We hope you're as excited as we are about Solasta's Multiplayer Beta Weekend! Without further ado, here are the guidelines to have a nice co-op gaming session. Oh and by the way, if you weren't there yesterday there is a VOD of our Dev Co-op stream available here
Multiplayer Co-op Beta Weekend Details
How to participate: Simply switch to the multiplayerbeta branch on Steam. See detailed guide #1 below, or check the Branch guide on Steam.
Start Date: Thursday March 17th at 8 am PDT / 11 am EDT / 4 pm CET
End Date: Monday March 21st at 4 am PDT / 7 am EDT / 12 pm CET
Who can participate: Anyone who currently owns Solasta: Crown of the Magister on Steam (and anyone who buys it during the Beta Weekend)
Playing with friends in different region: If you are not in the same region as the host, you will need to select their region when looking for the lobby room. See detailed guide #2 below, or check Multiplayer guide on Steam.
Looking for other players: Join our official Discord Server and use the Looking for Group channel
Communicating with other players: There is currently no in-game communication system, but you can use one of the multiplayer room in our Discord Server for voice chat.
Desynchronizations: If you and your friends no longer see the same things (player A rolls a 12 but player B sees them rolling 5 instead), the host simply needs to save and reload that save to continue playing together. See detailed guide #3 below, or check the Desync thread on Steam.
What is compatible with Multiplayer: Crown of the Magister Campaign and Custom Campaigns from the Dungeon Maker are multiplayer compatible. Custom Dungeons are not, but it is fairly easy to convert a dungeon into a campaign. See detailed guide #4 below, or check the Dungeon Maker manual on Steam (1st section after changelog).
DLC in Multiplayer: All content is synced with what DLC the host owns.
Modding: Please remove all mods before playing as modding is not supported in Multiplayer and will likely crash your game.
Save Files: All non-modded Crown of the Magister save files should be playable both in Single and Multiplayer. You can continue from your multiplayer save file in singleplayer, just like you can make you friends join your singleplayer save file.
Online Multiplayer only: There is no LAN mode available.
Final Release: Multiplayer will be fully released as a free update to all players on April 14th, when the Lost Valley DLC comes out.
Guide #1: Switching Branch on Steam
Go to your Steam Library
Right Click on Solasta: Crown of the Magister
Click on Properties
Select the BETAS tab on the left
Select multiplayerbeta in the drop down menu. If you don't see the branch, simply quit and restart Steam.
Solasta should now be downloading an update! If not, simply quit and restart Steam
Once updated, launch Solasta and check the top right corner. If it says version 1.3.25, congratulations you made it!
Guide #2a: Hosting a Multiplayer Session
Click on Multiplayer (above Settings)
By default you will arrive on the Create Game screen
Put a session name for other players to recognize your session
Put a password (case sensitive!) if you only want to play with people who you will share the password with.
Note: No password means the room is public and anyone can join.
If you put the visibility to private, your room won't appear in the lobby browser - even if people have the password. The only way to join would be to invite or join through Steam Friends.
You can lower the Max Players if you wish, but you can start with 2 players even if the max is set to 4.
Allow crossplay isn't used in this Beta Weekend (this option exists to allow players from Gamepass, Steam and GoG to play together)
Either click on New Adventure if you want to start a new campaign, or click Load Game if you want to continue an existing one
Note: If you're playing with Steam Friends, you can invite them to your session lobby directly
Starting a New Adventure
As the host, you decide which campaign and difficulty mode the group will be playing.
Once everyone is here, each player can select a character they made (or they can make one while in the room).
Once all players click ready (bottom right), you can start the game. Enjoy!
Note: Even though everyone can save at anytime, as the host you are usually expected to make save files to continue playing in the future!
Loading a Save File
If you Load Game, players will be forced to play existing characters from the save files. You can't change characters in an existing campaign.
Once everyone is here, you can assign each character to a player (or multiple characters to one player)
Once everyone is ready, you can start the game. Enjoy!
You can also kick someone from the room by clicking their name at the bottom of the screen
Guide #2b: Joining a Multiplayer Session
Click on Multiplayer
Click on JOIN GAME above the Session Name
Make sure you select the Server Region matching your host's location.
