Solasta - 1st DLC on Nov 4th

Thinking about picking this game up next (orig game, not just the DLC). What is the overall Watch vibe on this one right now? Yea or nay?

bizorker said:

Thinking about picking this game up next (orig game, not just the DLC). What is the overall Watch vibe on this one right now? Yea or nay?

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Just a note if you really just want to try it, this is on gamepass....I liked what I played of it.

bizorker said:

Thinking about picking this game up next (orig game, not just the DLC). What is the overall Watch vibe on this one right now? Yea or nay?

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Highly recommended, but some notes:

1. The original campaign is first and foremost a turn-based tactical RPG. The combat is great if you like D&D rules. From what I can tell, it's pretty faithful to D&D rules aside no multi-classing (though there's a mod for that) and homebrewed subclasses and feats. The story is OK, but nothing special and it is a very linear game. There's a handful of sidequests (each background has their own sidequest, which are pretty well done) and some hidden areas & puzzles. There are some opportunities to use social skills in dialogue, but this is usually for flavor or to coax some extra rewards out of an NPC. There's a few opportunities to avoid some tough fights with diplomacy / deception, but it's primarily a combat focused game.

2. Arguably the best part of this game is the dungeon-maker and modding community. Right now the DM is pretty limited in what you can do (though players have already made some campaigns they are very combat focused). But on the bright side it is extremely easy to make something with. And the free update which will coincide with the DLC is going to add a lot of new features, including the ability create NPCs. And the modding community will likely add many more. So hopefully we'll start to see campaigns that are a lot more story driven and have quests beyond "kill all the monsters and get the loot".

So even if you find the main campaign mediocre, it's possible the user created campaigns will appeal to you. And perhaps you'll like to make some of your own. I'm tinkering with a few myself and very excited for the potential with the upcoming DM features / mods. But if for some reason playing unofficial content is not your thing this game may be less appealing.

I bought and played Solasta for little less than 7 hours and got bored fast. I don't really like games without full fledged companions and minimal story.

daveyd said:

2. Arguably the best part of this game is the dungeon-maker and modding community. Right now the DM is pretty limited in what you can do (though players have already made some campaigns they are very combat focused). But on the bright side it is extremely easy to make something with. And the free update which will coincide with the DLC is going to add a lot of new features, including the ability create NPCs. And the modding community will likely add many more. So hopefully we'll start to see campaigns that are a lot more story driven and have quests beyond "kill all the monsters and get the loot".

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I was trying to look for Solasta module but most of them doesn't seem to have any user review so it's difficult to tell whether the modules are more combat orientated or story driven etc.

purpleblob1 said:

bought and played Solasta for little less than 7 hours and got bored fast. I don't really like games without full fledged companions and minimal story.

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Yeah, the main campaign is definitely focused on combat with the story taking a backseat. Since you create the entire party you basically determine their personality during character creation. Normally I do prefer story-driven cRPGs but I did enjoy it because I like the combat and D&D mechanics. That said, it reminds me a lot of NWN where the real potential for the game is in the user created content.

purpleblob1 said:

I was trying to look for Solasta module but most of them doesn't seem to have any user review so it's difficult to tell whether the modules are more combat orientated or story driven etc.

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For now, I would say hold off because you'll likely be just as bored with the modules as the main campaign since the storytelling abilities have been limited. However, once the update comes out that may change (for ex: we'll be able to make NPCs and have award XP outside of combat). Some creators with beta access to new features are already working on campaigns which sound like they will be much more story driven.

I just started working on a campaign intended for a solo rogue characters where players will actually be encouraged to avoid most combat, but I'll definitely need the new features to make it work.

daveyd said:

For now, I would say hold off because you'll likely be just as bored with the modules as the main campaign since the storytelling abilities have been limited. However, once the update comes out that may change (for ex: we'll be able to make NPCs and have award XP outside of combat). Some creators with beta access to new features are already working on campaigns which sound like they will be much more story driven.

I just started working on a campaign intended for a solo rogue characters where players will actually be encouraged to avoid most combat, but I'll definitely need the new features to make it work.

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Thanks, will wait for new features to kick in for custom modules then Hope it will take off like NWN1

daveyd said:

Yeah, the main campaign is definitely focused on combat with the story taking a backseat. Since you create the entire party you basically determine their personality during character creation. Normally I do prefer story-driven cRPGs but I did enjoy it because I like the combat and D&D mechanics. That said, it reminds me a lot of NWN where the real potential for the game is in the user created content.



For now, I would say hold off because you'll likely be just as bored with the modules as the main campaign since the storytelling abilities have been limited. However, once the update comes out that may change (for ex: we'll be able to make NPCs and have award XP outside of combat). Some creators with beta access to new features are already working on campaigns which sound like they will be much more story driven.

I just started working on a campaign intended for a solo rogue characters where players will actually be encouraged to avoid most combat, but I'll definitely need the new features to make it work.

