[Pre-Development] - A less warlike, but more Dangerous universe

[Hornet108]

Hi Guys

I have been toying around with x4 scripts for a while now, with a few mods for myself, and I thought it was time I took on something more serious. Having put about 450 hours into x4 now, I feel that what it is lacking compared to x3 is actually stability - I played it through once as a FPRTS and had a lot of fun, but, I think the economy is too easy, and the war is too core to the gameplay. Outside of the war however, the game is too safe, and I can happily leave my miners and traders more or less alone and they become money factories. Also, ships are generally too easy to acquire, and so the only challenge is to take part in the war, otherwise you wind up as a mogul with nothing to do. I also miss the pirate infested sectors of x3 where I could roll in with a medium sized fleet and just have a good brawl.

My ideas are thus:
Starting

• First, de-emphise the wars to make the universe map a more static thing. I will do something like what DeadAir has done with his DeadAirDynamicWars mod, but I will add a rule that only one or maybe two wars can be taking place at a given time. Otherwise, factions will have a somewhat uneasy peace.
• Next, I will neuter the xenon somewhat. Right now, they are IMO overpowered, making them the main enemy of the game. The universe revolves around their fights (in my experience) - they will be difficult to assault directly, but they will no longer be the conquring force they are. Their raids will increase however.
• After that, I will strongly reduce the number of capital ships, and increase the number of fighters and m/s freighters. Capital ships will become rare powerhouses to be feared, and capital freighters/miners prized economic workhorses.
• I will also strongly increase the cost of capital ships to make them much harder to attain.
• I will also strongly increase the marine carrying capacity of military capital ships to make them very difficult to board.
• I will give each race an additional wharf
• Next, I will massively increase the pirate presence in the universe. They will become the primary threat. The idea of this is that you now will need to defend your economic ships.
• I will also strongly increase the police presence in core sectors, and somewhat boost it in edge sectors.

Later

• Add in shortcut sectors that connect the far away races from each other, but infest them with pirates. Militaries may go into these sectors to try and conqure them but they will have a hard time subduing the "locals" - the xenon will also be in the mix here somewhere.
• Move the resources out of the core sectors - Mining will have to take place in edge sectors infested with pirates or in unclaimed space.

The idea of this is that the universe becomes less about war, but also a more dangerous place, increasing the challenge of the economic game and changing the nature of conflict. It will no longer be primarily about large fleets taking on each other to take sectors out RTS style, but smaller and mid-sized engagements that are much more fighter-centric. Ground control will become more important as well, as you will need to secure territory to ensure your economic success, unless you want to roll the dice and pick sectors that are well policed. You can also take on races if you like, but your capital assets are far more valuable, and odds are you will be going it alone.

I am curious for peoples feedback - I want to go through a sort of requirements gathering phase with feedback before I put pen to paper so to speak, and also gauge intrest. What do people think?

[DeadAirRT]

Feel free to use the code from dynamic wars to get you started if you'd like. One note about the shortcuts, it would probably have more effect on the AI than the player so be careful how you set it up. AI factions don't have blacklists atm so they'd be the ones feeling the pain.

[Hornet108]

Feel free to use the code from dynamic wars to get you started if you'd like. One note about the shortcuts, it would probably have more effect on the AI than the player so be careful how you set it up. AI factions don't have blacklists atm so they'd be the ones feeling the pain.

Yep, the trick will be balancing it so they can survive the losses. I figure if they aren't taking war losses as much they can absorb it.

Thanks for letting me use your code!

[DeadAirRT]

Depending how soon you plan on starting, I'm currently working on some more dynamic weighting (strength comparison factoring, economic factoring) etc that may be useful.

[birdtable]

Agree with everything you hope to achieve, especially "I think the economy is too easy, and the war is too core to the gameplay", but if you wait for sufficient feedback you will never put pen to paper....

[Hornet108]

Agree with everything you hope to achieve, especially "I think the economy is too easy, and the war is too core to the gameplay", but if you wait for sufficient feedback you will never put pen to paper....

Agree, but I am travelling over the next few days. I will begin shortly however, but was hoping for any further input before I start.

[skywalker1963]

I agree with everything you have laid out. I think the game will have more depth. Can't wait to sée what you come up with.

[Jaskan]

Agree with everything you hope to achieve, especially "I think the economy is too easy, and the war is too core to the gameplay", but if you wait for sufficient feedback you will never put pen to paper....

The economy in this game is only easy if you using mods, or you been playuing the game since 2018

[birdtable]

The main idea I would personally like introduced is the ( I always beat the drum on this) option to have more empty sectors so I can create my own Alliance of the Word... The option would then open up for different game style choices.. Trade or War..

[Hornet108]

Im starting work on this now, beginning with a jobs file that will increase the pirate presence in the universe in general, and in edge sectors particuarly.

One thing I am also thinking of doing is breaking up the super highway loop but keeping it in place - there will now be 4 super highways with buffer sectors between them - this makes commerce within a races space quick but slows them down moving out of it. Somewhat like this poor diagriam:



Thoughts?

[DeadAirRT]

good luck with superhighway stuff, it's a huge pain in the ass

[Hornet108]

I figure I don't need to do anything - I just need to put sectors between sectors, but I admit its just a hunch. It might not work out.