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

[Reinhardt]

still no custom portraits mod?

Looks like they are whipping that feature up pretty damn fast.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

FIXING THE FACES

Give it up Fritz them faces are here to stay.

 

[std::namespace]

I also like that for a game that is supposed to be combat- focus, Solasta throw way less trash mobs at you compared to Pathfinder games, at least from what I play so far.

I sign this statement. It also has better AI. Kingmaker is shit.

 

[Artyoan]

They patched it in today on UB. I made this real quick. Found a pic off pinterest and then put the background on transparent with gimp. Pretty easy process. I like it a lot.

 

[Artyoan]

https://mod.io/g/solasta/m/solasta-portrait-pack

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

This was on my list to play after I finished WotR. I'm quite amazed by how high the initial character rolls are. All of my pregen characters have +2 or better in every stat. The only trouble is, the game becomes totally unstable once I start the campaign. I'm running Solus 4 OS (linux). Whether I use WINE or Proton doesn't seem to make a difference for stability, though it seems to launch better under WINE. Is anyone else running this on Linux?

 

[Artyoan]

The stretch of the portrait on the action bar was fixed as of the latest UB patch. New sample pic:

 

[Reinhardt]

 

[Sacibengala]

put the background on transparent with gimp.

How do you do that? Is there a tutorial or something?

 

[Reinhardt]

put the background on transparent with gimp.

How do you do that? Is there a tutorial or something?

it's not that hard. i remember doing it when making portraits for my party in elminage gothic years ago.

 

[Artyoan]

put the background on transparent with gimp.

How do you do that? Is there a tutorial or something?

What I do since I'm not an expert on GIMP but I know enough to do this stuff:
-Place the image in GIMP
-Select a section of the image to crop and then resize the cropped result to 256x384 px
-You can try to use the fuzzy select tool to select the background and Edit > Clear it out but I've found that to be not that great for complicated portraits. Or I'm just using it poorly.
-Instead of fuzzy select I use Add Layer Mask to the layer. Then I use paintbrush in black on the background. Adjust the brush sizes to get all around the image background.
-Then export as png
-If I didn't get all the spots off or something bothers me I just do it again with the layer mask and brush off the background. Black will make it transparent. White will act as an eraser to put the image back as it was. So you can fine tune it like you want. Export again.

 

[Sacibengala]

put the background on transparent with gimp.

How do you do that? Is there a tutorial or something?

What I do since I'm not an expert on GIMP but I know enough to do this stuff:
-Place the image in GIMP
-Select a section of the image to crop and then resize the cropped result to 256x384 px
-You can try to use the fuzzy select tool to select the background and Edit > Clear it out but I've found that to be not that great for complicated portraits. Or I'm just using it poorly.
-Instead of fuzzy select I use Add Layer Mask to the layer. Then I use paintbrush in black on the background. Adjust the brush sizes to get all around the image background.
-Then export as png
-If I didn't get all the spots off or something bothers me I just do it again with the layer mask and brush off the background. Black will make it transparent. White will act as an eraser to put the image back as it was. So you can fine tune it like you want. Export again.

I found this app that cut it out with AI. It's pretty good, but it is limited to 3 saves a day for not paying accounts.

 

[mediocrepoet]

put the background on transparent with gimp.

How do you do that? Is there a tutorial or something?

What I do since I'm not an expert on GIMP but I know enough to do this stuff:
-Place the image in GIMP
-Select a section of the image to crop and then resize the cropped result to 256x384 px
-You can try to use the fuzzy select tool to select the background and Edit > Clear it out but I've found that to be not that great for complicated portraits. Or I'm just using it poorly.
-Instead of fuzzy select I use Add Layer Mask to the layer. Then I use paintbrush in black on the background. Adjust the brush sizes to get all around the image background.
-Then export as png
-If I didn't get all the spots off or something bothers me I just do it again with the layer mask and brush off the background. Black will make it transparent. White will act as an eraser to put the image back as it was. So you can fine tune it like you want. Export again.

