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

[fantadomat]

Are they all arabs? It could be a bunch migrant children that died in transition to italia.

 

[Abu Antar]

[Beta Branch] Stability Hotfix - 0.4.15b
Hello there folks!

We've rolled out a small Stability Hotfix patch for people who are running into infinite loading screens and similar crashes. As we want to make sure this small patch does not cause more issues than it fixes (and since it literally only contains bug fixes), we've decided to upload it to a BETA branch on Steam.

Important Note:

• This version does NOT fix the bug where you're stuck in a cutscene with the dragon after fighting ghosts. Don't worry, you're not missing much - the content of the Winter Patch ends right after that cutscene anyway
  
• If you're running into infinite loading screens, make sure you read the following thread: https://forums.solasta-game.com/forum/data-corruption-what-to-do-if-youre-stuck-in-infinite-loading-screens

Should I get the hotfix

• If you're not currently running into any game-breaking bug while playing Solasta, you can safely ignore this patch - it's only here for those who're having severe issues when playing Solasta.
• If that's your case, you can try to switch to the following BETA branch to download the patch and hopefully play in peace without those pesky bugs gnawing at your ankles!

How do I do that?

1. Open your Steam Library
2. Right Click on SOLASTA Crown of the Magister
3. Select Properties...
4. Select the BETAS tab
5. Put in the Beta code isaycrashbegone
6. Click on CHECK CODE
7. Select the Hotfix 0.4.15b branch (instead of NONE). If you can't see it, restart Steam and re-open the BETAS tab, it should be available now.
8. When you successfully select the Hotfix 0.4.15b, you should see a small message under the code box
9. That's it, just close the Properties window and the hotfix should start downloading!

This will be the last patch before we come back in January! We'll have to ask you all to be a bit patient until then, as the team will taking some well deserved rest during the christmas holidays.

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

 

[Lacrymas]

I finished the EA content. I wouldn't say it's good outside of the combat. And the combat only has the potential to be good, rather than what has been placed in front of me. Encounter design is abysmal and some of that has to do with how overleveled we are, but not everything. Most encounters feel placed randomly in an effort to just have an encounter there. We also have a lot of long rest zones, so that's also suspect. I'll just write a train-of-thought-style post and if there's some demand for a more in-depth review I'd do that too.

1. Presentation - it's rough. The voice acting is superfluous and very hit and miss, one of the actresses mispronounced the word "paladins" (she said palAdins, instead of pAladins). The spell FX are okay and probably the best of the visual aspects, but the casting animations need to go imo, or only to be used for very high level spells. You don't need a 2-3 second wind-up time for a cantrip which is supposed to be a snap of the finger. The graphics are NWN2-like, but they do have their charm *for me*. Objectively, however, this should've been a 2D game. Something, somewhere, is too expensive for the budget and it shows in everything.

2. Story - it's nerdy in a basement-dweller kind of way. It's okay if you are only expecting a typical fantasy romp that your local DM might cook up over the weekend. I'm not entirely sure what's even happening at the end and why the people who are there are there, but maybe it will be cleared up once we get the finished product. There are waaay too many concepts that pop up and aren't explored properly (Copperan's little Seven Suns problem for example), but I don't want to get that much into it, I'll leave it for the hypothetical review.

3. Gameplay - it's one-dimensional. Like I said many times before, the maps are very linear and the only thing you do is move from combat encounter to combat encounter with little hurdles along the way like puzzles that only require you having eyeballs in your face. The combat is theoretically fine, but it needs better encounter design. I can't stress this enough. Most encounters are samey and pointless. Maybe they'll be better if we aren't so grotesquely overleveled/overpowered, but as it stands now I dreaded getting into an encounter because it's just a slow inevitable victory for us by just auto-attacking and spamming cantrips in order to "conserve" spell slots we don't actually need. It's 5E with bad encounter design, bad AI, fewer classes, and no multiclassing, what more can I say?

