Hello there folks!

We can see many of you wondering “Is it Early Access yet?”, and my answer to you is… a little more, just a little more! I promise you we will have something to announce soon, so please bear with us a little more. Oh how we wish we could simply reveal everything right now, but some things must remain behind the DM screen. Now this doesn’t mean we don’t have anything to show - let us share with you our monthly allocation of development tidbits!

Don’t look at me like that, I told you already I can’t reveal the Early Access date yet. No, not even to you.

Before we start, don't forget to wishlist Solasta II on Steam - it helps us a ton!

Live Art Stream & Giveaway - Join our Art Director to chance winning Solasta II Steam Keys & hand-drawn sketches on October 9th!

After our very surface-level delve into The Temple of Elemental Evil, we’re now back to more Solasta II content! This time we’re doing something a little different by inviting our Art Director Thierry to sketch live on stream while we discuss lore and world building with our Game Director Xavier - namely to know more about the Siklas! Strange and mysterious folks native to Neokos, what secrets do they possess? 

We will be holding giveaways during the livestream to give out the drawings as they are being made (we estimate there will be three in total), which we’ll then send via postal service in the following weeks. Please note that French shipping services unfortunately can’t deliver mail to Syria, Yemen and Haiti. We will also be giving away 3 Steam Keys of Solasta II over the course of the steam, which will give you access to both the Early Access and the 1.0 version of the game once it is released! 

Make sure to join us on October 9th - keep in mind it’s a Thursday and not a Friday this time!

• Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/tacticaladventures
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TacticalAdventures/streams

And with that out of the way, it’s time for some Development news!

Heading to town

Adventuring is a hard life, full of dangers and uncomfy nights spent in the wilderness - which is why every so often you will need to head back into town to unwind… and more importantly, sell your trinkets and baubles that you looted legally acquired along the way!

Where did we get those paintings? Errrr turns out one of the bandits we took care of was an art collector, yea sure let’s go with that.

Speaking of looting, we’ve also added a grid view to the inventory following feedback from the demo, as many of you were concerned about having to scroll endlessly to find your items once you start carrying a bit more stuff in your backpacks.

More items! MORE!

Adventurers by day, adventurers by night

Similar to Solasta I, your journey into Neokos will see you roaming through the lands in light and darkness alike! Make sure your party has at least one member with a good Perception score, you wouldn’t want to end up ambushed during your rest…

A nice clearing by day…

Can become a deadly trap by night!

Remember that Solasta II will allow you to explore its world freely, unlike our previous game where you could only travel to and from known locations. But with freedom also comes danger - take care not to go too far, lest you run into some nasty monsters you aren’t prepared for…

Say, are you sure this is the right way? I don’t believe our contact said anything about crossing the desert…

Adventurers by day, adventurers by night

Now all this is nice and beautiful, but what about the nitty gritty stuff? Well we’ve got something for you today. A new feature that we didn’t have in Solasta I, which is the ability to swap damage types! Some spells such as True Strike use this, but more importantly it’s the Sorcerer’s Transmuted Spell Metamagic’s whole shtick. Take a look!

Another thing we’re currently working on is… well, what is it you see?

These footsteps don’t look human… Be on guard, we won’t be facing bandits it seems. 

Might and Magic!

We’ve shown you a few spells in the last updates, it is only fair that we show you some class features in return. Let’s take a look at Solasta’s Paladins today, with two Channel Divinity powers: Purge Corruption, which removes a negative condition from an ally within 30’ - and Blinding Castigation, from the new Oath of Liberation, which blinds an enemy for up to 1 minute.

The battle is not yet over, keep fighting my friend!

You find the battlefield a little dark? Here, let me help you.

Thought we were going to leave you with that and nothing about spells? That’d be forgetting that our CEO’s favorite class is Wizard, and somewhere in the contract is stipulated that one must talk about spells in each and every article posted.

Look at all these spell icons, how much easier to understand they are compared to before!

An outfit for the road?

As always let us end this news with a new outfit to share - this one being not for the players but for the sand-dwelling travelers that you will come across!

