Xenon capitals spawning related to fighting rank?

[fireanddream]

I'm at fighting rank warlord and have been seeing a worrying number of Xenon M2s spawning in commonwealth sectors, so I wonder if it's just gonna be a common occurrence from now on. If so, I would much rather not increase my rank so fast in my next playthrough.

Occasional Xenon K & Q is fine, but just now I found a Xenon I spawning for the first time in Rolk's Fate. It seems to book it straight towards the south gate probably to Xenon Sector 101, which is nicer than trying to destroy everything in the sector.

Coincidentally, I also think it may have spawned to replace a Xenon I I captured a few hours ago. I also kill most Xenon J and K in commonwealth space, probably leading to them infinitely spawning to replace the lost ones. Maybe I need to sit back and let them get to where they want to be?

[BrigandPhantos77]

Perhaps, but if I recall it also has largely to do with the number of capitals you possess as well. I have Js spawn on me, but I have also seen a combo of I, K and Q appear several times. I personally have about 20+ M7 or bigger ships. Though combat rank could control quality, while the number of ships you possess could control quantity. Only guessing here. I'm currently the same combat rank. I'll get constant PX, 3 - 5 L, 2 - 4 M, 2 - 4 N, appearing all over, but I think that has more to do with a hidden aggression timer like is now applied and can be seen with the commonwealth factions / corporations. I been blowing them up a lot.

[fireanddream]

First flight of the Xenon I!
It's very nice to have cargobay shielding to avoid equipment breakage and a drone carrier to repair at home.

Things are getting slightly out of hand but it would be comforting to know that my fighting rank has nothing to do with it.
https://imgur.com/a/lic3NEN

I'll get constant PX, 3 - 5 L, 2 - 4 M, 2 - 4 N, appearing all over

A shame that the SEWN wing is not a thing any more. Would be fun to have a few M7s jumping all over the places to hunt them down.

Also RRF ships doing absolutely nothing is strange. They chilled in Kingdom End delta and Rolk's Fate for a couple of hours and no response from the commonwealth whatsoever. I show up at Paranid Prime delta and whoosh 2 Zeus 2 Odysseus 2 Aries instantly greeted me.

[BrigandPhantos77]

First flight of the Xenon I!
It's very nice to have cargobay shielding to avoid equipment breakage and a drone carrier to repair at home.

Things are getting slightly out of hand but it would be comforting to know that my fighting rank has nothing to do with it.
https://imgur.com/a/lic3NEN

I'll get constant PX, 3 - 5 L, 2 - 4 M, 2 - 4 N, appearing all over

A shame that the SEWN wing is not a thing any more. Would be fun to have a few M7s jumping all over the places to hunt them down.

Also RRF ships doing absolutely nothing is strange. They chilled in Kingdom End delta and Rolk's Fate for a couple of hours and no response from the commonwealth whatsoever. I show up at Paranid Prime delta and whoosh 2 Zeus 2 Odysseus 2 Aries instantly greeted me.

If you don't plan to play nice with Paranid, I'd call those free capital ships.

First I hit the Yaki, took a pair of Kariudo, an Akurei and a Senshi, then I hit Dukes. Took an Ares and Zeus. Then I came back and hit the Yaki again and got a Hoshi, Akurei and Shuri. I've been cycling my 100 fight marines out to non missile boat frigates. Filled a Thresher, soon to fill a Tern. The Yaki of course are considerably upset, spawning near my Satellites and popping them. The game also seems to have turned up the Xenon spawns with them as I get an emergency signal at a rate of every couple minutes. Either it's Xenon or Yaki. Always in obscure or hard to get to places.

With the Xenon fleets though, I did notice that the number of capitals I got significantly increased as I hit Vindicator rank. Then there quality went up at Warlord.

