|
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1096530/Solasta_Crown_of_the_Magister So, this snuck under the radar of a bunch of folks after the tech demo a few months back, but it's now in EA (roughly 10 hours of gameplay available). It's based on the SRD 5.1 ruleset for fifth edition D&D. Couple folks have mentioned it in the Baldur's Gate thread, and I'll let them copy over their impressions here, but it looks like there's no NPC's, but all four of your created characters will react to things based off their personality (a wizard will loredump the history of things, a thief will wonder if that thing they just nicked is valuable, etcetera. More to come
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2020 13:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 14:19 |
|
|
Trip report: - 4 character party, you generate them all - character generation is great. The character models are cruder than BG3, but the UI is excellent: they use all the space on the screen, there are few but meaningful god and domain choices for clerics, backgrounds again are few but meaningful and well explained, and they have a nifty keywords approach where your characters’ alignment, background and personality all combine to give them something like PoE’s reputations. So for example if you pick a lawful evil ex-sell sword they might get 2 points in greedy and one each in cynical and authoritarian. It’s very close to the 5E handbook for gear choices. - they’re doing something interesting with inter-party dialogue. Every time someone makes a comment there’s a cutscene and the whole party stand in a line talking one by one, with camera zoom ins and angle changes so it doesn’t come across as too artificial. It doesn’t look naturalistic, but it’s very clear who is saying what and it kind of works better than games where if you scroll ahead you might miss some party banter. I haven’t tried different keyword combinations yet so not sure how much this changes based on your characters’ personalities. - dialogue and plot (so far) are VERY traditional and a little cliched. You start in a tavern, the tutorial is each of your characters telling a story about what happened to them on the way there (so one story explains movement, another teaches environmental interactions, the fighter talks about getting into a fight etc) and you play them out as mini scenarios. Then a guy comes up and gives you a quest and you’re off. - they are trying to do something clever with gear and looting. Encumbrance rules are applied strictly, but there’s a “Scavenger’s Guild” that will pick up and sell any loot from fallen enemies after you clear an area, and give you the proceeds minus a cut. The system doesn’t seem to be implemented yet but I like the idea. Overall it seems so far like a quite by-the-numbers DnD campaign but with some innovative approaches to CRPG core mechanics. They made up a new “insight” divine domain so you can have cleric Sherlock Holmes if you want. Benefit is autopassing insight checks. Edit: ok my party just found a possible ancient teleport gate. Academic wizard sperged out about the fallen empire, Pragmatic cleric wanted to know if it led anywhere and Greedy rogue asked if the plaque with ancient writing was worth anything to anyone and then prised it off the wall when told it was valuable. Beefeater1980 fucked around with this message at 14:51 on Oct 21, 2020 |
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2020 14:25
|
|
|
I've had my eye on this game for awhile. I don't think I have the time to devote to another mega CRPG in early access but I'm looking forward to hearing impressions!
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2020 14:41
|
|
|
I really quite enjoyed the demo for this, think I'll pick it up at the weekend.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2020 14:41
|
|
|
This game is quite something. Interesting to have, with BG3 and this, two so totally different 5e games out in early access at the same time. And then there's Pathfinder Wrath of the Righeous, which is kind of a competitor since it's almost D&D, but really not at all. What I find really interesting is how Solasta is in every single aspect the total opposite to BG3. - BG3 is all in with the IP - it's freaking Baldurs Gate, it's really 5e. Solasta is some weird open-source 5e, it's quite funny already if you look at the races. Snow dwarves and marsh halflings ? All the feats and most of the subclasses have to be homebrew. I find it quite absurd. Both loose, Pathfinder wins on sheer race and class variety. - BG3 is all about changing the basic gameplay - jumping, bonus actions, reactions - everything is changed, and its fun. Solasta tries to keep every single thing the same as tabletop rules, and it actually works out quite well I think. Draw. - BG3 has the most beautifull characters I've ever seen in an RPG. Solasta has the worst ever. Clear BG3 win. - Moving around and jumping in BG3 is fun, but quite difficult and often annoyingly fiddly, especially moving a whole party. Solasta is the absolute