That’s it for today! Keep an eye out as we will have more… much more to share soon! And see you on Thursday at 9 am PDT / 12 pm EDT / 6 pm CEST for those joining the Live Art stream giveaway!

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

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Well met adventurers!

As summer is on its last leg, we’re finally seeing cooler days ahead. Huzzah! And that also means we’re creeping ever closer to the release of the Early Access, doesn’t it? Soon my friends, soon! Let the cooks in the kitchen the time to finish preparing your meal, as we want to give you something meaty - even if it’s “just” an Early Access and not the final release! We know you want to see more, hear more, learn more about Solasta II and we can say - we want to share more about the game too. We’ll have to wait a little more for that - but know that once the floodgates open, they won’t be closing back! 

A new adventurer has joined the party! Say hello to little Sanpo, level 1 kitten now part of the Marketing Team. 

Before we start, don't forget to wishlist Solasta II on Steam - it helps us a ton!

Community Stream #12 Friday September 5th - Temple of Elemental Evil Part 2

After wandering around the hamlet for about an hour and a half, our party is now ready to face the wilderness! This Community Stream will mark our second (and likely last) stream of The Temple of Elemental Evil, one of the original inspirations for the Solasta franchise. Come and witness yours truly Myzzrym fumble around the 3.5 ruleset that he has forgotten most of and watch him lament his subpar decision-making skills as his party dies in horrible ways. 

• Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/tacticaladventures
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TacticalAdventures/streams

After this stream, we’ll go back to Community Streams that are 100% focused on Solasta II as we’ll be getting closer and closer to the release of the Early Access! 

NOT THE BEES!

What started as a fun little homebrew spell that we made in Crown of the Magister to shore up our lack of variety and number of cantrips slowly turned into one of the more beloved spells in the entire franchise (we have JoCat to blame for that). Annoying Bees is a cantrip that deals a guaranteed 1d4 piercing damage and gives the target disadvantage on Concentration Saving Throws until the start of your next turn, making it the bane of spellcasters.

Who would win? One venerable wizened wizard, or a bunch of jacked-up magical bees? (Art by JoCat)

Now forever part of the Solasta franchise, we couldn’t simply forget this silly little cantrip on the sideline. We proudly present you, Annoying Bees, Solasta II edition. 

Oh my lord they even properly follow you around for the entire round now, what a nightmare! Also, we should probably call it Annoying Bees now, seeing how many bees there are. If you’re wondering about why Joralas is charmed, he isn’t (although he wishes he were) - it was just a placeholder condition while we worked on the Concentration Saving Throw disadvantage part. 

Now, wizards aren’t the only ones eating good today. Divine spellcasters behold, a new homebrew cantrip for you as well! Holy Conduit is a melee spell that deals 1d6 radiant damage on hit… and then explodes, dealing an additional 1d4 radiant damage to all enemies within 5 feet if they fail a Constitution saving throw.

Boom goes the baddy! While this cantrip may seem powerful with its AoE effect, remember that on a single target it deals at most 1d10 damage, requires you to be in melee range, and that’s if you both succeed a spell attack roll AND they miss a Constitution Saving Throw. 

If you’re wondering why we’re making homebrew spells (especially as the Solasta franchise tries to remain faithful to the tabletop ruleset as much as possible), the reason is fairly simple - there are just not that many cantrips / spells available in the SRD in some cases, and we still want players to have the ability to choose between different options. 

Solasta… Evo.. Malmis! 

We’ve often had players asking if we would keep Verbal Components for spellcasting in Solasta II; and while we have already answered that we would, a video will probably speak (hahah, get it?) better than ever could. 

As a reminder, the way spell incantations are broken down:

• The source of the spellcaster’s magic: Divine, Arcane, etc
• The school of the spell: Evocation, Divination, etc
• The effect of the spell: Healing, Damage, Utility, etc

What do you mean, game over?

