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

[Ontopoly]

The only reason you're here is because you got butt hurt at people thinking your coveted bg3 was out shined by some indie game.

You do realize Solasta and BG3 are essentially the same game with different content, right?

The only difference between Solasta and bg3 is larian. It's pretty obvious why I'm not too excited about bg3.

 

[Kabas]

Completing the ToEE wasn't enough to burn me out of my desire for some party based rpgs, so decided to try this. I liked it.
I am unfamilliar with the 5th edition DnD and only somewhat understand some of the nuances of 3.5 so you can freely discard my opinion as that of a filthy casual.

Most of the combat so far was a bit on the easy side with a few exceptions.
The lack of cleric didn't hurt my party as hard as i thought, though having both ranger and rogue felt a bit redundant to me. Overall my party ended being rather low on wisdom and it didn't hurt much.
I found the writing quialty to be oddly endearing despite it's awkwardness. These weird party bantz has grown on me.
I have no complaints about the graphics, except faces and UI. Overall the game looks rather beatiful.
I must admit i felt a surge of pure childish glee when i realised that this game has implemented the levitation/fly spells.
Not sure if bug or i missed something but it doesn't seem like my devotion paladin can channel divinity through his weapon. Nothing seems to happen then i activate this ability.
Not sure if one of the Hunter specialties that grants 1d8 bonus damage against damaged targets is too small or not. This ability was definitely useful against that flying boss of the second dungeon, she managed to break his concentration and force him to fall to his death. That was cool.
Shock arcanist is an effective blaster caster, i like him.
The darkweaver felt to me like the most non-brainer rogue archetype to choose, considering the fact that the tactic of shooting from the high ground was the tactic i ended up using the most. Didn't manage to find or craft any poison yet.

The overlap of ranger and rogues roles bothers me way too much than it should, so i will restart as new party or maybe wait until the game is out of early access. Either way, i already liked what this game has to offer so far.

 

[Whisper]

I am unfamilliar with the 5th edition DnD and only somewhat understand some of the nuances of 3.5 so you can freely discard my opinion as that of a filthy casual.

Most of the combat so far was a bit on the easy side with a few exceptions.

When combat is easy even for casuals.

 

[Thac0]

Ok, let's organize some olympic games, one team with full armor and one with naked barbarians...

You fucking retard.

One nerd built one armor, he shows this shitty video and and suddenly, guys in full plate armors are faster than guys without it.

Not only that's wrong, but there wasn't just one kind of plate armor, each country had probably dozens if not hundreds of different type over the centuries.
Even the lighter ones at the end of the middle age restrict movement to some extent...

You underestimate how fucking good Plate Armor was.
The movement restriction is largely negligible, you can climb, swim, sprint in full plate no problem.
But these armors cost a fortune, more than a house with a plot of land at times. Armored Knights were the Tanks of the medieval world, a costly investion but you need specialised weapons to stop them.
If you ever had the choice between any lesser armor and full plate you would go with full plate.

One big advantage for fighting naked however is ventilation. Particularily for hit and run combat, which goes on for a longer time than normal combat and was practised by the northern tribes a lot, the exhaustion benefit you get from super light armor becomes relevant.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

swim

Wait a sec, what was Barbarossa wearing then?

 

[NJClaw]

swim

Wait a sec, what was Barbarossa wearing then?

"after the many and terrible exertions that he [Frederick I] had undergone in the previous month and more, he decided to bathe in that same river, for he wanted to cool down with a swim. But by the secret judgment of God there was an unexpected and lamentable death and he drowned"

 

[Nortar]

swim

Wait a sec, what was Barbarossa wearing then?

The weight of his many years.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

swim

Wait a sec, what was Barbarossa wearing then?

The weight of his many years.

Ah so.

 

[Elex]

Ironically 5e is very good at avoiding an MMO Trinity, even better than Pathfinder imo.

Healing is shit, healing spells heal in quite low quantity compared to the action type you need to use to cast them. There are no healing surges or feats you can use in Pathfinder to make a dedicated healer.

