly instead of Levitate.
  • [Item] Staff of Metis are no longer restricted to Wizards.
  • [Quest] Fixed a bug where Arwin Merton could be controllable but not considered in the party. You are on this council but we do not grant you the rank of Master.
  • [Quest] Fixed a bug in Cradle of Fire where Brok would just chill next to the Arena instead of helping you fight Arrok. Must have just forgot the time. Note: If your main quest is stuck after killing Arrok due to that bug, you'll need to load a save from before you start the fight with Arrok and that should fix it.
  • [Quest] Fixed a bug where the exit to the Legendary Quest would not appear unless you touched the wooden sign next to the fireplace for uh... reasons I guess. Now the exit always appears once the quest is complete. Note that if you are stuck there, just have one party member interact with the wooden sign next to the fireplace (press ALT to highlight it).
  • [Quest] Fixed an issue where characters with the highest skill modifier were not always selected for the respective skill check in the Caer Lem Door Cutscene. Note that this only fixes this specific dialog, so if you find that this issue occurs somewhere else please send us save files / screenshots!
  • [Shop] Powerful magic items no longer restock once bought (such as the Tomes which grant +2 permanent stat)
  • [Combat] Fixed an issue where the UI could disappear between characters' turn.
  • [Combat] Fixed an issue where banters would no longer be played when getting healed. Always thank your healer!
  • [Dungeon Maker] Poisons should now appear in the list of items available in chests
Alright folks, this is the end for today! As always thank you for reading, hope you all have a great summer and don't hesitate to drop by our Forums or our Discord Server.
 

zapotec

Liturgist
Joined
Feb 7, 2018
Messages
1,495
I don't understand why the skill roll assignment are random:

I was in the tower library, i examine a bunch of statues and the guy that makes the roll is the fighter without any religion / history proficiency.
 

Grunker

RPG Codex Ghost
Patron
Joined
Oct 19, 2009
Messages
27,386
Location
Copenhagen
Pillars of Eternity: 41% beat chapter 1, 26% chapter 2, 16% chapter 3, 14% beat the game.
That just tells you a lot of people have common sense though. Game goes to shit pretty quickly.

Again, 14% is pretty much average for this type of RPG. To compare, the number is 7,7% for Kingmaker (6,6% if we count the Lantern King). Not sure what the number is for troubleshooter, but only 12% completed Shadow Play, so the completion rate is lower than that.

And if you think completion rate is a measure of quality, you must really like Wasteland 3, since it leads the completion rate competition of RPGs with its whopping 25%. If we talk about all tactical games, the number is 33% for NuXCOM. 8% for Blackguards.

Or what about the big one:

10% for the hyperpopular megabuster, Divinity: Original Sin. 3% of these were tactician mode, btw, proving that DoS-players are filthy casuals :smug:
 

Shrimp

Arbiter
Joined
Jun 7, 2019
Messages
1,041
Pillars of Eternity: 41% beat chapter 1, 26% chapter 2, 16% chapter 3, 14% beat the game.
That just tells you a lot of people have common sense though. Game goes to shit pretty quickly.

Again, 14% is pretty much average for this type of RPG. To compare, the number is 7,7% for Kingmaker (6,6% if we count the Lantern King). Not sure what the number is for troubleshooter, but only 12% completed Shadow Play, so the completion rate is lower than that.

And if you think completion rate is a measure of quality, you must really like Wasteland 3, since it leads the completion rate competition of RPGs with its whopping 25%. If we talk about all tactical games, the number is 33% for NuXCOM. 8% for Blackguards.

Or what about the big one:

10% for the hyperpopular megabuster, Divinity: Original Sin. 3% of these were tactician mode, btw, proving that DoS-players are filthy casuals :smug:
How many of those games had achievements implemented since their day 1 launch? A lot of the time the Kickstarter or modern era CRPGs come out in early access or some other manner of beta many months or years before their official release.
Although I personally find the practice weird I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that a solid amount of game owners on Steam are people who bought these type of games during their early access/beta period but then never picked them up again.
 

Grunker

RPG Codex Ghost
Patron
Joined
Oct 19, 2009
Messages
27,386
Location
Copenhagen
Pillars of Eternity: 41% beat chapter 1, 26% chapter 2, 16% chapter 3, 14% beat the game.
That just tells you a lot of people have common sense though. Game goes to shit pretty quickly.

