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Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund
So there hasn't been a thread yet, and I thought I'd make one, both because I'm struggling a bit with the game and in need of tips, but also because it's frankly a real gem of an indie game and you should check it out!

v1.0 TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5rfiQJTVqw



The Curious Expedition is an exploration-themed indie game with RPG, adventure and deck building elements, that pits a famous explorator of your choice against four others controlled by the AI, challenging the player to complete six expeditions into uncharted lands, gaining more fame points than the opposition in order to be the most famous at the end of the sixth expedition to win the game.

The graphics are bit/pixel-worship, but really charming, and the game's writing is very good, evoking cosmic horror, classic adventure movies( particularly Indiana Jones) and Fortifying Amounts of Pluck and Derring-Do, what!

THE BASICS



You have your pick of three famous explorers to begin with, but you very quickly unlock more by gaining achievements. Many are relatively simple( complete a single expedition, confront a tiger, recruit three natives etc.) but some are really gnarly( find and use the Necronomicon, complete three expeditions in good standing with the natives and for one you have to "abandon everything", whatever that means).

There's a wealth of explorer options, with many really interesting characters from the real world, like Frederick Selous, Marcus Garvey, Charles Darwin, Dion Fortune, Harriet Tubman, H.P. Lovecraft, Nikola Tesla and so on. Each have their own 'Trait' which makes some aspect of the game easier. These perks are also gained by completing expeditions, one per expedition.

Equipment is a fairly important side of the game, and you'll want, at minimum, to bring something that restores sanity( more on that in a bit), some torches, water( if in a desert), and preferably also rope, climbing gear, dynamite, weapons and shovels.

Here we see the top-down map, on which you'll be spending most of your time:



You arrive by boat, and from thereon you have to make your way in-land, each hex you move costs sanity. As long as you are above zero in sanity, nothing happens and you can move freely. If it hits zero, every single hex you move risks generating a negative event. Negative events are, at best, dropping some of your super important fame-giving loot, and at worst your unassuming nun follower deciding to brain and eat your native scout. Avoid it at any cost.

On sanity management:
The most reliable way to restore your sanity is through Chocolate Rations. While not the most abundant or powerful, there are no negatives to it. Mangos are also good with no negative effects from eating, but will decay and disappear from your inventory after a few days, and can't be taken between expeditions. Cooked meat is also a good choice, but it requires you kill the local wildlife, and a Cook (preferably high level). Whiskey will restore more sanity than chocolate or mango, but has a chance to make one of your party members an alcoholic (which isn't the worst ailment to have). Coca Leaves, on the other hand, should be a last resort, as they have a high chance of making your party members go insane, albeit the less harmful ways of coming to suffer on an expedition. Drums can be used to restore your sanity by a little bit, but will make you more likely to be attacked by wildlife for a period of time.

The expedition can end in several ways, listed in order of desirability:

Death
Whether gored to death by a rabid gorilla pack, eaten by a velociraptor, starving/insanity from sanity loss, or being swallowed by a bottomless chasm, this is it for you. The game only has one game mode, which is iron man. If you save, you quit until you start up the expedition again, and if you die, the entire game ends and you cannot have a go at the remainder of the game.

Bottling Out
You can end the expedition by your own decision, either by travelling back to your ship and casting off, or by inflating a hot air balloon and instantly getting out of whatever predicament you were in, including zero sanity. However, there's very little space on the balloon, and you will have to drop important equipment or critical loot. However, either way out means you still get fame, funds for the stuff you bring out and a go at winning the game by completing the remaining expeditions.

THE GOLDEN PYRAMID
This is the poo poo! There's a golden pyramid hidden somewhere on the level, and finding it, and deciding to enter it( you can totally keep exploring if you have the sanity and pluck), will end the expedition with a fame bonus, and all your gear, loot and party intact. On advanced difficulty, as well as the final expedition on the easy setting, the pyramid will be buried deep in the ground, and you have to find and activate three golden seals to excavate it!

You have an inaccurate compass passing in the general direction of the pyramid to help you, but tips from natives and a certain perk will make it more accurate, and the presence of magnetic mountains can render it useless.

