KickStarter Solasta: Crown of the Magister Thread - now with Palace of Ice sequel DLC

[rusty_shackleford]

Did Solasta make much profit?

Main game, yes, a lot, dlc, probably not.
Content-focused DLC(what we'd refer to as "expansion packs") seems to never do well anymore unless it's marketed hard by a big publisher. Probably better off just making it a reasonably priced standalone expansion like ATOM's Trudograd.

Possible reasons? Digital shelf space is premium, DLC gets buried easily under a game that already released. Psychological baggage attached to DLC itself.

for reference as of posting: Lost Valley DLC has 136 steam reviews, Solasta has 11,433. Perhaps people are less likely to review DLC and therefore skews such metrics? Again would favor standalone expansion model as reviews are used to judge popularity and overall interest in a game at a glance, Lost Valley doesn't seem to be of worse quality than the main campaign but has a much lower review score. Probably due to customers being significantly more likely to review a product after a negative experience than a positive one.

 

[anvi]

That's a hell of a first game, a party based RPG that is actually decent and looks good too, and it sold well?! The spirit of Van Halen lives on.

 

[Hobo Elf]

People are much less likely to review DLC, whenever I look at DLC reviews. More often DLC seems to get reviewed if there's something wrong with it like it doesn't work. Also as a general rule of thumb only a small percentage of owners will review a game. Say in the 1-10% range. Use that as a multiplier for Solasta's 11.4k reviews and you have a pretty good but rough estimate of what it sold on Steam alone.

 

[Faarbaute]

Men, the GUI is terrible to look at - what can I do to fix it?

 

[Cryomancer]

I never reviewed an dlc. As for solasta i will wait till al dlcs launch to play more

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

That's a hell of a first game, a party based RPG that is actually decent and looks good too, and it sold well?! The spirit of Van Halen lives on.

I'd be really hard pressed to call it good looking, but it was a good game.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

That's a hell of a first game, a party based RPG that is actually decent and looks good too, and it sold well?! The spirit of Van Halen lives on.

I'd be really hard pressed to call it good looking, but it was a good game.

I mean, take out the potato faces and the rest of the game is ok to look at.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

That's a hell of a first game, a party based RPG that is actually decent and looks good too, and it sold well?! The spirit of Van Halen lives on.

I'd be really hard pressed to call it good looking, but it was a good game.

I mean, take out the potato faces and the rest of the game is ok to look at.

I thought the environments were also rather sparse, but really liked the spell/magick effects.

 

[anvi]

I was thinking more in relation to the few RPGs I'd care to play, Blackguards, IWD, TOME4, KOTC2, etc. Compared to those games this looks like Claudia Schiffer.

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

I hate to shit on a game after the first mission, but I'm getting a NWN 1/2:OC shit-tier story/dialogue vibe from this, with a steaming pile of woke diversity and T(y)ranny stronk wahmens, plus a gimmick of platform combat instead of D:OS barrels and slicks.

Does it get any better?

 

[Sacibengala]

I hate to shit on a game after the first mission, but I'm getting a NWN 1/2:OC shit-tier story/dialogue vibe from this, with a steaming pile of woke diversity and T(y)ranny stronk wahmens, plus a gimmick of platform combat instead of D:OS barrels and slicks.

Does it get any better?

No, it not get better and yes, I felt the same about the game. It feels like NWN but with much bettter combat and even worse dialogue.
The DLC is much better than the maingame, imo.

 

[DemonKing]

The DLC is much better than the maingame, imo.

I felt the opposite. The main game had some really interesting and unique locations, nice additions to the genre like climbing/flying/teleporting and a wider backstory that while nothing special was enough to carry the game. The DLC felt like some NWN mod in terms of structure and storyline.

Saying that, the main attraction is the turn-based combat. The rest is basically what Carmack used to say about story in video games - it's like the story in porn - expected to be there but it's not important.

 

[Faarbaute]

Men, the GUI is terrible to look at - what can I do to fix it?

Anyone? After a cursory investigation I can't find anything on this. Is it possible to scale the UI or move elements in any way or do I have to get used to this? Also, what about keybindings - is that out as well?

 

[Larianshill]

Started Lost Valley with a druid that can summon spirit companions. This thing sounded cool on paper, but turns out it's a fucking liability. Every time it dies - and it dies all the time - the character gets stunned.

 

[gurugeorge]

Men, the GUI is terrible to look at - what can I do to fix it?

