Xenoblade Chronicles X (4th Dec)

[peterl0]

Yep, @Serebii is right it would seem:

 

http://www.gonintendo.com/stories/247513-europe-getting-xenoblade-chronicles-x-data-packs-prior-to-release

 

Edited November 25, 2015 by peterl0
Automerged Doublepost

[Hero-of-Time]

[peterl0]

Just reading this on the multi-player modes. After initially thinking it would be bad I am actually pretty interested in this now.

The guy on this reddit has finally precisely detailed how it works:

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Xenoblade_Chronicles/comments/3u77rz/xenoblade_x_multiplayer_information_thread/

 

 

A while ago I was in a position where I felt like so little was known about the multiplayer and it was frustrating as it was one of the core elements of the game I was looking forward to. I'm going to answer pretty much any questions you may possibly have about the multiplayer. I'm paying it forward. Now I know pretty much all there is to know, so here's how it works. There are 3 core parts to the multiplayer features in Xenoblade X. I'll outline them, then explain them in detail, 1 by 1.

Squads.

Squad Missions.

Divisions.

Squads

Squads are the "passive" multiplayer feature of Xenoblade X. At any moment as long as your Wii U is actively connected to the internet, you will be grouped with 31 other players also adventuring on Mira, making a 32 person squad that is actively connected to one another in a handful of ways. First thing of note, this does not mean you can see their actual avatars adventuring around the world a'la an actual MMORPG, but what it does mean is the following...

You can't see the actual players, but you can see NPC versions of their avatars adventuring around the world. When you see them, you can interact with them, and even invite them to your party. They will earn experience (for the actual player), and you gain a temporary, and possibly quite valuable (depending on their level) ally. I believe their membership in your party expires after a couple of hours so do as much as you can with them to get the most out of their help (assuming their character is equipped lvl/gear-wise to help you).

You can send messages out for your entire squad to see. You might do this for a few reasons, to give some advice about something you've found, or in general just send out a message because you're feeling social. Everyone in your squad has the ability to "+1" your messages, and messages that receive a lot of +1's will be broadcast to the entire playerbase.

You can hold a "Treasure Deal" that anyone in your squad can opt-in to participate in. This is sort of like trading but less direct. When you find an item you don't need but feel it would be a waste to just throw away, you can put the item up for a Treasure Deal to your squad. People will opt-in and basically it's a dice roll for the item between everyone who opted in.

The last purpose of squads are Squad Objectives. Every 2 hours (cmiiw) you receive 5 kill objectives. If you've seen any footage of XBCX you'll often notice the UI for it in the bottom right. A selection of 5 monsters and a counter under each one, showin the progress. Players within your squad must work together to clear these squad objectives by killing the according number of monsters that the counter dictates. Whenever you clear each of the 5 objectives, it will increase the number of Squad Missions you can run when you teleport back to NLA and check the mission counter. More on Squad Missions later.

To round out my explanation of squads, I'll have you know that when you launch the game, it gives you three options...

Join a squad filled with solo-minded players.

You would join this squad if you simply want to reap the benefits of the social networking that being in a squad can provide you such as messages and occasional treasure deals, contribute at your own pace to your division, but not feel obligated to work on squad objectives. Choose this option if you're not interested in workings towards multiplayer squad missions and simply want to pick your own activities and play at your own pace without pressure. You can also ignore all of the above if you'd like.

Join a squad with multiplayer-minded players.

Choose this option if you want to be in a squad with other players who will be putting effort in to completing the squad objectives with the intention of unlocking the multiplayer squad missions, along with all the above-stated benefits of being in a squad.

Join a squad with your friends.

You can select this option to be grouped in to a squad with selected friends whom you have their NNID who are currently at the time, exploring Mira in a squad of their own. Do clarify which type of squad (1 or 2) your friend is in, because if you choose this option it completely skips your preference and simply groups you with your chosen friend/s. Make sure you decide together what kind of squad you want to be in.

Squad Missions

This is the core multiplayer component of Xenoblade Chronicles X. Once you pop any of the 5 squad objectives spoken about in the above text, it will unlock a number of missions at the blade mission board back at your BLADE HQ. These missions can be tackled in a party of up to 4 other real players, which is formed through invites which can be sent out simply by scanning a list of your entire squad. You can observe all 31 of your squad mates' levels, class, gear, and make a decision whether you'd like to invite them or not. No matter where they are on planet mira, they can accept your invite, however they can also decline if they wish not to run a mission with you so try to invite as many friends as you can for maximum fun. If you are unable to fill your party, you may fill gaps in your party with any of your BLADE NPC characters such as Elma or Lin. It is possible to enter these missions by yourself, simply accompanied by 3 NPCs, and some of the easier missions are cleared easily in this way, but with higher level/more difficult missions you will want to bring as many actual human players as you can in your party for reasons I will explain later.

