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Xenoblade Chronicles X |OT2| Welcome to New L+A a.k.a. Read the Frakkin' Manual!

NZerker12

Member
Finally defeated all 4 Superbosses, That Lailah discbomb build is too good and is less grindy than the Mastema One shot (Which I spent about 100hours trying to do but still no one shot, except for Narclydon). All I have left is Gravius and I should have then defeated every single tyrant in the game.
 

Zalusithix

Member
2. The battle gameplay. The battle system the player has access to is in itself fine, but the gameplay has the exact same problem as the first Xenoblade - enemies never test you or force you to react. The entire time you're just going through the motions. The only reacting or planning you have to do is to your own parties' soul voices. Other than that 99% of battles in the game are just spamming a set routine of arts and waiting for the cooldowns to pop. Then you unlock Skell battles, and it's the same thing with 3x more waiting for cooldowns. Good enemy encounters and AI would have solved everything, but as it was, fighting in this game was simply dull as ditchwater.

I'm not going to touch on everything in the post, because some of it is legitimate, and some is subjective, but I will comment on the combat. In particular the routine aspect and how the Skell combat is the same.

Ground combat is a matter of going through the routine. If it weren't for the chance of a debuff screwing with a combo, you could pretty much macro record/replay any good cycle and end up with the exact same result. Granted, the challenge in ground mode is finding a cycle that works and optimizing it for maximum damage. (And by works, I mean works against major tyrants, not fodder.) Doesn't change the fact that it is a very consistent repetition of actions though.

The point I disagree with is that Skell combat is more of the same, but with longer cooldowns. You're still waiting on cooldowns as a primary mechanic - as you are in many RPGs that don't have something else limiting the use of a skill. Skell combat, however, is not macroable. It is not predictable. The length of an OD is variable and cockpit mode is chance. Maximizing skell battle potential requires the use of both of these to the fullest extent possible.

The most powerful weapons have insanely long cooldowns and you need cockpit mode to reset them. Cockpit mode chance increases in OD, and OD extensions are impacted positively by Cockpit mode. Thus the battles become structured around getting into OD, then getting into cockpit as often as possible to reuse the big guns/swords. It's still a routine logically speaking (most game systems are), but it's not something you can distill into A -> B -> C -> B -> D -> A sort of cycle.

This isn't to say skell combat can't be improved upon. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. To say it's just ground combat with longer cooldowns is kind of disingenuous though.

Edit: Also, as far as "waiting" goes, in both optimized ground and skell combat, the waiting is more on animations than cooldowns. Ground combat OD has skills refreshing stupidly fast. Skell combat will sometimes have everything on cooldown when you're unlucky, but you're typically building up GP with rapid alternations of sidearms during those situations. There's not really much time where you're just sitting there with with nothing to do because everything is waiting to refresh. The only time that's really an issue is non OD based combat. That becomes less and less frequent as you progress onwards.
 
Sold my first skell, because I heard it sucks, and I have enough money to buy another one at the Armorial.

Then I saw that I was at level 26 and the Skells available to sale are level 30 :(
 

Zalusithix

Member
Sold my first skell, because I heard it sucks, and I have enough money to buy another one at the Armorial.

Then I saw that I was at level 26 and the Skells available to sale are level 30 :(

Haha, yeah, you'll have to grind it out to 30 now and then pick what you're going to use. Not a big deal though as levels come quickly.

My primary 30 skell was a Lailah with the armor swapped out for the type used on the Verus (purchased separately via shop, not by literally swapping out a Verus' armor) and a G-Buster/Heathorn/giant beam sword that went on the back (can't remember the name of it). Part dictated by vanity, part by optimization, part by the limited selection of drops I had available. It was serviceable, but hardly optimal. Looked cool though!

It wasn't until I got my first 50 skell that I really started optimizing for weapon attribute synergy, augments, etc.
 
Ended up restarting after 38 hours right before attempting Ch 11. I think I made the right decision because I really rushed the hell out of this game and was too focused on the main story instead of appreciating the day-to-day life on Mira. I only did a couple sidequests and board quests. Now I'm just chilling around NLA and taking everything in and doing sidequests right and left without thinking about progressing things quickly. I guess I could have picked up things in my 38 hour game but I am finding myself enjoying the game much more anew with the knowledge I got from my first time through. Game isn't overwhelming me anymore and I feel like I can approach it better now. I guess my first time was a training run.

Question, majority of the population seems to be doing "Mediator", while before it was "Prospector" as the most used according to Blade member online stats. I'm doing prospector because the Skell benefits should come in handy. Wondering if someone could explain the reasoning for Mediators taking over in popularity. I'm guessing because of people having different priorities now since so many are farther in the game compared to when I checked weeks ago.
 
Ended up restarting after 38 hours right before attempting Ch 11. I think I made the right decision because I really rushed the hell out of this game and was too focused on the main story instead of appreciating the day-to-day life on Mira. I only did a couple sidequests and board quests. Now I'm just chilling around NLA and taking everything in and doing sidequests right and left without thinking about progressing things quickly. I guess I could have picked up things in my 38 hour game but I am finding myself enjoying the game much more anew with the knowledge I got from my first time through. Game isn't overwhelming me anymore and I feel like I can approach it better now. I guess my first time was a training run.