I just now remembered the verticality aspect of the whole ordeal. It's there, alright. Apart from literally the first dungeon, it didn't change pretty much anything. Just like the lighting system, it's there to consume turns that could be spent not casting Dancing Lights or Fly/Spider Crawl. There's literally 1 build idea I have that utilizes verticality in any meaningful way. It's a gimmick, I think we are all familiar with those in games. Tabletop verticality is there because we are inhabiting a 3D space and it's a thing that exists in 3D spaces. It can be used as much as it can be used irl, but not so much in the very artificial world of a video game.

4. Art - it's fine. I'm lumping music in here as well, but the art/art direction is better than the music. The music is there, but I can't remember any of it, so there you go. There are some pretty cool environments, though, like the library tower. I'd say the maps need more set pieces like that library. Because the maps are so linear, they need something else to distract from that, and more set pieces would be great.

Overall, there is something going wrong with the development of this game. It feels uneconomical in a sense, it's not using its real estate in the most efficient way possible, but I'm not sure how to express this. The way the maps and the overall mission-like structure are put together doesn't scream "RPG" to me. From where I'm standing, you have 2 choices - either make it pseudo-open world like BG1, or more of a hub-based structure like Athkatla in BG2 or a myriad of other RPGs like that. There is a reason there are no RPGs like BG1 anymore, it's either time and resource intensive or it leads to samey forest maps like in BG1. Don't get me wrong, BG1 is one of my favorite games of all time, but those endless forests don't contribute much (apart from it feeling big). This kind of ties in with the "stuff isn't very developed" point I made earlier. The maps could be bigger and have more stuff in them, rather than small and corridor-like. You have a gothic Curse of Strahd-inspired castle, but there's nothing to do or see outside of drab and dreary piles of rock. There could be a whole story told here, you even have named characters and 1-2 pieces of scattered lore/journals, but nope, it's encounter after encounter and then it ends, woohoo. Copperan could be more of a hub than it is, with more side quests and a more involved main quest.

Instead of moving so fast from map to map, you could squeeze more out of each map by giving us stuff to do and explore. If I were to guess, I'd say the creation of a map consumes the most time and resources out of everything else atm, so why not utilize them better? Writing a few more quests per map to flesh them out and give us some more context is probably the easiest way to meaningfully stretch the usefulness of a map. I'm not gonna lie, it's kind of anxiety-inducing imagining you guys frantically creating map after map that gets consumed and discarded in a heartbeat. Having ideas is not as easy as it seems, so why treat them like disposable? Populate your maps, develop your ideas.

I'm screaming into the void, aren't I? There's too much wrong for it to be fixed during EA to become a great game. It could be a good combatfag game once the encounter design is improved, though.

PS
I still hate the UI.

 

[Harthwain]

one of the actresses mispronounced the word "paladins" (she said palAdins, instead of pAladins).

It should be PALadins.

Spoiler

Overall, there is something going wrong with the development of this game. It feels uneconomical in a sense, it's not using its real estate in the most efficient way possible, but I'm not sure how to express this. The way the maps and the overall mission-like structure are put together doesn't scream "RPG" to me.

Wouldn't it be more appropriate to compare it to a dungeon crawler? Something like Icewind Dale or The Dungeon of Nahuibek? A game doesn't have to have an open (or semi-open) world to be considered an RPG.

 

[Lacrymas]

It could be a dungeon crawler, but it doesn't have the budget for everything it wants to do. Linear map and mission structure is, I'd imagine, the most uneconomical way to build a game, but then they want to combine it with voice acting, fancy SFX, and 3D. Like I said, something somewhere is too expensive for the budget and it shows. The game is barebones and it feels like it's barebones because of design decisions that overburden the budget. I can tell the devs are having fun creating this game, but they are also shooting themselves in the foot by trying to lure popamole audiences rather than cater to their core.

 

[El Presidente]

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

Your cat looks A LOT like my cat :D

Spoiler

On-topic:
So as far as I'm reading here, this game isn't so good, right?

 

[Lacrymas]

I like cats.

On-topic:
So as far as I'm reading here, this game isn't so good, right?

As much as it pains me to say it, it isn't very good. At least in its current state. Like I pointed out, it has potentially great combat but it needs a thorough restructuring of the encounter design and better AI. Everything else doesn't have a chance imo.

