Keeping the Xenon at bay.

DaveyP · Post by **DaveyP** » Fri, 14. May 10, 19:49

COPIED FROM X-UNIVERSE

I've just taken the first steps towards negating the Xenon threat.

I've stationed 4 Boreas and a wing of 8 Falcon Sentinels in Bluish Snout blockading the North Gate to Menaleus' Paradise.

Now, I've completely destroyed everything in X101 and have placed an EQ dock on the exact coordinates where the sihpyard was. Another 4 Boreas and another wing of Falcon Sentinels are set to attack all enemies within a 50k radius then return to their original position protecting the EQ Dock.

The EQ dock has a CAG keeping the dock stocked with Missiles and Keris (The script I use allows *all* ships to use fighter drones) and an Express Hauler for the delivery.

I might put a few smaller faster ships in there at a later date.

If this works, I'll extend the tactic for other Xenon sectors. I'm looking at X347, X472 and X598.

My aim isn't to destroy the Xenon, just keep them bottled up.

I'll let you know how it goes.

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Bill Huntington

Joined: 02 Feb 2009
Posts: 894 on topic

Posted: Thu, 13. May 10, 01:33 Post subject: Holding X101.

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DaveyP, Congrats to you for taking on a big job! You've certainly given it some thought and brought some tools.

As you already know, holding a Xenon sector is whole different thing than clearing it. If you are in X101 with either yourself or ships, there will be continual spawning of Q and smaller, and the occasional 'K package'. The shipyard will also respawn at or near its original position, on a long schedule. Your plan looks like it could hold up with all that.

I do have some concerns for your plan. First, I don't think any fighters can last long term against continual Q spawning. I would worry about the Express making the long supply run from the gate. I think the Boreas is the best CW M2. But I also think it is only marginal when it comes to a Xenon sector occupation. (I only use Tyr and Osaka.)

I don't know the script you are using. But when I tried Attack All Enemies with my M2s, they ended up far out of position many times. It is a stronger command than Defend Position. But Defend Position keeps your ships where they are needed. Your EqDk would be an expensive station to lose. And in X101, your station is a long way from the gate and help you might send. I have noticed that the Xenon are relentless against you or ships in their sector, but are only half hearted in attacking your stations.

Best of Luck to you, DaveyP! Please keep us posted on your X101 occupation. A lot of pilots would like to hear about it.

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DaveyP

Joined: 07 Nov 2005
Posts: 750 on topic

Posted: Thu, 13. May 10, 02:07 Post subject:

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Quote:
I do have some concerns for your plan. First, I don't think any fighters can last long term against continual Q spawning. I would worry about the Express making the long supply run from the gate. I think the Boreas is the best CW M2. But I also think it is only marginal when it comes to a Xenon sector occupation. (I only use Tyr and Osaka.)

I don't know the script you are using. But when I tried Attack All Enemies with my M2s, they ended up far out of position many times. It is a stronger command than Defend Position. But Defend Position keeps your ships where they are needed. Your EqDk would be an expensive station to lose. And in X101, your station is a long way from the gate and help you might send. I have noticed that the Xenon are relentless against you or ships in their sector, but are only half hearted in attacking your stations.

The script I'm using is one of my own. It's like defend position, but with a few differences.

1) You get to specify an attack radius. If the enemy ships get outside this radius, the attack will be aborted.

2) You get to specify a point to defend. The ships will always return to their this position when the attack is over

3) Each class of ships has defineable targeting priorities, so an M3 will never attack an M7 (unless you tell it to)

I've put the M6's right smack bang on top of the station, so they should protect it. I might, actually, have 2 sets of 3, with one group attacking within 40km and the other attacking within, say, 15-20km. That way, the should never be dragged too far out of position.

I take your point about the M3's. The script's targeting prioritites and the fact that it allows all ships to use drones should give them a fighting chance, but I think it's going to be a case of "suck it and see". If a Q spawns on its' own, they'll ignore it, but if it has an escort, they'll go for the fighters and get toasted. Time will tell.

As for the supply ships, you may well be right. I might try using a springy and just hope it doesn't run into a Q.

I'll keep you posted.

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mwecom

Joined: 27 Jan 2010

Location: Alaminos, Philippines

Posted: Thu, 13. May 10, 07:53 Post subject:

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Maybe just ejecting 600 LTs near the gate on the Xenon side would do the trick for quite a while. Eject, then abandon the sector, move on to the next Xenon sector.

