Timed Rewards. Expeditions.

[Gayzilla]

I just felt like throwing my mix into the mix.

I like these timed rewards, earning them is a thrill and actually paying attention to a game and actively engaging as a player -should- be rewarded. I keep seeing people say things like "I just came back after 7 months and I am outraged I missed the first two expeditions."

Why does that matter more than a player who has been looking forward to updates, who was there participating in each event? Why do you have to have the rewards for activities you were not present for? There is no achievement for having 100% of the awards. (Which by the way, you can have with a file edit. But apparently they are not happy with "fake" earning it. They want to "real" earn it, but... later. Artificially.)

I'm not heading over to WoW and complaining about all the exclusive mounts and pets that I can't have. Get what I'm saying? Exclusive content is fun. You don't have to have it all SO bad that you abolish the idea of exclusive or time based content.

[Asmosis]

these things are generally frowned on in single player games, which NMS is predominantly.

It's generally a negative thing for players with no positive upside, but for companies it's a net positive as it drives engagement at the detriment of players.

It's common to the point of being mandatory in MMO/mobile games, but that doesn't mean its a good practice.

[Ms Peaches]

It matters because this isn't and never will be an mmo. timed rewards for mmo's makes sense because it keeps the player base alive. But even then timed exclusives can be seen as artificial scarcity and is a very slippery slope with even the best intentions.

nms is a single player game. It has been since launch. the multiplayer stuff is nice and all but at the end of the day the game was never built to facilitate so many players. Single player games should be chill and allow players to earn rewards at their own pace. people have real lives. we can't all monitor a single player game for event items that we may or may not want when we have bills to pay, children to feed, or dying loved ones to care for.

nms built it's current player base on it's chill nature and being able to sit back and explore. but it seems in recent years they're trying to go away from that and move towards a more multiplayer experience.

wether or not this is in the attempt to keep the promise of multiplayer before launch or an attempt to build a framework for in game transactions, no one can say unless the devs give an official disclosure.

[TuxRox]

for me its that ive spent 5 years coming back to this game every summer for a month or so, and having a blast with the new content. This summer its an MMO and I missed out and that is super disappointing, especially since the communication was so lax and I didn't even know the event existed, I glanced at the expedition patch but didn't catch that it was a time limited ordeal. This isn't a game that had FOMO before, and now its added for who knows what reason, in a way that I couldn't have participated in because I didn't know.

[luZk]

You can unlock the expedition stuff even without having taken part in it. Look around these forums on how it's done, You will have to edit a file and claim rewards offline.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/275850/discussions/0/3094515496017427027/

[Hellsmoke]

Honestly I see both sides of the argument but ultimately land on "I don't care" because it is indeed predominately a single player game. I can argue from both sides so here it goes..

Argument 1) People have lives.

Let's say I'm a gamer who doesn't have a life and I don't have time to work, are people giving me free money and kids or a life for that matter because I didn't have time to do the necessary things to acquire a life? No I miss out, that's life and the same goes the other way around.

Argument 2) Why should you have something you didn't participate in?

Because it's a single player game and nobody really cares, let me do as I please in my single player game. I could understand if this was a multiplayer game where one of the biggest parts was showing off what you have but this isn't the case here. When expedition 2 came out everyone was flying around in this golden ship, it really isn't all that exclusive because everyone already has one. If there are 100 people or so who cheat theirs...good on them I couldn't care less and I really wouldn't even notice. That person who cheated wont get the satisfaction of knowing they earned it. As for the Normandy, I played expedition 2 with multiplayer enabled, I didn't see a single fleet that belonged to another player. How would I ever see your "exclusive" frigate in this game?

Conclusion.

At the end of the day this game isn't built like this to where it matters. Many people use the save editor and get what they want anyways, how is this any different? All that matters is that everyone has fun in their single player game. Nothing is really exclusive or hard earned in this game, if you are showing off anything at all then show off your good taste in what ships you chose to collect or what pets you chose to collect etc. If you want something exclusive go play Eve online but even there you can't fly exclusive ships because someone will suicide gank you out of pure jealousy but at least it matters in a game like Eve, it doesn't matter in No Man's Sky.

Enjoy your game and don't worry what others have because most people wont ever even see you with it. For the sake of argument I am going to agree that timed exclusives are a bad idea because it causes drama. If the intent was to bring people together they should make a few systems with really cool planets and stations where people could gather and that can be found nowhere else. A "Jita" of sorts. That would make multiplayer more fun and feel more alive. They already have Eden Hub or whatever but that isn't made by HG and is the same stuff you can find on your own. Make something special that makes it worth gathering, only HG can do this.

[Hellsmoke]

Also, I'm pretty certain they will make these items available again in the future. Clearly there is a high demand for things like this.

[luZk]

It's has no effect on my gameplay, so I have a really hard time feeling left out or cheated about it. OP you will never have anyone who "cheated" their way to these things feeling the sense of accomplishment that you did unlocking them. Is'nt that enough for you?

[Gayzilla]

Originally posted by luZk:

It's has no effect on my gameplay, so I have a really hard time feeling left out or cheated about it. OP you will never have anyone who "cheated" their way to these things feeling the sense of accomplishment that you did unlocking them. Isn't that enough for you?

It's enough for me. That is literally what people have available to them now though. People can edit a save file for the rewards and the instructions are everywhere. Isn't that enough for them? Do we need to make them feel like they earned it, even though they were not there?

And to anyone claiming it's a single player game, it was never supposed to be, even ignoring that, this is clearly an "MMO" sort of play mode.

[Hellsmoke]

Originally posted by Just a dead 11 year old.:

Originally posted by luZk:

It's has no effect on my gameplay, so I have a really hard time feeling left out or cheated about it. OP you will never have anyone who "cheated" their way to these things feeling the sense of accomplishment that you did unlocking them. Isn't that enough for you?

It's enough for me. That is literally what people have available to them now though. People can edit a save file for the rewards and the instructions are everywhere. Isn't that enough for them? Do we need to make them feel like they earned it, even though they were not there?

And to anyone claiming it's a single player game, it was never supposed to be, even ignoring that, this is clearly an "MMO" sort of play mode.

I was supposed to be a billionaire but I'm not. I can't argue from the position of one because it was "supposed to be". Not only that but only one player can call their fleet to any given system, literally nobody will see your exclusive frigate. For all intents and purposes it may as well be a single player game and is far from an MMO.

[Weaver]

Why get tilted over how someone plays what is largely a single player experience and doesn't impact you? This isn't a competitive game. People already mod everything left and right.
The only concern ever should be when people use mods to troll and negatively impact others.