Am I done with Main Story?

[Hexoplex]

After doing Stellar Multitudes am I done with the main story? I know there are over 250 more galaxies to explore, just wondering if I am essentially done and move on to my own end-game stuff now; or if there is more that opens up later.

[Gaxel]

Main storyline ends when you are upon the Atlas and can change the galaxy. In Stellar Multitudes is a side-mission having as prerequisite to finish side-mission Who They Return that has as prerequsite to end main storyline (artemis, apollo, -null-) and Atlas path (craft Star Seed). Beside that there are a few more side-missions: Dreams of the Deep, Under a Rebel Star, Base Specialist missions, Base Computer missions, owning a settlement A Trace of Metal mission. Everything should already be started while doing the main storyline. Beside those, there is no other story driven content in NMS

[FoolishOwl]

Originally posted by Hexoplex:

After doing Stellar Multitudes am I done with the main story? I know there are over 250 more galaxies to explore, just wondering if I am essentially done and move on to my own end-game stuff now; or if there is more that opens up later.

That's the latest chapter, so you're done for now.

I'd say you're pretty much free to do your own thing when you've completed The Artemis Path, and for that matter, there aren't many limitations on you once you've installed the hyperdrive. Other storyline chapters introduced new features of the game after major updates, although there are usually alternate paths for getting access to those new features.

Stellar Multitudes sticks out a bit in that there doesn't seem to be an alternate way to get access to purple stars and the two new world types associated with them, and you have several prerequisites to complete before Stellar Multitudes.

[Hexoplex]

All 3 main quests at the top say something to the effect of "explore the new galaxy" and all my side quests are for the people at my base to unlock things I've bought or plan to buy. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything major before I set out on my own goals.

[FoolishOwl]

Originally posted by Hexoplex:

Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything major before I set out on my own goals.

Generally speaking, there's little or no risk of missing anything major. It sounds like you did all the storyline missions, one after another. On my main save, I finished the Artemis Path and Atlas Path a few years ago. New storyline missions popped up in my log, or through a "deep space encounter", but months apart. You don't have to act on them right away, and I don't remember hearing of any bugs where someone missed one.

The Expeditions are time-limited, but generally they're self-contained, insofar as they have stories at all.

Different galaxies have different distributions of types of planets, but there's no type of planet unique to a galaxy. Most players are in Euclid, but if you've moved to another galaxy, you can place a base, then travel to Euclid in an Anomaly mission and place a base there, and easily travel between galaxies.

By and large, NMS is a pretty laid-back game, and not really story-driven.

[Johnny in the Clouds]

Originally posted by FoolishOwl:

...
By and large, NMS is a pretty laid-back game, and not really story-driven.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3304234870
The are endless stories that could be told though in the game. An entire universe to follow stories in. That's one of the amazing things about the game what it can become with new updates and why it will never be finished : D

Expeditions are sort of like short stories, self contained mini sci-fi novels with the player taking the role of the antagonist in their own mini-adventure. I think Liquidators was arguably the most story led adventure so far with a mysterious lost 'warrior' that was revealed by following their path.

The early Beachhead titled adventure was also a fun one ending with the Mass Effect frigate reveal and I forget which one it was, but also the permadeath expedition (Leviathan?), tricky though for some players perhaps because of the mode challenge, was a good tale. They've all been good really.

My only wish is that there were more NPC story characters we could find and interact with throughout the universe that might accompany us on our own adventures. We can conjure up companion creatures after all and they do their own thing but it would be cool to have met perhaps in a separate story other cool cool characters like Tethy's or those at the Anomaly and have them do a derelict mission together. Let's see them move about and engage in our adventures or we engage in their stories dotted about the universe or new galaxies. Would be a cool reason to need to reach other galaxies and travel to meet up with a mysterious character taking part in their adventure to unlock them.

The Autophage story was also a really fun expedition.

A favourite or most memorable was the introduction of the Titan Worms in Emergence Expedition. It's a pity the beasts haven't turned out to be as terrifying as the opening of that expedition adventure and really only as dangerous to interact with as an extreme storm. If you think of the weather effects in the game as a 'character' some of the gravity storms are quite a thrill to cross paths with.