Question, majority of the population seems to be doing "Mediator", while before it was "Prospector" as the most used according to Blade member online stats. I'm doing prospector because the Skell benefits should come in handy. Wondering if someone could explain the reasoning for Mediators taking over in popularity. I'm guessing because of people having different priorities now since so many are farther in the game compared to when I checked weeks ago.
I imagine it's because end game the tp support bonus is the best, given how amazing overdrive builds are end game
 

Zalusithix

Member
Question, majority of the population seems to be doing "Mediator", while before it was "Prospector" as the most used according to Blade member online stats. I'm doing prospector because the Skell benefits should come in handy. Wondering if someone could explain the reasoning for Mediators taking over in popularity. I'm guessing because of people having different priorities now since so many are farther in the game compared to when I checked weeks ago.

I've been a Mediator from day one, and I have no clue why all of the sudden we're the "in" thing when Mediators were one of the least popular before. It's not like you benefit from your own division's bonuses anyhow, and anybody that's been around for awhile has max Blade points by now. I can only assume that more and more new people are bandwagoning into the division to reap the rewards - which perpetuates it's stay at the top of the charts.

As for restarting 38 hours in, you're not losing that much time given that the game can easily go for hundreds. I didn't even both finishing the story until I was max level. I was too sidetracked by other things. It's best just to do what you want instead of feeling pressured to do what they want you to. Outside of chapter 12, the story isn't even worth the hassle anyhow. Heck, I really only went back to the story because I wanted the 60 skells lol.
 
Cool, I guess I won't worry over why so many are Mediators and jump on the bandwagon just cause they are.

I feel kinda sad I didn't even learn how to properly attack various body parts of enemies until restarting yesterday. Now I am ripping tails off right and left and shooting off bunnies ears and it feels great! Not to mention the NPCs around town with their blue messages have a wealth of hints and tips as well as world building details that I missed out on the first time around. Anyway, game is so much better now that I am not in a rush to finish.
 

Zalusithix

Member
Don't feel bad. It took me way too long to figure out that I could lock onto appendages. Truly a face desk moment when I found out. Makes things like cantors so much easier.
 
The real reason Mediators took over is because the hacker that was boosting Prospectors before switched, or a new one stepped up to replace the first guy.
 

Zalusithix

Member
That hacker got booted. Unless you can point to a person obviously hacking on the leaderboards, and is a Mediator, that's just conjecture, not a "real" reason.

In addition to bandwagoning, Mediators get bonus points for recruiting and training scouts. I don't need to tell you how many scouts are being trained to star level for blade medals for nemesis farming.
 

Irminsul

Member
1. The flight module. Finding your way around Mira's magnificent topography was the heartbeat of the game. 'Alright, that looks awesome. How do I get over there?' 'Ooh! I just discovered a new view / cave / secret etc' I loved this aspect of the game, and while it was still a huge part of the gameplay it made up for so many other shortcomings. Unfortunately the flight module utterly stripped this part of the game design away and in the process damn near ruined the game for me. The initial rush of flying, incredible views and increased convenience in no way made up for how gutted the world felt once you got that ability, nor how much the game missed the topographical exploration gameplay.
[...]
4. The quests. The quests were really poorly designed. Only a few hours into the game it becomes the worst example of 'fast-travel errand boy' I've yet seen, with you constantly hopping in and out of NLA using the gamepad map. The missions so rarely gave you any kind of meaty task that you found yourself fast travelling minute after minute after minute for 30 seconds battles at a time. I recently played a mission where you had to race some Prone to kill a captain. Of course it wasn't a real race - that would have required actual mission scripting. You just had to kill the dude in less than three minutes. And yet that was STILL the most interesting mission I had played in the last 10 hours.
I can't fly yet, but I have to say getting a skell massively changed my behaviour regarding your fourth point. I love to "drive" around Mira and from quest point to quest point. Even if it's one and a half continents away. Except for the really nasty beasts, you can outrun everything that aggros you, so I mainly just enjoy the landscape and sometimes find new things on the way. It's great.
 
I'm about ready to fight (post-game spoilers)
Telethia, the Endbringer
on ground. Once I do that I think I'm done with post-game content and might start a new file.

I just need to figure out how to properly lure it into melee range like in the video before I can even consider figuring out the fight. It is really hard to do.
 

Zalusithix

Member
I can't fly yet, but I have to say getting a skell massively changed my behaviour regarding your fourth point. I love to "drive" around Mira and from quest point to quest point. Even if it's one and a half continents away. Except for the really nasty beasts, you can outrun everything that aggros you, so I mainly just enjoy the landscape and sometimes find new things on the way. It's great.

Driving around is fun, but unfortunately it's tarnished a bit by the flight module. Before you get the module you can seamlessly transition from the vehicle form to a jump in humanoid form, and back into the vehicle when you clear the obstacle and land. With the module you immediately go into flight mode and have to force land yourself. During this brief time the music will do its track shift as well. Flight should have been something that required a double tap of the button, or holding it down.