Again, 14% is pretty much average for this type of RPG. To compare, the number is 7,7% for Kingmaker (6,6% if we count the Lantern King). Not sure what the number is for troubleshooter, but only 12% completed Shadow Play, so the completion rate is lower than that.

And if you think completion rate is a measure of quality, you must really like Wasteland 3, since it leads the completion rate competition of RPGs with its whopping 25%. If we talk about all tactical games, the number is 33% for NuXCOM. 8% for Blackguards.

Or what about the big one:

10% for the hyperpopular megabuster, Divinity: Original Sin. 3% of these were tactician mode, btw, proving that DoS-players are filthy casuals :smug:
How many of those games had achievements implemented since their day 1 launch? A lot of the time the Kickstarter or modern era CRPGs come out in early access or some other manner of beta many months or years before their official release.
Although I personally find the practice weird I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that a solid amount of game owners on Steam are people who bought these type of games during their early access/beta period but then never picked them up again.

Good question. My main point was that using completion rate as a proof of quality is even worse than using general popularity. Which is bad enough already
 

Sunri

Liturgist
Joined
Apr 16, 2020
Messages
2,749
Location
Poland
Damm I finished the game and the last fight was such disappointment fucking manlet lizard as final boss?? i killed almost every enemy on my first turn a then 2 friendly dragons dropped by this shit left bad taste :decline:
 

Sunri

Liturgist
Joined
Apr 16, 2020
Messages
2,749
Location
Poland
I dunno their names where just generic black and gold dragon they came with half of their hp and i never talked to them before princess stayed in the city
 

Dorateen

Arcane
Joined
Aug 30, 2012
Messages
4,333
Location
The Crystal Mist Mountains
I've completed Solasta: Crown of the Magister and wanted to share some thoughts on the game. I'll start with what I most enjoyed.

Combat. This is turn-based tactical goodness where positioning matters. It can certainly unfold slowly at times, and there were a few enemies usually of the flying variety who would cause the game to hang up on their turn, but overall was not that bad. The developers set out to create encounters worthy of a pen and paper adaptation, and this they achieved. There were noticeably less random fights when exploring key locations and more set-piece affairs, and this contributed to the approach of a D&D session at the table where combat is less frequent but weighty. Criticisms toward the 5th edition ruleset is irrelevant, since that is the foundation the game stated it would be built upon. I have a number of 5e sourcebooks, so I'm familar with mechanics such as advantage/disadvantage and legendary actions. There were no surprises here, and while I would not say I love this edition, as an AD&D player it feels comfortable. I find that if a developer knows what he is doing, a Dungeons & Dragons adventure can be well crafted, regardless whether there is a bloated system slapped on or something more scaled back and bare bones. Solasta's design succeeds in this area.

Party building. I've always said that Dungeons & Dragons role-playing is about a party of individual Player Characters. Again, Solasta delivers on this front. From the opening vignettes that were allowed to each party member, actually playing through a small scenario before meeting up at a tavern, to the background and personality traits that were assigned; this gives further definition to the player's characters. The side-quests that popped up mid-game tailored to each character were an unexpected and welcome addition. Finally, letting the player choose who would interact with the central narrative device was such a relief as opposed to the developer forcing a role on a "main protagonist". Solasta captures the essence of low-level adventuring, with all the preparation that goes with an enterprise like this, including detailed overland map travel with events to navigate.

Now some things I was not too fond of. The cinematics were a wee bit overbearing. I understand this is the story the developers wanted players to experience, and this is how they wanted to present it. Outside the party's group conversations while dungeon crawling, the Legacy Council stuff was particularly unfortunate. When I start getting the impression I'm watching a bad cgi movie, that's not a good thing. What is most bizarre is the juxtaposition with the otherwise faithful tabletop representation. For a game that knows its way around the pen and paper origin of the hobby, it is unusual to see this kind of importance placed on scripted visuals, which never had anything to do with playing Dungeons & Dragons. If it were up to me, I think I would have limited the cut scenes, and stuck with dialogue boxes.