PARTY, SITES AND EVENTS

Most explorers start with a donkey and two party members. These range from native shaman, warriors, scouts and animal handlers to cooks, scottish gentlemen soldiers and shapechanging cthulhoid cultists! Each start with one or two 'dice', that do various things. Generally, you'll want at least one of each, of: Attack, Defense, Support and Magic. Your explorer brings two dice to the table as well, so make sure your party complements each other.

Dice are used in events, which happen even more often than combat, and combat itself. For instance, succesfully stealing an idol from natives in the black of night requires a defense die landing on a specific face( the hand), and you can't climb a sheer rock face without either expending climbing equipment or rolling attack dice.

On occation, you'll have to fight. Ancient dinosaurs, hyenas, and mythical beasts all stalk your poo poo, and sometimes force you to fight via an aggro-and-chase system. In combat, you roll the dice you have, and combine the results to form a variety of combat actions, either to get defense against enemy attack, M:tG-style, or to do damage to the opponent, or special results like stunning headbutts taking dice from the opposition or 'ripper leap', causing them to bleed over time. If your explorer and party is specced for it, hunting beasts and taking their pelts/talons for funds and flesh for sanity is a viable strategy.

Purchasing or finding weapons also gives you special weapon dice that allow their own combos, as does using dynamite in the combat, though this is risky to say the least.

Finding sites is how you get from A to B, so to speak. The golden pyramid gets you fame in itself( as well as a time-fame bonus for finding it first and quickly), but not nearly enough. So, you have to dig up ancient tombs, sneak through caves, and snatch golden idols from precarious trapped plinths, because of course you do <3

Native villages, shaman huts and secluded traders offer a variety of much-needed items, and you can find various forms of currency like animal teeth or glass beads that allow you to get better deals( having a diplomat or translator with the haggler trait is useful too). There are also 'stone circles' which allow you to determine where other locations are, at a cost to native standing. I could go over all the locations, but it's really a lot of fun finding out for yourself what works and how.

On Party and Game Strategies

Angry Diplomat posted:


:discourse: British Empire: Kill everything, eat everything, steal everything, sell everything.

This isn't my favourite, but it's simple, direct, and reliable, and it can be fun to be an unequivocal Bad Guy sometimes. As IAmUnaware mentioned above, Cook + British Soldier is indeed an excellent combo if you intend to just murder every animal you ever meet; they will be your go-to team for this playstyle, and you will want to level them both up to max (prioritize the cook unless you're having trouble getting through fights without taking lots of damage). Use the money from all those fangs and pelts to buy a gun suitable for your explorer - the hunting rifle is very powerful when used by brainy parties with lots of blue dice, whereas the shotgun is rad for more physically-oriented parties with plenty of red and green dice (such as, say, an upgraded cook and soldier). The pistol tends to be a little underwhelming in my experience, but it's alright if you can spare the inventory slot.

You'll want lots of medical supplies, you'll want a good pack animal, and you'll absolutely want a good gun (or possibly two, if you mean to go big game hunting in a prehistoric valley). Aside from that, bring a modest quantity of exploration gear (machetes, ropes, shovels, torches, etc), and upgrade your pack animal when you get the chance so that you can carry more dead animals and stolen treasures home to convert into fame and wealth. You will almost certainly end up fighting the natives; this is fine, you're playing as a piece of poo poo rear end in a top hat imperialist invader anyway. They can be relatively tough but a leveled-up Cook and British Soldier with a good gun will absolutely shred almost any encounter if you're using your dice well. Alternatively, you can sometimes get away with strategically gifting (i.e. trading in exchange for nothing) excess fangs/supplies/etc to them to keep them from getting too violently angry, while simultaneously freeing up more space for valuable hunting trophies and stolen cultural artifacts.

I recommend trying this playstyle with Frederick Courtney Selous. Dude starts with a cook and a hunting rifle, and he's got combat dice of his own, so you can get right to hunting - and once you pick up a British Soldier you're golden. Selous' only downside is that he only has one (non-upgraded) blue die, meaning he can't land those awesome nuclear headshots the hunting rifle is capable of - you need two blue dice for those, so you might benefit from a smart companion or the explorer perk that gives you an additional mental die. If you can get your hands on a shotgun, Selous can and will violently wreck poo poo with it.


:beerpal: Spring Break, With Cannibalism: Drink the pain away.