If you can't see the room you're looking for, make sure you click Refresh List from times to times (note: if the host put his session as private, it won't ever appear)
Select the session and click join game (you may need a password)
If you know the exact name of the session, you can also type it in the Session Name box at the bottom and click Join Game directly
Note: If you're playing with Steam Friends, you can directly join them through the Steam Friends menu.
Joining a New Adventure
Create the character you want to play in this campaign or select it from your existing characters.
Make sure you click on Ready
Wait for the host to launch the game!
Joining an Existing Campaign
In existing campaigns, you can't create new characters. You will have to play one of the existing characters.
You can make a request to the host to show them who you want to play
Once the host assigned the characters to the players, click ready and wait for them to launch the game!
Guide #3: Desyncs, disconnects & crashes
Solasta's Multiplayer Feature is still in beta, so you may run into a few issues during the weekend. If that happens, please report it in this Google Form to help us find and fix it! Don't worry about if you're reporting the same thing as others already have, if we see a problem showing up multiple times it's actually very helpful for us to know that it's a common issue.
Desynchronizations
In rare cases (at least we hope they're rare!), you might run into a desynchronization - which is what happens when the different players start seeing different things even though everyone is still connected to the game. For example, one player may see that their ally just missed their attack - while another see that they hit that same attack. Or that someone is chilling in front of the merchant, while the actual player is already 50 feet away opening a door.
When this happens, the host needs to make a save file and load it. There is no need to leave the session, the host can load the save file while the game is still going on.
Crashes / Disconnects
If a player suddenly crashes or gets disconnected, one of the remaining player (usually the host if they were not the one who crashed) simply needs to make a save file and then have everyone leave the session. Create a new multiplayer session by loading the file, and wait for everyone to join the lobby before continuing your adventure.
Guide #4: Converting a Custom Dungeon into a Custom Campaign
As stated above, Custom Dungeons are not playable in Multiplayer - but fear not, it's very simple to convert them into Custom Campaigns and re-upload them on Steam Workshop!
Click on Dungeon Maker
In the Campaigns Tab (selected by default), click on New Campaign at the bottom
Fill the Campaign Settings on the left
Click on the right window (Embedded Content) and scroll to the top
Under "Locations", click on Import
Select your Custom Dungeon
Click on your Custom Dungeon and click on "Set Start"
Click Save (top left), and then Close
Click on your new Campaign and click Browse Files
Add a .png file with the same name as the Campaign in the folder (which will be the thumbnail of your Custom Campaign in the Steam Workshop)
Go back to Solasta, click on your new Campaign and click Publish
Alright folks, have fun trying out Multiplayer Co-op! See you on Monday for a round of Community Feedback, and don't hesitate to drop by our Forums or our Discord Server.
We've been keeping it secret for a long time, but today's finally the day. We are announcing Online Multiplayer Co-op for Solasta - available in all existing and future campaigns, as well as custom Campaigns created in the Dungeon Maker! But that's not all, we're also announcing our next DLC: Lost Valley, coming up April 14th - a brand new level 1 - 12 adventure with branching paths and multiple endings, with 9 new subclasses and many new monsters and locations. And, of course, the free multiplayer upgrade for everyone!
Multiplayer Dev Stream March 16th
On Wednesday March 16th at 9 am PDT / 12 pm EDT / 5 pm CET, we will be hosting a Dev Stream on our official Twitch Channel. This time it will be a little different though - as we'll be showing off Online Multiplayer Co-op with a couple of veterans from our Discord Server. Make sure to drop by to check out Solasta Multiplayer a day before the Beta starts!
Solasta Multiplayer Co-op Beta Weekend starting March 17th
From Thursday March 17th at 8 am PDT / 11 am EDT / 4 pm CET to Monday March 21st 4 am PDT / 7 am EDT / 12 pm CET, a Beta Branch will be available on Steam with Online Multiplayer mode activated.
Tell your friends, boot up the game and enjoy some quality time beating up Soraks together!
Here is what you can expect from this Beta version:
Multiplayer works on the official Crown of the Magister Campaign and Custom Campaigns from the Dungeon Maker. However, Custom Dungeons (not campaigns) are not available in Multiplayer, but it is fairly easy to convert a dungeon into a campaign (we will put up a how-to guide to help newer dungeon creators).
You can play with friends all over the world, however if you do not live in the same region as the host you will need to select their region when looking for the lobby room.
