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

[gurugeorge]

I'm really appreciating the UI. I agree with what some say that it could look a bit less modern (give it some mediaeval fantasy pizzazz), but in terms of functionality, it's actually really good - at least in combat (one might quibble with some of its other functionalities here and there).

It gets away from that whole thing of having shortcuts with icons that psychologically channel you into thinking about your options a certain way (as all on a level). Here, the "importance" of your options graphically, on the UI, matches the actual importance of your options. The logic of how you burrow down and select things in combat is intuitive and makes the gameplay flow very smoothly.

It's a much better way of doing things for D&D than a tray full of shortcuts that all look and feel the same (at least until you really get to know them) - PFK I am looking at you (love ya!).

It reminds me of the effort Cryptic did with their MMO Neverwinter - they also split up the options in a more thematic way rather than having everything flat and on a level.

Another nice little touch: a lot of the buffs are sustained by concentration.

I get the feeling that 5e actually leans towards simulationism a bit - certainly the way combat flows feels more "realistic" than many other games of this type. And while there's been some simplification, certainly, on the whole the streamlining works. And wonder of wonders, it all actually feels balanced - one gives as good as one gets (well, slightly better obvs), and one generally feels mighty, but one also feels one has to be cautious; or at least, one can't really afford to be reckless. So long as you observe responsible min-max rules, your build can have a fair bit of flavour, too.

 

[Mortmal]

Only thing i dont like about the UI is , where the hell is the xp bar. Else its very convenient , never been fighting with it unlike bG3.

 

[NJClaw]

Only thing i dont like about the UI is , where the hell is the xp bar. Else its very convenient , never been fighting with it unlike bG3.

It's in the character sheet. Go to the inventory and hover the mouse over the character level in the bottom part of the portrait to see how much experience you need to level up. The blue circle around the portrait gives a graphic indication.

 

[V_K]

Fixed for you.

On 2e, lv 0 commoners had d4 hp(1~4). Vecna, a demigod Lich? 150 hp

No. The point isn't absolute numbers - those are meaningless - it's the geometric growth that makes HP bloated in DnD. If a lvl 20 character has around 20 times more hp than a lvl 1 character - that's bloat, and it doesn't really matter whether that describes a 20000 to 1000 relation, or a 200 to 10 one.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Why do you, fags, comparing this modern shit with party size of 4 to ToEE?

ToEE is the Dark Souls of RPG Codex.

 

[Cryomancer]

There is no HP bloat in 5E.

Imagine if had...

No. The point isn't absolute numbers - those are meaningless - it's the geometric growth that makes HP bloated in DnD. If a lvl 20 character has around 20 times more hp than a lvl 1 character - that's bloat, and it doesn't really matter whether that describes a 20000 to 1000 relation, or a 200 to 10 one.

Back on 2e, the CON bonus and hit dice was smaller, also you get almost no hp after lv 10. 2e only had that amout of bloat if you maxed hp per level and had 18 CON. Hell, the slayer form setted your hp to 100. And note that a lv 20 character represents the peak of the peak of the humanity in a high fantasy world. Lv 1 represents a guy a little more powerful than a lv 0 peasant.

And lv 20 fighter only has 30 more hp than a lv 10 fighter on 2e.

 

[Alienman]

Why does the cleric do a survival role after combat? I don't get that one.

 

[Skdursh]

Using gamer words to name characters; allowed or no?

 

[gurugeorge]

Why do you, fags, comparing this modern shit with party size of 4 to ToEE?

ToEE is the Dark Souls of RPG Codex.

I think the point of the ToEE comparison is that ToEE moved the genre further forward in terms of implementing and representing a fuller proportion of the ruleset in digital form, and this game is a further iteration on that concept. They've put a lot of thought into how to show and make viable options that are normallly less-used or not used at all in D&D CRPGs, like the flying and jumping spells (in the same way that the implementation of Initiative was an initially novel thing when ToEE came out).

Regardless of the devs' intentions (though I can't imagine ToEE would have been far from their minds) this is kind of a spiritual successor to ToEE, more of the same, and better done, with some great innovations of its own.

The 4 or 6 party thing is relatively trivial in comparison. There's a certain tight discipline that's enjoyable with 4 people (if one gets my drift ). No doubt modders will eventually get on the case, but I think the VO is probably the right amount for 4 ppl, but might start to sound repetitive with 6. But then they could always add more VO so that 6 person teams are viable in a later campaign.