This is a very simple strategy - start with or recruit a Scottish Soldier, promote him to max level, and always buy up as much whiskey as you can reasonably afford. You'll want a fairly well-rounded team and inventory to adapt to whatever you encounter, but always have lots of sweet sweet booze, and don't use it until your sanity is getting pretty low - a max-level Scottish soldier will let you restore a ridiculous amount of sanity with a single bottle. Your entire party will probably end up being alcoholics, but they'll all be too drunk to care anyway.

Don't run out of whiskey.

Charles Darwin is a pretty good fit for this playstyle, since he starts with a Scottish soldier and a shotgun to boot. He's an adaptable explorer with a decent starting loadout, so you can get right to drinking, partying, and introducing the concept of evolution without any further effort.


:shobon::hf::eng101: Mr. Rogers' Expedition: As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, and then get eaten by tigers.

My personal favourite. Not necessarily a dedicated pacifist playstyle, but just pacifistic enough to provide an intriguing spin on things while remaining viable (if a little more challenging) - the idea is to become famous not by exploiting and robbing the natives, but by befriending and living among them. You absolutely require the Anthropology perk to make this work, so I recommend choosing Johan Huizinga if you want to try this playstyle out. You're also likely to want a Persian Translator - conveniently, Huizinga starts with one of those as well - and you unequivocally must snap up the Polyglot perk if it's offered to you, as doing so will completely eliminate the relationship penalty for continuing to impose on your hosts' hospitality, allowing you to play at whatever cautious pace you please and still have a decent chance of being the most famous explorer.

You're going to want to heavily prioritize visiting native villages over literally everything else. If at all possible, make sure to visit every village on every map you explore, and rest in each of them overnight. Do an anthropological study of every village, and if you have an artist with you (Johan Huizinga starts with one), have them paint a portrait of one of your hosts as well. All of your studies and paintings will go straight to the museum when you get home - together, they're worth a ridiculous amount of fame in the later maps that have numerous villages to visit. Don't be afraid to return to a village you've already visited to crash on their couch for a while if your sanity is getting dangerously low. If you're starting to strain your relationship with your friends, trading to them at a loss is a quick way to mollify them; I like to combine this strategy with the above "have a lot of whiskey and be drunk and Scottish all the time" strategy for near-limitless sanity and the ability to quickly make friends by sharing my booze with everybody.

Recruiting natives is also not a bad idea if you have space for more companions, as future villages seem to be more likely to welcome you if you have native friends with you; maintaining a great relationship with the locals also seems to make native guides more likely to stick around permanently after the end of the level. I personally recommend getting a shaman for healing and tripping balls on mushrooms, and/or a scout for the amazingly useful increased vision range, but feel free to recruit whoever best suits your preferences (or just bring anyone who's willing to come with you). You might also pick up a better pack animal this way (replacing Huizinga's donkey with a water buffalo is a nice upgrade).

Once you've built up a great relationship with the natives, you'll notice that new villages start welcoming you warmly and sharing their food with you, and eventually that you're mobbed by excited children and showered with gifts when you arrive. These can range from berries and fruits to valuable instruments and even the odd bit of treasure. Having a good relationship with the natives also alters the outcome of many events - for instance, the "nobody slept well because we heard drums in the night" wilderness camping event is replaced with a "some of our native friends came out of the darkness and sat by the fire with us, we had a party, it was great" event that boosts sanity instead of diminishing it. Finally, maintaining a really good native relationship actually becomes easier and easier as time goes by - if you repeatedly finish expeditions with a high relationship, the following expeditions will start you with a boosted reputation. Towards the end of the game it's not uncommon to walk into the first village on the map and instantly be mobbed by cheering children because your reputation precedes you. :)

It's okay to do some light hunting or loot the occasional shrine as long as you're not being enough of an rear end in a top hat about it to seriously upset your friends, but avoid loving with the offerings next to the big stone heads, as doing so can trigger an encounter with upset natives that will either significantly deplete your supplies or severely damage your relationship with them. If some guy comes to you between expeditions and asks you to steal an idol or reach the pyramid within 80 days, tell him to go gently caress himself - it's not worth accepting those quests at all. Definitely accept the "escort my native wife home" quest if it's offered, as the natives are happy to learn that she's leaving to reunite with her beloved, and will look favourably on you for helping her do so. :unsmith:

