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Rocketlex
Oct 21, 2008

The Manliest Knight
in Caketown


The Curious Expedition is a game of exploration and adventure that's just about to leave Early Access on Steam. It's inspired by the romantic exploration stories of the 19th century, when brave men risked life and limb charting the unknown and archaeology was literally just stealing as much shiny stuff as you could get away with before the locals chased you out. You must lead a small band of brave, clever and often-racist explorers into the unforgiving wilds of anywhere-that-isn't-England, and return with as much loot...er..."research" as you can carry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6fW-gqQhkE

The game is perhaps most immediately comparable to Darkest Dungeon, with every move you make slowly taking away from your team's "Sanity" (a kind of all-purpose stamina resource). Let your sanity fall to zero and you can still progress, but every step you risk your teammates getting debilitating psychological hangups (or just eating each other). You can restore your sanity by resting, or by downing chocolate and booze. You can also eat coca leaves to restore your sanity, though these paradoxically drive you insane as they're restoring your sanity, so it's not recommended.

So why go on such adventures? Why, you can...

  • Become popular historical figures like Nikola Tesla, Marie Curie, and an inexplicably-psychic Harriet Tubman!
  • Grab priceless artifacts that unleash horrible curses upon the land (then book it before you have to deal with them)!
  • Fight dangerous and historically-accurate beasts from across the globe!
  • Watch games journalist Jim Sterling eat a man of the cloth!
  • Lead an army of what are essentially zombies!
  • Burn the goodwill of native peoples by blowing up mountains that get in your way!
  • Experience being overencumbered by all the mummies you've stolen from various tombs!
  • Cause dozens and dozens of forest fires!

All this...



...and so much more!

So the game's $15 on Steam and it's pretty rad.

It's been in Early Access for a long time and is just about to be released. I've been having fun with it just because of all the great stories that end up playing out. You're cutting a swath of destruction across the globe for personal gain, and it's as darkly hilarious as it sounds.

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SlightlyMad
Jun 7, 2015


Gary’s Answer
Pro tip: Dynamite magnetic mountains or you'll wander the deserts until you die of madness. I ate my donkey and my paranoid companions fled into the wilderness when all sanity was lost. The distant natives were playing drums in the darkness and the supplies were finished. One of my long gone companions appeared from the black night and grinned insanely as he dropped a few fruit on the ground. Then he was gone again. I still don't know if he was just a hallucination. I had gone past the final objective and missed it because my compass was pointing elsewhere. The fruit didn't buy me much time in the end. Marie Curie died alone on the last expedition, on the brink of victory. RIP. :(

I recommend this, some bugs still remain due to early access, but overall it's ready for playing. Good game. It's like the opening scenes of the first Indiana Jones movie in game form.

SlightlyMad
Jun 7, 2015


Gary’s Answer
One wiki page I found helpful: http://curious-expedition.wikia.com/wiki/Combat

It explains the dice combos used in combat, subject to change in case of updates. Fleeing from combat seems a viable strategy too, unless they add some sort of penalties to it. Going on a hunting safari and killing everything that moves nets you a profit though, if your chosen character and equipment allow such a playstyle. Some characters get sanity from hunting, others might not even have guns.

Some Let's Plays I've checked out on youtube:

Blitzkriegsler -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iAHSpGTIIQ&list=PL4D232HeetQOExVbNIAy21rresnjQnNu-

One F Jef (AKA Jefmajor) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dybl4Z3MAhs

The versions of the game in the Let's Plays are earlier ones, since the devs keep releasing updates every couple of weeks.

Bringing a crazy cultist along on an expedition had some interesting consequences, I didn't see THAT coming. Self-mutilation and occultism were just the beginning. Then things got really strange. Granted, I think that at the time I was tripping on some mushrooms that a local shaman had sold me, so I didn't know if I was seeing things at first.

Selling your own people to slavery isn't even the worst thing you can do to them. You can become quite a bastard, but what wouldn't an adventurer do for fame and fortune or survival? :devil:

If anybody knows: Is there a way to increase the group size somehow? What would be a good way to increase my popularity with the locals? Bribing them maybe?

