A rant on Expedition 11 - Vexed Voyagers: Navigating the Starry Sea of Suffering

[Totoro]

No Man's Sky Expedition 11 has reached an entirely new level of absurdity that, quite frankly, has surpassed the boundary of enjoyment for many players, venturing into a realm of frustration and exhaustion. There are several, near-impossible tasks, combined with incredibly dumb luck have created a maelstrom of vexation across the NMS gaming community. The Herculean requirements to progress through phases seem to blatantly ignore the fact that players may have other life commitments, effectively alienating a segment of the player base who cannot dedicate extensive hours to conquer these insurmountable challenges. Furthermore, I can confidently say many players including myself have resorted in frustration to online forums such as Reddit. We do this for portal coordinates or tips & tricks to accomplish the milestones given by whoever this sadistic taskmaster was responsible for Expedition 11. Running to online sources breaks immersion placing players in unfairly disadvantaged positions, where success hinges more on sheer luck than skill or strategy. This, I truly believe, runs counter to the original purpose of NMS expeditions. While we commend the developers for continuing to provide fresh content, this expedition sadly tips the scale too far into unreasonable difficulty, diluting the fun and spirit of exploration that "No Man's Sky" is beloved for.

[umop-apisdn]

I disagree; this expedition was fun, and well-balanced in challenge vs expectation.

Originally posted by Mr Blue Sky:

success hinges more on sheer luck than skill or strategy

Again, I disagree. Through careful consideration and choice of action (ie, "strategy"), my wife and I were able to complete this expedition in about a week of playtime, with an average of 2 hours per play session. Every milestone was able to be completed in rendezvous systems, in many cases by the simple expedient of landing on every planet in the system and wandering around scanning things... which is already something we do on the regular.

Originally posted by Mr Blue Sky:

I can confidently say many players including myself have resorted in frustration to online forums such as Reddit ... Running to online sources breaks immersion

It's a "community" event; that word encompasses not just the multiplayer aspects of the game, but the online communities that have sprung up around the game. Asking the other players where such-and-so thing is has always been a part of scavenger hunts, which is essentially what the milestones are in an Expedition.

I can only surmise that you are having a particularly difficult time with one (or more) of the milestones. With that in mind, and being part of the community that is this very forum, I would like to offer my assistance; which milestone(s) are giving you grief?

[Felis_Exploria]

Completely disagree. I enjoyed methodically moving towards each rendezvous, collecting all missions along the way. Finding 35 systems no other player did (exp 2) was far more tedious. Destroying 32 pirates (exp 6?) was far more annoying.

[smurfy]

I'll join the chorus of "whaddaloadofrubbish".

This was actually the first Expedition I've been interested in doing and I enjoyed it, completing it in 4 days without needing any outside help, despite a wayward trip along 15 jumps after mistakenly assuming the black hole jump was part of the expedition path.

But then, I've always enjoyed the exploration, scanning and cataloguing element of the game, regularly getting the "all fauna scanned" milestones before many others.

It highlighted the use of the Wonders section of your Catalogue & Guide.

[笛野めのん]

If you didn't enjoy the expedition, you may have missed some things in your frustration.
As you will see when you follow the expedition, almost all of the star systems to be visited have been discovered by HGs.
This means that HGs pick up achievable missions from those star systems.
This means that if you follow too hasty or eccentric a route, you will deviate from the HG's assumptions and cause unnecessary hardship.
There are also benefits (although not inherent) from participating in expeditions.
The big one this time was probably the possession of the Personal Refiner MkII, the Glyph Set and the Cargo Ship (which is, in a way, a disadvantage of not being able to get a large cargo ship for free).
Note that even if you are late in joining, as you can see from the threads, you can still get tips and answers from those who have gone before you, to help you get back on the path and smooth out any blockages you may have. (A community indeed!).
However, you need to give yourself some time to play, because if you are too late, you will be in a hurry and won't be able to enjoy the game.

[umop-apisdn]

Originally posted by 笛野めのん:

The big one this time was probably the possession of the Personal Refiner MkII, the Glyph Set and the Cargo Ship (which is, in a way, a disadvantage of not being able to get a large cargo ship for free).

Actually, I decided to try for an S-class Venator style freighter this time; after grubbing up about 300,000,000 I started doing the "warp to a 3-star system" dance... and when I found my S-class Venator style capital freighter and "purchased" it, my money was not reduced; not sure if that was a bug, or "working as intended" because it was the first freighter I "chose".

[笛野めのん]

Originally posted by umop-apisdn:

Originally posted by 笛野めのん:

The big one this time was probably the possession of the Personal Refiner MkII, the Glyph Set and the Cargo Ship (which is, in a way, a disadvantage of not being able to get a large cargo ship for free).

