Alien/Barnacle surface interaction disappointment.

[CMDR _BigJay_]

I hope this is the best place to post this. I'm not looking for help from anyone, just want to post about my experience..

I am truly disappointed. I have been in the Pleiades Sector OI-T C3-7 system for exactly a week trying to see the alien ship show. I have been unsuccessful.
I came into the system on Friday 6/2 around mid-day. I had seen the posts while I was at work and I was anxious to come see it myself. On Saturday morning I was getting bored of flipping modes so I took 139T of meta-alloys to Maia, did some fuel scooping along the way, and came back. When the new beta was announced I spent about 2hrs in the beta flying out to the alien ruins and getting a relic for the CG. Other than that, 100% of my play time has been spent sitting on these planets staring at barnacles, or switching instances, or collecting meta-alloys. On Sunday 6/4 I joined the Mobius PVE instance and my ship was shut down. There was an alien at the site and it had just performed its show for the other CMDRs. As soon as I could see what was going on it turned and left the area. I saw very little, no lights, no suction effect, just the flower flying away. I did get to scan the wake, so hooray?

You may think I didn't try hard enough, so I want to share some metrics. I switched modes between Solo, Mobius, and three small private groups. I only collected meta-alloys in about 60% of the instances. I spent two and a half days on B3 (1 meta-alloy), and the rest of the time on A6 (5 meta-alloys). In the week I have harvested 369T of meta-alloys. Now, the math is fuzzy, I know, but I am sure I have been near the barnacles in at least 125-150 different instances.

If it's just pure RNG, then I think something may be bugged because after being in this many instances I should have been able to see the show.

I suspect there may be some sort of trigger to it. Or at least something that helps the RNG. I tried sitting in instances without shooting the barnacles. I tried shooting every single stalk. I tried scanning the stalks that contained meta-alloys. I sat for hours in my ship. I sat for hours in my SRV. I switched modes quickly. I departed the site via supercruise, then turned around and returned to the site. I tried all this in solo, in Mobius, and in several small groups. I tried by myself, I tried with large groups, I tried with small groups, I tried in a wing. I dismissed my ship, I recalled my ship. I drove far away from the barnacles in my srv and then drove back. Other players in Mobius brought unknown artifacts and unknown probes to the site.

I had to synthesize SRV fuel at least 10 times. I had to synthesize SRV ammo once and it's nearly empty again now. I had to leave the planet on Wednesday to take my Anaconda to the star to refuel, it's 48T tank had run dry from just sitting on the planet's surface. Many CMDRs have shown up with rituals to make the alien appear. I have played along with every one of them. Drive away from settlement, switch to solo, dismiss ship, drive into settlement, switch to mobius, recall ship. blah blah blah. It's never worked for me.

You beat me. I'm done. I'm taking my 240T of meta-alloys and I'm going to Maia to sell them, then I'm going back to the bubble. I feel like I wasted a week. I feel like I'm somehow too stupid to figure out how to make the alien appear. I keep telling myself it's just RNG but I don't know. I'm posting this because I think that these are pretty terrible feelings to be coming from a game. I don't feel challenged. I don't feel like I just need to git gud to make the aliens appear. I feel like I've just not been "chosen" to see the show.

In the future, possibly consider adding some lore or some gameplay to make things like this happen. Maybe Professor Palin could discover how to entice the aliens to show up. Then we have to collect some trinkets and go put them near the barnacles and then we'll get a guaranteed show.

Anyway... disappointed.

 

[Kaocraft]

This mirrors my experience. I've spent 23 ½ hours of play time on this and only this, with even less success than you. What a colossal waste, even by the metric of video game time. I said this in another post but I'll repeat it here: those negative online reviews of the game, where the reviewer has hundreds of hours logged? Those reviews are 100% valid and this is an example of why.

 

[varonica]

This mirrors my experience. I've spent 23 ½ hours of play time on this and only this, with even less success than you. What a colossal waste, even by the metric of video game time. I said this in another post but I'll repeat it here: those negative online reviews of the game, where the reviewer has hundreds of hours logged? Those reviews are 100% valid and this is an example of why.

I suspect it's because you and they simply want a different game to play.

At the moment these are rare alien incursions, if there is a full alien invasion they might become a lot more common, but I can't possibly see a rare alien incursion turning up every time a player wanted, that just doesn't make sense. This isn't a boss fight in WoW where every time you enter the dungeon you get to fight the boss. I understand your frustration if this is what you are expecting, aliens to pop up on cue whenever you want, it's not what I am or was expecting. I just found my first alien life forms, fungal cones, the other day after many months of searching possible locations, the following day I found another set, that's how life works I guess, no buses for hours then two come along together

If you have spent a solid 23+ hours just doing that then you are going to burn out pretty quick, I don't play the game like that and I expect that's not how the game is meant to be played.

Rare alien incursions means not many people are going to experience them for the moment, I think that's the way it was always meant to be.

 

[CMDR _BigJay_]

I suspect it's because you and they simply want a different game to play.

At the moment these are rare alien incursions, if there is a full alien invasion they might become a lot more common, but I can't possibly see a rare alien incursion turning up every time a player wanted, that just doesn't make sense. This isn't a boss fight in WoW where every time you enter the dungeon you get to fight the boss. I understand your frustration if this is what you are expecting, aliens to pop up on cue whenever you want, it's not what I am or was expecting. I just found my first alien life forms, fungal cones, the other day after many months of searching possible locations, the following day I found another set, that's how life works I guess, no buses for hours then two come along together

If you have spent a solid 23+ hours just doing that then you are going to burn out pretty quick, I don't play the game like that and I expect that's not how the game is meant to be played.

Rare alien incursions means not many people are going to experience them for the moment, I think that's the way it was always meant to be.

I met people at the barnacles who had seen the show 3 or 4 times in just a couple days.

Harry Potter, Obsidian Ant, Chaoswulff, CMDR Plater, etc have all gotten to see the show, most within the first day or two.

 

[=TK=]

I was sat there for ages too, no joy.

 

[Trinity Star]

I suspect they've flipped the off switch already and just not bothered to tell anyone. It's a shame that a large number of players will simply never see that event in the game.