Rocketlex
Oct 21, 2008

The Manliest Knight
in Caketown
Having played a bunch, here's what I've come up with.

- The best combination you can (easily) get in combat is called the "Deadly Riposte," which is two swords and two shields. It deals 5 damage AND shields you for 5, which is a significant damage reduction against even the strongest enemies and shuts out weaker enemies completely. With a couple levels, most parties can execute this even if they don't appear to be built for combat. Also note that this combination doesn't require a gun.

- The best source of cash is hunting, which produces pelts and fangs which sell for decent prices but are useless as donations. If you can't hunt, those little flutes you find lying around are also a good source of income as they sell for 20 and can stack. Be sure to raid offering sites for them.

- It seems the longer you journey without sanity, the more likely it becomes bad things will happen (almost like you go into negative-sanity). The upside is that venturing only a couple tiles outside your maximum sanity range is almost always safe, so feel free to push it a little if there's a campsite just out of reach.

- I'm still working out the exact impact mental debilities have. From what I've seen, having mental debilities increases the likelihood character will freak out if you're venturing without sanity (leading, usually, to the loss of a party member). These debilities also mean there's a (much smaller) chance something bad will happen every time you rest. As such, if you're playing smart and safe, huge stacks of debilities don't actually mean much, so down those coca leaves!

ZypherIM
Nov 8, 2010

"I want to see what she's in love with."

So far I've yet to actually finish 6 expeditions, my best chance a pair of cheetahs or some poo poo rolled all max damage dice to cut through my 5-7 shield and kill off my abomination and another dude in round 1, and then I kept forgetting that you can only run away before you click roll. Got trapped in another game, literally couldn't get out and went insane.

It seems like the best thing to remember to do is to buy every goddamn machete you can, it saves a lot more sanity than buying sanity food (except maybe whiskey and a leveled scottsman). That and buying every bead I can from a trader to give to the natives for all their poo poo seems to get me to around 4-5 pretty easily, then I crash and burn my party because I just have to go hunt down everything. Some of the harder areas it seems like you really need to know beforehand about, since you'll need like a rope or torch or some poo poo for every single little area thing.

SlightlyMad
Jun 7, 2015


Gary’s Answer
Note to self; when being tracked by pissed off natives, use bribes, not a tesla gun. The blowback on that thing took out my attack dice guy. The drat thing also misfires a lot it seems. At least it chewed up Konrad like a hot knife through butter. Served that traitor right, betraying the Empire and giving up civilization like that. Shameful, I say. No way for a white man to behave, going native and making himself a King. His methods had become unsound. Clearly insane, his command had to be terminated. :commissar:

Damnit! My trader ran off with Konrad's medal and supplies. Having a cannibal Abomination in the team might have scared him off I guess. Adios stupido. I ended up eating the Abomination myself, within sight of the pyramid no less. It was me or him. It. Whatever that thing was. At least the pack animals survived (they were starting to look delicious). The pack animals are my most trusted companions. They never steal or eat team members on expedition. And they bring home so much loot!

Selling a treasure map to the villagers after I already found the treasure made a good profit. But when those guys get angry at you, they are a menace in a fight. The savages began following me and ambushed me when I was looting one of their shrines. How dare they? Those things belong in a museum! Or the black market actually. Ivory is worth a fortune and the dynamite doesn't buy itself you know. I wonder if you can blow up hostile villages with that stuff? Nicola Tesla, it's time to do a scientific experiment! :science:

ZypherIM
Nov 8, 2010

"I want to see what she's in love with."

Ok here is a question for you guys, is there a way to pass a day in place? A geyser thingy cleaned out my air baloons and stuck me on this hill. Of course, I don't really know if the water recedes at all so I might be hosed either way (abominations are awesome).

Goatse James Bond
Mar 28, 2010


I've made a huge mistake.

The water recedes, dunno about passing though.

And I am pretty sure abominations are flagged as animals, although it's hard to be entirely sure - my water buffalo started complaining about my missionary's nightmares keeping him up at night and demanded a bribe or he'd quit.

