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

[Infinitron]

https://www.solasta-game.com/news/103-version-033-update-fix-all-the-things

VERSION 0.3.3 UPDATE - FIX ALL THE THINGS!

Hi there everyone,

It's been one week since our Early Access launch and we've been hard at work to bring you a whole bunch of improvements!


Important: If you are running into infinite loading screens, make sure to verify your games files!

• Go to your Steam Library and right click Solasta => Properties => Local Files Tab => Verify Integrity of Game Files.
• If this doesn’t fix the problem, try loading an older save (such as an auto-save) to go through the problematic area! On rare occasions, save files can get corrupted so the solution is loading another one.

Tutorials

• Characters and NPCs in the tavern should no longer clip into their chair or the table in the intro cutscene.
• You are now forced to use Disengage against the Greyback Wolf. Hopefully that will save some more lives, too many budding adventurers died there
• We've also updated the Quest to clearly indicate that you must push the rock after disengaging
• Added a camera movement in the Orc Cave to show where the lever is to open the door
• Added a bit of gold in the Stealth Tutorial, because gold is life

World Map

• Fixed a bug where locations would sometimes appear at the wrong place. Don't lose your waaaaayyyy!
• Fixed a bug where the party would sometimes not move on the World Map, then suddenly teleport further away. The DM just forgot to move your tokens, sorry
• Caer Lem should no longer be producing light at night on the World Map. Its secret goblin nightclub has been closed for sanitary reasons
• Fixed a bug where trying to travel with an unconscious character would sometimes crash the game. Give the poor lad some of that healing potion!
• The camera behavior should be more consistant on the World Map now
• Random encounter locations should now have music outside combat as well

Spoiler

Caer Lem

• Monsters should no longer shove you to your death. We will re-introduce this feature when we roll out the difficulty settings, but it was too punishing for new players
• A secret passage in the cave should now properly open up when interacted with
• Daliat should no longer appear alive in a cutscene if you killed him earlier. He will haunt you regardless, you monster
• You should no longer be able to walk inside fire tiles. At least not here. Not now. Not like this

Tower of Magic

• Fixed a bug where killing spiders would sometimes teleport you to an empty Crown Room. Sorry future Solasta speedrunners
• It should no longer be possible to get a random encounter between leaving the Tower of Magic and the Trouble Night Event
• Fixed one wall being closer than what the visuals showed in the Crown Room
• The chest in the Crown Room should no longer be filled with test items

Caer Cyflen

• Fixed a rare crash that occurred after Aer Elai (the vision) from the Crown-bearer
• Started optimizing Aer Elai to reduce fps issues
• Fixed a rare bug where merchants sometimes weren't positioned properly after cutscenes
• Fixed NPCs sometimes not properly looking at people when they talk after reloading a save. They're just standing there... menacingly
• Added a quest marker for the first scavenger quest

Necromancy Quest

• When fighting Lizzaria, the zombies should no longer be locked behind bars. They get to join the fun too!
• Fixed a rare crash where killing Lizzaria would drop her Arcane Focus, which probably was an Orb of Annihilation considering how it annihilated the game stability
• Mardracht has been buffed a lot, poor old man barely had enough HP to stand up. He now is ready to kick some butt
• Mardracht should no longer disappear before the end of the cutscene
• Made adjustments to the items found in loot containers
• Added audio when breaking windows
• Fixed the main quest not updating if the player immediately rushed to the secret passage instead of entering the courtyard
• Mana Lamps should no longer go invisible after being lit. Those lamps are weird man, I tell you
• Added a short fade to black effect when transitioning between Cemetery and Courtyard
• Skeleton now have new portraits and a small ambiant VFX
• Fixed the poor dwarven ghost's beard looking like a fluffy stuffed animal
• Fixed a few pathfinding issues when playing around moving crates and puzzle doors
• Added a collider so that players can walk inside a certain sarcophagus. You're already pillaging tombs, don't be rude come on