How some things never got brought up and fixed in QC is beyond me. Time and effort wasted on inconsequential bullshit like removing breast sliders and modifying bathing suits, but basic stuff like sound mixing and controls get ignored. Screwed up priorities.

Edit: Also to the above post, is that really even a spoiler? You see it during the story well before the end, and I could have sworn it was flying around Noctilum before the end as well. Heck, a variant with mostly the same name is the lowbie global nemesis!
 
Is there a guide somewhere that shows what types of attacks a particular type of monster will use? I mean like "monster x can use physical and ether attacks" type of thing.
 

Zalusithix

Member
Is there a guide somewhere that shows what types of attacks a particular type of monster will use? I mean like "monster x can use physical and ether attacks" type of thing.

I don't think anybody has gone through and categorized all of that. At least I haven't seen anything of the sort. It doesn't take long to figure that stuff out when fighting something though, so you don't really need a guide for it. Rarely is a bog standard encounter something dangerous enough that you need to gear up on specific resists in the first place. High level tyrants, sure, but there it would need more than what element, but how powerful it is, if they debuff you, spike damage, reflects, etc.
 
I don't think anybody has gone through and categorized all of that. At least I haven't seen anything of the sort. It doesn't take long to figure that stuff out when fighting something though, so you don't really need a guide for it. Rarely is a bog standard encounter something dangerous enough that you need to gear up on specific resists in the first place. High level tyrants, sure, but there it would need more than what element, but how powerful it is, if they debuff you, spike damage, reflects, etc.

I figured as much. Thanks anyways.
 

Tenrius

Member
First impression: the text size is super small, even on the TV (I have a smaller 32" one). It's borderline unreadable on the gamepad.

The coming to NLA was mindblowing though.
 

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
First impression: the text size is super small, even on the TV (I have a smaller 32" one). It's borderline unreadable on the gamepad.

The coming to NLA was mindblowing though.

The text is insanely small for everyone. It's more readable with the game pad up to my face than sitting on my couch and trying to read it off the tv. My best solution is to pull up a kitchen chair in front of the TV.

So yeah the text size is freaking horrible.
 

Malus

Member
I sit pretty close to my monitor so the font thing hasn't been much of a problem thankfully. If I were to try Off-TV play it'd basically be impossible though, which is kinda hilarious considering the whole reason you can't get the game's audio through your headphones during regular play is because of their clumsy use of off-tv play.
 

tkscz

Member
Didn't know this thread was in community. Holy crap is this game ever good at player progression. I finally made it to chapter 12 at level 50 and I can't believe how strong I feel, especially in the Skells. I went from running away from everything to wrecking everyone's shit.
 

Zalusithix

Member
Didn't know this thread was in community. Holy crap is this game ever good at player progression. I finally made it to chapter 12 at level 50 and I can't believe how strong I feel, especially in the Skells. I went from running away from everything to wrecking everyone's shit.

Yeah, it's around that time that you start to really feel really empowered. Just don't get too cocky, as there's plenty of things out there that'll rip apart a level 50 skell like the toy that it is. =)
 

eaise

Neo Member
Finally defeated all 4 Superbosses, That Lailah discbomb build is too good and is less grindy than the Mastema One shot (Which I spent about 100hours trying to do but still no one shot, except for Narclydon). All I have left is Gravius and I should have then defeated every single tyrant in the game.


How is this build setup?
 

Steejee

Member
So interesting NPC conversation postgame (Ending spoilers!)

Wolf, one of the NPCs by the mission terminal, has an 'affinity shift' mission where you refer a non-Human to BLADE.

Well the interesting bit is that after you (or possibly before the shift mission occurs) do that he comments how it's strange that he doesn't remember you from the White Whale, given how powerful a fighter you are. He sorta brushes it off as 'Everyone gets a new start on Mira!'.

Little tidbit is another bit of wood in the 'PC Created by Mira' fire.

I might have to try that Lailah Queen build. I have the Ares 90 but was likely going to stop playing the game once I finished the quests due to the time required to build out something that can beat the final tyrants, but that setup sounds like it could be a lot more reasonable to achieve.
 

Griss

Member
Ending (post-credits) spoiler question:
When Elma discovers that the core was destroyed, what was the story there? My impression was that the mims had personalities downloaded to them, and that when the time came to make new bodies then said personalities would be re-uploaded. But Elma seemed to imply that the core was supposed to be wirelessly controlling all of the mims? Was that right? Because it was so counter-intuitive that I didn't even get that it was supposed to be a surprise. I thought the twist was simply that the 20 million people they were supposed to be saving were dead. And I guess anyone who died during the game isn't coming back like we though they were.

Man, I love so much about where that part of the story could have gone. Why oh why did they cram it all into the last cutscene. I don't agree that the ending felt like
setting up a sequel, or a cliffhanger though
. It was just a somewhat mysterious, open-ended ending.

I'm not going to touch on everything in the post, because some of it is legitimate, and some is subjective, but I will comment on the combat. In particular the routine aspect and how the Skell combat is the same.

