I started my save within an hour of the expedition going live. And spawned in a storm, with multiple hostile critters. I died twice in two minutes, deleted the cursed save, and tried again. Did better, but fell into a cave system killing critters (with a mining laser), and got lost… before I could build the Terrain Manipulator. After 20 minutes, I deleted the cursed save, and started again. Third time's the charm! Much better start, even grabbed some Storm Crystals for later right at the start.
Needed to get some work done, but I've gotten a couple of hours in since yesterday, steady progress, having fun stumbling around, but I can see I'm going to get stuck looking for Crystal Sulphide. I don't think I'm anywhere near the ocean, although I see 3 underwater creatures on this world so there must be some somewhere. I've got the Minotaur built, but that doesn't seem the best way to search for ocean, it's a little slow. If only I had a spaceship… oh wait, that's what the Crystal Sulphide's for.
Also, got killed again, by one of those evil teddy bears that jumped me while I was killing a couple of the crystal spider dudes. Was close to my base, but still! Embarrassing.
I did well to start, only died once before I got a decent set up going.
That being said, the hardest task I had was the Larval Cores. I've never had such a difficult time finding abandoned settlements before...
Luck of the draw I suppose, I've found 3 abandoned settlements just travelling by land. Since I actually looked ahead for a change, I got a bunch of larval cores already. Was hung up on Crystal Sulphide probably for the longest time.