Solasta II News

Praise the sun, adventurers!

Actually scratch that, it’s been getting a little TOO hot for comfort lately. Summer do be hitting hard, and we poor developers have not yet developed resistance to fire damage (oh how we wish we did). On a more serious note, today we’re returning to the roots of our Dev Updates - just like we did on Crown of the Magister, it’s time to take a look at what we’re working on!

Strategically positioned between the keyboard and the screen in order to stay close to the fan, 3 INT my left buttcheek.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2975950/Solasta_II/
[h2]Community Stream #10 Friday July 11th[/h2]
For those of you who want to chat directly with us, July’s Community Stream is right around the corner! Join us this Friday to discuss everything Solasta II. We’ll notably be tackling the worries some shared about using the 2024 Ruleset before moving back to talking about the development of the game itself, so don’t hesitate to come talk to us if you still have questions about that topic! And as promised, we’ll be live both on YouTube and Twitch from now on.

• Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/tacticaladventures
  
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TacticalAdventures/streams

[h2]It’s a trap![/h2]
While we all love a good round of fisticuffs whacking monsters without a care in the world, the battlefield may feel a little bland without environmental hazards. So… we’ve been working on implementing a few!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
He hates those indeed.

Those hot, scalding water spurt will ruin your day if you stay close to them as they explode upward. And they also work in combat of course, not just during exploration - with their very own turn at the start of each round where they will show signs of pending activity. If you don’t pay attention, you might find yourself missing a fair chunk of HP when the next round comes around!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Marvel the beautiful bicolor tiles of our battle test map.

Of course, geysers are not the only traps you will run into during your travels. Good old spikes and dangerous magic runes are already making their way into our Early Access build, with of course more to come as we get there!

Beware your feetsies, kobolds very smart make bestest hidden traps, yes yes!

[h2]You stand before the Gates of Caer Mar…[/h2]
And boy do they look good. We often forget about the little things, but there’s always someone behind everything you see in-game. Let’s take a closer look at some WIP environments!



[h2]Look ma! Actual playable levels![/h2]
We’ve shared some beauty shots in the past on our socials, but you might be more interested in knowing about how it would look to someone playing the game. Here’s a sneak peek of a location which you will be able to visit when Solasta II goes live!

Ahhh, the great outdoors! With a very recognizable “gather your party” behind the tree.

Exploring the caves, please ignore the minimap being all borked for now.

And even deeper inside with the Light spell coming handy!

[h2]Dressed to kill… and to look good while doing it![/h2]
We’ve also been working on adding new armors to the game so you can look dapper while roaming the countryside searching for monsters to slay and loot to… well, loot. Adventuring would be pretty bland if you didn’t find any gold, items and other doodads to play around with, wouldn’t it?

And for those wondering if they look the same in-game, we've included that on the right!

And that’s it for today! Come back next time for more news about the game, and see you on Friday at 9 am PDT / 12 pm EDT / 6 pm CEST for those joining us on July’s Community Stream.

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2975950/Solasta_II/

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Hey there folks,

Two weeks ago we announced that Solasta II was switching to the 2024 Ruleset! Unsurprisingly, that led to many questions being asked - with the usual whys and hows, but also a large amount of more specific ones such as “what will happen to the Half-Elf ancestry” or “How will the Fighter’s new Tactical Mind feature work”? We’re here today with answers!

Temperature too hot please just end my entire existence.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2975950/Solasta_II/
[h2]VOD of the Community Stream[/h2]
Before we jump into the Q&A, here is the VOD for those who missed the Community Stream from June 10th with our Creative, Game & Technical Directors joining me (your faithful Community Lead) to talk about the 2024 Ruleset Update. You can watch it on YouTube below!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Also remember that there’s still a Survey going on to give us your opinion on what you want to see in Solasta II - so don’t forget to fill it out if you haven’t already. And with that out of the way, let’s dive into the questions!



[h2]Q&A - 2024 Ruleset Section[/h2]

What is this 2024 Ruleset Update & what does it change?

We’ve already answered that in our previous article, which you can read here: https://www.solasta-game.com/news/208-solasta-ii-is-switching-to-the-2024-ruleset. To make it simple: Think of it as a massive balance patch! 

Is it possible to have both the 2014 & 2024 Rulesets available in the settings menu?