Actually, I decided to try for an S-class Venator style freighter this time; after grubbing up about 300,000,000 I started doing the "warp to a 3-star system" dance... and when I found my S-class Venator style capital freighter and "purchased" it, my money was not reduced; not sure if that was a bug, or "working as intended" because it was the first freighter I "chose".

Eh! I paid .
After we switched to a bigger ship, I hired a couple of C-class frigates and I was grinning because I didn't have enough. (With the joy of making money again).
I wonder if there are any conditions.

[Lilli]

As a relatively new player i was looking forward to my first expedition experience and i've found it not to be enjoyable much at all. It was really just a list of chores while being pressured by time and without much to no immersion, In the end i've resorted to a guide and portals because it was just not worth it and i've wanted to get the cosmetics.

Overall i would much much prefer a narrative driven expedition, even if it was shorter, and i would also like it if you could do them whenever you want to, locking people out of content even though they paid the same money doesn't seem fair. I don't know who started with this season crap, but its not cool.

[umop-apisdn]

Originally posted by Mooncake:

As a relatively new player i was looking forward to my first expedition experience and i've found it not to be enjoyable much at all. It was really just a list of chores while being pressured by time and without much to no immersion, In the end i've resorted to a guide and portals because it was just not worth it and i've wanted to get the cosmetics.

Time pressure? There was no time crunch 6 weeks ago when the Expedition started... and to be completely honest, I don't feel like "2 weekend days remaining" lends itself to any feelings of time pressure now... The entire Expedition can be done in roughly 2 hours, if one is dedicated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqlIXzMldGI

Originally posted by Mooncake:

Overall i would much much prefer a narrative driven expedition, even if it was shorter, and i would also like it if you could do them whenever you want to, locking people out of content even though they paid the same money doesn't seem fair. I don't know who started with this season crap, but its not cool.

Agreed, a narrative-driven story would be cool... but this is a procedurally-generated sandbox game; the fact that any sort of cohesive "chores checklist" can be implemented at all is pretty impressive.

If the cosmetics are your only concern, you should know that you can use a save editor to put them into your game, even if you haven't done any of the Expeditions. If, like me, you feel "icky" about doing that, then you should try to pay attention and not miss the next one.

[Foxglovez]

LOL what a load of total rubbish in a can. All you had to do was pay attention, be the least bit organized, read all the goals early on and wander from system to system on the way to each rendezvous. I found almost all of the items and critters just by landing on planets. I didn't even have to look for them, just scanned all the stuff around me and moved on.

I must admit that they wouldn't be as much fun if I was a newer player if I didn't like to scan, find all the animals and generally just putz around. If my pants were on fire, I had a need for hand holding and specific fetch quests to lead me by my twitchy nose, nope, wouldn't like it much. But then that's not this game and probably wont ever be.

These are community events. Why didn't you head to the anomaly as soon as you could, or if you got stuck? There are tons of folks that built beautiful bases and named them with great exactitude so if you couldn't find that hot critter it would take about 5 seconds to find where to go. How is that a problem? Appreciate that folks are willing to lead the way and make your job easier. And HG approves, like, it's a community event. What part of community is too difficult to understand, eh?

And if you hate them, don't do them. You get nothing of any value, just some eye candy. And if you wait till the last few days and then make a stink? Good luck with that. I know, the cat ate your progress.

[Caramirdan]

OP, I think Starfield is calling to you . . . . . . . . . . .

[Mr. Bufferlow]

And what about those signs on the road...I mean really? If I want to stop I will, get over it.

While I had no problem at all finishing the Expedition, let's all rage out with gusto. Why even play games... they are the devil's workshop. You could be helping ants cross the interstate, but NO... you are struggling with the oppression of the man making you do thing digitally...okay that sounded worse than I meant.

[Heliosa]

This expedition was focused on exploration. I think that's what NMS is mostly about and what I've been doing since playing it. I know I can buy almost anything but I don't because I'd rather earn what I need. Furthermore, many players are ready to help players who are a little lost, for example after jumping from the black hole or who are too new to the game.
I really enjoyed this expedition.

[The Knowledge Seeker]

I am just here to say:

I do not agree with the OP

[Guyver8]

it's ridiculous to rant about how hard or time consuming it is when it's obvious to everyone that it's not ...and dropping lots of 'we' doesn't make for a majority vote Lol

Personally i just started the expedition yesterday, having a blast, it's been awhile since 'we' had an expedition geared to exploration side of things (even if it's simplistic)

and yes, i've watched some speedruns so i know the quickest ways to get things done, but the challenge for me is figuring how to get it done while having fun ...which i am, so much so that i haven't left the 1st planet yet but the completed milestones are piling up.

use guides or don't, but you've only got yourself to blame if you're not having fun with the options and playstyle you choose

[NeoRider7]

Guys, by the way, please tell me the coordinates of the 3rd meeting place of the 11th expedition. There's a portal right there. I really need to go back there.