Hello there people!
New year is right around the corner, bringing us ever closer to the release of Solasta II! We hope you had a fantastic year - and if not, don’t worry - may you be blessed with better rolls in 2025. Cover yourself well and head into the next year with gusto and courage!
Kaiju doing some code review to make sure your characters don’t fall through the ground.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2975950/Solasta_II/
Community Streams VODs
If you just want to catch up on the Community Stream VODs, here are the links below!
Community Stream #01 - December 13th 2024
Community Stream #02 - December 27th 2024
Community Streams #01 & #02 Recap
As not everyone can tune into the Community Streams (or want to, some people prefer reading and that’s all good) and since you were many to ask for a recap, we’re closing the year by answering your wishes! We know this won’t prevent people from coming to ask “2024 or 2014 ruleset?” for the eighteenth time in an hour in Twitch chat, but hopefully we can cut it down to a single digit number. Here are some of the most asked questions.
Remember, Solasta II is still very much under development, meaning anything we’re saying here may be subject to change in the future, just as our wording implies.
Question: Is Solasta II still grid-based?
Yes, Solasta II is still grid-based during combat. This question was asked because some sharp-eyed viewer noticed one character ending their turn with 2 feet of movement in the trailer (instead of 5’ or 0’). This difference is due to how pathfinding works in Unreal Engine 5 - characters no longer have to go through the center of each tile they’re moving through (which made their movement look a little robotic in Solasta I), instead taking the shortest path to their destination.
This means in the current implementation, you will often end with less than 5’ of movement after moving, as you still need to end your movement on a tile of the grid. You will also still be able to see which tiles are valid before moving just like in our previous game.
Question: Will you be using the 2014 or 2024 Ruleset?
Solasta I used the SRD 5.1 ruleset - for those who don’t know what that means, it’s basically the 2014 D&D 5th edition skeleton, allowing us to use most of the systems like races / classes / subclasses / backgrounds, but with more limited content. For instance, we could use the Champion subclass for the Fighter, but none of the other archetypes like Battle Master, or Arcane Archer. Similarly, some monsters and spells are off-limit, as is the Artificer class.
The 2024 ruleset currently does not have a SRD yet, as the last of its 3 core rulebooks is not out yet (Monster Manual, scheduled for February 2025). WotC has already announced that a SRD 5.2 will be released within weeks of the Monster Manual coming out, however until then we can’t know for sure what changes will be included.
This means Solasta II is currently using the 2014 ruleset, but we’re not opposed to the idea of switching to the 2024 one once we know what it contains. Just keep in mind that implementing a new and different ruleset takes no small amount of work!
TL;DR: Currently 2014, we don’t know yet for 1.0 release!
Question: Gamepad support at release?
Yes! One of the decisions we took early on for Solasta II was that both mouse & keyboard and gamepad would be supported from the get go. This should provide a much smoother and streamlined experience for gamepad users.
Notably, this means we’re adding a direct control mode where you can just move a single character using WASD or the joystick and have the other 3 characters follow you automatically… and the ability to lower more than in Solasta I, which is something quite a few of you wanted!
Note that top down indirect control is still possible for those who prefer clicking, that’s not going away.
Question: Multiplayer at release?
Hopefully yes! Solasta II is being created with Multiplayer Co-op in mind, contrary to Solasta I where it was a post-launch addition to what was planned to be a single player game (and which caused us quite a lot of headaches, as the game was not built for that initially). This should improve things quite a bit, such as
Note that when I say “at release”, I mean the 1.0 release. The Early Access version will likely not feature Multiplayer Co-op at launch as we want to focus on getting a playable, stable single-player version first - but we intend for Multiplayer to be added during an Early Access update!
Question: Will flight be handled similarly than in Solasta I?
This question is a little more difficult to answer. As a reminder, Solasta I was a little like Minecraft (oversimplification, but you get the idea) - the world was made of 5’ cubes, making it fairly simple to select where you wanted to go, even in the air. You could select the vertical layer by scrolling up and down, then once on that plane move to the desired X & Y coordinates as if on the ground.
