question regarding "trigger points" in a game

[Halpog]

hi all
i got some questions regarding some trigger points in x4, that sets stuff in motion

my overall question is :
is there any way to make things happen "later" or " slower" ?

when i start a new game, i know at certain points for example khaak plopps up. or xenons start to invade other faction sectors. produce ships and so on.
when i start a new game now, and just dont do anything after all, i mean i just fly arround , scan stations, not realy exploring sectors where i know there is war and action, and lets say i just explore 3 to 4 sectors.

will everything else going on in the "background" like full scale wars, xenon activities ,or does all this needs some kind of triggering, like exploring 10 sectors makes xenon start to invade sectors ?

[Alan Phipps]

I think the levels of aggression and expansion are more to do with the random seed chosen at gamestart and how resources and key station locations differ from start to start. Sometimes Xenon or HOP (as examples) will find getting resources for their capital patrols and doom fleets quite difficult early on, other starts they have all they need to start expanding almost from the off.

[Halpog]

so it basicaly , makes no differenz, when i start a game, and just stay lets say in 2 sectors and dont explore much and just fly arround for days. other things will still happen in the background , no matter of what iam doing ?

hmm is there any kind of formula or explanation how the seed outcome and there numbers work ?
the only thing i know so far is that when i use always the same seeds the stations are at the same spot

i mean lets say a seed number of 100 .. what it does compared to 10.000 ? or 5000 ?

[jlehtone]

so it basicaly , makes no differenz, when i start a game, and just stay lets say in 2 sectors and dont explore much and just fly arround for days. other things will still happen in the background , no matter of what iam doing ?

Yes. Almost. The game "simulation" rolls on nevertheless.

What you do -- ranging from trading and building furiously, through doing absolutely nothing, to killing everyone in sight -- does affect NPC assets. If you do trade, support local economy, it can produce a bit more and some of it flows to the sectors you don't see. One faction can keep a bit more ships in action than other faction and power shifts slightly.

hmm is there any kind of formula or explanation how the seed outcome and there numbers work ?
the only thing i know so far is that when i use always the same seeds the stations are at the same spot

Do you know the simple pseudo-random generator? Lets make a roulette wheel that has numbers from 1 to 9.
In "random" order, i.e. not 1, 2, .. 8, 9. For example: 8, 2, 7, 9, 3, 4, 1, 6, 5.

Now pick one slot, say 7th from "start". Start reading numbers from the slots.
You will get: 1, 6, 5, 8, 2, 7, 9, 3, 4, 1, 6, ...
The 7th slot was your "seed". I'll use seed "3rd", and will get: 7, 9, 3, 4, 1, 6, 5, 8, ...

Every time you pick "7" as the seed, you will get the same serie of numbers. The wheel used by the game is bigger,
not 9 numbers -- probably billions. If you pick a different seed, then you start from different slot in the wheel.

Lets say that the first five numbers are used to place first five Xenon ships, with 50% there/not there.
With 8, 2, 7, 9, 3 you get three Xenon ships. With 7, 9, 3, 4, 1 I do get only two Xenon ships.

After the Galaxy has been generated, the ships get orders. Still affected by the RNG, but partially based on
what the NPC has. It could be that game logic does send three ships to raid, but if there are only two, they wait.

[Halpog]

ahh ok got it thnx )