Please enjoy your flare gun and dynamite, Mr Higgins. :)

SlightlyMad
Jun 7, 2015


Gary’s Answer
I can't experiment right now, but if clicking the calendar doesn't do anything maybe the dynamite will help? (I don't know, I just have a one-track mind. What problem doesn't dynamite solve?) :v:

Excelsiortothemax
Sep 9, 2006
I bought this game day 1 when it was released and haven't regretted it. I absolutely recommend this game if you are even remotely interested in rogue likes.

Angry Diplomat
Nov 7, 2009

Winner of the TSR Memorial Award for Excellence In Grogging
You can headbutt a tiger, 10/10 best game ever

Seems like a Scotsman and a cook are the best powerhouse follower combo in the game once you get them some levels and stock up a bit of whiskey. Between the two of them you get plenty of red and green dice so you can riposte all day against everything you encounter, murdering and eating the local wildlife and selling their pelts for booze. You can keep your sanity really high on a steady diet of whiskey and tiger steak, and have lots of funds to buy supplies with. Throw in a British soldier and you've got an unstoppable combat juggernaut team that gains craploads of sanity by drunkenly murdering and eating everything.

Basically what I'm saying is that this game owns.

SlightlyMad
Jun 7, 2015


Gary’s Answer
Aaaaggghhh! :argh: I was literally 8 hexes away from the pyramid on the final mission, with all the moonstones in hand when I died. I had found a cave tunnel shortcut right across the map to the shrine where the last moonstones were and made the trip back through the tunnel and dropped dead. FML. :suicide:

ZypherIM
Nov 8, 2010

"I want to see what she's in love with."

Yea so far my favorite two companions have to be scotsman and animal handler. Although maybe an animal handler and like 3 water buffaloes where you run from every fight would make some bank points (you'd never have to leave any loot ever).

My favorite perks so far have been reduced travel costs, +max load, and distantly the +max sanity. Between those and buying up the 2$ travelling gear (machetes, ropes) you've got a lot of distance. Chowing down on fruit when you can get it and having an emergency whiskey supply lets you basically explore everything always.

ZypherIM fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Jun 11, 2015

Rocketlex
Oct 21, 2008

The Manliest Knight
in Caketown
A lot of these mechanics really make me wonder why they didn't just call sanity "Hunger," because that's basically all it amounts to.

Apparently slitting your translator's throat in the night and eating him makes you more sane. I'm not sure what to think about that.

FairyNuff
Jan 22, 2012

I didn't realise all your gear didn't carry through so I was hosed by my 3rd mission scavenging on leaves and mangoes but never able to rest at villages.

Angry Diplomat
Nov 7, 2009

Winner of the TSR Memorial Award for Excellence In Grogging

Geokinesis posted:

I didn't realise all your gear didn't carry through so I was hosed by my 3rd mission scavenging on leaves and mangoes but never able to rest at villages.

But... it does carry through. Mangoes and meat are perishable but everything else should persist.

FairyNuff
Jan 22, 2012

Angry Diplomat posted:

But... it does carry through. Mangoes and meat are perishable but everything else should persist.

Err, I mean DID carry through.

Destroyenator
Dec 27, 2004

Don't ask me lady, I live in beer
This was really fun, it's pretty funny when you turn to cannibalism before eating your pack animals. I managed to win on around my tenth attempt. Having an animal handler and levelling her quickly really makes it easy, once you've got the income from pelts and can carry all the consumables you need for the terrain you can get on a roll. Haven't had any success with the artists though, and easel and canvas and then another slot when you do make a painting is a lot of inventory to give up for fairly low value loot and the blank canvases aren't even worth much to sell in a pinch.

I ran into a couple of issues that could be cleaned up: once I paid a shaman for healing, picked a companion to heal and he then asked for more money (which I didn't have) so I had to cancel out and get no healing and no refund. Also you can't see your companion stats when you're shopping before departure and clicking cancel there to go "back" in the menu doesn't work, you just start the mission with no supplies and go mad pretty quickly.

