'FIGHT': This is how quick all Xenon can be destroyed.

[Slashman]

Or made worse. Currently the Asgard deals a tiny fraction of its actual low attention damage because it does not point at the target and the damage is only forwards. If they point at the stations they die a lot faster in low attention.

And dealing with an earlier point if they fix the "face tanking" aspect of the Asgard it will then easily clear entire Xenon sectors. XL Main Battery out ranges the Xenon turrets, and deals huge damage. This topic is proof, you can solo entire Xenon sectors with an Asgard. I have done so in mine.

Does facing actually make a difference in low attention? I have never heard of facing mattering in low attention.

[S!rAssassin]

Xenon stations' problem is not only location, the biggest weakness is turret range

...and without missiles!

[Imperial Good]

Does facing actually make a difference in low attention? I have never heard of facing mattering in low attention.

Yes it does. Damage is broken down by direction.

[Slashman]

Does facing actually make a difference in low attention? I have never heard of facing mattering in low attention.

Yes it does. Damage is broken down by direction.

Huh...that's interesting...I thought the point of low attention combat was to remove any physics or directional consideration. I would really like to see how low attention is actually broken down...

[Imperial Good]

Huh...that's interesting...I thought the point of low attention combat was to remove any physics or directional consideration. I would really like to see how low attention is actually broken down...

It is my understanding that damage is broken down to 6 directions (forward, backwards, left, right, up and down). Guns are forward only. Turrets it is based on the arc of the turret so can apply to multiple directions. You can see a summary of these damages in the information tab of a ship. Something like an Asgard will have 4k in all directions due to turrets, and some huge number like 400,000 MW forward due to XL main battery with an exceptional mod applied to it.

[Slashman]

Huh...that's interesting...I thought the point of low attention combat was to remove any physics or directional consideration. I would really like to see how low attention is actually broken down...

It is my understanding that damage is broken down to 6 directions (forward, backwards, left, right, up and down). Guns are forward only. Turrets it is based on the arc of the turret so can apply to multiple directions. You can see a summary of these damages in the information tab of a ship. Something like an Asgard will have 4k in all directions due to turrets, and some huge number like 400,000 MW forward due to XL main battery with an exceptional mod applied to it.

Ah I see! Good to know.

Thanks!

[KextV8]

in getting my marines to the right level etc.

You dont really need to level the marines. Just use more of them. Ive never bothered leveling marines up and have captured every ship in the game that I could. Sometimes you just have to send in multiple tries with crappy cheap marines. But that's still less effort than training them up.

[Omni-Orb]

I was hoping to get answers from Egosoft on combat difficulty overall.
And i didnt really like where this thread went with the usual discussion about weapon ranges and AI.
Maybe i made the post too long.

[Rastuasi]

I was hoping to get answers from Egosoft on combat difficulty overall.
And i didnt really like where this thread went with the usual discussion about weapon ranges and AI.
Maybe i made the post too long.

The issue you're going to get with this is that there's always the other side. There are plenty who claim that the xenon are too strong and that they wipe the universe too easily. You'll find it really hard for any of the Egosoft to mention anything on this as it's a hot topic that no one agrees on. That's why they went for the middle and leave the rest up to mods. There are mods that make the xenon harder or even outright remove them.

[alt3rn1ty]

I was hoping to get answers from Egosoft on combat difficulty overall.
And i didnt really like where this thread went with the usual discussion about weapon ranges and AI.
Maybe i made the post too long.

The issue you're going to get with this is that there's always the other side. There are plenty who claim that the xenon are too strong and that they wipe the universe too easily. You'll find it really hard for any of the Egosoft to mention anything on this as it's a hot topic that no one agrees on. That's why they went for the middle and leave the rest up to mods. There are mods that make the xenon harder or even outright remove them.

Yep I'm one, with my play style it took me about a year to get to the point where I could wipe out Xenon, by which time they had dug in deep, conquered a frightening amount of sectors threatening my trade routes being cut off which was my kick up the arse to do something about them. Took a long time to eradicate them, they still persist in trying to exist. But then I don't go boarding Asgards (which were not a thing when I started current playthrough pre-CoH), built my own eventually.