Ahhhh, we can’t forget about good ol’ Game Over when working on a video game! So far, we didn’t have anything yet on that end - so even after losing a character you could keep running around, breaking all the quests and dialogs in the process and ruining your save file in the process. This era of the wild wild west is now over! When one of your characters dies, you will be prompted to resurrect them or reload a save file.

Make sure you stock up on scrolls of Revivify if your party members have a tendency of not being too careful! 

Making a pit stop in the countryside…

As you walk the peaceful coast of Neokos, your sixth sense starts to tingle. When was the last time you saw any animal? Should the seaside be this quiet? You look around you, your companion taking note of your sudden realization. Everything seems as peaceful as could be, yet you feel like you should be on guard… What’s your passive perception again?

Here is a first glance at one of the many random encounter maps that will be in Solasta II - for they will be sorely needed, considering the amount of travel you will be doing on the world map! Whether it is fighting monsters or encountering traveling NPCs, you will soon get to see more of them on your own. 

And in bonus, steal a glance at another upcoming level that will be included in the Early Access! All the grass! 

Let’s wrap it up with some more fashion

“More armour!” the people clamored. Then more armour we shall deliver! Take a gander at this magical half plate armor, a 3D version of the studded leather armor we showed last month and some priestly garbs worn by religious figures. 

Oh and, lest we forget - we’ve also got a 2D draft of the shields we are going to start producing! 

And that’s it for today! Come back next time for more news about the game, and see you on Friday at 9 am PDT / 12 pm EDT / 6 pm CEST for those joining us on our September Community Stream.

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

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Good day to you, adventurers!

How is summer treating you so far? Are you accruing levels of exhaustion through failing the onslaught of heat-induced Constitution saving throws, or did you manage to find a place safe and hidden from the almighty Sun (CR Unknown)? We at Tactical Adventures are pursuing the development of Solasta II through what we colloquially call the “Summer Cheese” (hon hon so French) - with a schedule full of holes due to people taking a long rest with some well deserved vacations. But worry not, yours truly remains here to share new project advancements!

New project advancements AND cute animal pictures, I know some of you come for that sweet dose of serotonin.

Before we start, don't forget to wishlist Solasta II on Steam - it helps us a ton!

Community Stream #11 Friday August 8th

A new month means a new Community Stream. Join us this Friday to discuss everything Tactical Adventures and Solasta II… with a little something more! We’ll be diving back into some of Solasta’s original inspirations - starting with revisiting The Temple of Elemental Evil!

• Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/tacticaladventures
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TacticalAdventures/streams

For those who may not know this game, The Temple of Elemental Evil (or ToEE) is a D&D 3.5 game released in 2003 by Troika Games, who also made both classics Arcanum (2001) and Vampire Bloodlines (2004). It is a Turn-Based Tactical RPG with full party creation which was arguably the most faithful representation of the 3.5 ruleset at the time. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? 

Turns out I still had the game box in French lying somewhere in my house. Perception check, success!

More traps, more boom boom! 

Last month we showed you scalding hot geysers, this month we’ll show you a bit more of the traps we’re currently adding to the game - starting with magical runes that will lay in wait for greedy pillagers venturing into long forgotten ruins.

If you’re thinking “well obviously let’s not walk onto the glowing sigils”, first of all congratulations you’re probably smarter than the average adventurer who likes to touch everything that glows and eat anything that grows, but just know these magic symbols will NOT be visible to you unless you succeed on a Perception Check.

Fashion is mandatory

Many of you let us know that you enjoyed seeing the various armors we’re working on, so we’ll be sharing a few more today! Here are researches we’re doing on magical versions of the Studded Leather Armor and the Hide Armor.

We’ve also had a few questions regarding Wondrous Items and if they would appear on your characters when equipped. We are happy to say that some items such as gloves, bracers and boots will be visible on your character! Smaller items such as rings, bracelets and necklaces won’t be as they are a little too tiny to be visible most of the time so we prefer spending time working on other things instead. Headgears are also a little complex so they are not planned at the moment (as always, a smaller team means choices must be made…).