ZypherIM
Nov 8, 2010

"I want to see what she's in love with."

Not sure exactly what you mean by stats, but if you hover over your guys on the boat it'll pop up their info screen (this works at villages too). New build came out the other day, added some much needed things like a button to wait a turn and to abandon the map.

Haven't messed with artists yet, but canvas/easel can trade decently. Remember that villages, missions, shamans, and traders all take stuff at different rates, which can make trying to trade for stuff a lot easier.


Edit: pretty sure you could in the last build, but currently in port you can't. So I was wrong! However, I'm still not sure how useful it really is to be able to look at them at that point.

ZypherIM fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Jun 19, 2015

Destroyenator
Dec 27, 2004

Don't ask me lady, I live in beer
You can (could?) in port if you had someone offering to join but not from the shop screen.

My issue was not knowing who on my team was still alive which would impact my purchases.

pesty13480
Nov 13, 2002

Ask me about peasant etymology!
I was a little apprehensive about this title, especially with how Early into Early Access it was, but I've tinkered around with it. Decent fun, if a little low on content. I finished now with Charles Darwin, Freya Stark and Isabella Bird. If you can make it through your first and second expedition, you can usually go all the way.

Keeping everyone high on sanity seems to be the best way to go, and you can stop the really annoying debilitating traits just by staying above 50 I find. If you can find a waterfall early on, you can usually use that to explore the Hell out of everything as a safe point. In doing that, you fill up on region points and get enough promotions ready to just have the easiest time ever. I kind of like doing a French Chef, Soldier + whatever's convenient if that can be arranged. If you go around killing all the animals, you can cook their meat and stay on the upside of the sanity meter. I'm not really sure you're supposed to make it through some of the latter expeditions without using that as your exclusive strategy. And you can't use it reliably on the last expedition because the enemies are too powerful.

It just strikes me as a little funny that there is almost no way to play without completely alienating the native population. If you kill animals for food, you're going to annoy them fast. If you do that, you might as well just rob the living Hell out of all their shrines and tombs too.

I've come in 1st place now each time doing it this way, spending 200+ day on missions. You get a lot more ending faster, but too many risks. And you cna just pawn everything ifyou're taking your sweet time.

Rocketlex
Oct 21, 2008

The Manliest Knight
in Caketown

pesty13480 posted:

It just strikes me as a little funny that there is almost no way to play without completely alienating the native population. If you kill animals for food, you're going to annoy them fast. If you do that, you might as well just rob the living Hell out of all their shrines and tombs too.

If you bottom out their respect for you, they'll send warrior parties out after you. If you're strong enough, this is actually a benefit, as these warrior parties tend to be so weak that they're pretty much free loot.

This game encourages you to be The Worst Person Ever and I love it.

Destroyenator
Dec 27, 2004

Don't ask me lady, I live in beer
Had another go with a painter. A level one portrait of a warrior gets you either 10 of either fame or respect, a level three landscape (waterfall) gets you 20. Seeing as blank paper costs 10 there's no way that's viable especially considering the paintings don't stack in your inventory.

pesty13480
Nov 13, 2002

Ask me about peasant etymology!
That's an amazingly bad deal.

I wanted to experiment with art, but could just never last long enough with a properly equipped character to get some painting done.

Anthropological studies may be the way to go. 60 or so fame, and they stack.

ZypherIM
Nov 8, 2010

"I want to see what she's in love with."

So does anyone have a good suggestion for getting the character that needs 15 standing? Like pesty said, so much you have to do damages your standing so I'm not sure if it is really practical to not do them.

I guess if you had +sanity on butterfly, reduced travel cost on jungle, and some butterfly nets you could maybe net gain from traveling jungles.

No idea how to really work artists, but cultural studies aren't bad, as you're guaranteed at least 1 village per map.

Last couple updates have had some pretty nice changes, game has been shaping up pretty good recently.

Edit: messing with paintings a bit. Each type of painting stacks with itself, so you could paint 10 shrines and take them to go. Also, value goes up per level, so once you've got some levels it might not be too bad.