[Sovereign01]

Having just reached Warlord rank myself I'll be on the lookout for more Xenon spawns, what I have noticed is news items starting to appear in my encyclopedia for the first time. I don't have many capital ships, most of them are based in the Xenon hub except an Astraeus that protects my fuel & weed complex in Akeela's beacon beta. I have noticed some Xenon appearing in the hub, though whether they spawned there or travelled through adjacent sectors I do not know. In any case I keep my ships way above and below the level of the gates. Somewhat hilariously I've occasionally seen hostile OTAS ships tell me they're surrendering and bailing even though I haven't attacked them. I'm fairly sure my Aquilo isn't to blame

[fireanddream]

Having just reached Warlord rank myself I'll be on the lookout for more Xenon spawns, what I have noticed is news items starting to appear in my encyclopedia for the first time. I don't have many capital ships, most of them are based in the Xenon hub except an Astraeus that protects my fuel & weed complex in Akeela's beacon beta. I have noticed some Xenon appearing in the hub, though whether they spawned there or travelled through adjacent sectors I do not know. In any case I keep my ships way above and below the level of the gates. Somewhat hilariously I've occasionally seen hostile OTAS ships tell me they're surrendering and bailing even though I haven't attacked them. I'm fairly sure my Aquilo isn't to blame

Bailing seems to work IS with all your ships instead of just your personal ship, which is a blessing and a curse because there's no easy way to stop your other ships' turrets, and killing bailed pilots reduces further chance of bailing. The Xenon never attack the hub in my save, but they do have a target (most frequently Cloudbase North West/South West for some reason), and they are traveling there.

[Sovereign01]

Having just reached Warlord rank myself I'll be on the lookout for more Xenon spawns, what I have noticed is news items starting to appear in my encyclopedia for the first time. I don't have many capital ships, most of them are based in the Xenon hub except an Astraeus that protects my fuel & weed complex in Akeela's beacon beta. I have noticed some Xenon appearing in the hub, though whether they spawned there or travelled through adjacent sectors I do not know. In any case I keep my ships way above and below the level of the gates. Somewhat hilariously I've occasionally seen hostile OTAS ships tell me they're surrendering and bailing even though I haven't attacked them. I'm fairly sure my Aquilo isn't to blame

Bailing seems to work IS with all your ships instead of just your personal ship, which is a blessing and a curse because there's no easy way to stop your other ships' turrets, and killing bailed pilots reduces further chance of bailing. The Xenon never attack the hub in my save, but they do have a target (most frequently Cloudbase North West/South West for some reason), and they are traveling there.

After I wrote that I did see Xenon in the adjacent sectors, the ship info said they've been in space for an hour so they could not possibly have spawned in the hub. Of course, now that I have a TS full of slaves and an XL training barracks I can train all the marines I'll ever need. To get to XXL I'll need to convert another 52 of them, which will take all day. The training in specific skills also takes a while, though when upgrading the barracks the new marines do come with skills in unlocked areas. I can still see the need to send some to military outposts to finish their training though.

[BrigandPhantos77]

After I wrote that I did see Xenon in the adjacent sectors, the ship info said they've been in space for an hour so they could not possibly have spawned in the hub. Of course, now that I have a TS full of slaves and an XL training barracks I can train all the marines I'll ever need. To get to XXL I'll need to convert another 52 of them, which will take all day. The training in specific skills also takes a while, though when upgrading the barracks the new marines do come with skills in unlocked areas. I can still see the need to send some to military outposts to finish their training though.

Can I offer you a derp moment? Your Marine Barracks offers the same service as the Military Outpost. They never have to leave to continue training. Yes you have to pay for it, but it's available. Probably limited to what's unlocked. But those 52 for XXL didn't seem to take that long for me. I am always more focused on pushing out caps from my PHQ anyways. Every time I RE something, I always re-build it. So time seems to fly by for me. Just have to remember to check the barracks every so often. I'm up to 170+ marines in my employ now. "I have a full company. HOOAH!!" A yellow bird, with a yellow bill, landed on, my window sill. I lured him in, with a piece of bread. Then I smacked, THAT birdies head!!

