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Fextralife channel (and some other channels, forgot the name) was trying out the game and just kept on comparing to BG3...It destroys it basically in terms of gameplay, rule set, and atmosphere.
You have super tight 5e rules, great fun turn base action with detailed/ clear explanations, BG like selection/movement including live ROLL checks (on screen) and jumps are full party automatic, amazing BG like atmosphere, day/night cycles, create your own party, fun pick your character for responses dialogue etc etc...
In the end nearly everything expect the graphics , UI, companion detailed stories and sex is better. lol
AND its still in EA...
So yea I am actually exited for Solasta ! !

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Just saw the trailer for the game and wonder how good the story is. The bits the trailer provides give the impression of the most generic story I have ever seen in a video game


Larian's Biggest Oversight, what to do about it, and My personal review of BG3 EA
"74.85% of you stood with the Tieflings, and 25.15% of you sided with Minthara. Good outweighs evil, it seems."
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Originally Posted by Abits
Just saw the trailer for the game and wonder how good the story is. The bits the trailer provides give the impression of the most generic story I have ever seen in a video game


From what I've seen so far (I played through the EA story) is your adventurers are tasked with going to check out a keep, you find out some things are going on there, and start looking into it. You find some Big Thing(tm) is going on, and are sucked into being the ones to go and deal with it. Pretty much every party-based fantasy story in a nutshell. What I like the most about it is that it FEELS like a tabletop D&D game, just played on the pc. And that appeals to me a lot. You can call it "generic", I'd call it "classic". It's done by a lot of books, movies, shows, etc for a reason. It's a tried and true storytelling trope.

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Originally Posted by WumpusRat
Originally Posted by Abits
Just saw the trailer for the game and wonder how good the story is. The bits the trailer provides give the impression of the most generic story I have ever seen in a video game


From what I've seen so far (I played through the EA story) is your adventurers are tasked with going to check out a keep, you find out some things are going on there, and start looking into it. You find some Big Thing(tm) is going on, and are sucked into being the ones to go and deal with it. Pretty much every party-based fantasy story in a nutshell. What I like the most about it is that it FEELS like a tabletop D&D game, just played on the pc. And that appeals to me a lot. You can call it "generic", I'd call it "classic". It's done by a lot of books, movies, shows, etc for a reason. It's a tried and true storytelling trope.

Yeah generic is a bad word. I suppose even "generic" story done right could be great.


Larian's Biggest Oversight, what to do about it, and My personal review of BG3 EA
"74.85% of you stood with the Tieflings, and 25.15% of you sided with Minthara. Good outweighs evil, it seems."
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Originally Posted by Abits
Originally Posted by WumpusRat
Originally Posted by Abits
Just saw the trailer for the game and wonder how good the story is. The bits the trailer provides give the impression of the most generic story I have ever seen in a video game


From what I've seen so far (I played through the EA story) is your adventurers are tasked with going to check out a keep, you find out some things are going on there, and start looking into it. You find some Big Thing(tm) is going on, and are sucked into being the ones to go and deal with it. Pretty much every party-based fantasy story in a nutshell. What I like the most about it is that it FEELS like a tabletop D&D game, just played on the pc. And that appeals to me a lot. You can call it "generic", I'd call it "classic". It's done by a lot of books, movies, shows, etc for a reason. It's a tried and true storytelling trope.

Yeah generic is a bad word. I suppose even "generic" story done right could be great.

Well we're seeing this in movies and TV shows too, right? It's becoming extremely difficult to come up with a storyline that is original while not being ridiculous and/or cheesy. So I think we have to expect and accept that not all RPGs are going to have some amazing story nobody else had ever done previously. But the standard instead should be has it been done right.

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I'm glad i've picked up both as early access, of the two I'm having more actual fun playing Solasta honestly (I find the combat much much better, and the world exploration, resting and area navigation much better, though its camera is irksome!), but BG3 hopefully will get polish on the gameplay side and general interaction side.