Items

• Ring of Protection +1 should now work properly
• Heavy Armor should no longer reduce AC if you have negative DEX modifier
• Unidentified items should now properly hide their properties until identified
• The attunement system should now work properly. The Wand of Lightning Bolt awaits you!
• Scroll of Lightning Bolt should no longer be named Scroll of Fireball. The scribe in charge of writing scrolls has been reassigned to latrine duty
• Crafting a scroll of Jump should no longer give you a scroll of Mage Armor. Latrine duty duration has been doubled.
• Weapons tooltip should now display if they are Simple or Martial weapons
• Fixed a bug where drag & dropping items in the inventory would make them... disappear! Truth be told the rogue probably stole them
• Added some harvestable ingredients. GATHER ALL THE FLOWERS!
• Made some adjustments to item cost.
• Fixed a rare bug where a character going unconscious on top of loot, getting healed and then attempting to pick up said loot would sometimes crash the game. Loot is sacred, don't fall on it
• Faction items should no longer show white squares in their tooltip
• Updated the Harversack tooltip

Spells

• Updated the icons of Flaming Sphere, Spiritual Weapon and Dancing Light
• Removed the ability to upcast Fog Cloud for now. Save the frames, kill the upcasting
• Added VFX effects to the Tongues spell
• Fixed a rare crash when refreshing spell slots
• Fixed a very rare crash when spells go poof game goes boom boom. And that's a no no
• The Shield spell should now properly end on the start of your next turn
• Fixed a rare crash when casting a spell inflicting a condition using a scroll
• The game will now display a warning message when trying to scribe a scroll you already know
• You can now scribe Greenmage spells if you're a Greenmage
• When attempting to move spells such as Flaming Sphere, Dancing Light & Spiritual Weapon, you should no longer lose your Bonus action if you immediately cancel instead of moving after selecting it.
• You should no longer be able to cast Flaming Sphere directly on top a character
• Added VFX effects to the Remove Curse spell
• Casting Levitate on an enemy should no longer give them advantage on their Saving Throw
• Speaking of Levitate, Spiders should no longer turn invisible if you cast Levitate on them. Seriously, who does that?
• Fixed Protection from poison doing weird stuff

Characters

• Snow Dwarves should now properly get +2 in Constitution Saving Throws instead of Advantage. Tell me again about how you "misread" the feature, Larry.
• Fixed the idle pose when holding a 2-handed sword. Fighters all around the world now know how to properly wield a greatsword
• Fixed a very peculiar bug where an NPC would sometimes replace your character if the two shared the same name. What can I say, some NPCs always wanted to be adventurers
• Fixed a bug where Saving Throw modifiers were applied twice against Ghouls paralyzing effect. Larry I'm sure you know how to do basic math, stop cheating
• Fixed a bug sometimes causing issues when attempting to level up an Oblivion Cleric
• Fixed characters sometimes not visually waking up from sleeping conditions
• Characters in Stealth knocked unconscious will no longer be considered in Stealth
• Adjusted Anton & Miles (pre-made characters) starting equipment
• Fixed a very funny bug where some characters would wave their torch back and forth, even when unconscious
• Fixed an issue with the Sorrak ranged attack animation could sometimes be out of sync
• Aristocrats should now properly have proficiency in Intimidation as displayed in the tooltip
• Archers should now properly take into account elevation when aiming at the enemy before shooting
• Disarming a trap while holding a rapier should no longer show the rapier flying around
• Added some missing audio for Sorraks, such as spellcasting and Doom Laughter
• Fixed characters sometimes saluting by placing their arm inside their chest instead of on their chest. Poor Sorraks, they're trying their best to blend in
• Skeletons should no longer hold their shortbows inside their wrist
• Characters should now reposition themselves automatically if they start their turn stacked on top of someone else
• Characters' portrait should no longer be blurry after loading a save during combat
• Fixed Orcs' faces in the Bestiary

