Any good?

[Kruppe]

Long time Wartales, Divinity, and Battle Brothers player here - is this game worth it? Are the devs doing their job - fixing bugs, etc... taking ideas from players and using them to better the game?

[Barden]

If you have ever played pen & paper D&D, you will likely really enjoy Solasta. If you haven't and/or you are comparing it to some AAA game, it might disappoint you. I'm a big fan, as I started out playing pen & paper D&D. In summary, the game is great at meeting Tactical Adventure's mission statement, which is "to recreate the feel of a tabletop RPG onscreen, through the faithful adaptation of rules and universes."

[Kruppe]

Originally posted by Barden:

If you have ever played pen & paper D&D, you will likely really enjoy Solasta. If you haven't and/or you are comparing it to some AAA game, it might disappoint you. I'm a big fan, as I started out playing pen & paper D&D. In summary, the game is great at meeting Tactical Adventure's mission statement, which is "to recreate the feel of a tabletop RPG onscreen, through the faithful adaptation of rules and universes."

okay - ta very much - started playing D&D in the 80's so it sounds like it fits it ships

[Morgian]

Just a small warning: be careful to follow quest steps exactly. If it says "go take a rest", do it, and do it immediately without just exploring this or that corner. You can break quests and consequently the game, when I look at some postings here.

Although everybody loves Unfinished Business, be careful with that mod if you use it. It can break the game, if used recklessly, and you can play the game just fine without it. There are hard spots here and there, but they are doable. On my second run they were not hard anymore (like a certain defiler), as I was prepared.

My 2 cp for beginners:
- Consider the Lawgiver background for classes that cannot use martial weapons. but who you want to have it. I like all my characters to carry a longbow or heavy crossbow.
- If you take a cleric, look closely at the battle cleric.
- Bards are very useful...their debuff works even on legendary mobs, who ignore all spells. They give other useful group effects, too, and they get access to the spells of other people twice, allowing to round out what you need (mine got fireball).
- Fighters are powerful, does not matter what you pick. A party with three fighter types and one utility will do well, if you are inclined that way.
- Warlocks are great, if you don't mind the short rests to recharge their spells. I picked on experimentally and it performs well.
- You want to craft items, which means access to the tool kits. But you don't actually need proficiency with the kit itself. Any of the required skills will do (like Arcana for crafting magic items), which may help with what proficiencies to pick.

[Kruppe]

Originally posted by Morgian:

Just a small warning: be careful to follow quest steps exactly. If it says "go take a rest", do it, and do it immediately without just exploring this or that corner. You can break quests and consequently the game, when I look at some postings here.

Although everybody loves Unfinished Business, be careful with that mod if you use it. It can break the game, if used recklessly, and you can play the game just fine without it. There are hard spots here and there, but they are doable. On my second run they were not hard anymore (like a certain defiler), as I was prepared.

My 2 cp for beginners:
- Consider the Lawgiver background for classes that cannot use martial weapons. but who you want to have it. I like all my characters to carry a longbow or heavy crossbow.
- If you take a cleric, look closely at the battle cleric.
- Bards are very useful...their debuff works even on legendary mobs, who ignore all spells. They give other useful group effects, too, and they get access to the spells of other people twice, allowing to round out what you need (mine got fireball).
- Fighters are powerful, does not matter what you pick. A party with three fighter types and one utility will do well, if you are inclined that way.
- Warlocks are great, if you don't mind the short rests to recharge their spells. I picked on experimentally and it performs well.
- You want to craft items, which means access to the tool kits. But you don't actually need proficiency with the kit itself. Any of the required skills will do (like Arcana for crafting magic items), which may help with what proficiencies to pick.

cheers for the detailed info :) i'll take it slow - no hurry here. my main game is Wartales...

[Morgian]

I should have added:
- Social skills have no real impact besides avoiding a fight here and there. After all, they meant for you to complete the campaign.
- You don't actually need a dedicated healer, if your characters can avoid damage (duh). What I mean is that some classes have abilities that reduce damage (e.g. the rogue), and that you can acquire better saves vis feats in level 4 and 8. The saves are DEX, WIS, CON, STR, INT, and CHA and I would give them this order. While the deadly effects are behind INT and CHA, they are mostly found on tabletop and not here. DEX avoids AE damage, which is common and gets nasty later on (like 65 for everyone). WIS avoids fear and charm, which takes a character out of the fight. CON is usually poison and paralysis, which both happen, but don't outright kill. STR is for spells that hinder, but don't kill. That is something to keep in mind - but it won't hurt to have a cleric or druid along, if you like (cleric is pretty good).

[Wizard of Woz]

Originally posted by Kruppe:

Originally posted by Barden:

If you have ever played pen & paper D&D, you will likely really enjoy Solasta. If you haven't and/or you are comparing it to some AAA game, it might disappoint you. I'm a big fan, as I started out playing pen & paper D&D. In summary, the game is great at meeting Tactical Adventure's mission statement, which is "to recreate the feel of a tabletop RPG onscreen, through the faithful adaptation of rules and universes."

okay - ta very much - started playing D&D in the 80's so it sounds like it fits it ships

Don't know if you have much familiarity with 5e dnd. I also have played for a long time and really am not a fan of 5e. Also this game really likes to focus on the annoying rules and make it a staple of combat. Also expect quests to bug out if you dont do them in the order that the devs expected you to.