All DLC content is synced with what the host owns, meaning that if they have Primal Calling all players in their game will be able to create Druids and Barbarians. However, that also means a player with Primal Calling won't be able to play a Barbarian if their host doesn't have the DLC.
There will still be some desynchronizations - which is when something goes wrong and suddenly player A and player B no longer see the same things (for instance, player A rolls a 12 but player B sees them rolling 5 instead). When this happens, the host simply needs to save and reload that save to continue playing together.
Note: Multiplayer will be fully released as a free update to all players on April 14th, when the Lost Valley DLC comes out.
Note: There is no LAN mode, Multiplayer is online only.
On the day the Multiplayer Co-op Branch goes live on Steam, we will also be posting several guides on how to switch to the Beta Branch, how to Create / Join a lobby in Multiplayer, how to convert a Custom Dungeon into a Custom Campaign, and lastly what to do in case of desyncs.
Lost Valley DLC available on April 14th
Welcome to Lost Valley, a seemingly idyllic yet isolated enclave ruled by the benevolent (?) Orenetis
Available on April 14th, the Lost Valley DLC is a brand new level 1 to 12 campaign that will take your party into the lands of the Dominion. This remote place long forgotten by all is ruled with an iron fist by the tyrant Orenetis, but the arrival of your adventurers will light a fuse under this political powder keg.
This adventure features:
A replayable non linear story, as you are the one deciding which faction to side with in order to escape the Valley
New foes to face, with iconic monsters such as Giants, Hags and Golems who will try to turn your party into mush
New subclasses, one for each of the nine existing classes in Solasta
Play Lost Valley co-op with up to 4 players when it comes out, as all official campaigns are co-op compatible!
9 New Subclasses:
The Commander, Fighters who can bolster their allies both offensively and defensively in the middle of combat.
The Hoodlum, Rogues who rely on intimidation and brute force to get what they want.
The Oath of Judgment, held by Paladins who seek to purge corruption and deliver justice wherever they go.
The Mischief Domain, granted to Clerics of Misaye who always seem blessed with good luck.
The Court Mage, elite Wizards who are masters at protecting others with their arcane powers.
The Swift Blade, silent and deadly Rangers whose purpose is to assassinate high priority targets.
The Haunted Soul, Sorcerers with symbiotic relationships to malevolent spirits, granting them horrifying magic.
The Path of Claw (Primal Calling DLC required), Barbarians with powerful dragon-like abilities.
The Circle of Balance (Primal Calling DLC required), Druids who are adept at both granting life and taking it away.
New Dungeon Maker content:
Four new environments: Jungle (outdoor), Swamp (outdoor), Valley Palace (indoor), Valley City (outdoor)
New monsters: Monsters from Lost Valley will be available to use in the Dungeon Maker
[FREE] New Quest System: Add quests to your Custom Adventures to give players specific objectives and reward them with experience and items!
[FREE] New Dialog System: Give your Custom Adventures more charm and lore by adding multi-choice dialogs with NPCs!
[FREE] New Custom Loot Table System: Create your own loot tables for chests and monsters to control what the players get!
Alright folks, this is the end for today! See you tomorrow on Twitch for the Dev Stream, or on Thursday for the Multiplayer Beta weekend! Thank you for reading, and don't hesitate to drop by our Forums or our Discord Server.
It's been some time since our last update, hasn't it! Here we've been hard at work on our next DLC, which we should hopefully able to share more about in the near future. In the meantime, we want to congratulate the winners of the Crown of the Dungeon Maker 2 Contest (held by SirMadnessTV) who've been working on some fantastic custom maps, which you will be able to download below! Oh and we also noticed that the last cat picture we've provided was in 2021. Shame! Here is one for today!
Little Mili is settling well in her new home, although she loves destroying the sofa!
Crown of the Dungeon Maker 2 Contest is over!
And congratulations to all the winners! This contest held by SirMadnessTV saw many contestants try their hands at making the best adventure they could using the Dungeon Maker tool within the limits of a 50x50 map, and boy did we get some treats.
You can find those custom maps and most of the remaining submissions on the Steam Workshop at this link! All winners, as well as the 5 participants that were blessed by the RNG gods (Marchiato, TWMB, DaveyD, Tordon & Werick93), will receive their Steam Cards prize in the coming days.
