Curious Expedition 2 News

Last week's alpha update featured lots of new content, and a few bugs as well, so here's a patch fixing the worst offenders:

• Fixed a blocker where you couldn't leave the Club Shop
  
• Fixed blocker in Act 2 Island 1 where final location wouldn't spawn if you'd destroyed all mountains on the map
  
• Fixed a blocker that would occur if you stole from story-critical villages and then refused to hand over the thief for punishment
  
• Fixed issue where you could save and quit in the middle of a Paris Club tutorial and then get a broken savegame
  
• Fixed a blocker where expedition select would be locked if you played until the end of 1888 and then quit in the hub without visiting the tavern first
  
• Fixed issue where dismounting in Paris could cause game to get into a broken state
  
• Fix for Strength being removed immediately at the end of the turn (so it didn't work for Counter Attacks)
  
• Removed generic Stone Disc from Act 3 Island 3
  
• Fixed bad combat slot group assignment for Snarfrattle
  

Please keep those bug reports coming using the in-game "Bug!" button, they are very helpful!

Thanks to everyone who's reported bugs with the new version that we released yesterday! Today's patch fixes some of the biggest issues that you reported:

• Fixed some savegames not being loadable
  
• Fixed some events that could kill a character that shouldn't be killable
  
• Fixed an issue where some special village enter events would play repeatedly if you exited and re-entered the village
  
• Fixed problems that could occur if combat ends with the electro barrier still up
  
• Fixed incorrect electro barrier positioning and selection with controller
  
• Fixed getting multiple Tactical Mastery uses in combat sometimes
  
• Fixed issues in the 2nd island of a multi-island expedition where your trek would walk across the map at the start of the island
  
• Fixed black screen when starting an expedition sometimes
  
• Fixed a freeze during combat attacks
  
• Fixed event action buttons not being visible if entering Manage Trek while they were fading in
  
• Fixed a bug where old saves would be forced to buy an item the first time they entered a club shop after starting the new build
  
• Fixed Cartography checklist not correctly counting the number of Locations on the map

Please keep those bug reports coming using the in-game "Bug!" button, they are very helpful!

Dear Explorers,

There's so much new content for you to discover in this update: 4 leader classes, 4 recruitable characters, 2 new famous explorers, plenty of items, equipment, enemies and more... on top of that, another big addition is controller support! Let us know your thoughts if you get the chance to play with a gamepad.

As mentioned in last week's announcement, this is the final alpha content update before the 1.0 release in early 2021. From now on we will now be focusing on balancing the game's systems, fixing bugs and adjusting all the small details to provide you the best possible experience. You can expect more content updates next year, after version 1.0 is out ;)

This is also the last chance to get the game at its current Early Access price, before it increases later this week. Remember that if you own the first Curious Expedition on Steam, you can get the Collection Bundle and get 10% off on Curious Expedition 2.



https://store.steampowered.com/app/1040230/Curious_Expedition_2/

Here's the full changelog:

[h3]New[/h3]

• Added controller support
  
• New leader class: Red Flag Pirate
  
• New leader class: Nahua Seeker
  
• New leader class: Taxonomist
  
• New leader class: Shennong Herbalist
  
• New hand equipment: Whip
  
• New hand equipment: Rope
  
• New hand equipment: Hunting Knife
  
• New hand equipment: Ornamental Revolver
  
• New hand equipment: Magma Thrower
  
• New hand equipment: Coral Bludgeon
  
• New famous explorer: Wong Fei-hung
  
• New famous explorer: Sacagawea
  
• New enemy: Tiger
  
• New Salamander enemy types: Sea Priest, Claw Master
  
• New Mole enemy types: Battle Mechanist, Burrower, Headhunter, Tinkerer
  
• New hazard: Magnetic Mountain
  
• New shrine aftermath: Volcanoes
  
• New location: Mole Outpost
  
• New location: Sinking Shrine
  
• New recruitable character: Street Rat
  
• New recruitable character: Mole Tinkerer
  
• New recruitable character: Mole Headhunter
  
• New recruitable character: Mole Burrower
  
• New village quest: Deliver gift
  
• New village quest: Dig up artefact
  
• After completing the campaign, you get medals in the Difficulty Selection and Leader Selection screens
  
• New Lux Labs item: Electro Barrier (club levels have been slightly changed to accommodate)
  
• New items: Cheese, Cow Hide, Metalsmithing Kit, War Horn, Religious Icon, Horse Pelt, Theodolite
  
• Added new hub narrative events
  
• Added new optional tutorial boxes
  

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• New explorer types must be unlocked by performing certain tasks
  
• Club Shop items are now split into categories
  
• Reduced base expedition fame/ticket rewards to emphasize other sources of fame more
  
• When using the 'Wipe Year' death consequence, restarting the year will reset your tickets to the number you had at the beginning of the year, instead of zero.
  