ZypherIM fucked around with this message at 15:03 on Aug 2, 2015

pesty13480
Nov 13, 2002

Ask me about peasant etymology!
I completely cheesed it to get the unlock. It only takes patience.

The secret is that you only need to hit the 15 standing once, so you can aim at it, get it, and then get back on track. You don't even need to win the game for it to carry over. The basic step is to find a nice place to camp and keep camping over and over again. Keep walking to and fro, then returning to camp for five days of rest at a time. You'll eventually trigger the sick native event. Heal the native for a nice boost, then do it again and again. I think you also get standing for helping the native fight if that triggers during camping as well. Don't know how true any of this still is since I last played. Keep at it for 500 days if you need to.

It's probably for the best that you can do is completely ravage and loot the first map, taking every opportunity to amass a bunch of nice junk to offload for cash to translate into medicine so you can safely cheese standing in the next map. On the second map, find a nice safe resting area and go find the temple without looting or visiting any other sites. Just find where it is and find a waterfall or arch or spring.

Nudge the Odds:

Having a translator will help, as you'll get standing if the natives "normally" visit you during a camp event.
Don't recruit anyone on the map you intend to execute this.
Don't do anything really except make a beeline for the safest camping spot.
I think if you "gift" through favourable trade you may still get a standing bonus so do that to grab an edge.
There's a starting event that helps too, delivering a letter.
Don't visit anything else.

Complete the expedition as quickly as possible and you're done.

If you're lucky, you'll get the "standing" perk after your first expedition and that will get you most of the way there anyway.

ZypherIM
Nov 8, 2010

"I want to see what she's in love with."

Worked pretty well, thanks. I didn't get any rep from a normal visit even with a translator, and anyone else doing this should watch out for the "native fending off a beast" event, as that one gives you negative rep for killing an animal. If you get the good starting rep perk and something else I have no clue what, you can start at 16 rep.

Going on a massive hunting trip is the best for fame I think. Claws are actually an excellent value for the space they take, a stack of 20 is 200 fame or cash for 1 slot.

Buckwheat Sings
Feb 9, 2005
The game had changed slightly especially when raiding temples. Probably the worst event in the game seems to be when you open a portal into black nothingness. It just doesn't stop and will swallow the whole map. Maybe even the world but my horrible crew found the pyramid in time so who knows.

Some of the unlocks for the other characters seem extremely hard like leaving every map with positive native influence or never getting into a battle. I guess if I get lucky with the right natives.

But man what a great game. Some of the maps are a bit bullshit though like the desert maps but getting mummy loot is always awesome.

Tagichatn
Jun 7, 2009

I haven't gotten those achievements either, I imagine you need to start off with the right explorer and work hard to just survive while fulfilling the conditions instead of trying to win.

Angry Diplomat
Nov 7, 2009

Winner of the TSR Memorial Award for Excellence In Grogging
Going for positive influence tends to result in a weak start but can actually be surprisingly good once you get rolling. Trade stuff to the natives at a big loss for an immediate bump in their relationship - you can just straight up gift them a couple of bottles of whiskey for a big chunk of reputation, and handing over excess treasure items to free up inventory space is a good way to make friends as well. In fact, if you often find yourself having to discard stuff because you keep finding canned food and flares and junk, consider swinging by the nearest village to give some presents whenever you're almost out of inventory slots. Giving them the pelts and/or claws of animals you kill is a great way to placate them if they get annoyed with you for hunting the local wildlife. If you have a translator or the Polyglot perk, rest in native villages to restore sanity; if you have whiskey, consider trading a bottle away for some fruits and berries in order to befriend your pals without giving up too much in the way of emergency sanity restoration.

Once you have a solid positive reputation, recruit at least one native party member (I strongly recommend a scout for the sight range bonus or a shaman for their awesome as hell magical combat die) and try to convince them to travel with you. Having really high native friendship throughout the expedition, gifting them those companion trinket things, and resting at waterfalls/springs/shady rocks with them all tend to help, or if you happen to get the overnight event with the wounded native or the native being attacked by wild animals, saving them seems pretty much guaranteed to improve your guide's opinion of you enough that they'll stick around. Natives in future expeditions seem to be more likely to trust and respect you if you have a native guide in your party already (I could be wrong, but in either case, scouts and shamans are awesome as hell so you should be trying to recruit them anyway). Make sure your relationship with the natives is still good and high when you reach the golden pyramid.