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Thanks guys for the info and your perspective. I am going to give it a go as I do like just vanilla party based combat stuff, especially D&D flavored. Hopefully there will be some great community content. I was reading about Knights of the Chalice 2 somewhere else here on the Watch forums and it sounds like that developer is shooting for similar platform and content creator ecosystem. And I think same ruleset maybe. Who will win the hearts and minds of the content creators out there?!

daveyd said:

For now, I would say hold off because you'll likely be just as bored with the modules as the main campaign since the storytelling abilities have been limited. However, once the update comes out that may change (for ex: we'll be able to make NPCs and have award XP outside of combat). Some creators with beta access to new features are already working on campaigns which sound like they will be much more story driven.

I just started working on a campaign intended for a solo rogue characters where players will actually be encouraged to avoid most combat, but I'll definitely need the new features to make it work.

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I thought given past opinions on the Watch claimed the tool-set was very limited, and you could never make an actual mod campaign like the NWN games? So what changed?

If that was false and it's been upgraded to allow better mods, I may have to give this game another try. As my first opinion was it's just a combat tabletop simulator.

bizorker said:

Thinking about picking this game up next (orig game, not just the DLC). What is the overall Watch vibe on this one right now? Yea or nay?

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I was very enthusiastic during the EA (hence the preview article that must be around), but as it is today I can't really recommend it anymore or with two big warnings. Firstly because I had too many issues with GPU overheating and was very disappointed how their support eluded all sorts of problems. Chances are you won't have any trouble with it like most people. If not, well, it's not too expensive and maybe you can even get a refund (buy it on GOG!).

Then I was expecting a little more from the quest / story part, but they confirmed the focus was on strategy CRPG, so it's quite fun for a while but I don't think I'd replay it.

On the positive side, it is very fun, it gives a feeling of tabletop game, with the immersion hanging between that feeling and being in character. And it's the only game with D&D 5E, even if it's only the SRD with a reduced number of classes / races / spells. The UI is very clean and good to understand its mechanics.

Couchpotato said:

I thought given past opinions on the Watch claimed the tool-set was very limited, and you could never make an actual mod campaign like the NWN games? So what changed?

If that was false and it's been upgraded to allow better mods, I may have to give this game another try. As my first opinion was it's just a combat tabletop simulator.

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All the new new features are releasing with the DLC this November.

If you enjoy combat and a more combat-focused game then Solasta is a really good game. If you enjoy more of a story and character romance read a book

Hastar said:

All the new new features are releasing with the DLC this November.

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I stopped following news on this game when I wrote it off as a rubbish combat simulator.

Like I said above the opinions on the watch said the tools provided to make mods were pure crap. Now I'm reading differently, so I don't know who to believe anymore.:lol:

If the Dungeon Maker allows to create quests and dialogues, there will be people to create more fleshed-out campaigns, we could have a very nice result.

If not, perhaps some adventurers will create campaigns from the SDK and release them as mods, though I'm not sure it's easy to achieve by hacking the game like that.

Couchpotato said:

I stopped following news on this game when I wrote it off as a rubbish combat simulator.

Like I said above the opinions on the watch said the tools provided to make mods were pure crap. Now I'm reading differently, so I don't know who to believe anymore.:lol:

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Well, everyone has an opinion, best way to decide if it's worthwhile is just check it out yourself. But as I said to PB, wait until after the new features release and creators have a chance to play around with them, as current DM has mostly been focused on combat / dungeon crawling.

As of today; You place rooms that you can fill with props, traps, treasure, and various "gadgets" (e.g., monsters, activators to open / close doors). You can get make puzzles, mazes, etc. but mostly still geared towards making dungeons focused on combat encounters. Storywise we have been rather limited as you can make text pop up when you step in an area or interact with a prop, but we could not make NPCs.

The free update coming in November is adding a lot of features the full list hasn't been made public but what has been explicitly mentioned or confirmed is: the ability to create merchants, NPCs, custom monsters and items, additional environments (including towns), award XP outside of combat, and merge multiple maps into single campaigns.

They've mentioned "chatting with NPCs" but it is not clear to me whether they mean an actual dialogue tree or just click on NPC so they say prerecorded messages. While I'm sure it will still seem limited compared to NWN toolset, on the plus side it's extremely user friendly and you can create something rather quickly w/o much risk of creating bugs. But for those who want to create something a bit more complex, there's also mods.

One modder has started working on adding (Lua) scripting to the dungeon maker which sounds like it will allow creators to do a lot of cool things that the vanilla DM doesn't do (yet).

Hastar said:

If you enjoy combat and a more combat-focused game then Solasta is a really good game. If you enjoy more of a story and character romance read a book

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But RPGs are so much more than just combat - story/character/romance are all great part of RPGs, especially because it is told in an interactive way unlike in books

purpleblob1 said:

But RPGs are so much more than just combat - story/character/romance are all great part of RPGs, especially because it is told in an interactive way unlike in books

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Yep but remember story focused games aren't mega sellers, and data shows you don't even need a good story. Still I'm like you I want an average story at least in my RPGs.

Link - https://bottomfeeder.substack.com/p/six-truths-about-video-game-stories

Otherwise it's comparable to Skyrim without direction again.