[Sovereign01]

After I wrote that I did see Xenon in the adjacent sectors, the ship info said they've been in space for an hour so they could not possibly have spawned in the hub. Of course, now that I have a TS full of slaves and an XL training barracks I can train all the marines I'll ever need. To get to XXL I'll need to convert another 52 of them, which will take all day. The training in specific skills also takes a while, though when upgrading the barracks the new marines do come with skills in unlocked areas. I can still see the need to send some to military outposts to finish their training though.

Can I offer you a derp moment? Your Marine Barracks offers the same service as the Military Outpost. They never have to leave to continue training. Yes you have to pay for it, but it's available. Probably limited to what's unlocked. But those 52 for XXL didn't seem to take that long for me. I am always more focused on pushing out caps from my PHQ anyways. Every time I RE something, I always re-build it. So time seems to fly by for me. Just have to remember to check the barracks every so often. I'm up to 170+ marines in my employ now. "I have a full company. HOOAH!!" A yellow bird, with a yellow bill, landed on, my window sill. I lured him in, with a piece of bread. Then I smacked, THAT birdies head!!

At the moment I can train in Hacking and Engineering and each marine that I create starts training right away. I still need to keep a ship that can carry passengers docked to collect created marines just to transfer back to the station for their training, it's pretty cool that created marines start off with some stars in the unlocked fields. So far none of those marines have reached 100 in both fields yet, if any do before the upgrade I'll happily pack them off to the outpost in CEO's Sprite for Mechanical. Unlike the other races that Teladi station I can train to my heart's content without worrying about fluctuating notoriety.

Had some success with boarding (and getting the achievement for max pirate rank along the way), the Argon hate me currently and they had a Heavy Centaur Prototype attacking my Xenon hub, futile as that was. Easy pickings even when it took a shot at my Sirokos, knocking down its shields with the Maru and then sending in the marines. The hardest part was turning off my turrets as otherwise they would keep destroying the target! I didn't expect the opportunity to land in my lap like that but it became another blueprint.

The Boron already really hate me, so I chose to board my second Megalodon that was actually the first one's companion in Rolk's Legacy (RE'd the first) without worrying about pissing them off further, using my overtuned Pteranodon to knock down its shields. It had moved to the adjacent sector, Lucky Planets Gamma, which made my job easier as it meant fewer escorts. I took a risk using only 13 marines with combat being between 50-100, saving as they were cutting through the hull and reloading to see if I could take the ship casualty-free. Turns out the answer was YES, at their 5th attempt. That ship went straight to the HQ to be kitted out and repaired using my Guppy, Cormorant and Panther's drones. Won't be completely optimised until I source the Ion Cannons to complement the Gauss Cannons, so it'll have to make do with Photon Pulse Cannons instead.

Paranid didn't take too kindly to me boosting my Pirate rank either, dropping into hostile all too easily. Not taking this lightly I responded the only way I knew how- boarding a lone Agamemnon in Sacred Relic. Paranid must have skimped on the shields as they folded far quicker than those of the Meg, had to turn off the turrets as they made short work of the ship. Took a few attempts for the pods to get through, the trick is not to get close enough that the ship will switch to PSGs instead of IBLs due to the former being deadly to missiles, managed to take that ship with 10 marines casualty-free and haul it off to HQ.

Now I have to set to work rebuilding my rep, considering doing something about my terran standing first...

[BrigandPhantos77]

If you ever use an M7 missile frigate to board. Make sure those turrets are off as well. They like to fire missiles on there own when you bring them in. I've gotten 4 Zeus from Dukes now. I was gonna go for another Ares, but for some reason any and all Duke's missile boats do not flip back to Duke's when they return. They switch to Paranid and stay Paranid, then upon return, get blown up by Duke's ships upon entering Lasting Vengeance. I watched it happen several times now.

Another thing starting to annoy me, apparently Otas don't like it when I pop Duke's in there sectors. They keep taking away my Argon Law Enforcement License. I'm tempted to take a few of there ships.

