[POLL] New Kha'ak ships

[Axeface]

So I was thinking more about this, I love the suggestions about a large base ship and scavenging. All of these ideas gel so well with established Kha'ak lore, the remnants of the Kha'ak jump around like nomads, entering a sector and wreaking havoc, salvaging the scraps only to then jump out again...

They would need a new XL ship to be a base where the scavengers deposit the wrecks and salvage. Foragers would instead of being fighters, a new S salvage ship that swarm wrecks enmasse and quickly take the salvage to the base ship. New L and M combat ships would jump with this fleet to assist the S and M fighters. Corvette: 'Warrior'. Destroyer: 'Executor'.

And as I said before these raids could be limited to the target system so they dont spread, and there could be plenty of warning in the form of a large and visually impressive anomaly and universe wide bulletins (missions too like x3 invasions). Perhaps this anomaly could push ships away instead of sucking them in like the current ones so defenders cant get too close to it before the fleet appears. Sometimes however perhaps the anomaly would appear far off of sector centers, and bulletins only happen if someone actually spots it?

Anyway, exciting stuff I think

Just cut the kha'ak completely. They have almost no effect and their presence wouldn't be missed. They feel like a placeholder.

This. The only thing they did was causing problems with the bad AI and it Egosoft several patches and months trying to fix the issues... Spawning Khaak Destroyers on top of miners doesn’t sound like very engaging gameplay either.

I dont think anyone in this thread suggested spawning destroyers ontop of miners? Adding capitals doesnt automatically mean they will do the same things the S and M ships do right now.

[mr.WHO]

So I was thinking more about this, I love the suggestions about a large base ship and scavenging. All of these ideas gel so well with established Kha'ak lore, the remnants of the Kha'ak jump around like nomads, entering a sector and wreaking havoc, salvaging the scraps only to then jump out again...

They would need a new XL ship to be a base where the scavengers deposit the wrecks and salvage. Foragers would instead of being fighters, a new S salvage ship that swarm wrecks enmasse and quickly take the salvage to the base ship. New L and M combat ships would jump with this fleet to assist the S and M fighters. Corvette: 'Warrior'. Destroyer: 'Executor'.

And as I said before these raids could be limited to the target system so they dont spread, and there could be plenty of warning in the form of a large and visually impressive anomaly and universe wide bulletins (missions too like x3 invasions). Perhaps this anomaly could push ships away instead of sucking them in like the current ones so defenders cant get too close to it before the fleet appears. Sometimes however perhaps the anomaly would appear far off of sector centers, and bulletins only happen if someone actually spots it?

Anyway, exciting stuff I think

This - a roaming hive with it's own mini-economy and behaviour (e.g. running away when badly dammage to preserve hive remnants).

[Pesanur]

And how about the Khaak sector that we found and isolate from the gate network in X3TC, is reconnected back to the gate network?

Edit: Yes, I like a Khaak destroyer.

[Skeeter]

Id prefer khaak not to have any economy instead to think of them as jump invaders. They have a home they can jump to easily and they jump to attack systems, yes spawning khaak. Worked fine in x2. That way no need for stations or other stuff, no need for special sectors. Just let them spawn in a system from a far edge and let em get in close. Use a wave system maybe or khaak invasion script from x2.

Just bring back the ships from x2 with a polish i.e ball of death. Make the beam sounds heard better like they were in x2 for x4 as the beams dont i think sound as loud. Make the beams pretty deadly for the m3 khaak/m version.

For special unite against khaak invasion missions if ego will make em, have a khaak l or xl ship come in which could deal blows with the asguard perhaps. The idea is tho for mission is for player to contact at least 2 government agents, arrange to fight together i.e bring ships, the mission then picks a sector then triggers the attack and the mission sends them 2 gov little fleets to help to combat it. Could be fun.

[Alm888]

Right now Kha'ak ships are harmless against L-miners, while spelling certain doom to S-class miners, making them entirely useless (even though Kha'ak do not spawn on gas miners, S-class does not have such ships).

I think the Kha'ak desperately need some ships capable of being a threat to L-miners and not just a nuisance slowing them to cruise speed (preventing travel drive activation) at best. That way players would need to invest something into mining operation protection (be it in a form of fighter escort, like NPC mining fleets sometimes have), or a mobile response team stationed in a mining sector.

Naturally, this needs to be balanced out. A hypothetical Kha'ak destroyer spawning on top of an M-class miner will instantly delete the poor miner from existence. So, I think, the Kha'ak should "sense" gravity distortions from "intruders" and send larger craft only to worthwhile targets. And S-class miners should be mostly Kha'ak-free (risking getting only one or two Foragers tops instead of a full-fledged swarm of a Queen's Guard and 5-6 Foragers).

[gorgofdoom]

The question i understood from the stream was "should the kha'ak be more powerful" not "should the kha'ak get more/bigger ships"

Is it just me?

I would always vote for more content. But more powerful kha'ak? that's a harder question.

[Afallon_Sk]

I voted Yes but If the Kha'ak capital ships are to be implemented they need to be reimagined, the X2 capitals look very dated. Of course I'd also like a few additional ships for Xenon too, like the Q and J.
But if ship models are too expensive to make then the devs should focus on more important things. Also if I remember correctly Kha'ak could form clusters and disperse mid combat in X:Rebirth can they do it in X4 too?

[Alm888]

Also if I remember correctly Kha'ak could form clusters and disperse mid combat in X:Rebirth can they do it in X4 too?

