I've just finished EotE. Wow. I mean... Wow. Just felt like I needed to write out some thoughts and observations. FULL dlc spoilers ahead.
Firstly, I played it 'weird' and was worried I had ruined it for myself. I started the DLC a long time ago, and something about the overall puzzle was overwhelming me. I couldn't get a clear picture of the 'goal'. I thought it had more to do with re-aligning communications to something else (from the imagery of the craft that turns out to be an EotU-signal blocker). I thought that the antennas on the top of the Cinder Isles tower were the things that needed to be aligned, and was searching and re-searching everywhere for clues I had missed because nothing was linked to that (not sure why I couldn't let this theory go, the whole game is about letting theories go). And I think the biggest thing was that I SOMEHOW thought I had explored every edge of the massive dream Reservoir and couldn't get to any of the points of interest without drowning my lantern. So I hadn't seen the vault and the clear three-step puzzle to open it. So I still thought the vault was a puzzle for the Stranger, not the dream.
I was overwhelmed and didn't want to get frustrated, so I took a break. I took too long of a break, and found it hard to re-enter the puzzles even with the ship log. So I took a REALLY long break until I was desperate to play more Outer Wilds and had forgotten enough of the details to start again (fascinating how this is possible if you've not understood it all yet, it's impossible for me to forget anything from the base game...).
I started a new profile. I approached it fresh. Any time I remembered something early, I ignored it until I found a clue that would have pointed me there. I was surprised that I didn't have to do that too often, and a lot of the moments still hit just as hard. And then... I realised that for some reason, I was feeling the flow a lot better. I was feeling the overall shape of the puzzle coming together. I understood what I had to do, and the experience didn't feel lessened at all by my break, it almost felt heightened - it all fit together so beautifully.
I swapped back to my original profile (I'm not leaving you alone Solanum!!) to finish it out. What a ride. The prisoner's cry fucking killed me (I'm tearing up just writing that). Then, footprints to the water's edge... A clue? A hidden path? I'll just take a step to follow...
Right in my soul, mobius. Punched me right in my soul.
OK, some thoughts and observations in no particular order:
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Initially I thought that the dream was a projection back to their home world, like the Nomai projection pools but more advanced, before finding the slidereel showing the decimation of their little moon in the service of building the Stranger. But I realised later that there is another awesome clue that it is virtual: the stars. The sky is so full of stars! Beautiful and strong and endless, no supernovae to be seen...
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The many links to the story of the prisoner: Most obvious is the one empty 'bed' in one of the temples. But thinking back on it, this also explains the one scratched-out portrait, and the burned house in the Dream. I couldn't figure out why they would burn something to do with the Eye in the Dream if the Dream was created after they turned away from the Eye in fear, but the incredible painting you can find in there gives the clue. This was the prisoner's home in the Dream. They saw the Eye differently, they saw that the destructive power it holds is part of something greater, a cycle to birth new life, new galaxies, a new universe. Life from death. This is why they chose to wake up from their dream of blissful hiding, and take action. And this is why they were imprisoned, and any reminder of them scratched out and burned away by the others.
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I realised quite late that there is reasoning for the 'coincidental' timing of the damn breaking right as the game's story takes place. Obviously a lot of the Stranger has weakened through age, but still, it's crazy that now is the moment it breaks... Or, could it be that it's linked to the supernova like a lot of the base game's 'coincidences'? The Stranger detects the sun's impending death, and starts powering up fully for the first time in millennia. This moment would be the shake and flickering lights that you feel in the first few minutes of each loop, and if that hasn't happened in an incredibly long time it might shake a few things loose...
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From the gameplay, it seems that time passes at the same rate in the Dream as it does outside of it. Does this mean that the Owlks have experienced over 280,000 years of existence, and almost all of that in solitude for the prisoner??
Thanks for reading, that ended up being far longer than I had thought it would be. I guess I like thinking about this game, just a bit...
I also recently finished EotE! Maybe the post needs a spoiler warning in the title?
I did not take the break that you took. Instead, I pushed ahead. I also played it directly after finishing Outer Wilds. I enjoyed Outer Wilds and wanted more, but unfortunately the change of tone in this game wasn't what I was after.
I started searching online and found many very frustrated people, who like me did not find joy in a game based around stumbling around in the dark.
In the end I came across someone mentioning mods, realised that Outer Wilds has a whole mod ecosystem, and that it has a native linux client. I explored all of the Stranger and got to the archive in the Shrouded woods before I found out about mods. I installed one that brightens the darkness, so you can see further ahead than the range of your artifact, and you can still see while concealing. It made things a lot less frustrating. You still have to avoid the owl/elk people but you didn't have to stumble along and randomly run into them. I guess it removed the scare factor but I don't much like that anyway.
So I guess from a gameplay point of view, I found it a bit meh once you were into the dream world.
However, I liked the storyline. It gave a good explanation of what drew the nomai to the star system and why the signal stopped. I liked the new storytelling mechanic of the slides, that replaced the translation tool from the base game. I think you're right that the coincidental timing is not a coincidence at all, but the ship powering up to avoid the exploding star. Given the technology level seen it seems reasonably that their ship could do this.
I figured the title itself plus the spoiler warning at the top of the post text would be enough, but I guess people do skim read, so good point. I'll edit it.
I've been reading a fair few similar complaints to yours, which tells me that there could have been some better communication about the mechanics of the dream sections. Personally, I loved it. At first I felt blind and lost, but (in perfect step with the themes of the DLC) I slowed down and treated it like a puzzle. Light in the darkness. Looked for the clues. There are always things to guide you, eg you focus your lantern and light the next candles and pick your way through the woods.
And the stealth sections, same thing. If you slow it down, and use all of the clues - there are many sound cues from the inhabitants, and if you take it slow, you can spot their eyes in the distance with a quick lantern focus. Then, quietly take the convenient alternative paths as they approach. Once I was playing it like a puzzle, there was no more stumbling into them.
I think a break between base game and EotE is the way to go, allows the shift in tone to not be so drastic. I understand the advice to do it all together because of the way it mingles and effects the base game ending, but overall I liked doing them separately.
Maybe I didn't get the technique right. It's nice to have alternative paths but I didn't know what the lay of the land was. Falling in the water or getting caught meant starting the cycle again. Even though you only wake up, I still found I needed to restart the cycle because they had found me and were on alert, and also the dam breaking meant I normally didn't have time to get back through to that point.
I think perhaps doing it straight after the base game meant I was a bit sick of the cycle mechanic.
I actually tried searching online for maps of the dream world but didn't find much. When I modded it so I could see through the dark, the layout wasn't that complicated. But for some reason I really struggled with parts, especially the starlit cove.