What i find most incredible about Solasta, is that it was done by a frankly tiny team... the team is about the same size as the team I'm part of for my current project, and its very impressive to see what they pulled off.

I think Solastas isometric graphics are downright good (BG3s are better), its character models are decent but a bit dated, its lighting is good for environments but not so food for characters in dialogues, Im sure they can sort things out. I think the face and hair models are generally pretty ugly, but again, all it would take is one particularly talented person to come along and provide them with more options and it would fix that.

The story is definitely classic D&D, and very nostalgic to play, the interaction between characters is really nice, i particularly like the fact backstories and the personality tags chosen seem to actually change things. It's good. Will it be a huge sweeping epic? who knows, it has humble beginnings like all good D&D stories should, that being one of the main gripes about BG3 I have aired here and to my pnp groups, BG3 starts at a point i'd expect higher level characters to be in, and it just makes it feel forced (cool, but forced)

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Originally Posted by kanisatha

Well we're seeing this in movies and TV shows too, right? It's becoming extremely difficult to come up with a storyline that is original while not being ridiculous and/or cheesy. So I think we have to expect and accept that not all RPGs are going to have some amazing story nobody else had ever done previously. But the standard instead should be has it been done right.


Even BG3's story isn't all that original, honestly. "Player is afflicted by X, which is going to kill them unless they get rid of it, while gaining powers from the affliction". It's a lot like the Curse of the Azure Bonds game, just with a different thing that applied the affliction. smile

Of course, we've only seen act-1 of BG3 yet, so I'm hoping there's a lot of cool stuff to come in acts 2 and 3.

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It is not just the UI, party management and combat that is better.

The atmosphere, day/night cycle, the combat animations, the colour palette all adds to immersion. Larian should seriously learn from them.

Originally Posted by WumpusRat
Originally Posted by kanisatha

Well we're seeing this in movies and TV shows too, right? It's becoming extremely difficult to come up with a storyline that is original while not being ridiculous and/or cheesy. So I think we have to expect and accept that not all RPGs are going to have some amazing story nobody else had ever done previously. But the standard instead should be has it been done right.


Even BG3's story isn't all that original, honestly. "Player is afflicted by X, which is going to kill them unless they get rid of it, while gaining powers from the affliction". It's a lot like the Curse of the Azure Bonds game, just with a different thing that applied the affliction. smile

Of course, we've only seen act-1 of BG3 yet, so I'm hoping there's a lot of cool stuff to come in acts 2 and 3.


Disagree. The ceromorphosis is superinteresting and quite original theme.

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Originally Posted by IrenicusBG3

Disagree. The ceromorphosis is superinteresting and quite original theme.


I mean in terms of theme. There are always different variations on it, but "Character is afflicted by X, and seeks a way to remove it" is a fairly common trope.

Doesn't mean it can't be very cool though. smile

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Most who are interested into RPGs have heard about the game a long time ago. The game has seen quite some coverage on various fan sites (a German mainstream print mag has even run a multiple page preview). Naturally Larian know it too (edit: as already mentioned on the first page I just saw).

https://twitter.com/LarAtLarian/status/1318641976556855297

I've only played the demo sometime around Summer, but liked what I saw. It's a game that appears more heavily focused on combat encounters though, overall.

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Originally Posted by WumpusRat
Originally Posted by IrenicusBG3

Disagree. The ceromorphosis is superinteresting and quite original theme.


I mean in terms of theme. There are always different variations on it, but "Character is afflicted by X, and seeks a way to remove it" is a fairly common trope.

Doesn't mean it can't be very cool though. smile


If you generalize enough everything sounds the same : "the main character tries to save himself".

Ceromorphosis is heavily rooted in D&D/FR lore and is a very nice and new concept to explore. So Kudos to Larian.


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Originally Posted by IrenicusBG3
It is not just the UI, party management and combat that is better.

The atmosphere, day/night cycle, the combat animations, the colour palette all adds to immersion. Larian should seriously learn from them.

