Solasta - 1st DLC on Nov 4th

Tactical Adventures revealed the date and more information on the incoming DLC for Solasta.

Primal Calling DLC coming November 4th! Barbarians & Druids rejoice!

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For those of you who've not been around Solasta for the last few weeks, here is what you can expect from the Primal Calling DLC:

• The Barbarian Class, with its 3 subclasses: Path of the Berzerker (SRD), Path of the Magebane (Solasta), Path of Stone (Community)
• The Druid Class, with its 3 subclasses: Circle of the Land (SRD), Circle of Kindred Spirit (Solasta), Circle of Winds (Community)
• The Half-Orc Ancestry
• The Wanderer Background, with its brand new background quest located in Copparan

[…]

Free Content Update Incoming!

Adventuring hasn't been kind to you lately and you don't got no gold to buy them goods? Worry not, we've got you covered. With the Primal Calling DLC also comes a fat content update - and everyone gets it for free! Aside from the usual bug fixes, here are some of the large changes or additions you can look forward to:

• You can finally skip the tutorial. Dry your tears of joy, serial rerollers, it's time to jump straight into the adventure.
  Max level 10? How about max level 12, how does that sound? With them level 6 spells and all.
• Our characters' faces may not be the prettiest around, but you'll now be able to add scars and face paints. Some more customization can't hurt!
  Was the final encounter of the campaign a little too easy? We made it harder for you.
• The Campaign Creator is here. What is the Campaign Creator? A new feature that allows you to bundle custom dungeons together, create custom monsters, items, NPCs and merchants. It's still in development though, so not every parameter can be tweaked yet.
• The Dungeon Maker now has a Town Interior & Exterior environment! Custom campaigns can now have main hubs where your party can safely rest, trade, and chat with NPCs in-between dungeons!

More information.

… And after a quick test, I see the GPU is still running at 100% when using torches and in some other conditions, so they have definitely swept the issue under the rug despite all the data they were provided with.

No support, no DLC for me.

Someone here said they couldn't do a Campaign Creator with Towns and merchants. WRONG LVL 12 will be nice because it will add new spells and fighters can get the 3rd attack.

Originally Posted by Hastar
Someone here said they couldn't do a Campaign Creator with Towns. WRONG LVL 12 will be nice because it will add new spells and fighters can get the 3rd attack.

Well, we still can't right now, but there's apparently an inner circle of creators who have access to the beta version of the DLC who are already making campaigns utilizing some of the new features. And a modder is working on adding Lua scripting to the DungeonMaker which should allow us to do a lot of other interesting things.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
… And after a quick test, I see the GPU is still running at 100% when using torches and in some other conditions, so they have definitely swept the issue under the rug despite all the data they were provided with.

No support, no DLC for me.

What’s wrong with your GPU running at 100%?

Originally Posted by Redglyph
… And after a quick test, I see the GPU is still running at 100% when using torches and in some other conditions, so they have definitely swept the issue under the rug despite all the data they were provided with.

No support, no DLC for me.

To be fair, I'm not sure this issue is being swept under the rug. They didn't get specific but did mention that more bug fixes are to come. I think it's important to keep in mind this is still a fairly small indie studio, not some huge developer with a huge support staff. I'm not going to say this issue isn't important, but for now there's an imperfect solution; turn down / shut off volumetric lighting in the graphics settings.

I mean, if there's one thing that ensures they don't fix the remaining bugs, it would probably be this DLC selling poorly.

Originally Posted by daveyd
To be fair, I'm not sure this issue is being swept under the rug. They didn't get specific but did mention that more bug fixes are to come. I think it's important to keep in mind this is still a fairly small indie studio, not some huge developer with a huge support staff. I'm not going to say this issue isn't important, but for now there's an imperfect solution; turn down / shut off volumetric lighting in the graphics settings.

I mean, if there's one thing that ensures they don't fix the remaining bugs, it would probably be this DLC selling poorly.

The only solution is to disable "shadows" entirely, I've tried all the other settings. And even that doesn't work in some of the cases. It's quite puzzling. It's obviously an issue with Unity, and they could have sent the case to the engine devs.