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Infekted

Joined: 01 Mar 2010

Posted: Thu, 13. May 10, 09:30 Post subject:

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Thanks Nanook, I'll go have a look.
Edit: Had a look. You can only post comments, thoughts, anything about a mod or script in the original topic it was posted in. So basically if you've modded your game you can kiss goodbye to having any meaningful discussion about its effects as they will be lost amongst all the "why doesn't this work" posts. Ah well.

TO OP: One idea that I had was basically destroy and distract. In an unmodded game I hasten to add.
You go into 472, destroy everything, set up your blockades and defences, laser towers etc. Drop a station on the station spawn points. Basically do as you have been doing.

And then you jump into the other Xenon sectors, destroy everything in them aswell, then literally drop millions of LTs and Squash mines everywhere. LTs on gates and space lanes, squash mines in the outer parts of the sector.
I guess it depends whether Xenon response is finite for all Xenon sectors, or per sector as it were. If it works as I'm guessing/hoping, you should get a lot less incoming to the sector you are attempting to hold? Then regularly hop into your distraction xenon sectors to re-seed them when they start getting a bit low.

I like the sound of that enhanced defend position script, have you posted it in the S&M forum by any chance? ^^

Last edited by Infekted on Thu, 13. May 10, 12:34; edited 1 time in total

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Duratec24

Joined: 13 Nov 2005
Posts: 40 on topic
Location: SW London

Posted: Thu, 13. May 10, 10:07 Post subject:

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I think I'm going to pop over to Xenon Sector 347. I wont say how I've used the
HUB, as that will confuse things

but I want to gain superiority over this neck of the woods. It would be quite handy if I didn't have bloody pirates attacking everything at the same time, as they are extremely P'd off with me at the moment. Not only am I trying to keep 472 but I've got sector patrols consisting of Cerberus/Cerberi, Titans and a Tokyo and a few M6's in everywhere from Family Njy to Black hole sun then to Scale plate green. I have a complex in Omicron Lyrae and a complex in 472. It's taking a LOT to hold these so far!
So anyway, once I have a few more destroyers I think I'll make the push to 347. I have also just completed

A New home

so I'll hopefully try and build a few more stations heading towards that eventually.
PHEW!

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Duratec24

Joined: 13 Nov 2005
Posts: 40 on topic
Location: SW London

Posted: Thu, 13. May 10, 14:33 Post subject:

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Right. I wanted to make a safe trading route via Xenon Sector 598. Oh dear....
I sent two Cerberus, a Colossus with 20 Eclipse, 20 Discoverer and 20 Nova Sentinel. I was also going to send a Tokyo, but I'm glad I didn't.
I only lost a Cerberus and a few traders that had started to use the route. Again I wont say why they were using the route in case I release a spoiler.
I am a little gutted. As soon as I destroyed the Q's in the sector, some more spawned. I was in sector when all this was happening and when I launched all of my fighters from the Colossus to 'attack all enemies' they just sat there doing bugger all. I guess the collision avoidance was working overtime.
The funny thing is that there isn't even a station in this sector but respawns were happening all the time.
Needless to say I'm retreating. It's the first time I've had to and I really am disappointed.
On another note, is there any way to get my station traders to avoid Xenon sectors, as I have a 'complex' (he hem) nearby and need them to go further than 3 jumps but still avoid said system? They seem to Lemming into the system and promptly get turned into a slice of lovely brown bread.
Thanks chickens

_________________
Case: Antec 1200 with
CPU: Intel Q6600 2.4ghz at 3.6 ghz
CPU cooler: Coolermaster V8
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PSU: BFG 1000w
Ad Astra per aspera ("A Rough Road Leads To The Stars")

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DaveyP

Joined: 07 Nov 2005
Posts: 750 on topic

Posted: Thu, 13. May 10, 15:42 Post subject:

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End of Day 1 and X101 is still mine. No shipyard repawns so far. Minimal activity, no losses.

DaveyP

Joined: 07 Nov 2005
Posts: 751 on topic

Posted: Fri, 14. May 10, 13:32 Post subject:

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Premature end to day 2 (the missus wants to go to Morrisons before we pick the little 'un up from school).