Originally Posted by WumpusRat
Originally Posted by kanisatha

Well we're seeing this in movies and TV shows too, right? It's becoming extremely difficult to come up with a storyline that is original while not being ridiculous and/or cheesy. So I think we have to expect and accept that not all RPGs are going to have some amazing story nobody else had ever done previously. But the standard instead should be has it been done right.


Even BG3's story isn't all that original, honestly. "Player is afflicted by X, which is going to kill them unless they get rid of it, while gaining powers from the affliction". It's a lot like the Curse of the Azure Bonds game, just with a different thing that applied the affliction. smile

Of course, we've only seen act-1 of BG3 yet, so I'm hoping there's a lot of cool stuff to come in acts 2 and 3.


Disagree. The ceromorphosis is superinteresting and quite original theme.


I agree on all points.

Also, it's nice to see you still cannot be caged and cannot be controlled

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Just for demographics sake, I'm 40. Started my crpg games with Ultima 3, 4, and 6. Played the old AD&D Gold box games, did "not" play BG1&2 or Icewind Dale, "did" play Neverwinter Nights (not the gold box one, the one in 2000s), but not NWN 2, I played the Witcher series, the first Dragon Age and Divinity Original Sin 2. Then went back and bought DoS 1, but never played the rest of the Divinity series. I am not a huge fan of the Elderscrolls but I did play Oblivion and Skyrim. As well I played Fallout 3 and 4 (just a generalized layout of my gaming experience in this genre, not going into everything).

So started from what I would consider the beginning and saw the parts of the golden age and the revival of crpg gaming is what I'm trying to say. I did not however have an extensive experience playing tabletop D&D. I have played maybe 3 games in recent years. Read the monster manual and dm books when I was around 13 for what ever edition of D&D it was at that time, but never played an organized game (I wanted to play but for such an antisocial nerd thing at the time, I didn't have enough friends to play D&D with, lol!).

I did "not" like Solasta. Combat was ancillary to me, the atmosphere felt generic, the story (not the actual script of words and voice acting, just generalized story) felt amateurish and a lot of lore dump at the beginning was off putting (you can avoid it by skipping those conversation trees).

The UI was too large and in my face. Cumbersome and inflexible is how I would describe it. I did not get good tooltip information or combat feedback in the log, just raw numbers and generalized action descriptions (you hit for x damage vs your attack rolls was 15 (11 on d20 +2 proficiency + 2 str modifier) you hit on AC 10 doing 8 dmg (4 on 1d6 + 2 str mod))

User controls were very restricting as far as camera rotation and zooming in an out (BG3 was also annoying but now I am less frustrated after playing Solasta).

As far as actual combat, that was fine. I understand the general rules and mechanics of D&D though, so it is not difficult. It is very much so restrictive on what you can do per a turn and shows how much bg3 is breaking those rules by allowing you to attack, disengage, push, eat/drink potion, offhand attack, throw an object or persion, hide, help a downed ally.

The ruleset of skills also seemed less buggy, for example offhand wpn getting proficiency on every character in BG3 when it states you shouldn't, or devil's sight not working in magical darkness, silence not working on harpies. This may be due to EA and they have to adjust the divinity engine to do these things still, or just completely ignoring the rules and they are going to leave it that way. We will have to wait to see how they adjust the game to the feedback.

So I think what people like is there are less bugs and inconsistencies in Solasta, but it is also less ambitious and just a 1:1 game development on an engine that was built for mass use by any developer.

I would think I am the demographic that would be heralding Solasta with you guys, but I actually find it dated and boring.

Wondering how I differ from the rest of you. Younger crowd? More table top experience? Or are we the same demographic but I just like different things.

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Similar demographic, I'm a little younger at just shy of 33, with nearly 23 years playing tabletop and crpgs.

I played baldurs gate 1&2, icewind dale 1&2, siege of dragon spear, both original sins, pathfinder kingmaker, both pillars of eternity, all three dragon age games, all the fallout games (even van buren), daggerfall, morrowind, oblivion, skyrim, prince of qin, all three witcher games, titan quest, diablo 1 & 2, dragons dogma, breath of the wild, the mass effect series, torchlight 1 & 2, various final fantasies, gothic series, deus ex series and a whole bunch of others I cant think of the names off hand.