opposite: If you click somewhere that's reachable, all your characters are smart enough to do the jumping and running themself ! And you actually interact with the enviroment, instead of setting everything on fire - pushing boulders out of the way, dropping pillars to create bridges. Somehow it feels like in BG3 they build a pretty environment, and if the player can find a way interact with it is up to him - in Solasta every single square the player can enter is designed for it. Big difference caused mostly by the grid Soalsta uses. - Story - BG3 has the usual thing, where the player is the centerpoint of some big evil conspiracy thing. Solasta seems tries for the oppsite, where the player is just some expendable adventurer send out on a useless mission, but stumbles upon something big. - Companions - BG3 has them, and even if you hate them, they are memorable. Solasta has 4 self-created characters, who's interactions depend on the personalities you gave them. So far I've seen a lot of bad, corny jokes, with only few moments where I enjoyed the procedurally created banter.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2020 19:19
|
|
|
Picked this up earlier today and went through most of the tutorial. As others have said the UI is very nice, everything is where it should be. It's not fancy but it's effective. There's a bit of laggyness to the camera that I hope they fix/let you customize (I'd like it to be snappier but with still a little lag - XCOM2 nailed it). I don't like that you can't change how rotation/panning works (right click rotates, middle mouse button pans ; I'd be nice to be able to customize this) or that touching the edge of the screen with your cursor doesn't move the camera. I haven't played D&D5 a whole lot but so far this seems to be a fairly accurate computer implementation. I'm not used to see a completely different lore, and it doesn't strike me as particularly original, but I can live with that. Also, am I wrong or have they added sub-classes that are not part of SRD, but instead simply renamed them? Like the "War Domain" becomes the "Battle Domain."
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2020 19:23
|
|
|
I played the demo for this game a few months back, and I fell in love with it instantly. Day 1 buy even on early access for me. The Baldur's Gate 3 comparisons are inevitable, so I'll just say it out the gate: Right now, Solasta is in much better shape than BG3. Of course, they're both early access, so judging them as-is doesn't mean a whole lot, but Solasta has far fewer issues as far as playing the game goes. Not to say I'm giving up on BG3 or anything, but I'm going to give it more time in the oven before I come back to it. What I enjoy the most about Solasta is that it genuinely feels like playing a tabletop game of D&D with a video game UI. The only other D&D game that's done this in the past is Temple of Elemental Evil, and that game had its own litany of problems. I was really caught off-guard that you can have a whole party of custom-made characters, and they'll still have voiced lines that feel unique. And backgrounds come into play! It's fantastic. Also, this is another oddity, but I think not having the official D&D license works in this game's favor. Other than the SRD sub-classes (champion fighter, acrobat thief, hunter ranger, devotion paladin), the sub-classes are all new and frankly they feel more interesting than what's in the PHB (and inevitably what will be in BG3). Greenmage seems particularly interesting, and I really appreciate that not-Eldritch Knight and not-Arcane Trickster have their spell lists greatly expanded. The game's visuals are somewhat crude, but I'm perfectly okay with that. The feeling of the game is extremely satisfying, and I can see myself running through the current content two or three times already. e: Furism posted:Also, am I wrong or have they added sub-classes that are not part of SRD, but instead simply renamed them? Like the "War Domain" becomes the "Battle Domain." Nah, a lot of the new sub-classes are clearly based on SRD sub-classes, but there are differences. The SRD's War Domain gets martial weapons and heavy armor, and their domain spells focus more on buffs. Solasta's Battle Domain only gets the martial weapons, and the domain spells focus more on direct damage. Meanwhile, the wizard sub-classes are nothing at all like any of the SRD school specializations, and frankly are far more interesting. inthesto fucked around with this message at 19:38 on Oct 21, 2020 |
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2020 19:29
|
|
|
I'm interested in picking this one up, but I tried the demo a while ago and I found that every character was... extraordinarily grating. The rogue was always corny and selfish, the fighter always to the point and boorish, etc. I know there's a limit to how much you can do with procedurally generated characters but it honestly felt one-note and like the game was hammering the same character beats into me for an hour and it turned me off. Is it still that bad?