Ground combat is a matter of going through the routine. If it weren't for the chance of a debuff screwing with a combo, you could pretty much macro record/replay any good cycle and end up with the exact same result. Granted, the challenge in ground mode is finding a cycle that works and optimizing it for maximum damage. (And by works, I mean works against major tyrants, not fodder.) Doesn't change the fact that it is a very consistent repetition of actions though.

The point I disagree with is that Skell combat is more of the same, but with longer cooldowns. You're still waiting on cooldowns as a primary mechanic - as you are in many RPGs that don't have something else limiting the use of a skill. Skell combat, however, is not macroable. It is not predictable. The length of an OD is variable and cockpit mode is chance. Maximizing skell battle potential requires the use of both of these to the fullest extent possible.

The most powerful weapons have insanely long cooldowns and you need cockpit mode to reset them. Cockpit mode chance increases in OD, and OD extensions are impacted positively by Cockpit mode. Thus the battles become structured around getting into OD, then getting into cockpit as often as possible to reuse the big guns/swords. It's still a routine logically speaking (most game systems are), but it's not something you can distill into A -> B -> C -> B -> D -> A sort of cycle.

This isn't to say skell combat can't be improved upon. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. To say it's just ground combat with longer cooldowns is kind of disingenuous though.

Edit: Also, as far as "waiting" goes, in both optimized ground and skell combat, the waiting is more on animations than cooldowns. Ground combat OD has skills refreshing stupidly fast. Skell combat will sometimes have everything on cooldown when you're unlucky, but you're typically building up GP with rapid alternations of sidearms during those situations. There's not really much time where you're just sitting there with with nothing to do because everything is waiting to refresh. The only time that's really an issue is non OD based combat. That becomes less and less frequent as you progress onwards.

All fair points, sure. But none of them really goes to the heart of what I was saying - that the enemies don't cause you to have to react on the fly. Your comment is still referring entirely to the player side of combat. My point was that enemies pose no interesting or individual threat at all. Maybe they do in end game (I don't know), but if so that's 80 hours in, and therefore unacceptable.

A good RPG system has you strategising based on the enemy you're facing. FF13 was brilliant at this. You could get wiped by an enemy in seconds, realise that you needed to open the fight defenisvely and that it was weak to debuffs at a certain point and then steamroll it. Discovering how to deal with fights was a huge part of the fun. There's never any 'figuring out a fight' in Xenoblade. It's just 'spam your shit and collect the goods'. And that's not good enough for me. You didn't even have any control over healing which is typically the minimum level of strategy that any RPG has (managing MP vs HP). There was no strategy at all.

I can't fly yet, but I have to say getting a skell massively changed my behaviour regarding your fourth point. I love to "drive" around Mira and from quest point to quest point. Even if it's one and a half continents away. Except for the really nasty beasts, you can outrun everything that aggros you, so I mainly just enjoy the landscape and sometimes find new things on the way. It's great.

Sure, I get that. Note that at that stage I was enjoying the game most of all. It was around that point when the story missions were sending you to Oblivia, right? That was a high point. Jumping around in the skell was super fun, that should never have been removed with the flight module.

As the game piles on tons and tons of missions, though, many of which aren't interesting, and you start to get used to the different continents then I think you'll find that your sense of wonder diminishes. That's what happened to me. If the game had ended after 30 hours I'd have had so few complaints.
 

Zalusithix

Member
So interesting NPC conversation postgame (Ending spoilers!)

Wolf, one of the NPCs by the mission terminal, has an 'affinity shift' mission where you refer a non-Human to BLADE.

Well the interesting bit is that after you (or possibly before the shift mission occurs) do that he comments how it's strange that he doesn't remember you from the White Whale, given how powerful a fighter you are. He sorta brushes it off as 'Everyone gets a new start on Mira!'.

Little tidbit is another bit of wood in the 'PC Created by Mira' fire.
To play the devil's advocate, with the number of mims around, it's quite unlikely that everybody knew everybody else. Just being strong wouldn't ensure a meeting. Perhaps increase it, but certainly not guarantee it.

That said, I think it's pretty safe to assume that the PC is a creation of the planet (or something on/in it). The whole amnesia aspect hinted at it. The revelation of the destruction of the database more or less cements it. The mim most likely belonged to somebody / some consciousness (or was a spare), but the planet basically hijacked it. Whether the PC is supposed to represent a "will" of the planet, or is simply a blank slate created by it to be influenced by the others and learn from them I can't really say. Hell, it could even be some collective consciousness derived from everybody that was stored in the database.

Edit:
All fair points, sure. But none of them really goes to the heart of what I was saying - that the enemies don't cause you to have to react on the fly. Your comment is still referring entirely to the player side of combat. My point was that enemies pose no interesting or individual threat at all. Maybe they do in end game (I don't know), but if so that's 80 hours in, and therefore unacceptable.

A good RPG system has you strategising based on the enemy you're facing. FF13 was brilliant at this. You could get wiped by an enemy in seconds, realise that you needed to open the fight defenisvely and that it was weak to debuffs at a certain point and then steamroll it. Discovering how to deal with fights was a huge part of the fun. There's never any 'figuring out a fight' in Xenoblade. It's just 'spam your shit and collect the goods'. And that's not good enough for me. You didn't even have any control over healing which is typically the minimum level of strategy that any RPG has (managing MP vs HP). There was no strategy at all.
Yeah, combat isn't really highly tactical in nature like that. With high level tyrants there's planning on how you're going to handle things, but that's still mostly a before the battle level strategy rather than reacting to a dynamic battle that's underway.

