Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Devs, you should check out Solasta[5e indie game]

For me, the two are different and have different pros and cons.

Things I like about BG3:
> Looks lovely (except for elf faces)
> excellent visual fidelity
> good voice acting
> decent writing (i cant say more than that as to me, the very premise of the game should be for much higher level characters)
> excellent setting (forgotten realms is my favourite)
> access to full suite of D&D options (not that they'll all be implemented, but right now, there is hope for certain things)
> multiplayer (more for the potential to do proper D&D style games with the game and friends... if it gets closer to D&D)

Things I dont like about BG3:
> It's combat (I dislike changes to action economy, i find a lot of the combat controls clunky)
> Larians messing with a lot of core D&D 5e rules they had no need to mess with, stuff like action types, movement options, scroll use etc (by now most of them have been voiced many times)
> the companions (I just don't find them likeable)
> Origin characters (links to companions, but making them all special snowflakes just means it's harder to see how custom character will be special and also shows a similar issue to D:OS2)
> world interaction (feels awkward)
> excessive loot (just makes it not feel valuable),
> UI (it's absolutely rubbish, nothing is very clear, everything feels small and awkward and whilst it doesn't take up much space, it could be much better.)
> Party controls (I didn't like them D:OS2, I don't like them here).
> Party not interacting with dialogues (and typically standing around totally unanimated in the background despite events
> Main character animations in dialogues, just feel weird tbh, like the creepy grins and stuff they do look like they belong in a sims game
> % based attack changes and weirdly calculated DCs in dialogues (don't subtract bonuses from the DC, show me the DC and show me a dice roll plus my bonus, ideally show me bonus before the dice roll)
> All the surfaces and their implementation, I HATE auto damage surfaces and their abundance... if they required a save for half or none (depending on the surface I guess) it would be better.

Things I like about Solasta:
> It's UI, whilst it isn't all textured and pretty, it's super functional and clear and easy to use. I feel like most information I need is where I'd want.
> It's combat, i feel like it plays smoothly and is very good, implementation of reactions etc is perfect, honestly this is where Solasta really hammers BG3 for me the most
> Sticks pretty closely to D&D 5e rules (although im not sure about their change to lighting rules)
> More grounded beginnings with hints that the main game will escalate
> Approach to party inclusion of dialogue (though the actual dialogue quality... not so much)
> Party controls, really, they're excellent, you can drag select them, select them individually etc, they move around nicely and interact with environment automatically)
> Environment interaction, feels really intuitive
> character creation options (dice rolling vs points buy vs even free points setting, which means some people will cheat, but also means I can make my pnp party using their exact rolled stats, which is a big win)
> full suite of D&D coins, it's rare to see and quite fun to see tbh
> character traits linked to background and alignment, really nice way to add dialogue options and also personality to the dialogue.

Things I dont like about Solasta:
> Cinematic Dialogues, the graphics are acceptable for isometric view, they aren't spectacular, but they aren't terrible... however in dialogue the models and animations aren't up to par so cinematic dialogue detracts a lot
> Writing quality, the actual quality of the dialogues is um.. not so great and the general flow of some dialogue feels weird
> Lack of full D&D options, just a result of their license only covering SRD... would be great if wizards saw their progress and made some kind of deal with them
> Balance, their custom subraces seem typically flat out better than SRD ones, similar issue with their custom class archetypes and feats, also with backgrounds
> Won't have multiclassing (they try to make up for it a bit through custom backgrounds and feats I guess though)
> Voice acting, just isn't as good, and is quite limited
> character creation visual customisation, character models look pretty ugly, but there also aren't many options.
> camera controls (they're really quite painfully bad)



Do I think either game is perfect?
Nope! And they both could learn a thing from eachother.

Do I think Solasta is better than BG3?
No, I like things about both, and dislike things about both, I will say that what I've played of Solasta so far, I've been more impressed with.

Do I think both will improve on their flaws?
Hopefully! For me, BG3 has more flaws, however Solasta has a much smaller team, so their flaws will be harder to overcome.

Will I play both?
Yes I think so, I bought early access for both, I'm not playing either early access with the intention of finishing all the content in them, I tend to try different things in a fairly small part of the game, and watch other people play things online


Ultimately, for me in an ideal world I'd have a game that combined BG3 setting, full D&D ruleset access, visuals and voice acting, with Solasta combat, UI, Party controls and world interaction. Ideally it's story would start off a bit smaller before building to BG3 intro and then continuing past it. Obviously, that won't happen, so I'll take what I can get from both and hope the negatives of each aren't enough to make me stop playing them!