Over on the Expeditions: Samurai Steam page, we've just posted news of the first major update, alongside a massive 10 page list of additions, improvements, and fixes. Update 1 was always intended to react to initial player feedback, but we got so much more than we had even hoped for, and have ended up making Update 1 even more of a player-driven patch than we expected.
Highlights From the Update
One of the most exciting additions in this update are some new character assets for greater visual variation, including a few more character creation options:
2 new European heads for each gender (available in character creation).
2 new European hair styles for either gender (available in character creation).
New heads for older Japanese male and female NPCs.
New Japanese hairstyle for NPCs.
New "Ronin" outfit which is used by Kage as well as ronin-type enemies.
Our technical designer has been busy adding lots of new items for you to discover and play with as well:
5 new unique items spread across Act 1.
6 additional armors/helmets added to the loot drop tables.
10 additional weapon variations added to the loot drop tables.
One of our favorite new features is that you can now carry barrels! This makes the naval battle preparation sequence in Perils on the Sea way more intuitive and cool, but it also lets you pick up any gunpowder barrel you might happen across and place it right in the path of a patrolling enemy to blow them sky high when they walk past. We hope you'll have lots of fun experimenting with this new feature and that you find tons of fun ways to break the game.
Thanks to the work of our intrepid narrative designer, you can now use companions for most dialogue skill checks. If a companion is currently part of the conversation, the option will show up, and you can select it if the companion has the necessary skill level.
She's also added roleplaying options for players that want more middle-of-the-road options.
Enemies will now change their behavior when they enter high alert, such as if they spot a dead body. Depending on the situation, they will either fan out after clearing the area and enter more aggressive patrols, or group up at tactical chokepoints to defend against an impending attack.
Greatly improved intro cinematic and a little new cutscene when the crew spots the São Gabriel during Perils on the Sea. More cutscenes to come in future updates.
New contextual drop-down menu for interactions. We still have shortcuts for the interactions for those who prefer the previous scheme: If you hold Shift it will automatically interact with the first option, and if you hold Ctrl it will interact with the 2nd. Both of these modifier keys can now also be rebound.
The patch also addresses several commonly requested usability issues and lots and lots of game balance feedback, fixing some exploits with stealth takedowns, making enemies react faster to attacks, and generally making everything a bit more challenging, as we had very much erred on the side of making things easy in the first update. Worry not, if you were playing on Story difficulty before, you'll still find the difficulty quite light.
As mentioned, these are just a few highlights from 10 pages of improvements and fixes. You can find the full list on the Expeditions: Samurai Steam page.
What's next?
Update 2, slated for release in November, will be the big one that unlocks the 2nd act of our story. Here, you will embark on an eventful journey to Osaka with the grizzled warlord "Oni" Shimazu, where you will meet several big players of Japan's sengoku era, and become a pawn in their political maneuvering and scheming. While in Osaka, you will also get a chance to go out drinking with Piet and have dinner with Captain Fernão Dias Cabral - keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.
Although Update 2 is most importantly going to be the big one that adds Act 2, we do have more exciting features planned for it as well.
Social Stealth and Disguises
The most significant new feature of act 2 is that you'll be able to start using social stealth to gain access to restricted areas. This involves a new character state called "Tolerated", where enemies will not attack you on sight inside a restricted area, as long as you don't get caught lockpicking, attacking anyone, or performing other such criminal acts.
Usually you become tolerated by bluffing or persuading your way past an entrance guard, but update 2 will also introduce disguises, which are outfits you can find and equip to become tolerated in a specific restricted area. Only the character wearing the right disguise will become tolerated, but some missions can be completed entirely by yourself if you are disguised. Just beware that crime will still blow your cover, and that any enemy in high alert will see through your disguise.
Target Mode
Another big feature in development for update 2 is what we call "Target Mode", which is a major overhaul to the gamepad control scheme. The current gamepad controls pretty much just emulate mouse/keyboard input, but with the introduction of Target Mode, you will get a more convenient way to select targets for abilities both in and out of combat. This change also frees up some gamepad inputs, allowing us to reshuffle the whole control scheme slightly to make it more smooth and intuitive to play with a gamepad.
And more...
The character creation flow will change slightly: instead of defaulting to a recommended skill and weapon selection, it will ask you to customize your choices by default, with an option to pick a recommended preset.
Further updates on characters, including some fancy new beards for Ambassador Walsingham and Captain van Renesse.
Children will be added to the game.
Lots of new items, including unique items and some new tactical items to play with.
Better gameplay logic and AI behavior surrounding theft, to go with the tolerated state.
Better rain effects and improved lighting during overcast weather.
We will of course keep you updated with more news posts, dev diaries, and so on as we continue towards update 2, and as always, we encourage you to join our Discord to discuss the new features, upcoming content, and ask any questions of us that might be on your mind.
Campfire Cabal