The two biggest challenges of this playstyle are keeping your cash supply steady and staying sane while exploring the larger, harsher map types. You can bolster your money by selling most of the valuables that come into your possession; since you'll need to dedicate space to your writings and paintings, it's not a bad idea to barter spare, low-priority supplies to natives or traders in exchange for valuables that you can sell when you return home. Buying binoculars and hiring a native scout can help enormously with the travel issues, as they let you quickly assess your surroundings, prioritize points of interest, and plan a route from village to village without nearly as much trudging around.



LINKS

Steam Store Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/358130/

Wiki, outdated but offers some worthwhile perspective and strategies: http://curious-expedition.wikia.com/wiki/Curious_Expedition_Wiki

Home Page: http://www.curious-expedition.com/



That's it! I could probably go on, but I'm tired and there's really a lot to this game, I don't feel like writing a novel. I don't pretend to be an expert, but I've struggled with it a couple of weeks, if you're stumped please :justpost: and I'll try to help!

Tias fucked around with this message at 14:29 on Jan 25, 2017

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TastyLemonDrops
Aug 6, 2008

you said "drop kick" fyi
This game was easily in my top ten of last year, and they've added a lot since I stopped playing. Time to get back into it!

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund

TastyLemonDrops posted:

This game was easily in my top ten of last year, and they've added a lot since I stopped playing. Time to get back into it!

I've only just started, but as I understand it they're still adding content, so I guess we can expect even more :3:

SpaceGoatFarts
Jan 5, 2010

sic transit gloria mundi


Nap Ghost
The game is cute and fun. I've finally beaten it a few months ago, finishing the last expedition with a pet dino and a dino mount.

This is basically a roguelike and the more you play it the better you get at mitigating the risks and randomness. A few basic tips to help you on your first expeditions:

- to explore a location you just need to be on the tile next to it
- move your party in short trips. sometimes as you explore new lands, easier path become available and you want to be able to change your course
- explosives can create huge shortcuts when used right
- try to avoid thick jungle as much as possible as it will greatly drain your sanity if you don't have the correct gear (8 sanity per tile!) same with swamp, hills and desert(10-15 sanity). Grasslands and light jungle only cost 1-2 sanity per move
- losing is fun and so is watching your party slowly becoming insane or ambushed by angry natives or facing cosmic doom
- that said, if you want to beat the game, cleansing your party members from their ailments at the shaman hut is a good idea
- there is 10 free water in your ship if you come across a desert level

One aspect of the game I haven't tried so far and that I want to explore is having a party member being an artists painting the interesting landmarks he comes across. Also having more pet animals to fight for me

SpaceGoatFarts fucked around with this message at 10:51 on Jan 9, 2017

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



I was considering buying this game during the winter sale but passed because it was just a bit too pricey.

But now that I hear you can have a pet dinosaur this possibly changes things

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund

SpaceGoatFarts posted:

The game is cute and fun. I've finally beaten it a few months ago, finishing the last expedition with a pet dino and a dino mount.

This is basically a roguelike and the more you play it the better you get at mitigating the risks and randomness. A few basic tips to help you on your first expeditions:

- to explore a location you just need to be on the tile next to it
- move your party in short trips. sometimes as you explore new lands, easier path become available and you want to be able to change your course
- explosives can create huge shortcuts when used right
- try to avoid thick jungle as much as possible as it will greatly drain your sanity if you don't have the correct gear (8 sanity per tile!) same with swamp, hills and desert(10-15 sanity). Grasslands and light jungle only cost 1-2 sanity per move
- losing is fun and so is watching your party slowly becoming insane or ambushed by angry natives or facing cosmic doom
- that said, if you want to beat the game, cleansing your party members from their ailments at the shaman hut is a good idea

This is extremely important, thanks for bringing it up!

quote:

- there is 10 free water in your ship if you come across a desert level

There's unlimited water, isn't there? Or is that a difficulty setting variable? I think you get 10 for each time you select the option, though it must be noted that 20 water fills up one carrying slot and so limiting oneself is tempting, particularly as there can be found oases and springs inland.

quote:

One aspect of the game I haven't tried so far and that I want to explore is having a party member being an artists painting the interesting landmarks he comes across. Also having more pet animals to fight for me

You can even have an anthropology perk now, that let's you write condescending theses on the locals for later publishing fame :pseudo:


CharlieFoxtrot posted:

I was considering buying this game during the winter sale but passed because it was just a bit too pricey.

