Xenon idle - not attacking or more accurately they are being wiped out.

[af_2017]

what if our new mission in 4.0 is to save xenon

[Maebius]

I make a point of capturing all Asgard Interdictions due to this, as it seems the Xenon aren't putting up a fight, or at least reacting.
A lone Asgard (that has lost all its escort) slowly pokes at a station for 10+ game hours without Xenon ever reacting again vs it.

The interdiction Tokyos are positively worthless, as they tend to stay and shoot a station with sometimes just one of their laser turrets (after having ran out of missiles).

[gevers]

In my 4.0 pio start, xenos are dead too, no invasions, no threat... I find myself stopping from killing xenon ships because they are already losing on every front, but sadly now I don't have things to shoot at... But that is not a problem because as an advanced mining entrepreneur I spend all my game time babysitting miners to check if they alla have emptied their cargo holds, yay superfungame!
Oh and trying to make a sense with resource probes...

Edit: I forgot to add that an argon mining station with 2 defence disks managed to kill 4 k and 1 i with all the escorts... Kudos to the men manning the turrets... Oos that was.

[slober]

Edit: I forgot to add that an argon mining station with 2 defence disks managed to kill 4 k and 1 i with all the escorts... Kudos to the men manning the turrets... Oos that was.

Because of L Beam turrets. Xenons can destroy Defend station full of plasma turrets but not able to do anything to any factory with a few L Beams.

[Malchar]

Xenons are, at V4.00, at the same time pathetic and lethargic.

Players ships in OOS make short work of XL xenons. It seems the reason is a news OOS system in V4.00 that allows easy disable on weapons (and Shields ?). This, is for the pathetic side.

Otherwise xenons are about amorph and do nothing. I made test on 4.00 using only vanilla + split, without COH. Like I have a long playimg time in this configuration, differences are easy to see.

At 4.0 xenons seems asleep (and players yawn ... at least me). After xenons lose starting ships,only a few 9K are build. Maybe the mining nerf affect xenons more than any other factions. Mineral starvation may be an explanation for xenons lack of activity.
I noticed Atiya xenons are more actives than other, claiming frontier edge and trying to push in the void. In the old world Atiya, after the mining nerf, is probably the most rich xenons sector. Even if density is rather low, xenons here have a chance to build something.

Elsewhere,some skirmish may occurs but often it involve small and medium xenons. Anyway I feel lack of raws is perhpas just one problem among others.

Shortly, at v4.00, xenons are imept and just enough good to be a punching bag for everybody.

The worst for the end. The strange disease that affect xenons at the 4.00 can be transmitted to players. At 4.00, after I solved khaa ak minor issues, I just fell asleep on my keyboard, just Like xenons.

Overall I have nothing against ore and silicon being more rare at the 4.00. May be it need some adjustement, like a better distributions among sectors.
Anyway I adapted and reduced my consommation. I downsized my stations and possibly the number of station I used to have in previous version.

However I feel xenons s pathetic situation is inacceptable and wait they come back at least like in earlier version.

Meanwhile, I found a solution and rolled back in 3.3

[Waltz99]

After xenons lose starting ships,only a few 9K are build. Maybe the mining nerf affect xenons more than any other factions. Mineral starvation may be an explanation for xenons lack of activity.

I think this is exactly whats happening.
I noticed that xenon dont do much work anymore either.
Before in 3.3 people where complaining split had a hard time to survive with the xenon attacks and the lack of the L ships defending their sectors.

Now because I started as Terran and I'm on completely the other side of the universe I barely see any xenon.
There are some small ships attacking once in a while but the split don't even need their large ships anymore.

In the Void I noticed a xenon attack with 1 I and 5 K.
I managed to destroy all K ships with just my gladius by luring them to one single ant defense station.
Then I crippled the Xenon I but none of the ships could penetrate its shields. There where no destroyers nearby.
Or maybe one but he didn't care much.

