Xenon taking the whole map?

[ElGordo]

The last couple months or maybe since 3.0 I am having a problem with the Xenon taking pretty much the whole map in about 7 days game time. I've played the x games since the first one and I'd like to think I'm pretty good at the economic game but I cant build up in time to stop the Xenon by myself. I've tried several restarts and its always the same, current playthrough Argon is gone, antigone gone, Hat, Hop, and I dont mean their core systems I mean the whole faction. The only wharf left is the allied paranid one and i have a hard time buying any cap ships before all the shipyards are down.

I do run a few qol mods but nothing that should be affecting ships, guns or combat in any way.

Is anyone else having this problem or figured out a good strategy against it?

I really love this game but at the moment I cant get anywhere.

Thanks in advance

[Sandalpocalypse]

It's a 3.0 problem. Xenon Ks are kind of OP. On top of that, current OOS mechanics favor them, the shield changes favor ships over stations, and there's Xenon Is to deal with to boot; they can smash fleets by themselves, and I'm fairly sure the Xebib get more I spawns in 3.0.

[birdtable]

I cannot disagree with the viewpoints of ElGordo regarding the Xenon. My games used to consist of rushing to build build build to build fleets to defend races from the Xenon, tradeships only carry high profit cargo,, build build high profit stations .... All at the sacrifice of what Egosoft created. Cannot believe that the experience of flying into Antigone Memorial for the first time or the original concept of the "Alliance of the Word" was to be rushed over just to build big ships to shoot other big ships.
I accept that other players do enjoy these scenarios but for myself I ignore the futile and badly balanced fleet defensive manoeuvres of invaded races and now appreciate what Egosoft created.

[Gavrushka]

It was in one of the earlier betas where a K grew so powerful OOS, it could cause mayhem in a sector, but they tended to hunt in pairs, often with an I, and were simply unstoppable. - It grew so bad that the Teladi and Argon were close to annihilation, so I was forced to move from a trade game to a fight game. - Thing was, I was playing a 2018 game which was close to being destroyed by the Xenon expansion. - Anyhow, I kept fighting back and eventually destroyed every last Xenon *BUT* it took two large fleets of warships, one holding the gate to stop expansion, the second clearing out each sector.

The result, I now play a game where the Xenon are gone. - They *don't* come back. - There are no Xenon ships - not a single one - and all that happens is a Xenon build plot appears in their sectors now and then, but there's no enemy left to construct it.

The game seems to have rebalanced itself, but there's no fight element left at all now, unless you take on one of the other factions. - I'm hoping the Split expansion will reintroduce a threat...

Here's a save for anyone who's curious. (Vanilla 3.0 Beta 8 HF1) https://1drv.ms/u/s!AnoYsE1M89Yrvgm0kKL ... c?e=ep43nA

[Warnoise]

The last couple months or maybe since 3.0 I am having a problem with the Xenon taking pretty much the whole map in about 7 days game time. I've played the x games since the first one and I'd like to think I'm pretty good at the economic game but I cant build up in time to stop the Xenon by myself. I've tried several restarts and its always the same, current playthrough Argon is gone, antigone gone, Hat, Hop, and I dont mean their core systems I mean the whole faction. The only wharf left is the allied paranid one and i have a hard time buying any cap ships before all the shipyards are down.

I do run a few qol mods but nothing that should be affecting ships, guns or combat in any way.

Is anyone else having this problem or figured out a good strategy against it?

I really love this game but at the moment I cant get anywhere.

Thanks in advance

currently 1 xenon I can literally solo a whole sector oos. I have called it out on the beta forums, not a single feedback from the devs about it. the oos balance is all over the place now, especially considering xenon start popping up a new xenon I like every 30 minutes.

I like how aggressive the xenon became but they are way too op OOS.

[Alan Phipps]

" I have called it out on the beta forums, not a single feedback from the devs about it."

The beta forum thread on that topic where you posted is seven pages of player discussion, argument, suggestions, feature requests and even mod discussion and does not at all comprise the form of beta feedback that the devs have asked for. The devs are nevertheless well aware of the perceived balance issues for different levels of player expertise, gamestyle and in-game progress, and will no doubt be looking to improve aspects of those. CBJ has indeed replied in that thread where he stated that gamestart variable aggression level options are just not feasible at the moment.

I have no idea why the beta transient issues have to be discussed in the 2.60 release gameplay forum as well.

[Warnoise]

" I have called it out on the beta forums, not a single feedback from the devs about it."

The beta forum thread on that topic where you posted is seven pages of player discussion, argument, suggestions, feature requests and even mod discussion and does not at all comprise the form of beta feedback that the devs have asked for. The devs are nevertheless well aware of the perceived balance issues for different levels of player expertise, gamestyle and in-game progress, and will no doubt be looking to improve aspects of those. CBJ has indeed replied in that thread where he stated that gamestart variable aggression level options are just not feasible at the moment.

I have no idea why the beta transient issues have to be discussed in the 2.60 release gameplay forum as well.

saves, screenshots, experiences etc have been posted by the community in the xenon oos balance threads, yet still not enough? I wonder what kind of feedback the devs are looking for...

[Alan Phipps]

Who said that *the useful information* given there and elsewhere wasn't already enough? What was said (many times there) was that there was far too much of the wrong things.

Anyway, as I said, the devs *are* on the case and we will see what, if anything, comes out of that. Repeating everything from the beta forum here in the wrong forum will not make anything happen faster or better than that.

We'll close this here.