Hey there folks!

Summer is definitively getting closer in Paris, as good weather has been blessing us these last few days. You know what they say: Sun is shining, birds are singing... Speaking of which, here are a few words from Tactical Parrot, our occasional uninvited guest to our morning meetings. While none of us understands it, we're pretty sure we start the day with the equivalent of a Bardic Inspiration thanks to its intervention.



If you haven't already seen it, we just released a new Gameplay Features Trailer yesterday. Make sure you check it out!



Don't forget to vote, this Community Vote ends next week on May 25th!





Alright everyone, it's high time we give you a tour of our shiny new Character Creator, so grab a cup of tea or coffee and get cozy because this Dev Update is going to be long! 


I'll be making a Snow Dwarf this time because their beards are fabulous

Before we jump into the specifics of each steps of Character Creation, let's quickly break down the UI. As you can see, the screen is split in three parts:

• On the left is a summary of your statistics. As we've just started Character Creation, you'll see that the only information displayed for now are the racial attribute modifiers, as well as your base movement speed and your proficiency bonus. This summary will get updated as you make more and more choices. 
• In the middle is the "Main Choice", where you will be making the most important decisions when building your character. In this example, you get to select your Race / Sub-Race. 
• On the right is the "Information / Secondary Choice", where you will see all of the information to help you decide on what to select, as well as any other choices that wouldn't fit in the middle window. Here you can find all you need to know about the Dwarves (and the Snow Dwarves in particular), as well as the Gender Selection.

Left to right, top to bottom: Hill & Snow Dwarves, High & Sylvan Elves, Island & Marsh Halflings, Half-Elves, Humans

The first screen of the Character Creator is the Race & Gender screen, where you can pick and choose between a total of 5 races, or 8 if you take into account all the Sub-races. Here you will find a mix between good old SRD choices (Hill Dwarves, Half-Elves, Humans & High Elves) and homebrew Solastan ones (Snow Dwarves, Sylvan Elves, Marsh Halflings & Island Halflings). The world of Solasta isn't similar to any of the official D&D settings, which means that races have a different history than you might expect - and developed differently as a result. For instance, the old Elven Empire of Manacalon wasn't above the usage of slavery (as a matter of fact, it relied quite heavily on it). 

You might also be wondering: why have the gender selection here instead of later? Well, it's fairly simple - as you can see on the right, there is a character model that will evolve depending on the choices you made, so we thought it'd be a little sad to have a male avatar forced by default until the customization screen.


Two swords, twice the shanking power.

The second screen of the Character Creator is the Class Selection screen. Here you will find the 4 base classes (Cleric, Fighter, Rogue & Wizard) as well as those that were added through the Kickstarter Campaign (Paladin & Ranger) for a total of 6 classes at launch. As a reminder, we have also promised a free post-launch DLC to add the Sorcerer to the game for everyone.

While selecting a class might seem simple enough, in Solasta we have decided to give the player a little more choices based on existing Tabletop rules - and that is to edit your starting equipment based on your class. As you can see here, my Ranger is starting off with a Scale mail and two shortswords. However if I click on Edit Equipment...


This is one ranger you don't want to cross after sundown. 

My Dwarven Ranger is now wearing a Leather Armor, and has a Handaxe and Club equipped! This is actually not just a visual change on the avatar, the character's inventory has already been created at that stage and they are simply equipping the weapons and armor that are getting added to his backpack. 

On another topic, this is also where you'll be selecting your Favored Enemy / Terrain as a Ranger, and you also have a little button "At Higher Levels" which can show you what new Class Features you'll unlock (and when). Some of the other classes have special screens to select special features of their own, but we'll show that another time!


Let's give our Dwarf a proper Background and Alignment, Lawful Good doesn't seem to fit his style.

Alright people, ready to for the meat and potatoes of this Character Creator? Let's jump into the Background, Alignment and Personality Selection Screen. As we've mentioned a couple of times earlier, character dialogs get impacted by their personality - but let's cover the more simple things first. 

Just like on Tabletop, Backgrounds are your character's previous occupation: where they come from, what they did in the past, all that sort of things. Selecting one of the 8 backgrounds grants you a couple of boons such different personality options, extra proficiencies (skills, weapons, armors, tools...), additional languages and equipment or even good reputation with certain factions of the game. But that's not all there is, each Background also has a special quest attached to it to help you delve deeper into each character's past. Unfortunately it also means that if two of your party members share the same background, only one will trigger their background quest. 

Next is the Alignment, which used to play a very large role in older editions but has slowly been moving away from gameplay purposes in the newer ones. Remember when Druids had to be Neutral something and Paladins could only be Lawful Good? This is no longer the case in SRD 5.1, and we also wanted to avoid returning to a binary system of "are you Evil / Good / Lawful / Chaotic or not" in Solasta. This is why Alignment in itself won't directly impact the game, however your character will be offered different Personality options depending on which Alignment you chose!


Here are the current Personality Flags you can get from the different Backgrounds

Which brings us to our Personality System, which is not something you'll find in the Tabletop rules. What and why is that? Well, I am sad to announce that we unfortunately do not have the power to create an all powerful sentient AI that would play the role of a DM. On top of that, unlike most RPGs, you aren't playing one hero who is joined by premade and pre-written companions - you are creating and customizing all four of your party members yourself, which makes it a tad bit more challenging! Personality Flags are our solution to infuse each character with a little bit of... well, personality (duh).