Later when I got my Syn I went to a xenon sector where I knew a lot of xenon M N and P where gathering at a gate.
I moved through the gate and stopped the ship. There I just let the turrets do their job.
All xenons are destroyed and my ship didn't even have a scratch. And this is IS gameplay.

@Egosoft
I understand you want a this great mining change to work but it really backfires on the factions which are very dependent of those resources.
I personally which you could rol back the changes you made about the mining because without xenon the game is less fun to play with.

[Raptor34]

If it has to do with the mining changes, then how are the ZYA affording all those Rattlesnakes to throw away against the Xenon? That's before I seriously started mining in their sectors too.

[GCU Grey Area]

There is another factor that could be involved. Noticed from the start of my current Terran game that NPC factions were fielding significantly bigger fleets of warships than they have done in any of my previous games & so far have been maintaining them at that level by replacing losses fairly promptly. Xenon may be suffering simply because the factions have sufficient forces to easily defend themselves against the Xenon. This has been particularly noticeable with Zyarth. In my previous games they invariably lost a considerable amount of territory to the Xenon within a matter of days of starting a new game. This time round is entirely different - they have not lost a single sector, have fleets of Rattlesnakes roving around, have captured Tharka's Cascade XV & are already pushing on into Tharka's XVII. Doubt the Xenon in this region will be able to hold out for long, they're seriously outnumbered.

[Midnitewolf]

I have noticed the Xenon being pretty weak myself. At first they were doing ok but now they are pretty stagnant. I am seriously thinking about a mod that buffs them or at least their numbers so they can be more of a threat.

[slowdancer3]

Maybe the relative weakness of Xenon capitals in 4.0 contributes to the outcome, but the main problem lies in their economy. In my (vanilla) save, the Xenon still had five fully developed, connected sectors (wharf, shipyard, solar plants and defense stations in each of them), but not a single ship - no miners, no distributors, no combat ships - before the factions seriously pushed into them. The Xenon production had stalled out, caused either by the new mining system or by plot mechanics (Yaki plot).
The 'brake' Egosoft provided (I guess) to prevent Savage Spur I from getting anihilated by the Terran Asgard - an unvisible asteroid cluster, where the battleship is 'attacking' forever - does not help either since the Xenon are out of resources (empty storages which is why damaged stations do not rebuild modules). So I completed A Heart for Pirates (a walk in the park) with the result of a Xenon-free universe.
I can only hope that the Xenon get kick-started somehow in a future build ...

[Spartan]

Maybe the relative weakness of Xenon capitals in 4.0 contributes to the outcome, but the main problem lies in their economy. In my (vanilla) save, the Xenon still had five fully developed, connected sectors (wharf, shipyard, solar plants and defense stations in each of them), but not a single ship - no miners, no distributors, no combat ships - before the factions seriously pushed into them. The Xenon production had stalled out, caused either by the new mining system or by plot mechanics (Yaki plot).

I can only hope that the Xenon get kick-started somehow in a future build ...

That sounds quite correct. At least in my old save, with all DLC Xenons are in same shape as described...

[Waltz99]

I have noticed the Xenon being pretty weak myself. At first they were doing ok but now they are pretty stagnant. I am seriously thinking about a mod that buffs them or at least their numbers so they can be more of a threat.

I'm already using a mod to have more resources. I hope this will boost the xenon and help my own stations at the same time.

[zergline117s]

what if our new mission in 4.0 is to save xenon

I am doing it, selling ships to factions' opponents right on their fleet's face, sabotage their operation.

[Wraith_Magus]

I think the best solution for now, besides modding, is the player deliberately starting wars, like between Terrans and Argon. (Enh, Terrans like fighting Argon more than the Xenon, anyways!) That said, if you want to have Xenon win some fights, you need to guide them to victory with more than just some nav beacons.

I think that part of the reason Xenon are getting so hammered now is that their sectors are typically pretty mineral-poor, in spite of the mining nerf supposedly hitting the "safe" sectors hardest. Methane and ice in particular and helium to a lesser extent are nearly totally absent in Xenon sectors, although I doubt Xenon need ice at all. The few areas that have resources are cut off from other Xenon sectors, so they can't pool resources like other factions. Savage Spur is basically the only Xenon sector that has all the resources (besides ice).