Yes, they can. It is just for flavor though. Sometimes a Queen Guard flies with Foragers attached to its corners, which will detach and attack (sometimes).

But this is very buggy right now: sometimes Foragers will not detach, and sometimes they do (mainly happens if you teleport in the combat from another sector), but somehow the game still thinks they are attached and fails to register damage to them dealt by your weapons (resulting in invulnerable Foragers), in which case you must destroy their mothership first to make them vulnerable.

[Nemesis_Zero]

+1 to more dangerous Kha'ak like in X2
new ships are not particular needed

[Matterom]

The way I'd like to see it, is to bring back the Kha'ak capitals and run them on a special threat meter. Over a combination of gametime, Kha'ak station lifetime and player fight rank their budget of ships grows to be significant enough to spawn in a destroyer with escort, then once that is destroyed it goes on a cooldown before it can deploy another. If it's budget can support a greater force by the next respawn it could drop in a battleship or carrier instead, or some combination of the 2. They just spawn in and rampage a bit until you destroy the station. We could get missions tied in that alert us that they're comming from somewhere, and to scout it out so say a fleet can be dispatched to deal with the stations early game, or have the player deal with it themselves for a bigger reward. The idea is to have them stay mostly harmless early game then ramp them up as the player gets into the late game. Bonus points if they were mechanically inclined to focus their raids on the most economically prosperous faction, be it player, paranid, terran or xenon. That way they serve as a bonus balancing bat other than the soft caps provided by the job limits.

[ezra-r]

I would certainly appreciate a remake or revamp of khaak as well as new types of ships and get rid of jobs and give them a couple of sectors to spill in the known universe from

[Bozz11]

I would rather see egosoft expand from how kha'ak work right now than simply making them own a few sectors and then play like all other factions...

[ezra-r]

I would rather see egosoft expand from how kha'ak work right now than simply making them own a few sectors and then play like all other factions...

If I understand it correctly you prefer to spawn them from thin air in the same areas again and again?

[Bozz11]

If you think about it, there is a lot you can do from there !
It's not just about spawning stations or ships, kha'ak could spread like a plague or something, infecting a systeme and then developping over time and becoming more and more dangerous if you let them.
they could require ressources to develop and get to a higher stage etc...

But yeah having them spawn should remain, we know they have jumpdrives they should definitely be able to jump in a sector and then hide there but we can always force them to use ressources to create ships, ressources or ship wrecks etc...

Make something different, not just copy paste on xenons that would be boring, at that point it would just be better and easier to add more ships to xenons

[Killjaeden]

They would need a new XL ship to be a base where the scavengers deposit the wrecks and salvage

A long time ago i started a mod for X3, to be able to play as khaak swarm - but i didnt get it finished.
The idea was based around pure nomadic gamestyle (no stations, just ships) - where you have to rely on mobile mining. The center of operation was a Hive ship (similar to khaak carrier, but it had a big "bossom" made out of an asteroid piece) and khaak specific landing/launchbays. The hiveship was meant to produce stuff from mined ressources - but also be able clamp itself to an asteroid, making it look like a huge tick, and mine it until it is depleted. Stealing minerals and storing them as crystals like humans would store fat-> outside, the more you have stored the bigger the ship gets.
Alternatively it was supposed to clamp itself to the asteroid and instead of mining, it would grow another capital ship inside the asteroid (destroyer/carrier), and once finishes the asteroid pops and the new ship is "born".

Doesnt really gell with the art and style of the khaak station and stuff introduced in TC though. But khaak are really weird style anyway - Hexagons out of rivetted metal sheets in Organic shapes, with tendrils for capitals. Completely different look for fighters. Never could make sense of it -> difficult to come up with fitting new designs that arent just kitbash of the existing ships. They'd need a visual redesign, that hopefully can combine the two without completely deviating from the origin.

[Falcrack]

I'd like it if the Kha'ak owned a few sectors in the game, which are only accessible to the player via travelling through anomalies, not jump gates or accelerators. The player would have to travel through several anomalies before finding the right one. Once in there, if you brought a big enough ship (maybe a raptor with a fully loaded fighter wing), you could clear out the Kha'ak in those sectors and reduce the overall threat level of Kha'ak across the galaxy.

[oddgit]

That would be nice if we could get a properly functioning patrols first.

Right? My patrols completely ignore the Kha'ak ships that spawn there, i was unlucky and the game decided to make Getsu Fune a Kha'ak sector, i kill the station, get some peace and quiet for a bit, than ships start appearing and i have to get in a Pegasus and fly around randomly till i find their nest.

[Insects]

Never see them in person anyway since they are just something the mining fleet escorts deal with.

So sure more ships is good. But would rather the investment is made into ships the player encounters more and can fly.

[alt3rn1ty]

Bring back the swarms and clusters!

I wouldn't mind at all if the Kha'ak could form their S and M ships up into clusters as in earlier games and have those clusters act as destroyers with the multiple ships' Kyons combining into significant damage beams with longer range and duration, and with combined cluster shielding effects. When a cluster is attacked and its hull goes below a certain percentage, it breaks up into its component ships with each now with that same hull percentage and with weakened but recharging shields.

Tactics against them could of course include area of effect weapons used with precise timing as the cluster breaks up but before the components recharge shields and start swarming attacks of nearby targets.

Best idea in the thread so far.

+1