KickStarter Solasta Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Ontopoly]

Sorry NJ, we're only featuring the staff in those Dev Updates - so pets from the staff only. I'm sure your cat is adorable and you can still put a picture here so we can all enjoy :D

Here, look at this blessed creature:

Spoiler

You let your cat on your bed?

Also have I been doing good in your playthrough? I hope I'm pulling my weight

 

[NJClaw]

Also, where should I report bugs? For they are legion.

They probably check their forum more than the Codex, but when I tagged Myzzrym in this topic he replied almost instantly.

As was said before, this doesn't have the budget for voice acting or cutscenes, and maybe even 3D graphics if that comes at the expense of everything else. It's all very awkward. It would've been better had that money gone into making less linear and more interactive maps. Prime example is the rune "puzzle" in the library. What was the point of that? It just tests if you have eyeballs in your face and your ability to click the mouse. I can only really recommend this game to a combatfag and tell them to only expect combat-dotted corridors. That's not bad in of itself, I guess? The budget could've been spent wiser methinks.

Yes, the only interesting part is the combat, but that in itself is done so well that I can't stop playing this game. The implementation of the ruleset is far more satisfying than what BG3 has shown so far, but I guess that you have to be a big fan of 5E to really enjoy it. Still, it seems they found their niche, since the game sits on 94% positive reviews on Steam.

 

[NJClaw]

You let your cat on your bed?

Also have I been doing good in your playthrough? I hope I'm pulling my weight

That's not my bed, and that's not actually MY cat (it's my girlfriend's, but I love her nonetheless, and we spent a lot of time together during quarantine).

You are a great Paladin, and I can't hope to convey how strong and heroic you are with a single post. You are the shimmering bastion of the group, always holding the frontline with a sword in your hand, while your companions seek protection behind your shield. With Shield of Faith or Protection from Good you become almost untouchable, and when the Cleric buffs you with Haste no enemy can survive your wrath. You took down in a single round almost any big threat: the wight in the courtyard, the necromancer's girlfriend, the necromancer himself, the minotaur, and the last boss added in the new update.

 

[Rafidur]

You let your cat on your bed?

What kind of monster doesn't put a bed for your cat on your bed?

 

[V_K]

There's no point in trying to keep a cat out of anywhere - just can't be done, they always find a way. But the good news is, unlike dogs, they're clean and don't stink - so why wouldn't you let them in your bed?

 

[Lacrymas]

Yes, the only interesting part is the combat, but that in itself is done so well that I can't stop playing this game. The implementation of the ruleset is far more satisfying than what BG3 has shown so far, but I guess that you have to be a big fan of 5E to really enjoy it. Still, it seems they found their niche, since the game sits on 94% positive reviews on Steam.

Yeah, the combat is great, but that's not a surprise since 5E combat is also great (with a few caveats). There are a few weird things that I noticed, though. Why can I cast random spells on my paladins and the cleric as bonus actions? Stuff like Healing Word, Divine Favor, Shield of Faith, etc. This might also be a bug, but I think I didn't get the option to attack with my off-hand when I had a spiritual weapon out. I should be able to either attack with the spiritual weapon OR attack with my off-hand. There should also be a more obvious distinction between combat and non-combat spells like Prayer of Healing. Yeah, you could meticulously alt-hover every spell to make sure it's non-combat, but just a warning on normal hover would be a nice QoL feature.

As for BG3, Larian really need to get their shit together with combat maneuvers being bonus actions for everyone.

 

[Nortar]

There are a few weird things that I noticed, though. Why can I cast random spells on my paladins and the cleric as bonus actions? Stuff like Healing Word, Divine Favor, Shield of Faith, etc.

In 5E these spells have casting time of a bonus action, so it works exactly as it should.

 

[Lacrymas]

There are a few weird things that I noticed, though. Why can I cast random spells on my paladins and the cleric as bonus actions? Stuff like Healing Word, Divine Favor, Shield of Faith, etc.

In 5E these spells have casting time of a bonus action, so it works exactly as it should.

=O I just checked the PHB and you are right. I've never noticed this before lololol. I was doing the wizard tower with a friend of mine on Discord and he also said those shouldn't be bonus actions, so I guess I'm not the only one. I should tell him.

 

[Lacrymas]

When I found out what the mysterious artifact (oOoooOOOoooO) does, I reloaded a previous save to give it to a more appropriate character (meta-gaming wooo) and I got events while traveling that I didn't get before that I think I should've because it foreshadows some things about said artifact. Is this event supposed to always trigger? The difference is that last time I went to Caer Lem first because I thought something would be changed there since the dialogue with the Scavangers indicated as much. So, yeah, Myzzrym, you might want to check on that.