I found the pacing of the adventure to be somewhat curious. Our party reached level 10 right after the arena in the Lava Forest dungeon. This was before doing the Cradle of Fire, another few sidequests, and the whole end chapter. Thus, it seemed the level cap was hit prematurely. In addition, characters reached level 5 right before the fight with Aksha. I explored the next area, turned in a quest and returned to defeat Aksha, which netted enough experience to reach level six. To me, that is too quick to rise through middle levels. I understand the appeal of brisk advancement, and I am fine with a 10 level cap for a Dungeons & Dragon module, but perhaps the leveling should have been spread out more.

The camera. Oh, the camera. Let me first start by stipulating I ran the game on low end specs . Perhaps if I had a top of the line graphics card and used the ultra setting, then camera control would have been buttery smooth. Now I did not mind the lesser graphics quality, and performance was actually ok, which is most important. But the panning of the camera just seemed to me too fluid. I would pan or rotate the camera with the appropriate keyboard commands, but even when I stopped, the camera kept moving. In fact, when playing a game like this, I don't want to be working the camera. Admittedly, it is a product of the type of three dimensional environment that is at the core of Solasta's area design, nevertheless I would have liked the camera to just follow the selected character or group of characters. The need to fiddle with the view constantly made exploration not as fun as it could have been. I think the fact that maps have multiple waypoints for the player to zip around and fast travel maybe acknowledges that it would be a chore to backtrack through these multi-level locations. Revealing the presence of all chests or lootable objects when opening up an area map meant that exploration was largely driven by going to these icons point by point, which felt a little less emergent. Another thing, the levels themselves seem to be well built with nice details (even on low graphics!) but there was a lot of space not even accessible. For a game that boasts so many tools to enhance navigation such as spiderclimbing, levitation and flying, there were far too many messages... "no path to destination". Or the mouse arrow being x-ed out altogether. Again, I realize the developers wanted to build some hard to reach areas for special treasure or alternative paths, but it could result in frustration when even with greater mobility, characters still faced obstructions that were not apparent how to bypass or if they even could be. I would have liked to seen a more open and accessible map, and then the player could send their characters anywhere as long as they had the appropriate means at their disposal. It's not that Solasta's environments are small, but it seemed they restricted movement more than they should have. One final comment on a specific example of a map communicating misinformation to the player. There is a location that has a chest visible, which would not be able to interact with until a later sidequest was triggered. That was rather aggravating, trying to reach an object that looks like I should be able to interact with it from every angle, but there was no way until the quest was activated.

Despite these last few concerns, I still enjoyed the game. I look forward to more Tactical Adventures, hopefully with an emphasis properly placed on combat and party customization, which is where Solasta shines.
 
Last edited:

rojay

Scholar
Joined
Oct 23, 2015
Messages
361
I've completed Solasta: Crown of the Magister and wanted to share some thoughts on the game. I'll start with what I most enjoyed.

Combat. This is turn-based tactical goodness where positioning matters. It can certainly unfold slowly at times, and there were a few enemies usually of the flying variety who would cause the game to hang up on their turn, but overall was not that bad. The developers set out to create encounters worthy of a pen and paper adaptation, and this they achieved. There were noticeably less random fights when exploring key locations and more set-piece affairs, and this contributed to the approach of a D&D session at the table where combat is less frequent but weighty. Criticisms toward the 5th edition ruleset is irrelevant, since that is the foundation the game stated it would be built upon. I have a number of 5e sourcebooks, so I'm familar with mechanics such as advantage/disadvantage and legendary actions. There were no surprises here, and while I would not say I love this edition, as an AD&D player it feels comfortable. I find that if a developer knows what he is doing, a Dungeons & Dragons adventure can be well crafted, regardless whether there is a bloated system slapped on or something more scaled back and bare bones. Solasta's design succeeds in this area.

Party building. I've always said that Dungeons & Dragons role-playing is about a party of individual Player Characters. Again, Solasta delivers on this front. From the opening vignettes that were allowed to each party member, actually playing through a small scenario before meeting up at a tavern, to the background and personality traits that were assigned; this gives further definition the player's characters. The side-quests that popped up mid-game tailored to each character were an unexpected and welcome addition. Finally, letting the player choose who would interact with the central narrative device was such a relief as opposed to the developer forcing a role on a "main protagonist". Solasta captures the essence of low-level adventuring, with all the preparation that goes with an enterprise like this, including detailed overland map travel with events to navigate.