Miscellaneous

• Added an option to enable non-seeded RNG (has to be activated manually). Savescummers rejoice!
• Dice Rolls should now properly appear when making ability checks during cutscenes
• Fixed some lighting issues when swapping to the third weapon configuration (weapon + light source)
• Fixed most missing texts in French, German and Chinese
• Fixed the camera sometimes not switching to battle mode when entering combat. Peace is not an option, camera
• Fixed a crash when the creature with the highest initiative died of an "at the start of your turn" effect.
• Fixed a whole lot of rare crashes and bugs again! More stability banzai!
• Added a button on the main menu to easily leave a review on Steam, which you should totally do because that would make you even more awesome than you already are
• Fixed a rare bug where the game would sometimes display an empty string instead of the correct location of the party in the save file
• Fixed the camera sometimes going bananas when focused on a character
• Fixed a rare bug preventing the player from doing Short Rests after doing a Long Rest + Level up
• The loading screen when launching the game should now properly scale to your screen resolution instead of being horribly stretched
• Optimized starting time a bit. You should see a slight improvement when launching the game!
• Fixed a strange bug that would happen when attempting to fast travel and closing the map at the same time
• Continue & Load Game buttons should no longer be greyed out when cancelling Character Creation
• Poisoned and Diseased conditions should now properly be displayed
• Fixed a rare and strange bug where audio levels could get out of sync in certain conditions
• Rocks should properly roll when pushed now, instead of sliding on the ground
• Fixed a small issue with the Adventurer Ghost portrait
• Added new sounds to ghouls, skeletons and zombies
• Made some slight improvements to the map here and there

 

[rusty_shackleford]

there's a bug where you can't move, it's caused by clicking 'cast spell' then changing characters. Just click cast spell again twice to open/close the menu and it fixes it.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

do enemies not have a limited number of spells?

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

do enemies not have a limited number of spells?

Infinite fly

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I was positive on this and it's growing on me. Seems fairly well balanced if the AI were a bit tougher. After KOTC2 this shit is training wheels.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Finished the EA content. It's pretty decent. Biggest gripe would probably be the lack of reactivity and linear dungeons.

Spoiler

I picked the crown up on my paladin because I thought he might be better at resisting its curse and it doesn't seem to change it at all
Also managed to talk that skeleton knight dude into letting me into the castle, cleared it all out, came back out and he's just hanging around. He really should be gone after the necromancers are dead, no?

Good itemization.

The rest spots should probably be one-time use only outside of easy difficulty though.
Actual random encounters when on the world map beyond combat/flavor text would be nice.
Reaction system doesn't slow combat down at all IMO, it's a nice addition.

[edit]
And I still like the UI. It's simple and stays out of the way, you don't even notice it when playing. If you're judging it based off of screenshots you should play it. On the non-graphics part of the UI, it's really well designed all around. The spellbooks, bestiary, etc., A lot of effort went into it.

 

[Mortmal]

"Fixed the main quest not updating if the player immediately rushed to the secret passage instead of entering the courtyard"

yeah.. I ike how they say it, its our fault for rushing to the secret passage , totally not their fault.

 

[Ontopoly]

"Fixed the main quest not updating if the player immediately rushed to the secret passage instead of entering the courtyard"

yeah.. I like how they say it, its our fault for rushing to the secret passage , totally not their fault.

You're a fucking pansy if you read that and get butt hurt because you think they're attacking you. They're not blaming you. Don't worry, you're still a capable big boy.

 

[Mortmal]

"Fixed the main quest not updating if the player immediately rushed to the secret passage instead of entering the courtyard"

yeah.. I like how they say it, its our fault for rushing to the secret passage , totally not their fault.

You're a fucking pansy if you read that and get butt hurt because you think they're attacking you. They're not blaming you. Don't worry, you're still a capable big boy.

Nope phrasing is not good, you are getting far too compliant on being treated like shit my friend.

