[MOD] Foundation of Conquest and War V. 7.2

[BlackRain]

It's taken me a while to get my personal ideal balance of mods and the current set seem to play nicely together. The Xenon are a credible threat, but the other Factions can generally hold their own for a couple of days. During that time, I'm supporting them economically - largely via Raw materials such as Ore and Silicon, as well as a little Nividium for extra profits. While this passive income is rolling in for me, and trades are being done supporting friendly Factions, I'm out there capturing (usually) Pirate ships to add to my own fleet. Doing so ends up making more money than my Mining activities, purely from selling excess stuff from captured ships. I then have good money, Faction economies are well-supplied with Raw materials, and I have a decent combat fleet of my own.

With said fleet, I can then start resisting the Xenon with force, further enhancing friendly economies due to a reduction in attrition. I usually start in Argon Space, so align myself with them first, keeping their space that little bit safer. By around day three, the Xenon - untouched in their own sectors - tend to start pushing out a little more, so any defensive lines I've set - be they Fleets, Stations or a combination of the two - need to be reinforced. Without my Military help, the Factions can sometimes struggle, but their strong economies allow them to reinforce nicely.

With my current mod set, the Xenon have NEVER been overwhelmed by the other Factions. If the Factions stopped their squabbles with each other, they'd be able to give the Xenon a hard time. However, they're not coded that way so will go at each other just as readily as at the Xenon. I had an instance where an Argon Fleet was hard-pressed by a large Xenon fleet. I was on-hand to help, but the battle was still closely-matched. Then a Split Raptor fleet arrived, enough to readily turn the tide. However, the Raptor was more interested in killing the Argon Fleet (we were in neutral space) than the Xenon. So, in the end, the Argon fleet was wiped out, the Raptor fleet took heavy losses and only I continued to hold the line. Thought that was a little silly lol.

It had always surprised me when people would say how the Xenon were extinct after a couple of game days, or that they'd taken over the universe in the same amount of time. For me, with my mod list, while they are a credible threat, they're a little more slow-burn, and the other factions are a little better able to resist (additional fleets with this mod), but they do launch some SUBSTANTIAL attacks at times.

As I like to play the economic game too, DeadAir has the potential to make those efforts worthless in practical terms. I.e. the fact that friendly Factions got well-supplied thanks to me, or that another Faction had supplies cut off due to my efforts, means little if their Trading Stations, Wharfs, Ship Yards and Equipment Docks get granted "free" wares from time to time. Personal preference. If you're happy with a less complete simulation to obtain the desired balance, I can see how DeadAir (fill) can help keep the universe functional, even if it doesn't have the resources to support it.

It does not make the economic game worthless. You control when it activates or how often. I haven't needed to use Deadair fill for the factions though. Instead I am using it for only the Xenon and it works good in my opinion. Well, it isn't something you need to use. The other Deadair mods are good for the economy though and aren't cheats.

[Scoob]

It does not make the economic game worthless. You control when it activates or how often. I haven't needed to use Deadair fill for the factions though. Instead I am using it for only the Xenon and it works good in my opinion. Well, it isn't something you need to use. The other Deadair mods are good for the economy though and aren't cheats.

It certainly has the potential too, but I'm glad it's able to be configured to be a little more subtle and less frequent. It doesn't fit my play style. I can see it had value to buff the Xenon for those who, for whatever reason, the Xenon are on strike in their games. Or perhaps to help out the Split if they have a particularly bad start. Me, personally, I've not seen the need for this, though I can see how it might help salvage a game where things have gone a little wrong for one faction or another.

I'll have a look at the other DeadAir mods, and see what they offer.

[DeadAirRT]

As I like to play the economic game too, DeadAir has the potential to make those efforts worthless in practical terms. I.e. the fact that friendly Factions got well-supplied thanks to me, or that another Faction had supplies cut off due to my efforts, means little if their Trading Stations, Wharfs, Ship Yards and Equipment Docks get granted "free" wares from time to time. Personal preference. If you're happy with a less complete simulation to obtain the desired balance, I can see how DeadAir (fill) can help keep the universe functional, even if it doesn't have the resources to support it.

A game that has the most inadequate and gimped economy imaginable for the entire experience to be centered around the godlike player is pretty worthless imo. To add to the discussion, I don't use the ware injection on fill at all. I just use it to have factions "buy" ship modifications by trading excess wares at their trade stations so it's not a player only, spawn only, or extremely unlikely rng event. To each their own.

