Make Xenons great again

[nemo1887]

before the 4.0 the xenons was strong but not too much , they invaded areas it was hard to calm them but we managed , I saw the difference with a backup or several sectors xenons that sent a lot of ships with 3.0 + and now with the same backup and always in the same period the xenons are like asleep! the problem = pass the backup to 4.0!!!

[Axeface]

Ive actually put playing X4 on hold because of this (unmodded). I dont want to lose the xenon from my game so ive been capturing asgards (12 now) for about a game day or more trying to help them, but its not working. Ive stopped playing because I realised that it feels odd and immersion breaking to be doing this. The xenon are on the verge of collapse in atiyas, have already lost faulty logic completely, matrix 451 and 9 have many other factions stations now and they are slowly being wiped out, matrix 79b, savage spur and tharkas are gone (because i did the yaki plot). In emperors pride they have lost the first sector completely and the paranid are pushing into the last one. Xenon are strong in Scale plate green but the teladi are very well established in company pride with large fleets actively defending, looks like that will be their last holdout and the teladi alone will stop them for leaving scale plate entirely - although the terrans havent sent asgards there yet...

I feel like this issue needs to be addressed incredibly carefully though, they need a tiny push, not a big one. Tbh my hope is that the asgards main gun gets a nerf, its a gamebreaking ship. I have many of them now and 1 shotting a xenon I (without even bothering to mod the ship up) doesnt feel good (also think a longer beam time to spread out the damage some more would actually feel nicer, along with giving it a very small amount of gimbal).

[Raptor34]

Ive actually put playing X4 on hold because of this (unmodded). I dont want to lose the xenon from my game so ive been capturing asgards (12 now) for about a game day or more trying to help them, but its not working. Ive stopped playing because I realised that it feels odd and immersion breaking to be doing this. The xenon are on the verge of collapse in atiyas, have already lost faulty logic completely, matrix 451 and 9 have many other factions stations now and they are slowly being wiped out, matrix 79b, savage spur and tharkas are gone (because i did the yaki plot). In emperors pride they have lost the first sector completely and the paranid are pushing into the last one. Xenon are strong in Scale plate green but the teladi are very well established in company pride with large fleets actively defending, looks like that will be their last holdout and the teladi alone will stop them for leaving scale plate entirely - although the terrans havent sent asgards there yet...

I feel like this issue needs to be addressed incredibly carefully though, they need a tiny push, not a big one. Tbh my hope is that the asgards main gun gets a nerf, its a gamebreaking ship. I have many of them now and 1 shotting a xenon I (without even bothering to mod the ship up) doesnt feel good (also think a longer beam time to spread out the damage some more would actually feel nicer, along with giving it a very small amount of gimbal).

That's why you just leave one of your own Asgards in the XL fab so they can't build more.
And refuse their calls when they ask you to remove it.

[Felicitus Bigbeaver]

One possibility without upsetting those who are get upset by rather than cheered by Xenon Invasions is to restart the xenon invasion missions. Then for X4 to measure how often you accept them and to turn up the xenon attacks. Another way is to include one way gates, and allow massive xenon fleets through from outside the play are into the current x4 map. I am really hoping the Khaak are reintroduced in the third expansion, with clusters and corvettes and destroyers. Oh Yes.

[Raevyan]

That's why you just leave one of your own Asgards in the XL fab so they can't build more.
And refuse their calls when they ask you to remove it.

That’s a rather cheesy way and does not solve the main issue with the xenon and the screwed up oos calculation. Dunno what Egosoft is waiting for. 4.10 is still months away judging by the podcast. This needed fixing weeks ago. I feel like they got very well disconnected with the community.

[Dreez]

After paying attention to the state of my current game which i started at 1.0 and kept going,
the Xenon are getting wiped off the map slowly. Teladi and paranid are cleaning up the sectors closest
to them and the sectors near split are full of split stations - eventho i only bought that DLC a few days ago (game time).

So yeah... i'm starting to believe that Xenon needs litte buff of some kind, they're suppose to be a menace that invades
sectors and if left unchecked, can end up wipe entire sectors clean from the local inhabitans.

So in hindsight, they could use some help to get back on their feet and be the threat they're suppose to be.

Currently the only threat they pose is to my capitalships when i engage a xenon defense station,
which is easily solved by simply bombing the L-turrets pre-fleet attack.

[jlehtone]

they're suppose to be a menace that invades sectors and if left unchecked, can end up wipe entire sectors clean from the local inhabitans.

Are they?