 

[Ontopoly]

"Fixed the main quest not updating if the player immediately rushed to the secret passage instead of entering the courtyard"

yeah.. I like how they say it, its our fault for rushing to the secret passage , totally not their fault.

You're a fucking pansy if you read that and get butt hurt because you think they're attacking you. They're not blaming you. Don't worry, you're still a capable big boy.

Nope phrasing is not good, you are getting far too compliant on being treated like shit my friend.

Yeah, sure. Developers should treat me like the pretty princess I am and be sure not to offend my sensibilities

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Nope phrasing is not good, you are getting far too compliant on being treated like shit my friend.

They described the activity which triggered the bug, and then described the activity they had predicted. That's it.

They also fixed it. Meaning they're acknowledging that both activities should be considered valid by the game.

I bet you're a fucking nightmare to deal with IRL

 

[Shrimp]

I just finished the early access version a few minutes ago. I don't feel like immediately replaying it, so I think I'll leave it for the full release next year.

I've seen a lot of people praise the general combat encounters found within the game, a statement I must respectfully disagree with.
Sure, the elevation and light sources are interesting mechanics, even though there are some cases where I don't think the light sources were implemented properly. However towards the end of my EA playthrough I was growing increasingly weary of continuously fighting the same groups of ghouls, skeletons and wights. I really wish more game devs would prioritise making few but memorable encounters rather than sending you against the same cannon fodder every time you enter a new corridor. As far as I am concerned they could easily remove 2 or 3 of the random groups of enemies inside the Bone Keep without it negatively impacting the journey through the area.

I don't really want to comment on dialogue and story since that evidently isn't where the majority of the game's focus is going to lie. The personality tag system seems really great on paper, but I found a lot of my party's comments felt like they just were random generic stock replies or comments. The differences might become more apparent if I replay the game with a completely new set of characters, but I'd rather leave that for later. Has anyone experienced the tags actually affecting the characters' personality in the dialogues?

With that being said I think the game handles a lot of other things really well. Reactions, ready actions and dodge are all implemented very tastefully without feeling like forced additions. Reactions don't feel like they disrupt the flow of combat at all. The game obviously needs more classes than the six ones currently available, but unfortunately it sounds like the developers aren't exactly enthusiastic about this.
Excerpt from a Q&A I found on Steam:

Q: You will add some new class post-launch ?
A: Solasta launches in Early Access with the 6 classes available in the Demo, however we have already promised to add the Sorcerer as a free post-launch DLC during our Kickstarter Campaign.
Ideally, we'd love to have all official SRD classes in Solasta - however we don't want to make any promises. We'll likely be looking at DLCs post-launch to add new classes (depending on how the game performs!).

The same Q&A also contains a bunch of other answers that lean dangerously close to just being a rephrasing of "we don't want to" and "we'll do it if we feel like it."
Sorcerer being the only confirmed additional class and everything else being 'possible' (with the suggestion that other classes might not even be free additions) doesn't sound very good at all since the linearity of the game suggests it's one of those games where the biggest replay value comes from trying out new party/character builds.
Negativity aside I honestly think the game has the potential to be a sleeper hit if its handled with care. It's definitely going to be interesting to see how it turns out.

 

[Mortmal]

Nope phrasing is not good, you are getting far too compliant on being treated like shit my friend.

I bet you're a fucking nightmare to deal with IRL

You dont know 1/100th of it, but it take skill , lot of experience and practice.

 

[LJ40]

Nope phrasing is not good, you are getting far too compliant on being treated like shit my friend.

I bet you're a fucking nightmare to deal with IRL

You dont know 1/100th of it, but it take skill , lot of experience and practice.

Pretty sure it would take a steady diet of paint chips for that logic leap you made back there.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The game obviously needs more classes than the six ones currently available, but unfortunately it sounds like the developers aren't exactly enthusiastic about this.
Excerpt from a Q&A I found on Steam:

Agreed, a D&D game with such few classes feels like a bummer.
I like the subclasses though.