[DeadAirRT]

Just using quote for @

So I recently implemented something similar to FOCW for xenon but with an in game options menu if you ever want to check it out in my Evolution mod. Just wanted to drop a thank you for the idea of skipping the in game jobs system. I've got something in the works (script is complete for handling where ships jobmainzone and the requesting of ships but need to implement reassigning older ships) that will order ships for either shipyard sector, core safe sectors, border sectors, or contested sectors.

[BlackRain]

Just using quote for @

So I recently implemented something similar to FOCW for xenon but with an in game options menu if you ever want to check it out in my Evolution mod. Just wanted to drop a thank you for the idea of skipping the in game jobs system. I've got something in the works (script is complete for handling where ships jobmainzone and the requesting of ships but need to implement reassigning older ships) that will order ships for either shipyard sector, core safe sectors, border sectors, or contested sectors.

Sounds awesome, I will take a look when it is implemented. Maybe there is something I can use or perhaps I can finally get around to taking a look at the ui/lua and add a menu.

[Scoob]

A game that has the most inadequate and gimped economy imaginable for the entire experience to be centered around the godlike player is pretty worthless imo. To add to the discussion, I don't use the ware injection on fill at all. I just use it to have factions "buy" ship modifications by trading excess wares at their trade stations so it's not a player only, spawn only, or extremely unlikely rng event. To each their own.

I actually considered the current state of the vanilla economy to be largely ok. The big issue for me is the constant suicidal Traders travelling through insanely hostile areas. So many wares are lost that way. Hatikvah's Choice I is a ship graveyard at times, it's why I personally try to secure the neighbouring Xenon sector as soon as I am able. Also, silly AI doing silly things like "Oh, that pirate 20km away hailed me, I'd better stop dead in space and wait for them to catch up, before taking any evasive action." The basic "I produce this so I buy that" economics is generally ok. I do use mods that tweak things subtly, like changing certain production values of key resources. Plus I think they might influence what stations get built, but I'm not totally sure on that. I know I've identified gaps in the market for a certain ware, built a station, only to find that particular gap has also been filled by an AI-built station. That's why I generally just go for raw resources early-game, with a "Warehouse" type station just receiving mined goods, with other ships assigned to sell - either fully automated, controlled by the manager, or utilising a repeat order if a good buyer is currently outside of trading range.

Another obvious flaw in the economy for me is how resources just vanish when something is unequipped. I.e. I remove some Advanced Satellites from a ship at my own Wharf and the resources are gone. I assumed (early days) that the resources listed were deposited in the Station, perhaps minus the Energy Cell cost, but no. Wish that was a thing for ALL such transactions, with the resource cost (minus Energy) being refunded into station storage. I get that this might cause a station to become overloaded with a given resource, but it's unlikely if Ship production and outfitting continues. GREAT for the player to be a little more self-sufficient. I NEVER upgrade ships at my own Wharfs and Shipyards if there's anything to be removed as I get nothing for it. They're purely for building new ships.

I do find the Economy generally fairly solid though. It's rare I see situations where the universe is starving for just one ware for an extended period, the economy tends to adapt. If the player can react quickly, they can fill that need quite readily. It used to be normal for the early-game (first couple of days) to be starved of Hull Parts and Claytronics, but that's rare now, even in a totally vanilla game.

[Baconnaise]

A game that has the most inadequate and gimped economy imaginable for the entire experience to be centered around the godlike player is pretty worthless imo. To add to the discussion, I don't use the ware injection on fill at all. I just use it to have factions "buy" ship modifications by trading excess wares at their trade stations so it's not a player only, spawn only, or extremely unlikely rng event. To each their own.

I actually considered the current state of the vanilla economy to be largely ok. The big issue for me is the constant suicidal Traders travelling through insanely hostile areas. So many wares are lost that way. Hatikvah's Choice I is a ship graveyard at times, it's why I personally try to secure the neighbouring Xenon sector as soon as I am able. Also, silly AI doing silly things like "Oh, that pirate 20km away hailed me, I'd better stop dead in space and wait for them to catch up, before taking any evasive action." The basic "I produce this so I buy that" economics is generally ok. I do use mods that tweak things subtly, like changing certain production values of key resources. Plus I think they might influence what stations get built, but I'm not totally sure on that. I know I've identified gaps in the market for a certain ware, built a station, only to find that particular gap has also been filled by an AI-built station. That's why I generally just go for raw resources early-game, with a "Warehouse" type station just receiving mined goods, with other ships assigned to sell - either fully automated, controlled by the manager, or utilising a repeat order if a good buyer is currently outside of trading range.