 

[7h30n]

There are a few weird things that I noticed, though. Why can I cast random spells on my paladins and the cleric as bonus actions? Stuff like Healing Word, Divine Favor, Shield of Faith, etc.

In 5E these spells have casting time of a bonus action, so it works exactly as it should.

=O I just checked the PHB and you are right. I've never noticed this before lololol. I was doing the wizard tower with a friend of mine on Discord and he also said those shouldn't be bonus actions, so I guess I'm not the only one. I should tell him.

Another, often missed rule, is that you cannot cast non-cantrip spells as an action if you cast a spell as a bonus action. I.e. if you cast a spell of some level as an action, you cannot cast another one as a bonus action and vice verse.

 

[NJClaw]

There are a few weird things that I noticed, though. Why can I cast random spells on my paladins and the cleric as bonus actions? Stuff like Healing Word, Divine Favor, Shield of Faith, etc.

What a noob.

This might also be a bug, but I think I didn't get the option to attack with my off-hand when I had a spiritual weapon out. I should be able to either attack with the spiritual weapon OR attack with my off-hand.

That sounds like a bug. It wouldn't be the first one with the UI action slots: while very functional and the perfect the way it is ( ), it seems that sometimes certain available actions "overlap" on the same slots, making only one of them available. And the fact that you can attack with an offhand weapon AND cast Spiritual Weapon with the same character can only mean that you are playing some sort of Cleric/Rogue hybrid even in this game. You are incorrigible.

There should also be a more obvious distinction between combat and non-combat spells like Prayer of Healing. Yeah, you could meticulously alt-hover every spell to make sure it's non-combat, but just a warning on normal hover would be a nice QoL feature.

Spells descriptions are still pretty buggy and incomplete, so I guess they will address the issues with them somewhere down the road.

 

[Lacrymas]

you are playing some sort of Cleric/Rogue hybrid even in this game. You are incorrigible.

Guilty as charged. My party consists of 2 Paladins, the Cleric, and a Wizard. I wanted to create a Warhammer-style holy inquisitor group (all of them somehow ended up quipping Josh Wheedon-esque one-liners all the time and not the self-righteous dignity that I wanted) and the Cleric seemed like the perfect fit to "replace" the rogue. Speaking of personalities, can you pick less than 4 personality tags?

 

[NJClaw]

you are playing some sort of Cleric/Rogue hybrid even in this game. You are incorrigible.

Guilty as charged. My party consists of 2 Paladins, the Cleric, and a Wizard. I wanted to create a Warhammer-style holy inquisitor group (all of them somehow ended up quipping Josh Wheedon-esque one-liners all the time and not the self-righteous dignity that I wanted) and the Cleric seemed like the perfect fit to "replace" the rogue. Speaking of personalities, can you pick less than 4 personality tags?

Somehow I managed to get only 3 "final" personality tags on some characters, but I honestly don't know how. I think I picked the same two traits both for my alignment and my background, while also already having those traits from my class, but I'm not sure if "class traits" even are a thing.

 

[The_Mask]

Please have my party be automatically selected for the camera follow after I exit the map. I'm getting pretty tired of drawing squares on my screen for no reason.

 

[The_Mask]

I see there is keyboard input for selecting my characters (1-4), but I suspect it is not that hard to also switch those for dialogue option select.

It feels a weird kind of rudimentary to not have keyboard input in your RPG, but have pointer-select. Is this a deliberate choice of the director?

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

There's no point in trying to keep a cat out of anywhere - just can't be done, they always find a way. But the good news is, unlike dogs, they're clean and don't stink - so why wouldn't you let them in your bed?

I was about to say, how do you keep a cat off a bed? unless you guard it 24/7

 

[The_Mask]

So full disclosure, I'm a bit bitchy about the title because I invested in it, and so I want to see it do well, because it's a project I actually care about.

I know that it is an industry "standard" these days, but back in 5th grade I learned that when you make a map, you have to have 3 components: show unit of measurement in rapport to tile, map has to have clear edges and show north, and last but not least: the map has to have a legend.

These things are not difficult to implement, I imagine, and it's a standard even a 5th grader should aim for. Why do I have pictures and towns and settlements on the map, but nothing to tell me what they are?




I mean don't take it the wrong way: this title is still light years from PoE just shooting verbal diarrhea and expecting me to know where everything is. Or Kingmaker that expected me to make international decisions by giving me only a map of the Stolen Lands...