 

[gurugeorge]

OK, having finished the EA, I've realized that the best thing about this game's combat is its speed and flow.

Basically, there's less faffing around, options are cleaner and simpler (though not over-simple) so the gameplay is faster. And the pace of the gameplay becomes itself an addictive factor, so then one feels a sense of momentum in going through the game.

Yet at the same time, the game has quite a good simulationist feel - lots of little "realistic" details are represented in some way, and the rhythm of action and rest (beard stroking over inventory and build) is nicely balanced. So it's also quite strongly immersive (one feels like one is living through the story).

I don't know how much of this is down to the more streamlined 5e ruleset, and how much to the devs deliberate efforts, but I guess they wanted 5e for this reason, that it's streamlined, but still reasonably simulationist and immersive.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Spoiler

In the bone keep just outside the master's chamber. Anyone able to get to the nearby resting spot?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Spoiler

In the bone keep just outside the master's chamber. Anyone able to get to the nearby resting spot?

Spoiler

do you mean in the room with the teleporters? one of them takes you up there, you can knock down a box to allow the rest of your party to crawl up

 

[Lawntoilet]

Spoiler

In the bone keep just outside the master's chamber. Anyone able to get to the nearby resting spot?

Spoiler

do you mean in the room with the teleporters? one of them takes you up there, you can knock down a box to allow the rest of your party to crawl up

Spoiler

I didn't find that one, but I had a potion of Fly and got up to the box that way.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

OK finished now. The team has a long road ahead of them obviously, but what is there is clearly crafted with care and I can see nods to some great features from classics. Lots of really nice and fairly unique touches. Some highlights for me:

• Love the automap
• Atmosphere is moving in the right direction
  
• Combat system is mechanically sound, but a few things are missing from the ruleset
  
• You can see the love poured into the descriptions for spells, items, abilities, etc
• UI is understated but elegant, UX is great
• Travel system shows promise
• Foci are partially there but the implementation looks interesting

Lowlights

• Expose more of the systems and rules. It's an EA demo really, but what they show is expertly presented and leave me wanting more
• Limited character development right now, hopefully due to partially implemented mechanics
• I enjoy the levels and art style aesthetically, but they are linear AF and the puzzles are almost so simple as to be a waste of time. They showed a bit in the Stone Keep but would like that taken 2 levels beyond what we have seen so far
• Difficulty levels are coming so will wait to see how that shapes up. I had to reload a fight once and that was largely due to bad key strokes on my part. Game is rather easy right now.
• Crafting, enchanting, etc looks interesting but we don't get to play with it much

Will pick it up again maybe once more before release. I rarely replay anything unless the game is mechanically/systemically interesting and has some depth. This will be one of those eventually I believe.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Despite liking it I have no drive to replay the EA because it felt very linear. I've played through BG3's EA two and a half times now and know I haven't seen all the content for comparison. I know that Larian is a much bigger studio, but I'm not asking for fully mocapped sex scenes

Spoiler

or am I?

To summarize my constructive criticisms after my above post and thinking on it for a day:

• Badly needs more classes. Druid and bard at the minimum, I consider both to be iconic D&D classes. They need to reevaluate their decision to not add more classes, this really hurts the replay value.
  
• Story needs to be more reactive to your decisions and your character's background/class. I loved the part in the
  Spoiler

  attacked fort area where I could convince a soldier to let me in by using my paladin's sellsword background. They both fought at the same battle, my paladin described the battle in minute details only someone there would know, so the soldier completely trusted him due to being a brother in arms.
  That's an example of good reactivity, the game needs more of that.
  
• Not all of this will be negative criticism. I like the crafting so far. I don't think 5e really has any crafting rules(?) so if it's homebrew, it's well done.
• I agree with the guy above that the simulationist aspects are well done, probably moreso than any other D&D game.
  
