[Suggestion] Xenon Apocalypse

[Falcrack]

Here is a suggestion that might help solve some of the issues Egosoft has had regarding Xenon either being too weak or too strong, so that peace loving X4 players can have the peace they want, and warmongers can have the war they want.

1. Xenon are buffed considerably, so they are MUCH more powerful than the factions, able to easily wipe the factions out if they desired, BUT...

2. The Xenon do not try to actively invade sectors. Aside from the few Xenon raiders you see spawned via the encounters mechanism, you will not see them invading sectors belonging to factions (ie placing defense stations there, sending capitals, etc)

3. The factions, remembering the horrors of the Xenon from years past, actively try to invade and eliminate Xenon in sectors adjacent to them, but due to being much weaker than the Xenon, they inevitably fail. This helps feed the war and economy in X4, as all the ships being sent out die and need to be replaced.

4. When a player accepts Xenon war missions from a faction, after completing several (maybe 10) of these, a mission is generated called "Xenon Apocalypse". This will be a mission to destroy all Xenon defense stations in the Xenon sector adjacent to the faction that gave the mission, and to build a defense station with an admin module in that sector.

5. If you manage to complete this mission, the Xenon will go nuts, and retaliate with their full force against all the other factions, not discriminating one race from another. They will begin to invade, and will not stop until they have conquered the galaxy or been eliminated. The Xenon will be balanced such that, without massive help from the player, all the factions in the galaxy are doomed.

6. Eliminating the Xenon after this threat has been activated would be a very nice "end game" goal for players of X4, and should be very challenging.

[lordpazuzu]

2. The Xenon do not try to actively invade sectors. Aside from the few Xenon raiders you see spawned via the encounters mechanism, you will not see them invading sectors belonging to factions (ie placing defense stations there, sending capitals, etc)

I think this is not completely true; In my game Xenons are actually invading and moving to some biological factions sectors, so this mechanism is already implemented, maybe is too random or maybe is not triggering correctly in may cases.

[Falcrack]

2. The Xenon do not try to actively invade sectors. Aside from the few Xenon raiders you see spawned via the encounters mechanism, you will not see them invading sectors belonging to factions (ie placing defense stations there, sending capitals, etc)

I think this is not completely true; In my game Xenons are actually invading and moving to some biological factions sectors, so this mechanism is already implemented, maybe is too random or maybe is not triggering correctly in may cases.

I'm not saying they don't try to invade sectors right now, in vanilla X4. I am saying, as a suggestion, that Xenon could be buffed to be super powerful, to the point where they could easily take over the universe if they so desired, and yet they will not try to invade, until the player triggers their invasion by completing a specific Xenon war mission.

[Berserk Knight]

+1
This sounds pretty good.

Although, it might be a good idea to ramp it up instead of dropping everything all at once at the very end.
Have the Xenon retaliate - wipe out and take over one adjacent sector - somewhere in the mid point.
This way, the player learns that the Xenon will retaliate if you annoy them too much, as well as showcase the might of the Xenon that will come crashing down upon you should you annoy them further.

Initial Xenon: All terraforming units occupied. Command "search for new planets to terraform" on hold.
Mid-point Xenon: Minor obstruction detected. Removing known source of obstruction. Obstruction removed. Resuming terraforming operations.
Post-apocalypse Xenon: Continued obstruction detected. Seeking out and removing all possible sources of obstruction.

[Thecrippler]

2. The Xenon do not try to actively invade sectors. Aside from the few Xenon raiders you see spawned via the encounters mechanism, you will not see them invading sectors belonging to factions (ie placing defense stations there, sending capitals, etc)

I think this is not completely true; In my game Xenons are actually invading and moving to some biological factions sectors, so this mechanism is already implemented, maybe is too random or maybe is not triggering correctly in may cases.

I'm not saying they don't try to invade sectors right now, in vanilla X4. I am saying, as a suggestion, that Xenon could be buffed to be super powerful, to the point where they could easily take over the universe if they so desired, and yet they will not try to invade, until the player triggers their invasion by completing a specific Xenon war mission.

All of this sounds good but question is who will win xenons have no economy they don't need pilots they don't need components all they need is energy cells and some asteroid resources and they can spam ships all day in their safe sectors + with radiation area or billions of mines at the gate or you ho needs 16 components to build one ship

as i said the idea is not bad but first they will need to tweak the AI Xenons a bit more special with the resources bit more stations to make components so the both side will have a fighting chance atm it is no posible to have massive invasion or incursion for Xenons 3 components vs 16 components

[Falcrack]

I think this is not completely true; In my game Xenons are actually invading and moving to some biological factions sectors, so this mechanism is already implemented, maybe is too random or maybe is not triggering correctly in may cases.

I'm not saying they don't try to invade sectors right now, in vanilla X4. I am saying, as a suggestion, that Xenon could be buffed to be super powerful, to the point where they could easily take over the universe if they so desired, and yet they will not try to invade, until the player triggers their invasion by completing a specific Xenon war mission.