There can be at least three types of invaders:

• Nothing - player never has to do anything to cope with them. It could be that the resources that we help to deliver to NPC (if we trade/build) enables NPC wipe out the threats hands down
• Nuisance - invaders are everywhere, but so weak that they are easy to wipe from windscreen. Player has to invest something to the wiping. Continuous investment, but trivial
• Death - Player has to focus 100% to destruction of invaders or everything will be destroyed. Being sloppy, even for a moment, is not an option

I'm quite sure that many of us do not want to play only the space invaders of the last type.

However, that is only the aggressive side. The threat that comes to us. Semi-unrelated is us invading the foreign space.

Deep strikes to enemy logistics should affect their aggression. TER can't build Asgards non-stop, if we fill their build queue with XL Builders, L Traders, and L Miners. If Xenon pour out from inaccessible sectors via oneway gates, then such tactical option does not exist and we are back to "magic spawns" of the previous games.

Even if the Xenon would do the Nothing-type invasions, their home sectors could be a Death-level challenge. Defense-oriented. Something that no NPC fleet can take. For mere trader that would be awesome, if NPC factions do try (i.e. suicide) continuously then they eagerly buy all that you can produce. For a combat pilot there would be something to shoot at (until you get too strong).

[Dreez]

they're suppose to be a menace that invades sectors and if left unchecked, can end up wipe entire sectors clean from the local inhabitans.

Are they?

I'm quite sure that many of us do not want to play only the space invaders of the last type.

However, that is only the aggressive side. The threat that comes to us. Semi-unrelated is us invading the foreign space.

They should deffo have more strength and aggresiveness than now, because currently they're just tincans getting bullied by every faction.
In X3TC/Alb , Xenon would attack with 1-4 destroyers or carriers and an army of fighters , more than capable or stomping a zone and
make short work of most defense forces sent to deal with them.

Most of the times you'd have to jump a destroyer or bomber there to aid, or lose all stations in the zone.

[Araknis]

I started a new game after all the recent releases, patch and dlc and i have to admit that Xenon are getting owned everywhere,
The Paranid took over easily Faulty Logic and are about to finish Atiya's Misfortune.
I cleared Savage Spur I, Matrix 79B and Tharka's Cascade for the Yaki plot, the Terrans have cleared Savage Spur II.
The only Xenon left are above Family Zhin, where Terrans keep sending Asgards and i keep boarding them, cause to be honest, Xenon seem to be an endangered species now, so i dont leave any ships that can actually kill their stations get there and finish the job.
I think they need a little bit of love to resurface.

[Mistle]

From yesterday Xenons in my universe are extinct species.
I couldn't even preserve them in a kind of nature reserve with subtitles like " Don't feed the Xenons" or " Don't throw silicons on Xenons" so family trips could visit and father could tells to children " I remember some days they were giant threat to universe" or " Be quiet maybe we will see the last I battleship"

[Malchar]

Make Xenons great again --> for Christmas maybe or next year. Not a single word, nor comment about xenons problem in the 4.10, except I have missed something.

[CBJ]

Not a single word, nor comment about xenons problem in the 4.10, except I have missed something.

You did miss something.

The list is just the things that have already been done. Checking and, where needed, adjusting the balancing of Xenon is something we're still working on.

[Raevyan]

Not a single word, nor comment about xenons problem in the 4.10, except I have missed something.

You did miss something.

The list is just the things that have already been done. Checking and, where needed, adjusting the balancing of Xenon is something we're still working on.

To be fair, Bernd didn’t mention Xenons nor does the notes do. You can’t expect ppl to read multi page threads to get information that’s buried somewhere in there. Someone on this Forum Said, if people need to read forums to understand how things ingame work, you need to do better job explaining it Same principle applies to official communication.

[Malchar]

To be fair, Bernd didn’t mention Xenons nor does the notes do. You can’t expect ppl to read multi page threads to get information that’s buried somewhere in there. Someone on this Forum Said, if people need to read forums to understand how things ingame work, you need to do better job explaining it Same principle applies to official communication.

I took the whole notes, then make an automatic research on keyword xenon. I had one hit about a fix on xenon base sometime invisible at savage spur.

When you ve a particular interest on something, it is not always necessary to read all.

[Raevyan]

To be fair, Bernd didn’t mention Xenons nor does the notes do. You can’t expect ppl to read multi page threads to get information that’s buried somewhere in there. Someone on this Forum Said, if people need to read forums to understand how things ingame work, you need to do better job explaining it Same principle applies to official communication.

I took the whole notes, then make an automatic research on keyword xenon. I had one hit about a fix on xenon base sometime invisible at savage spur.

When you ve a particular interest on something, it is not always necessary to read all.

That works for browsing the notes itself, but is not a good thing to rely on searching for specific comments that have information. Most people won’t even read any further than the OP.