Clearing 1 out of 5 objectives will often unlock a low level mission or two at the mission table, this might discourage you to hear, but no fear! Monolith Soft was aware of this conundrum, so they've set Level cap thresholds for every single multiplayer mission. That means if you're level 50, and you go in to a multiplayer mission that was designated as lvl 20 difficulty, you will be scaled down to lvl 25 or so. This means that while you will still reap the benefits of your earned arts, gear, and of course your practical experience, it isn't an utter and complete face-roll for you, which would make running these missions pointless. The rewards at the end of the mission will give you possibly rare loot, depending on the enemies you tackled within said mission, and squad vouchers which you can spend near the mission table on various special items like for your collectapedia. I've also seen useful consumable items on that list.

That being said, as you clear the 2/5th objective, the 3/5th objective, and get closer and closer to clearing all 5 objectives, the amount of missions that begin to unlock at the mission table increases exponentially. Where popping the first objective may net you 1-2 somewhat lower level/easy difficulty missions. Clearing a 2nd objective will get you 2-3 more missions of higher difficulty/rarer loots.

Logically, you can presume that in order to be qualified for the biggest, baddest monsters and the rarest, strongest loot, you need to unlock the missions that come with clearing all 5 objectives. This is how you will increase and maximize your chances of getting a "World Enemy" mission which is taking down a fearsome boss which is undoubtedly going to drop you some sick loot. If you join multiplayer-minded squads, aim for clearing the squad objectives! Monsters in Xenoblade X can range all the way up to lvl 99+, so you will never trivialize the content, only make it more manageable (the maximum character level is much less than 99, I'll be unspecific to avoid possible spoilers for people).

Multiplayer Mission Gameplay

There are a few things you need to know about actually playing in multiplayer missions before you jump in guns blazing so you can get the most out of your experience before winding up getting owned. You are generally put in to a slightly corded off area, unable to venture too far off the beaten path, and you are guided along the mission objectives by means of enemy spawn waves in the direction you should be going. Don't get me wrong, the beautiful world of Mira is still all around you, they just limit your freedom of exploration a bit during these missions. As an example, there's a really easy, low level mission that has you moving through a path up a mountain in Primordia. You will clear a handful of waves of different Primordian indigens before being confronted by a very large and threatening boss monster at the peak of the hill. This mission can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes depending on how efficient your party is. As you tackle missions of harder difficulty, this can vary wildly, as you might expect.

You are allowed a maximum of 3 deaths. This means 3 times that your HP can deplete to 0. After your third death, you are RIP permanently for the rest of the mission, and the liklihood of your party mates clearing the mission decreases exponentially without your help. This means that playing intelligently is in your benefit. Don't be a Leeroy.

Soul Voice mechanics are in full effect in multiplay missions. Since there is no dedicated healing class in Xenoblade X, it is absolutely in your interest for you to execute the Soul Voice skills you've been harnessing while out exploring the planet Mira. Successfully nailing Soul Voice nets you valuable group healing that can be crucial to your ability to clear these missions without too much casualty.

If you play a class that is better suited to be taking damage, do try to take aggro. This goes mostly for "Striker" tier classes. Other classes aren't nearly as good at soaking damage as you are, so do your best to maximize your damage and keep the monster focusing on you!

You are able to chat and emote to your party through the Wii Gamepad, so do your best to be as social as you can to avoid making it boring if it's your zillionth time through a quest due to bad RNG for the drops you want. The game is also compatible with a USB keyboard, if you so desire. Try to be nice!

Divisions

You pick a divison early on in the game, and you may have read about them a bit, but these are essentially organizations that you align yourself with in order to receive various organization-specific buffs, while also receiving a bonus to the rewards of completing your organizations's favored activities.

For example, Interceptors and Harriers both benefit more from killing monsters than other divisions, but Interceptors provide a bonus to Ranged damage, while Harriers gain a bonus to melee damage. It is important to pick a division that supports your style of play not just in combat, but based on what you like doing out of combat too. Pathfinders gain extra points by exploring uncharted territory, Outfitters get a boost to how quickly they gain commercial points with gear companies, allowing them to craft higher quality gear quicker.