Unfortunately that will not be possible, as explained previously there are just too many adjustments that would need to be made for Solasta II to support both Rulesets. We would rather focus all our time on making a game using one ruleset than split our attention on making two different versions (which would mean less overall content).

Why didn’t you include a 2014 vs 2024 question in the survey? You could have asked us before switching.

That’s a fair thing to ask. When we send you surveys, we want to ask questions that can have an impact on the game. Seeing which ancestry you’d like us to add first. Which class. What features are most important to you. What future content you would want us to work on.

While we do often ask our players for their input, you have to remember that we developers are also individuals with our own passions and ideas. Switching to the 2024 Ruleset is an important decision, one which we looked at for quite some time before deciding to do just that. 

It was something we wanted to do. We’ve carefully read through the new ruleset, started a new campaign on Tabletop, experimented with the options… and we found ourselves enjoying the changes it brought. Sure it’s not perfect - after all, no system ever is - but we like it! We want to bring it to life in a video game, just as we did the original 5e ruleset when we worked on Solasta: Crown of the Magister. This means including a 2014 vs 2024 question would serve very little purpose as we do not want to mislead people into thinking that we would potentially switch back to the 2014 ruleset.  

Now, we fully understand that part of the community would have preferred it if we stuck to the 2014 ruleset, and there’s nothing wrong with disliking the 2024 ruleset - as with every new edition, some people will prefer the previous one. I (Myzzrym) remember being super against 4e myself back in the 3.5 era. And even when 5e first came out, it took me years before finally giving it a fair chance (what can I say, I liked my crunchy numbers). So who knows, maybe in the future you'll play 2024 some more on Tabletop and change your mind - and if not, that’s okay too. 

Will you be adapting the full 2024 Ruleset to Solasta II?

We will try to be as faithful to the 2024 ruleset as possible (after all that’s one of the franchise’s promises to our players!), but just like in Solasta I there might be features that need to be slightly adapted to work more smoothly in a video game. 

For example, the Fighter’s new Tactical Mind feature which improves their utility outside combat would normally allow you to expend a use of Second Wind in exchange for adding 1d10 to an ability check if you were going to fail it. However, if implemented as such you would see a pop-up going “Do you want to use Tactical Mind?” every time you fail an ability check, slowing down the game significantly (and making it feel like you’re browsing the Internet in the early 2000s). 

Instead, we changed it to give you +1d10 to your ability checks for the next minute - which is more powerful as you can use it for multiple ability checks, but also less flexible as you need to proactively use it and the use of Second Wind isn’t refunded if you fail the roll. Hurray for less pop-ups! 

Will you update Solasta: Crown of the Magister to the 2024 Ruleset as well?

Nope! We don’t intend to change what already exists, the development on Solasta: Crown of the Magister (and its DLCs) is over so it will remain under the 2014 Ruleset. 

Will you update the Solasta II Demo to the 2024 Ruleset?

Updating the Demo to the new Ruleset would take a fairly significant amount of time, which would in turn delay the release of the game. As you can imagine, that’s something we don’t really want - we’re focusing on working on the Early Access! 

Isn’t the Demo going to be different from the actual game then? 

A little bit, yes! Keep in mind that there is no character creation nor leveling up in the demo, and you’re playing a pre-made party of low level adventurers. The differences between 2024 & 2014 rulesets are thus fairly limited there (even if they do exist!), and the demo remains a good representation of what Solasta II aims to be - a Tactical RPG using a familiar Tabletop ruleset where you play as a party of 4 adventurers.

Any chance of adding the Artificer?

Quick little reminder, we’re using the SRD not the full D&D ruleset! That means there are quite a large number of things that we can’t add to Solasta II (unless WotC grants us a special license). The Artificer class is one of them, but another example that we’ve seen being asked is the Aasimar ancestry. 

Will the 2024 Ruleset Update delay the release of the Early Access?

For now we’re still aiming to release our Early Access in 2025. Keep your eyes peeled for future announcements later this year! 

Will the Half-Elf & Half-Orc still be playable in Solasta II?

That will depend on our players’ answers in the survey! We won’t be able to include all the available SRD ancestries, so we want to know which ones you prefer to see if we can work on those first. Just keep in mind that some are harder to implement than others (Dragonborns are much more complex to add than Gnomes)!