All of this sounds good but question is who will win xenons have no economy they don't need pilots they don't need components all they need is energy cells and some asteroid resources and they can spam ships all day in their safe sectors + with radiation area or billions of mines at the gate or you ho needs 16 components to build one ship

as i said the idea is not bad but first they will need to tweak the AI Xenons a bit more special with the resources bit more stations to make components so the both side will have a fighting chance atm it is no posible to have massive invasion or incursion for Xenons 3 components vs 16 components

Well at the moment, we can see that the Xenon can be defeated by the factions, even with their economy that only needs e-cells, silicon and ore. To buff them, they could perhaps be made to require even less resources to build their ships, be given a larger limit as to the number of ships and stations they build, etc. They can be defeated in Faulty Logic with all the mines, and they can be defeated in the radiation zone. But they could be buffed to the point where, once triggered to invade by completing the mission, that unless the player intervenes, and intervenes in a big way, that the natural conclusion will be the factions are defeated. With skilled player intervention, though, there is a chance of defeating them.

[spankahontis]

Here is a suggestion that might help solve some of the issues Egosoft has had regarding Xenon either being too weak or too strong, so that peace loving X4 players can have the peace they want, and warmongers can have the war they want.

1. Xenon are buffed considerably, so they are MUCH more powerful than the factions, able to easily wipe the factions out if they desired, BUT...

2. The Xenon do not try to actively invade sectors. Aside from the few Xenon raiders you see spawned via the encounters mechanism, you will not see them invading sectors belonging to factions (ie placing defense stations there, sending capitals, etc)

3. The factions, remembering the horrors of the Xenon from years past, actively try to invade and eliminate Xenon in sectors adjacent to them, but due to being much weaker than the Xenon, they inevitably fail. This helps feed the war and economy in X4, as all the ships being sent out die and need to be replaced.

4. When a player accepts Xenon war missions from a faction, after completing several (maybe 10) of these, a mission is generated called "Xenon Apocalypse". This will be a mission to destroy all Xenon defense stations in the Xenon sector adjacent to the faction that gave the mission, and to build a defense station with an admin module in that sector.

5. If you manage to complete this mission, the Xenon will go nuts, and retaliate with their full force against all the other factions, not discriminating one race from another. They will begin to invade, and will not stop until they have conquered the galaxy or been eliminated. The Xenon will be balanced such that, without massive help from the player, all the factions in the galaxy are doomed.

6. Eliminating the Xenon after this threat has been activated would be a very nice "end game" goal for players of X4, and should be very challenging.

I'm sure there is a mission in the Argon Vs Xenon list where you can cleanse Xenon ships in Hatikvah's Choice I.
It's to help the Argon prepare for a full assault into Tharka's Cascade.
Don't know how the mission plays out as it doesn't go into detail about what your roll is other than to "Provide Assistance". I think in theory, how it works? Is you're supposed to cleanse Hatikvah's Choice I of Xenon ships to complete the mission?

I posted in an earlier post about there being a system in place where the War Engine takes into account the number of Sectors/Stations a Faction has/owns and to those lagging behind in the war, they get a "buff" to their ship production/station building in order to catch up.

I remember in X3:TC, if you destroyed enough Xenon Installations and ships? The spawn rate of Xenon Ships greatly increases. I had 30 Osaka's one time guarding Xenon Sector #598, I had took Xenon Sectors #347, #101, #472 and eventually #598.. The Xenon were pouring Destroyers and Battleships at an ever increasing rate from neighbouring Xenon Sector #627, the more I pushed into #627, the more ships I encountered. It was obvious that the aggression level of the Xenon was greatly increased.
I think the Xenon need to be like that, the more you take, the more aggressive they get until ship building cradles needs some serious increase in numbers to compete with the increased Xenon Aggression to combat. Which could unlock a highly lucrative Shipyard building mission when certain prerequisites are met? Or just compensate for the lack of Shipyards by building your own.

But I'd like this to be where the Diplomacy Mechanic (that 3.0 will introduce) shines.
Xenon start to get too aggressive that Factions can't fight the Xenon and each other at the same time that you must strive for a peace treaty or inevitably lose the war to the Xenon.
Xenon are enemies of everyone, so it's safe to assume that they will be fighting on all fronts and be the first to go because of that. Those that make enough peace and choose their fights will be more likely to be victorious.
So the Xenon for their lack of Diplomacy have superior ship production to compensate, balance it in a way that a Faction that has to fight the Xenon AND fight an enemy Faction on their opposite border will have their resources stretched to breaking point, Xenon's superior production becomes the deciding factor in the stalemate where the Factions defensive line collapses and the Xenon can claim a foothold in that space to mount an invasion; it forces you to seek a diplomatic solution for that Faction so they can pull their fleets from their Rivals border and focus all war efforts into pushing the Xenon back.

Initial Xenon: All terraforming units occupied. Command "search for new planets to terraform" on hold.
Mid-point Xenon: Minor obstruction detected. Removing known source of obstruction. Obstruction removed. Resuming terraforming operations.
Post-apocalypse Xenon: Continued obstruction detected. Seeking out and removing all possible sources of obstruction.

The Xenon in X3 had something similar, the more Xenon space you took, the faster their ships spawned and you found yourself constantly battling them on the border to keep them back.

But I would LOVE to see the Xenon have an aggression bar, the more of a thorn in their side you become? War Mechanic scans how many Xenon Sectors it has left and how many stations it owns.
If it drops below acceptable numbers? The kid gloves come off and the Xenon show you why they are feared throughout the X Universe? Ship Production gets a serious buff, station building grows, more miners, more power distributors to provide more resources to increase production and of course.. More Fighters and Destroyers.