Curios: are they worth the cost?

[Dr. Zeus]

When I jumped into this game a few weeks back, I was all about curios. I'd buy one holy water, a key, and a disease-curing thingamajig, ready to throw my intrepid heroes at whatever intriguing object happened to cross their path. In fact, I'd do that even if I didn't have the right items on hand.

As you might have guessed, those characters ended up with more than their fair share of diseases and mental breakdowns.

As I delved a bit deeper into the game, I stopped buying the curio-unlocking items. I'd use any keys or things I found inside the dungeon in a heartbeat, of course. It's just . . . I dunno, the curios rewards seemed kinda lackluster at the time. Maybe it's my own fault for walking around with radiant light all of the time.

Now I'm in the endgame, and I don't touch curios at all. It's not like I need any money. relics, or extra supplies on missions; I've fully upgraded every building in town, gathered lots of good trinkets, and have 150,000+ gold saved up. At this point, my adventurers just kinda roll over whatever they run into.

As I look back over my adventures, I think I see a bit of a flaw with the whole curio system:

If I don't have a curios matching item, I have very little reason to risk touching it. At the moment curios feel like they are a reward for the people that bought the right items ahead of time, but they could be so much more.

What we really need is a compelling reason to poke at curios, whether we have its corresponding item or not. That way, having an item is really, really good, and finding a curio you're unprepared for becomes more than 'well, better keep on walking'.

Here's my theoretical change: For every X curios a character investigates before the end of a successful quest, that character gains an extra resolve (exp) point.***

It wouldn't rocket a character through the low levels, but it would give me a solid reason to risk disease and stress. I gotta get that extra resolve, after all. The downsides of unprepared curio investigating might need to be tweaked as well, so that over-investigating curios could easily lead to a party's death or retreat. (and thus no bonus experience)

So, what do you guys think? Why should they stay the same, or what sort of tweaks would you like to see?



*** I'm sure some conditions would have to be added to prevent abuse. (For example, only curios investigated before the quest's objectives are complete count. No finishing a quest and then running around racking up extra experience before returning to town)

[Pothocket]

Nah, there's a good reason why there's many quirks that force your character to investigate curios. They're supposed to be a risk, not something that you always want to interact with.

[Lady Rose]

Originally posted by Pothocket:

Nah, there's a good reason why there's many quirks that force your character to investigate curios. They're supposed to be a risk, not something that you always want to interact with.

Heh. Dealing with the starting Crusader's Kleptomania before the Sanitarium unlocks is like a mini game in itself. I'm always relieved when the first post-tutorial expedition is done so that I can try to avoid using him until I can cure it.

The heroes seem to pick up compulsive and materialistic quirks often enough that I don't think we need changes to the curio system. Combining that with the risk / reward / gold spend, it's pretty self-balancing overall, I think.

[Dr. Zeus]

The curio thing does a fine job of rewarding a well-supplied group. I just think it doesn't really provoke much decision making on the player's part, after they've have a decent understanding of the game. Just devolves into "Do I have the right item?"

Maybe the XP thing isn't the best of ideas, but I do like the idea of some sort of delayed payoff, something that only happens when the quest is completed succesfully. Then choosing to activate a curio becomes a judgement call, something along the lines of:

Will I be able to finish my quest after whatever (probably bad) effects the curio has on me? Would it be better to skip it, since I don't trust my group to pull through with a disadvantage?

[Shotgun Malise]

If you remember the layout of the dungeons and the majority of Curios that are winthin those dungeons, then the disarming is worth it. Specifically the food and anti stress Curios disarms. Getting 30-50 stress reduce and a stack of food is straight fist pump.

[Samseng Yik]

MY opinions...... (Assuming all high risk curios cleanse by item)
- Shallow Grave ( very worth )
- Moonshine Barrel (worth)
- All kind of chest (very worth)
- Dinner carts or table (worth, because it means I don't need buy much food to Warren)
- Scrolls (super worth)
- Confession Booth ( worth, because it lower the risk of dungeon run)
- Eldritch Altar (worth)

[Quineloe]

I lost 3k gold to Kleptomania yesterday in a single run.

Burning scrolls means even on dark runs you should bring 1 torch.

Curio system obviously could use some fine tuning, but it's a great thing as it is right now. Some are not really worth it, I've repeatedly gotten less money from a pile of bones than the holy water did cost in town - curious, does +++ loot from Black as pitch also affect curio loot?

[Shotgun Malise]

Originally posted by Loncaros:

I lost 3k gold to Kleptomania yesterday in a single run.

Burning scrolls means even on dark runs you should bring 1 torch.

Curio system obviously could use some fine tuning, but it's a great thing as it is right now. Some are not really worth it, I've repeatedly gotten less money from a pile of bones than the holy water did cost in town - curious, does +++ loot from Black as pitch also affect curio loot?

Yes it does... Ive gotten freaken ancestral items from curios this way.

[Catgirl Stuffed With C4]

Originally posted by Shotgun Malise:

Originally posted by Loncaros:

I lost 3k gold to Kleptomania yesterday in a single run.

Burning scrolls means even on dark runs you should bring 1 torch.

Curio system obviously could use some fine tuning, but it's a great thing as it is right now. Some are not really worth it, I've repeatedly gotten less money from a pile of bones than the holy water did cost in town - curious, does +++ loot from Black as pitch also affect curio loot?

Yes it does... Ive gotten freaken ancestral items from curios this way.

It definitely does, I ran a pitch black run on veteran and netted 20k gold in one run.