So far, still no Q respawns. In fact, no respawns of anything as far as I could see

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Duratec24

Joined: 13 Nov 2005
Posts: 40 on topic
Location: SW London

Posted: Fri, 14. May 10, 13:42 Post subject:

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Gutted

Don't they understand that universal domination can't happen when we've got to do things like picking up sprogs!!?
Well I decided to realign something so that Xenon 598 is no longer a problem for my Omicron traders.
Only 1 station respawn in 472 with no problems at all dispatching it. Bloody Pirates are still a nuisance.

_________________
Case: Antec 1200 with
CPU: Intel Q6600 2.4ghz at 3.6 ghz
CPU cooler: Coolermaster V8
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PSU: BFG 1000w
Ad Astra per aspera ("A Rough Road Leads To The Stars")

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DaveyP

Joined: 07 Nov 2005
Posts: 751 on topic

Posted: Fri, 14. May 10, 15:47 Post subject:

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I've made friends with the pirates so I can do the Duke's Buccaneers missions.

If all stays quiet in X101 I may withdraw 2 of the Boreas for other duties.

My next target is X598. I'll do the same trick as before with the station, only I'll have 3 M2 groups - 1 protecting the station, another in the middle of the sector killing everything and 1 sitting by the East gate blockading it.

After that, it's X472 and finally X347.

DaveyP · Post by **DaveyP** » Tue, 18. May 10, 19:20

End of day three and all's quiet on the x101 front.

On the other hand, I'm seeing some serious incursions into the surrounding sectors from x598. I have 6 fully armed Boreas's ready and three more with shields but no weapons. Time to build another 10x PPC complex. In the meantime, if it all stays quiet tomorrow, i'll pull 2 of the cap ships from X101 and put 2 groups of 4 in x598

DaveyP · Post by **DaveyP** » Wed, 19. May 10, 20:53

End of day four and there have been some developments.

In X101, I got my first set of Q respawns. These proved no real problems for my Boreas Groups, however they did destroy 5 of the 8 Falcon Sentinels tasked to attack the escort fighters. Unfortunately, due to an oversight on my part, I accidentally overwrote the .pak files which were part of Gazz's Tertiary signal package. This meant that none of the fighters launched their drones. I've fixed this and we'll see whether it has any impact tomorrow.

The Xenon incursions into Argon space have continued and, indeed, increased. I have one pair of my hub gates linked to Ore Belt/Ghinn's Escape and the Xenon have been trying to send replacements from X472 and X598 through to X101.

As a result, I've done the same thing in X472 as I did in X101: 2 Boreas Groups and 8 Falcon Sentinels. Tomorrow, I'll clear out X598 and employ the same tactic there. The only problem is the weapons. I was too busy earning my nice shiny new Medusa Prototype to set up another PPC complex. I have enough to kit out one more M2, but that's it.

Over and out.

DaveyP · Post by **DaveyP** » Thu, 20. May 10, 19:42

The Captains Log:

Day five and it's been pretty quiet on the Xenon front. X101 and X472 have had a couple of Q respawns, but nothing major. The Xenon seem to be going from X598, so I went in and cleared it. When I have sufficient resources, I'll blockade the gate to the core sectors.

Only 2 Boreas's left and need a minimum of 4, so I'm biding my time.

Captain CAVEMAN!!! · Post by **Captain CAVEMAN!!!** » Thu, 20. May 10, 20:03

good so far

However dont change it to a captains log format half way through the story heh

DaveyP · Post by **DaveyP** » Thu, 20. May 10, 20:21

I won't

DaveyP · Post by **DaveyP** » Fri, 21. May 10, 18:44

Day 6:

Not much to report. Having cleared out X598, attacks on Argon space seem to have relented. A few M and N's with the odd LX, but nothing the Home of Light sector defences can't handle. Especially when supported by yet another wing of my Falcon Sentinels.

I also increased PPC production and tweaked the "attack within raduis" script so that it nou uses drones/keris correctly.

Next step is to blockade the X598 East gate completely.

Mork signing off. Nanoo, nanoo.

DaveyP · Post by **DaveyP** » Mon, 24. May 10, 18:00

Day 7, and a development.

I finally got 4 fully armed Boreas' to blockade the East gate of X598. The only problem was that when the enemy ships were coming through the gate, they were splitting, with some going North and some going South.