[h2]Q&A - Other Questions[/h2]

Speaking of Demo, do the Demo protagonists survive?

Well their situation didn’t look too good now, did it? Remember that the Demo is a standalone adventure featuring an alternate reality of the party you would be playing in the actual game. It’s not like Solasta I where the Ruins of Telema Demo featured a totally different party of adventurers (that you actually end up meeting in the Palace of Ice DLC). 

How will the World Map work in Solasta II?

Unlike in Solasta I, you will be able to travel and explore tiles the old fashioned way! We are giving the World Map more love in this new opus, as events won’t be limited to random combat encounters anymore. Look forward to lore events, skill checks, friendly NPCs and wandering merchants on top of the usual monsters attempting to gobble you whole!

This new hexcrawl worldmap is also more modular, which means that if & when we finally manage to release a Dungeon Maker mode, you should no longer be limited to using the official campaign World Map and instead would be able to make your own by swapping tiles around. 

Will you have player-submitted Community Quests?

This is something we considered back in Solasta I and we came to the conclusion that it is simply too complex to do, as quests are fairly long and difficult to implement even if you’re familiar with our tools already - so trying to make a quest without knowing the possibilities and limitations of the game engine make it even more of a headache. 

However, as our World Map develops over the Early Access, we intend to host Community Contests to add player-submitted events to let your creativity shine through your imagination and writing. Stay tuned!

Will you have Custom Backgrounds in Character Creation?

That would need to be discussed, but it might conflict with how Backgrounds could influence dialog options. But that would be cool, yea!

Will we see Soraks in Solasta II?

Haven’t you had enough Soraks already? Here, have a Basilisk instead.

​

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2975950/Solasta_II/

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whole decade is a solid run for an RPG ruleset, but the success of Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, released in 2014, was such that replacing it would be an obviously terrible idea. Instead, Wizards of the Coast did something more akin to 4th edition's Essentials line—a refresh that's compatible with the previous rules, but makes changes to address criticisms that have emerged over the rules' lifespan...
Read more.

Well folks, this is it. Big changes are coming!

Ever since the announcement of Solasta II, many of you asked us if we would ever consider updating our game’s ruleset from D&D 5e’s original 2014 version described in the SRD 5.1 to the new 2024 version. To which we answered - let’s wait for the new SRD to be released… which did eventually happen on April 22nd, a little more than one month ago. Since then we’ve been working tirelessly to see if we could make that change happen! Verdict? Well, it’s today’s entire article!

Wake up. Tactical Adventures finally announced the switch to the 2024 ruleset. The wait is over!
[h2]Community Stream #10 starting in 1 hour![/h2]
Before we start diving into our usual wall of text, we’re sure many of you have burning questions regarding the switch to the new 2024 ruleset. This is why we will be hosting a Community Stream with our CEO (Mathieu), CTO (Karim) & Game Director (Xavier) alongside yours truly (Emile, Community Lead) right after this post is released, in about an hour. And for once, we'll be live both on Twitch and YouTube at the same time!



Starting at 9 am PDT / 12 pm EDT / 6 pm CEST, we will be here to talk about the changes and take questions from all of you. We might not be able to answer everything in a single session, but know that we will take note of every question - and we’ll tackle those that we didn’t have the time to answer in a later update (alongside those that we already answered, for those who don’t necessarily have the time nor interest of joining the livestream).

[h2]2014? 2024? What are you talking about?[/h2]
If everything that we wrote so far sounded like arcane gibberish to you, worry not and let us explain. Our first game, Solasta: Crown of the Magister, used the SRD 5.1 ruleset - an extract of D&D 5th edition core system, also known as the 2014 version, as the core rulebooks were released in 2014 (that’s now 11 years ago, holy guacamole). If that’s too many acronyms being thrown around, just think of Solasta 1 as using the 2014 ruleset.

Now, about 3 years ago Wizards of the Coast announced and then released a new version of D&D, initially called One D&D during playtest and then later changed to D&D 2024 (its first sourcebook’s release date). This new 2024 version is stated to be compatible with the 2014 version, and share most of its core components. However, it also introduces a lot of improvements that many D&D fans always hoped for - such as more combat options for martial classes with the Weapon Mastery system, and reworking some features that just felt too conditional like the Ranger’s favored terrain (enjoy playing your Forest Ranger when the campaign takes you to the Underdark…). This, to make it simple, is the 2024 ruleset - presented mostly as an upgrade to the 2014 ruleset.