To get that level of dynamic combat, they'd have to streamline it. A lot. There's just too many status effects, debuffs, resists, etc, and not enough utility to deal with them on the fly. You're limited to your relatively few arts, which are determined by weapons. You're probably only going to have a few utility arts at a given time, and can't count on your AI team mates for anything, nor can you control their actions sufficiently in battle. Making those utility arts necessary in a changing battle would mean we need mid battle weapon swaps. If that wasn't messy enough, then add augments on top of it.

The game is simply a more "by the numbers" system that's heavily influenced by gear, not tactics. It rewards time spent gathering gear with the right attributes, time spent crafting the requisite augments, and to some extent pre-planning. Not quick wit in the middle of battle. Some people like that sort of thing. Some people hate it.

As for managing HP/MP. That's just one system among many. Not every RPG has a dedicated heal mechanism. Some basically have no healing at all. For those that do, it can be limited by any number of mechanics. MP, set counts, time, etc. As far as XCX goes, it has multiple ways to heal. There's the QTE aspect with soul voices. There's arts on cooldown timers. And there's arts that are simultaneously on cooldown timers and use TP/GP. As you progress from the former to the later, more tactical use of them is needed. Even in the end game, blowing 1k TP on a heal is a costly action that can't be spammed easily.
 

Steejee

Member
Ending (post-credits) spoiler question:
When Elma discovers that the core was destroyed, what was the story there? My impression was that the mims had personalities downloaded to them, and that when the time came to make new bodies then said personalities would be re-uploaded. But Elma seemed to imply that the core was supposed to be wirelessly controlling all of the mims? Was that right? Because it was so counter-intuitive that I didn't even get that it was supposed to be a surprise. I thought the twist was simply that the 20 million people they were supposed to be saving were dead. And I guess anyone who died during the game isn't coming back like we though they were.

Basically, the monolith you see in the boss chamber is the processor for all the Mims, controlling their brains, aka the cpu and ram.

The columns Elma finds below are the storage for all 20 million people, including those in the Mims - their memories, aka the hard drives.

The big zinger is that the Mims are basically dummy terminals: they don't have the capacity to store or process thoughts and memories, that's all done at the core (which is how they knew it was close - latency would have been worse if it were further away). So as Elma notes, none of the Mims, save possibly her since she has her body there, should be functioning. They have the processor still, so they can do moment to moment stuff, but the personalities, memories, etc of all the humans on the Whale should be lost and they should have never been able to function as the core was damaged in the crash.

So Mira is able to make the Mims work, even though they should not.

On Wolf/Elma, while there would have been a lot of Mims, even factoring in the scaling down of numbers for graphical limits, it seems like there'd only be a few hundred active on the Whale. They just needed enough for running the ship and defense. Someone like the PC would have had to do a hell of a job hiding their combat abilities, as Wolf/Elma definitely would have recognized or known just about all military on the Whale. It's clear from the outset of the game that Elma is suspicious of you.

Definitely all stuff that would be really cool to explore in a sequel.

I could see one set 5 or 10 years after XCX, NLA is completed, but people are asking questions about why they're still in their Mims and why no one new has been revived (and why no one who died before the Lifehold was found have been revived). NLA has filled out with Xenos, but the Human populace is slowly diminishing as Mims are destroyed in BLADE operations. Lots of ripe territory to go into.

In other news, it's kinda funny filling out the survey map in an Ares 90. For spots with Tyrants obviously there are some that are crazy powerful, but I've ran into a few like level 20 ones that I simply missed the first go around. They don't really do any worse than the < level 90 Tyrants though - still basically one shot.
 
That hacker got booted. Unless you can point to a person obviously hacking on the leaderboards, and is a Mediator, that's just conjecture, not a "real" reason.

In addition to bandwagoning, Mediators get bonus points for recruiting and training scouts. I don't need to tell you how many scouts are being trained to star level for blade medals for nemesis farming.

This. It is a very popular grinding thing to do nonstop.
 

Zalusithix

Member
I could see one set 5 or 10 years after XCX, NLA is completed, but people are asking questions about why they're still in their Mims and why no one new has been revived (and why no one who died before the Lifehold was found have been revived). NLA has filled out with Xenos, but the Human populace is slowly diminishing as Mims are destroyed in BLADE operations. Lots of ripe territory to go into.
Ostensibly since the data is there somehow (the computer has to be interfacing with the data by some means), you could theoretically load that data into an organic body. And if the data is there for the existing blades, it should be there for everybody else as well. So I don't really see there being a problem with restarting the human race proper. Of course there's the question of if it's even worth it when we've obtained effectively perfect bodies.

At any rate, I see a sequel focused more in the (far) future where they've discovered what makes Mira tick and are now on a new interstellar exploration with that new knowledge. That way we can have a new world for exploration while continuing the greater story. If it is set on Mira, it'll probably be elsewhere on the planet. (Assuming the current landmass we've explored is more like the Americas and there's still large landmasses elsewhere on the planet.) In this case, it'd probably be set where they're about to discover what makes Mira tick.