• Create Food and Water feels too powerful currently. 15 rations is a lot. Creating enough for one rest is already very powerful, 15 rations is nearly enough for 4 rests.
• To add to the above, (nearly) unlimited resting is too powerful. The idea of rest points is good and I'm glad games are using them, but they should be limited in all but the easiest difficulties. Alternatively, maybe there should be repercussions for wasting so much time. I thought there was at first so it made me think twice about resting unless necessary, but I don't think there is.
• Needs an option to speed up combat animations. I like the animations, they're well done, but I hate having my game interrupted just to watch them. Imagine you're playing a game and someone takes away your keyboard+mouse/controller for a few seconds everytime you select an option. That's what it feels like.
• When looting containers, clicking an item should add it to your inventory rather than having to drag it to your inventory.
• The portraits in the UI should be on the right side rather than the left. Currently, dragging items to a party member requires far more effort than it should. Example of what I mean, here is the default:
  DEFAULT

  
  and here is what I suggest:
  SUGGESTED

  
• Inventory should have multiple ways to sort it and/or have filter tabs. One especially important way to sort it is by order of acquisition, I love when games have it and hate when they don't.
• Needs more loot. I understand not wanting to give out magical items too easily(this is good) but there are zero(?) boots/belts/gloves/helmets(sans crown) at all. I found one pair of bracers.
• Enemy wizards seemingly have unlimited spell slots. From the vampire that kept casting darkness everywhere to wizards that keep casting fly and are untouchable by melee characters, this is annoying and broken.
• The overland map needs more encounters. I don't mean combat encounters, I want random encounters. Traveling merchants, people who need help, etc., There's already flavor text for it, I was actually pretty sad when I realized that it's just fluff.
• Darkvision feels too powerful. Not really sure what else to add here, I disagree with the SRD giving it to so many races in 5E without any real drawback.
  
• The UI is functional which is all I ask (above poster said the UX is great, I agree.) I actually love the spellbook design. Which makes my critique of the inventory above all the more pertinent: the spellbook has a bunch of filters, categorized, etc., but the inventory is just a bunch of haphazard icons. It feels like the odd one out in an otherwise great UI. Players spend a lot of time in the inventory and examining our items, it shouldn't be a chore to work with.
• Combat, for a lack of better word, flows well. I was unsure how reactions could be implemented without being annoying or underused, but you guys did a good job. With an option to speed up animations it will be great.

No idea if Myzzrym is reading our feedback or not.


Here's a screenshot of the spellbook for those that haven't played, btw:

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

The Solasta devs are getting real fucking lazy with their lack of cat pictures per update.

Hey, HEY DEVS, pick it up.

Hahaha. Alexa, play Purple Rain.

cruises on by in his caddy

 

[Harthwain]

To add to the above, (nearly) unlimited resting is too powerful. The idea of rest points is good and I'm glad games are using them, but they should be limited in all but the easiest difficulties. Alternatively, maybe there should be repercussions for wasting so much time. I thought there was at first so it made me think twice about resting unless necessary, but I don't think there is.

When playing the demo my thought was that both rests and spells/rituals that take time to cast (Identification) will be important somehow in the full game, because of how the flow of time is simulated. Otherwise it'd be a strange decision to go through mechanical implementation only to not make use full use of it. Perhaps difficulty levels will introduce a timer of sorts, forcing you to manage your time as a resource?

Edit: a typo.

 

[Shrimp]

Needs an option to speed up combat animations. I like the animations, they're well done, but I hate having my game interrupted just to watch them. Imagine you're playing a game and someone takes away your keyboard+mouse/controller for a few seconds everytime you select an option. That's what it feels like.

Holding down space bar speeds up some of the combat animations. Just be advised that space bar also is the default (or only? I didn't check the keybinds) hotkey to skipping your turn so if you hold it down for too long it skips past you without asking if you actually want to skip without doing anything.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

shh nobody tell Myzzrym I found this

Spoiler