Game News Solasta: Crown of the Magister Released

[J_C]

Looks like shit.

Spoiler

I hope I'm doing this right.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

uuuu thread isn't informative

If you can't find a single post talking about how good the game is, then...

 

[Roguey]

This is not a historical game!
Thought that was pretty obvious. Fantasy settings don't have to adhere to anything, they "just" have to be internally consistent.
Mind you, the Solasta setting might totally fail at that, I don't know, but I'll find out at some point when I have the time to play it...

I know, but we are shaped by our own history.

Oh, so now we're down from "blacks shouldn't wear armor" to "black women shouldn't wear armor".
Going for both sexism and racism now, are we? If you want to add something homophobic to get the trio of assholery, I'd suggest adding "but maybe she's a tranny".

They can, but it's going to be one of those things that immediately break me out of the world. Notably, Pallegina from Pillars of Eternity did not, but that's because the feathers already make her look weird and unusual, thus she just feels like another part of the world.

Anyway this is all a distraction from the point that the inclusion of so many black and brown persons is a signal of their political allegiances: making an active commitment to ensuring the population of their game is ethnically diverse. Count the number of platemail-clad black people in combat crawlers from the 80s/90s/00s. Non-existent in the gold box games and the Icewind Dales and ToEE and Knights of the Chalice and the likes as far as I can tell, except for Deric in Secret of the Silver Blades, which is considered one of the worst for other reasons. These kinds of thoughts did not cross the minds of devs until the 10s.

As expected, the team looks like this:

Token black guy, token asian guy, two presumably-French women, hella diverse.

It is 2021!
Why do I need to rotate and move and fight the camera always?

Because a lot of terrible people insist on being able to rotate the camera in pseudo-iso instead of having a static camera with levels designed to be viewed at only one angle. Even Owlcat sabotaged their Pathfinder sequel with this nonsense.

 

[jackofshadows]

I'm one of the biggest racists and haters of wokeyness here, but I recognize the difference between wokeness that's heartfelt, malicious social engineering and wokeness that's just ritual genuflection to social norms ("Please don't hurt me, look I'm a gud boi, I'm doing the thing!").

Looks like you don't, read this: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...amic-environments.138703/page-17#post-7328578

Basically the whole team is willing to include that shit just because they think it's the right thing to do (miserable pathetic fucks). His attitude really pisses me off despite that I usually don't care about politics much. All of the *stuff* like black wymyn as the captain guard or gender neutral voice option or art changes is the one damn entity, seeing like folks trying to defend some of those choices is amusing even, it's all very simple, no need to go deeper

 

[Absinthe]

uuuu thread isn't informative

If you can't find a single post talking about how good the game is, then...

Then possibly the thread is being squatted by shitposters, because I can hardly find any posts talking about how bad the game is either. All I see is a giant fucking mess of GD shitposting and vague circlejerking. At this rate RPG Codex is going to resemble fucking 4chan if the amount of shitposting and butthurt are the new metrics by which we judge whether or not games are any good. Yes, Solasta features a stupid button for pronouns, and sure, some folks are annoyed by that and the stupid politicization of videogames. Good to know. But for fuck's sake, the point's been made, so post some actual fucking info on the game or fuck off. Nattering for 6 pages straight about this shit and trannies in fucking circles is a fucking garbage waste of everyone's fucking time and I swear some of the retards here are just forumwhoring with regurgitated rage talking points they parrot from others, hoping for that sweet sweet e-validation from their internet peers. Grats, you fit in you fucking sheep. Now fuck off and let the rest of us read and talk about whether or not this game is any fucking good. I want to hear about fucking gameplay mechanics, UI, encounter design, level design, what parts of the game suck, and so on, not your fucking blogpost whinging on trannies/forced diversity/etc, unless you at least have something topical and new to contribute.

So here's what I've figured out about Solasta so far:

1. It's a turn-based RPG.
2. It's based on 5E D&D rules (which is a pretty fucking barebones and lousy system honestly, so I don't know why they bothered)
3. The classes are Rogue, Ranger, Fighter, Paladin, Cleric, and Wizard
4. The subclasses are some homebrew shit.
5. The Solasta thread says that the encounter design and combat is actually pretty decent and that it actually incorporates verticality for a change. Doesn't seem to be ToEE or Dungeon of Naheulbeuk tier though.
6. Game actually has dialogue checks for skills, backgrounds, languages, etc. Some of these checks even actually do things.

Here's the cRPG board's thread on the game, which is distinctly less shit than this one: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/solasta-crown-of-the-magister-5e-ogl-turn-based-rpg-with-verticality-and-dynamic-environments.138703/

 

[Brickfrog]

I havnt played any d&d since probably 2005 so I know nothing about 5e but to me it feels like solasta allows for much more flexibility in decision making than most other turn based rpgs these days.

I think that small things like being able to move after attacking, bonus actions, and flying/wall climbing/lighting mechanics all combine to push solasta's combat ahead of most xcom-ish turn based rpgs that we keep seeing these days.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I'm sure the good and informative posts will appear once the mods clean up the evil ones pushing them out of sight.