Solasta Physical Goods Update
We just heard back from our partner who's overseeing all the transport and shipping part of our Kickstarter, and here are the latest news!
EU: Both the Sourcebook and the Adventure Box have made their way to the warehouse! EU Shipping should start next week if nothing goes wrong. Also, good news for our UK backers - since the goods were purchased before 2021, the new regulations shouldn't apply to your rewards (so no additional delays if all goes well).
US: The Adventure Box made it to the warehouse, but the Sourcebook is still stuck at sea. Latest ETA we were given is end of February, so shipping will be delayed (probably to early March). Sorry about that, there is literally nothing we can do but pray to the gods of the sea :(
Alright folks, this is the end for today! Go grab those custom maps and give them a spin, they are really good! And as always, check out our Forums and our Discord Server to chat with other players
Thank you all for joining our Dev Stream yesterday, it's been a real blast chatting with you - we should definitely do this more often (as soon as we have more time)! For those who could unfortunately not be there, here is a VOD link for you: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1263120461
Additionally, thanks to a brave soul named Mastani, we have a recap of all questions & answers in text form as well! So if you don't feel like sitting through 2h of me going off tangents, here is all the juicy info in a bite-sized format.
About Tactical Adventures
Q: Are you hiring?
A: As our current studio’s philosophy is to stay relatively small, we're not hiring at the moment. Also keep in mind that we are a French studio, so you would need live in France & speak French fluently to join us^^ That said we do have English partners so you could end up working with us on Solasta or one of our future projects!
Q: Will there be future opportunity for voice acting?
A: There will be new voiced lines in the next DLC, but we work with an audio partner when it comes to Voice Acting - so we rarely pick up specific voice actors ourselves (mostly due to logistical reasons).
Q: Will you do a crossover with Amplitude to do an Endless Dungeon?
A: I don’t think so, though we never know what the future holds.
Q: Do you have any stats about the most/least popular classes/subclasses?
A: I don't believe we have those statistics. Unity is fairly limited in what we can collect :(
Q: Will the setting book that was part of the Kickstarter be available in the future?
A: As much as we would love to, we currently can't for legal reasons. That said if it ever changes in the future, we will make an announcement.
Q: Would you be open to community collaborations to improve translations?
A: We are aware of certain translation issues (in Russian for example) but due to potential complications with French laws regarding free labor we'd need to check that up first.
About Solasta's upcoming content
Q: What will be in the DLC?
A: Although we don't want to reveal too much about it for now, here is some information:
•A full new adventure in the world of Solasta. The previous DLC focused on new classes. The goal this time is to offer more content.
•The story will take place somewhere different than Crown of the Magister.
Q: When is the DLC coming out?
A: Hopefully in a few months, stay tuned to social media for the announcement.
Q: Will we be able to create quests in the dungeon maker?
A: It is something we are working on (quests, dialogues…), we hope to release it at the same time as the DLC.
Q: Will there be new races or classes in the new DLC?
A: No, there won’t be any new classes / races in the next DLC - as stated above, we focused our efforts on making a new adventure this time. That said there will be additions on the gameplay side in the character creator...
Q: Do you have plans on increasing the level cap?
A: Not for the next DLC. Just like adding new classes, adding new levels is very time consuming. We have 9 classes (all with sub classes) and it would require for each to add new effects, new features…
Q: Is there a chance we can get some more magical weapons?
A: There will be some more magical weapons coming with the DLC, but ideally we'd like to make some more if we ever get some time to do that.
Q: Can you consider adding random magic item drops from monsters?
A: Although it isn’t impossible, it’s very hard to balance between not enough and too much - remember that RNG also plays a large role in each player's experience. For the moment, we don’t plan on tweaking the main campaign (Crown of the Magister) because any small change can have cascading effects.
Q: Any information about multiplayer (possibly in the DLC)?
A: We won’t be speaking about multiplayer today. If there is anything regarding Multiplayer, it would be in an official announcement.
Q: Do you have plans to add an option to stop your travel and turn back once starting a travel and / or the option to modify our equipment when we travel?
A: For inventory, it should work, as for turning around it has been asked for a lot but would require reworking the whole system. We thought about it but as it added a risk of breaking the campaign, we preferred to avoid it.