Your Background and your Alignment will each give you up to 4 Personality Flags to choose from, and some may overlap. Picking the same Personality Flag twice will increase its strength, meaning it will take more often take precedence over the other Flags you selected. You will have to pick 2 Flags from each source (Alignment & Background), and depending on your Background you may have a different pre-existing Flag - for instance, Aristocrats and Philosophers will start with the "Formal" Flag (meaning they will tend to speak in a more prim and proper manner), whereas Lowlife and Sellswords start with the "Slang" Flag (meaning they'll probably be a little rougher around the edge than their colleagues). 


By selecting Greed twice, you can see on the bottom left that our Dwarf just became extra greedy. No that's not a racial modifier, don't be racist.

At the end of the day, these Personality Flags will govern which line of dialogs you will hear in cutscenes outside of "Skill Dialogs" options - such as when you want to intimidate or persuade someone (in these situations Skill Modifier takes precedence over Personality Flags). Our goal is that your Lowlife Rogue doesn't speak in the exact same way your Lawkeeper Paladin does, even if both are Neutral Good characters.


I must apologize. We have purposely trained him wrong. As a joke.

Thought we were done? Far from it. Now you will have to roll your Ability Scores!

As there are several ways to determine your Ability Scores on Tabletop, we've decided to include the most popular methods - Standard Array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), Point Buy (27 points) and 4d6 drop the lowest dice (x6). Note that we have decided to let players reroll as many times as they want, for two very simple reasons. One, if someone really wanted to cheat and reroll, they could just close the character creator and open it again (so it would just waste the player's time). Two, it's a single player game, and just like in older games no one prevented you to enter cheat commands, we're surely not going to stop you from creating the character you want (even if they are overpowered). We even included a "Free Edition" mode so that our players may re-create their tabletop character simply and without hassle (that also means you can start with a character that has 18 everywhere if you wanted, but we're not here to be the fun police).


Point Buy is a safer option to make more balanced characters, but who doesn't like to start with the INT score of a baboon.

For newer players who may not be familiar with the system, we also included an "optimize" button that will assign your rolls to your different attributes depending on your class, so even though we allow for a great deal of customization do not worry about getting lost in all those different options.


We're all given some sort of skill in life. Mine just happens to be beating people up.

Still with us? We're almost there. The second to last screen is the Proficiency Selection Screen, where you get to pick and choose your proficiencies (and extra languages) based on your race, class and background. You may notice that our character already has some proficiencies, such as Stealth, Deception or even Poisoner's Kit - this is due to his Spy Background. 

Skills are important in all sort of situations in Solasta, whether during dialogs to convince someone through guile or guts, exploration to spot that secret door or disarm that dangerous trap, or traveling to gather food and avoid monsters through the Badlands, so make sure your party members cover as many different skills as possible! 

Similarly, knowing certain languages can open different paths that would be otherwise be closed. Not all orcs are looking for a fight, and it would be such a shame to enter some ruins without knowledge of the deadly traps waiting inside just because you couldn't read the warnings, eh? 


Let's name him Rockhammer Stoneshield to make it 200% obvious that he's a dwarf.

If you made it this far, pat yourself on the back - you've made it to the end! The Identity Screen is where you will be customizing your character: their name, face, haircut, beard and body shape as well as skin, hair and eye color. As we're still in Early Alpha we may not have every customization option available quite yet, so the final game may very well have a few more choices!

So there you have it, the Character Creation from start to finish... with a few caveats. We haven't shown you the Deity & Divine Domain Screens available to Clerics (and Paladin to a lesser extent), nor have we shown the Spell Screens for the spellcasters... but that will be for another time, in video format! Make sure you ask any additional questions you may have down below, and we'll answer it in our upcoming Community Video!

Read our previous articles here:

• https://www.solasta-game.com/news/48-dev-update-2-dungeons-dwarves[May Community Vote] Blades of the Old Worlds - The Selection
• Dev Update #13 - Enter all ye who seek knowledge
• Dev Update #12 - Stay a while and listen!

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

When humans fled to Solasta it was not a matter of country or culture, it was a matter of survival. Centuries passed and much was lost, but more remains - if not among the living, then among the dead.  Every ruin tells a story, but to the untrained eye of a looter, every blade is a sword. Most adventurers know better: a heritage, a legacy, many a thing can be found in a scavenger's bag. 

This time we have prepared a very special topic for our martial-loving friends: Exotic Weapons... And more specifically, Exotic Blades. Most of those who are familiar with Tabletop RPGs know that popular settings are often based on western culture - fairly logical considering most writers and players are American & European. I think it's safe to assume that it's much easier to introduce most players to a game where they can choose between a sword or a mace and run at the enemy, rather than have to explain the difference between a shamshir and a takoba (don't ask me, I'm not a specialist). 

Now, 5e has streamlined quite a few rules to the benefit of game's flow, removing a lot of obscure and very specific rules. However, there are some of us who miss the large variety of weapons offered in 3.5... which led us to think "hey, why not add an exotic weapon to our game?". And here we are, with a selection of five blades from different cultures! Of course we'd love to implement all of them, but as usual we have to be careful not to overburden our development plans - so you'll have to choose which one makes it in! Note that I am by no mean an expert in ancient weaponry, so I apologize in advance if some of my descriptions aren't completely accurate (and if so, please feel free to mention it in the comments so that I can fix it!).