Solasta II is no longer simulated using cubes, and we’re also implementing direct movement for better gamepad control, which increases the complexity - however, that doesn’t mean we’re giving up! Our Programming Team is very much on the job to make it work.
So, TL;DR? It won’t be the exact same, but we’re working to have something a little similar that would allow you to move around and stay in the air.
Question: How many classes will Solasta II have?
Ideally we want to have all 12 classes available at 1.0 - however as we’re a small team of 35 we don’t know yet if we’ll be able to squeeze all of that content in… but that’s our goal for now, 12 classes each with 2 subclasses for a total of 24 archetypes when 1.0 hits the store.
At the start of Early Access we’re probably looking at 6 classes, with more coming with each update.
Question: Are we going to see some subclasses from the previous game?
Possibly, yes! Our current plan is for each class to have 1 original subclass from Solasta I, and 1 new subclass linked to the new continent of Neokos where Solasta II takes place.
Question: Multiclassing?
Ayup! That’s something we’re currently implementing. Should be available from the start of Early Access, but as always no promises.
Question: Will there be more Community Votes / Design Contests for Solasta II?
That’s the plan! If you want to be involved, make sure you follow us during Early Access because we have tons of ideas involving your participation.
Question: What’s the max level cap going to be?
Our current plan is level 4 for the start of Early Access, and level 10 for 1.0 release - with a potentially higher cap post-launch. With all 12 classes in mind for 1.0, each additional level is a large amount of work considering the number of new spells and class and subclass features involved.
Question: When and where does Solasta II take place?
Some 70 years after the events of the first game, in a faraway continent called Neokos! There will be callbacks to the first game, and the setting is still Solasta - but it will follow a different and new story.
Sorry for those who wanted to save a certain someone from the ending of Palace of Ice…
Question: Can we be evil in Solasta II?
Solasta II will feature choices and multiple endings, however it’s still a heroic journey at heart. While you won’t have to roleplay as Lawful Good Paladins as you fight for your own reasons, you likely won’t be able to be irredeemably evil either.
Question: Is the Party size still going to be 4?
Correct, in Solasta the experience is tailored for you to play a party of 4 adventurers - in particular the dialogue system where all party members participate. Increasing that number adds complexity.
However, we’ve also heard that some players would like to control larger parties during combat, so we’re planning to implement additional companions that could accompany and level up with you.
Question: Will there be a Dungeon Maker like in Solasta I?
This is something we very much want to have, but can’t give any guarantee as of yet. Due to us moving to Unreal Engine 5, we ourselves are not sure at the moment what can or can’t be done on that end. The current plan is to make sure our base game is good and solid, and once we’re confident in that, start chipping away at the Dungeon Maker.
Keep in mind that we know full well how important the Dungeon Maker is for many of you, and be assured that it’s very important for us too. We just don’t want to make any promises since we haven’t explored that area yet.
Question: Will there be modding in Solasta II?
That is something that depends on modders! Unreal Engine 5 is less easy to mod than Unity, but it’s not impossible. We have nothing against modding, but we’ll likely be too busy to work on an official modding kit at launch - but we do plan to help where we can.
Huge salute to Zappastuff by the way, long time veteran and creator of the Unfinished Business mod on Solasta I, which adds Multiclassing, Level 20 cap, unofficial localization and a plethora of additional content including new subclasses and stronger tools for the Dungeon Maker!
Question: Will you keep the same Crafting system in Solasta II?
No, there will be crafting but the system itself will be revamped. Solasta I crafting system was done a little rapidly towards the end of development, which in turn showed quite a few issues that we attempted to fix with post-launch patches. We want to avoid the same pitfalls this time around!
Question: Underwater exploration / combat?
Adding Underwater exploration & combat would require us to not only program many additional and new interactions, but also nearly double the amount of animations, sound effects and visual effects if we wanted to do it properly. This would be a tremendous amount of work, and considering we’re only 35 in the studio…
So no, no Underwater exploration or combat planned for now!
Question: Can I pre-order the game?
No, the game will be available once Early Access starts. If you give us money, you get something to play!
Question: Pineapple on Pizza?
Hell no.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2975950/Solasta_II/
Article by Tactical Myzzrym
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