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

[Infinitron]

Tags: Solasta: Crown of the Magister; Tactical Adventures

How do you make one of the most promising upcoming RPGs even better? Modding tools! In their first new dev diary since October, Tactical Adventures give us our first look at the Dungeon Maker, a map editor for Solasta: Crown of the Magister. At the moment it's a simple tool, allowing players to create dungeon crawls using default assets without any quests or NPCs. It will continue to be improved after the game launches. In the video our friend Myzzrym demonstrates how easy the Dungeon Maker is to use, and there's also an accompanying FAQ.

Will the Dungeon Maker be fully complete when Solasta 1.0 launches?
No, the Dungeon Maker will be in a beta state for quite some time - even after the 1.0 launch of Solasta. In order to have a playable version of the Dungeon Maker and avoid putting the main game at risk, we've decided to start small and add features as we go (rather than being too ambitious from the start).

What are the current features of the Dungeon Maker?

• Freely create dungeon layouts using a selection of preset rooms
• Link multiple maps together to create larger dungeons
• One environment available for now, the Necropolis, with its set of environmental props to decorate your dungeon
• Almost all monsters and items from Solasta: Crown of the Magister main campaign to create your encounters and loot
• A selection of traps (just a few for now) to punish greedy adventurers
• Easy to share online, it's a simple .json file in a folder. We plan to add Steam Workshop later on so it becomes even easier to share.

What are the future features planned for the Dungeon Maker?
Provided we see people using the Dungeon Maker, we plan to add a Quest system, Merchants and other environments. After that... time will tell!

Can I import my own monsters / items in the Dungeon Maker?
No, at least not using the official Dungeon Maker tool on its own. That being said, it might become possible through the use of other community-created mods, as some have already started to create new classes and archetypes - so new items / monsters may not be an impossibility in the long run!

Where can I share my creation / download other people's Dungeon Maker maps?
While Solasta will eventually be on Steam Workshop later, in the meantime you could always take a look at Nexusmod - where you can already find mods from community members adding new feats, archetypes and other creative ideas! Note that we (Tactical Adventures) do not guarantee anything when it comes to user created mods - some may not work at all.

When will the Dungeon Maker be available?
Soon! That's all we can tell you for now.
​

What a great surprise.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

At this point it's almost like they are deliberately trying to embarrass Larian about how to run an Early Access properly.

 

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

Hope this takes half of Larian sales away. Pathfinder can have the other half.

 

[Spectacle]

Hope this takes half of Larian sales away. Pathfinder can have the other half.

Any serious RPG enthusiasts will play both games. BG3 may not be as good as Solasta but it's still a fun game that's worth playing.

 

[lukaszek]

Crispy werent you suposed to be a dung master in dos creation?

 

[oldmanpaco]

one of the most promising upcoming RPGs

It is? Did the tranny in the steam page gallery filter me?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Damn! I love good mapping utilities and construction sets. That looks simple as hell to use. AWESOME!

 

[smileyninja]

Will Solasta be everything that Realms Beyond claimed it would be?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

one of the most promising upcoming RPGs

It is? Did the tranny in the steam page gallery filter me?

you might be thinking of a different game

 

[oldmanpaco]

one of the most promising upcoming RPGs

It is? Did the tranny in the steam page gallery filter me?

you might be thinking of a different game

Tranny or shit tier art direction. No one would post this to their steam page without an agenda.

edit: Its like when I saw the pics of the female NPC's from the Outer Words and I knew the game would be shit.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

one of the most promising upcoming RPGs

It is? Did the tranny in the steam page gallery filter me?

you might be thinking of a different game

Tranny or shit tier art direction. No one would post this to their steam page without an agenda.

looks like a halfling to me

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Or a kender minus the ears... and... hmmm facial hair. Kender are rather odd things.

 

[oldmanpaco]

one of the most promising upcoming RPGs

It is? Did the tranny in the steam page gallery filter me?

you might be thinking of a different game

Tranny or shit tier art direction. No one would post this to their steam page without an agenda.

looks like a halfling to me

Looks like a chick with a beard. What exactly do you think halflings are up to?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

one of the most promising upcoming RPGs

It is? Did the tranny in the steam page gallery filter me?

you might be thinking of a different game

Tranny or shit tier art direction. No one would post this to their steam page without an agenda.

looks like a halfling to me

Looks like a chick with a beard. What exactly do you think halflings are up to?

I honestly don't see it.
We've complained about the faces being ugly already when the EA released, can't quite remember what the response to it was atm though.

I played through the EA twice and the game seemed fine to me. Just a regular old D&D adventure with nice encounter design/dungeons/puzzles.

 

[Borian]

I haven't paid any attention to this game until now. I think by far the most exciting idea here is that the developers expect modders to expand this toolkit. Give it a decade and there's no telling how robust it may end up being.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

whoa, this could be incline as fuck.

 

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

Hope this takes half of Larian sales away. Pathfinder can have the other half.

Any serious RPG enthusiasts will play both games. BG3 may not be as good as Solasta but it's still a fun game that's worth playing.

Not sure I can stomach Larian butchering the series I remember fondly. Not giving money to those barrel fetishists is a small bonus. So maybe in 2023, after it appears in Humble Bundle for 2$. :D

 

[covr]

It looks fine and fun, but very simple. Even with adding quests and merchants it still will be much simpler tool than NVN toolkit.
Myzzrym - any plans to add elevation and open areas, or it will always be building from premade blocks?
I know that making it happened is a huge effort, similar to making a separate, smaller game.

 

[NJClaw]

Tranny or shit tier art direction. No one would post this to their steam page without an agenda.

edit: Its like when I saw the pics of the female NPC's from the Outer Words and I knew the game would be shit.

Better character models is not exactly what I would want them to invest their energies and resources in.

 

[Dr Schultz]

I don't know: It seems to me a quite limited tool for a game so focused on verticality (which is totally absent in the construction set judging by the video).

I understand the need to keep things simple but this is a bit TOO simple, at least for this game.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Better character models is not exactly what I would want them to invest their energies and resources in.

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.

 

[NJClaw]

Better character models is not exactly what I would want them to invest their energies and resources in.

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.

As long as it's serviceable, in my eyes every effort in that direction is a waste of potential. I understand that these aren't mutually exclusive things, but I would gladly accept a worse-looking game if that meant having more classes and more refined encounters. It's not like I'm constantly staring at the characters in the face, 99% of the time is spent in an isometric perspective where you don't even realize that those faces exist (maybe I have my rapidly degrading eyesight to thank for that, I don't know).

And even if they were dead set on investing more time and money in graphical enhancements, I think those funds would be better spent on designing and modeling more monster types than on making my character look less like Dustin Hoffman.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

As long as it's serviceable, in my eyes every effort in that direction is a waste of potential..

Yeah, fuck this low effort bullshit you people take pride in, honestly.

I know the Codex had a boner for years over pretending that visuals have nothing to contribute on the overall appeal of a game, but I'm over that crap.

 

[Dr Schultz]

Better character models is not exactly what I would want them to invest their energies and resources in.

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.

As long as it's serviceable, in my eyes every effort in that direction is a waste of potential. I understand that these aren't mutually exclusive things, but I would gladly accept a worse-looking game if that meant having more classes and more refined encounters. It's not like I'm constantly staring at the characters in the face, 99% of the time is spent in an isometric perspective where you don't even realize that those faces exist (maybe I have my rapidly degrading eyesight to thank for that, I don't know).

And even if they were dead set on investing more time and money in graphical enhancements, I think those funds would be better spent on designing and modeling more monster types than on making my character look less like Dustin Hoffman.

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".

 

[NJClaw]

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.