When you head into your next expedition, you should notice that the natives like you right off the bat - there seems to be a small degree of reputation carryover, and the first village you visit is likely to welcome you or even offer to share their food with you. This is not the full extent of their generosity - if you can maintain a strong friendship with the natives over multiple expeditions, you can eventually become so well-known and well-liked that you'll walk into a new village and be greeted by cheering children and gifted golden treasures by the elders. If you visit a temple and a party member is given a holy mark, keep them with you - every village you visit will go :tviv: as soon as they see it and your reputation will go through the loving roof.

The ideal way to practice this strategy is with an explorer with the Anthropology perk. Bring a translator (or Polyglot), visit every village on every map, rest overnight and write anthropological studies in each one, give presents as needed to make room for future loot in your giant backpack full of cultural awareness, rinse and repeat. If you have a decent artist and some art supplies, you can rest again and have them paint a portrait for even more fame/money. Remember that you can drop items off at missions or at your ship in order to get them out of your inventory, but still have access to them once the expedition is complete.

The respectful anthropologist playstyle lends itself well to a "slow and steady wins the race" approach to the game; you can largely avoid the most dangerous and difficult risk/reward decisions (like big monsters and the nastier shrine types) and instead rely on the mountains of fame generated by your anthropological studies, bolstered by whatever you barter from or are gifted by native tribes, to keep you ahead of your rivals. You might find that you're short on money compared to the STEAL EVERYTHING KILL EVERYTHING COOK EVERYTHING EAT EVERYTHING playstyle, but native generosity and careful play can largely mitigate that, as long as you make sure to carefully plan your travel around resting in villages to minimize your dependence on sanity-restoring consumables. You just have to know when to step back and say, "no, this is a bad gamble, I should just lead my multicultural party patrol to the next village and write more National Geographic articles."

Angry Diplomat fucked around with this message at 16:23 on Aug 24, 2016

Buckwheat Sings
Feb 9, 2005
Peaceful run is still pretty hard since you still need to get 2 moonstone and they only usually appear by temples.

One thing I wish there were more of are the status effect temples. It's so fun having a translator with bear claws and a clear mind dealing with the natives.

I just wish that there were more maps and events. Once you get used to it, even the last map isn't so bad. Stuff like scrolls of controlled teleport makes it a piece of cake.

Angry Diplomat
Nov 7, 2009

Winner of the TSR Memorial Award for Excellence In Grogging
The moonstones are tricky, yeah. By that point you can usually build up enough of a positive reputation that the natives kind of hmmm suspiciously and frown a little, but ultimately decide to let it slide when you poke around in shrines looking for moonstone keys. You can also enter shrines, look at what's in them, and then Leave Well Enough Alone by not taking or leaving anything; this does not incur a reputation loss and does not trigger the shrine's effects.

The tome page of controlled teleport is probably the best consumable item in the game by an enormous margin. I always hoard the poo poo out of those things if I come across any of them.

Angry Diplomat fucked around with this message at 14:37 on Aug 26, 2016

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Buckwheat Sings
Feb 9, 2005

Angry Diplomat posted:

The tome page of controlled teleport is probably the best consumable item in the game by an enormous margin. I always hoard the poo poo out of those things if I come across any of them.

Yeah the tome stuff doesn't seem balanced in the slightest. Controlled teleport is INSANE. Literally anywhere on the map? Free movement is AMAZING. You only have to worry about animals. Springs is great since it's instant healing. However the rest seems to be complete garbage. Making chasms is dumb and dangerous and can make the map not solvable. Floods are almost as bad. Abomination is amazing until he starts eating your own crew. It's very weird.

Being best buds with the natives does help quite a bit. Especially if you manage to pick up a local Lizard man. Fast water travel is great.

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