You have until May 25th, 11:59pm PST to vote!





Our first contender is the Khopesh (ḫpš). A one-handed Egyptian sickle-sword which apparently evolved from battle axes, the Khopesh is truly an ancient weapon - with the earliest known appearance dating from 2,500 BC. Sharpened on the outside portion of the curved end, the inside curve of the weapon could be used to trap an opponent's arm or pull their shield out of the way. Sadly, this fascinating weapon fell out of use around 1,300 BC. 



Our second contender is the only non-human weapon in the list. The Elven Thinblade is a one-handed weapon that can be found in ruins of the old, now defunct elven empire - more often than not imbued with powerful magic. Very light and expertly crafted, many would kill to get their hands on such a weapon (and sometimes quite literally). On Tabletop, the Elven Thinblade first appeared in the Races of the Wild sourcebook (2005), and was quite ahead of the power curve when you consider that it was a weapon that dealt 1d8 dmg (like a longsword), had a 18-20 crit range (like a rapier), was versatile (could be wielded 2-handed for more damage) AND allowed weapon finesse (to swap strength for dexterity for damage). Now before you rogues and rangers start drooling, it will most likely not be as powerful in Solasta. Consider yourself warned!



Our third contender is the 2-handed Katana (刀) from Japan. Amongst all the foreign weapons, Katanas are probably the most well-known: a curved, slender, singled-edged blade with a long grip protected by a guard to accommodate two hands. With that said, the oldest Katanas from the 12th century may have been quite different from the popular image we have of it, as its design evolved multiple times over the centuries. They are rumoured to be among the finest cutting weapons in history, although many contest that statement.



Our fourth contender is another two-handed blade from Asia, the Chinese Da Dao (大刀)... which literally means "Big Blade" (大 = Big, 刀 = Single-edged blade, although nowadays it's mostly used for "Knife"). For those who are curious, it is indeed the 刀 from Katana - there are quite a large amount of words in Japanese and Chinese that are visually the same, although the pronunciation (and even the meaning) can differ. This large broadsword is characterized by the rings on the back of the blade (note that not all Da Dao have those), their purpose left to speculation. Some believe the noise helped intimidating opponents, others that it is a symbol of honour as the noise would prevent the wielder from attacking enemies in the back.



Last but not least is the 2-handed Falchion. There are many different type of falchions - cleaver falchions, cusped falchions... We decided to go with the blade illustrated in the 13th century Maciejowski Bible as we loved its design - although we swapped the handle for a more standard one (the original has a hooked hilt, which most likely would have caused clipping issues with character models). In 3.5e, Falchions were like the 2-handed version of scimitars - slashing, 18-20 crit range... however they only dealt a measly 2d4 damage, compared to the 2d6 (19-20 crit range) greatsword. Not to mention they were also more expensive (75 gp vs 50 gp) and weighted the same (8 lbs)! A cool weapons that definitely deserved a bit more spotlight. 

So, which one tickled your fancy? Make sure to vote in our Official Forums!

Hello people!

May is here, and summer is right around the corner. The team has been starting their work on Act II, and we've been polishing Act I as we go. Hopefully we'll soon be able to share some longer videos, so keep an eye on our Youtube channel if you're not already subscribed! Also, here is an obligatory picture of two of our furry companions during these hard times.


Linus & Oliver can be seen hard at work during most of the day. Sleeping that is.

April's Community Contest is over, and the winner is... Brightwall, by Nortar!

With more than 30% of the total votes, this runic shield will banish the darkness no matter how far deep underground you decide to venture. And with the ability to cast Daylight once per long rest, even magical Darkness won't hinder your party! We want to extend our congratulations to all participants, including of course the four runner ups: Greg W Pola with Armor of Shadows (23%), Jason Broom with Archer's Nightmare (22%), Resy with Cloak of Lightning (14%) and Lathaon with Scales of the Remorhaz (11%). As usual, we will be sending Forum Badges as a reward to all participants - as well as some bonus XP so you can level up and get access to more avatars!

Speaking of armors - even though the winning submission was a shield - here is a quick peek at the new armor icons that you will find in your inventory. 


We apologize but the summer catalogue didn't get approved by the adventurer committee, so no armored swimsuits

Let's swap things around a bit this time, and start off with spells instead. Our VFX Artist has been very productive these last few weeks, and we have every intention of sharing her work with you! I present to you Frost Bolt, Guidance and Guiding Bolt!







We also have some more spell icons to share! Have fun finding out what spell each one represents. First one to get them all right get a Forum Title from yours truly!



Speaking of magic... Where did our adventurers end up this time? That's more books than you could read in a lifetime... several lifetimes even. I won't spoil too much about this location, but let's say if you expected Solasta to be all about going around caverns murdering orcs and goblins, Wendy you've got a surprise coming to you. 



Oh boy, more Caer Cyflen. Being the main city of our game, it's very likely that we'll keep polishing it while working on Act II and even beyond. That means you get to see it evolve alongside the development team in our bi-weekly Dev Updates! Hopefully that's something you enjoy, make sure you tell us how you feel about that in the comments.


The marketplace is slowly taking shape, now the next step is to add some life!


Fruits and vegetables aplenty! Tonight we feast!