In the same way Star Trek adventures encountered all kinds of weird things in the universe. Those weird things were portrayed in stories affecting the crew. The No Man's Sky has that potential to be littered with stories (aka expeditions) to uncover by players as they spread out across the galaxies. An endless amount of updates and work for anyone who wants to apply... Hello Games? Oh you're already on the job! : D

...Maybe also players could have the tools to 'write' their own somehow adding to the game content available...

[Hexoplex]

Am I able to go back and experience the previous expeditions through the Anomaly? I've read about people using save editors to get the rewards, but if possible, I'd like to earn them.

[Johnny in the Clouds]

Originally posted by Hexoplex:

Am I able to go back and experience the previous expeditions through the Anomaly? I've read about people using save editors to get the rewards, but if possible, I'd like to earn them.

Expeditions introduced during the year often get repeated at the end of the year in the seasonal holiday period for players who may have missed them. The are often playable in a a shorter condensed form. Rewards are the same. Repeated expeditions also have in the past mixed up rewards from previous expeditions and also for special events sometimes Hello have rerun even earlier expeditions (like Beachhead). No one knows what Hello Games may do but they are very aware some players would like to do earlier expeditions in some form or other and so they have obliged the player base with some while they concentrate on creating new ones that keep the content refreshing.

As the game updates frequently and the game mechanics change, new game play may not be ideal for repeating very early expeditions and besides its always nicer for all, including developers sanity to get to appreciate new content. Though new content may still reward earlier released player rewards. With all that explained with many assumptions only guessed at, previous expeditions can be accessed without using save editors but they are not guaranteed to work with new content There are threads about how to do this. Usually you need the Season Data file for the expedition at the time and on PC turn the clock back. More detail is explained in other threads on this and just needs a trawl of the steam threads to find it. There is lots of info on online content too about it. There is a chance modding the expedition content in this way even without a save editor may corrupt your game. So experiment with a new save game or back up your game before trying anything and especially if fiddling with third party saveeditors that may break the game.

I know in the past when I had to go on holiday I was half way through an expedition and could not complete it. However in between (well spent) time away from the game, updates changed the game and expedition was over. However on return from holiday I continued to play the expedition all offline, with Steam offline so the game did not update (content that did not need multiplayer online interaction). This was achieved by turning the PC clock back to continue and finish from the point I went on holiday. When I had completed it I went back online and the game immediately updated and the expedition was properly ended. Perhaps because I had started it prior to going on holiday, account rewards registered correctly but playing offline was the way I completed it. Playing offline seems to be a requirement of doing past expeditions. But I really had no need to worry as the expedition I missed was repeated. Some rewards were also released as Twitch drops and in new expeditions so players do not really miss those.

[FoolishOwl]

Originally posted by Johnny in the Clouds:

Originally posted by FoolishOwl:

...
By and large, NMS is a pretty laid-back game, and not really story-driven.

The are endless stories that could be told though in the game. An entire universe to follow stories in. That's one of the amazing things about the game what it can become with new updates and why it will never be finished : D

Oh there are definitely stories to find.

What I meant is that the game itself isn't story-driven, the way that a computer role-playing game is, like the Baldur's Gate series or the Witcher series, in which the game is structured around the assumption that you're following a storyline most of the time. The basic model of NMS is a sandbox, in which you can find things, such as stories.

Originally posted by Hexoplex:

Am I able to go back and experience the previous expeditions through the Anomaly? I've read about people using save editors to get the rewards, but if possible, I'd like to earn them.

It takes a very minor hack of the game files to allow you to play prior Expeditions. You still do all the challenges just as you would have when the Expeditions were "live". A catch is that you need to keep the game offline while playing through past Expeditions this way, so you won't get any help from other players' bases and markers and so on, so it's slightly harder. It didn't feel like cheating to me.

The files and instructions are here:
https://cwmonkey.github.io/nms-expeditions/