Unless they take my advice and start making fewer but more elaborate and involved maps. Or have already done so for the maps after the EA content.

 

[El Presidente]

As much as it pains me to say it, it isn't very good. At least in its current state. Like I pointed out, it has potentially great combat but it needs a thorough restructuring of the encounter design and better AI. Everything else doesn't have a chance imo.

Yeah I read your thoughts on it, and they gave me the impression this game is beyond hope, those are too many flaws to fix and in my experience of tracking stuff that leaves EA/beta and goes 1.0 and onwards, it's unbelievably rare, not to say impossible, that a game reinvents itself to the point of fixing deeper design decisions with patches. Usually what you see is what you get with these EAs, when it's good you can just tell it and feel that patches will only refine it into even higher greatness. When it's bad, it almost never will miraculously turn into an amazing game when it goes 1.0. So much so I pity the forums of these games, they're always packed full of apologists preaching on how when 1.0 arrives every bug and every issue will be solved. Yeah, they never are.

 

[NJClaw]

So as far as I'm reading here, this game isn't so good, right?

The implementation of 5E is very satisfying and promising. Most encounters are not that creative or impressive, but the combat system on its own is enough for me to have fun with the game. The lack of many base classes is p. sad, but, as we all know, we live to suffer.

However, as Lacrymas said, everything outside of combat is not worth it and almost unsalvageable.

 

[Lacrymas]

Yeah I read your thoughts on it, and they gave me the impression this game is beyond hope, those are too many flaws to fix and in my experience of tracking stuff that leaves EA/beta and goes 1.0 and onwards, it's unbelievably rare, not to say impossible, that a game reinvents itself to the point of fixing deeper design decisions with patches. Usually what you see is what you get with these EAs, when it's good you can just tell it and feel that patches will only refine it into even higher greatness. When it's bad, it almost never will miraculously turn into an amazing game when it goes 1.0. So much so I pity the forums of these games, they're always packed full of apologists preaching on how when 1.0 arrives every bug and every issue will be solved. Yeah, they never are.

Although hope is a cruel mistress, I still think they might be able to do something with the difficulty modes they said the game will feature. The Pillars of Eternity games are unplayable below PotD, but are pretty ok combatfag games on PotD, so it's possible to turn this thing around. I'd say this should've been their goal from the very beginning once they realized they won't be able to get more than 6 classes in. Laser-focus on tight encounter design and great AI. I still don't understand why they went with this wishy-washy approach of trying to cater to everyone, especially with voice acting. We have a lot of examples of indie games which excel at the one thing they are trying to do and as such have garnered a sizable following. Solasta tries to be everything to everyone and manages to be nothing. Along with very uneconomical use of its existing real estate.

 

[V_K]

So as far as I'm reading here, this game isn't so good, right?

It's just Lacrymas cosplaying Zep Zepo. For some reason he got a hate boner on this game since, well, forever.

 

[Pink Jeddite]

This game looks ALOT better than BG3. I like the art style in Solasta

 

[Rinslin Merwind]

It's just Lacrymas cosplaying Zep Zepo. For some reason he got a hate boner on this game since, well, forever.

He hates the game so much, that he invents stuff on the fly, like "healing word not being bonus action in tabletop" despite him claiming to "prefer divine casters" and leaving clerics and druids as only casters in his homebrew setting. Meanwhile information about Healing Word being BONUS ACTION spell lies in open access to everyone on several sites.
El Presidente If you have some doubts about game quality, it is better to just wait patiently until release and then decide: to buy this game or not, instead of reading Lacrymas 's meager attempts to present this game in bad light. I wouldn't thrust his opinion in general about anything D&D related, since he described concept of Wizards as "fascistic", ffs. Just as V_K said - Lacrymas has a history of shitting on this game since forever. So I advice to read others people's thoughts first, because even if they underplay or overplay importance of some game elements, at least their posts don't reek of bias and hatred towards this game, at least not on such extent.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

My biggest gripe with the game is 5e being shite, which is not something that can change. Guess I'll just wait and see.