As its name implies, the marketplace is where you will be doing most of your shopping. Fun fact: we used to have all the vendors scattered across the city so that they could each have their little corner with its own ambiance and decorations, but after playing for a bit we realized that running back and forth between the different shops was more tedious than anything else. The first time going around the city was great, but doing that every time you come back from an expedition was excruciating to say the least. 

This is also when we decided to reduce the playable area of the city. Now that may sound like a bad thing to do, but think of it for a moment - larger cities don't necessarily make for a more enjoyable experience. Unlike playing on tabletop, you can't just skip the long and boring walk between the city gates and the castle - the DM isn't going to make descriptions of the same streets for 15 minutes every time you come back into town (at least I hope not). Adding fast-travel would be a work-around; but in that case what's the point of making a large city in the first place if players are always using fast travel after the first time? Therefore, we decided to pack most activities in a smaller playable area of the city - less time spent running is more time spent adventuring!


Here you can see the canal before adding the water, we'll have another screenshot ready for you once it's filled!

A Dev Update wouldn't be one without showing some of the fantastic work from our Art Team. Icons, concept art, 3D models - there's plenty of things to share with you! 


Another example of Concept Art being made into an in-game prop by our wonderful 3D artists


More item icons, crafting components and potions!

There's plenty more we could show, but we wouldn't want our Dev Updates to become too long now would we. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of bloopers at hand this time, so here is a doodle from the latest Tactical Skribblio showdown, where the artistic capabilities of each and every team member are tested and judged. And by that I mean the lack of artistic capabilities. 


I'd say this drawing was already pretty high tier compared to everything else.

That's it for today! Hope you enjoyed our Dev Update, and make sure to drop by next week for May's Community Event. Here is a taste of what's coming up...



Read our previous articles here:

• https://www.solasta-game.com/news/48-dev-update-2-dungeons-dwarvesDev Update #12 - Stay a while and listen!
• Dev Update #11 - Day & Night Cycles
• Dev Update #10 - New Gameplay Footage!

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

Hello there everyone,

What. A. Contest! The quality of your submissions were incredible, even more than last month. We've had a really tough time trimming our selections down to five finalists, as each of us had our favorites... and unlike in the weapon contest, not a lot of overlap! Some of you had fantastic and original ideas that would totally fit Solasta, and trust me when I say that we've had to discard a lot of great submissions. So don't feel bad if you don't see your name in there! By the way you can always ping me on Discord if you're curious about what the team thought about your armor in particular^^

Here is a reminder of our most important criteria: 

• Design needs to avoid being overly complex. No sentient, morphing or world ending armors please.
• Design needs to be SRD 5.1. Please be aware that not everything from the Player Handbook is free to use - Feats and most Archetypes are not valid (Battle Maneuvers are not SRD for instance). Also, none of the material from other books such as (but not limited to) XGtE or SCAG are SRD. 
• Content needs to be planned for Solasta. For instance, any design with Warlock spells won't be selected.
• Design needs to be balanced for a lvl 1 - 10 adventure. Avoid overpowered armors - and even items for level 10 characters are not encouraged since they will be at the end of the game already.

Now without further ado, here the list of the selected armors (and a shield!) for this second round (in no particular order):

• Archer's Nightmare, by Jason Broome
• Armor of Shadows, by Greg W Pola
• Scales of the Remorhaz, by Lathaon
• Cloak of Lightning, by Resy
• Brightwall, by Nortar

Note that we have already applied a first balance pass, so they may differ slightly from the original submission. The lore may also be reworked later by our writers.

Contest Rules

• Voting ends on Monday, May 4th, 11:59pm PST 
• Anyone with a Forum Account may participate in the voting. Limit of one vote per person.
• The winner will have his Magic Armor implemented in-game and be credited as its Designer in the Credits
• All of those who wrote a submission will also receive a Forum Trophy for their participation to the contest
• Necessary disclaimer: We reserve the right to alter submissions or work with their author to fit our design and specifications. You can read the full legal document here (roll Investigation DC15).

• Hide Armor (Medium)
• Grants a Bonus to AC
• Grants a Constitution Bonus when worn
• Attacks with Ranged Weapons against the wearer - such as arrows or bolts - are made with disadvantage (Spells are not affected)
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: Plain brown with broken arrows patterns
• Creator: Jason Broome

• Studded Leather Armor (Light)
• Advantage on Stealth Checks
• Grants Darkvision 60'
• No Attunement
• Color Scheme: Black & grey with dulled gray studs
• Creator: Greg W Pola

• Scale Mail (Medium)
• Grants a Bonus to AC
• Can cast Fire Shield (Warm) once per Long Rest
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: Blue & orange
• Creator: Lathaon

• Cape
• Can cast Lightning once per Long Rest
• Grants Resistance to Lightning Damage
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: Dark navy with lightning arcs
• Creator: Resy

• Shield
• Grants a Bonus to AC
• Can cast Daylight on itself once per Long Rest
• Can cast Light on itself at will
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: Mirror-polished steel with darker metal boss and rim, etched with glowing runes
• Creator: Nortar

Hey there folks!

Hope everyone is doing all right out there. On our side we're hard at work with Act I, and we'll soon start cracking at Act II as well. Also, as we'll still be working from home for quite some time, here is a bit of love to our companions who now have to live with us all day long.


Gimli loves to invade our morning stand-up meetings with his peppy chirps.