Likewise, the Xenon seem to send out more S mining ships than raiding parties at times. There'd be no reason to do that unless they were running out of resources in their own sectors, right? (I mean, other than the AI being stupid... In my game, mining ships from Nopileos' Fortune pass by the extremely dense asteroid field in that sector to get to the exhausted asteroids in Pious Mists IV where they'd get constantly being attacked by Kha'ak until I stationed a task force there to keep the Kha'ak down...)

I also absolutely notice the Xenon are much more concerned with me as a player ship than anything else going on in their sectors. HOP has half a dozen stations in Faulty Logic I, and ANT is colonizing Savage Spur I with a dozen factories while I can fly by three behemoths and a nomad attacking one of the few remaining Xenon stations... but when I flew into Atiya's Misfortune for some missions, I had FOUR Ks and about 90 smaller ships chase after me. Exclusively me, even though there were non-Xenon stations there. I even wound up getting the Ks to stop following me by simply flying past some HOP stations in Faulty Logic, and getting the Ks tangled up fighting those stations. (Three Ks attacked a defense station and won, but the last K attacked a microchip factory and lost after about an hour of trying.) In a later mission (which was absolutely NOT worth the 1.2 million they offered me to take it), I had to destroy station 30 turrets (but NOT any station modules - that failed the mission for me when my turrets and backup blew up a module) on a Xenon station, and as soon as I go in there, there's over 80 small Xenon ships immediately on me, with 80 more Ps and smaller coming in later (even Ss started to attack me) and I had to deal with five Ks in succession using my two destroyers and seven corvettes I had at the time. (I lost three corvettes. I didn't take smalls at all because I knew the losses would be too great. I also dumped about 100 laser towers in the area to just be distractions to the Xenon, especially the defense drones. The turrets that weren't glued to my destroyer's special gravity oddly seemed to do nothing, however.)

Hence, it seems like the best way to help the Xenon is to deliberately trigger this player-centric aggression and then wipe the Xenon off on other factions, because the Xenon don't care when other factions build factories, much less defense stations, in their sectors and then patrol it with tons of ships, but it's like kicking the hornet nest as soon as you go in. Take something fast like a Katana, and just travel mode in big loops, maybe spitting a couple shots out at stations until you have half a dozen Ks and 100 smaller ships chasing you, then fly through the gate, and you've got yourself a proper Xenon invasion.

[Raptor34]

I think the best solution for now, besides modding, is the player deliberately starting wars, like between Terrans and Argon. (Enh, Terrans like fighting Argon more than the Xenon, anyways!) That said, if you want to have Xenon win some fights, you need to guide them to victory with more than just some nav beacons.

I think that part of the reason Xenon are getting so hammered now is that their sectors are typically pretty mineral-poor, in spite of the mining nerf supposedly hitting the "safe" sectors hardest. Methane and ice in particular and helium to a lesser extent are nearly totally absent in Xenon sectors, although I doubt Xenon need ice at all. The few areas that have resources are cut off from other Xenon sectors, so they can't pool resources like other factions. Savage Spur is basically the only Xenon sector that has all the resources (besides ice).

Likewise, the Xenon seem to send out more S mining ships than raiding parties at times. There'd be no reason to do that unless they were running out of resources in their own sectors, right? (I mean, other than the AI being stupid... In my game, mining ships from Nopileos' Fortune pass by the extremely dense asteroid field in that sector to get to the exhausted asteroids in Pious Mists IV where they'd get constantly being attacked by Kha'ak until I stationed a task force there to keep the Kha'ak down...)

