Solasta: Crown of the Magister - Now on Kickstarter

They are pretty active in the comments area on Kickstarter and what they write is at least no marketing bla.
If you back a game these days, it should be this one imo.

Originally Posted by Ripper
From what I understand, you must open-source that part of your product which is based on the things licensed under the OGL. There have been discussions about the problems this can present for software implementations of the rules. People have talked about solutions such as farming the "rules engine" of a game out to a separate open-source plugin, which the closed source game then interacts with. The suggestion is that such contortions may be legally necessary.

I just wonder if the team has looked into this, and are sure their position is safe.

I'm not sure that the term "open source" was ever used by WoTC in their OGL related documents. They do say that the rules must be presented in a "human readable" format. I suppose one can dispute what exactly that would entail for a computer game, but I think it could possibly be something as simple as including readme files that detail the rules.

Edit: a relevant bit from WotC's FAQ:

Thanks for the impressions @purpleblob. Sounds like most of the issues are quick fixes assuming they also see them as issues. Hopefully character development and combat will have some depth to them, have to wait and see on that i guess.

Hopefully I’ll complete my new build in time to try this before the kickstarter ends but if not I’ll probably back it anyway.

Originally Posted by daveyd
I'm not sure that the term "open source" was ever used by WoTC in their OGL related documents. They do say that the rules must be presented in a "human readable" format. I suppose one can dispute what exactly that would entail for a computer game, but I think it could possibly be something as simple as including readme files that detail the rules.

Yes, open-source isn't quite the right term - what I'm getting at is that it's a copyleft license - whatever you use from the OGL, someone else must be able to take and use from you. It's a long time since I looked into it, but I seem remember some legal folks saying this could be a wasp nest. I'm not sure that providing an accompanying text version of the rules would be sufficient, and that's why folks were discussing possible software workarounds.

Originally Posted by Ripper
Yes, open-source isn't quite the right term - what I'm getting at is that it's a copyleft license - whatever you use from the OGL, someone else must be able to take and use from you. It's a long time since I looked into it, but I seem remember some legal folks saying this could be a wasp nest. I'm not sure that providing an accompanying text version of the rules would be sufficient, and that's why folks were discussing possible software workarounds.

They go go into a bit more detail in the "Software FAQ" which suggests placing everything related to the rules "in text files that the program pulls info from, having everything in a viewable database within the software, using Java script on a webpage" as ways to comply.

That said, I think the wise thing to do for any game developer wanting to use the OGL would be to contact WotC directly and verify with someone from the company that they're doing everything necessary to comply. Perhaps this developer has already done that for all I know.

I know Ceres, in addition to making human readable script code in game, is planning to create their own online wiki for Realms Beyond that includes a detailed explanation of the ruleset.

Yep, that's just why I was asking - to see if they've thought about it. I did ask them before on here, but didn't get a reply, so I wondered if perhaps they just didn't know what I was talking about. In which case, it might bite them on the bum!

Originally Posted by purpleblob
Anyone else played the demo yet?

Yep, the UI is poor. Also, you can't cast a fireball at a point on a wall …so much for verticality. The fireball spell has no such constraint. That would have saved my bacon - tried twice, you have to cast it on a horizontal element. I tried to target a cluster of spiders (on the wall) the last thing I had - nope. Impossible. Ended up killing my party while trying to get the AOE to overlap a few spiders. At least make it able to target any vertical or horizontal surface element?

Also, how do you stabilize characters? Doesn't seem to be an option.

Also have no idea why my fighter was at combat disadvantage almost all the time - I had alight source…there should be a pop up explaining why you have advantage/disadvantage. Yes, it 's an alpha - but if you are using it to attract KS people, then it should be a small portion of the game that has been carefully chosen an which showcases all the good bits of you engine/mechanics.

Originally Posted by daveyd
despite some ppl inevitably nitpicking & critiquing a pre-alpha demo as if it were the final product. Speaking of, I need to check that out.

The devs themselves wanted use this demo as a promotion and also receive feedback - whether ppl are "nitpicking" or not is for them to decide.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
Anyone else played the demo yet?

I did and I agree with some points that you raised, but others don't.

For instance, I agree that the camera must be fixed. But I think that this is something that they will probably fix with time. One thing that I am not sure that they will change is the party creation (see this link). And that is what concerns me the most, you can't have a proper D&D game if you can't customize your character. And that is what is preventing me to back this project right now. I also don't like the cartoonish way that the characters were designed and I get this feeling that this game won't be so good storywise.

I don't agree with you about how dark the dungeon was. I like it because you really need a torch or the light spell to see anything in the dungeon, and IMO it is more immersive this way. And the rest of the game seems pretty decent to me, but it is somewhat hard to tell because it's an pre-alfa demo. However, I am glad that they released the demo, the relationship between the devs and the player is more transparent this way.

My wishlist for this game is;
1. Please fix the camera
2. Would like more races and classes
3. Co-op playmode

I don't usually like co-op or playing RPG with others but this one I'd make an exception.

Sadly, apart from the first point, the other two may take modders to be added.

Well, more classes and more races are part of why we're doing this Kickstarter

For the Camera we're trying to push out a new version with camera options in the coming week, so stay tuned

Originally Posted by gabrielarantest
One thing that I am not sure that they will change is the party creation (see this link). And that is what concerns me the most, you can't have a proper D&D game if you can't customize your character. And that is what is preventing me to back this project right now. I also don't like the cartoonish way that the characters were designed and I get this feeling that this game won't be so good storywise.

I was told at gamescom that you get to create the party yourself in the final game, but not in this demo. Although they did not elaborate on what creating a party means exactly. You will not find any new party members during the game, so the ones you start with are the ones that are there for the duration.
Also the demo is not a part of the game. The adventure is created just for the demo, so it doesn’t need to be representative of how much of a story they will have in the final game.

Originally Posted by Myrthos
I was told at gamescom that you get to create the party yourself in the final game, but not in this demo. Although they did not elaborate on what creating a party means exactly. You will not find any new party members during the game, so the ones you start with are the ones that are there for the duration.
Also the demo is not a part of the game. The adventure is created just for the demo, so it doesn’t need to be representative of how much of a story they will have in the final game.

That's is good news then. I think that this game will have a similar experience to ToEE. Thanks for the clarification Myrthos!

Originally Posted by Myrthos
I was told at gamescom that you get to create the party yourself in the final game, but not in this demo. Although they did not elaborate on what creating a party means exactly. You will not find any new party members during the game, so the ones you start with are the ones that are there for the duration.
Also the demo is not a part of the game. The adventure is created just for the demo, so it doesn’t need to be representative of how much of a story they will have in the final game.

I asked them about party member appearance / customization in the KS comments and they said "there will be character customization (although limited, don't expect sliders for nose length or jaw size) during Character Creation…"

Aside from cosmetic tweaks I assume creating a party means picking their race, class, and gender and then assigning initial attribute scores, feats, spells, etc. (However that works in 5e).

Camera fix is now live, make sure you read the article to know how to update the demo:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects…/posts/2615644

So I played the updated demo. The camera control is MUCH better.

There are now 3 different camera mode available in the demo - 1. Original (locked into the character), 2. Free mode but the moment you let go of the control, it goes back to the party/character you are controlling, 3. free camera mode.

I initially preferred the free camera mode, but when you enter multi-level area, the camera gets out of focus and everything turns haze-y/fuzzy, which I think need to be addressed:

Gotcha, we'll take a look at that.