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2020 19:36
|
|
|
It's... charming? In a weird way. The 5e rules are implemented pretty accurately and the things that are not straight up from 5e core books are reasonable facsimiles. BG3 is super polished visually and all but is basically D:OS2, part 2 and is very... Larian - whether that's good or bad is up to you - and this feels like a game put together by folks who wanted to straight up recreate their tabletop experiences, warts and all. I like it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 02:44
|
|
|
I just got to the end of the early access content with about 17 hours total played (I suppose it could be much less if you rushed everything). I loved it. I loved how true to the book it is. I can't wait to see what else they have in store.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 04:00
|
|
|
Something on one the loading screens intrigued me. It said that more campaigns will be released after the game. I like that they go with "more campaigns" (to me it reads like "decently sized DLCs, what used to be called Extensions") instead of "we'll just release a sequel." It reminds me of NWN's "Premium Modules" where you could have anywhere between 5 to 20 hours of gameplay in a totally different adventure. Without having to buy a whole new game with one main, 100 hours long campaign. Sometimes I'd prefer to have 4, 20 hours long campaigns. If that's what they're going for, I'm 100% behind it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 11:27
|
|
|
I suspect that’s because they’re trying to leave it open to modders. It’s a play to be the new Neverwinter Nights.
Beefeater1980 fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Oct 22, 2020 |
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 11:58
|
|
|
Beefeater1980 posted:I suspect that’s because they’re trying to leave it open to modders. It’s a play to be the new Neverwind Nights. I hope hope hope hope hope hope this is true.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 14:59
|
|
|
So if this is a pseudo-5E game, how does it handle the classes that are absolute dogshit in 5E such as fighters, rogues, monks, and rangers? Do they get cool homebrewed poo poo to make them less, uh, poo poo?
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 20:53
|
|
|
Dick Burglar posted:So if this is a pseudo-5E game, how does it handle the classes that are absolute dogshit in 5E such as fighters, rogues, monks, and rangers? Do they get cool homebrewed poo poo to make them less, uh, poo poo? I'm not sure we're playing the same 5E.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 21:06
|
|
|
Dick Burglar posted:So if this is a pseudo-5E game, how does it handle the classes that are absolute dogshit in 5E such as fighters, rogues, monks, and rangers? Do they get cool homebrewed poo poo to make them less, uh, poo poo? Short answer: They don't. This isn't pseudo-5E; it is 5E with all the problems it brings. Long answer: Monks aren't in the game, and hopefully it stays that way. Monks have been pointless and terrible since their inception, and the only way to deal with that is a mercy killing. The other three classes are kind of a grabbag with their new sub-classes, and since the game only goes to level 6 right now, we don't know what the full depth of their abilities are. At the very least, the replacements for Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster get access to four schools of magic, which greatly widens their versatility, and the Shadow Tamer ranger could potentially be disproportionately useful due to encounter design, ala Undead Hunter in Baldur's Gate 2. Pussy Snorkel posted:I'm not sure we're playing the same 5E. 5E isn't nearly as bad as 3E, but it still has some glaring balance issues. Full spellcasters are still the top of the heap, though Solasta being a video game means that vague spell descriptions can't be abused because you convinced the DM it works that way. 5E monks are useless, but that's just tradition at this point I guess. Beastmaster ranger is famously the worst class in the PHB, and rogues are largely redundant because bards are so good. Solasta is going to have to watch out for some pitfalls; one immediately obvious one is if bards are added in and the lowlife background continues to provide thieves tools proficiency, as that would mean there's no reason to pick rogue ever. inthesto fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Oct 22, 2020 |
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 21:09
|
|
|
How buggy is this compared to BG3's EA?