Little reminder: you still have one week to submit your Magic Armor Design for a chance to have it implemented in-game at launch! On April 28th, we will select our favorite submissions and the voting phase will begin! 


Time to craft your very own your magic armor in a video game!

As our Designers work on creating fun and challenging levels, we have a constant need to create and implement new systems to make their dreams a reality. Well, I say that but sometimes it's something as simple as needing a door that opens when you activate a lever. Or a trap that activates when you walk on a tile. Almost every interaction needs a system behind it, which is why our Programmers will never be out of work! 


Step carefully now, fall damage is no joke!

For instance, we have recently been playing around with pressure plates - traps that only trigger when you step away from the plate, and not when you step on it. We've also implemented gadgets that only react to magic - or even magic of a certain kind (such as spells dealing fire or radiant damage). Solving puzzles and opening secret doors won't be a simple matter of succeeding a Perception check! 


Here are the new gadgets we were talking about above, ready to be used by our level designers!

Systems aren't only needed to build levels, of course. Another example would be the Party Banter feature that we promised in our Kickstarter Campaign, which just made its debut in-game! It still needs a lot of love and tweaking so that the party members aren't talking all the time (trust me, it gets tiresome very fast), but at least adventuring will be a little more lively now. 


Characters will react differently to their party members depending on their personality (and yes, it will be voiced!)

As we're talking about new systems, I'd say it's high time we give you a glimpse of our crafting system! Now before we start, please keep in mind that crafting is not a main progression system in Solasta. It's used to make useful items such as scrolls, potions and poisons - not forge magical artifacts of tremendous power (you're playing a party of adventurers, not a party of blacksmiths). 


"You youngsters and your healing potions! Back in my day, we drank herbal remedies and it cured everything I tell you. EVERYTHING!"

Crafting is done during downtime when travelling - after setting up camp, adventurers can devote time to various activities before going to sleep, including crafting. Still, remember that as with anything else we're showing you in our Dev Updates, all of this may change in the future as Crafting is still in its infancy in Solasta. 


"Can we do a long rest yet? What do you mean we did one just before this fight, my character likes to sleep a lot alright?"

We've also been working on adding merchants to the city of Caer Cyflen. You can see here that your relation with certain factions will now come into play when bartering with them, as a bad reputation may result in shopkeepers raising their prices. The opposite may also apply and who knows, they may even have some special items in the back of their shop for you...


"Hugo, listen to me. I didn't mean to stab him, I thought he was a bandit you see? Now can you stop gouging your prices?"

Speaking of Caer Cyflen, its empty streets are slowly getting filled with life! It's a long process, but we're confident that it will look fantastic when we're finally done with it. We'll even have citizens walking around soon - that may not sound very impressive, but currently every NPC in town is just standing around looking like a tree so hey, progress!


"My dear, you must absolutely tell me where you got pennants that are so white." "Oh, those are just missing their texture."

We've also worked on what towns and locations will look like on the World Map which, again, changed quite a bit since the last time we showed it to you. 


This world map is getting more and more eerie at night, isn't it. 

Also, since we're talking about towns... 


What is it? Where is it? You'll see...

The great thing about spells in D&D is that there are plenty of them. The bad thing about spells in D&D is that there are plenty of them - wait what? Jokes aside, it can be very hard for new spellcasters to choose between all the spells that are available to them - which is why we've added filters on our Spell Page for you to easily find the right spell to prepare for the right occasion! 


Maybe I'll finally stop preparing only concentration spells too, it didn't work too well last time I did that. 

Our VFX artist has also added Levitate and Knock to Solasta. Who said we only show flashy destructive spells? Feast your eyes on these!


Something something "Open Sesame". I'm out of bad joke slots for the day, need a long rest.

As it is often the case, our bloopers this time are once again a result of our Animator breaking things. Although this time he was helped by our Graphic Programmer in his quest to make our NPCs as derpy as possible. 


"No, being able to look at two directions at once does not grant you advantage to Perception."


OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT.

That's it for today! Hope you enjoyed our Dev Update, don't forget to participate in the Magic Armor Design Contest if you haven't already!

Read our previous articles here:

• https://www.solasta-game.com/news/48-dev-update-2-dungeons-dwarves[April Contest] Design a Magic Armor
• Dev Update #11 - Day & Night Cycles
• Dev Update #10 - New Gameplay Footage!

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

Hey there folks,

We're back at it with a new Community Contest - Design a Magic Armor! It wouldn't be fair if we only gave a chance for weapons to shine now, would it? So get your creative juice pumping and your fingers cracking, you have another chance to get your design in-game!

Note: The rewards for the previous contest have been sent! If you can't find your Weaponsmith Trophy in your Profile, please don't hesitate to create a thread on the forum or contact me on Discord.

1. Submissions have to be done through the official form: https://forms.gle/pwThRmnHauS3DG6W9
2. Submissions end on Sunday April 26th, 11:59pm PST
3. Anyone with a Forum Account may participate in the contest. 
4. One submission per person.
5. Discussions & questions about the contest will take place over there: https://forums.solasta-game.com/forum/april-contest-design-a-magic-armor 
6. Please keep your submission Safe for Work. Nothing 18+ (writing included)
7. Must not contain copyrighted material. 
8. From April 28th to May 4th, the voting phase will take place. We will select a few of our favorite Magic Armor Designs, and the community will vote for the final winner!
9. The winner will have his Magic Armor implemented in-game and be credited as its designer in the Credits
10. All of those who wrote a valid submission will also receive a Forum Trophy for their participation to the contest
11. Necessary disclaimer: We reserve the right to alter submissions or work with their author to fit our design and specifications. You can read the full legal document here (roll Investigation DC15).