 

[Mortmal]

End of EA is heavily bugged, first time there's a little bit of exploration, you get two way to enter the castle, by main gate the stupid way , and going in a secret sewer passage on the side. Of course choosing the second path rewards you with a gamebreaking bug and the journal frozen at first step "enter the courtyard" .

 

[Cryomancer]

Why do you, fags, comparing this modern shit with party size of 4 to ToEE?

ToEE is the Dark Souls of RPG Codex.

I think the point of the ToEE comparison is that ToEE moved the genre further forward in terms of implementing and representing a fuller proportion of the ruleset in digital form, and this game is a further iteration on that concept. They've put a lot of thought into how to show and make viable options that are normallly less-used or not used at all in D&D CRPGs, like the flying and jumping spells (in the same way that the implementation of Initiative was an initially novel thing when ToEE came out).

Regardless of the devs' intentions (though I can't imagine ToEE would have been far from their minds) this is kind of a spiritual successor to ToEE, more of the same, and better done, with some great innovations of its own.

The 4 or 6 party thing is relatively trivial in comparison. There's a certain tight discipline that's enjoyable with 4 people (if one gets my drift ). No doubt modders will eventually get on the case, but I think the VO is probably the right amount for 4 ppl, but might start to sound repetitive with 6. But then they could always add more VO so that 6 person teams are viable in a later campaign.

Well said. Similarities on Solasta and ToEE

• Both are the most faithful adaptations of their age main ruleset on the market
• Both are TB
• Both are party based and focus on the entire party, not only in a guy
• Focus on low level with a campaign adequate to low level(no mindflayer spelljammer fighting draconic army and you starting on lv 1)
• You miss a lot on both games
• You can roll stats on both games
• Both are developed by a small team
• Both are very tactical
• Both respect the player agency
• (...)

 

[Reinhardt]

Two Tidbits from around the official forums

Spoiler

Q:Loving the game! In the 5e rule set you can cast and attack with Spiritual Weapon as a bonus action on the turn that you cast the spell. Is this cast as an action and then attack intentional?

A:At the moment it's a technical limitation that makes us have it cast as an action (instead of a bonus action). The rest of the spell remains the same, but during the Early Access it will remain an action (we have to see if we can fix that limitation)

Q: Do we have any kind of an ETA for a Mac release? I know one is in the works, but I haven't seen any sort of timeline or ballpark for when it might come out.

A:Sorry none yet, it will be after 1.0 releases though so not during Early Access

People dying a lot on the tutorial to teach folks to use disengage

Spoiler

How to defeat Greyback Wolf on the Stone Bridge
Hey there folks,

We're seeing a lot of people dying to the Greyback Wolf on the Stone Bridge level. We're going to rework that tutorial for release, but in the meantime here is what you're supposed to do:

- Use Disengage
- Click on the shiny rock to push it
- The rock will fall and destroy the bridge
- Level complete!

Planed Updates & Known Bugs

Spoiler

Planned Improvements

• "Hide" Action has not been implemented yet
• Unconscious / Death System not fully implemented yet
• Option to disable auto camera panning on screen borders not implemented yet
• Difficulty Levels not implemented yet
• Animation Speed to be adjusted
• Spells range are not displayed on the battle grid yet
• Unseen enemies currently take too much time during battles
• Loading bars are not implemented everywhere yet
• Dice Settings - Create a new design for selecting dice settings
• Skills display - The skills matrix in the proficiencies stage / tab looks bland
• Main menu buttons - Since the removal of pixel perfect mode, the main menu buttons do not have the same frame thickness in every direction
• Console - Show the creature tooltip when hovering the creature name in the console
• Feedback condition - Add a crossed-out text popup above character when a condition is removed
• Short Rest - Click on the dice instead of the "roll" button to roll Hit Dice
• Inventory Stacks - People can't figure out how to split stacks in the inventory
• Inventory Identify - Right click an item in inventory and have a "Use Identify via Character X" when someone has Identify Spell
• Inventory - Double clicking to equip item
• Campaign screen - Add the console in the campaign view
• Combat - Add an option to display hit chance % when aiming at an enemy
• Loot - Add a function to loot all surrounding loot bags at once
• Bestiary - The tooltips are missing from the bestiary elements
• Caer Cyflen - Include the faction symbol on city map blueprint
• World Map - Travel journal - 5% transparency fade on background, to better integrate
• Character Background - Personality flags on the background cell are confusing, you would expect them to be on the right