Healing has two purposes in 5e, sustain between fights so you can survive until you reach the next save point for a long rest, and death juggling. That is a bit of a retarded consequence of the game having no negative HP, and the threshhold to kill someone at 0 HP with a single strike is very high. If someone falls to 0 healing him to 7 hp or so with a quick ranged healing word spell is very effective, and carries little risk of death for him since there is also no Attack of Opportunity on standing up.

Tanking is not very good either, there are no dazzling displays or other usefull things a tank can do except damage, and it is harder to stack resistances, saves and AC to make a real tank. You can not get above 20-23 AC with the new bounded accuracy without insane magic loot. Also attack of opportunities are bad in 5e, since you ever have only one and it does not scale with extra attacks and so on.

Everyone in 5e is either a Bruiser, a Glass cannon, a Controller or a Waste of Space to cite Treatmonk. Although he calls the Bruisers Tanks which is inaccurate imo.And there can be characters doing multiple of these combat roles at once.
There is one subclass that can make a good in combat healer, the life cleric. And maaaaybeee you can make a lore bard a good combat healer if you snatch some Paladin spells out of order with magical secrets.

As such 5e has the potential to be made into a really good combatfag game, and that is why I am hopefull for Solasta.

This is why people in the codex think they need a party with 6 members: they think they NEED to fill the roles with backline and frontline. While instead 5 e is all about dominate the action economy.

 

[Elex]

Absolutely. I have been told that I am quite good aswell, but sadly I have problems scheduling games nowadays because my work demands irregular schedules.

95% of the 5e rulework is rock solid, and if you think it does not work you are merely applying it wrong.
There are some touch ups on which I like to work, specifically more engaging traps and camping/travel rules and better magic items and loot, but in general you should never have your rules be more harsh than the default 5e book rules.
I experimented with carry weight, wounds/injuries and harsher resting years ago for more survival themed campaigns, and truth to be told that just doesn't fit into DnD anymore. I play (or master) DSA for that.

The weak spot of 5e is exploration and travel is non existant as rules and is all on the DM doing it right. The worst part is that travel allow the party to always be full rested and any encounter become easy, unless the DM start to throw deadly stuff during a travel.

5e require a lot of fights for consume players resources (players in 5e are a lot stronger than in older editions).

 

[Thac0]

The weak spot of 5e is exploration and travel is non existant as rules and is all on the DM doing it right. The worst part is that travel allow the party to always be full rested and any encounter become easy, unless the DM start to throw deadly stuff during a travel.

I wouldn't call it the worst, since having a few easy fights were the players can RP goblin diplomacy or try out some unconventional tactics without threat do not hurt enjoyment.

But yes, it is very hard to make a hex crawl type adventure due to how easy resting is.

This is why people in the codex think they need a party with 6 members: they think they NEED to fill the roles with backline and frontline. While instead 5 e is all about dominate the action economy.

Technically old editions work like that aswell. You usually end up with two units who want to engage the enemy in melee, two units with bows or rogues, two units which are fullcasters in robes in the back.
It is the same dynamic in double, with rogue classes being wastes of space with the ability to defuse traps and open locks.

But yeah you do not need a cleric or a rogue at all in 5e, unlike 2e, 3e. A good change for tabletop at least imo.
Instead they become normal combat classes.

 

[santino27]

To each their own. I played one 5e campaign (pnp) and didn't care for the changes, but I am old and stuck in my ways.

 

[Spectacle]

It's easy to make 5e work better for wilderness exploration games with house rules for resting, for example have a short rest be an overnight rest and a long rest be a full day of resting in a secure location.

 

[Abu Antar]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1096530/announcements/detail/2936876825428894633

Dev Update #26 - Welcome 2021 & Community Feedback #2!
Hello there everyone,

Hope you all enjoyed some quality winter break, hiding under your blanket sipping hot cocoa like I did. In any case Tactical Adventures is back at work, ready to build features, create assets and slay more bugs! And we're not the only ones back either...

Our adorable feline friends are making a comeback too!

What's been cooking since our Winter Update?
You probably noticed, the Winter Update was not exactly bug-free. And while nothing is ever perfectly bug-free - especially during an Early Access - let's not pretend that we were anywhere close to satisfied when we saw the amount of bugs this last update introduced. Which is why we're planning on releasing an update focused on polish next week, which will tackle most of the issues brought up by the community these last few weeks.