I found this app that cut it out with AI. It's pretty good, but it is limited to 3 saves a day for not paying accounts.

What's it called or where is it?

 

[Sacibengala]

What's it called or where is it?

I could swear that I linked it here. Anyway, it's Pixlr from https://pixlr.com

 

[Calthaer]

Just picked this up on some super-cheap sale. Had been playing Baldur's Gate 3 with a few friends and this Solasta game is clearly "BG3 if you ordered it on Wish.com." A shame - there's genuinely a decent game hidden in here, but BG3 outshines it in almost every way - better story, better character interactions, more vibrant world. On the one hand, I appreciate Solasta's "auto-loot" option where you don't have to lug junk back to town...on the other hand, BG3 really rewards people who explore every inch of a room and I find it fun that you can rummage through the bottles on a shelf and find potions hidden in there. And the world-building...I just didn't care about whatever was happening in Solasta's world. Felt like a generic MMORPG fetch-quest setup; even the voice actors felt like they were phoning in their lines. At least it was less than $20 for the game plus a few expansions.

 

[HoboForEternity]

This game is more like neverwinter nights instead of baldurs gate. Completely different interpretation of tabletop gameplay. Solasta is more of a dungeon crawler number crunching style GM while baldurs gate 3 is story / friends having fun style of tabletop.

There are apparently few good modules on solasta already but i haven't tried them personally

 

[NJClaw]

even the voice actors felt like they were phoning in their lines

 

[gurugeorge]

Just picked this up on some super-cheap sale. Had been playing Baldur's Gate 3 with a few friends and this Solasta game is clearly "BG3 if you ordered it on Wish.com." A shame - there's genuinely a decent game hidden in here, but BG3 outshines it in almost every way - better story, better character interactions, more vibrant world. On the one hand, I appreciate Solasta's "auto-loot" option where you don't have to lug junk back to town...on the other hand, BG3 really rewards people who explore every inch of a room and I find it fun that you can rummage through the bottles on a shelf and find potions hidden in there. And the world-building...I just didn't care about whatever was happening in Solasta's world. Felt like a generic MMORPG fetch-quest setup; even the voice actors felt like they were phoning in their lines. At least it was less than $20 for the game plus a few expansions.

That's hardly a fair comparison is it? You can't expect an indie studio to make something with the scope and polish that an AAA product like BG3 has. The relevant question is: how well have they done within the bounds of what's possible to them? I (and a lot of us here) think they did pretty well in that sense, on the whole. I certainly had a lot of fun with the game, and it's even got a bit of afterlife what with all the quest modding, etc.

 

[Mortmal]

Just picked this up on some super-cheap sale. Had been playing Baldur's Gate 3 with a few friends and this Solasta game is clearly "BG3 if you ordered it on Wish.com." A shame - there's genuinely a decent game hidden in here, but BG3 outshines it in almost every way - better story, better character interactions, more vibrant world. On the one hand, I appreciate Solasta's "auto-loot" option where you don't have to lug junk back to town...on the other hand, BG3 really rewards people who explore every inch of a room and I find it fun that you can rummage through the bottles on a shelf and find potions hidden in there. And the world-building...I just didn't care about whatever was happening in Solasta's world. Felt like a generic MMORPG fetch-quest setup; even the voice actors felt like they were phoning in their lines. At least it was less than $20 for the game plus a few expansions.

It's true, but we are comparing games in completely different leagues. Given the same budget, they could create something close to BG3. As the game stands today, it's still a better CRPG than anything else published recently, even in the 1990s and 2000s. We won't see anything else like BG3 for a very long time, especially considering it's only possible coming from Larian, as they don't have any competition. The best the Japanese can produce might be something like Dragon's Dogma 2.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

This game is more like neverwinter nights instead of baldurs gate. Completely different interpretation of tabletop gameplay. Solasta is more of a dungeon crawler number crunching style GM while baldurs gate 3 is story / friends having fun style of tabletop.