Each division has a combat benefit, and a certainly activity outside of combat that will net you more division points by doing. A player of any division is not limited to only their divisions' preferred activity. A Harrier can do pathfinder activities, and a Pathfinder can do Harrier things, but you only boost your division by doing activities preferred by your division. Essentially, picking a division doesn't lock you out of content, it just decides which content rewards you more. So pick the division that aligns with your playstyle and the way you like to play!

How is this related to network functions?

In the BLADE HQ there is a rankings board that tallies daily. You can see which divisions have done the most work towards their conquest of Mira. A new tally is taken every day, so every day is a new chance for you to work towards boosting your division to the top. Divisions that reach the top at the end of a tally will experience being "boosted". Being boosted means possibly better drops while exploring Mira!

You might initially be thinking that people can bandwagon hop to the best performing division, and you wouldn't be so witty to suggest the idea, as it's already been thought of by players in Japan already playing the game! To combat the notion of switching simply to reap the benefits of a boost you didn't earn, they have balanced the point gain among the divisions in a way where every single division has a chance to reach the top, it just depends on how much effort you want to put in to it on a given day, as every new day as a new chance for your division to be high on the list. It's not just the #1 ranking division that wins a boost by the way! Sometimes it can even be the top 3! So do your best and keep your division high on the rankings! This is why it's all the more important you pick a division that suits you on every front, so that you're earning points for doing what you enjoy, so you don't get tired of it .

All of these these network features are seamlessly integrated with the "single-player" experience. That means you take your own character, un-changed, exactly as they are in to these multiplayer missions, with the exception of the effects of level scaling depending on the mission you're doing, as I explained earlier. The whole point of these features are to make you feel as though this isn't really a single player experience. That you are not alone on Mira, and that you are one of money BLADE missionaries doing your part to conquer and discover the planet of Mira, carving a niche for the human race in to their new home of which they've been forced to grow accustomed to.

If you have any more questions, do please ask. I tried to address basically every single important question a person might have, so hopefully that's that!

 

[S.C.G]

That's a really detailed analysis of the multiplayer features, I feel as if I know more about it but can't help but feel a summarised version would help get the information across easier.

 

But I get the general idea of it I think which is good. : peace:

[Kounan]

This is a long text.

 

Is the lvl of your character only dependent of your on-line play, or do you transfer it from you single player (OK, that wouldn't make sense, as you would clear the campaing quite easily after you lvl up in online)?

[peterl0]

I think the level ups are the same as in the single player mode. The multi-player specific battles where 4 of you team up, are I imagine, locked behind the online part of the game though (they would be harder). I think it will be easier to complete the campaign having completed the online quests - best to think of it more like a single player mode with online elements that happen during the campaign.

[Kounan]

I've just preordered the game, I want it physical, so what ever happens online, doesn't really matter.

[Blade]

How much are the packs going to be then?

[killthenet]

I think the data packs are free, but you obviously need a physical copy of the game for them to work. Whereas if you buy a digital copy of the game, the data packs are already included with the game data that you download. It's going to be quite a big download from the sounds of things, glad that I'll be getting the physical version.

[Kounan]

I've just started to look at the guide videos, oh man, is this a big game. They say about 120h campaing and 300h if you want to complete all the sidequest not related to the main quest. For me it will probably take longer as I tend to spend a lot of time at the beggining of the game to learn the basics.

 

There are "some" interesting things, like a boss with a crown that shows how many players it has killed. Does it mean it will collect data from other people campaing games and share it with everyone (which I would like), or is it something else?

 

The only thing I don't like so much are party members, as I prefer to go alone (I am not talking about multiplayer), but as long as I don't have to control them I am fine with that. I would also like that if a party member dies he is dead for good, but it will not probably happen.

[Grazza]

The only thing I don't like so much are party members, as I prefer to go alone (I am not talking about multiplayer), but as long as I don't have to control them I am fine with that.

 

That's actually standard for an RPG, but I agree with you about having to control them in an action game.

 

RPGs used to be turn-based so, for example, you'd enter your command for the main character, then the 2nd member of the team, then the 3rd member... and so on. Your team would do what you'd instructed, then the enemy would have their turn. From about Final Fantasy XII onward, RPGs began to be action-based (in real-time), but you still have to give your team the basic idea of what to do.

