Solasta: Crown of the Magister Update – New Content Sneak Peek

The upcoming early access update for Solasta: Crown of the Magister will introduce some new content and several new features to Tactical Adventures’ D&D-based CRPG. It will also overhaul the game’s lighting system. And as a result, we now get this development update that shows off some new monsters and areas, and talks about the new and improved approach to illumination.

Basically, the game will now follow the official D&D rules when it comes to fighting in the dark, which should make things much easier for characters with darkvision, but some of the monsters will now become empowered without any light sources around.

Here’s more on that:

Hey there folks!

How are you all doing? Winter is starting show its nose, it’s getting pretty cold here in Paris! However, that also means we’re getting closer to the Winter Update, which we will be talking about a bit more in today’s Dev Update. But before that…

Remind me what’s in the Winter Update?

Worry not, we’ve got you. After all, it’s already been 3 weeks since we first announced the upcoming Winter Update, and not all of us picked Keen Mind during character creation (though I sure wish I did, now where did I put those damn keys again…). So here is a reminder of what you can look forward to:

• An overhaul of the Lighting System, we’re going back to the Tabletop Ruleset with no disadvantage in Dim Light and Darkvision working as its name implies.
• A new area and its set of quests, taking place after the Necromancy Main Quest
• The Scavenger System – no more lugging around all the junk you see lying around
• New combat features, such as hiding during combat and applying Poison onto your weapon
• More customization options in Character Creation, and a bit of plastic surgery on some faces
• Inventory and Shopping improvements, hand picked from your suggestions
• Optimization to the Food mechanic, so your party won’t end up starving as often

[…]

Let there be Light, again!

You talked about it, we talked about it – Solasta’s Lighting System had quite a few flaws. It wasn’t properly explained, meaning a lot of people thought their constant disadvantage was caused by bugs. It was eating into the party’s action economy, which was frustrating for some more experienced tabletop players. And to top it off it didn’t affect monsters, who happily received a free coupon for a superior darkvision upgrade graciously offered by the MAAA (Monster Association Against Adventurers).

So we went back to the drawing board, and decided that sometimes the best solution is also the simplest – we’re reverting the lighting system to the original Tabletop one. For those who may not be familiar with it, this means you will no longer suffer disadvantage to attack rolls while in Dim Light – only Perception Checks will be affected (meaning you’re still advised to have a torch out if you don’t want to run blindly into traps). Darkvision will also now allow characters to see in non-magical darkness up to a certain range, making it as if it were Dim Light for them (again, it won’t help you against traps).

As you may already imagine, this made some encounters quite a lot easier – and some monsters much less scary. In order to rectify that, monsters who specifically relied on the darkness will now get extra bonuses while they remain in the dark. So… you should definitely get some light out, because as a wise adventurer named Zork once said: “It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue”. Worry not though, we’ve added two new cantrips to help with that!

For those of you who enjoyed the previous Lighting System, we’ll consider adding it back as a difficulty setting. Some people enjoy their dungeons dark. Very Dark. Like, the Darkest of Dungeons (if you never looked at Darkest Dungeon, do yourself a favor and go check it out).