 

[Crispy]

I finally decided to try this and I'm pleasantly surprised.

I'm sure it's already been stated ITT many times, but other than the campy and frankly cheesy voice work and awkward pacing of the spoken dialog, this is quite the polished little game so far.

Once I wrestled the camera control scheme into what I'm used to (set the Confine Cursor to Window option in GUI to allow screen edge scrolling) I'm enjoying the honest D&D experience it offers.

I wish the combat grid could be toned down a little, and I wish I could turn off the God-awful (hovering) green character selection circles, but this game nicely tickles my old-school RPG funny bone.

Just barely made it out of town, so I'm very early in, but I wanted to put an Old Man's (tentative) stamp of approval on this game in case anyone else was wondering if the $28 Steam Early Access of it is worth it. It is.

 

[Lacrymas]

After doing maybe half the third dungeon, I'd say there are too many repeated fights. I'll spoiler them.

Spoiler

There are like 4-5 fights that consist only of ghouls, 4 that are some combination of zombies and dark apprentices, and only 1 which had only skeletons. It would be better had every fight had a combination of all of these types of enemies.

I'm familiar with the concept of attrition fights, but since we are quite a high level now (4) most of the fights consist of auto attacking and cantrip spam. I'd dare say Larian have better encounter design than this. There's a single fight which showed some kind of non-gimmicky encounter design, the last one in the library tower. You have to step up your game, Solasta. I'm not sure how much of this is subject to change ...but it should be changed.

Also, there should definitely be an animation speed slider.

As an overall impression up until now, I don't want to be overly negative because I like the combat, but it feels like a diet RPG. Linear corridor maps, samey encounters, no gameplay outside of combat (i.e. no exploration or alternate solutions [kinda]), very few classes, NWN2-looking 3D. Nothing dissuades me so far from my opinion the budget was thrown at gimmicks and trivialities like voice acting, spell SFX, and 3D which isn't pulled off very well.

At least it doesn't throw magic items at as at every corner, which is good. But if this is to be salvaged, it needs to have bleeding edge encounter design on the higher difficulty levels. Since the mission structure is so linear and the classes so few, the devs can always know which level you are when and roughly what you are capable of, so the question of balance become much easier and manageable.

 

[The_Mask]

So cool story: I arrive at this Tower of Magic, and I have this super-duper amazing thief that has super-duper stats into stealth and sleight-of-hand, but all I can do with that is fiddle my thumbs.

I could (sort-of) understand why I couldn't steal anything in the city. Maybe it would be too expensive to design an area where you could steal to your hearts' content (although Baldur's Gate was fine with that concept 20 years ago, but whatever) - but how come I can't steal from LITERALLY hostile targets?

The circle is red. I can sneak right next to him. I am behind him. I am a trained thief. What's the problem?!?



Are you boys here making something that is LOOKING to be ripped appart by the Codex? Are you boys playing around with duckies in the kiddie pool? What is this?!?

 

[Yosharian]

How the fuck do you play even one session of 5E without finding out that Healing Word is a bonus action spell?

 

[mediocrepoet]

So cool story: I arrive at this Tower of Magic, and I have this super-duper amazing thief that has super-duper stats into stealth and sleight-of-hand, but all I can do with that is fiddle my thumbs.

I could (sort-of) understand why I couldn't steal anything in the city. Maybe it would be too expensive to design an area where you could steal to your hearts' content (although Baldur's Gate was fine with that concept 20 years ago, but whatever) - but how come I can't steal from LITERALLY hostile targets?

The circle is red. I can sneak right next to him. I am behind him. I am a trained thief. What's the problem?!?



Are you boys here making something that is LOOKING to be ripped appart by the Codex? Are you boys playing around with duckies in the kiddie pool? What is this?!?

Just kill him and take his stuff like an honest adventurer!

 

[Bastardchops]

What's this verticality, i can jump on a table/rock and the enemies and i get a bonus to hit?

From what I understand they're incorporating Mario mechanics where you control the party with the mouse clicks but you can then use keypresses to jump party members onto enemy heads like they're goombas. This deals like 1000d6 damage and basically one shots anything.

 

[NJClaw]

How the fuck do you play even one session of 5E without finding out that Healing Word is a bonus action spell?

It can happen, if your mind is obfuscated by the constant thought of having sex with the other players.

 

[mediocrepoet]

How the fuck do you play even one session of 5E without finding out that Healing Word is a bonus action spell?

It can happen, if your mind is obfuscated by the constant thought of having sex with the other players.

God I hope your table looks different than literally every single one I've ever sat at, including ones with females at it.