But now that I hear you can have a pet dinosaur this possibly changes things

Oh man, the pet dinosaurs you can have <3 You can find a raptor egg and mother it till it becomes a murderous mount, or buy various kind of burden-carrying dinos from the lizardmen locals in the final level, just to take some examples!

SpaceGoatFarts
Jan 5, 2010

sic transit gloria mundi


Nap Ghost

Tias posted:

There's unlimited water, isn't there? Or is that a difficulty setting variable? I think you get 10 for each time you select the option, though it must be noted that 20 water fills up one carrying slot and so limiting oneself is tempting, particularly as there can be found oases and springs inland.

Possibly. Actually I never tried a desert level, I just saw there was water in my ship.


Tias posted:

Oh man, the pet dinosaurs you can have <3 You can find a raptor egg and mother it till it becomes a murderous mount, or buy various kind of burden-carrying dinos from the lizardmen locals in the final level, just to take some examples!

There also a pet giant turtle and Tintin and Snowy !

Fat Samurai
Feb 16, 2011

To go quickly is foolish. To go slowly is prudent. Not to go; that is wisdom.

SpaceGoatFarts posted:

There also a pet giant turtle and Tintin and Snowy !

I've made Tintin an Alcoholic :negative:

TastyLemonDrops
Aug 6, 2008

you said "drop kick" fyi
Next stop cannibalism :gibs:

Buckwheat Sings
Feb 9, 2005
Is hunting/cooking and being a general rear end in a top hat still overpowered as all hell? I beat the game several times by just getting a bunch of blue support dice and stacking explosives and just wiping out everything in my way. It makes short work of anything aside from Elephants. Also if you have explosives, attack slavers. But trade with them first for all the guns they have, you can get your stuff back after wiping them out!

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund

Buckwheat Sings posted:

Is hunting/cooking and being a general rear end in a top hat still overpowered as all hell? I beat the game several times by just getting a bunch of blue support dice and stacking explosives and just wiping out everything in my way. It makes short work of anything aside from Elephants. Also if you have explosives, attack slavers. But trade with them first for all the guns they have, you can get your stuff back after wiping them out!

Cooking is poo poo, but if you can hold onto a cook for long enough for them to get to lvl 3/4 it's decent. I've only just gotten into the game, mind you, but as I understand combat has been made harder than it used to be.

IAmUnaware
Jan 31, 2012
I just finished my last platinum frame a couple of hours ago, and here's what I learned:

- The cook is definitely the best party member on Certain Death. If you're doing well enough to get to the pyramid and get home, you're almost certainly scoring enough to win the game. Survival is paramount, which means sanity is paramount, and the cook will get you far more sanity than any other party member. (Sanity is less important on the Expedition difficulty because each expedition is only about half as long, so the relative value of the score-increasing party members is higher, and I'd say Tim Timster is probably best there.) The British soldier will provide a lot of sanity too, and might improve your combat ability more than the cook depending on your other dice. Conveniently, they work extremely well together.
- Drums are also great. Always get drums. Carry two drums if you have the inventory space. Hell, carry five. Drum is the second best party member.
- It's important to learn what the villagers overvalue (and undervalue). Machetes are great for saving sanity, but they're also great for trading to the natives at a 300% markup. Other things that are more valuable than they appear include fireworks, whiskey, and of course colorful marbles. Missionaries similarly overvalue canned food and whiskey.
- Don't be afraid to sometimes sell high-fame items. It can be dangerous to have less than ~150 funds for preparation, so sometimes it's better to sell that golden eggplant if the last expedition wasn't forthcoming with the tusks and jewels. It doesn't matter how much fame you have if you die in some godforsaken jungle because you ran out of chocolate or something.
- Always grab water from the ship at the beginning of the expedition. You can just throw it away if you need the space, but even on a jungle map you might encounter a climate change shrine and end up traveling across some desert tiles.
- The main reason sanity matters is because it's important to keep your crew functional and in good shape, which means loyalty matters too. The loyalty-sapping afflictions, especially alcoholism, are dangerous. Avoid drinking whiskey unless you have to or you have a way to purge the alcoholism (a nearby shaman hut or a green mushroom).
- A lot of items that are dangerous because of their effects on your party members are harmless when used on your character. As far as I know your character can use red mushrooms with no chance of ill effect, and coca leaves and whiskey can't apply negative effects if you have no other human party members (this isn't an ideal situation, but it is going to come up occasionally).
- It's important to be able to reasonably deal at least 12-14 damage in a round of combat pretty early on. Try to set up your dice so that you can combo them off in ways that get you 2 or more damage per die spent. Fighting animals often have pretty good average damage per die. If you have the opportunity to pick up the pretty rare battle tiger from a beastmaster, it can really put out a lot of damage.
- Speaking of dice combos, mind (blue) + eye (blue) + hand (green) will stun every enemy in an encounter (which locks one of their dice for the turn). This locks hyenas out of encounters entirely, and can be very powerful against human enemies who often rely on dice combos to deal damage.

