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

[luj1]

Can someone summarize this game, good combat + mundane story/world + low lvl cap / slow progression?

 

[NJClaw]

Go ahead and cast a Lightning... anything, at that lil fella, and see if you get any extra damage. Unfortunately, I got irritated and closed the game before I could provide a screenshot as proof that you don't.

"Thunder" and "Lightning" are two different damage types. Lightning Bolt deals Lightning damage while, for example, Shatter deals Thunder damage. 5E changed "Sonic" to "Thunder", probably because "Sonic" as a damage type sounds retarded.

 

[Harthwain]

If you equip two weapons that have the Light property (like a shortsword or a dagger), you can use your Bonus Action to make an attack with your secondary weapon (the attacks you make with your Action will always be with your primary weapon).

Hold on, I thought all you need to do is have light secondary weapon, the main weapon being whatever you wish, not necessarily a light one?

 

[The_Mask]

"Thunder" and "Lightning" are two different damage types. Lightning Bolt deals Lightning damage while, for example, Shatter deals Thunder damage. 5E changed "Sonic" to "Thunder", probably because "Sonic" as a damage type sounds retarded.

Oh.

 

[NJClaw]

If you equip two weapons that have the Light property (like a shortsword or a dagger), you can use your Bonus Action to make an attack with your secondary weapon (the attacks you make with your Action will always be with your primary weapon).

Hold on, I thought all you need to do is have light secondary weapon, the main weapon being whatever you wish, not necessarily a light one?

If you equip two weapons and one of them doesn't have the Light property, you get a yellow warning sign that tells you you need two Light weapons. But I haven't tested if it actually works in-game, because, given that I'm not a weak gay female, I don't fight with two weapons.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

two Light weapons.

Are torches light weapons?

 

[Lacrymas]

Hold on, I thought all you need to do is have light secondary weapon, the main weapon being whatever you wish, not necessarily a light one?

You need two light weapons.

 

[Thac0]

Can someone summarize this game, good combat + mundane story/world + low lvl cap / slow progression?

Icewind Dale but with

positive:
Turn based combat
More optional content in the dungeons
More optional side quests
Much more meaninfull light mechanics, well implemented Darkvision
More puzzles
An enchanting system
Grid based combat
Fall damage meaninfully implemented and good implementation of flying, aerial combat
A very hard max difficulty mode and extensive options to tailor your own perfect custom difficulty

negative:
Two magnitudes less build options
Less atmosphere
More jank/worse balance
A crafting system
More present and worse story
Awfull writing
More camp/cheese/cringe
Way too easy default difficulty

I think it is very comparable to IWD atm, mostly because of the structure. Start in the single hub city. Travel to the next quest area/megadungeon. Complete that in a few hours. Return to the hub. Sell your loot and buy new gear and optimise your equipment with loot from the fat dungeon. Travel to the next fat dungeon.
Turn based/gridlocked vs much much less build options is a faustian bargain, so I can't say one is definitly better than the other

 

[luj1]

Then it doesn't sound too bad. Except in the build variety department.

 

[jackofshadows]

More puzzles

Wait, what?

Also, listing TB as a positive, come the fuck on... It's different. The game desperately needs animation speed slider by the way.

 

[Darkwind]

More puzzles

Wait, what?

Also, listing TB as a positive, come the fuck on... It's different. The game desperately needs animation speed slider by the way.

It 'sort of' has one. A not very advertised feature is that if you hold spacebar during enemy turns they move / attack at 2X speed. Hope that helps someone remove some tedium.

 

[Thac0]

More puzzles

Wait, what?

Also, listing TB as a positive, come the fuck on... It's different. The game desperately needs animation speed slider by the way.

I mean not only the dumb step on the glowing tiles stuff, but also the exploration mini puzzles. Fly up ledges, jump over chasms, shoot stones out of walls to drain water out of ponds, that stuff. None of it racks your brain, but I think it is a cute way to break up the pacing off the game. IWD can feel a bit dredgy at times, because it is pretty much just disable traps -> fight mobs -> level up -> find loots -> disable traps -> repeat.

TB being intrinsically better than rtwp is a hill I am willing to fight on. I doubt I will die on it, given how popular turn based is on this forum.

Then it doesn't sound too bad. Except in the build variety department.

By now I think it is better than all of last years picking, and I ended up refunding it in Early Access due to the very limited character building. The content is pretty damn good.
That said waiting for a deluxe edition at half price a year down the row is a very valid approach aswell, as the game seems to sell like hotcakes for a 12 man studio. I am quite optimistic we can actually get the fabled 12 classes and multiclassing, which would make this game superior to IWD in all important categories except atmosphere imo.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

More puzzles

Wait, what?

Also, listing TB as a positive, come the fuck on... It's different. The game desperately needs animation speed slider by the way.

It 'sort of' has one. A not very advertised feature is that if you hold spacebar during enemy turns they move / attack at 2X speed. Hope that helps someone remove some tedium.

Thanks. I can't understand why TB games just don't put attack speed slider as a part of a battle UI. This way you could adjust animation speed according to your needs.

 

[V_K]

More puzzles

Wait, what?

Also, listing TB as a positive, come the fuck on... It's different. The game desperately needs animation speed slider by the way.

I mean not only the dumb step on the glowing tiles stuff

I liked the floating platforms puzzle in the Ego level, fight me. It's very easy, sure, but the concept itself is quite awesome.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

OHHH NOOO! SORAKS! THEY ARE REAL!!!

 

[The_Mask]

I liked the floating platforms puzzle in the Ego level, fight me. It's very easy, sure, but the concept itself is quite awesome.