Of course, due to the release of this 2024 version, many Solasta fans started asking us if we would use this new ruleset in Solasta II, which is what this article is about. Hopefully that makes it a bit clearer if you aren’t following D&D!

[h2]An upgrade? Then why is the Solasta II demo using the 2014 ruleset?[/h2]
You have a good eye! For those who played the Solasta II demo during February’s Steam Next Fest, you already noticed that it was using the same ruleset as Solasta: Crown of the Magister - the 2014 version. So! If the 2024 ruleset is already available, why isn’t Solasta II using it?

Keep in mind, Tactical Adventures is not using the D&D ruleset per se - we are using the System Reference Document which Wizards of the Coast kindly provides to all creators, containing most of the rules necessary to play D&D. This means until now, there were three main points that prevented us from implementing the 2024 ruleset:

1. The new SRD was not available yet, meaning we could not legally implement the new ruleset to Solasta II
   
2. We did not know its content, we did not know what would be included in the SRD or not.
   
3. We did not know its release date, so we couldn’t know if we would be able to change our ruleset in time for Early Access (and the demo).
   

For those following the scene, you know that the SRD 5.2 was released on April 22nd of this year - and yet we’ve been silent so far as to whether or not we’d make the change to 2024. This is mostly due to point #3 - updating our game’s ruleset is no simple task, and we needed to make sure we could commit to it before making any announcement. Can we implement those changes and still make it in time for Early Access? Do we need to sacrifice something to make it fit the schedule? Is there anything in there that doesn’t work well in a video game?

So, can we definitely say now that we’re committing to the 2024 ruleset? Like everything in life, rolling a 1 is always possible even though we don’t wish for it. But yea, we have started converting our system to follow the SRD 5.2, a.k.a. the 2024 version - so that’s a 99% sure in our book!

[h2]What are the new things?[/h2]
If you know nothing about the 2024 update, you are in for a treat! While we won’t cover everything that changed (the SRD 5.2 is 364 pages long, we’d probably be able to talk about it for days on end), let us share two highlights of what you can look forward to:

Weapon Masteries
Each weapon now has a special Mastery that can be used by martial classes. When a Cleric hits you with a Mace, you’re going to feel that 1d6 bludgeoning damage the next morning. But when a Fighter hits you with a Mace, you're going to have disadvantage on your next attack roll on top of the damage you just received! Rude!

There are a total of 8 weapon masteries: Cleave, Graze, Nick, Push, Sap, Slow, Topple and Vex - each of them granting more utility to martial classes on top of the damage they already bring. Look forward to playing around with this new feature!

Class Upgrades
Most classes have received a new paint-job and feel fresher than before! The Cleric for example no longer have their Heavy Armor tied to their Divine Domain, instead they can choose at level 1 between being a Protector (unlocking Martial Weapon & Heavy Armor proficiency for a more frontline role) or a Thaumaturge (for a more spellcaster playstyle).

The Sorcerer now gets some exclusive new shiny tools like Innate Sorcery, similar to the Barbarian’s Rage but for spellcasting, increasing their save DC by 1 and giving them advantage on spell attack rolls. The Fighter gets more non-combat utility with Tactical Mind allowing them to use Second Wind to succeed ability checks. And that’s just scratching the surface!

[h2]Is it possible to have both 2014 and 2024 ruleset as an option?[/h2]
Ever since the discussion around 2024 started, some people have asked if it would be possible for us to include a setting to switch between 2014 and 2024 rulesets for those who prefer one or the other.

This is unfortunately not something we can do, as it would almost be equivalent to us releasing two games at once - Solasta at its core has a strong focus on tactical combat, and it is known for its faithfulness to the ruleset. Making sure our game works in two different rulesets (even though they share similarities) would take us an incredible amount of time, not to mention the massive amounts of mental damage it would inflict upon our small (and beloved) QA team. Design-wise, every monster, every class and subclass would need two different versions, and many spells no longer work the same. So… yea, this is just not a possibility for us.

But worry not, the 2024 ruleset is going to be fire. With us at the wheel, fun is and will always be mandatory!

