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

Lacrymas

Arcane
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Pathfinder: Wrath
I'm starting to think Early Access isn't such a good idea.

I don't understand the appeal, myself. I never have.

I am looking forward to playing the full version of this released game, however.
The appeal is getting the game early, being tangentially involved in its making, and the developers having more money and time to work on the game and make the final product better. It's an all-around win-win as far as I'm concerned. The problem I see is how it can lead to dumbing down and catering to the lowest common denominator. This can be seen with Larian and BG3 too. The lighting was indeed iffy, though.
 

Whisper

Arcane
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Messages
4,357
Sadly, they keep dumbing the game down to the lowest common denominator.
No food management, no light management, because it's too hard.
I also liked the news that a rare magical artifact, required for crafting, will now be sold basically at a grocery stall, because people could not have bothered to check all the merchants in town.

Well, according to one of Murphy's laws - build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will use it.

Game is getting dumbed down?...
 
Last edited:

Whisper

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Remember that we're mostly doing these changes because there are no difficulty options at the moment. In the final release we'll have some brutal settings for those of you who want some harder challenge.

All those changes do not look good, do not look good at all for me. Why include food system in first place if you cant run out of food?

Why nerf darkness instead of just keeping it only for hard difficulty?
 

Cryomancer

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Whisper

Arcane
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Probably most hard things will be on harder difficulty since they need to appeal to a "wide audience"

I am worried that they dumb down game (lowest common denominator, folks) so that even hard difficulty will be walk in the park, lacking any challenge, lacking any working fun mechanics.

They are butchering food system and lighting system now because of some bads.
 

Nortar

Arcane
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Sep 5, 2017
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Pathfinder: Wrath
I am worried that they dumb down game (lowest common denominator, folks) so that even hard difficulty will be walk in the park, lacking any challenge, lacking any working fun mechanics.

I would not say it's a massive decline on all fronts.
And lighting, especially, is a controversial topic indeed, because "stick to the RAW" is a very strong argument even if it got picked up by people who just want it easier.

But yes, every time there's a chance to take a stand and defend their vision, the devs prefer to go the path of the least resistance.
What saddens me, is that right now, in the early access, the players are mostly kickstarter backers and D&D enthusiasts, who are supposedly form the core of the target auditory.

And yet we already have all these calls to make the game easier, nerf flying snakes, nerf vampire spawns, remove resource management, reduce lighting impact and so on.
It makes me feel like the warrior and the wizard here (thanks to Catacombs for the pic):
kotyXVB.jpg
 

Dodo1610

Arcane
Joined
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Germany
kickstarter backers and D&D enthusiasts, who are supposedly form the core of the target auditory.

The hardcore RPG fans aren't even the main audience for Pathfinder when you look at the forums and the Discord or the newest suggestions list https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1swV9ElNjlBpl1M1Vc95W1F-0jEefpzl4tfBPAPyb_mc/edit#gid=0.
If your RPG isn't playable for the Bioware "I'm playing the game for the story" group you won't sell enough copies IMO. Meanwhile, if you cannot get the hardcore audience to like your game it will just vanish into obscurity because they the ones who will do the marketing the game for you.
 

Myzzrym

Tactical Adventures
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Yea it's a delicate balance. You want your core fans to be satisfied, but you can't just solely pander to them - because there's just not enough of them to for this to be viable (see how most MMORPGs evolved through the years). On the other hand, if you push it too far the other way, you remove a lot of the flavour so you don't get any strong following, just a large amount of people who buy your game and moves on to the next one after that (and won't remember you by the time you release your next game).

So yea, tough balance. Arguably here most of the arguments about difficulty is simple enough for us, we just add them to a difficulty setting menu. It's more complicated when people ask for better voice actors, more choices in the dialogs or simply more variety overall - all of which we'd love to have, but don't necessarily have the time nor the budget to tackle.
 

Cryomancer

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see how most MMORPGs DEevolved through the years)

Fixed for you.

On 90s, we had amazing mmos. Ultima Online, Dark Sun Online : Crimson Sands and now, only gear farming, cooldown managing wow clones.

all of which we'd love to have, but don't necessarily have the time nor the budget to tackle.

After the game release, do you plan to bring newer and most requested classes as paid DLC?
 

Myzzrym

Tactical Adventures
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Yea for the classes we already said we'd try to do that. Ideally we want all classes in Solasta.

And yea, old MMOs had their charm and specificities. Considering they're not alive anymore, I can only think that the size of the playerbase was not enough to sustain them in the long run though, which is sad because I'm also not a fan of seeing MMOs filled with WoW clones :(
 

V_K

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at a Nowhere near you
I'd rather have the Druid than all of the charisma-based classes combined. Hell, I'd even live with not having the Druid if it means no charisma-based classes get implemented either.
 

V_K

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Yea it's a delicate balance. You want your core fans to be satisfied, but you can't just solely pander to them - because there's just not enough of them to for this to be viable (see how most MMORPGs evolved through the years). On the other hand, if you push it too far the other way, you remove a lot of the flavour so you don't get any strong following, just a large amount of people who buy your game and moves on to the next one after that (and won't remember you by the time you release your next game).
I'm not privy to your sales number of course, but going by the number of Steam reviews and the average rating, you're doing very well for an early access title. So it's not like you have to change all that much - and remember that people who are satisfied with something are a hell of a lot worse at voicing that than the dissatisfied ones.
 

Cryomancer

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I'd rather have the Druid than all of the charisma-based classes combined. Hell, I'd even live with not having the Druid if it means no charisma-based classes get implemented either.

What if they homebrew that their warlock to be INT based like Pathfinder's Witch or 2e warlock(which was a mage "KIT") or the earlier access version of WLK which was INT based on earlier 5e but was changed to CHA due "player feedback"?

They could also homebew a subclass of Wizard which learns his spells from a outsider master and get the Eldritch Blast cantrip and regain spells on short rest and always cast at the highest spell level up to 5. That would not be that hard IMO.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
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Messages
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Pathfinder: Wrath
Yea for the classes we already said we'd try to do that. Ideally we want all classes in Solasta.

And yea, old MMOs had their charm and specificities. Considering they're not alive anymore, I can only think that the size of the playerbase was not enough to sustain them in the long run though, which is sad because I'm also not a fan of seeing MMOs filled with WoW clones :(
I'm pretty sure Everquest and Ultima Online are still going, and there's Project 1999 for Everquest. Yeah, they aren't bringing in massive numbers, but I'd think that's due to the slow decline in the interest in MMORPGs in general, rather than a decline of quality (which has indeed also happened).
 

Cryomancer

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Frostfell
Will they include HUGE/COLOSSAL bosses? Like a "lesser terrasque"(since lv cap = 10), a kraken or even dragon fights?
 

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