Solasta is another example of the resurgence of good, squad-based tactics games in the last few years. The developer did not make much of an attempt to emulate D&D exploration, either in the dungeon or the wilderness, so the encounter zones are largely linear, as is the overall structure of the game. Also, since it's based on "D&D 5th Edition", the party size is a mere four player-characters, among other mechanical deficiencies. Those are the chief limitations of the game, but it is reasonably good at what it focuses on, namely turn-based tactical combat, though certainly no Troubleshooter.

 

[Artyoan]

This game is more like neverwinter nights instead of baldurs gate. Completely different interpretation of tabletop gameplay. Solasta is more of a dungeon crawler number crunching style GM while baldurs gate 3 is story / friends having fun style of tabletop.

Solasta is another example of the resurgence of good, squad-based tactics games in the last few years. The developer did not make much of an attempt to emulate D&D exploration, either in the dungeon or the wilderness, so the encounter zones are largely linear, as is the overall structure of the game. Also, since it's based on "D&D 5th Edition", the party size is a mere four player-characters, among other mechanical deficiencies. Those are the chief limitations of the game, but it is reasonably good at what it focuses on, namely turn-based tactical combat, though certainly no Troubleshooter.

Thats also why the modding support from Unfinished Business and the dungeon maker are important. The limitations are then mostly exceeded by the playerbase. Six man parties are now a thing and tons of new feats, subclasses, spells, etc

I shill for Solasta when I get the chance to. I think it's that underrated.

 

[KainenMorden]

I think it's a great tactical combat experience especially coming from indie devs. I didn't mind the graphics or voice acting or linearity at all but I mostly play for combat so I understand why some players may not have cared for it. I also don't like 5e that much compared to older editions but the combat was still fun.

I did a blind run on authentic but what do you think about cataclysm difficulty? I've seen more experienced players recommending making an all elf min maxed party to get through it.

 

[jackofshadows]

Until someone make a truly god tier module for this game and it'll be obvious to anyone that have played the OG it's actually superior one I refuse to listen to this impotent "but it's got potential" crap. Solasta's fucking mid, not exactly terrible game, just deal with that already and move on. I'm saying that even while don't care in the least about the crappy plot and the potato faces, and the fucking beards and the pathetic pronouns option in the character creator.

Cataclysm difficulty isn't really difficult, just boring bloated mobs everywhere, nothing special. The vamprire or whatever the fuck was that boss in the castle is still the highlight of the entire game regardless of the chosen difficulty.

 

[Mortmal]

Of course, Cataclysm mode is not challenging; bloating mob HP makes no sense and doesn't add tactical depth. 5E is designed for attrition with several encounters and 2 short rests between full rests. The problem is, no one is adhering to that; streamers often have one encounter per 4-hour session of heavy storytelling, and video games like Baldur's Gate 3 don't follow it either. Modders don't either. So, you have an already flawed system that no one is using correctly. Hopefully, their next game will use Pathfinder 2E, which is a bit more tactical and balanced from the beginning to the end. However, they will probably tone it down to cater to Game Pass casual players and include a "hard mode" with bloated HP due to lack of time, money, and/or laziness.

 

[Artyoan]

Of course, Cataclysm mode is not challenging; bloating mob HP makes no sense and doesn't add tactical depth. 5E is designed for attrition with several encounters and 2 short rests between full rests. The problem is, no one is adhering to that; streamers often have one encounter per 4-hour session of heavy storytelling, and video games like Baldur's Gate 3 don't follow it either. Modders don't either. So, you have an already flawed system that no one is using correctly. Hopefully, their next game will use Pathfinder 2E, which is a bit more tactical and balanced from the beginning to the end. However, they will probably tone it down to cater to Game Pass casual players and include a "hard mode" with bloated HP due to lack of time, money, and/or laziness.

My next campaign has two attrition sequences involving 4/5 fights with no long resting, only short. They don't come until the second half but they'll be there. A few other areas where two fights occur with no long rest between them either. If I end up doing a roguelike mode, it's going to be almost entirely attrition based but no story. Made for something more like Ironman style play.