Split ZYA plot questions

[Blaze1st]

Hello,

I'm looking for some rough idea of what might happen once I unify the Split under ZYA.

My concern is that they might end up wiping out Argon/Antigone and Boron sectors without my involvement.

Involvement is something I have had to endure with the ZYA since the start of my current game. I have secured them from the Xenon and helped them (without upsetting the Argons... much!) to take Eleventh Hour and Guiding Light sectors. I took Rhy's Defiance for the scrap but left the other Xenon region to them also.

My original idea was to help ZYA to the point where I didn't need to babysit them anymore and committed myself early to ZYA reunification.

I'm now at the point of supplying the booby trapped fleet to FRF (it's building at the moment) but I've started having some doubts whether I should go ahead with finishing the plot after so much work getting ZYA to this point where they can almost hold their own (they're still struggling a bit in Guiding Light)...

1) If Argon take out ZYA defense station in southern sector of Guiding Light, is there is a risk TEL drop a defense station there while it is neutral (they own the neighbouring sector)?

2) If ZYA are unified (all their original sectors, + FRF sectors -1, +2 sectors taken from ARG in north) can ARG/ANT reasonably defend against them? On 1:1 ratio Split ships get absolutely annihilated by Argon so to date I have been selling ships exclusively to ZYA but I don't really want to start having to sell ships only to Argons after the plot resolves to counterbalance.

3) Will split turn all their enemies' sectors to neutral given the chance even though they have no direct borders or is there a limit to how far they will reach into foreign sectors?

Essentially I am bracing myself for a reversal of babysitting duties and any advice how to deal with this would be appreciated.

I am essentially trying to create a "steady state" where the fight continues but no one can take more territory (which at this point I have achieved unless TEL slip into Guiding Light while I'm not looking). Kind of wishing I had gone the FRF route as that would have worked out well in hindsight (in terms of maintaining territories) but it's too late for that.

Any suggestions on how to prepare would be appreciated. I'd even be willing to modify my save file to switch the plot choice to FRF if that is possible at this late stage (it would definitely save me a headache but at the same time cut into ship sales to both sides although I could live with that).

Thanks in advance!

[Aro]

You can stop just before the last step (

Spoiler

Show

400mil? / hidden curb station

) with full credit achieve wise, or at least that's where my Spear of the Patriarch game is right now.

Taking the last step will flip a fair amount of neutral split sectors to zya and cut most of the curbs from the map. Curbs may retake their last bastion, especially with help, but long-term will look bad. Zya can go full war mode, especially if all their nearby xenon sectors are clear (very much possible with terrans helping). Supplying and aiding with war efforts can help the argon. This branch wasn't tested long since it was for online save/venture and used the crisis to see what would happen so not too sure how things would've played out.

Don't have boron so can't comment on that much other than if you've opened that nearby sector for contesting it could be iffy. It also depends on what the xenon around are doing.

In summary from what I've seen in my save:
Stopped before last step.
I own the old upper argon sectors but their stations are still around/defending it.
Also own the old north xenon sectors, split are setting up and doing their things especially mining.
Never touched Heretic's End, it remains neutral.
Had I not made nice with argon again they would probably still be flooding Eleventh/Guiding with destroyer swarms. Their stations are destroying split incursions.. handy for looting.
Zya owns Tharka's Cascade up to terran area. Argon contest things sometimes but mostly stays solid.
Map's last xenon bastion is matrix 9/451 and my stations/ships are the only thing keeping them contained to the north.
So far things remain static even with my shipyards all set to open selling. Probably more to do with other split factions buying and yaki being silly.
Ymmv and also seed shenanigans?

As for the other story side, zya would get replaced with a more neutral faction. May be possible to run scripts to convert if you can find/run them but at that point prob better to see if any cheat mods could do the same.
Or make a new save for the other option, plus if you've not done the other split start as it fits more thematically imo.
Keep in mind if you've done both and want to keep non-modified game you can go budgeted to easily get a headstart. No special start stories but it also lets you remove some annoyance of new games.

[Blaze1st]

Thanks Aro. I wrote a longer reply last night but got logged out while writing it so I'll try to be briefer...

The only sector borders ZYA have are with me and I am 30 rep with them, and now TEL in their sector neighbouring Guiding Star. Even after reunification it will only create further borders with TEL which is fine as they still won't be warring each other.

ZYA managed to defend their stations in Guiding Star but I put down my own admin center just in case they do lose it at some point which should stop TEL sniping the sector.

I've stopped selling ZYA ships for now to see how things play out for a bit before I complete the plot.

In the meantime I noticed that HOP are starting to struggle against ANT so I've switched to selling ships only to HOP for a bit and will go secure the last Xenon border in Faulty Logic so they only have to worry about ANT front.

Xenon apart from that last border are no threat to anyone, I have them completely caged in and every time TER try to go in they get destroyed or flee.

The only sectors that can possibly change hands now are ANT/HOP until I resolve that plot.

I'll probably just bite the bullet in the end, if ZYA start steamrolling everyone once I unify them well maybe I'll just sell ships to everyone else...

[Starlight_Corporation]

I went the Zyarth unification route & they do become a powerhouse.

Pre-unification, Zyarth held itself well against the Xenon & mostly left the Argon in Guiding Star & Eleventh hour alone. Heretic's End was taken by HAT, so no big fights with Boron.

