Well now, there’s a thing. Unless I have made arrangements to meet someone (hardly ever), I play with all communications turned off. That’s the way I have the game set up in the main control - nobody can see me or interact with me. I really don’t like chatting while I play. If I don’t respond, I feel like I’m being rude - but if I do respond, I lose my concentration typing and get eaten. It’s lose/lose.
So yes, I saw the chat texts “Adarynin has strangled a Tharg”, and I thought “They shouldn’t be here” (the chat messages, not you).
I’ve also seen a couple of people flying around in ships, which shouldn’t happen. I have multipleyer very firmly off.
I wonder if the latest update has changed my settings.
I just finished, but that was quite a walking simulator grind. I never got all those Blueprints you are apparently supposed to be able to access early on in the Construction Research Unit. I managed to get by regardless though, but without any way to get the Minotaur. Was fun to see the Mechanical Man milestone unlock for me once I got in and out of the Pilgrim I got pretty late. Still not able to get more BPs, nor the Minotaur. Even the Anomaly could not be spawned until I was nearly finished with the full expedition. Getting to Rendezvous 2, still not able to spawn Anomaly. Only once I had returned to the initial planet and running my very last milestone (1000 mining resources), did I finally get the Anomaly icon to show in quick menu. Better late than sorry I guess …
I’m a bit over halfway through the milestones, and just got my ship off the ground (only need some larval cores to make it warp-worthy now). Don’t get hung up on that one distant building scan, sounds like a good time to look for alternate paths to your goals.
New games start with almost everything on by default. I often get into minor situations forgetting to turn off PVP and “anyone can build” settings on new games.
I also got lucky and found a wild base computer only a few minutes from my ship site. That’s helped obtain a couple extra materials I needed, like gold. The area was unclaimed so I plopped my base down right there. Had been getting frustrated at the lack of available real estate around the ship site too. Someone else’s base even stole possession of my portable save point, so I figured it was my turn to be obnoxious now.
@jedidia@Polyphemus If factories are out of range, you can get Herox like I did: prioritize building the large refiner, it can be processed with the native elements https://nomanssky.fandom.com/wiki/Herox. There’s also a chance to get it from analyzing buried mineral formations.
These expeditions definitely go most smoothly with more lateral thinking. Can’t just follow the current step, always gotta check out all the other the milestones/phases to see how their rewards might solve the current requirements. Like @jedidia said, experienced players have a broader background to draw on when trying to figure out easier/alternate methods of reaching goals (like the Herox thing). I especially found @sheralmyst’s early pet adoption suggestion extremely helpful (even found the same pet which I particularly like as it keeps shouting my name).
Don’t worry, I agree with the solo-in-multiplayer attitude!
And yes, your MP settings must have changed, because when I launched the expedition, it straight offered me a session called “Polyphemus”, I had never seen that before, and I just clicked it. For me it looked like any other multiplayer event.
that’s weird, I just built the little research computer and unlocked Minotaur. I never had to go to the Anomaly at any point during the expedition. I didn’t even know you couldn’t until after I was finished.
Strange, after getting the Construction Research Unit, I just bought a Large Refiner and used the 30 Ammonia, 60 Cobalt, and 20 Silver recipe.
Update: Well, things are quite wonky right now. I just went back into the game, and my CRU no longer shows most tech. Refiners not even listed now. Guess this wasn’t actually supposed to be an option?
Hmmm…My Blueprint Researcher only gave me the structures & power basics…that was it. I was struggling for a while to find work arounds.
I too got the award even though I recieved the Pilgrim instead of the Minotaur.
MP was on by default, which I initially turned off immediately but then still couldn’t find free real estate, so I put it back on (with all options set to ‘no-one’) so I could at least see base icons to use as a guide.
Due to lots of players on site I often saw other players or their ships & often they had no icon (turned off like me) but we crossed paths anyway. I also noticed that unmarked players ships display in your in-ship radar regardless of their icon settings.
All in all it was a bit buggy but nothing actually stopped me completing.
Given its got 6 weeks of time allocated, a dedicated NMSer could get a few weekend’s fun out of this one…except for the full real estate thing, maybe?
Ok. HG really, really, like really MUST update their on screen instructions because they are so out of date. Their instructions for the mineral extractors is non-existent and their formula for herox is totally wrong.
It seems this expedition was different for everyone. I got the mech and my bp analyzer had all recipes until I fixed part of my ship and then it went to just the basics. And unlike @DevilinPixy , I could summon the anomaly as soon as I left the planet
I got herox and crystal sylphide (also useful) by mining blue floating crystals. They give something generic, and you “analyse” them and they turn into random things like herox, aronium, lemmium, iridisite.
Flying arounf the planet, it’s quickly apparent what some of the problem is. The game expects you to walk across land to find buildings. When the toxicity gets too great, it expects you to burrow underground. When you get access to the blueprints and materials, it expects you build the Minotaur, and walk some more.
But a large part of the planet is water world. There are small islands, separated by oceans that stretch for hundreds of miles. Vast areas of the planet have no buildings at all.
The game can vary between “challenging” to “very nearly impossible”, depending on where you spawn. If you’re in an area with lots of land and buildings, you’re probably OK. If you spawn on the beach of an island in the ocean with no buildings for 300 miles in any direction, you’re possibly in trouble.
Aha! You get the magnetic resonator for the geologist milestone, the quantum computer for the power surplus milestone, and 6 factory overrides for the navigator milestone. Together with just a single manufacturing facility, that should be about all the special stuff required to get the boat floating again.
Luckily, I built my base right next to one… if I can reuse that terminal. I don’t know, I never had surplus factory overrides before.
If you haven’t noticed yet, Gravitino Balls are easily purchased locally.
You don’t need the Larval Cores to get off the ground so you can source them up after. (Also the neighboring cacti planet is way more hospitable for the mineral mine/ 2nd teleporter type milestones).
The smaller plants that give carbon & oxygen are the best fuel to shoot while the round, flat rocks & the pointy tall ones (both underwater) give the best value Pure Ferrite…which speeds things up a bit.
Keep checking your expeditions log for easy to accomplish milestones as you go and I found the fauna 100% discovered milestone required input IN the actual discoveries menu to complete.