[Helldiver]

I wouldn't exactly pin this as trying to emulate a Tabletop session.

More like a regular Steam Turn Based Game (WarTales, Divinity Original Sin, Wasteland 2/3, Shadowrun, Mordheim/Necromunda, etcetera), that happens to use D&D 5e as its ruleset.

It suffers from some of the same issues those titles I listed suffer from; over reliance on the Unity engine and what I believe is an outdated Turned Based plugin/shell that has problems.

Same movement and turn problems I've experienced in those games happen here and I suspect it might be based on some old code Devs keep borrowing that uses ray casting/vectors to determine player/enemy position.
Among several bugs with it, one of them is not being able to target an Enemy despite visually having perfectly clear line of sight to it. Same issue rears its head when the player should have certain conditions at certain spots but the game not registering them appropriately.

Additionally where most DMs (myself included) avoid a lot of vertical gameplay (i.e. enemies sideways on walls) and/or at varying heights, Inception style, you'll see a lot of that here. Causing some spells to not function as well as they normally would on tabletop (Color Spray has been practically useless this playthrough). When combined with that ray casting detection issue I mention above, you can see how you'll feel cheated sometimes when you're robbed of an attack, bonus, or movement.

DMs might have a few fights like this, but it's rare do to the pain in the butt it is to keep track of which monsters are sideways on walls and varying heights. Where as most spells and skills tend to lean more towards a flatter play space/gameboard.

Aside from those minor nitpicks that aren't exactly show stoppers, the game's not bad and I find it a lot more enjoyable than Wartales where I'm stuck with that campaign only.

Solasta lets you create your own adventures or play through others people have made in the Workshop, and you can bring along your favorite heroes through all of them if you'd like. If you liked Wartales I suspect you'll enjoy Solasta just as much if not more as you have much more control over Character creation and development.

[Kruppe]

Originally posted by Helldiver:

I wouldn't exactly pin this as trying to emulate a Tabletop session.

More like a regular Steam Turn Based Game (WarTales, Divinity Original Sin, Wasteland 2/3, Shadowrun, Mordheim/Necromunda, etcetera), that happens to use D&D 5e as its ruleset.

It suffers from some of the same issues those titles I listed suffer from; over reliance on the Unity engine and what I believe is an outdated Turned Based plugin/shell that has problems.

Same movement and turn problems I've experienced in those games happen here and I suspect it might be based on some old code Devs keep borrowing that uses ray casting/vectors to determine player/enemy position.
Among several bugs with it, one of them is not being able to target an Enemy despite visually having perfectly clear line of sight to it. Same issue rears its head when the player should have certain conditions at certain spots but the game not registering them appropriately.

Additionally where most DMs (myself included) avoid a lot of vertical gameplay (i.e. enemies sideways on walls) and/or at varying heights, Inception style, you'll see a lot of that here. Causing some spells to not function as well as they normally would on tabletop (Color Spray has been practically useless this playthrough). When combined with that ray casting detection issue I mention above, you can see how you'll feel cheated sometimes when you're robbed of an attack, bonus, or movement.

DMs might have a few fights like this, but it's rare do to the pain in the butt it is to keep track of which monsters are sideways on walls and varying heights. Where as most spells and skills tend to lean more towards a flatter play space/gameboard.

Aside from those minor nitpicks that aren't exactly show stoppers, the game's not bad and I find it a lot more enjoyable than Wartales where I'm stuck with that campaign only.

Solasta lets you create your own adventures or play through others people have made in the Workshop, and you can bring along your favorite heroes through all of them if you'd like. If you liked Wartales I suspect you'll enjoy Solasta just as much if not more as you have much more control over Character creation and development.

good to know - lol - just initially selected color spray for my wizard, ha.... guess i'll recreate without it before starting my first game - absolutely loved color spray on table top gaming

[Rumblyy]

Depends! It has a lot good here mechanically. But the writing, and the characters are really ugly. If you can look past what's on the screen and enjoy it for the mechanics of the game? Then yes, absolutely! There's some good fun to be had here. If you are looking for an interesting story, or graphical fidelity that doesn't look like it belongs in cursed claymation stock footage from the Late 1990's-early 2000's? I'd give this one a pass.

[Wizard of Woz]

Originally posted by Rumblyy:

Depends! It has a lot good here mechanically. But the writing, and the characters are really ugly. If you can look past what's on the screen and enjoy it for the mechanics of the game? Then yes, absolutely! There's some good fun to be had here. If you are looking for an interesting story, or graphical fidelity that doesn't look like it belongs in cursed claymation stock footage from the Late 1990's-early 2000's? I'd give this one a pass.

Most of us old school gamers could give a ♥♥♥♥ what characters look like. And if you think these characters look like they are from the late 90s you must be a child because you are wrong.

[ResumeMan]

The game zooms into the party better than Wartales, but it doesn't have any helmets either ;) (apart from a certain eponymous crown...(and a few misc non-armor items))

[Helldiver]

Originally posted by ResumeMan:

The game zooms into the party better than Wartales, but it doesn't have any helmets either ;) (apart from a certain eponymous crown...(and a few misc non-armor items))

Wear full plate, it puts a nice helmet on your character.

But D&D was never meant to be 'realistic'. So that "Helmet cause Realism" bs doesn't apply here anyways.

[Cutlass Jack]

Helmets are just something we look for the hide button for anyway...