Let us see more of that brand new world…

As we’ve said in the past, Neokos is vast and varied in biomes and environments - all of which will need to be visible on the world map. We’re continuing our research on how to make your exploratory journey through the continent an interesting and visually pleasant one!

But the world map alone isn’t enough to make for an exciting adventure, so we’ve started creating smaller levels for random encounters! Did you ever wonder how they look very early on before we start adding all the visual fluff? Let me draw back the curtain for once.

Oh boy there isn’t much to see here! Are those spherical green blobs native to these lands?

Yes, every single location you’ll be walking through in the final game has started looking somewhat like this! But with just a few strokes of our talent level builders (alright I lied, more like a few days to a few weeks), all these barren levels soon become like… this!

Pretty stuff aside, what about the gameplay?

While we obviously can’t show you TOO much, we’re of course also working on adding new features on the gameplay side! For example, some of you noticed that in the Solasta II demo items wouldn’t stack properly - this is no longer a problem.

That aside, we’re also slowly adding new class features and spells to get ready for Early Access. Today we’re sharing with you the new Innate Sorcery power of the Sorcerer! Starting at level 1, they can use a Bonus Action to enter a heightened state during which their Sorcerer spell DC increases by 1 and they gain advantage on their Sorcerer spell attack rolls.

Oh and before we close this article, here are some fun facts from the survey!

• Although no longer officially in the 2024 edition, the Half-Elf ranked amongst the most popular ancestry! The Half-Orc, not so much. Also, most of you would prefer us to keep their gameplay bonuses as close as possible to the 2014 version.
• Among the classes that won’t be implemented at the start of Early Access, they were all surprisingly close in ranking, although the Warlock does eke out a win here.
• The Ready Action is your top choice among the combat features you’re looking forward to.
• Unsurprisingly, one of the things you look the most forward to in future post 1.0 launch content is a higher level cap (it’s also the hardest to do because of the implications, but hey never say never!)

And that’s it for today! Come back next time for more news about the game, and see you on Friday at 9 am PDT / 12 pm EDT / 6 pm CEST for those joining us on August’s Community Stream.

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

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Praise the sun, adventurers!

Actually scratch that, it’s been getting a little TOO hot for comfort lately. Summer do be hitting hard, and we poor developers have not yet developed resistance to fire damage (oh how we wish we did). On a more serious note, today we’re returning to the roots of our Dev Updates - just like we did on Crown of the Magister, it’s time to take a look at what we’re working on! 

Strategically positioned between the keyboard and the screen in order to stay close to the fan, 3 INT my left buttcheek.

Before we start, don't forget to wishlist Solasta II on Steam - it helps us a ton!

Community Stream #10 Friday July 11th

For those of you who want to chat directly with us, July’s Community Stream is right around the corner! Join us this Friday to discuss everything Solasta II. We’ll notably be tackling the worries some shared about using the 2024 Ruleset before moving back to talking about the development of the game itself, so don’t hesitate to come talk to us if you still have questions about that topic! And as promised, we’ll be live both on YouTube and Twitch from now on.

• Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/tacticaladventures
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TacticalAdventures/streams

It’s a trap!

While we all love a good round of fisticuffs whacking monsters without a care in the world, the battlefield may feel a little bland without environmental hazards. So… we’ve been working on implementing a few!

He hates those indeed.

Those hot, scalding water spurt will ruin your day if you stay close to them as they explode upward. And they also work in combat of course, not just during exploration - with their very own turn at the start of each round where they will show signs of pending activity. If you don’t pay attention, you might find yourself missing a fair chunk of HP when the next round comes around!

Marvel the beautiful bicolor tiles of our battle test map.

Of course, geysers are not the only traps you will run into during your travels. Good old spikes and dangerous magic runes are already making their way into our Early Access build, with of course more to come as we get there!

Beware your feetsies, kobolds very smart make bestest hidden traps, yes yes!

You stand before the Gates of Caer Mar…

And boy do they look good. We often forget about the little things, but there’s always someone behind everything you see in-game. Let’s take a closer look at some WIP environments!

Look ma! Actual playable levels! 