It also happened to me when I got a Duke's Courier to bail in Belt of Aguilar. Only that time it didn't give me any notification. Just removed the license. I only noticed when I went to "scan" my new bail, and saw the illegal word.

[DanKara]

If you ever use an M7 missile frigate to board. Make sure those turrets are off as well.

You can bind a HotKey to quickly (de)activate all turrets on your playership.

I've gotten 4 Zeus from Dukes now. I was gonna go for another Ares, but for some reason any and all Duke's missile boats do not flip back to Duke's when they return. They switch to Paranid and stay Paranid, then upon return, get blown up by Duke's ships upon entering Lasting Vengeance. I watched it happen several times now.

Wasn't that fixed in 1.3? Atleast the player (Deathifier), who took a look at the changed scripted, said so in addition to the patch notes?

[BrigandPhantos77]

If you ever use an M7 missile frigate to board. Make sure those turrets are off as well.

You can bind a HotKey to quickly (de)activate all turrets on your playership.

I've gotten 4 Zeus from Dukes now. I was gonna go for another Ares, but for some reason any and all Duke's missile boats do not flip back to Duke's when they return. They switch to Paranid and stay Paranid, then upon return, get blown up by Duke's ships upon entering Lasting Vengeance. I watched it happen several times now.

Wasn't that fixed in 1.3? Atleast the player (Deathifier), who took a look at the changed scripted, said so in addition to the patch notes?

I'd be happy to record it for you. I don't know what they fixed in the patch. I just know that in my game, (version 1.3), I watched both a Ares and Gannet returning. The Ares turned back to Dukes, but the Gannet did not. It was destroyed. Then the Ares left system and came back. This time it stayed Paranid.

Oh, and the bound key only works for the "playership". The Jump To Me option has the nasty habit which will cause any M7M to immediately fire it's missiles at any hostile targets upon entering system. It will completely not come to you and instead engage the nearest red target. For that reason I always scout my targets first via "spring blossom", then I bring my boarding ship in. Using Jump and Move To instead. It works very well for me. This is an aspect I forgot about when I dropped a single use jump beacon in Sanctuary of Darkness, then realized all my Carriers were actually flying away from my position with fighters deployed heading to engage the Xenon.

[DanKara]

I'd be happy to record it for you. I don't know what they fixed in the patch. I just know that in my game, (version 1.3), I watched both a Ares and Gannet returning. The Ares turned back to Dukes, but the Gannet did not. It was destroyed. Then the Ares left system and came back. This time it stayed Paranid.

Oh, and the bound key only works for the "playership". The Jump To Me option has the nasty habit which will cause any M7M to immediately fire it's missiles at any hostile targets upon entering system. It will completely not come to you and instead engage the nearest red target. For that reason I always scout my targets first via "spring blossom", then I bring my boarding ship in. Using Jump and Move To instead. It works very well for me. This is an aspect I forgot about when I dropped a single use jump beacon in Sanctuary of Darkness, then realized all my Carriers were actually flying away from my position with fighters deployed heading to engage the Xenon.

wrt 'Dukes': just collecting data yet. But eventually I have to work on the 'Duked'-achievement
wrt 'jump to me': I don't think, 'jump to me' and 'move to' works differently in that regard. If your (remote controlled) ship gets sidetrack, they will ignore direct orders. If my ships are armed or have fight drones (or homebased) ships docked they will 'retaliate' at the slightest incomming turret fire (from enemy red packs like Strongarm). With the addition of the DynRep there should have been a 'Move and ignore enemy'-option...

[BrigandPhantos77]

I'd be happy to record it for you. I don't know what they fixed in the patch. I just know that in my game, (version 1.3), I watched both a Ares and Gannet returning. The Ares turned back to Dukes, but the Gannet did not. It was destroyed. Then the Ares left system and came back. This time it stayed Paranid.