 

[Lacrymas]

It's just Lacrymas cosplaying Zep Zepo. For some reason he got a hate boner on this game since, well, forever.

He hates the game so much, that he invents stuff on the fly, like "healing word not being bonus action in tabletop" despite him claiming to "prefer divine casters" and leaving clerics and druids as only casters in his homebrew setting. Meanwhile information about Healing Word being BONUS ACTION spell lies in open access to everyone on several sites.
El Presidente If you have some doubts about game quality, it is better to just wait patiently until release and then decide: to buy this game or not, instead of reading Lacrymas 's meager attempts to present this game in bad light. I wouldn't thrust his opinion in general about anything D&D related, since he described concept of Wizards as "fascistic", ffs. Just as V_K said - Lacrymas has a history of shitting on this game since forever. So I advice to read others people's thoughts first, because even if they underplay or overplay importance of some game elements, at least their posts don't reek of bias and hatred towards this game, at least not on such extent.

I said that I never noticed them being bonus actions, big whoop. A friend of mine also didn't know they were bonus actions, so I'm not the only one. If you want to "debate" about the quality of this game, write your own thoughts like I did instead of dabbling in digital archeology about whether I said wizards are fascist or not.

 

[NJClaw]

Lacrymas cosplaying

 

[Lacrymas]

So as far as I'm reading here, this game isn't so good, right?

It's just Lacrymas cosplaying Zep Zepo. For some reason he got a hate boner on this game since, well, forever.

Since I'm not the only one saying that combat = potentially great, everything else = not so much, you can't proclaim bias on my part.

 

[V_K]

So as far as I'm reading here, this game isn't so good, right?

It's just Lacrymas cosplaying Zep Zepo. For some reason he got a hate boner on this game since, well, forever.

Since I'm not the only one saying that combat = potentially great, everything else = not so much, you can't proclaim bias on my part.

You're the only one (at least among people not on my ignore list) who's been making half a dozen posts expressing this (or some other criticism) on every single page of this thread.

 

[Lacrymas]

You're the only one (at least among people not on my ignore list) who's been making half a dozen posts expressing this (or some other criticism) on every single page of this thread.

Oh, that's just because I like moving my mouth flaps (the fleshy extensions at the end of my hands in this case) and getting attention after that.

 

[Darth Canoli]

You're the only one (at least among people not on my ignore list) who's been making half a dozen posts expressing this (or some other criticism) on every single page of this thread.

That's only because other Solasta detractors stopped caring after playing the demo.
I'm still lurking here hoping for a miracle.

The miracle would be the devs taking into account Lacrymas posts because so far, cosplaying or not, he makes only valid points.

 

[V_K]

That's only because other Solasta detractors stopped caring after playing the demo.

Which is a perfectly rational behavior, unlike having a hate boner.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Which is a perfectly rational behavior, unlike having a hate boner.

But it doesn't help to make the game the best experience it could, unlike Lacrymas behavior, which i salute.

I've read a negative review yesterday on the steam page, it was about the lights and about Solasta being a light management game, it got so much attention the devs did something about it.
And it's a good thing.

Of course, it could be the other way, retards could complain about not getting enough romances (or worse) or wanting a more streamlined experience (which seems difficult after what i've read) but when it goes in the right direction because of the rightful wrath of the players, we should all salute the effort (on both sides).

 

[V_K]

Which is a perfectly rational behavior, unlike having a hate boner.

But it doesn't help to make the game the best experience it could, unlike Lacrymas behavior, which i salute.

The best experience for whom? For people who don't like the game in the first place? Nope, that's not how it works.
Some people should just accept that some games are not for them and move on with their lives.

I've read a negative review yesterday on the steam page

One review. Not five posts a day all saying the same thing.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Well, of course, if you like cinematic dialogs, linear games and two hours long battle animations, well, that's it, Solasta is a JRPG ...

 

[Lacrymas]

Half my posts are replying to people thinking I have a vendetta against this game. Nobody has yet written any refutation against the actual points I made, but is impotently trying to fling shit at me for no reason. I don't hate this game at all, let alone just for the heck of it. I hate the UI, but that's beside the point. All I see is incorrigible fanboys.