 

I can't remember much about Xenoblade, but I remember one strategy when fighting robots was to have a character perform "Break". This made it easier for another character to perform "Topple", which itself made attacks more efficient. I couldn't get on with it personally.

 

What I'm saying is that you'll probably have to give your whole team commands throughout the game. (Or did I just massively misunderstand the previous entry?)

[Kounan]

That's what I am talking about and that is my problem as it is an action game and I had to stop Dragon Age because of that (but also different aproach to the controls was a bigger problem, as I prefer first/third person control).

 

If I have understood the guides properly, you don't really have to controll them to much during the fight, so I can live with that as long as they do a good job (in Dragon Age they just wouldn't do what I wanted them to do), but I am not sure.

[Glen-i]

That's what I am talking about and that is my problem as it is an action game and I had to stop Dragon Age because of that (but also different aproach to the controls was a bigger problem, as I prefer first/third person control).

 

If I have understood the guides properly, you don't really have to controll them to much during the fight, so I can live with that as long as they do a good job (in Dragon Age they just wouldn't do what I wanted them to do), but I am not sure.

 

Xenoblade generally had good AI (Except for Shulk and Melia). They did their jobs exceptionally well. I never felt they were letting me down.

[Kounan]

Xenoblade generally had good AI (Except for Shulk and Melia). They did their jobs exceptionally well. I never felt they were letting me down.

 

Are these characters going to be in X? Do I have to take them? Plus, I hope that they have fixed it.

[Glen-i]

Are these characters going to be in X? Do I have to take them? Plus, I hope that they have fixed it.

 

Oh no, none of the main characters from the original are in this. (As far as I know) I'm just telling you what I thought of the party AI in the Wii game.

[Kounan]

Oh no, none of the main characters from the original are in this. (As far as I know) I'm just telling you what I thought of the party AI in the Wii game.

 

Ah OK, so I can really hope that the AI will be good again and I hope better.

 

Btw. it looks like there were a lot of pre-orders, I am just reading that Amazon.fr has sold out the limited and regular edition, I just don't know how many they had in stock.

 

Generally people seem to be excited about this game and it could move a few consoles if the player reviews are good, but i definitely expect good sale numbers at the end.

[Kounan]

Takahashi's castle: An RPG master's journey from Final Fantasy to Xenoblade

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-11-29-takahashis-castle-the-man-behind-xenoblades-breathtaking-worlds

 

I've decided to give the VC Xenoblade Chronicles a try, so I have bought it, I hope it looks nice on the gamepad.

 

I just don't know how clever was it to do that just before the XCX goes on sale, I guess I know what I will be playing in the next few months .

[Ike]

The data packs are listed in this week's releases PR in case people were worried we won't be getting them. Doesn't look like there will be the ability to preload though.

 

You also get a £10/€10 discount if you downloaded Xenoblade Chronicles from the Wii VC (making it £40.99/€49.99).

[Serebii]

The data packs are listed in this week's releases PR in case people were worried we won't be getting them. Doesn't look like there will be the ability to preload though.

 

You also get a £10/€10 discount if you downloaded Xenoblade Chronicles from the Wii VC (making it £40.99/€49.99).

And considering that for today Xenoblade Chronicles is €9.99, you may as well if you haven't already

 

So, I have today to decide if I want to get Xenoblade Chronicles X as a download. If I get the Wii one today, it essentially covers the cost

[Kounan]

The packs are available for download.

[S.C.G]

Downloading all of them now...

 

10492MB total, Time remaining 1 hour and 30 minutes over Wireless on a Fibre connection. : peace:

[david.dakota]

Should I go digital with this? Understand that data packs are for disk only, does this mean the disk version is bought up to speed with digital or will the digital version end up being slower to load?

[Serebii]

Should I go digital with this? Understand that data packs are for disk only, does this mean the disk version is bought up to speed with digital or will the digital version end up being slower to load?

Digital has them built into the overall package

[Sheikah]

Eurogamer just gave this an essential rating. Reading their review, this is making me a lot more interested than I was a month ago. Think I'll be asking for this as a Christmas present.

[Hero-of-Time]

Eurogamer just gave this an essential rating. Reading their review, this is making me a lot more interested than I was a month ago. Think I'll be asking for this as a Christmas present.

 

Yeah, the praise seems to be quite high from most outlets, which is good to see. Not surprising really, especially given how well Xenoblade Chronicles was received.