1. Design needs to avoid being overly complex. No sentient, morphing or world ending armors please.
2. Design needs to be SRD 5.1. Please be aware that not everything from the Player Handbook is free to use - Feats and most Archetypes are not valid (Battle Maneuvers are not SRD for instance). Also, none of the material from other books such as (but not limited to) XGtE or SCAG are SRD. 
3. Content needs to be planned for Solasta. For instance, any design with Warlock spells won't be selected.
4. Design needs to be balanced for a lvl 1 - 10 adventure. Avoid overpowered armors - and even items for level 10 characters are not encouraged since they will be at the end of the game already.

Hello everyone,

Are you ready for the first Dev Update of April? Well you better be, for we have tons of things to show you!

Annnnd stop! With 32% of the total vote, the Arcane Shieldstaff wins March Community Contest: Design your Magic Weapon! Second place goes to the Manacalon Javelin of Sure Returning (21%), followed by the Winged Dagger (17%), the Mace of the Midday Sun (16%) and finally the Mountain Breaker (14%). Huge congratulations to our winner GreyWarden77, the runner-ups Woolynelson, Maruo Sartori, Ithron and Shadow of Olympus, as well as everyone else who participated to the contest. We will soon be sending Forum Badges as a reward to all participants - as well as some bonus XP so you can level up and get access to more avatars!


Bronze for participating, Silver for getting selected, Gold for 2nd place, Diamond for winning!

We've also been informed that the Arcane Shieldstaff looks similar to the Staff of Defense found in the Lost Mine of Phandelver D&D 5e module. However, it doesn't grant a +1 Bonus to AC, and it can also cast Shield as a Reaction (Staff of Defense can only cast Shield as an action). Oh and it also doesn't have a 5% chance of blowing up every morning, we can already imagine the amount of bug reports about "Items disappearing from Inventory" if we did that. 

That being said, thank you for staying vigilant and telling us about these kind of issues - if we do conclude that it's too close to an existing item in the end, we may change it slightly while keeping the intent intact (so it won't suddenly be doling out fireballs by the dozen, but it may trade Mage Armor for a +1 to All Saving Throws for instance)

Day & Night Cycles

You might remember us showing you a little sneak peek of the Day & Night cycle when talking about our new World Map screen in early February (Dev Update #7). For those who missed it  - or who simply forgot, it's been 2 months after all - here it is!


You can even see the clock at the top showing the passage of time!

Back then, you were only able to see the changes in luminosity on that specific screen... But it is no longer the case! When your party is inside a location, time keeps going - so when you do a short rest or a long rest (1h / 8h), you will see the level change with the time of the day. 


Before / After a long rest, from 10:50 am to 6:50 pm (8h)

Now for the fun fact: even when you're not doing rests, the time is actually flowing in real time. That means if you were to leave your computer with Solasta running for a few hours (without being in a menu), you may very well come back and see that the luminosity now looks a lot different! This should almost never happen if you're just playing normally, but just for fun here is what it looks like with a (very) accelerated video. As you can see, it's not just a question of having one "Day version" and one "Night version" of the level - the luminosity changes with the in-game time! It's also important to note that the changes aren't only visual - after a certain hour, you will be fighting under Dim Light conditions - and who knows, maybe even in total darkness!


Once the night hits, you better have those torches and Light spells ready!

Alright, hope you enjoyed it! All of that was made possible thanks to our Graphic Programmer, who made a fantastic tool for the team to play with!


Most of his work can be considered as MakeThingsPretty.exe for our Dev Updates

Random Encounters!

Don't you love it when you're traveling back to town from dungeon-delving, half-dead and completely out of spell slots - only to be hit by a random encounter? Well, now you can experience these rage inducing moments in Solasta as well! That's what you get for culling down the locals, you damn murder hobos. Anyway, random encounters - they have now been implemented in the World Map, and you can even get ambushed under certain conditions. This means we've also been working on a small encounter map - and will probably end up making a few more so that you don't always fight "random" encounters in the same "not so random" location (damn it Fred, I told you we should have gone around that clearing, we've been ambushed the last 5 times we went through here!) 


Hey look guys, more XP and loot to entertain us during our journey!

New Levels in the Work

We've been showing you a lot of the same locations slowly being improved - which is fairly important considering those are the first levels which new players will be seeing - but I'm thinking some of you might want to see some new locations. Well, here is a little something for you - although we won't be telling you where that is! Always keep in mind that all you're see here is Work In Progress, it's far from being done!


Ohhhh toasty. Did things get a bit heated over here, or did the wizard just drop a fireball to clear the area?


"Mellon"! "Mellon"! Damn it guys, it's not working.

Concept Art & Icons!

Time to show some love for the Art Team, who've been kept busy working on... icons. Lots and lots of icons, for all kinds of stuff! Turns out that when you want your Character Creation to be free of placeholders, there are plenty of little things you need to take care of - Divine Domains for Clerics, Fighting Styles for Martial Classes, Spells for Spellcasters, Archetypes for everyone... Anyone, here it is - once again, not everything is final so some of these icons may very well change in the future!