We’ve shared some beauty shots in the past on our socials, but you might be more interested in knowing about how it would look to someone playing the game. Here’s a sneak peek of a location which 

Ahhh, the great outdoors! With a very recognizable “gather your party” behind the tree.

Exploring the caves, please ignore the minimap being all borked for now.

And even deeper inside with the Light spell coming handy!

Dressed to kill… and to look good while doing it!

We’ve also been working on adding new armors to the game so you can look dapper while roaming the countryside searching for monsters to slay and loot to… well, loot. Adventuring would be pretty bland if you didn’t find any gold, items and other doodads to play around with, wouldn’t it?

And for those wondering if they look the same in-game, we've included that on the right!

And that’s it for today! Come back next time for more news about the game, and see you on Friday at 9 am PDT / 12 pm EDT / 6 pm CEST for those joining us on July’s Community Stream.

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

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Hey there folks,

Two weeks ago we announced that Solasta II was switching to the 2024 Ruleset! Unsurprisingly, that led to many questions being asked - with the usual whys and hows, but also a large amount of more specific ones such as “what will happen to the Half-Elf ancestry” or “How will the Fighter’s new Tactical Mind feature work”? We’re here today with answers!

Temperature too hot please just end my entire existence.

Before we start, don't forget to wishlist Solasta II on Steam - it helps us a ton!

VOD of the Community Stream

Before we jump into the Q&A, here is the VOD for those who missed the Community Stream from June 10th with our Creative, Game & Technical Directors joining me (your faithful Community Lead) to talk about the 2024 Ruleset Update. You can watch it on YouTube below!

Also remember that there’s still a Survey going on to give us your opinion on what you want to see in Solasta II - so don’t forget to fill it out if you haven’t already. And with that out of the way, let’s dive into the questions!

Q&A - 2024 Ruleset Section

What is this 2024 Ruleset Update & what does it change?

We’ve already answered that in our previous article, which you can read here: https://www.solasta-game.com/news/208-solasta-ii-is-switching-to-the-2024-ruleset. To make it simple: Think of it as a massive balance patch! 

Is it possible to have both the 2014 & 2024 Rulesets available in the settings menu?

Unfortunately that will not be possible, as explained previously there are just too many adjustments that would need to be made for Solasta II to support both Rulesets. We would rather focus all our time on making a game using one ruleset than split our attention on making two different versions (which would mean less overall content).

Why didn’t you include a 2014 vs 2024 question in the survey? You could have asked us before switching.

That’s a fair thing to ask. When we send you surveys, we want to ask questions that can have an impact on the game. Seeing which ancestry you’d like us to add first. Which class. What features are most important to you. What future content you would want us to work on.

While we do often ask our players for their input, you have to remember that we developers are also individuals with our own passions and ideas. Switching to the 2024 Ruleset is an important decision, one which we looked at for quite some time before deciding to do just that. 

It was something we wanted to do. We’ve carefully read through the new ruleset, started a new campaign on Tabletop, experimented with the options… and we found ourselves enjoying the changes it brought. Sure it’s not perfect - after all, no system ever is - but we like it! We want to bring it to life in a video game, just as we did the original 5e ruleset when we worked on Solasta: Crown of the Magister. This means including a 2014 vs 2024 question would serve very little purpose as we do not want to mislead people into thinking that we would potentially switch back to the 2014 ruleset.  

Now, we fully understand that part of the community would have preferred it if we stuck to the 2014 ruleset, and there’s nothing wrong with disliking the 2024 ruleset - as with every new edition, some people will prefer the previous one. I (Myzzrym) remember being super against 4e myself back in the 3.5 era. And even when 5e first came out, it took me years before finally giving it a fair chance (what can I say, I liked my crunchy numbers). So who knows, maybe in the future you'll play 2024 some more on Tabletop and change your mind - and if not, that’s okay too. 

Will you be adapting the full 2024 Ruleset to Solasta II?

We will try to be as faithful to the 2024 ruleset as possible (after all that’s one of the franchise’s promises to our players!), but just like in Solasta I there might be features that need to be slightly adapted to work more smoothly in a video game. 