Sometimes Q's would respawn mid sector and head directly for the N or S gates.

I think what I'll have to do is to get yet another 2 M2's (making 6 in all), and post a group of 3 just inside the N ans S gates.

I'll see how it goes.

DaveyP · Post by **DaveyP** » Tue, 25. May 10, 23:57

Day eight and slight change of plan is neccessary.

I removed the reassigned jump gate from Hila's joy, so the Xenon coming from X498 have no incentive to travel through the north gate. The problem is that now, there are so many Xenon heading. Towards the south gate, that my task forces couldn't cope. I lost my first destroyer (attacked by 4 Q's and a K), but that was it.

I'm going to try a 4 force set up. One will go either side of the east gate and one either side of th south. I'll also have fighter wings in Grand Exchange to mop up the stragglers. More progress tomorrow.

DaveyP · Post by **DaveyP** » Wed, 26. May 10, 20:04

Day nine.

This has not been a good day for my campaign against the Xenon.

Today has seen major (and I mean major) Xenon attempts to dislodge my forces from X472, X598 and, to a lesser extent, X101.

At times, my standing forces of 2 groups of 4x Boreas in each sector were simply overwhelmed by the rate of respawning J's, K's ans Q's. They were jumping in up to 4 at a time before the Destroyers' shields could recharge and, in some cases, one after another right on top of each other.

At one point I was forced to jump into Xenon Core 627, clear it and destroy the shipyard to relieve pressure on the X598 east gate force which was getting a proper hammering and had already lost one of its' destroyers.

In X472, the situation was looking grave. Constant respawning had eaten away at the sector forces and I was forced to order them back to defend the EQ dock in an effort to consolidate their forces.

Even with my frantic attempts to reinforce and resupply X472, the occupying forces were forced onto the back foot.

Over in X101, the destroyers more than held their own, but the fighters took a beating. My attempts to utilise the CDS script in conjunction with my own "attack within raduis" script led to the fighters attacking the Q's which, OOS, is pretty much suicide. Reluctantly, I was forced to pull the fighters from the 3 enemy sectors and assign them to a carrier which I stationed in Grand exchange to mop any Xenon fighters which had managed to escape the X598 blockade.

At the end of the day, the state of play is as follows:

X101 - 13x M3 destroyed. 6x Destroyers remaining.
X472 - 5x M3 destroyed, 4x M2 destroyed, 3x M2 remaining.
X598 - 1x M2 destroyed, 7x M2 remaining.
Grand exchange - No initial forces, 1X M1 (25x M3 compliment) deployed.

Money isn't an object. Availability of weapons is the problem. I think tomorrow's going to be spent radically increasing PPC supply. I currently have 15xPPC factories. I'm going to double that. Until such times as I can amass sufficient forces, I'm going to have to manually keep Core 627 clear.

More progress reports to follow.

DaveyP · Post by **DaveyP** » Thu, 27. May 10, 19:32

Day 10 and definately a "day of 2 halves".

It started out badly with the loss of 2 X101 Boreas's to the same Q within 30 odd seconds of each other. Who said Ego had fixed that Q OOS problem?

I then lost another Boreas to a Q in X472 about five minutes later. I was not a happy bunny by this point.

In X101 and X472 I decided to shut up shop and retreat to the EQ docks in the hope that I could hold up until such a time as my newly increased PPC production (20xPPC Complex) could supply the weapons required to keep up with demand.

A further setback occurred when a replacement Boreas was intercepted on its' way to it's position and was, again, "Q'd".

Fortunately, it was relatively quiet going from there on in. Q attacks relented to a more acceptable rate and no further losses were incurred. X598 remained, unsurprisingly, the busiest of the sectors, but the 2 4x Boreas destroyer groups did their job without sustaining any losses.

Occasionally, a Q would slip through, but this was mopped up by the Condor waiting by the North gate of Grand Exchange.

Plan for tomorrow: Replace losses in all sectors, build an EQ dock there the Xenon Core 627 shipyard used to be and put 4x Boreas to defend it.

Idleking · Post by **Idleking** » Fri, 28. May 10, 12:46

Have you ever tried to replace the PPCs on your Destroyers with Ion Cannons?
I think their damage-rating against schileds/hull fits the actual ratio of shielding vs. hull on capital ships more than the PPCs do.