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 21:10
|
|
|
Chalks posted:How buggy is this compared to BG3's EA? Pretty much the opposite. My playthrough has been crash-free, and the only bugs I've encountered are text-related (and not really bugs; more like unfinished journal entries and things like that). This is remarkably stable for an early access game.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 21:24
|
|
|
I'm really liking what I've seen of the game so far about 6 hours in. Dick Burglar posted:So if this is a pseudo-5E game, how does it handle the classes that are absolute dogshit in 5E such as fighters, rogues, monks, and rangers? Do they get cool homebrewed poo poo to make them less, uh, poo poo? They have custom archetypes for the classes, some of which are pretty different and some are unchanged (Champion Fighter is in untouched because some people are broke-brained I guess). Like their version of the Arcane Trickster and Eldritch Knight gets 4 spell schools instead of 2 and the former gets a teleport and the latter auto-magic weapons. There's a Fighter type built around shield-bashing people over. My Paladin's Channel Divinity makes all enemies in a huge radius have to save versus Blind. There's some neat choices but they've also been a bit too restrained in keeping some options imo. Thief is kind of pointless when Darkweaver exists for instance. You can look at the archetype choices here: https://forums.solasta-game.com/forum/preview-solastan-unique-class-archetypes Nephthys fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Oct 22, 2020 |
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 21:27
|
|
|
Champion fighter is still in the game because five out of the six classes have their SRD sub-classes represented here. The exception is the wizard, because the entire concept of school specialization has been thrown out (and for the better, imo). Champion fighter and Thief rogue should both absolutely be thrown out and replaced with something far more interesting. I don't think anyone is going to miss Hunter ranger, either.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 21:30
|
|
|
Pussy Snorkel posted:Pretty much the opposite. My playthrough has been crash-free, and the only bugs I've encountered are text-related (and not really bugs; more like unfinished journal entries and things like that). Agreed, pretty stable for me as well aside from one graphical bug and one crawl hole that I inexplicably couldn't crawl through in combat when the map layout seemingly encouraged it. Much more so than BG3 at the moment. I'm running a team of old motherland paladin, war wizard, shadowdancer rogue and life cleric, the wizard is a beast with scorching ray being invaluable against stronger monsters. The game is a bit too fond however of verticality, it really likes to have enemies fly or crawl on walls where it's hard for non-ranged classes to do anything, especially as javelins, apparently a thrown weapon, don't seem to work. Had a really annoying boss encounter with all of that going on.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 22:31
|
|
|
I like the verticality of the game, because it's something I frequently overlook as a DM because frankly calculating distances in 3D is a pain in the rear end. That said, I realized that javelins are annoying to work with too. If you just try to click on an enemy, the game will interpret it as a melee attack. You have to manually click on the attack button then click on the enemy to get a ranged attack.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 22:34
|
|
|
Shock Arcanist is definitely feeling strong right now. The humble magic missile has been my most used spell with how much guaranteed damage it does with the additional missile and I'm really looking forward to Arcane Fury and fireball at later levels. Greenmage seems like its a strong option too. It's tough to say if Loremaster will be worth it but I think they need more than just learning more spells if they still have the same amount of spell slots.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 23:34
|
|
|
Pussy Snorkel posted:I'm not sure we're playing the same 5E. lmao Nephthys posted:I'm really liking what I've seen of the game so far about 6 hours in. Thanks, I'll give it a look. Dick Burglar fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Oct 22, 2020 |
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 23:35
|
|
|
Loremaster is one of those sub-classes where its power varies wildly depending on how the campaign is constructed. If successful arcana/history/investigation checks open up a lot of possibilities, or if scrolls are incredibly tight (or both), then Loremaster is gonna be a heavyweight. Otherwise, it will definitely be below the other two, but you're still working with a wizard chassis, so no complaints allowed.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2020 23:55
|
|
|
Furism posted:Something on one the loading screens intrigued me. It said that more campaigns will be released after the game. I like that they go with "more campaigns" (to me it reads like "decently sized DLCs, what used to be called Extensions") instead of "we'll just release a sequel." It would be so awesome to have a new gold box where instead of epic 100+ hour games every 4 years with massive engine changes a studio just kept a steady stream of decently sized content. Basically Jeff Vogel but not leaning on Ultima 6. Or the Paradox model but for a proper RPG. People whine about Paradox dlc for whatever reason but I love that whenever I pick up the game again I have the option to throw in some new features or content.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2020 00:01