Another obvious flaw in the economy for me is how resources just vanish when something is unequipped. I.e. I remove some Advanced Satellites from a ship at my own Wharf and the resources are gone. I assumed (early days) that the resources listed were deposited in the Station, perhaps minus the Energy Cell cost, but no. Wish that was a thing for ALL such transactions, with the resource cost (minus Energy) being refunded into station storage. I get that this might cause a station to become overloaded with a given resource, but it's unlikely if Ship production and outfitting continues. GREAT for the player to be a little more self-sufficient. I NEVER upgrade ships at my own Wharfs and Shipyards if there's anything to be removed as I get nothing for it. They're purely for building new ships.

I do find the Economy generally fairly solid though. It's rare I see situations where the universe is starving for just one ware for an extended period, the economy tends to adapt. If the player can react quickly, they can fill that need quite readily. It used to be normal for the early-game (first couple of days) to be starved of Hull Parts and Claytronics, but that's rare now, even in a totally vanilla game.

Yea. Deadair fill seemed more necessary when the game launched. If you didn't build a ship right away you were stuck waiting until you filled the gaps. That was how the game used to be for a long time. I want to say COH is when they sort of got things under control. It was looking for a while there when the game was newish that it was a more modular Rebirth with worse eye candy and charm. The rebirth economy depending on starts would just up and die within some hours for many many patch cycles.

[roy35150]

Just using quote for @

So I recently implemented something similar to FOCW for xenon but with an in game options menu if you ever want to check it out in my Evolution mod. Just wanted to drop a thank you for the idea of skipping the in game jobs system. I've got something in the works (script is complete for handling where ships jobmainzone and the requesting of ships but need to implement reassigning older ships) that will order ships for either shipyard sector, core safe sectors, border sectors, or contested sectors.

Evolution is a great mod.

Using it right now and having some amazing battles against xenon in getsu fune,

Also great the way they level up.

[BlackRain]

Would people be interested in a more difficult Xenon version? Let me explain how it would work

1) It would include a version of Deadair fill that only works on the Xenon, so Xenon would have endless resources which can be customized how frequently they received resources etc. Or if people do not like that, I could just decrease the amount of resources needed to build xenon ships by a huge amount.

2) Xenon ships would be built 2 to 3 times faster than vanilla.

3) Xenon will have many more ships they can build in general.

4) We could then have a combination of massive fleets which actively go out to destroy things in the universe and fleets which are defense in nature or move normally, etc.

None of this is of course groundbreaking ideas or anything, but I think with these four things happening, the Xenon will be a massive threat. Opinions?

[xxlordsothxx]

Would people be interested in a more difficult Xenon version? Let me explain how it would work

I would definitely be interested. I know there are other folks in the VRO discord that would like this version as well. We have had a bunch of discussions on how to buff the Xenon because they appear to be very weak right now.

[Baconnaise]

Would people be interested in a more difficult Xenon version? Let me explain how it would work

1) It would include a version of Deadair fill that only works on the Xenon, so Xenon would have endless resources which can be customized how frequently they received resources etc. Or if people do not like that, I could just decrease the amount of resources needed to build xenon ships by a huge amount.

2) Xenon ships would be built 2 to 3 times faster than vanilla.

3) Xenon will have many more ships they can build in general.

4) We could then have a combination of massive fleets which actively go out to destroy things in the universe and fleets which are defense in nature or move normally, etc.

None of this is of course groundbreaking ideas or anything, but I think with these four things happening, the Xenon will be a massive threat. Opinions?

I'd like more difficult Xenon. ATM FOCW edits plus deadair evolution or some of the other xenon apoc mods do well enough. I'd like to also see more faction changes or logic(?). Boron don't claim sanctuary of darkness yet build the highway even after claiming the sector as the player and then abandoning it. Trinity or HOP depending on the story doesn't seem as aggressive as Teladi with conquering claiming and building out their economy. All factions seem to be this way except for Teladi. Argon can seem fine they will claim heretics end and others well enough. Terrans stall after getsu fune. They don't seem to really try for savage spur or void and don't build up what they have imo. I'm basing all these off deadair dynamic wars where I can view total military or economic strength. Split even united under patriarch still do dumb things like waste time in tharkas or eleventh hour area. They still with buffs have issues with litany of fury and rhys. Xenon are cool and all but spread out all over the place. I'm more hoping for some actual friction and good results from the actual factions as well.