During unification plot, Argon took over Tharka's Ravine XXIV (slave rebellion took over the station Hall of Judgement & Argon sent a fleet to liberate the whole sector from Zyarth rule) + I fixed relations with CUB after betrayal & gifted them a shipyard (they don't have one themselves).

After unification, Zyarth wiped out all Xenon clusters bordering them & then waged war against Argon fiercely, taking over Eleventh Hour & threatening Hatikvah (They got a station there that's been holding out for days, quite impressive). Argons are holding Guiding Star barely & have fortified Tharka's Ravine XXIV after a large Zyarth attack took out the Hall of Judgement. The Argon sector buffer allowed the Cubs to take all sectors beyond & now own 3 sectors (they don't build civilian ships, so I have a whole trade & mining fleet that supplies all the CUB stations, so much money). Fires of Defeat is a free for all combat zone with the Teladi & FRF as neutrals (Terrans VS Argon VS Split VS CUBS with SCA, FAF & Yaki to spice things up further)
Still no major skirmishes in Heretic's End, Boron & Split are being civil as far as they can be.

Map of the current game: https://i.imgur.com/ZqgJYvP.jpeg

Regarding fate of the Xenon, they still lasted quite a long time in Emperor's Pride & Litany of Fury, until a combined Terran/Paranid invasion ended them.

Note that in this game, all NPC shipyards are well supplied & can rebuild their fleets on the spot.

[jlehtone]

During unification plot, Argon took over Tharka's Ravine XXIV (slave rebellion took over the station Hall of Judgement & Argon sent a fleet to liberate the whole sector from Zyarth rule)

I seem to have missed such event completely.

[Starlight_Corporation]

During unification plot, Argon took over Tharka's Ravine XXIV (slave rebellion took over the station Hall of Judgement & Argon sent a fleet to liberate the whole sector from Zyarth rule)

I seem to have missed such event completely.

The Station takeover is a plot thing, don't think they always target the same station to take over but not sure. Only did the Split plot once. The sector takeover was a surprise & not sure if it is part of the plot. Split attacked the Argon Hall of Judgement with fighters, Argon sent a whole fleet of Behemoth destroyers over to rescue them & then proceeded to wipe out every Zyarth station in the sector & started building their own stations there. They held it ever since. The Wharf they constructed nearby sure helps (was the Wharf from Guiding Star that got destroyed in a failed Zyarth assault to drive out the Argon from that sector)

[jlehtone]

The walkthroughs at least hint that ARG might take over the Hall of Judgement somewhere mid-plot.
The Hall has vanished from my game, but there are two ARG Factories within Tharka's Ravine XXIV.

I had a long pause in Split plot after that, so ARG and FRF did probably settle during that.

Walkthroughs do also mention a "slave revolt" on ZYA station at the end, if you side with the Court of Curbs. No idea whether that involves Argon.

[Blaze1st]

Update:

I finished the Spit plot now. ZYA now own a total of 18 sectors and they still struggle to counter Argon in Family Zhin.

Having babysat a few of their Raptors during Argon incursions (because they just die OoS) I noticed on one or two occasions them just sitting there taking fire from Behemoths or Cerberus' and had to leave sector then come back for them to start firing again. I may have "accidentally" nudged some Argon ships while trying to give the Raptors a chance. Still my two ZYA exclusive megashipyards are printing money with all the OoS loses ZYA suffer so I can't really complain and only have to jump in occasionally for a big fleet battle else ZYA will take shocking loses unnecessarily.

Continuing to observe them they might be able to build up some critical mass in Family Zhin soon (a Rattlesnake even turned up recently!) which will hopefully stem the Argon tide if they can survive long enough against the constant procession of Argon drone carriers, but Zyarth main fleet appears to just be loitering in Family Tkr for now I guess to intercept the occasional Cabal of Curbs ship (I wiped Cabal off the map and any new station they try to build for their faction leader.)

My focus has now turned more to HOP who I am trying to coax into taking back their one lost sector to ANT. Tough gig as ANT seem to be able to churn out ships at a stupid rate like ARG (but at least HOP can have a fair fight with them unlike the ships of ZYA and their suicide processions). I think it's going to take a while but they seem to be slowly wearing ANT down with the assistance of my two (soon to be three) megashipyards supplying their war effort.

When complete I will have all factions in their starting sectors + unified ZYA. At that point I was considering pursuing the BUC resolution to Paranid but from my experience here I think I will need several shipyards set up ready for them to avoid them getting wiped out right away.

The steady-state cold war inches closer...

[Blaze1st]

Another update:

I'm back to babysitting Family Zhin full time since ZYA, while maintaining large fleets in the old FRF territories, have just two Raptors defending. One in Family Zhin and one in the sector just north of it.

Both are currently at low hull with no repair drones or any inclination to go repair and restock. Every time ARG send a Behemoth or three I have to be present for ZYA to stand a chance and it's sketchy at best. Most of the time the Raptor will either sit just out of range and die, or miss from just in range. Only once have I seen it rush in to use its full arsenal against three Behemoths at close range and it wrecked them all but this was only after it had lost all its fighters. A big problem seems to be that if they have fighters they are too passive as well as they seem stuck doing nothing when ever they are recalling subordinates (which they do constantly).

Same for their Defense stations, even if just being attacked by a single Cerberus it will get worn down unless I show up and "let" the base start doing damage.

I'm am currently trying to keep them all alive long enough for ZYA to show up with some Rattlesnakes but so far just the Raptors turn up every time the old ones get killed.

18 sectors I've given you ZYA... 18 sectors!