|
|
|
FuzzySlippers posted:It would be so awesome to have a new gold box where instead of epic 100+ hour games every 4 years with massive engine changes a studio just kept a steady stream of decently sized content. Isn't pathfinder kingmaker like that? I don't have it but the dlc list looks exactly like a bunch of premium modules.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2020 07:21
|
|
|
MonikaTSarn posted:- BG3 has the most beautifull characters I've ever seen in an RPG. Solasta has the worst ever. Clear BG3 win.  Helps that I wasn't very particular with the voice sets and personality tags so now my ranger dwarf has the wimpiest voice, is super cautious and just wants everyone to get along, guys, whereas my pretty-boy elf wizard sounds like a gruff old man and can't wait to get to the slaughtering part ASAP regardless of the situation at hand. I do also genuinely love how the maps are displayed: 
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2020 12:53
|
|
|
I was gonna say something snarky like this is gonna be the real bg3, but this being the new nwn is way more cool and on-point. I'm gonna have a big laugh if this game ends up eating Larian's lunch.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2020 14:14
|
|
|
Game is pretty great so far, havent experienced any game breaking bugs and combat follows 5E super faithfully. Its no BG3, but its a drat sight more D&D than Larians game.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2020 14:27
|
|
|
My takeaway is that BG3 is "Divinity Original Sin with D&D rules" whereas Solasta is much more "D&D: The Game". The only thing wrong with Solasta is that it wasn't made with the 4E rules. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2020 14:32
|
|
|
Put 5 hours into this today, and I honestly love it so much more than BG3. The graphics aren't as good, obviously, but I'll take strong gameplay over graphics.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2020 14:48
|
|
|
inthesto posted:My takeaway is that BG3 is "Divinity Original Sin with D&D rules" whereas Solasta is much more "D&D: The Game". The only thing wrong with Solasta is that it wasn't made with the 4E rules. Ew.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2020 18:55
|
|
|
Pussy Snorkel posted:Pretty much the opposite. My playthrough has been crash-free, and the only bugs I've encountered are text-related (and not really bugs; more like unfinished journal entries and things like that). Nice, that's convinced me to give it a go. Thank you!
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2020 19:00
|
|
|
How is it possible for one person to hold so many absolutely terrible opinions? Turn on your monitor, put down the mirror, etc 
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2020 21:56
|
|
|
Unimpressed posted:Isn't pathfinder kingmaker like that? I don't have it but the dlc list looks exactly like a bunch of premium modules. Naw the DLC is just a long story addon to the main game and a half rear end roguelike mode which just mashes together a few prefabs. A proper approach to what I'm talking about would need to be a lot more modularized. The sorta finicky hand detailed creation in Kingmaker, D:OS/BG3. Pillars, etc doesn't lend itself to cranking out content in the way of old games or NWN (or to a lesser extent the newer Shadowrun games).
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2020 23:20
|
|
|
Ok so after getting to level 4 I'll say that I hope they add some more feats into the full game. There's currently not really a reason to use a Fighter over a Paladin considering how strong and versatile the latter feels and there isn't an extra feat I feel can make up for that gap in the game atm. I still haven't been able to find a Rosary yet.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2020 23:55
|
|
|
Nephthys posted:Ok so after getting to level 4 I'll say that I hope they add some more feats into the full game. There's currently not really a reason to use a Fighter over a Paladin considering how strong and versatile the latter feels and there isn't an extra feat I feel can make up for that gap in the game atm. Im also looking for a rosary, considering i´ve found several pieces of armor and a couple of weapons i can combine with oil of acuteness. Im also looking for the steward for one of the factions selling belts of dwarfkind / ogre power that would benefit my party, but no dice. Also, scavengers arent working in early access so load up on random poo poo before you leave an area.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2020 00:33
|
|
|
So I just bought this game and played the four tutorials. This is basically D&D 5e the computer game. Love it so far, just what I was looking for.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2020 03:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 14:19 |
|
|
Is there a roadmap for the stuff that will be added to the game as EA progresses? The character creation options are a bit slim at the moment, so I have to imagine it's going to expand. Personally, I'd like to see variant human added, and if budget is an issue some of the core classes can be rolled into sub-classes (i.e. bard becomes a rogue sub-class and barbarian becomes a fighter sub-class)
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2020 12:09
|
|