EDIT: Oh and lastly it might be just as awesome if there was a vanilla config like FOCW for the corporations mod that includes all factions. We could turn them on or off set strength at the start and perhaps their relations. I've noticed they get aggressive sometimes on building stations where some split corps will build into xenon owned sectors off into a corner. Very neat and interesting to see.

[Grouch Potato]

yes, would be interested.

[Scoob]

Would people be interested in a more difficult Xenon version? Let me explain how it would work

1) It would include a version of Deadair fill that only works on the Xenon, so Xenon would have endless resources which can be customized how frequently they received resources etc. Or if people do not like that, I could just decrease the amount of resources needed to build xenon ships by a huge amount.

2) Xenon ships would be built 2 to 3 times faster than vanilla.

3) Xenon will have many more ships they can build in general.

4) We could then have a combination of massive fleets which actively go out to destroy things in the universe and fleets which are defense in nature or move normally, etc.

None of this is of course groundbreaking ideas or anything, but I think with these four things happening, the Xenon will be a massive threat. Opinions?

For me, considering the other mods I use, this would make the Xenon too strong - impossible to balance when other mods are in the mix of course. Though the only one I use that adds more ships (as in larger fleets)is this one - I disabled jobs in the Ship Pack for example, as it makes the Xenon crazy. However, I could see a more gradual ramping up of the Xenon's capabilities might pose an interesting challenge. The issue I've experienced in the past with the Xenon is they can be very strong early-game - Xenon I trouncing Argon Prime in the first hour - when the player has nothing to counter them. This leaves the player playing catch-up to counter something that's quite overwhelming.

In my current game, the Xenon are quite strong, but have started to be pushed back in several areas. I "secured" several Military assets for myself quite early on, and have used these to protect allied shipping, keeping the Xenon incursions off those critical trade routes. This has lead to ARG and ANT staying strong economically. The latter has, for the first time in my experience, both pushed HOP back a sector (with ARG help) and also pushed down into Frontiers Edge, secured it, and moved forward into Xenon space proper. The non-Xenon Factions all benefit from a slightly buffed fleet allowance (this mod) and my economic support helps ensure they can maintain that fleet, despite attrition. I gave them this buff as they were too readily overwhelmed by the Xenon before I could really help otherwise.

In other areas where my fleet has not operated and the effects of my economic support are not felt, the Xenon remain strong, taking two FRF sectors and pushing East. ZYA are doing well vs. the Xenon, with substantial support from me, but are actually getting pushed by the ARG lost colonies now. So, the Xenon have been a big threat in my current game. If they were stronger, the universe would be in a bad place right now lol.

Don't get me wrong, even in areas I'm actively defending with substantial fleets, the Xenon are pushing HARD. Regular multi-capital and dozens of Fighters invasions that take effort to hold off. It's not uncommon to have up to three Xenon I's operating in proximity, I've had situations where two have paired up, along with multiple other capitals, to create a veritable murder fleet. I've even had the rare Xenon U show up, those things are tough. I had to build a substantial Defence Platform in one location to hold them off. They really are a threat.

So, even though the Xenon prove to be consistently strong with my current game, I think a "Xenon Apocalypse" mode might be fun, with the Xenon receiving an increasing boost over time. The Player having to rise to the challenge to counter this. I can see a point in my current game when the Xenon will be on the ropes. Currently on Day 2 and, by day three, I'll have the assets to push into a Xenon Core sector (Shipyard / Wharf) which will be a major turning point. IF I keep pushing. It's possible the allied Factions, supported by my economic efforts, might be the ones to initial such an assault.

Note: I only use one other mod that changes the Economy - Faction War Economy Enhancer - but this does seem to achieve a decent balance for me. Is it this mod alone that's perhaps responsible for my competent Xenon? Plus also why my game's economy seems pretty robust? I do use Dead Tater for auto-trading, but only a handful of them centred around Argon Space. Other mods are just VRO and some ship mods (without jobs), nothing else that has an impact on the Factions.

Note 2: FWEE has the "Catch-up Module" of course but, from what I can see, none of the Factions are hard-pressed enough for this to trigger...yet. Perhaps it will trigger for FRF, unless I intervene. If I do continue to push the Xenon, they will get a decent buff to their ship building... we'll see how it goes.