I liked it, because it was neat, if you keep inside the box of "what the level designer intended". Once you *want* to fly over to the chest(s) just because 1. you want to OR 2. because it's logical that you should be able to, and you realize you can't, then things get irritating.

We applaud the attempt, but the result is lacking.

And before someone, blurts out: "but Sorin, what if you chose to end Concentration mid-air, eh? How would you want that to end, eh?" --- The answer is simple: place is magical anyway: teleport me to the nearest free tile, and have a creative way of dealing with the puzzle, if I end up on the platform with the chest.



Obviously taken from the idea that if Dark Souls did it, so can you. (Anor Londo bridge)

 

[Strange Fellow]

I think the problems is that either fly has a maximum altitude (so it needs a ground to calculate it from) and some pits are marked as bottomless. Or you just can't fly over the ground that's designated impassable. The rationale probably being that if the spell's duration runs out exactly over such a pit or ground or the caster loses concentration, it's immediate game over since the fallen character is dead and unresurrectable.

Except that you can die from falling down bottomless pits and the game deals with it just fine. Citation: one of my characters was just pushed down a bottomless pit

 

[Tigranes]

More puzzles

Wait, what?

Also, listing TB as a positive, come the fuck on... It's different. The game desperately needs animation speed slider by the way.

It 'sort of' has one. A not very advertised feature is that if you hold spacebar during enemy turns they move / attack at 2X speed. Hope that helps someone remove some tedium.

Thanks. I can't understand why TB games just don't put attack speed slider as a part of a battle UI. This way you could adjust animation speed according to your needs.

Battle animation speeds up to 5x, able to be mapped to +/- keys and/or mouse scroll with visible meter on the screen.

Which world communist dictatorship is going to make this happen jesus christ

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The game desperately needs animation speed slider by the way.

what, like this?

 

[V_K]

I think the problems is that either fly has a maximum altitude (so it needs a ground to calculate it from) and some pits are marked as bottomless. Or you just can't fly over the ground that's designated impassable. The rationale probably being that if the spell's duration runs out exactly over such a pit or ground or the caster loses concentration, it's immediate game over since the fallen character is dead and unresurrectable.

Except that you can die from falling down bottomless pits and the game deals with it just fine. Citation: one of my characters was just pushed down a bottomless pit

Yes, but in combat you kinda expect that (you have to check a difficulty option allowing the enemies to do that) and it's turn-based. In exploration, that can happen in real time and quite unexpectedly (there's not duration timer shown anywhere). That's a lot more frustrating.
I'm not excusing the design, mind you. Just trying to reconstruct the developers' rationale.

 

[NJClaw]

I just finished the Caer Falcarn dungeon, a collection of 6 custom maps made by Tactical Adventures to showcase the Dungeon Maker tool which is available on the Steam Workshop. It's a 4-6 hours dungeon that, unless I missed some optional area, ends the moment your characters reach level 5. I played with a Paladin (Oath of Devotion), Fighter (Eldritch Knight), Cleric (Battle), and Wizard (Greenmage) and I have to say it was reasonably hard, to the point that probably even Lacrymas would be able to enjoy the encounters, provided that he sticks to using each campfire only once (twice if things go wrong two encounters in a row). There are many dull encounters, but some of them have a good balance of meatshields, melee threats, and dangerous casters.

Anyone who enjoyed the main campaign should give it a try, at least to see what the Dungeon Maker tool can make (which, admittedly, is not much).

Speaking of the tool itself, as it was clear from the beginning, the only way Tactical Adventures has to give this damn thing a purpose is to implement ways to add custom monsters, custom behaviors for each monster, and a strong and versatile scripting tool. As of now, the total absence of scripts only allows creating very linear dungeons with nothing more than combat encounters, but the abysmal size of the monsters roster definitely doesn't give enough freedom to do anything serious.

It was clear from the start, but this thing PALES in comparison to the module editor of KotC 2.

 

[V_K]

Once you *want* to fly over to the chest(s) just because 1. you want to OR 2. because it's logical that you should be able to, and you realize you can't, then things get irritating.

We applaud the attempt, but the result is lacking.

And before someone, blurts out: "but Sorin, what if you chose to end Concentration mid-air, eh? How would you want that to end, eh?" --- The answer is simple: place is magical anyway: teleport me to the nearest free tile, and have a creative way of dealing with the puzzle, if I end up on the platform with the chest.

It's not specifically scripted to disallow flying though, it's just that flying in the game generally doesn't work over bottomless pits (see above). It's the same issue in Tirmarian Tower, for example, which doesn't have any puzzles to be overcome by flying. It actually gets really funny there: you need Fly to reach the tower itself, but then you need to have a short rest because the flying character cannot reach the central platform inside.

very linear dungeons with nothing more than combat encounters

Not quite true, it's possible to have mechanical and inventory-based puzzles as well. A Grimrock-style dungeon would be very doable with what the editor can do already.

 

[V_K]

I liked it, because it was neat, if you keep inside the box of "what the level designer intended"

Now I wonder actually whether you can "cheat" this puzzle in another way:

Spoiler

namely, by giving everyone spider climb and standing on the wall plates without rotating the platform.

 

[The_Mask]

I thought of that too, but I was too irritated to put it into action. I might do that on a replay. Technically though, you should be able to, and it would be a plus to the game if you could, and a minus if you couldn't.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

I don't know what's more funny. The fact that our brave adventures didn't think about chopping mythical creature head during their scouting mission or the fact that during the meeting one of the council members practically shouts :"Nooo, I am not SORAK"