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund
loving chasms, how do they work? :( I can't always seem to guess the direction of the outbreak, same goes for reality tears, lava flows etc. and then I die or lose all my poo poo or party members.

Angry Diplomat
Nov 7, 2009

Winner of the TSR Memorial Award for Excellence In Grogging
Chasms and void tears are loving horrible and I usually just skip a shrine entirely (or go inside, peek at the contents, and leave without touching anything if I don't see one of those key stones needed to open the later pyramids) if I see that it's one of those. Chasms can spread surprisingly far, and as far as I'm aware void never stops spreading and will happily consume the entire map given enough time.

If you decide to muck with a shrine, it's best to first situate yourself such that you have a straight shot away from the shrine over flat ground. To ensure you don't die, you need to proceed directly away from the shrine as rapidly as possible once its flood/chasm/void triggers (if you see the stars and whatnot indicating a void shrine, just straight up Don't gently caress With It until you've finished your other business on the expedition, or possibly at all). I'm not sure if riding an animal helps, but it's a good idea to do that regardless unless you really need the extra cargo space, since it saves you a lot of sanity in the long run.

I'll also throw out my insights into a few effective and/or interesting playstyles.


:discourse: British Empire: Kill everything, eat everything, steal everything, sell everything.

This isn't my favourite, but it's simple, direct, and reliable, and it can be fun to be an unequivocal Bad Guy sometimes. As IAmUnaware mentioned above, Cook + British Soldier is indeed an excellent combo if you intend to just murder every animal you ever meet; they will be your go-to team for this playstyle, and you will want to level them both up to max (prioritize the cook unless you're having trouble getting through fights without taking lots of damage). Use the money from all those fangs and pelts to buy a gun suitable for your explorer - the hunting rifle is very powerful when used by brainy parties with lots of blue dice, whereas the shotgun is rad for more physically-oriented parties with plenty of red and green dice (such as, say, an upgraded cook and soldier). The pistol tends to be a little underwhelming in my experience, but it's alright if you can spare the inventory slot.

You'll want lots of medical supplies, you'll want a good pack animal, and you'll absolutely want a good gun (or possibly two, if you mean to go big game hunting in a prehistoric valley). Aside from that, bring a modest quantity of exploration gear (machetes, ropes, shovels, torches, etc), and upgrade your pack animal when you get the chance so that you can carry more dead animals and stolen treasures home to convert into fame and wealth. You will almost certainly end up fighting the natives; this is fine, you're playing as a piece of poo poo rear end in a top hat imperialist invader anyway. They can be relatively tough but a leveled-up Cook and British Soldier with a good gun will absolutely shred almost any encounter if you're using your dice well. Alternatively, you can sometimes get away with strategically gifting (i.e. trading in exchange for nothing) excess fangs/supplies/etc to them to keep them from getting too violently angry, while simultaneously freeing up more space for valuable hunting trophies and stolen cultural artifacts.