We finally have an image for the Acolyte Background! With this, all 8 Backgrounds are now ready


First version of divine domains & some extra archetype icons


First version of crafting component icons (ooohh crafting... another topic to discuss sooner or later!)

VFX Corner!

Today's a good day for VFX lovers. Why, you may ask? Well, how about... Fireball, one of the signature spells of D&D? Feast your eyes now, before you grow weary of it after spamming fireballs at every issue you find in your way.


How do level 5+ wizards deal with their problems? EXPLOOOOOSION!

However, it wouldn't be fair if we only showed Violet all the time. Here is Vigdis with a brand new Solasta-flavored power: Channel Divinity - Holy Retribution, from the Law Domain. When you lose HP from an enemy melee attack, you can use your reaction and Channel Divinity to immediately <s>smack that impudent swine</s> strike back with some added psychic damage!


RETRIBUTION, HERETIC! IT TASTES LIKE VICTORY!

Bloopers!

Unfortunate as it is, no blooper this time. There weren't so many funny bugs as there were unwanted crashes, and error messages aren't the most entertaining screenshots to share. So instead, here's a rejected helmet design doodled by our Lead Animator during our last Sprint Review.


A giant spoon for a helmet? Someone fire this man right now.

That's it for today, April Community Contest is right around the corner!

Read our previous articles here:

• https://www.solasta-game.com/news/48-dev-update-2-dungeons-dwarvesDev Update #10 - New Gameplay Footage!
• [March Contest] Design a Magic Weapon (over)
• Dev Update #9 - Flinging Spells at the Environment

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

Hello there everyone,

The submission period is now over, thank you to all participants out there! We’ve received more than a hundred magic weapons in total, and trimming that selection down to five finalists was hard... real hard! So don’t feel bad if your idea didn’t make it to this final round, there were so many great submissions that we simply couldn’t include them all.
Before we reveal the winners of the first round, I want to share with you some of the criteria we used to select them:

• The weapon had to be balanceable. We can easily lower a +4 attribute bonus to +2, a +2d8 necrotic damage to +1d8, 5 charges of magic missile to 2 charges - but a weapon that can cast Cloudkill, a 5th level spell, can’t be balanced unless we removed the spell from it (and that would completely change the idea behind the weapon).
• The weapon had to not be overly complex. Some submissions had great flavor, but simply were not possible to implement because they were too complex - such as weapons that would transform into other weapons or even monsters under certain circumstances.
• The content had to be SRD. We had a few submissions that included spells that simply don’t exist in D&D, or that had content only available in the PHB like Battle Master maneuvers.
• The content had to be planned for the game. Some weapons included Warlock Spells (which aren’t planned for Solasta at release)

Now without further ado, here the list of the selected weapons for this second round (in no particular order):

• Arcane Shieldstaff, by GreyWarden77
• Mace of the Midday Sun, by Woolynelson
• Manacalon Javelin of Sure Returning, by Mauro.Sartori
• Mountain Breaker, by Ithron
• Winged Dagger, by Shadow of Olympus

Note that we have already applied a first balance pass, so some of these weapons may differ slightly from the original submission. The weapons’ lore may also be reworked later by our writers.

Contest Rules

• Voting ends on Monday, March 6th, 11:59pm PST
• Anyone with a Forum Account may participate in the voting. Limit of one vote per person.
• The winner will have his Magic Weapon implemented in-game and be credited as its Designer in the Credits
• All of those who wrote a submission will also receive a Forum Trophy for their participation to the contest
• Necessary disclaimer: We reserve the right to alter submissions or work with their author to fit our design and specifications. You can read the full legal document here (roll Investigation DC15).

• Can cast Mage Armor once per Long Rest
• Can cast Shield thrice per Long Rest
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: Purple & Gold trim
• Creator: GreyWarden77

Shieldstaves are a rare artifact from ages far past. Crafted by an ancient mage during war time, this staff promises to keep its user safe and able to focus on other magical pursuits, leaving defense to the staff

• Deals additional Radiant Damage on hit
• On a Critical Hit, target is affected by Faerie Fire
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: White & Gold
• Creator: Woolynelson

The handle of this weapon looks as if it were carved from alabaster, with a bright golden striking head.

• Grants a Dexterity Bonus when wielded
• Returns to the wielder when thrown
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: Wooden, with silver decorations and a golden head
• Creator: Mauro.Sartori

A javelin of magnificent workmanship, perfectly balanced. Decorated in pure silver along its entire pole with a precious weave easily referable to the ancient Manacalon empire. Its golden tip seems to release a faint light in the dark, a sign of the magical power that this artifact contains inside. An ancient artifact created before the cataclysm by the powerful magicians of the Manacalon empire, very little is known of its origins - but in some ancient representations found in a crypt in the Badlands by a group of archaeologists and scholars of the New Empire, the artifact can be recognized as the main architect of crucial victories in historical battles.

• Grants a Strength Bonus when wielded
• Can cast Thunderwave centered on the wielder once per Long Rest
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: Silver & Steel
• Creator: Ithron

Leather wrapped haft with a beveled head with silver inlays. The maul looks like it should weigh more than it does when initially lifted, but re-gains that apparent weight ten-fold while descending in a strike. Crafted by long dead leader of a clan of the Snow Alliance. Designed to be equally useful for combat, and for breaching the defenses of other clans when they came into conflict.