The fixes should range from the most problematic ones, such as the one teleporting and locking you into a cutscene after killing ghosts in the Wizard's Tower, to more annoying ones that have been around for a long time, such as fixing some feats which just didn't work. In any case, we'll be releasing the full patch notes when the update drops as usual!

Any future content update plans in mind?
Honestly? We're not certain. As some of you already know, we've stated on our Steam Early Access FAQ that we're aiming for around 6 months of Early Access. While we can never be sure of the exact duration (otherwise we'd already have announced a release date), we don't intend to stray too far from that estimation.

Every content update we drop has an impact on the final release of the game: we need to stabilize the build, test it, debug it and polish it before putting it on Steam, and our Winter Update was a good example of how things can sometimes go wrong when we don't allocate sufficient time for that. All of this is time invested away from completing the final game, since there's a good chance we'll be altering or breaking things again when we add or change game systems later on.

Which means we're currently balancing our options between A) solely focusing towards the finish line and get the final version of the game out so that everyone can enjoy Solasta in its entirety, with all its intended features and full campaign - or B) working out appropriate conditions and time to churn out another content update before that. And while the latter would allow us to have you try out new features and levels to keep the feedback coming on improvements and suggestions, there is always this little risk looming around the corner of impacting the final release - or worse, having to cut a feature or a level.

That being said, it just might end up that we'll be able to release a content update around the end of Winter without having to compromise anything in our final release, but we've always been very transparent with you on the how's and why's when we make decisions. In any case, be certain that we'll keep you informed if or when we do decide to release a new content update!

Spoiler

Community Feedback #2 - More questions, more answers!
Alright folks, it's time to tackle them suggestions and feedback again! Get a warm blanket and a mug of hot beverage ready, this is going to be long.

Isn't Crafting a tad bit hard to understand (and kinda bugged too)?

Indeed! As stated in some threads here and there, the Crafting System isn't fully implemented yet - which means that some recipes are bugged (asking for the wrong type of weapon for instance) and more importantly, we're missing some tooltip showing you what the crafted item is supposed to do. We'll be polishing Crafting later on, especially when we're done implementing all the magic items we intend to have in the final game.

We're also considering relaxing Crafting requirements as well, as we understand it feels kind of bad when you select Herbalism Kit proficiency but then realize that you can't craft Potions of healing because you can't cast Cure Light Wounds. Although that is the official tabletop rule it is no secret that crafting hasn't been very well developed yet in the 5th edition.

Would it be possible to highlight the Active Character a bit more during combat?

So we did notice that quite a few people had issues following whose turn it was during combat, which could become quite confusing when so many units are in play (and not necessarily close to each other). We're already added a "Enemy Turn" overlay in our Winter Update, but we do plan on making some other improvements for visual clarity in battles.


Would it be possible to automatically refill quivers at the end of the fight (provided you have ammunition in your backpack)?

That would be pretty great! However while this seems like one of these "quick fixes", it is actually not that trivial. Making changes related to the inventory system is always a big risk, as there's so many things that can go wrong - and are not always easy to detect! One recent example with the Winter Patch was for instance being able to duplicate armors if you used double click to equip them (why only armors, eeeeh...). It's something we might try to add if we have the time - and while the coding itself might not take long, the testing resulting from that change will take much more time.

Would it be possible to use Dialog-related features (such as Golden Speech) during Cutscenes instead of having to pre-emptively doing so before talking to NPCs?

This is already in our (very long) internal Improvement List! Ideally we would indeed want players to be able to use those features when the dialog checks come up, as it can be frustrating to have to guess whether or not you should use your powers before talking to an NPC.

Would it be possible to make passive Arcana Checks to recognize a spell before using Counterspell?

Yes! That is a fairly popular homebrew a lot of DMs are using, and we are indeed working on implementing this as we feel it rewards putting points in Arcana. Enemy's spell names will be hidden unless the party succeeds an Arcana check to recognize it, and we're considering adding modifiers depending on if it's a spell that one of the party members knows for instance.

Is it possible to identify all magic arrows / potions at once provided they are the same?