Either way, Mira is only the tip of the iceberg. It's the stepping stone to story of the people that created it. It's already been insinuated that humans (or something similar to us) have already been in the cosmos doing extremely advanced things.
 

Griss

Member
To get that level of dynamic combat, they'd have to streamline it. A lot. There's just too many status effects, debuffs, resists, etc, and not enough utility to deal with them on the fly. You're limited to your relatively few arts, which are determined by weapons. You're probably only going to have a few utility arts at a given time, and can't count on your AI team mates for anything, nor can you control their actions sufficiently in battle. Making those utility arts necessary in a changing battle would mean we need mid battle weapon swaps. If that wasn't messy enough, then add augments on top of it.

Congrats, this paragraph entirely sums up how I felt about the battle system as I was playing it. You clearly get exactly what I'm saying.

The game is simply a more "by the numbers" system that's heavily influenced by gear, not tactics. It rewards time spent gathering gear with the right attributes, time spent crafting the requisite augments, and to some extent pre-planning. Not quick wit in the middle of battle. Some people like that sort of thing. Some people hate it.

And there it is. I unfortunately fall into the latter camp. I'm not someone who revels in preparation, I'm here for the fight itself. So a huge part of Xenoblade was wasted on me.

If you're the other kind of person, great. Glad you enjoyed it. It's just a shame for me personally that a game with a huge world and art design that just spoke to me from the moment I saw it didn't appeal to me in other hugely important ways like the battle system or story.
 

Zalusithix

Member
If you're the other kind of person, great. Glad you enjoyed it. It's just a shame for me personally that a game with a huge world and art design that just spoke to me from the moment I saw it didn't appeal to me in other hugely important ways like the battle system or story.

Oh, I have no problem with you not liking it. I only brought up the whole thing because I've seen a number of comments where people seemingly treat skell combat as a clunky ground combat with longer cooldowns, when it reality it's quite different when you're doing it "right". There's still plenty of reasons to dislike it though.

Personally, I don't mind the gear progression mechanics in general. I'd prefer something more, but I can live with it. That said, despite having the gear for it, I'm not a huge fan of the ground game. It's a tad too methodical for my tastes. It's insanely effective for consistent damage over time, but it feels like I'm playing an MMO crossed with a rhythm game with the constant rotations of arts and their respective icons lighting up like a Christmas tree. Skell combat at least gives an illusion of a dynamic battle with the chance based elements shaking things up. Positional attributes (other than front) can help the illusion as well when you're solo. Gives an element of constantly jockeying for the right position.

Ultimately it's my opinion that real time combat is inherently weak on tactics/strategy in the first place. Turn based is where it's at for that sort of stuff. =) It's a pity that turn based combat is seemingly becoming rarer by the year.
 

Zalusithix

Member
Thanks for the link! Getting that Aug on the weapon is crazy hard. Been at it for over an hour

Hah, try getting it on the 60 variant vs the 50. Hell, just try getting a 60 at all. If it's anything like my game, you'll be there for hours before you see a 60 drop. And then you have the same chance of it getting the mag-msl as with the 50s. Fun stuff. =P

Edit: Getting the 50s is a cakewalk though compared to the time and effort needed for other builds. Since the build relies on the OD more than anything else, it's quite simplistic, and you're given a lot of leeway with how you deck the rest of the skell out with.
 

Xenoboy

Member
Should I just start chapter 11 now, or grind Hope' affinity to do her last mission first? I feel a bit conflicted about all of this.
 

Zalusithix

Member
Should I just start chapter 11 now, or grind Hope' affinity to do her last mission first? I feel a bit conflicted about all of this.

I fail to see the conflict. You don't need Hope at all for the story. Anybody that isn't Elma or Lyn is basically an unneeded mannequin as far as the story is concerned. Just do whatever you want.
 

Steejee

Member
Oh, I have no problem with you not liking it. I only brought up the whole thing because I've seen a number of comments where people seemingly treat skell combat as a clunky ground combat with longer cooldowns, when it reality it's quite different when you're doing it "right". There's still plenty of reasons to dislike it though.

Personally, I don't mind the gear progression mechanics in general. I'd prefer something more, but I can live with it. That said, despite having the gear for it, I'm not a huge fan of the ground game. It's a tad too methodical for my tastes. It's insanely effective for consistent damage over time, but it feels like I'm playing an MMO crossed with a rhythm game with the constant rotations of arts and their respective icons lighting up like a Christmas tree. Skell combat at least gives an illusion of a dynamic battle with the chance based elements shaking things up. Positional attributes (other than front) can help the illusion as well when you're solo. Gives an element of constantly jockeying for the right position.

Ultimately it's my opinion that real time combat is inherently weak on tactics/strategy in the first place. Turn based is where it's at for that sort of stuff. =) It's a pity that turn based combat is seemingly becoming rarer by the year.