I imagine we are the same demographic, just came to somewhat different conclusions based on what was provided.

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Originally Posted by CMF

Wondering how I differ from the rest of you. Younger crowd? More table top experience? Or are we the same demographic but I just like different things.


You probably won't find all that much "younger crowd" here. CRPGs are a 30 and up thing apparently, statistically speaking. Which does kind of make sense because we grew up with these kinds of games. They're called "classic" for a reason. I'm in my 30s so I'm a tiny bit younger, but I share most of your opinions as far as these two games go.

Originally Posted by Syrek

I know, a lot of alleged "Betas" of other games (which are actually glorified marketing demos) have convinced you that you can still have major input on a games' design when it's already far enough along that you can play it without crashing every 2 minutes and every model has textures and animations. But that's not how development works in real life.


Quoting myself here from earlier in the discussion. I'm aware that this EA phase isn't one of these "marketing betas" and Larian really does want our feedback.
It also looks like they are ready to change up quite a bit of stuff, especially regarding combat and pacing.
What I don't think however, and what's a bit of a fallacy in this thread, is that they can afford revamping major sections of the game like a large part of the combat system or vast parts of story progression.
Tweak things, sure. Iron out bugs like falsely added proficiency bonuses or wrong calculations, tune down surface effects or give goblins less elemental flasks to throw. That's changing numbers and values, relatively easy to do and cost effective.
Maybe they'll even manage to give the party an auto jump ability, since that doesn't seem to be a minor annoyance that takes up like 2 minutes of your lifetime every 2 hours or so, but a game breaking bug that needs to be fixed instantly.
I'm quite positive however that they won't make sweeping changes to the story, call in the whole cast again to record new lines and animate new cutscenes for act 1. These actors are probably quite busy recording conversations for act 2 or 3 right now, production is in full swing and the devs have a buttload of work to do to get this even close to a finished state in a year. I'd personally expect at least 1,5 years to be optimistic. This isn't alpha or beta anymore. We (okay, most of us) weren't invited to that.


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I honestly was wondering if it was because I played games before bg1&2 I had a different perspective. 10 Years of gaming is a big difference between 30 and 40 year olds. rtwp wasn't what I was familiar with and I am less enamored with surface level cosmetics such as random banter of npcs while traveling, one liner quips and catch phrases that a few have been referencing with the other games.

There came a time where I loved lore heavy games and a lot of slow paced in depth things. I have moved somewhat away from that and while I want to be caught up in a game, I don't want to play time consuming mini games like inventory management, hunger bars, grind fests to level. I am on the fence with random encounters. Sometimes random encounters are nice because it changes up the game and keeps the world a threat. Other times I really just want to get from point A to B and not have to worry about things slowing me down (on the other hand, without random encounters, you "HAVE" to make sure you fight everything you can to ensure you get the most exp possible).

Since I am enjoying BG3 so much, I am waiting to pull the trigger and go back and play BG1&2. Kind of waiting for a GOG or Steam sale, as I am surprised it is still $60 as a bundle (if I don't remove the custom portraits and music, it is somewhere closer to $90). I avoided going back on those games over the last few years, even before I knew about BG3, because they were dated and didn't want to buy another game on Steam to not play it due to disillusion of nostalgia gaming after purchase.

I do feel it is my duty to play them now, so I can understand the conversation and any discontent this game is receiving. That way I can have intellectual conversations instead of disagreeing with something I never experienced.

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It's an interesting test to play both games back to back to see how they approach mechanics. That's for sure.


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Turn-based combat is always trash though. We're not at 1990 with processing power, rtwp should be the standard everywhere.

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gonna have to disagree with you there chum laugh but these things are subjective and entirely down to personal preference as the huge thread discussing that very topic highlights

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I'm impressed with what I've played of Solasta so far. It's amazing what only 17 folks can do with so little money. Of course, I don't know how much funding they have besides the Kickstarter.

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