[BlackRain]

It would be something completely optional. You would have to activate the faster building ships and such. I had to help the xenon in my game to keep them alive for the most part, otherwise they would have slowly gotten wiped out by the factions which are just too strong. Of course I did a start where Trinity was already around and Trinity is very strong. Also, I did a start where the split plot ended with Zyarch being the winner as well. I mean, there are too many variables, start scenarios, etc. to really figure out a good balance which is why I leave it up to the individual. I can just do whatever I want in my own game of course. I will think on it in the near future when I have more time. I am also considering adding pirate factions that have their own shipyards and try to scrap for all their resources and also another possible future mod is a competitive corporation which will go after the player.

[Scoob]

It would be something completely optional. You would have to activate the faster building ships and such. I had to help the xenon in my game to keep them alive for the most part, otherwise they would have slowly gotten wiped out by the factions which are just too strong. Of course I did a start where Trinity was already around and Trinity is very strong. Also, I did a start where the split plot ended with Zyarch being the winner as well. I mean, there are too many variables, start scenarios, etc. to really figure out a good balance which is why I leave it up to the individual. I can just do whatever I want in my own game of course. I will think on it in the near future when I have more time. I am also considering adding pirate factions that have their own shipyards and try to scrap for all their resources and also another possible future mod is a competitive corporation which will go after the player.

I think it'd be great if it allows people to buff the perhaps weaker Xenon in their games, or if they want a bit more danger. Options are always good. You could represent it as the AI evolving, if you wanted some Lore surrounding their improved construction abilities.

I'd love to see the Pirate Factions have their own Shipyards etc. rather than simply spawning in where they like. Also, their economy working from what they steal and salvage really fits well. There was a mod that allowed players to recycle ships for a portion of the resources with the chance to gain a blueprint to that vessel, or one of the components such as shields or a weapon for example. It'd be brilliant if the Pirates could utilise this. So, they'd start out with a fairly basic (vanilla) set of ships they use, but as they capture and recycle vessels, they gain the materials of course and the chance of a new BP. Seeing them evolve as a faction to field different ships with more varied load-outs would be excellent. Presenting this mechanic for the player to use also, like in that other mod, would be a useful perk of befriending the Pirates perhaps?

Do you know if it's at all possible that if something is REMOVED from a ship at a player Wharf / Shipyard / Equipment Dock, such as Deployables or any module really, that the material cost is refunded to the station, bar the Energy Cells? Didn't we chat about this previously? With this available to all factions, I think the economy might be a little more robust. It's been a desire of mine for the universe to be more "green" when it comes to recycling matters lol. However, do the various Faction ever re-equip their ships, or just stock up on ammo and deployables? I suspect this would be more benefit to the player. However, perhaps the Pirates might choose to upgrade their ships if they gain access to say better Shield, Engine or Weapon tech. If the original module's material cost is refunded, that would help their economy greatly.

[Baconnaise]

It would be something completely optional. You would have to activate the faster building ships and such. I had to help the xenon in my game to keep them alive for the most part, otherwise they would have slowly gotten wiped out by the factions which are just too strong. Of course I did a start where Trinity was already around and Trinity is very strong. Also, I did a start where the split plot ended with Zyarch being the winner as well. I mean, there are too many variables, start scenarios, etc. to really figure out a good balance which is why I leave it up to the individual. I can just do whatever I want in my own game of course. I will think on it in the near future when I have more time. I am also considering adding pirate factions that have their own shipyards and try to scrap for all their resources and also another possible future mod is a competitive corporation which will go after the player.

Sounds like you're talking about something similar to Ossian Raider where you can enable features and alter difficulty on the fly. If you can have it utilize the extension options like deadair mods kuertees etc that would be pretty rad.

[BlackRain]

It would be something completely optional. You would have to activate the faster building ships and such. I had to help the xenon in my game to keep them alive for the most part, otherwise they would have slowly gotten wiped out by the factions which are just too strong. Of course I did a start where Trinity was already around and Trinity is very strong. Also, I did a start where the split plot ended with Zyarch being the winner as well. I mean, there are too many variables, start scenarios, etc. to really figure out a good balance which is why I leave it up to the individual. I can just do whatever I want in my own game of course. I will think on it in the near future when I have more time. I am also considering adding pirate factions that have their own shipyards and try to scrap for all their resources and also another possible future mod is a competitive corporation which will go after the player.

Sounds like you're talking about something similar to Ossian Raider where you can enable features and alter difficulty on the fly. If you can have it utilize the extension options like deadair mods kuertees etc that would be pretty rad.