Known Bugs

• Some tooltips may be wrong
• Some text may still be placeholder
• FR / DE / CH text have some missing text and will display English instead
• Upon interacting with a wall to access a secret passage, the secret passage animation may not play correctly
• In Tower of Magic, Sorraks sometimes don't spawn correctly (they're stuck underground) - reload a save and it should fix itself.
• Attacks sometimes pass through stone assets due to missing collision
• Hostile NPCs can sometimes get stuck into the characters texture
• Tall characters may be partially covered during cutscenes due to incorrect camera positioning
• After some cutscenes, the camera may be placed into a wall or environmental elements
• In Caer Lem, the Teleport stone is facing the wrong one
• Some interactable elements may remain usable even after being used (such as levers)
• Some characters may not be sitting properly on benches
• You can sometimes miss torches (because they have a hidden AC / Saves)
• Some interactions with the decor may have superflous animations
• Some decor may be hovering without support
• Some decor may have the wrong hitbox
• Orcs walking animation look a bit funky
• Clipping issues may happen with some characters / armor
• Some weapons are improperly wielded / Some weapon animations are not correct
• Protection Style / Block animation is weird.
• Mana Lamps disappear (visually) when lit
• Some monsters may move back and forth for no reason
• You may get an error when reloading at very specific times
• While concentrating on Detect magic and then looting a magical weapon the spell doesn't detect the newly acquired magic item without recasting it
• You can lose your free action without modifying anything in our inventory
• The "death throw" panel disappears very quickly and doesn't have time to be updated as it should
• You can potentially crash if you read the death saving tooltip in the log during enemy's turn
• The game sometimes crashes while quickly hovering the mouse towards the middle top of the screen

Wait
People really didn't understand how to kill the Greyback?
And here I thought the puzzle in the ruined tower library was too easy, but maybe I've not given this game enough credit, considering what dummies they need to cater to.
Everything else looks good though, it is good to see the devs are responsive to feedback like this. Kingmaker went from being charming but infuriating jank, to being charming and GOTY jank, because Owlcat had this attitude, so I hope history repeats itself here!

Oi, nigga, tutorial wolves is serious shit! Remember Chris adventures in Arcanum and first ambush before patches in Kangmaker!

 

[Reinhardt]

Enemies with about 150 hp on 2e times would be something to be expected from the Avatar of Lolth

Or some mid level dorf fighter with lucky rolls on level ups.

 

[Reinhardt]

The 4 or 6 party thing is relatively trivial in comparison.

8! 8! 8!

 

[Lawntoilet]

Oi, nigga, tutorial wolves is serious shit! Remember Chris adventures in Arcanum and first ambush before patches in Kangmaker!

Hey now Arcanum was very fair - Virgil tells you those wolves are none too friendly, it's MCA's fault if he didn't listen.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

The story really becomes more and more retarded lol. I redact what I said earlier about it just being boring. It's boring and retarded.

 

[Ulysa]

I just want to give my thanks to the dev that thought of adding a warning when about to lose concentration casting another spell for noobs like me that never played 5e.

 

[Lawntoilet]

I don't like the inventory system, I've decided- not enough sorting options. When things start to get cluttered, through no fault of my own*, it would be nice to have more sorting options to inspect what I've picked up (like a "most recent" option). I also believe that RAW allows you to make an Arcana check to identify an item, I don't think this is currently possible and would be a nice bonus.
There are too many places to Long Rest in my opinion also, but considering there is no difficulty slider I understand that players may need these locations, and that this is a matter of personal preference. I never rest-spam, I attempt to conserve spell slots and stretch a rest as long as possible (this may be due to playing so much Swordflight, or it may be due to PnP experience where DMs don't let you rest until they feel you've earned a rest) - so I am trying to only use 50% of the available Long Rest opportunities.
I'm still at the Boneitis Tower and it is pretty fun. I agree with Stormcrowfleet that the story seems to be getting dumber, but even as an admitted storyfag, I'm OK with that because it is dumb in the way that your high school DM was dumb**, and I think it is charming.
Also, I feel like I recognize some of the VAs from the Cyanide Game of Thrones RPG. The English VA pool in France must be pretty small.***
*

Spoiler

I just want to loot every single non-generic item, I am blameless here.

**

Spoiler

ie. Me, 75% of the time.

***

Spoiler

Here's hoping that Mors' VA shows up at some point!