[gorman2040]

Update2 - just started 5.00 beta 1:
I'm really starting to think something is up with Xenon in my current game.
I've literally blocked all shipyards (except ALI, MIN and ZYA) and Xenons are not making any progress.
I've recently wiped them from Savage Spur, Matrix #79B and Tharka's Cascade, there was a bunch of small, one module, stations in those sectors, it was like they started building and abandoned after the first module.
The Xenon S were around and supplying the shipyard.
I only encountered one I and a few K (less than 10 total combined in all sectors) so it was an easy conquest.
My only problem was my dumb destroyer captains getting too close to Xenon station's turrets
I was thinking blocking all the shipyard would eventually make all factions loose sector to Xenons but there was no change, except for one ZYA sector.

Could it be that the game rebalance the ships in absence of destroyers?

Update on this:
On a new playthrough, I noticed a bit more winning and aggression from the Xenon, it is subtle (which is probably a good sign) but seems to make the Xenon a bit more of a menace.
On my older save, most shipyards are still blocked (I expect factions to run out of destroyers/carriers eventually), Xenon are making more push but didn't really take over any sector yet.
The behavior I can't explain is they won't clean up their owned sectors (Commonwealth stations still present) and they might just skip some enemy sectors (those sectors have at least one defense station) and go directly beyond enemy lines.
Of course, they are usually quickly destroyed. Too bad they don't slowly but surely push back the front. This would also give a warning sign to players that Xenon are slowly taking over.

----

Hi everyone,

I thought it would be a good place to continue the discussion on Xenon.
I am playing the version 4.20 beta 3 and still trying to figure out if the recent changes to capital main battery damage has helped Xenon being more of a threat.

Did you guys notice a change?

I blocked most allies shipyards by parking ships there and actively try to sabotage any station attacked by Xenon so this might screw up the results for me

Cheers.

[gorman2040]

I'm not sure anyone is reading this but just in case

I've had progress in my game, Xenon have taken over Company Regard and slowly invading Hewa's Twin. I scouted Scale Plate Green and Turquoise Sea and found a shipyard and wharf in each Scale Plate Green sectors, only defense stations and solar power plants in Turquoise Sea.
Progress is very slow in Atiya's Misfortune and Faulty Logic but by hack stations when Xenon K are deciding to do a push, I've able to somewhat turn the tide of the battles.
Xenon K are still losing their turrets when too close to station explosions which eventually render them useless.

I also started being more aggressive on hacking other stations, crippling production and releasing storage, especially for wharves might hopefully slow down factions small ship production.

I also think the universe is finally starting to be short of builder ships so that will also slow down new stations.

Still, all those efforts to keep the Xenon active I did not think I would play the game this way but it gives an interesting twist and something to look forward (big Xenon battles when they are strong again).

[dougeye]

I think they are fine as they are tbh, in my 4.1+ game currently they conquered all the Zyarth space and would have taken argon and hat sectors if not for me blockading herectics end and hat choice.

What should happen is the custom gamestarts both budgeted and unbudgeted should have options for xenon and khaak etc in terms of their difficulty.

[SirConnery]

In my game Xenon are slowly wiping everything and I'm around 50+ hours in without using SETA. I'm using some mods that impact gameplay though. VRO, XR Ships and X3 ATF/USC Pack.

So far Xenon have taken The Void, Getsu Fune, Second Contact II, True Sight, Hatikva's Witness I and Silent Witness I. I'm not complaining though, lots of fun. I'm getting to the point where I can build defence stations and hold them off in sectors while I try to muster together an economy and also save HOP from being annihilated.

Also trying to help Terran economy so they can launch a counter offensive.

IF Xenos are too easy maybe that combination of mods will work for you. Oh right, I also enabled the completed Terran vs Argon plot in the beginning so that might impact Argon quite a bit not having enough resources to fight Xenos.

[gorman2040]

In my game Xenon are slowly wiping everything and I'm around 50+ hours in without using SETA. I'm using some mods that impact gameplay though. VRO, XR Ships and X3 ATF/USC Pack.

So far Xenon have taken The Void, Getsu Fune, Second Contact II, True Sight, Hatikva's Witness I and Silent Witness I. I'm not complaining though, lots of fun. I'm getting to the point where I can build defence stations and hold them off in sectors while I try to muster together an economy and also save HOP from being annihilated.

Also trying to help Terran economy so they can launch a counter offensive.

IF Xenos are too easy maybe that combination of mods will work for you. Oh right, I also enabled the completed Terran vs Argon plot in the beginning so that might impact Argon quite a bit not having enough resources to fight Xenos.

I play unmodded and I believe it was implied in this thread as, as you said it, it can be modded.

I think it is a good point to specify that though!