I recommend trying this playstyle with Frederick Courtney Selous. Dude starts with a cook and a hunting rifle, and he's got combat dice of his own, so you can get right to hunting - and once you pick up a British Soldier you're golden. Selous' only downside is that he only has one (non-upgraded) blue die, meaning he can't land those awesome nuclear headshots the hunting rifle is capable of - you need two blue dice for those, so you might benefit from a smart companion or the explorer perk that gives you an additional mental die. If you can get your hands on a shotgun, Selous can and will violently wreck poo poo with it.


:beerpal: Spring Break, With Cannibalism: Drink the pain away.

This is a very simple strategy - start with or recruit a Scottish Soldier, promote him to max level, and always buy up as much whiskey as you can reasonably afford. You'll want a fairly well-rounded team and inventory to adapt to whatever you encounter, but always have lots of sweet sweet booze, and don't use it until your sanity is getting pretty low - a max-level Scottish soldier will let you restore a ridiculous amount of sanity with a single bottle. Your entire party will probably end up being alcoholics, but they'll all be too drunk to care anyway.

Don't run out of whiskey.

Charles Darwin is a pretty good fit for this playstyle, since he starts with a Scottish soldier and a shotgun to boot. He's an adaptable explorer with a decent starting loadout, so you can get right to drinking, partying, and introducing the concept of evolution without any further effort.


:shobon::hf::eng101: Mr. Rogers' Expedition: As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, and then get eaten by tigers.

My personal favourite. Not necessarily a dedicated pacifist playstyle, but just pacifistic enough to provide an intriguing spin on things while remaining viable (if a little more challenging) - the idea is to become famous not by exploiting and robbing the natives, but by befriending and living among them. You absolutely require the Anthropology perk to make this work, so I recommend choosing Johan Huizinga if you want to try this playstyle out. You're also likely to want a Persian Translator - conveniently, Huizinga starts with one of those as well - and you unequivocally must snap up the Polyglot perk if it's offered to you, as doing so will completely eliminate the relationship penalty for continuing to impose on your hosts' hospitality, allowing you to play at whatever cautious pace you please and still have a decent chance of being the most famous explorer.

You're going to want to heavily prioritize visiting native villages over literally everything else. If at all possible, make sure to visit every village on every map you explore, and rest in each of them overnight. Do an anthropological study of every village, and if you have an artist with you (Johan Huizinga starts with one), have them paint a portrait of one of your hosts as well. All of your studies and paintings will go straight to the museum when you get home - together, they're worth a ridiculous amount of fame in the later maps that have numerous villages to visit. Don't be afraid to return to a village you've already visited to crash on their couch for a while if your sanity is getting dangerously low. If you're starting to strain your relationship with your friends, trading to them at a loss is a quick way to mollify them; I like to combine this strategy with the above "have a lot of whiskey and be drunk and Scottish all the time" strategy for near-limitless sanity and the ability to quickly make friends by sharing my booze with everybody.

Recruiting natives is also not a bad idea if you have space for more companions, as future villages seem to be more likely to welcome you if you have native friends with you; maintaining a great relationship with the locals also seems to make native guides more likely to stick around permanently after the end of the level. I personally recommend getting a shaman for healing and tripping balls on mushrooms, and/or a scout for the amazingly useful increased vision range, but feel free to recruit whoever best suits your preferences (or just bring anyone who's willing to come with you). You might also pick up a better pack animal this way (replacing Huizinga's donkey with a water buffalo is a nice upgrade).

Once you've built up a great relationship with the natives, you'll notice that new villages start welcoming you warmly and sharing their food with you, and eventually that you're mobbed by excited children and showered with gifts when you arrive. These can range from berries and fruits to valuable instruments and even the odd bit of treasure. Having a good relationship with the natives also alters the outcome of many events - for instance, the "nobody slept well because we heard drums in the night" wilderness camping event is replaced with a "some of our native friends came out of the darkness and sat by the fire with us, we had a party, it was great" event that boosts sanity instead of diminishing it. Finally, maintaining a really good native relationship actually becomes easier and easier as time goes by - if you repeatedly finish expeditions with a high relationship, the following expeditions will start you with a boosted reputation. Towards the end of the game it's not uncommon to walk into the first village on the map and instantly be mobbed by cheering children because your reputation precedes you. :)