I have to say this is just a thought that came to my mind while I was reading your progress - I never tried to compare PPCs to ICs myself.

Greetz

DaveyP · Post by **DaveyP** » Fri, 28. May 10, 12:54

OOS shield and hull damage are the same thing. It just adds shield points to hull points and that's it. When you've done more damage than the total -boom! PPC's are the best weapon OOS.

Captain CAVEMAN!!! · Post by **Captain CAVEMAN!!!** » Fri, 28. May 10, 17:48

Good work So far Davey.

I would consiider olding back Xeon a waste of resources Howevr this is quite a interesting read

Keep it up.

Captain C.

DaveyP · Post by **DaveyP** » Fri, 28. May 10, 19:42

Day 11 and a day for reinforcements and digging in.

X101 and X472 were, on the whole, pretty quiet. I managed to kit out 3 more Boreas, 2 of which were sent to X472 (taking the number up to 4 [or half the number I intend to end up with]) and the other one completing the complement of 8 in X598.

Next in line is to bring X472 back up to full strength (8x Boreas) and do the same in the Core sector.

When I can hold those with sustainable losses, All that's left is a quick trrip over to X347 for a little mopping up.

Toodle pip.

DaveyP · Post by **DaveyP** » Tue, 1. Jun 10, 19:21

Days 12 and 13.

Firstly, I apologise for the "2 in 1", but my next door neighbour has finally got wise to the fact that leaving his wireless network unsecured can lead to a sharp decrease in available bandwidth and a very sharp increase in SP charges. I've now been reduced to using the connection at the missus' parents. Remove my connection indeed. He'll have to go!

Any-who.

Today and yesterday were pretty quiet. Lost one more M2 to a Q attack, but that was it. The shipyard respawned in X472 but was blown to bits in about not very long by the 4 Boreas' sat on it.

Whilst I'm still getting constant spawning, none of the ships seem to want to try to make it out of the sector. This has given me some time to reinforce. X598 is now at full strength with 8x Boreas, whereas X472 has 6 and X101 has 4.

Once I get them back to 8 in each sector, I'll take X347 and that's about it. I decided to leave the SY in Core 627 so that I've got something to shoot up if I want. I cleared all the northern sectors too, so they're pretty much bottled up in isolation.

Another report tomorrow.

DaveyP · Post by **DaveyP** » Wed, 2. Jun 10, 20:25

Day 14 and I've taken X347 as well.

I currently on ly have 2x Boreas in there, but that number will be increased to 4, weapons production permitting.

Sector defences are currently as follows:

X101 - 4x Boreas (on eq dock) + eq dock on shipyard

X347 - 2x Boreas (will increase to 4)
mid way between jump gates

X472 - 4x Boreas (will increase to

+ eq dock on shipyard
4 on eq dock and 4 between gates

X598 - 8x Boreas
4 on east gate and 4 in sector centre

X627 - 4x Boreas on West Gate.

Core 023 - x4 Boreas + eq dock on shipyard

Bluish Snout - 4x Boreas on North gate

At some point, I'll be replacing the Bluish Snout group with 2 separate groups - 1 by the North gate in Getsu Fune and 1 by the East gate in Menaleus' Paradise.

Captain CAVEMAN!!! · Post by **Captain CAVEMAN!!!** » Wed, 2. Jun 10, 21:30

You seem to be fond of the Boreas

However are they all you are using or the only thing you mention? as some deimos or cerberus would be excellent fighter screens if you give them some Flak and CIG's

Keep up the good work

Captain C.

Idleking · Post by **Idleking** » Thu, 3. Jun 10, 13:10

I think he's using the Boreas class destroyers mostly because these ships can bring an amazing amount of firepower to a fight (PPCs all around as far as I can remember), which is essential in OOS Combat.

M7 class vessels - especially the Cerberus - may be an outstanding anti fighter platform, but I wouldn't count on this too much while OOS (although it's quite fun watching 2 Cerberus fighting a swarm of fighters

).

DaveyP · Post by **DaveyP** » Thu, 3. Jun 10, 22:18

The problem with something like the Cerberus is its' speed. If you make it slower than the M2's, there's no point in having it and if vyou make it too fast, it catches the Xenon Q's before the M2's get there and that results in a very bad day out for the Cerb.

egosoft.com

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Keeping the Xenon at bay.

Keeping the Xenon at bay.