Yes, this is something that should be already done on our side, so you will see it in the final game. With this change, casting identify on a +1 Arrow will identify every +1 Arrows in the character's inventory - same with potions, identifying a Potion of Healing will identify every Potion of Healing in the character's inventory. Note that you will still have to identify different potions separately, in the example above identifying a Potion of Healing won't identify a Potion of Giant Strength if you have one in your inventory.

Can you add an On / Off trigger for Paladin's Smite popup?

At the start of the project we had to make a choice between the Reaction pop-up (which is what we currently have in-game), or a toggle option (similar to what Baldur's Gate 3 has) which would automatically trigger the action if toggled on. Transitioning now to a hybrid system is something that is both very costly and very risky, as we would need to break down the entire Reaction system to build it back up with both the toggle and the pop-up systems working together. While we understand the reasons for wanting such a thing (clicking No on smite whenever you strike a lowly goblin can get tiring pretty fast), this is something we can only consider when we have more time at hand.

Can you add an option to speed up time during battles?

This is actually an option we already have in debug mode, so yes it's absolutely planned. Now you might be wondering why we haven't added it to the game if it's already in debug mode - and the simple answer is because speeding up time can cause quite a few nasty bugs. Which is not a big issue when we're using it internally, but ideally we'd like to avoid releasing a bugged feature if we can.

Aren't random encounters on the World Map a bit too easy? It feels like free XP...

As stated before we'll be taking a closer look at balancing before the release of the final game, once we've implemented difficulty settings. Right now there are a fair amount of encounters that are too easy (such as the lone Minotaur next to the monastery) or too hard (such as Mardracht and his crownies) if we wanted to be consistent with difficulty, so don't worry we're aware of it.

Is the Fly spell not working?

It works, but we've noticed a lot of players weren't aware of how to use Planar Mode to be able to properly move their character in 3D. We're thinking about highlighting the Planar Mode button whenever the player casts a spell like Fly or Levitate so that it's more obvious. For those who might be wondering, Planar Mode can be toggled on and off by clicking the button on the bottom right, which looks like 3 sheets of paper on top of each other (layers) located inside the compass - it allows you to select the elevation for your movement by using the Mouse Scroll Wheel. Otherwise, you can also do that by pressing Shift while using the scroll wheel

Here is what the button looks like, in the middle of the compass

Ready Action does not allow you to choose which Cantrip to ready up...

Our Ready Action button is using a very simplistic version of the tabletop ready action, and we actually have a more complex design that we'd like to implement in the long run. We can't say for sure how it will look like or work right now (since it will depend on the time we have to work on this feature), but we do plan on allowing you to choose which cantrip to ready up in the future.

Can we have the Tabletop Rules for carrying capacity?

We do plan on adding an option to allow players to choose between the Carrying Capacity Variant (Solasta), the Tabletop Rule (15x Strength Score) or simply disabling the system (carry as much as you want).

Will we eventually be able to stop / turn back during World Map travels?

It's a request we've seen a lot, and it's a fairly logical one at that, so we do intend to work on implementing it. Also a bit different but in the same category as World Map, we plan on adding the "I" key as shortcut for the Inventory (for some reason it wasn't added on the World Map).


Alright folks, this is the end for today! Thank you for reading, and don't hesitate to drop by our Forums or our Discord Server.

Read our previous articles here:

• Solasta Winter Update - Patch Notes
• Winter Update, Community Stream & GOG Release!
• Dev Update #25 - New Content Sneak Peek

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

 

[V_K]

Moar cats!

 

[NJClaw]

Can you add an On / Off trigger for Paladin's Smite popup?

At the start of the project we had to make a choice between the Reaction pop-up (which is what we currently have in-game), or a toggle option (similar to what Baldur's Gate 3 has) which would automatically trigger the action if toggled on. Transitioning now to a hybrid system is something that is both very costly and very risky, as we would need to break down the entire Reaction system to build it back up with both the toggle and the pop-up systems working together. While we understand the reasons for wanting such a thing (clicking No on smite whenever you strike a lowly goblin can get tiring pretty fast), this is something we can only consider when we have more time at hand.

I don't get it. Whatever their implementation of the pop-up reaction system may be, adding a toggle option that, when enabled, sets the default answer to the pop-up to "true" or "false" shouldn't require an entirely new system. Just check the toggle before starting to wait for the user's action and, if it's enabled, use its value. It seems pretty straightforward to me, I don't understand what I'm missing here.