[h2]Let your voice be heard[/h2]
We want to know what you think about it! Just like for Solasta: Crown of the Magister, we intend to make the game with you - our players - in mind. This is why we have a short survey ready for you! Make sure you leave your opinions for us to read.



And then… we wait. No but seriously, we are still cooking up the Early Access which is slated to release later this year (and this is still the plan!), so we’ll have to ask you to be a little more patient before we can announce the date. We want to make sure the game we release is up to your expectations!

In the meantime, make sure you drop by our Discord server and our Community Streams to ask your questions if you have any!

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

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Hey there folks,

We’re back with the winner of the Trades & Sails Community Contest! This article will be a short one as we’re cooking something fierce for our next news - so keep an eye out for June 10th, which will hold June’s Community Stream at 9am PDT / 12 pm EDT / 6pm CEST.

Hey guys I just rolled 12 on my Stealth Check, do you think it’s going to be enough?

[h2]And the winner is![/h2]
Without further ado, we present to you the winner of April’s Community Contest: Captain Tucker Stoutarm, aboard their ship The Sea Mermaid.



With its shipment mostly comprised of alcoholic beverages, the Sea Mermaid will make many locals merry and slightly less productive for a period of time.

Congratulations! We will be contacting the winner shortly by mail with the rewards.

[h2]You have questions, we have answers[/h2]
As you all know by now, our line of communication has always been about honesty and transparency - so when we saw questions arise after announcing the results of the previous Community Contest in March, we decided that we’d go ahead and give everyone a little more context.

The main question we want to answer today is: “Hey, how do you actually choose the winners?”. A very fair question! After all, many of you put a lot of time and effort into participating in these contests, so you might want to know a little more about the process.

[h2]How did we select the winner?[/h2]
First things first! When a contest ends, we usually have a LOT of submissions to go through. Usually what will happen is that we’ll first quickly go over each of them to strike those we deem invalid - for example, referencing copyrighted material, not following the rules of the contest, being incomplete, asking for content that we wouldn’t be able to implement, etc etc…

Once those are removed, we are usually left with… a lot of entries still, which is not surprising since many of you put a lot of thoughts into your submissions (for which we are ever grateful). Now, from there we’ll have two different “types” of contests - those with long answers that are usually related to design or creative writing, and those with short answers that are usually more about names or images.

Of Quills & Ink, March Community Contest, is of the former type. In this case, we will read through every single remaining entry (that wasn’t in the first pass) and we make a rather large selection of favorites. Then a core group will step in, which usually consists of me (your community lead), our game director, our lead gameplay designer, our creative director and our writers plus sometimes others depending on the nature of the contest (for example if it’s a contest about designing a new subclass, we’ll involve our technical director as well to make sure that the subclass features are feasible). This group will make a final selection by voting to crown a winner.

Trades & Sails, April Community Contest, is of the latter type. Choosing between several hundreds / thousands ideas of ship emblems is much harder than judging someone’s creative writing or design suggestion, as we did not want to limit submissions to actual drawings (which would make it harder for non artists to participate). In this case since all the remaining submissions could be winners, the fairest way we found was simply RNG - we randomly pull a selection of twenty to thirty entries, and we vote on our favorite within that selection.

[h2]What did I do wrong?[/h2]
When you put time and effort into your submission, it is understandable to feel a little down when you’re not selected. We want to reassure you that not winning does not necessarily mean that your submission was “worse” - there is no objective way to judge here, there isn’t a right or wrong answer.

Sometimes we really like an idea even though the writer’s skills may not be fantastic, because it’s original or it resonates with one of us. Sometimes something oozes flavor, but unfortunately would be too costly to implement. Sometimes it simply comes down to preferences, or the reader’s mood! That also means - if you’re worrying that you’re not good at writing or that your English is bad because you’re not a native speaker, it’s alright! Writing is a medium to convey ideas and feelings, and you don’t need to do it perfectly to do so.

Let’s be honest, we’re constantly amazed by the creativity you have shown. To the question: “Why don’t you give more specific guidelines as to what tone/topic you want to see?” the answer is that it is not the point. The goal of our contests isn’t to replace our writers by giving you clear instructions about what WE want and have you write it - it is to let you write what YOU want so that we can add it to the game.

Long story short - don’t let failure prevent you from joining future contests. And with this, we’re out!

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

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