For example, the Fighter’s new Tactical Mind feature which improves their utility outside combat would normally allow you to expend a use of Second Wind in exchange for adding 1d10 to an ability check if you were going to fail it. However, if implemented as such you would see a pop-up going “Do you want to use Tactical Mind?” every time you fail an ability check, slowing down the game significantly (and making it feel like you’re browsing the Internet in the early 2000s). 

Instead, we changed it to give you +1d10 to your ability checks for the next minute - which is more powerful as you can use it for multiple ability checks, but also less flexible as you need to proactively use it and the use of Second Wind isn’t refunded if you fail the roll. Hurray for less pop-ups! 

Will you update Solasta: Crown of the Magister to the 2024 Ruleset as well?

Nope! We don’t intend to change what already exists, the development on Solasta: Crown of the Magister (and its DLCs) is over so it will remain under the 2014 Ruleset. 

Will you update the Solasta II Demo to the 2024 Ruleset?

Updating the Demo to the new Ruleset would take a fairly significant amount of time, which would in turn delay the release of the game. As you can imagine, that’s something we don’t really want - we’re focusing on working on the Early Access! 

Isn’t the Demo going to be different from the actual game then? 

A little bit, yes! Keep in mind that there is no character creation nor leveling up in the demo, and you’re playing a pre-made party of low level adventurers. The differences between 2024 & 2014 rulesets are thus fairly limited there (even if they do exist!), and the demo remains a good representation of what Solasta II aims to be - a Tactical RPG using a familiar Tabletop ruleset where you play as a party of 4 adventurers.

Any chance of adding the Artificer?

Quick little reminder, we’re using the SRD not the full D&D ruleset! That means there are quite a large number of things that we can’t add to Solasta II (unless WotC grants us a special license). The Artificer class is one of them, but another example that we’ve seen being asked is the Aasimar ancestry. 

Will the 2024 Ruleset Update delay the release of the Early Access?

For now we’re still aiming to release our Early Access in 2025. Keep your eyes peeled for future announcements later this year! 

Will the Half-Elf & Half-Orc still be playable in Solasta II?

That will depend on our players’ answers in the survey! We won’t be able to include all the available SRD ancestries, so we want to know which ones you prefer to see if we can work on those first. Just keep in mind that some are harder to implement than others (Dragonborns are much more complex to add than Gnomes)!

Q&A - Other Questions

Speaking of Demo, do the Demo protagonists survive?

Well their situation didn’t look too good now, did it? Remember that the Demo is a standalone adventure featuring an alternate reality of the party you would be playing in the actual game. It’s not like Solasta I where the Ruins of Telema Demo featured a totally different party of adventurers (that you actually end up meeting in the Palace of Ice DLC). 

How will the World Map work in Solasta II?

Unlike in Solasta I, you will be able to travel and explore tiles the old fashioned way! We are giving the World Map more love in this new opus, as events won’t be limited to random combat encounters anymore. Look forward to lore events, skill checks, friendly NPCs and wandering merchants on top of the usual monsters attempting to gobble you whole!

This new hexcrawl worldmap is also more modular, which means that if & when we finally manage to release a Dungeon Maker mode, you should no longer be limited to using the official campaign World Map and instead would be able to make your own by swapping tiles around. 

Will you have player-submitted Community Quests?

This is something we considered back in Solasta I and we came to the conclusion that it is simply too complex to do, as quests are fairly long and difficult to implement even if you’re familiar with our tools already - so trying to make a quest without knowing the possibilities and limitations of the game engine make it even more of a headache. 

However, as our World Map develops over the Early Access, we intend to host Community Contests to add player-submitted events to let your creativity shine through your imagination and writing. Stay tuned!

Will you have Custom Backgrounds in Character Creation?

That would need to be discussed, but it might conflict with how Backgrounds could influence dialog options. But that would be cool, yea!

Will we see Soraks in Solasta II?

Haven’t you had enough Soraks already? Here, have a Basilisk instead.

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

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