Q: Are you still considering working on some UI QoL features, like showing attack/spell success odds when AC/stats are unlocked in bestiary?
A: That actually is more than just QoL, it would be a design choice. On tabletop you do not have percentage displayed when rolling against a goblin, if you know it has 11 AC - so adding percentage would make it more "video-gamey" (although there is nothing inherently wrong with that).
Q: Are you planning to get the custom background displayed on Inspection panel?
A: We have talked about it; I’ll have to check where it’s at.
Q: Will multi-classing be a thing?
A: No, as it would create too many complications and would be too hard for Q&A. It will stay in the domain of mods.
Q: Any update on props/weathers/FX in the DM creator?
A: No, we don’t have active weather effects in game, the ones you can see (for example in the Dark Castle) are baked into the level. It might be possible for smoke to be added as a prop, but not rain on a whole level.
Q: Are there plans to bring more accessibility to the game like larger tooltips and UI scaling?
A: Would like to but it may require us to revamp part of the system. It's not a quick addition, but it is being discussed.
Q: Is there a plan for Apple M1 optimization in the future?
A: For anything Mac related, we had partners work on it so please send us a mail with as much details and information as possible so it can be transferred to Q&A.
Q: Will there be new voice acting for the playable characters in the DLC?
A: No, as it would require the new voice actors to record all the lines of the Crown of the Magister campaign as well - and that's very expensive!
About Solasta
Recap on the Dungeon maker module and future upgrades:
The dungeon maker started as just one map with multiple rooms. To make full campaigns and avoid the players having to download all the individual maps, the campaign tool was developed to allow the linking of maps. Coming up in the future is the ability to add custom monsters, NPCs, merchants and items. The goal is to add custom dialogues and texts but the goal is to keep the tool simple to allow the maximum of people to use it. The fear of making something too complex is that too few people will use it.
Q: Is it possible to add a way to create custom classes or races?
A: Might already be possible via mods, we don't plan to create such a tool ourselves.
Q: Why do you limit to tile set in the dungeon maker instead of allowing a mix and mash of everything?
A: The short answer is: optimization. The more assets you put, the longer the map will take to load. There are mods which allow you to that but as devs we have to ensure the game is stable and doesn’t lag out for people with the minimum configuration settings.
Q: Some spell requirements are tricky; would it be possible to add notes about them?
A: The problem for us was to strike a balance between giving the players the necessary knowledge in the tutorials without overloading them with tooltips and such. Also, D&D rules hard :(
Q: Have you thought about making the game more re-playable?
A: It’s a problem with RPGs, even if you make several branching paths and endings, few players will actually replay the game to see them all. Supergiant had this issue with Pyre when starting to work on their next game (the fantastic indie that is Hades). That is why roguelite games are huge right now, they are made with replayability in mind (instead of simply encouraging it).
Q: Why was the bright blue (aqua?) hair color removed when the game left early access?
A: The easy answer: it could have been removed by mistake. The other might be that our art director did a check before 1.0 and determined that it didn’t fit with the characters (remember things can change a lot while the game is in EA)
Q: Would a native Linux version be possible (or PS/Switch/…)?
A: Adding another version to maintain is extremely consuming (and more so with the multiple Linux OS). At some point the company has to make a business call between spending time to maintain the version and working on content.
Q: Would it be possible to add more verticality in the dungeon maker tool?
A: Yes, under the form of assets, but not in a “free build” mode as past experimentations revealed that it's fairly easy to “break” the camera. It still is a thing we watch out for when designing future content.
Q: Why did you design your dragons as they are in game?
A: We didn’t want to copy paste the dragons from the monster’s manual because our license technically doesn’t include that manual so we had to design our own.
Q: Would it be possible to add a world map maker in the campaign creator?
A: We are thinking about it but we haven’t decided to work on that yet.
Q: Why did you choose Unity over Unreal?
A: Unreal is much harder to work with and it isn’t necessarily adapted for the same things. While it would be possible to do Solasta in Unreal, it may not be worth the effort.
Q: Could we have a manual dice roll feature?
A: It would require too much effort for too few people.
Q: Could you add animals like bears or horses to be NPC in the campaign?
A: We currently can’t add monsters as NPCs but we're looking at it. As for horses, I don’t think we even have them in-game so... no.
Q: Can we have feature where NPCs can turn hostile?
