#I’ll play the main quests once I have teleportation points all across the map

[klmt1]

When my dog is back home this Sunday I will resume my pre-move efforts. She has a schedule of her own that will keep me accountable. But for the next 3 days, I’m Tears of the Kingdom-ing it non-stop

[msbarrows]

Think I’m pretty much finished with the Aerie; finally built across the back of that top area, for one. Need to take some time at some point to do a final pass to check for wrong-variation walls and add a little more decor to it (though not much, I really like its abandoned look), and maybe do a full photoset showing off the final overview and some favourite details.

Finished the expedition yesterday, yay! So I have all the build/cosmetic rewards from that.

Meanwhile on the main save, I’ve been having fun with things like repairing mostly-invisible frigates (which a reload doesn’t always fix but warping to another system usually does - but if it’s a layout I’ve already fixed a half dozen times and recognize well enough to path through without seeing all of it, why bother). Though I learned the hard way not to try pathing through one I don’t recognize; yup, managed to fall off a frigate and have an entertaining few seconds falling towards my freighter before I hit reload. Thankfully I’d done a manual save shortly before porting out to the frigate (the one that showed me that reloads don’t always fix semi-invisible ships, in fact), so very little game time was lost.

Tripped over a space gate anomaly and I am kicking myself because I decided I wanted to be able to port back to the system I was in and finish the quest I was on (I’d just relocated its target from elsewhere in the galaxy) so I decided to hit the space station first. I could swear I’ve encountered anomalies before and had them remain on the solar system map as a place I could return to, but either I’m misremembering, or it just doesn’t do that for space gates. Doubly irritating since I’d just been thinking shortly beforehand that it’d be nice to find a space gate again, instead of going black hole diving to move to a different section of the galaxy. I’ll know better next time at least :(

Since the Aerie is 99% done, and I’m still looking for a spot for the City of Atlantis, I started considering what other ambitious build I might want to give a try on this save. Found myself thinking about castles on snowy mountain peaks, like Neuschwanstein Castle. Then considered that the one milestone I hadn’t maxed out again yet was survival on extreme planets. And I had multiple portpoints in a system that included several wrecks marked on a mountainous extreme cold planet... so yeah, I’m officially crazy, and have begun playing around with building a castle on a saddle between peaks in the middle of nowhere (okay so there is a spot nearby I could set up a silver mine at, but that’s just random chance).

There’s a cave opening on one side of the bit of land, so I’ve walled it closed and it served as my storm shelter while I got the first few bits of stuff built (stairs down to it visible in that final photo). Built a gatehouse to start, then a landing area for my starship, then started on building a small castle (more of a keep, really) around a courtyard. Currently have the teleport ring in the courtyard, which given the severity of storms here is definitely Bad Design - they’re frequent blinding whiteouts, complete with numerous extreme wind events. Guess how many times I’ve already been sucked out of incomplete structures.

The answer is three - the first time I had just started on walling off the area under the landing pad, so did what I often do during storms and just ducked underneath to continue building from below. Usually as soon as I’m under a roof I stop having storm effects. Not so much in this case... apparently once you’ve seen the “extreme wind conditions” message it’s already too late, your only hope is to get into a fully enclosed area (or your starship or other vehicle). You’ll still get tugged around the room a little, but at least you won’t be in danger of being sucked out by the winds. Which, yes, I was dragged out from under the landing pad. And later dragged out an archway of the gatehouse (which taught me to get up the second floor in there if I got the message). And again later out of the roof of the great hall, which was missing one roof piece and its end gables - apparently I backed up too close to that end of the hall while putting up gables at the fully roofed over end, so the game decided I wasn’t under cover any more and hit me with the message. Finished placing the gable, ran for the doorway into the fully enclosed room next to the hall, didn’t make it before the wind got me.

And of course I’m unhappy with the look of a lot of what I’ve built so far, so will probably be tearing the majority of it down and starting over, because right now it’s too small medieval keep and not enough looming fairy tale castle. Might even strip it out entirely and relocate, since while this spot has great views, it’s a bit short on having a big enough flattish area.

Also, I adore how much easier building is now that I’ve gotten the hang of selecting the specific building tile variations I want instead of leaving it to the game to assign.

[sentientgenesis]

Affinity War

As Shulk and Reyn enter into Colony 9, a few establishing shots are shown of different districts and people in the colony with music playing in the background. As well as “Colony 9″ shown in bright blue letters next to a not to scale image of Bionis. With a red dot showing that Colony 9 is located in a large bowl shaped cavity on the Bionis’ right calf. This cavity is directly underneath the Bionis’ right thigh, so, as described in the area maps section of the menu, the Colony often suffers from falling debris, since the Bionis is so old. Each time the player enters into a new area, the player will be shown a few establishing shots of the area and where the area is located.