Oh, and the bound key only works for the "playership". The Jump To Me option has the nasty habit which will cause any M7M to immediately fire it's missiles at any hostile targets upon entering system. It will completely not come to you and instead engage the nearest red target. For that reason I always scout my targets first via "spring blossom", then I bring my boarding ship in. Using Jump and Move To instead. It works very well for me. This is an aspect I forgot about when I dropped a single use jump beacon in Sanctuary of Darkness, then realized all my Carriers were actually flying away from my position with fighters deployed heading to engage the Xenon.

wrt 'Dukes': just collecting data yet. But eventually I have to work on the 'Duked'-achievement
wrt 'jump to me': I don't think, 'jump to me' and 'move to' works differently in that regard. If your (remote controlled) ship gets sidetrack, they will ignore direct orders. If my ships are armed or have fight drones (or homebased) ships docked they will 'retaliate' at the slightest incomming turret fire (from enemy red packs like Strongarm). With the addition of the DynRep there should have been a 'Move and ignore enemy'-option...

All my ships, no matter the type always initiate an attack on the nearest hostile craft upon executing an "jump to me" command. Even TS ships try it. Which is annoying when you need the cargo of Flails and that ships decides: Oh hostile Zeus, I will go attack it instead of coming to you. If no hostile ships are in system, they will move to your location. But if hostiles are in system, jump to me becomes jump to system and attack nearest threat. No exceptions for me. I lost my lightly armed Boa once to a Strong Arms fleet because I was unaware of this fact once.

If you have auto-jump enabled and configured, then all you gotta do is command follow me and your fine. But you have to configure that for every ship.

I gave up getting the Duked achievement long ago. I kinda destroyed their Marine Training Barracks in Lasting Vengeance. It has not yet respawned. I've been hoping to catch some Split Capitals crossing Hatikvah's Faith, but so far I only saw one once. I need to start adding them to my collection. I guess I could go hit them in there own sectors.

With the addition of the DynRep there should have been a 'Move and ignore enemy'-option...

Your telling me.... lol... with the limited timer on the single use jump beacons its hard to jump a large fleet in somewhere without forcing an engagement right away. I guess I shouldn't push a 30 on 5 capital fleet engagement. Overkill maybe?

[DanKara]

...
All my ships, no matter the type always initiate an attack on the nearest hostile craft upon executing an "jump to me" command. Even TS ships try it.

That behavior I've only seen, from the MARU (when called to me) or my other TM/TS (that somehow had some fighter drones a board). Granted, I still have less than a dozen ships on active duty and those are never armed (my 'Tradeships' have to 'flee' not 'fight' ). Do you have your global command (IFF) set to 'enemy' to some factions?

Your telling me.... lol... with the limited timer on the single use jump beacons its hard to jump a large fleet in somewhere ...

So... you are still too honest to exploit Hephaistos?
(And I rarely see a situation, that could not be handled by my single MARU - and some time... In my experience the higher your ship-count, the higher your grief and need to replace stuff. 'Large scale battles' are prone for desaster - even without enemy contact, imho.)

[BrigandPhantos77]

That behavior I've only seen, from the MARU (when called to me) or my other TM/TS (that somehow had some fighter drones a board). Granted, I still have less than a dozen ships on active duty and those are never armed (my 'Tradeships' have to 'flee' not 'fight' ). Do you have your global command (IFF) set to 'enemy' to some factions?

I basically have show as enemy if enemy set. Yaki and Dukes are enemy, and of course so are Xenon. Strong Arms are also set as enemy. I have over 1000 ships and about 115 stations.

So... you are still too honest to exploit Hephaistos?
(And I rarely see a situation, that could not be handled by my single MARU - and some time... In my experience the higher your ship-count, the higher your grief and need to replace stuff. 'Large scale battles' are prone for desaster - even without enemy contact, imho.)

Got a full plate actually. Not worried about snagging one of there jump beacons. Exploiting other options.

Loving the fact I got a net worth in game of 17 billion.