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I get the impression that it is, specially after restarting 3 times because I wasn't happy with my class choices. I would say not all of the loot is random, but a great majority of the containers generate random loot.
It's not impossible - the editor has this functionality - but for the quests/levels I've retried, the content of containers remained the same. I would assume that magic items of the caliber that requires attunement would all be hand-placed.
What you get does depend on some of the choices you make though - avoiding boss fights can leave you without the rare items that the bosses were carrying.
Man this game almost lost me in the volcano. I have filled pretty much all slots now with gear of which I highly assume it is best in slot (Armor +1, Shields +2, Lightbringer Bow, Bugged Greataxe +6), all attunement is full with very good items (for the record I fundamentally like attunement, but stuff like rings of poison or necrotic resist should not require attunement), and I am able to cast level 4 spells, soon level 5.
The difficulty is significantly lower. In the early game I had to savescum that one level 2 encounter, I needed a sizeable amount of retries for the early-midgame from 3-5, after 5 however I can win everything on the first try, even with awfull initiative rolls. Power scaling is just too extreme for double HP, 1,5x damage and +3 to hit to hold up with. Then again, DnD derived rpgs becoming easier as you get more levels and your composition strength shines through is not an error unique to Solasta.
However where the game really shows its flaws is when it tries to pull off a complex quests like the Orc tribes. In a good rpg there would have been dozens of progression paths here, with differing alliances and all. In Solasta your best course of action is to kill everything that moves, skip all dialogue. Which is fine, but I wish the game woudldn't try to pose as more than it is with this faction and choice bullshit. The previous area with the ancient ruins and the spelltower was worse than the undead castle, but much better than the volcano.
The bossfights however pulled me back in.
I liked the Spider Queen fight a lot, despite the game crashing once during it. Reminded me off that fat optional spider in Voidspire Tactics. The Fire Shaman was nice aswell.
Overall I am still with the game, and still consider it good. However now that I am almost done with it I am finally in the position to buy my first primed items. And primed longswords aren't even for sale. Now however I got so much good loot I no longer need to craft items, except maybe the Medusa bow as an alternative for my Ranger. Primed Items should quite frankly not exist at all, they add nothing to the game.
Thac0 the lava forest is slightly better than the volcano, but it's impossible for enemies to keep up with how strong characters become after they reach level 5, and every level after that worsens the situation.
It's sad because you don't even need incredibly hard encounters to have fun with this combat system, but just fights that are long and creative enough to encourage you to use your spells and options. The spider and fire shaman are just as easy as everything else, but you get to try all the cool stuff the game gave you and that's what made those encounters fun to me.
Sadly, the final sequence after the volcano/lava forest is just a long series of underwhelming and forgettable encounters.
Thac0 the lava forest is slightly better than the volcano, but it's impossible for enemies to keep up with how strong characters become after they reach level 5, and every level after that worsens the situation.
It's sad because you don't even need incredibly hard encounters to have fun with this combat system, but just fights that are long and creative enough to encourage you to use your spells and options.
During the magic tower questline this game still had just that, I won that ghoul light management fight before the moon doors by putting all my doods in a tight formation and casting Wall of Fire around them. That was cool as fuck, I always wanted to utilise that spell more. I think the big turning point was actually getting just that Greataxe +2 of +1d10 lightning, now my fighter can chop down 160HP orc elites in a single turn, and I no longer need to play around them with control, summons and firewalls.
Combat definitively. There are dialogue checks here and there and some explorations and quests, but they are very basic, just enough to spice the experience and break the pace a bit. Basically, is a combatfag game with some nice roleplaying as toppings.
And primed longswords aren't even for sale. Now however I got so much good loot I no longer need to craft items, except maybe the Medusa bow as an alternative for my Ranger. Primed Items should quite frankly not exist at all, they add nothing to the game.
Wait, you had a problem to find a primed longsword? Because at the end of a game my party had two of them, but I was not able to craft a "light bringer longbow" since primed longbow was locked behind faction and saw no drop of it whatsoever.
Edit: I also agree that primed items is meh as idea and these items being locked behind factions is add more tedium than excitement.
And primed longswords aren't even for sale. Now however I got so much good loot I no longer need to craft items, except maybe the Medusa bow as an alternative for my Ranger. Primed Items should quite frankly not exist at all, they add nothing to the game.
Wait, you had a problem to find a primed longsword? Because at the end of a game my party had two of them, but I was not able to craft a "light bringer longbow" since primed longbow was locked behind faction and saw no drop of it whatsoever.
Most premium loot like that is randomly generated, and the algorithm is retarded. I had dozens of shortswords, daggers and maces but not a single Longsword. I had however two longbows or so, but no shortbows. I also found only one of each two handed sword and greataxe, and both were in the same chest.