Reyn heads off to the colony defense force HQ while Shulk heads off to the Weapon Development Lab. This leaves the player with only Shulk in the party, for now. What the player is then meant to do is just casually stroll through the colony over to the Weapon Development Lab, but you actually don’t have to at all. The entirety of this area is open for you to explore, with the only limits being how well you can dodge enemies that can be up to 70 levels higher than you at this point! No, that isn’t a typo, there are monsters that are around 70 levels higher than Shulk and Reyn at this point. Having ridiculously higher leveled monster placed in lower level areas is going to be a reoccurring trend, most of the time however, these powerful monsters will be placed in generally far off or hard to reach areas, so they won’t be giving you much trouble. Unfortunately, during my first time playing this game, I didn’t know about this trend and became incapacitated for the first time here while exploring. In this game, becoming incapacitated, which is the same thing as dying in other rpgs, won’t leave you to have to reload a save file, instead the player and the party are teleported to the landmark they last visited in the area. Becoming incapacitated for the first time will reward the player with the achievement “Come On, Cheer Up!“ and some experience, although, the entire party has to be incapacitated, not just the leader, who the player controls.

I mentioned that upon incapacitation, the player will be teleported to the last previously visited Landmark. But, what are Landmarks? Landmarks are special locations that are in every area of the game, Landmarks are special because the player can fast travel between different areas and in between areas using them. Fast traveling using Landmarks for the first time will give the player the achievement, “Skip It”. Discovering a Landmark for the first time will reward the achievement “First Steps”. Locations in Xenoblade Chronicles are places like Landmarks, but much farther spread out. For example, a Landmark could be a wreckage site, while a location could be an entire shore.

Now with that out of the way, there are things to see, people to talk to, and places to explore all open simultaneously to the player at once. But I think most of it’s better saved for when Reyn is back in the party, so I’ll mostly be talking about what’s on the way to the Weapon Development Lab. First, the main entrance for Colony 9 is a Landmark and not too far away from it is a shop, most towns will have the shop at the entrance in a similar fashion. I’ll being skipping over the shop for now until Reyn is back in party. The shop is located in the Commercial District of Colony 9 and next to another Landmark in this district, the Ether Light. The Ether Light is like a giant lamp of sorts made from ether energy, it only glows at night and doesn’t pollute the environment in any way. The people in town are even exactly sure how it works yet. In the Commercial District are some Colony 9 residents, some of them are named, some aren’t, both however can offer quests. Whenever someone has a white exclamation mark over their head, that means they have quest available. These quests are usually something basic such as killing monsters or finding items, these quests may seem like busy work, but honestly, I usually just come across the monsters they want me to fight or items they want me to find while I’m wandering around. These quests can reward money experience or items, they’re usually pretty worth your time. Completing quests also raises the party’s affinity with the area’s inhabitants. Quests can be viewed within the quest log section of the menu. For completing a quest for the first time, the player gets the achievement “Problem Solved!” and for ten quests (excluding story quests) the player gets the achievement “Helpful Stranger!”

Along with accepting quests, if a person is named, they can trade with you. Trading is what it sounds like, the player offers an item of similar value that they don’t need for something that they do need for quests and such. As the part’s affinity with an area’s inhabitants increases, so will the number of items named individuals can trade to you. Successfully trading for the first time will reward the “ Equivalent Exchange” achievement. Now that I’ve mentioned affinity a couple times, what is it? Affinity in Xenoblade Chronicles is basically a relationship status, affinity can be increased or decreased with your party, within named inhabitants of an area, or within the party and just the area inhabitants in general. Affinity can be viewed by looking at the Affinity Chart within the menu. Affinity between the party and an area’s inhabitants is rated with stars, the party beings with 1 star for each new area. The affinity between party members is rated with cute little emotional and colored icons.1st is yellow and lowest, 2nd is green, 3rd is blue, 4th is white, and 5th is pink. Shulk and Reyn start at yellow, despite their lifelong friendship, and each new party member starts at yellow affinity with every other party member. This rating also applies for named individuals in a area, except they have 2 more levels. Which is a red angry face, showing that those 2 characters really don’t like each other and a orange face that shows that they don’t care for each other much. To unlock the Affinity Chart, the player has to talk to one named npc (non-playable character), this will also unlock them the achievement “Your First Friend”. My first friend in this game was Liliana, who is a 9 year old who’s dad is dead and dearly missed by her. For talking to and registering 10 people in the Affinity Chart, the player gets the achievement “Friend Number Ten”.

As you make your way through the main entrance and into the Commercial District, you’ll find that Shulk will gain massive amounts of experience and even level ups. This is because upon discovering locations and Landmarks, that’s exactly what you get, with Landmarks giving more EXP (experience) than locations. This game rewards you for being an explorer and seeing as much as you can and is one my favorite aspects of this game due to how satisfying it is.

Farther along the path to the Weapon Development Lab is another Landmark, the Gem Man’s Stall. As the name may imply it’s where a unnamed resident creates gems using a furnace, at the moment these aren’t too helpful you don’t actually have the ability to make gems yourself, so I’ll get back to him later..The last Landmark for today is the Central Plaza. Colony 9 is made up of 3 districts, with the Central Plaza connecting the three. Now that we’re almost at the Weapon Development Lab, I’ll stop here since quite a bit of this post was about basic things to do in towns in Xenoblade Chronicles.

Today’s track is the theme inside Colony 9, during the day. One note that I’d like to make is that in the Commercial District, chattering and mumbling can be heard over the track, and only during the day.

Colony 9 introduction from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YEhVPZjgMk