I also absolutely notice the Xenon are much more concerned with me as a player ship than anything else going on in their sectors. HOP has half a dozen stations in Faulty Logic I, and ANT is colonizing Savage Spur I with a dozen factories while I can fly by three behemoths and a nomad attacking one of the few remaining Xenon stations... but when I flew into Atiya's Misfortune for some missions, I had FOUR Ks and about 90 smaller ships chase after me. Exclusively me, even though there were non-Xenon stations there. I even wound up getting the Ks to stop following me by simply flying past some HOP stations in Faulty Logic, and getting the Ks tangled up fighting those stations. (Three Ks attacked a defense station and won, but the last K attacked a microchip factory and lost after about an hour of trying.) In a later mission (which was absolutely NOT worth the 1.2 million they offered me to take it), I had to destroy station 30 turrets (but NOT any station modules - that failed the mission for me when my turrets and backup blew up a module) on a Xenon station, and as soon as I go in there, there's over 80 small Xenon ships immediately on me, with 80 more Ps and smaller coming in later (even Ss started to attack me) and I had to deal with five Ks in succession using my two destroyers and seven corvettes I had at the time. (I lost three corvettes. I didn't take smalls at all because I knew the losses would be too great. I also dumped about 100 laser towers in the area to just be distractions to the Xenon, especially the defense drones. The turrets that weren't glued to my destroyer's special gravity oddly seemed to do nothing, however.)

Hence, it seems like the best way to help the Xenon is to deliberately trigger this player-centric aggression and then wipe the Xenon off on other factions, because the Xenon don't care when other factions build factories, much less defense stations, in their sectors and then patrol it with tons of ships, but it's like kicking the hornet nest as soon as you go in. Take something fast like a Katana, and just travel mode in big loops, maybe spitting a couple shots out at stations until you have half a dozen Ks and 100 smaller ships chasing you, then fly through the gate, and you've got yourself a proper Xenon invasion.

You do realize that Xenon uses exclusively Ore and Silicon right? Of which their resources are rich in, not sure about density though.

[MHDriver]

Well I finally said F*** It and started going through Xenon mods one by one and finally found one that put the Xenon back on top of the food chain. ES Devs will just keep ping ponging back and fourth with the Xenon in Vanilla so at least for now I have a viable nemesis. Oh, the Xenon are strong enough now to beat down the Ossian Raiders so yeah we're having some fun now.

[Wraith_Magus]

You do realize that Xenon uses exclusively Ore and Silicon right? Of which their resources are rich in, not sure about density though.

I wasn't, although that does make some things better, while also making it even more inexplicable that the Xenon send out so many suicide miners. I still wind up feeling that a part of why the Xenon don't seem to seriously contest things is that they spend all their resources on miners that are spit out and fly along The Ring and then float around until easily destroyed rather than make any kind of return on investment.

[plynak]

Well I finally said F*** It and started going through Xenon mods one by one and finally found one that put the Xenon back on top of the food chain. ES Devs will just keep ping ponging back and fourth with the Xenon in Vanilla so at least for now I have a viable nemesis. Oh, the Xenon are strong enough now to beat down the Ossian Raiders so yeah we're having some fun now.

Well I was the first one complaining how OP Xenons were in 3.30. But this is at the other end of the scale. They were o.k. at the start but now they are almost gone. Hell Teladi even managed to capture Matrix 451. Yes, those lizards...
May I ask what mode have you found the best?

[MHDriver]

Well I finally said F*** It and started going through Xenon mods one by one and finally found one that put the Xenon back on top of the food chain. ES Devs will just keep ping ponging back and fourth with the Xenon in Vanilla so at least for now I have a viable nemesis. Oh, the Xenon are strong enough now to beat down the Ossian Raiders so yeah we're having some fun now.

Well I was the first one complaining how OP Xenons were in 3.30. But this is at the other end of the scale. They were o.k. at the start but now they are almost gone. Hell Teladi even managed to capture Matrix 451. Yes, those lizards...
May I ask what mode have you found the best?

A mod called "Xenon Awakening"

https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/646

[af_2017]

what if our new mission in 4.0 is to save xenon

I am doing it, selling ships to factions' opponents right on their fleet's face, sabotage their operation.

My terrans live with hacked production on wharf and shipyard all the time.