A: Currently no, the reason being that that NPCs aren’t monsters (they don’t even have stats as far as I know), so even if they turned hostile they wouldn’t be able to do anything. We're trying to homogenize that.
Q: Any chance the enemy AI can be updated to handle stealth better?
A: To make stealth work better (and less “cheesy”), we would have to overhaul the stealth system and that would cost us too much time… only for players to find new exploits, which would bring us back to square one. Most game with stealth can be cheesed if you look hard enough!
The Tactical Adventures crew and I wish y'all the best for 2022, may your dice always roll well. We're also going to do a little Dev Stream next week on Thursday January 13th at 9 am PST / 12 pm EST / 6 pm CET with the usual banter about Solasta, game development, fun facts while checking out some Custom Dungeons from the Steam Workshop - it's been too long since we did one of those!
There be hints for the next DLC in this image. Happy hunting.
By the way, quick news for our Kickstarter Backers! Both the Sourcebooks and the Adventure Boxes are now being transported from the factories to the EU & US warehouses, where they will be packaged and sent to each of you individually. That said, remember that in the current state of the world this can still take quite a bit of time, so we're hoping that by end of February everyone gets their goodies - but we'll keep you in the loop as soon as we have more information to share.
Alright folks, this is the end for today! See you on Jan 13th for the Dev Stream, and don't hesitate to prepare a few questions for us! Thank you for reading, and don't hesitate to drop by our Forums or our Discord Server.
Winter is fast approaching, so we hope you're all taking good care of yourself and staying warm. Although we aren't as active keeping you active with the latest Dev Update every two weeks, we've nonetheless been hard at work on things we'll hopefully soon be able to share with you. That said, this is not why we're writing this news today...
We're here to deliver you a heavy dose of fluff! Amongst other things...
Last chance to update your address!
For those of you who are expecting the Solasta Sourcebook or Adventure Box as a Kickstarter Backer. Have you moved? If so, make sure you send us your new address at http://mailto:contact@tactical-adventures.com (with your name) before December 19th at the latest! After that, the shipping will be completely locked - and the rewards will be sent to the address you put on CrowdOx.
Quick peek at the Solasta Sourcebook
The Solasta Sourcebook is finally done! And by done I don't mean just the design - I mean all the copies have been printed and are now ready to be shipped. As a reminder, we're hoping that shipping will be complete around late January / February, but due to the global pandemic situation there's a high risk that delays may occur (for instance we've already been warned that ships being stuck waiting for refueling at port is a fairly common issue).
But enough doom and gloom, we'll keep you updated with the latest information we receive if ever it comes to that. In the meantime, feast your eyes upon this! (And no sorry, although we'd love to we are still unable to sell those as stand-alone - those Rulebooks are Kickstarter exclusives)
Alright folks, this is the end for today! Make sure you send us a mail with your name & new address if you moved! And as always, check out our Forums and our Discord Server to chat with other players
It's that time of the year again. What time? TIME TO CONQUER THE WO- I mean, time for the Steam Awards. And what better Award Category than to go for the "Best Game You Suck At", because everyone loves to get screwed over by RNG and poor dice rolls. over and over again!
Jokes aside, we're super glad to have made that journey with you guys. From our Kickstarter Demo, to our Steam Early Access a little more than a year ago now, to the full 1.0 launch in May and now our 1st major DLC... It's been a trip and half!
Here's to another year of Solasta! And maybe a Steam Award if the stars align!
Dingo Doodles x Solasta
We've recently partnered with Dingo Doodles (and Felix of course!) to hear what they have to say about Solasta - and (thankfully) they think it's pretty good. In fact they even streamed the game before we ever contacted them! Turns out picking the Lucky Feat when rolling my IRL character was a good idea.
And yes, you've heard it right. We're already hard at work on our next Solasta DLC... but let's leave it at that for now, we'll have more information to share in the coming months :)
Also, huge thanks for Dingo and Felix for taking the time to make this video - if you aren't aware, they just closed their massive Kickstarter Campaign Fool's Gold: Into the Bellowing Wilds with almost 17,000 backers and $2,5M raised! And that's... a LOT of work (and usually implies very little sleep).
Steam Autumn Sales let's go!
If y'all have some friends still on the fence about getting Solasta, the game will be 50% off during the Steam Autumn Sales!