Edit : Forgot to mention in my case NPC factions were slowly but surely losing ground to the Xenon, I was hoping before I built up my economy (hampered by performance balancing on a laptop which can't handle having a player with lots of stations / fleets) that they would be able to hold their own but eventually I had to switch to Xenon extinction being my main priority and economy build up to support that cause was the critical route to enable that campaign. When Split Vendetta came along, getting Blueprints for Rattlesnakes became desirable, used these personally and AI in small fleets to steadily push back the tide. When CoH came along the Asgards were extremely helpful, especially when used personally, but upsetting the Terrans and grabbing their property was not an option for my overall plans, so again building rep and getting blueprints to build them became a side track to finally squishing Xenon.

If I were playing just the vanilla X4 Foundations with no Split Vendetta or Cradle of Humanity I don't have any real idea how long it would take. With my play style probably about the same amount of time.

[Omni-Orb]

When CoH came along the Asgards were extremely helpful, especially when used personally, but upsetting the Terrans and grabbing their property was not an option for my overall plans, so again building rep and getting blueprints to build them became a side track to finally squishing Xenon.

Asgards are pretty much a gamebreaker when it comes to combat. I recently tried for the first time to do trading and station building with a terran start, and in 3 days played i was building asgards really quick and had 4 billion credits, and i guess if i wanted to the combat part of the game would be too easy by then with a fleet of 10 or more asgards. It didnt take me a year of gametime it took me a few days and a bit of SETA.

[alt3rn1ty]

~ It didnt take me a year of gametime it took me a few days and a bit of SETA.

Yeah that's something else I can't use, SETA being too fast in this game (and not having any settings to adjust it) causes too much script lag on my machine, which further causes random ship losses I would not otherwise experience in normal game time, and other problems with trading that I would not experience without SETA upsetting what is a bit of a balancing act for my games economy and amount of ships / stations I can allow myself without affecting the games performance.
In my experience the Xenon are aggressive enough to be a major concern versus what I can produce in response, in normal game time, and without using third party mods. So ideas of upping the Xenon's aggressiveness as alluded to in these topics is really a bad idea for players in my situation and how the game has progressed.

[Omni-Orb]

So ideas of upping the Xenon's aggressiveness as alluded to in these topics is really a bad idea for players in my situation and how the game has progressed.

They dont need to be more agressive, just more difficult to detroy. As it is now, i can with a single asgard destroy all the xenon in the universe, go behind enemy lines and destroy their ship production. If anything they should have bigger fleets and focus more on defending their own sectors.

[capitalduty]

""

You are no supposed to board Asgards with rookie marines...something went wrong there, also I can imagine terran retaliation to this action to be massive for a beginner player.

[Omni-Orb]

You are no supposed to board Asgards with rookie marines...something went wrong there, also I can imagine terran retaliation to this action to be massive for a beginner player.

Actually im not sure why it is this way however it doesnt decrease reputation with terrans. If all we do is board something without firing on it then we take no reputation loss.

[Omni-Orb]

Would be nice with some more opinions on this topic since i think it is important for the combat gameplay aspect.

[MarcusInVR]

Read the report... also in for about two days on my very first playthrough. Have done literally nothing to drive out the Xenon, I am busy building my first station, and exploring all sectors. Now I feel like I am doing it wrong

(Side note: I can maybe play 1 or 2 hours max per day)

[Omni-Orb]

Read the report... also in for about two days on my very first playthrough. Have done literally nothing to drive out the Xenon, I am busy building my first station, and exploring all sectors. Now I feel like I am doing it wrong

(Side note: I can maybe play 1 or 2 hours max per day)

There really is no wrong way to play this game. The playthrough was made after around 1700hours of X4 game experience, mostly as a showcase of one aspect and direction in the open "sandbox" game universe. And that was 1700 hours of having fun while learning much (and far from everything) of what the game can teach.

[GCU Grey Area]

Personally consider the Xenon a precious resource that needs to be conserved. Would never even consider wiping them out, they're too useful. Other factions pay quite well for me to destroy Xenon ships & stations for them. They'll sometimes also throw in a high end weapon mod to sweeten the deal. Can't do that if I destroy them all in the first few days of a new game.

Instead if I want someone to fight I pick on one of the other factions instead, often whoever is considered an enemy by the faction from which my character originates (e.g. if playing as an Argon my enemies often include HOP, ZYA, etc). Find them more fun to fight because there's no automatic range advantage for my ships (they have destroyers with long range main guns & L Plasma turrets too) & unlike the Xenon they know how to use missiles. Terrans can be particularly fun to fight due to all the Asgards being in the enemy fleet & capable of wiping out my capitals with a single shot.

[EGO_Aut]

Entering/capture ships is broken and feels like cheating.

There should be a war declaration of the faction owner, at least by mil. ships.