I feel pretty similar. I do enjoy the combat in XCX for what it is, but it needs a lot of refinement (or a complete redo) to be more dynamic. XCX seems to try to make combat 'deeper' by loading it down with stats, debuffs, buffs (as noted earlier) and it just sorta results in a lot of noise. There's not even a reason to care about most of that stuff until post game. It's sort of the same problem as crafting/augments - just too much crap, cut it down!

That all being said, I kinda view the combat against anything that isn't a tyrant or boss as being just a distraction and see the game more as an exploration/world building exercise rather than being combat driven, even though it basically is combat driven.
 

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
Question:

I am getting ready to finish the main game/ Ch.12 this weekend. After I do that my goals are to 100% Mira survey.

I really don't want to do the most tedious grinding for the XX Aguments, so what's the best way to go about that? Should I just Telethia for reward tickets and buy everything I need, or does it actually feel less grindy to hunt down the mats myself?

And is Area 90 is the best Skell, do I need to get a Lv 60 Skell before getting that? Or is it possible to kill everything for a 100% survey world rate with just a Lv 50 Skell?

Last question: the most efficient way to get reward tickets is still killing the global nemesis for body parts, right? Is that efficient enough to just use a Lv.50 Armadues skell, or should I not even bother until I have the Ares doing that?
 

eaise

Neo Member
Hah, try getting it on the 60 variant vs the 50. Hell, just try getting a 60 at all. If it's anything like my game, you'll be there for hours before you see a 60 drop. And then you have the same chance of it getting the mag-msl as with the 50s. Fun stuff. =P

Edit: Getting the 50s is a cakewalk though compared to the time and effort needed for other builds. Since the build relies on the OD more than anything else, it's quite simplistic, and you're given a lot of leeway with how you deck the rest of the skell out with.


I'm farming the Milsaadi near FN 513 who drop the 50. I can't imagine how hard farming for the 60 is

Finally got one with the right Aug as I was typing this! One down one to go!

EDIT: I just got a 60 too. I'll make do with the one 50 and one 60 for now
 
I'm farming the Milsaadi near FN 513 who drop the 50. I can't imagine how hard farming for the 60 is

Finally got one with the right Aug as I was typing this! One down one to go!

EDIT: I just got a 60 too. I'll make do with the one 50 and one 60 for now

You only need one with mag aug, the other side of arm of the same type will copy the function (sidearm specific ability). The downside, it will make the one with mag aug a bit weaker.
 

Zalusithix

Member
Question:

I am getting ready to finish the main game/ Ch.12 this weekend. After I do that my goals are to 100% Mira survey.

I really don't want to do the most tedious grinding for the XX Aguments, so what's the best way to go about that? Should I just Telethia for reward tickets and buy everything I need, or does it actually feel less grindy to hunt down the mats myself?

And is Area 90 is the best Skell, do I need to get a Lv 60 Skell before getting that? Or is it possible to kill everything for a 100% survey world rate with just a Lv 50 Skell?

Last question: the most efficient way to get reward tickets is still killing the global nemesis for body parts, right? Is that efficient enough to just use a Lv.50 Armadues skell, or should I not even bother until I have the Ares doing that?

Going by the old logic, you'd typically get the Ares 90 to farm for a 60 skell and requisite augs. 60s start weaker, but with enough work they can exceed the Ares. I'd say the more recent way would involve getting a diskbomb Lailah setup first. It wont be able to kill everything quickly, but it will be extremely hardy. It also provides an avenue for an appendage breaker build for farming Yggy which is essential for efficient ticket farming. Neither the diskbombs nor M-Missiles (for appendages) are things that require a good skell to obtain. In fact, the M-Missiles are done without one at all. It wont take long for the Lailah to be breaking all the appendages faster than the Ares could ever hope to.

I wouldn't recommend a 50 skell for Yggy. He use gravity and 50 skells and below suck for gravity resist. I suppose with a full appendage breaker build you would be able to do it before he killed you, but eh...
You only need one with mag aug, the other side of arm of the same type will copy the function (sidearm specific ability). The downside, it will make the one with mag aug a bit weaker.

I know that it copied *down* for me. With one with mag-msl and one without, it treated both as not having any mag-msl. I can't remember if I flipped which hand each was used by.
 

eaise

Neo Member
You only need one with mag aug, the other side of arm of the same type will copy the function (sidearm specific ability). The downside, it will make the one with mag aug a bit weaker.

Good to know. That's awesome! Thanks for the info

EDIT: Do they both have to be 60s for it to copy or if one is 50 will it still work?
 

Zalusithix

Member
Good to know. That's awesome! Thanks for the info

EDIT: Do they both have to be 60s for it to copy or if one is 50 will it still work?

The "lets pretend neither one of these has mag-msl" copy worked on both 50-50 and 50-60 for me. Just try it and see if it works for you. It's quite evident if it is or isn't working (or working backwards in my case). If you see giant clouds of numbers from both, it's working. If you see only a few, it's not (or acting in reverse like it did for me).

Edit: I do plan on exploring this bug more tonight. I figured it was just a "lowest always wins" sort of thing, but obviously there's something else to it if somebody got the mag-msl to copy. I wont use it to my advantage even if I do figure it out, because it's most certainly not the intended result. Still, it has piqued my curiosity.
 

