I’d forgotten about the Gooey icky stuff - Ichor!! I have a few stacks lol. Can you recall @sheralmyst the ratio of nanites though? Is it like tainted metal?
A few thoughts on the impact of The Swarmer expedition on character progression sprang to mind and I drifted into thought while enjoying a coffee and being pestered by a cat to feed them lol:
Summary
I started two expeditions. One from a brand new start and one joining from my main save. I’ve been amazed how far the new start has progressed. So much so I was curious how much could I progress by the time the expedition completes (not ends). I hadn’t tried that in a long while as I always use my main save. So far though I have unlocked the entire suit tech and inventory, which is why I visited so many stations to collect missions and slots. All the Anomaly vendor tech purchased with nanites and all the exocar and useful Anomaly salvageable items. Just missing more decorative items. Never ever done that in an expedition before. Also nearly unlocked all the creature slots with the nanites from scanning complete planets. Not done that before. I used to struggle with unlocking 6 lol.
One good thing about this expedition is character progression. Not in the story of course but for preparing them to make quicker progress in the game and have fun, when the main story begins. Interesting really, as it might be an attempt to replace how the game start of 2016 began and has not changed all that much in those years. As the game has developed there is a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff to collect and expand which may seem slow to acquire for new players. That leaves a new character with a bit more freedom to concentrate fun gameplay on acquiring the huge number of quicksilver items.
I’ve always thought expeditions kind of change that dynamic for the better as the game is much broader today in scope. Than the ‘simple’ start of ten years ago. A No Man’s Sky two, would ideally kind of need a fresh look at how a player begins in the much bigger, modern game that it is now, but keeping the vibe of the original release. Expeditions like short sci-fi novels or comics are ideal to start a player journey and tutorial in different ways.
I also have managed to unlock access to the high ranked secondary missions and almost all ranks with the Merchant Guild. I think they were the only Guilds I seemed to meet at every space station? The expedition seemed to award all the high value goods I needed via free guild stuff, without crafting things and the repeating swarmer missions also suspiciously, intentionally dropped the high value ingredient items too. That helped me craft the stasis devices etc. A new player may not realise what useful things they had found though. The expedition has been a good test of how a player without any knowledge of the game might play through the game. Does it drive them nuts, overwhelm them or capture their hearts and minds? : D
Other ranks for other factions simply unlocked by mass completion of secondary missions. If those repeating missions hadn’t been so long I probably wouldn’t have visited so many stations as I have a habit of being compelled to find every creature on a planet before I move on lol. Every station became a habit of land, click, click, click and leave. I do enjoy the exploration in the game more the discovery of ‘what’s around the next hill’. Well I love it all really : D It’s just fun being the heroic warrior and also the botanist collecting creature samples or cataloguing the weight of fish or the heroic PvP botanist exocar champ! Life is a game in a game lol. Knowing the game well of course it was perhaps easy to double up and complete secondary missions efficiently. I would worry about new players not being encouraged, (because of one type of game play approach), to enjoy being in the moment of a secondary mission ie relishing the description and the challenge. Secondary missions are another topic.
With the huge number of crafted units, valuable mission ingredient drops and so on I was buying multi-tools from the Anomaly and anywhere else cheaply and trashing them selling them for nanites and getting the odd expansion thingy. Instead of finding inventory slots they were bought with units from crashed ships and selling those high value items. Not usually the way I play buying and selling stuff for progress. The swarm expedition is for a very different kind of player approach like the PvP player, probably not willing to invest much deep time in the game but still enjoys meandering about the game universe looking for fun things to do. And why not. Expeditions should explore all the different aspects of game play and they do. Something for all and something not.
I’m happy expeditions try wild almost experimental things. They must be fun to work on too and explore what is possible. That’s what’s so good about No Man’s Sky and the talent that works behind the game. From music to art to animation and of course the programming. They are not afraid to try and they shouldn’t be. Like all great art is a talking point or should be, why should main stream computer games be any different. Hello Games have worked so hard to be able to have that independent creative freedom and uniquely be able explore what is possible in a sci-fi game of their own. I think this is why I enjoyed The Swarm a great deal because like some previous expeditions it tries new things and adds fascinating possibilities and directions into the game that may be used in the near future or later connecting other parts of the universe puzzle, which we all fit into in our own unique ways. It doesn’t have to be perfect.