• Reduced difficulty of expeditions in 1886
  
• Improved pacing of Paris location unlocks
  
• Recruitable Club characters will sometimes be available for recruiting in the Tavern
  
• Unused tickets are converted to fame at the end of the Campaign
  
• Can now sell Equipment at the Shop in Paris for Tickets
  
• Significant retuning of fame rewards - expeditions now grant less tickets/fame, but fame items grant more
  
• Doubled health bonus of equipment that grants health (Girdle, Harness, Kara Bracelet)
  
• Late game dice challenges are now a bit easier
  
• The Sandalwood Bracelet now also changes the sanity threshold where you'll get negative events while resting
  
• The Giant Crab Pincer is now usable as hand equipment instead of being a fame trophy
  
• Hunter's Cunning perk now has a limit to how many dice can be rerolled
  
• Hiking Stick now only reduces per-tile cost partially
  
• Increased price / upgrade price of Heavy Crates
  
• The Shipwreck now has a rare special location variant
  
• Added a reminder to the Ship Shop about the current Island's objective & biome
  

Dear Explorers,

Those of you who have been paying close attention might remember that we planned to release version 1.0 of Curious Expedition 2 in the fall of 2020. Today we'd like to announce that we're going to slightly postpone the release to early 2021 — the exact date will be communicated in the new year (via pigeon and through other channels).



Why this delay? For a mix of different reasons. First of all, just like everyone else in the world, the ongoing pandemic has affected us as well. The Maschinen-Mensch team has been working remotely from home since March, and while during this period we still managed to launch the Early Access and regular monthly content updates, it has of course slowed us down a bit. So we decided it's best to take a few extra weeks of time to make sure the game is as polished as possible for the 1.0 release, rather than rushing things.

Additionally, there's a lot going on right now, both in the world and in the videogame industry, with plenty of new major releases coming out, so we thought waiting for a more quiet period could benefit the game by bringing more attention to it.

We have one more content update planned for the game during the Early Access period (Alpha 12), after which we will be mainly focusing on balancing and adjusting all the small details to provide you the best possible experience.



One more thing: Curious Expedition 2's price will increase soon, in just a few a days! The game has grown considerably since it launched on Early Access, and now we feel it's the right time to switch to its full price, as planned since the start. So if you haven't bought the game yet, now it might be a good time to do it. And remember that if you own the first Curious Expedition on Steam, you can get the Collection Bundle and get 10% off on Curious Expedition 2 .

Adventure awaits!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1040230/Curious_Expedition_2/

Dear Explorers,

This update includes the fourth and final story mission, Act IV: The Engine of Creation. There are also new events, tribe types and other content to discover.

We made several additions and changes to improve the overall experience for both old and new players — make sure to check out the new Combat UI and the Settings screen in particular, and let us know your thoughts on the Steam Forums or on Discord.



https://store.steampowered.com/app/1040230/Curious_Expedition_2/

Here's the full changelog:

[h3]New[/h3]

• Added Act IV: The Engine of Creation
  
• New Explorer Select screen
  
• New Difficulty Select screen
  
• Added 'Death Consequences' options
  
• New setting: 'Instant Text' that makes event text appear instantly
  
• New setting: 'Fast Rest' that makes resting & waiting happen much faster
  
• New setting: 'Travel Speed' that makes moving on the map faster or slower
  
• New setting: 'Challenge Notifications' that toggles notifications about new club challenges on or off
  
• New option: 'Reset Clubs' to reset all your club progress (available in the main menu only)
  
• New hand equipment: Parrot
  
• New tribe type: Distrustful
  
• New tribe type: Pacifist
  
• New tribe type: Unisex
  
• New event type: Dreamscape
  
• New map zone: Human Exposition Recruiter
  
• Added hub narrative for 1889
  
• Lots of new events
  

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• New Combat UI
  
• New Dice Challenge UI, including chance display for each required colour & information about how many bonuses are possible
  
• New map travel UI
  
• Hovering a character's Promote button will display a preview of the character after promotion
  
• After an expedition you can look around the map
  
• Reworked the tribe trait system so that each tribe has a single standout trait instead of combining 3 different ones
  
• Stunned Panthers no longer do Reroll Retaliation
  
• Villages become angry more easily now, unless they have the Pacifist trait
  
• Can no longer interact with locations or zones when party is overfilled with people
  
• Maps are slightly smaller on 'Tourist' difficulty and slightly larger on 'Lunatic' difficulty
  
• Improved art for the Scout Post and Huntmaster locations
  
• Geo Machine now always has 2 different actions available out of a pool
  
• Added a congratulations message shown in the main menu when completing the campaign
  
• Added a display for current fame & total fame this campaign when hovering over the fame bar in Paris
  
• The shape of an Island is revealed at the start of the expedition when in Tourist difficulty (except Caverns)
  

[h3]Notable Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed Cartography and Anthropology bonuses that increase the fame for their Studies & Kit items
  
• Fixed some items not being usable in Dice challenges, or being usable but not adding dice
  
• Fixed not being able to upgrade Curious or Improved items to level 8
  
• Fixed Caverns map overlay not showing the difference between tiles you have never explored and tiles that you did explore but are now in darkness again
  
• Fixed Lost Explorer map not generating or not being diggable with shovels
  
• Fixed Trader being attracted by the Phonograph and interrupting movement