I am not really sure about that mod, it won't be something you can necessarily configure on the fly so to speak. At least for the Xenon stuff, I mean I am just adding it to FOCW but it will work a little different from the already existing Xenon stuff. That is all under the hood stuff though, you would just configure as normal. Someone did put together a menu for me which I haven't had time to look at yet, but maybe I can have a menu up soon, we will see.

The pirate stuff and enemy corporation idea will be a little different and be something similar to my corporations mod but it will be slightly different and more aggressive in case of the enemy corporation.

[Baconnaise]

It would be something completely optional. You would have to activate the faster building ships and such. I had to help the xenon in my game to keep them alive for the most part, otherwise they would have slowly gotten wiped out by the factions which are just too strong. Of course I did a start where Trinity was already around and Trinity is very strong. Also, I did a start where the split plot ended with Zyarch being the winner as well. I mean, there are too many variables, start scenarios, etc. to really figure out a good balance which is why I leave it up to the individual. I can just do whatever I want in my own game of course. I will think on it in the near future when I have more time. I am also considering adding pirate factions that have their own shipyards and try to scrap for all their resources and also another possible future mod is a competitive corporation which will go after the player.

Sounds like you're talking about something similar to Ossian Raider where you can enable features and alter difficulty on the fly. If you can have it utilize the extension options like deadair mods kuertees etc that would be pretty rad.

I am not really sure about that mod, it won't be something you can necessarily configure on the fly so to speak. At least for the Xenon stuff, I mean I am just adding it to FOCW but it will work a little different from the already existing Xenon stuff. That is all under the hood stuff though, you would just configure as normal. Someone did put together a menu for me which I haven't had time to look at yet, but maybe I can have a menu up soon, we will see.

The pirate stuff and enemy corporation idea will be a little different and be something similar to my corporations mod but it will be slightly different and more aggressive in case of the enemy corporation.

I'm used to setting up FOCW or the Corp mod. The extensions menu or starting ossian raider is nice to have as well. That mod has a friendly terran corp and an enemy one to all factions like xenon that you can initiate and set difficulty levels. It's very aggressive. Dynamic wars uses the menu system brings up nifty stats even for your corps from the mod. Cool to watch the anthill grow.

[Scoob]

Does this mod allow a faction to be made weaker at all? I know I can add fleet allocation - I do it for several of the main factions that get harassed by the Xenon early, and it really does help. However, in my current game, I'm finding that the Xenon aggression has really ramped up as time passes. In v5.1 HF3, they started aggressive, which the extra ship allocation to allied factions helped, and that level remained fairly consistent. In v6.0 however, they were quite passive during the first couple of game days, but have gone a bit nuts since day three.

I'm currently very much holding the line on several fronts vs. the Xenon, with some support from the allied factions. This is actually fun for me but a friend, with whom I've shared my mod list, is concerned it'll get a little too much for him.

I think I could perhaps add additional fleet allocation to some of the allied factions, but the Xenon are regularly fielding Xenon I - I was countering three at once over several fronts last night - so it's tough going.

[BlackRain]

Does this mod allow a faction to be made weaker at all? I know I can add fleet allocation - I do it for several of the main factions that get harassed by the Xenon early, and it really does help. However, in my current game, I'm finding that the Xenon aggression has really ramped up as time passes. In v5.1 HF3, they started aggressive, which the extra ship allocation to allied factions helped, and that level remained fairly consistent. In v6.0 however, they were quite passive during the first couple of game days, but have gone a bit nuts since day three.

I'm currently very much holding the line on several fronts vs. the Xenon, with some support from the allied factions. This is actually fun for me but a friend, with whom I've shared my mod list, is concerned it'll get a little too much for him.

I think I could perhaps add additional fleet allocation to some of the allied factions, but the Xenon are regularly fielding Xenon I - I was countering three at once over several fronts last night - so it's tough going.

If you do not add any of the Xenon ships but add all of the different faction ships they should be able to handle the Xenon pretty well I think. Although, they may even start beating the xenon on their own. You would have to play with the numbers, but I would start a new game without any additional xenon ships and activate as many of the different faction ships as you want, maybe start with just the basic options at first and then increase them slowly over time. That should keep the xenon manageable I would think. I mean, when I started a new game a while ago, the Xenon even with their extra ships on were getting a beat down (this is with VRO, etc.) This was with all the faction options on for every faction. The good thing about activating the ships when you start a new game is that the game should start with all of those extra ships already existing in the game, so the factions would have that extra firepower and the xenon wouldn't.