I get they're a small studio, but there were many reports of this problem, and they've not been straightforward in their communication about it, eluding the issue with several implausible responses. That's what is annoying me the most, and why I believe they won't actively solve the problem. Perhaps Unity will fix itself in the future.

On the bright side, most cards are fine with the game.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
The only solution is to disable "shadows" entirely, I've tried all the other settings. And even that doesn't work in some of the cases. It's quite puzzling. It's obviously an issue with Unity, and they could have sent the case to the engine devs.

I get they're a small studio, but there were many reports of this problem, and they've not been straightforward in their communication about it, eluding the issue with several implausible responses. That's what is annoying me the most, and why I believe they won't actively solve the problem. Perhaps Unity will fix itself in the future.

On the bright side, most cards are fine with the game.

Unity performance issues have been around a long time now and are apparently not so easy to fix. Might and Magic X was supposed to run on 32X systems, but UBIsoft couldn't do it, or decided it wasn't worth the effort. Pillars of Eternity I had huge lags on some systems loading saved games as the game progressed. Not sure if they ever fixed that one as it didn't effect my computer. I was hit by Starcrawlers though, being unable to access my saves or to save manually, even after exhausting all the options the developers recommended.

Originally Posted by sakichop
What's wrong with your GPU running at 100%?

Can't tell if you're joking, but I think most people would consider it significant. That's a lot of extra power and heat over time, and it shouldn't be happening in a game as modest as Solasta.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
… And after a quick test, I see the GPU is still running at 100% when using torches (…)

You sure you took the burning torch out of your computer case?

A strange situation if the performance problems only affect certain people, and the devs can't replicate it. I'd have thought if it were down to problems in the code, by either the devs or the engine, it would be more repeatable. I even wonder if it could be down to driver issues - or at least something that varies on the user's setup.

They really had me at "you can skip the tutorial" because that was getting quite annoying.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Can't tell if you're joking, but I think most people would consider it significant. That's a lot of extra power and heat over time, and it shouldn't be happening in a game as modest as Solasta.

I am being serious. It’s not abnormal for your videocard to run 100%. I understand Solasta isn’t a demanding game but as long as you have proper cooling running at 100% shouldn't be a problem.

Many games will hit a 100% usage unless you have a bottleneck somewhere. A properly cooled and maintained system can run at 100% for years. I assume his play sessions aren’t that long.

Well, I just checked taskbar while running Solasta and on max ultra settings the GPU usage does tend to go to at or near 100%. (I have a 1050ti). But my fan is pretty quiet and the temperature is in the low 60's, so I'm not terribly concerned.

Sounding better and better. Look forward to see what fan made stuff gets built.

Sure GPUs can run at 100% for long periods but it's really not ideal to have them doing so. As with most things, the harder it runs the quicker it fails.

Originally Posted by KaosWarMonk
Sounding better and better. Look forward to see what fan made stuff gets built.

Sure GPUs can run at 100% for long periods but it's really not ideal to have them doing so. As with most things, the harder it runs the quicker it fails.

So you only get 8 years instead of 10.

Seriously though. That’s exactly what videocards are built to do and most of them are built to do that while overclocked.

Unless you get a turd the card will be obsolete before it fails.

Amazon’s MMO was killing cards and everyone was up in arms talking about GPU usage until evga came out and admitted that it was a defect on their cards and they replaced them all free of charge.

I guess my point is todays video cards are made to run overclocked at high temps and extended periods of time because that’s what the majority of gamers expect and many games demand. I wouldn’t skip a game I like because it runs my GPU at 100%. They are designed to do that. Obviously though everyone should do what they are comfortable with.

Sorry I suppose this is OT but it was brought up in the thread. So, I don’t know.

Originally Posted by Ripper
A strange situation if the performance problems only affect certain people, and the devs can't replicate it. I'd have thought if it were down to problems in the code, by either the devs or the engine, it would be more repeatable. I even wonder if it could be down to driver issues - or at least something that varies on the user's setup.