Grinding up the faction is fairly sensible however, since I did not see a single primed heavy plate, and enchanted plate +2 is the armor with the most AC in the game I believe.
I am somehow amazed how all the factions blend together in Solasta. Even after having each introduce themself I have difficulty in distinguishing them. The only difference I see is what they sell.
I am somehow amazed how all the factions blend together in Solasta. Even after having each introduce themself I have difficulty in distinguishing them. The only difference I see is what they sell.
Legit ridiculous how bad they are at designing memorable and likeable factions. Just going with the basic bitch "one faction per class" would have been a decent solution. Instead we have:
Antiquarians: Scholars and Information sharers (Mages)
Arcaneum: Mages of the old Empire
Circle of Danatar: Mages of the old Empire II
Tower of Knowledge: Mages
Masgarth: Nobles
Scavengers: Not even a faction, but a prime gameplay mechanic
4 mage factions, two of them with ties to the old empire, a generic noble faction and one you will mandatorily max out just through quest rewards by playing the game and which only supplies you with more gold.
I don't think I would ever even notice this enough in a game to judge it by it, but Solasta is the game with the worst designed factions of all time.
No, but if you do lore at least make it competently enough to make factions not blend together. Factions as are now seems like some subtle joke about the pointlessness of faction systems in games.
The only thing wrong with the faction system is how they all introduce themselves at the same time. It would be better if they introduced themselves gradually at appropriate points in the story, and ideal if they didn't introduce themselves at all.
Scavengers are really cool as a concept. I mean they don't do too much ingame I guess, but it makes so much sense you would have these kind of organizations in a world like this. I do like that they established themselves on old "dungeon maps", but it would be cool if they offered something more than just a store.
Legit ridiculous how bad they are at designing memorable and likeable factions. Just going with the basic bitch "one faction per class" would have been a decent solution. Instead we have:
4 mage factions, two of them with ties to the old empire, a generic noble faction and one you will mandatorily max out just through quest rewards by playing the game and which only supplies you with more gold.
What's best is that you could totally make a factions system with 4 or more mage factions work. You can differentiate mage factions by :
- how they use magic mechanically
- what are their core believes about magic and what they tell us about them/world/ human nature
- how they believe mages should interact with outside world
- who they believe can become a mage
- the economics of being a mage
etc
This isn't difficult. You can create a better faction system using only mages in half a day. It's incredible how they screwed up.
Even just using their three magic subclasses would have been infinitely superior.
The antiquarians are basically the Loremaster faction. Those are fine.
Now make the enchanter merchants (Arcaneum) the Greenmage faction and make the ones who just sell generic magical gear (Dalanar) the Shock Arcanist faction. It really isn't rocket science.
Impressively bad, the entire world has some heavy bottom shelf dime novel fantasy world building energy, but the factions are beyond amateurish.
Grinding up the faction is fairly sensible however, since I did not see a single primed heavy plate, and enchanted plate +2 is the armor with the most AC in the game I believe.
At beginning of the game, I was naive enough to think that choice of faction to max out early will bear consequences for the end of the game. For example: if you help one faction a lot - in the end this faction will gain territory/influence/etc. Since my party was without elves, I thought that helping Arcaneum would be idiotic if not suicidal, since New Empire has "issues" with humans and dwarves. Hell, I was thinking: "They hate everyone and helping them in the end would seriously backfire". Little did I knew, that it does not matter.
Legit ridiculous how bad they are at designing memorable and likeable factions. Just going with the basic bitch "one faction per class" would have been a decent solution. Instead we have:
Antiquarians: Scholars and Information sharers (Mages)
Arcaneum: Mages of the old Empire
Circle of Danatar: Mages of the old Empire II
Tower of Knowledge: Mages
Masgarth: Nobles
Scavengers: Not even a faction, but a prime gameplay mechanic
4 mage factions, two of them with ties to the old empire, a generic noble faction and one you will mandatorily max out just through quest rewards by playing the game and which only supplies you with more gold.
I don't think I would ever even notice this enough in a game to judge it by it, but Solasta is the game with the worst designed factions of all time.
I have nothing against factions represented at counsel being magicians, since it's fireball slingers, who would be interested in archeology and artifacts, not other types of character. However, my problem was that none of these factions represent a differences between their host nations/beliefs which led to forming of these factions as separate entities.
For example, New Empire was described as xenophobic bastards, yet Arcaneum representatives do not show this at all. Tower of Knowledge and Antiquarians are basically the same in spirit, yet since kingdom of Gallivan isn't part of Snow Alliance - they separated and there should be shown political reasons why Tower of Knowledge and Antiquarians decided to walk separate roads. Danatar feels weird as concept and Masgrath should have their own guild of mages in representatives, instead of one lazy princess without any interest.