For all the bitching about 4channers, it's the "uuuh why do you care?" redditism that is taking over. You will be among the ones told to "fuck off" with the transgender slurs then.

 

[V_K]

The Solasta thread says that the encounter design and combat is actually pretty decent. Doesn't seem to be ToEE tier or Dungeon of Naheulbeuk tier though.

I dunno, personally I found Solasta's encounters more engaging than Naheulbeuk's - I dropped the latter halfway through because it started to feel very samey, but actually finished the former.
The biggest advantage of Naheulbeuk are the mechanics for character synergies and collaboration, I wish more party-based RPGs did that. Everything else, Solasta does better IMO.

 

[NJClaw]

Token black guy, token asian guy, two presumably-French women, hella diverse.

Token Asian guy? I see no token Asian guy.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Then possibly the thread is being squatted by shitposters,

We're discussing things that are in the game. If the devs didn't want it discussed I guess they shouldn't have added it, huh?

 

[Absinthe]

The Solasta thread says that the encounter design and combat is actually pretty decent. Doesn't seem to be ToEE tier or Dungeon of Naheulbeuk tier though.

I dunno, personally I found Solasta's encounters more engaging than Naheulbeuk's - I dropped the latter halfway through because it started to feel very samey, but actually finished the former.
The biggest advantage of Naheulbeuk are the mechanics for character synergies and collaboration, I wish more party-based RPGs did that. Everything else, Solasta does better IMO.

Huh, interesting. Could you give an example? I generally consider 5E to be an underwhelming mess of a system, so I'm genuinely curious here.

I'm not done bitching and moaning about the same tranny/etc shit we've heard for the past 6 pages yet.

Cool beans. Now fuck off. If this trash heap is what passes for a "discussion" to you, then you need to learn some social skills.

 

[Mortmal]

The Solasta thread says that the encounter design and combat is actually pretty decent. Doesn't seem to be ToEE tier or Dungeon of Naheulbeuk tier though.

I dunno, personally I found Solasta's encounters more engaging than Naheulbeuk's - I dropped the latter halfway through because it started to feel very samey, but actually finished the former.
The biggest advantage of Naheulbeuk are the mechanics for character synergies and collaboration, I wish more party-based RPGs did that. Everything else, Solasta does better IMO.

Huh, interesting. Could you give an example? I generally consider 5E to be an underwhelming mess of a system, so I'm genuinely curious here.

I'm not done bitching and moaning about the same tranny/etc shit we've heard for the past 6 pages yet.

Cool beans. Now fuck off. If this trash heap is what passes for a "discussion" to you, then you need to learn some social skills.

If you are genuinely interested and not another poser, simply go read the good thread. This one is for the shitposting. Everyone who like gaming says its fantastic.

 

[V_K]

Could you give an example?

An example of what?

I generally consider 5E to be an underwhelming mess of a system, so I'm genuinely curious here.

Well, here we disagree. At least as far as CRPGs go, I like 5e a lot better than either 3.5e or ADnD.

 

[Absinthe]

If you are genuinely interested and not another poser, simply go read the good thread. This one is for the shitposting. Everyone who like gaming says its fantastic.

I guess I should. Megathreads usually tend to be their own unnecessarily positive circlejerks though because after a while they're 90%+ people who like the game.

Could you give an example?

An example of what?

How a Solasta combat encounter manages to be so engaging.

I generally consider 5E to be an underwhelming mess of a system, so I'm genuinely curious here.

Well, here we disagree. At least as far as CRPGs go, I like 5e a lot better than either 3.5e or ADnD.

It's a very barebones system imo, with a very loose system of adjudicating difficulty checks. At the end of the day implementation matters a lot though.

 

[Irgsarzh]

dnd is shit

 

[rusty_shackleford]

How a Solasta combat encounter manages to be so engaging.

he gets his rocks off to tranny porn, that's the entire reason he supports the game

 

[Clockwork Knight]

If you are genuinely interested and not another poser, simply go read the good thread. This one is for the shitposting. Everyone who like gaming says its fantastic.

nibba was so interested he didn't even know what version of D&D it was based on

 

[V_K]

How a Solasta combat encounter manages to be so engaging.

Quoting from my impressions post:

Highlights include: casting moving lights spell then have it chase a vampire that's desperately running away from it; having my rogue exchange blows with a ghoul while standing on the sides of two pillars, very literally head to head; blasting a fireball up in the air, making a flying lizardman lose concentration and fall prone etc.

Basically, there's just a very good variety of enemies, most of whom have something that makes them unique, like beetles that burrow and come out from under your characters knocking them off balance, drakes that fly (and fall down if you manage to cast sleep on them), or vampires that heal on successful attacks, but are damaged by light (hence running away from a light source). And then verticality, lighting and some interactive elements make the environments a huge part of the encounters. Like, it's one thing to fight orcs in a plain dungeon room and it's a very different thing to fight them while standing on small pillars above a sea of lava.