I'm sure they can replicate it but didn't try very hard or at least not methodically. What gave it away was when I uploaded a saved game which replicated one problem 100% for me, and the CM told me they didn't need saved games

The same goes with all the data I provided: all the card specs, descriptions and symptoms I could muster from the people who posted, GPU % usage depending on the settings and FPS cap. He first said they didn't have any of the cards I listed, then later they supposedly found a 3070 (the one I have) but could not replicate the problem.

When asked later during a live stream, he said they found out this was due to a well-known problem of failing fan controller. I gave GPU %, not fan RPM, but I looked it up anyway: this problem occurred only on a specific brand (EVGA) and GPU (3090); the 3090 was present in the list, but among many other cards.

Most of that is due to their bad organization I think. It's a new, small indie dev, they don't seem to have much experience in S/W development methodology.

Originally Posted by sakichop
I am being serious. It’s not abnormal for your videocard to run 100%. I understand Solasta isn’t a demanding game but as long as you have proper cooling running at 100% shouldn't be a problem.

But it is abnormal.

It's an RTX 3070, I wouldn't be surprised to see it in that regime if there was ray tracing or stunning graphics. But it's happening in scenes that are almost empty, simply because there are 4 or 5 sources of lights and shadows are enabled (at 60 FPS). Yes, sometimes Pathfinder uses 80% or so, but in a heavy scene with many graphics effects, and when I remove some of the fancy post-processing, the usage goes down to 30-40% (and it's Unity too, so there's that).

Solasta is also crawling in some areas (for everyone including people with 3090 or 3080 Ti), with the same GPU usage, simply because of a waterfall.

It is not good to let it run at 100% all the time, and not only because of the heat & sound discomfort. In Solasta, many of those reports came with system crashes and shutdowns after a few minutes of gameplay.

Anyway, I'll stop ranting on the subject. I'm obviously angry because of their behaviour, but I had many fun hours during the EA with that game and that's good enough for me.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
But it is abnormal.

Exactly. It's not a question of if your card can handle it. It's a question of should it be doing that.

This made me curious about what kind of GPU usage I usually get, so I just tested a few games on max settings to see what their average usage was. I tried FO:NV, Space Hulk: Deathwing, Dead Space, Battlefield 4, and AC: Odyssey.

None of them ever hit 100%, and the only one that even came close was AC: Odyssey. That's on a GTX 1080.

In fact, I was surprised how low it was for some of them. FO:NV without mods only used 25-30%. Granted that's an old game, but still. Battlefield 4 averaged 55-65%, Space Hulk: Deathwing 55-60%, Dead Space 70-80%, and AC: Odyssey 85-95%.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
But it is abnormal.

It's an RTX 3070, I wouldn't be surprised to see it in that regime if there was ray tracing or stunning graphics. But it's happening in scenes that are almost empty, simply because there are 4 or 5 sources of lights and shadows are enabled (at 60 FPS). Yes, sometimes Pathfinder uses 80% or so, but in a heavy scene with many graphics effects, and when I remove some of the fancy post-processing, the usage goes down to 30-40% (and it's Unity too, so there's that).

Solasta is also crawling in some areas (for everyone including people with 3090 or 3080 Ti), with the same GPU usage, simply because of a waterfall.

It is not good to let it run at 100% all the time, and not only because of the heat & sound discomfort. In Solasta, many of those reports came with system crashes and shutdowns after a few minutes of gameplay.

Anyway, I'll stop ranting on the subject. I'm obviously angry because of their behaviour, but I had many fun hours during the EA with that game and that's good enough for me.

Oh, I’m not debating that solasta isn’t a demanding enough game to warrant 100% usage. There’s obviously something going on there.

I’m just saying these cards are built to handle the workload if it’s needed. These cards can sit in poorly ventilated mining farms and operate 24/7 for years without fail. They can easily handle long gaming sessions in a well ventilated case.

It’s true that it can shorten the life of your card but technology will make it obsolete before it fails. ( not accounting for bad cards)

I didn’t realize this was a sore spot for you and wasn’t trying to poke at ya. Just wanted to say that hitting 100% usage in of itself isn’t necessarily a problem.