This is a very unique expedition with regards to milestones in a lot of ways. Usually the phases have a good few you can complete out of order as you work towards major ones. Nearly every milestone requires doing something very specific in order to get the very thing you need for the next one.
For example, you need to crush a grub for a milestone. You dont need hazmat gauntlets to break the grub and summon the vile brood, you can use your mining laser. However, the milestone does in fact require you to do it with the hazmat glove method of squishing it with a button prompt. But to get the hazmat gauntlets, you need to explore a derelict as a milestone, and to get to a derelict… You see the pattern.
It’s been a while since an expedition has made us really work and put in some grind for the milestones and I’m enjoying the change of pace and being able to focus on the task at hand instead of wondering if theres also creatures I could be scanning or rocks I could be blasting.
There are a few milestones you can finish at any point but not as many as we’ve come accustomed to. I think one is for shooting asteroids, getting Crystal Sulphide, scanning a 10kg fish and maybe another underwater one.
Yep! This was a pleasantly rare coincidence in which I had time off from work on update day, so did it all in one shot as soon as it started. I didn’t encounter any progress-blocking bugs, though I do agree with your earlier statement that this one is quite grindy.
I’ve been living dangerously and launched it from my main save (have a silly little script to make regular backups just in case), though wasn’t super prepared for abandoned mode (was distracted, blame Ball X Pit), so the supplies I brought didn’t save all that much time.
The improved and new actions in patch notes float my boat:
Improved the placement of corvette-class ships when teleporting to a Settlement with a corvette as the primary ship.
Improved the behavior of floating exotic creatures, especially in response to being offered Creature Pellets.
Improved the error messaging when attempting to install duplicate technology in the inventory.
Improved lighting transitions when changing environments - notably Improved the appearance of holographic previews of corvette modules during corvette assembly.
Improved the appearance of corvette modules when viewed from a distance.
Improved the icons on several corvette modules.
Improved the collision of several planetary curiosities, such as large mushrooms.
Enabled Steam Input on Mac.
Improved the readability of several UI elements.
Implemented several engine optimizations to improve performance, especially when rendering complex objects such as corvettes.
Implemented several lighting optimizations to improve performance.
Implemented several optimizations and performance improvements on Nintendo Switch.
Sadly, my nice new PC is not yet set up and ready, so I’ll sit out another update. My PC area will get ceiling repair shortly, so I’m having to move equipment and boxes out of that area. Add to that having to negotiate with 2 sets of yard and home contractors, a need to replace a commode with a new elongated comfort height one (one more contractor), fixing a clogged kitchen sink disposal line and a clogged bathtub-shower drain. Arrgh.
I may need an early Christmas vacation just to get back to my universe.
Yes, it is similar. I got it on in a little over 4hrs. I had no issues, but I keep multiplayer off which probably avoids most issus. I did bring some of the derikict corvette summoning tech. I’ll test it out in my normal save tomorrow.
Well…it’s 3.30am and cold. So I grabbed my Steam Deck and tried my final attempt at this ill fated ship mission.
Worked flawlessly.
But, I also turned off MP.
Another good note, even though I caught 5 fish with the QS rod and it did not count then, once I reached that milestone, they did count. I did not have to catch 5 more.
Edit: and I am finally done.
Can I add that using the Corvette over water is a really bad idea. The teleporter was available only once and even on land, if you are standing on the hatch or even on the roof, your shots at whatever you are shooting at, do not count.
If you plan on building with the new Atlas bits, make sure you have lots of the purple glass shards. I have none because I always break them open to see what is inside.
I tried turning off MP and I no longer got jettisoned away from the arcadia.
After collecting the final one, for ships and giggles I turned MP back on while I was still near the Arcadia.
As soon as I was synced up to a free lobby for the system and players appeared I got launched away.
So definitely an MP related bug. I reckon a similar thing is happening with the black hole bug I was experiencing. Almost like I’m getting incorrectly paired up with another player as they use a black hole or suddenly experiencing their localized gravity while space walking and getting flung away is actually just falling in space?
Another interesting bug that happened to me in the same session after turning MP back on (which is probably the culprit), the final planet that requires scanning 8 creatures… No creatures were spawning in on land, sea or sky
Thankfully it’s just a bug and not our worst existential nightmare, a planet with 9 underground creatures
I didn’t get jettisoned off the Arcadia, but several other things threw me up into space. Once the cause was “looking at the water planet too drily” (or so, just guessing?) and the other one I forgot. It was not a gravitational anomaly, and those blurry distortion bubbles were innocent as well. Then I call the corvette and it spawns in around me with the seat under my butt, which is handy, but weird. Does this jettison only happen after we have a corvette? If it happened with the old ship we wouldn’t be able to get anywhere?
Certainly seems to be an issue with the multiple planes introduced with corvettes and multiplayer as these issues seem to completely go away once turned off. So this may not be the best time to do MP with your friend during an expedition
I’m hearing some of these issues were present during the last Expedition too but not as commonplace as they are now, I get this weird feeling someone put a decimal point in the wrong place somewhere.
My favourite weapon in NMS is a fully pimped neutron cannon. IMHO, the worst weapon is the scatter blaster. It has no range, it needs reloading every 10 seconds, and I can empty a full clip into most enemies without even staggering them. It’s almost completely ineffective.
So, expedition after expedition, HG insist on forcing me to use the damned scatter blaster. I’d be better off with a pea shooter, or a feather duster.
That and the nautilon. They must look at their statistics and think that players just haven’t discovered these things and think that we need to be introduced to their virtues.
They added so much stuff underwater I cannot fault them wanting us to see it. There are some rare resources, and underwater bases can look pretty, but I haven’t really found a good (gameplay) use for deepwater worlds yet. We move more slowly and see less far, so exploration is not it.
If you have the choice to travel a longer distance over land or “as the bird flies” through a body of water, what do you choose?
Agreed. If you get lost in a cave in deep water (and there are lots) you’re in big trouble. You can’t see, and you’re eventually going to run out of air and fuel.
This was a pleasantly rare coincidence in which I had time off from work on update day, so did it all in one shot as soon as it started. 
I didn’t encounter any progress-blocking bugs, though I do agree with your earlier statement that this one is quite grindy.
My PC area will get ceiling repair shortly, so I’m having to move equipment and boxes out of that area. Add to that having to negotiate with 2 sets of yard and home contractors, a need to replace a commode with a new elongated comfort height one (one more contractor), fixing a clogged kitchen sink disposal line and a clogged bathtub-shower drain. Arrgh.