 

[elverkongen]

This is not a historical game!
Thought that was pretty obvious. Fantasy settings don't have to adhere to anything, they "just" have to be internally consistent.
Mind you, the Solasta setting might totally fail at that, I don't know, but I'll find out at some point when I have the time to play it...

I know, but we are shaped by our own history.

Oh, so now we're down from "blacks shouldn't wear armor" to "black women shouldn't wear armor".
Going for both sexism and racism now, are we? If you want to add something homophobic to get the trio of assholery, I'd suggest adding "but maybe she's a tranny".

They can, but it's going to be one of those things that immediately break me out of the world. Notably, Pallegina from Pillars of Eternity did not, but that's because the feathers already make her look weird and unusual, thus she just feels like another part of the world.

Anyway this is all a distraction from the point that the inclusion of so many black and brown persons is a signal of their political allegiances: making an active commitment to ensuring the population of their game is ethnically diverse. Count the number of platemail-clad black people in combat crawlers from the 80s/90s/00s. Non-existent in the gold box games and the Icewind Dales and ToEE and Knights of the Chalice and the likes as far as I can tell, except for Deric in Secret of the Silver Blades, which is considered one of the worst for other reasons. These kinds of thoughts did not cross the minds of devs until the 10s.

As expected, the team looks like this:

Token black guy, token asian guy, two presumably-French women, hella diverse.

Why stop at token black guy, token Asian guy, and token women?

From back left, clockwise:
1) Token boomer
2) Token codexer
3) Token hipster
4) Token fat guy
5) Token black guy
6) Token tall guy
7) Token ginger
8) Token normie
9) Token edgelord
10) Token gay guy
11) Token Elijah Wood impersonator
12) Token Asian
13) Token Jew
14) Token hot chick
15) Token Neanderthal

 

[MrBuzzKill]

I see no problem with the pronoun thing, it's just the developers trying to publish a game in the current year world.
What IS unfortunate, however, is that the game looks a bit janky.
They should never have had close-ups in the intro tavern-cutscene-dialogue-thing, the part that's supposed to draw you into the game but instead you're forced to look at characters' early 2000s gesticulating and

For the thousandth time, don't spend half an hour tediously setting up whatever it is you're going to entertain me with, just give a short intro and let me figure out stuff by myself, piece by piece, at my own pace.

The GUI design also doesn't entice me in any way. It's Neverwinter Nights all over again with the bland rectangles.

TL;DR: shows promise but I'll come back in a couple years when it's been thoroughly polished up

 

[gurugeorge]

I'm one of the biggest racists and haters of wokeyness here, but I recognize the difference between wokeness that's heartfelt, malicious social engineering and wokeness that's just ritual genuflection to social norms ("Please don't hurt me, look I'm a gud boi, I'm doing the thing!").

Looks like you don't, read this: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...amic-environments.138703/page-17#post-7328578

Basically the whole team is willing to include that shit just because they think it's the right thing to do (miserable pathetic fucks). His attitude really pisses me off despite that I usually don't care about politics much. All of the *stuff* like black wymyn as the captain guard or gender neutral voice option or art changes is the one damn entity, seeing like folks trying to defend some of those choices is amusing even, it's all very simple, no need to go deeper

The fuck else are they going to do?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Hmmm, and I was enthralled by the mapmaker.

 

[thesheeep]

Please stop engaging in conversations about this topic with people who can't even accept the existence of black people in video games when they literally came from another world through a magical portal.

But why?
Confronting people in full denial of reality and the vocal minority even within this more right-leaning place is fun.
Their attempts at justifying their antiquated and long left-behind-by-the-majority world views is a bit like watching ants try to move a rock too big for them.

Also, this is the thread for shitposting like that - the other one is for proper game discussion.

 

[Maxie]

I will NOT play this game until I'm presented with genetic makeup test results from all the developers, it's below my gamer dignity to play anything made by non-whites

 

[Radech]

Please stop engaging in conversations about this topic with people who can't even accept the existence of black people in video games when they literally came from another world through a magical portal.

But why?
Confronting people in full denial of reality and the vocal minority even within this more right-leaning place is fun.
Their attempts at justifying their antiquated and long left-behind-by-the-majority world views is a bit like watching ants try to move a rock too big for them.

Also, this is the thread for shitposting like that - the other one is for proper game discussion.

The claw proposes that silence is preferable to discussion regardless of the inanity of the discussion, this i fear will always leave the claw in the dark.

I stand with the sheep in asserting the value of discussion regardless of inanity, as it is only through in-depth analytical discussion of the most inane of subjects, with the most stubborn of adherents that we will come to know final indisputable fact. The only currency, a monocled peruser of rpg's trade in.

How else will we finally settle the age old debate of whether it is possible to completely avoid black people in Solasta? and whether such a run could truly be called racist, if your only exposure to black people was running away from them?