Anyone? After a cursory investigation I can't find anything on this. Is it possible to scale the UI or move elements in any way or do I have to get used to this? Also, what about keybindings - is that out as well?

Live with it for a while, you'll quickly get used to it and come to love it. There's a precision about it that segments your thinking and fosters a deliberate, but smooth gameplay flow. I would have preferred more keybinds too however - there are a few, but not enough.

Putting it in a nutshell, you'll find that although it's a turn-based game, you start to feel that it's almost real-time as the UI moves become "invisible" to you mentally, and you're clicking fast. That happens with any game to some extent, but it's particularly noticeable here.

I would have also liked it to be a bit more decorative and/or diegetic, but that might have been too distracting, so I dunno.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Started Lost Valley with a druid that can summon spirit companions. This thing sounded cool on paper, but turns out it's a fucking liability. Every time it dies - and it dies all the time - the character gets stunned.

I took the new Balance Druid into my party and it's really good. In the early game the extra healing has actually revived my characters several times during combat and later on it's just a very easy way of keeping them topped up as it pretty much doubles the value of Healing Word which was already really strong due to being a Bonus action. My current party is an Oath of the Motherland Paladin, Path of the Berserker Barbarian, Circle of Balance Druid and Shock Arcanist Wizard. I think next time I'd take the Oath of Judgement Pala for the insane +X proficiency to damage rolls aura and Path of the Claw Barbarian. Nothing wrong with the current choices but I think they could be more interesting, especially the Barbarian.

 

[Angriph]

How long does it take to beat Lost Valley?

Thinking of playing it next as I really liked the base game.

I played halfway through the Temple of Evil user campaign but, while it seems well made, I was not a fan of the one-square-wide corridors and dozens of low hp monsters.

 

[mediocrepoet]

How long does it take to beat Lost Valley?

Thinking of playing it next as I really liked the base game.

I played halfway through the Temple of Evil user campaign but, while it seems well made, I was not a fan of the one-square-wide corridors and dozens of low hp monsters.

If only there were some way of dealing with challenges like that.

https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Lightning Bolt#content

 

[Faarbaute]

Council member McRailroad: "Do you even have any proof of the Soraks, nigga? A bodypart perhaps?"

Player: "Got em right here in the bag, faggot." "No."

 

[Hobo Elf]

How long does it take to beat Lost Valley?

Thinking of playing it next as I really liked the base game.

I played halfway through the Temple of Evil user campaign but, while it seems well made, I was not a fan of the one-square-wide corridors and dozens of low hp monsters.

I finished it in 15+ hours, but it's completely nonlinear with high replay value. It's possible that you won't finish it as fast as I will.

 

[Faarbaute]

One of my characters got critically hit and fell unconscious/became dying, just before I was able to finish off the last attacker. I wonder what effect this might have?

JK, it's cutscene time and all my characters are up and about. No wait, the cutscene ended and now he's on the ground again. Sigh.

I'm resigned to the narrative/gameplay split at this point, and will adjust my expectations accordingly going forward. At least the tactical layer is enjoyable enough so far. A bit stale, perhaps? Maybe that'll improve once I get a few more levels.

 

[Stoned Ape]

I think the only real criticism of the tactical aspect of the original campaign is that the difficulty drops off sharply near the endgame. There are still cool and memorable moments in the game though, with some interesting battles that use the environment in an imaginative fashion.

 

[Faarbaute]

I'm not sure I've ever felt this detached from my characters in an RPG before. None of the characters feel like they're my own, even though I made them all from scratch.

 

[rojay]

I'm not sure I've ever felt this detached from my characters in an RPG before. None of the characters feel like they're my own, even though I made them all from scratch.

That seems like a design decision they made when they have you choose different personality traits for each of your characters. If I recall an interview by the designers accurately, they wanted to make it feel like a real tabletop experience with people arguing and interjecting. The downside is that it removes the player's agency to direct at least one character. I guess they were thinking "hey, what would a game with full party creation be like if you had party banter like you do with NPCs?" I don't know whether they're satisfied with the result, and I wonder whether they'll change that if they make a sequel.

Which I hope they do, because for the most part the game is good and definitely shows promise. If the modding tools continue to get better, I think it'll be around for quite a while.

 

[Acrux]

I'm not sure I've ever felt this detached from my characters in an RPG before. None of the characters feel like they're my own, even though I made them all from scratch.

I think that's just 5E.