It's okay to do some light hunting or loot the occasional shrine as long as you're not being enough of an rear end in a top hat about it to seriously upset your friends, but avoid loving with the offerings next to the big stone heads, as doing so can trigger an encounter with upset natives that will either significantly deplete your supplies or severely damage your relationship with them. If some guy comes to you between expeditions and asks you to steal an idol or reach the pyramid within 80 days, tell him to go gently caress himself - it's not worth accepting those quests at all. Definitely accept the "escort my native wife home" quest if it's offered, as the natives are happy to learn that she's leaving to reunite with her beloved, and will look favourably on you for helping her do so. :unsmith:

The two biggest challenges of this playstyle are keeping your cash supply steady and staying sane while exploring the larger, harsher map types. You can bolster your money by selling most of the valuables that come into your possession; since you'll need to dedicate space to your writings and paintings, it's not a bad idea to barter spare, low-priority supplies to natives or traders in exchange for valuables that you can sell when you return home. Buying binoculars and hiring a native scout can help enormously with the travel issues, as they let you quickly assess your surroundings, prioritize points of interest, and plan a route from village to village without nearly as much trudging around.

Tias
May 25, 2008

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Brilliant blurb, mind if I throw it in the OP?

Angry Diplomat
Nov 7, 2009

Winner of the TSR Memorial Award for Excellence In Grogging
Sure, go nuts.

Tias
May 25, 2008

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So I'm trying to go native, but it requires standing of 7 or 8+, and I can't for the life of me get it up to those levels.

Does standing raise and fall cumulatively over levels? What can I do to raise it apart from having native members?

Red Mike
Jul 11, 2011
Got this ages ago when it was just out on Steam, it was great fun. I loved the art design, it's great, except for the pixel art choice which is just decent. Could've worked brilliantly as painted art instead of pixel, but this is still fine.

I'm surprised there hasn't been a Let's Play of it yet, seems like it'd do great.

e: Although my one criticism of it, which I don't know if it still stands, is that 'sanity' might as well be named 'hunger' and would fit better.

Azhais
Feb 5, 2007
Switchblade Switcharoo

Red Mike posted:

Got this ages ago when it was just out on Steam, it was great fun. I loved the art design, it's great, except for the pixel art choice which is just decent. Could've worked brilliantly as painted art instead of pixel, but this is still fine.

I'm surprised there hasn't been a Let's Play of it yet, seems like it'd do great.

e: Although my one criticism of it, which I don't know if it still stands, is that 'sanity' might as well be named 'hunger' and would fit better.

There's a guy named PalicoPadge on youtube that basically does nothing but this game, not that he really gives it the full LP treatment

Red Mike
Jul 11, 2011
Yeah I mean a traditional LP rather than a shouty excited man that seems to be streaming instead of making a video for Youtube. More specifically I mean the community-driven kind on SA, which I feel this could be a good fit for.

Tias
May 25, 2008

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It'd be great if each expedition had a new player, but since I don't think you can export saves that's probably out of the question.

Kekekela
Oct 28, 2004
Just got this game and had to find thread because I'm so bad at it. Very fun, though.

Tias
May 25, 2008

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Yeah, that's why I started it too, lol

Is there anything in particular you're struggling with?

Kekekela
Oct 28, 2004

Tias posted:

Yeah, that's why I started it too, lol

Is there anything in particular you're struggling with?

Hey thanks, more or less getting the hang of it. There are some items that I feel I'm not utilizing effectively. Shovels for instance, I know you can use them in conjunction with treasure maps but is that it?

Tias
May 25, 2008

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Pretty sure they also have some utility in some cave events, but that's about it.

Kekekela
Oct 28, 2004
Ah ok, how about that altar that asks for items?

Tias
May 25, 2008

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Kekekela posted:

Ah ok, how about that altar that asks for items?

Yeah, that. Also, depending on the faction you trade with, it can make an allright currency.

Kekekela
Oct 28, 2004

Tias posted:

Yeah, that. Also, depending on the faction you trade with, it can make an allright currency.

Actually that was a separate question...like what do I do at that altar? I think I gave it some items one time, nothing happened, and I've more or less ignored it everytime I've seen it since.

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Tias
May 25, 2008

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Oh! I thought you meant if you could give it shovels. Well, I don't know actually, but it's probably been covered on the official forums!

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