 

[V_K]

There are too many places to Long Rest in my opinion also

Yeah, in what little I've played, I found it a little funny also - they have a food system ostensibly to limit rest-spamming, but then just shower you with rations after every single encounter.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

Yeah at least I'm not so much of a storyfag so it's passable for me. That being said, if the ONLY thing is the story (i.e. super linear game like this one), then it's a real bummer. In a game with a shitty story where you can at least decide what to do and where to go, it's less painful.

BTW I'm not saying the game is bad. It's still fun. I'll judge the whole thing when I'm done.

 

[Jermu]

Finished early access (11.8h), you can pretty much skip all "big" fights in the last area by talking. Story is indeed nothing special but okay enough. I had around 35-40 food left and I did not need to backtrack to rest between fights.

Game felt very easy but this is most likely because I started quite a lot of fights by surprise (which trivializes most of fights), pass 2 fights by dialogue and rolling too powerful characters. Next playthrough I just use the point system. Played with 2h paladin, cleric, ranger and wizard and characters seemed to be quite balanced cleric was probably least useful in fights (weapon summon is very strong though). Probably most busted spell was wizard's fire orb thing so no need for light + very high dmg and is controllable. Just using 1 hour cleric light cantrip for melee weapons solved all light problems anyway. Is there any good reason to use humans they seemed very underwhelming compared to other races?

Probably going to play again if they add more content otherwise I'm waiting for full release. So far I think Im going to enjoy this game more than BG3 after release but we will see.

 

[Lawntoilet]

Is there any good reason to use humans they seemed very underwhelming compared to other races?

If you roll a bunch of odd-numbered stats, or if they implement variant human rules that let you take a level 1 feat, otherwise no.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Is there any good reason to use humans they seemed very underwhelming compared to other races?

If you roll a bunch of odd-numbered stats, or if they implement variant human rules that let you take a level 1 feat, otherwise no.

Human or half-elf is the only way to get a strength boost.

 

[NJClaw]

Game felt very easy but this is most likely because I started quite a lot of fights by surprise (which trivializes most of fights), pass 2 fights by dialogue and rolling too powerful characters. Next playthrough I just use the point system.

Try using the standard array to get more "balanced" characters. They will still be very strong, though.

I really think that they should adapt the surprise round in a better way, sticking to how it works in 5E (where an enemy is surprised only if it fails its perception check).

cleric was probably least useful in fights (weapon summon is very strong though)

With the Battle domain they too get the Flaming Sphere spell.

On release Spiritual Weapon will be even stronger, because now its casting time is wrong (it should be a bonus action). Since Spiritual Weapon doesn't require concentration, they can also spam Shield of Faith on themselves or on a Paladin, and that +2 AC is really noticeable. With Shield of Faith + Protection from Evil, you basically can't get hit.

Is there any good reason to use humans they seemed very underwhelming compared to other races?

They are one of the strongest races with the variant rule that gives them a feat, but one of the weakest otherwise.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

From the official 5th D&D FAQ with regards to surprise:

Does surprise happen outside the initiative order as a special surprise round?
No, here’s how surprise works. The first step of any combat is this: the DM determines whether anyone in the combat is surprised (reread “Combat Step by Step” on page 189 of the Player’s Handbook). This determination happens only once during a fight and only at the beginning. In other words, once a fight starts, you can’t be surprised again, although a hidden foe can still gain the normal benefits from being unseen (see “Unseen Attackers and Targets” on page 194 of the Player’s Handbook). To be surprised, you must be caught off guard, usually because you failed to notice foes being stealthy or you were startled by an enemy with a special ability, such as the gelatinous cube’s Transparent trait, that makes it exceptionally surprising. You can be surprised even if your companions aren’t, and you aren’t surprised if even one of your foes fails to catch you unawares. If anyone is surprised, no actions are taken yet. First, initiative is rolled as normal. Then, the first round of combat starts, and the unsurprised combatants act in initiative order. A surprised creature can’t move or take an action or a reaction until its first turn ends (remember that being unable to take an action also means you can’t take a bonus action). In effect, a surprised creature skips its first turn in a fight. Once that turn ends, the creature is no longer surprised. In short, activity in a combat is always ordered by initiative, whether or not someone is surprised, and after the first round of combat has passed, surprise is no longer a factor. You can still try to hide from your foes and gain the benefits conferred by being hidden, but you don’t deprive your foes of their turns when you do so.