 

[Cryomancer]

Considering how light/darkness and verticality is important, why not introduce more (SUB) classes focused on it? D&D 2e had the shadow mage which on 2e

In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the Player's Option: Spells & Magic sourcebook featured, (...), shadow mages have no resistance to spells of their specialty school. Additionally, the penalty their shadow magic spells inflict to their targets' saving throws depends on the ambient lighting; +2 for bright daylight or a continual light spell; no penalty for weak daylight, dusk or a light spell; -1 for twilight, moonlight or lantern light; -2 weak moonlight or torchlight; -3 for candlelight or starlight; and finally a whopping -4 penalty for total darkness.
"+2 for bright daylight or a continual light spell; no penalty for weak daylight, dusk or a light spell; -1 for twilight, moonlight or lantern light; -2 weak moonlight or torchlight; -3 for candlelight or starlight; and finally a whopping -4 penalty for total darkness."

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Shadow_Magic

This can be seem counter intuitive for 5e players but saves worked differently on 2e. The save is how a creature needs to roll in a D20 to "save". For eg, BG2 Firkraag had a save vs spell of 6. It means that to take half damage of a lightning bolt, he needs to roll 6 or higher. However, a necromancer specialized wizard can impose a -2 penalty and the finger of death, another -2, meaning that instead of rolling 6, he needs to roll 10 or be OHKilled. With greater malison, a 14. Since 5e aims to be more "simplistic", I would suggest that the caster is at disadvantage at light and the enemy at disadvantage at the darkness. Spells like tentacles or mage hand to manipulate the scenario or even push would be pretty amazing. The sourcebook Defilers and preservers ALSO had a "shadow wizard" kit for the Dark Sun setting however, it just would't fit a Solastian campaign.

Martial classes with manuvers that can use the verticality like a fighter rushing and shield bashing to knock down the enemy also would be cool.

More types of arrows too. Incendiary arrows, "pushing" magical arrows and so on would be pretty amazing.

 

[lycanwarrior]

To each their own. I played one 5e campaign (pnp) and didn't care for the changes, but I am old and stuck in my ways.

I'm surprised 5e is even being adapted for computer gaming.

Especially with feats being optional in 5e, it doesn't seem like it is as well suited as DnD 3.x for number-crunching/powergaming...

 

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

Moar cats!

Here you go, this happens when I try to work from home these days.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Moar cats!

Here you go, this happens when I try to work from home these days.

Can't be more distracting than Husky puppy.

 

[Koolz]

Moar cats!

Here you go, this happens when I try to work from home these days.

I love Cats!!!!!!

 

[Whisper]

We do plan on adding an option to allow players to choose between the Carrying Capacity Variant (Solasta), the Tabletop Rule (15x Strength Score) or simply disabling the system (carry as much as you want).

simply disabling the system (carry as much as you want).

lol what

first was lighting nerf
that rations nerf
now carrying capacity nerf

lol wtf is wrong with them?

 

[gurugeorge]

To each their own. I played one 5e campaign (pnp) and didn't care for the changes, but I am old and stuck in my ways.

I'm surprised 5e is even being adapted for computer gaming.

Especially with feats being optional in 5e, it doesn't seem like it is as well suited as DnD 3.x for number-crunching/powergaming...

It's not, the feel of it is very different in some ways - although not necessarily worse, it depends on whether number-crunching goodness and deeply pondering every move is essential to your gaming pleasure or not. The feel of Solasta is sort of kinetic, you only have a few toys, but you get to know them very well, so encounters go pretty quickly and have a nice flow.

If one compares that to a game where you have tons of options and have to ponder every move, this 5e makes the turn-based gameplay feel more like realtime almost, because you're not spending a lot of time pondering your options and being disconnected from the simulated action on-screen; you kind of intuitively know what to do next, so it's more like you're "in" a sort of quasi-realtime flow, you're not stopping and starting as much as you would with a deeper system.

One could say it's dumbed down, or "streamlined," depending on your taste.

 

[Bara]

Every adventurer group in solasta is given a free portable hole upon apointment by the council I guess.

 

[V_K]

Moar cats!

Here you go, this happens when I try to work from home these days.