Karanlos

Member
I'm having so much trouble with my Wii U and external storage. My hard drive is connected with a Y cable and I've tried both external power supply and putting both into my wii U but it get's disconnected after a while and comes up with the error message.
Any know a solution? I have disabled the spindown thingy in the data management tool.
Only had this issue with xenoblade and I don't know what to do about it other than use internal memory...
 

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
Going by the old logic, you'd typically get the Ares 90 to farm for a 60 skell and requisite augs. 60s start weaker, but with enough work they can exceed the Ares. I'd say the more recent way would involve getting a diskbomb Lailah setup first. It wont be able to kill everything quickly, but it will be extremely hardy. It also provides an avenue for an appendage breaker build for farming Yggy which is essential for efficient ticket farming. Neither the diskbombs nor M-Missiles (for appendages) are things that require a good skell to obtain. In fact, the M-Missiles are done without one at all. It wont take long for the Lailah to be breaking all the appendages faster than the Ares could ever hope to.

I wouldn't recommend a 50 skell for Yggy. He use gravity and 50 skells and below suck for gravity resist. I suppose with a full appendage breaker build you would be able to do it before he killed you, but eh...
.


Okay so, to summarize:

Get diskbomb Laliah setup (What the hell is that? Laliah is the name of the Skell and diskbomb is the name of the Art or the weapn?) Where do you get a Diskbomb(s)?

Then, I should go for the Ares 90,

THEN, I should go for ticket farming (killing the Global Nemesis Telethia), and buy my Aguments that way(?).

Is that all correct?
 

eaise

Neo Member
Okay so, to summarize:

Get diskbomb Laliah setup (What the hell is that? Laliah is the name of the Skell and diskbomb is the name of the Art or the weapn?) Where do you get a Diskbomb(s)?

Then, I should go for the Ares 90,

THEN, I should go for ticket farming (killing the Global Nemesis Telethia), and buy my Aguments that way(?).

Is that all correct?

Ares 90 first. Then farm for Laliah and discbombs (high level Milsaadi drop them, but make sure they come w Custom Magazine upgrade Aug) this will be stronger than the Ares 90. And is customizeable so you can use the ME-M Missiles which are good for farming Yggy
 

Zalusithix

Member
Ares 90 first. Then farm for Laliah and discbombs (high level Milsaadi drop them, but make sure they come w Custom Magazine upgrade Aug) this will be stronger than the Ares 90. And is customizeable so you can use the ME-M Missiles which are good for farming Yggy
My suggestion was actually not getting the Ares 90 first (or potentially at all) - contrary to the typical suggestions. Getting the Lailah is as easy as getting the Ares, and unlike the Ares, will quickly be able to break parts off Yggy extremely fast. The faster you can farm Yggy, the faster you can upgrade and do other things.

It's also super survivable, so while it wont be one shotting things, it should be able to kill most things even while modestly geared.

I view the Ares 90 -> 60 skell progression as something that predates the knowledge of the appendage crusher builds. Without those builds, the Ares makes total sense. With them, the Ares isn't really needed anymore. Fine to get if you want the skell, but not needed otherwise.

Okay so, to summarize:

Get diskbomb Laliah setup (What the hell is that? Laliah is the name of the Skell and diskbomb is the name of the Art or the weapn?) Where do you get a Diskbomb(s)?

Then, I should go for the Ares 90,

THEN, I should go for ticket farming (killing the Global Nemesis Telethia), and buy my Aguments that way(?).

Is that all correct?
Lailah is a skell, yes. Diskbombs are a sidearm dropped by Misaldi Savages slightly south and down the mountain from 513 (right at the sharp bend). The goal is to get ones with MAG-MSL on them and then upgrade those traits. In addition to doing good damage, they allow extremely fast GP gain. Combined with the 6k GP of the Lailah and an OD that reduces incoming damage, constantly heals the skell, and makes it immune to debuffs, you're more or less left with a skell that is constantly in tank mode.

The M-Missiles (ME & SA variants) are shoulder weapons that drop from pugaliths. The best bet being the Judge Pugaliths in the Ganglion Antropolis. (Definian downfall quest chain to open that area.) They target every single appendage on a target. Combined with appendage crush augments (crush.append xx), this allows the skell to break Yggy's parts quickly and abandon to collect them. I once again refer to my average run on Yggy. The Lailah wont be capable of doing it quite that quick**, but it'll still be faster than an Ares 90. And use basically no fuel while doing it.

**A Lailah with Inferno armor and the ME M-Missiles will be able to, but I'm referring to a stock Lailah.

Edit: As for what a diskbomb Lailah is like, I refer you to Yggy and Pharsis. You'll notice the diskbombs quickly boost the GP which is used to stay in OD. Obviously this isn't a stock Lailah, but the diskbombs are all it takes to enable the constant OD.
 

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
Ares 90 first. Then farm for Laliah and discbombs (high level Milsaadi drop them, but make sure they come w Custom Magazine upgrade Aug) this will be stronger than the Ares 90. And is customizeable so you can use the ME-M Missiles which are good for farming Yggy

Damn so getting an awesome ground game via arguments is one of the last things you can do efficiently? Bummer.
 
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