• Can cast Feather Fall on self once per Long Rest
• Can cast Misty Step once per Long Rest
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: Silver with a black handle
• Creator: Shadow of Olympus

The grip is of a hard, glossy black material and is in fact crafted from the beak of an enormous raven. At the base of the Winged Dagger, the pommel, is a stylized bird’s claw in platinum grasping a mysterious, cloudy, spherical gem that when gazed upon appears to bear moving shapes inside like clouds in the sky. The platinum quillons spread as wings, majestically from the dagger’s hilt. The platinum blade is diamond in cross section, and long and tapered, ending in an impossibly sharp tip. The Winged Dagger was crafted in a gentler time to less gentler men. The Dagger was crafted in exchange for services rendered by Yxaethenes Soulbender, a Manacalon magister of minor renown. The Winged Dagger, once created, was employed through many a nefarious exploit by accomplished burglar, “Bad” Omen Starsbrite. Starsbrite actually prefered, and in vain attempted, to promote the more flattering nickname of “The Perfect Crime”. Nonetheless “Bad” Omen Starsbrite gained much notoriety and infamy for somehow always being able to gain escape from seemingly impossible odds. He often worked alone, not out of preference, but of the fear of his singular reputation. His tendency of emerging as the sole survivor after a particularly perilous operation went south had the effect of thinning the ranks of his working companions. “Bad” Omen “The Perfect Crime” Starsbrite eventually met his ultimate fate after taking one too many chances and one too many coffers of gold.

Hey there everyone,

The current situation may not be ideal, but it’s not going to stop us from making our scheduled Dev Update! We hope you’re all doing well out there - on our side we’ve all switched to working from home. The good thing about being a small team is that it makes us a bit more agile, so we’re still able to make good progress on Solasta as we speak!


As you can see our productivity remains unaffected.

Little reminder: you still have one week to submit your Magic Weapon Design for a chance to have it implemented in-game at launch! On March 31st, we will select our favorite submissions and the voting phase will begin!


Don’t miss your chance to make your magic weapon a reality in Solasta!

We all know it’s been forever since we’ve released gameplay video footage of Solasta outside very short gifs in our Dev Updates. Thing is, you always wonder: when is your game "good enough" to show to the world? Is the lighting too strong here? Does this bug really look bad? Will people understand that X and Y are temporary? So on and so forth.

However, with the Steam Game Festival: Spring Edition making its sudden appearance and Solasta’s Pre-Alpha Demo once again being available (although not anymore, the event ended yesterday morning), we wanted to make sure people understood that the game had evolved since our Kickstarter. This is why we made a short video bundling quite a few previously unavailable features on Twitter last Friday, which you can enjoy in Full HD here.

Click here to watch the video!

One feedback that stayed with us ever since we released our Kickstarter Demo was that Spell Icons were not clear. You would look at your spell bar and go "alright, I’m pretty sure my cleric should have cure wounds, but where is it..."


Aside from a few of them that are fairly obvious, would you be able to name all these spells from their old icons alone?

While they all looked quite beautiful (at the very least I really liked them), our Art Director decided to change the art style of our spell icons - to improve glance value and readability. Here is a side by side comparison of a few of these spells, which are all going to receive the same treatment in the coming weeks.


It’s hard to deny that the new ones are much easier to recognize.

Speaking of spells, we’ve just added Fog Cloud to the game. Time to obscure those lines of sight!



You’ve seen quite a few updates on our Character Creation Tool, and today’s Dev Update is not going to be the exception! Our goal is to have it completely done soon, so we can set it aside and focus on other parts of the game.


The High Elves join the fray in our Character Creation Tool...


And so do the Half-Elves!

Now all that remains are the Island Halflings and the Hill Dwarves, and we should have a complete lineup for our races!

One Snow Alliance Embassy, ready to go! Here is how it looks in-game compared to its original Concept Art.


Pretty impressive rendition of the original 2D concept art, isn’t it!

We’ll also share with you a couple of screenshots of an external location that your party will have to explore fairly early in their adventure. Watch your step, you don’t want to fall in that ravine...




Our second flying enemy just joined the roster of foes you’ll have to face. Give giant eagles a warm welcome!



Tactical Adventures assures you that no eagles were harmed in the making of these gifs.

You may have noticed the lack of Thunderwave so far in our Spells FX updates. Truth be told, we did have Thunderwave in-game (you may remember it was available in our Pre-Alpa Demo) - but the format wasn’t quite right. The spell was automatically centered around the caster, which a few players made sure to inform us about! So we fixed it. And by that I mean, we introduced a new bug while doing so. Here is a little demonstration of what happens after you get hit by Thunderwave.


Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!

We also just hit 2,000 followers on Twitter, which was the perfect occasion for me to sneak behind the back of our Producer and ask our Lead Animator (father of many horrible and hilarious gifs) for a little something for the occasion. And trust me, he delivered! Alas, poor goblin - you were never supposed to do things like this.


Goblins doing thumbs-up, check. I may yet win this bingo game.

That’s it for today! Hope you enjoyed our Dev Update, see you next week for more Solasta goodness!

Read our previous articles here:

• https://www.solasta-game.com/news/48-dev-update-2-dungeons-dwarvesDev Update #9 - Flinging Spells at the Environment
• [March Contest] Design a Magic Weapon
• TL;DR #8: So you want to run a Kickstarter Campaign?

Article by Tactical Myzzrym