Now some things I was not too fond of. The cinematics were a wee bit overbearing. I understand this is the story the developers wanted players to experience, and this is how they wanted to present it. Outside the party's group conversations while dungeon crawling, the Legacy Council stuff was particularly unfortunate. When I start getting the impression I'm watching a bad cgi movie, that's not a good thing. What is most bizarre is the juxtaposition with the otherwise faithful tabletop representation. For a game that knows its way around the pen and paper origin of the hobby, it is unusual to see this kind of importance placed on scripted visuals, which never had anything to do with playing Dungeons & Dragons. If it were up to me, I think I would have limited the cut scenes, and stuck with dialogue boxes.

I found the pacing of the adventure to be somewhat curious. Our party reached level 10 right after the arena in the Lava Forest dungeon. This was before doing the Cradle of Fire, another few sidequests, and the whole end chapter. Thus, it seemed the level cap was hit prematurely. In addition, characters reached level 5 right before the fight with Aksha. I explored the next area, turned in a quest and returned to defeat Aksha, which netted enough experience to reach level six. To me, that is too quick to rise through middle levels. I understand the appeal of brisk advancement, and I am fine with a 10 level cap for a Dungeons & Dragon module, but perhaps the leveling should have been spread out more.

The camera. Oh, the camera. Let me first start by stipulating I ran the game on low end specs . Perhaps if I had a top of the line graphics card and used the ultra setting, then camera control would have been buttery smooth. Now I did not mind the lesser graphics quality, and performance was actually ok, which is most important. But the panning of the camera just seemed to me too fluid. I would pan or rotate the camera with the appropriate keyboard commands, but even when I stopped, the camera kept moving. In fact, when playing a game like this, I don't want to be working the camera. Admittedly, it is a product of the type of three dimensional environment that is at the core of Solasta's area design, nevertheless I would have liked the camera to just follow the selected character or group of characters. The need to fiddle with the view constantly made exploration not as fun as it could have been. I think the fact that maps have multiple waypoints for the player to zip around and fast travel maybe acknowledges that it would be a chore to backtrack through these multi-level locations. Revealing the presence of all chests or lootable objects when opening up an area map meant that exploration was largely driven by going to these icons point by point, which felt a little less emergent. Another thing, the levels themselves seem to be well built with nice details (even on low graphics!) but there was a lot of space not even accessible. For a game that boasts so many tools to enhance navigation such as spiderclimbing, levitation and flying, there were far too many messages... "no path to destination". Or the mouse arrow being x-ed out altogether. Again, I realize the developers wanted to build some hard to reach areas for special treasure or alternative paths, but it could result in frustration when even with greater mobility, characters still faced obstructions that were not apparent how to bypass or if they even could be. I would have liked to seen a more open and accessible map, and then the player could send their characters anywhere as long as they had the appropriate means at their disposal. It's not that Solasta's environments are small, but it seemed they restricted movement more than they should have. One final comment on a specific example of a map communicating misinformation to the player. There is a location that has a chest visible, which would not be able to interact with until a later sidequest was triggered. That was rather aggravating, trying to reach an object that looks like I should be able to interact with it from every angle, but there was no way until the quest was activated.

Despite these last few concerns, I still enjoyed the game. I look forward to more Tactical Adventures, hopefully with an emphasis properly placed on combat and party customization, which is where Solasta shines.
Spot on.
 

gurugeorge

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 3, 2019
Messages
7,437
Location
London, UK
Strap Yourselves In
But did they fix the faces yet?

I dunno about "fixed." They've improved in terms of quality, but they're still lamentable in terms of art design. Fugly as fuck potatoheads, for the most part. They all look like someone's smoothed off the corners of a cube and called it a day.

They've obviously eschewed the idea of making any characters look handsome, pretty or heroic. Can't have that sort of thing in modern games :)
 

Desiderius

Found your egg, Robinett, you sneaky bastard
Patron
Joined
Jul 22, 2019
Messages
14,131
Insert Title Here Pathfinder: Wrath
But did they fix the faces yet?

I dunno about "fixed." They've improved in terms of quality, but they're still lamentable in terms of art design. Fugly as fuck potatoheads, for the most part. They all look like someone's smoothed off the corners of a cube and called it a day.

They've obviously eschewed the idea of making any characters look handsome, pretty or heroic. Can't have that sort of thing in modern games :)

I don't know this one kind of looks like my wife:

Character creation.jpg

My family (though my boys are backwards size wise, and of course I'm more handsome than this guy:

party shot solasta.jpg
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom