The Yaki plotline, how to deal with massive Xenon hostility?

[Scoob]

Hey all,

Doing this mission chain again, first time in a while. I've "found" the yaki and am progressing the plot but it's WAAAAY too hard! For example, I'm tasked to kill a small group of Xenon - spawned especially for me - and they're easy enough. However, the huge numbers of other Xenon ships are not, making this mission IMPOSSIBLE unless I'm bringing a massive fleet to quell the numerous Xenon fleets. I get through this objective - I cheated, I play for fun not this rubbish - and head to the Yaki station. I'm being "escorted" apparently, but that doesn't stop waves of Xenon heading for me and attacking. I cheat AGAIN to bypass this blocker. I get to the station, stuff happens and I'm asked to meet outside the station... So, casually hang outside the station while under fire from loads of Xenon ships AND their bloody Shipyard which is really close? Nope!

Basically, every step of the way I'm harassed due to how well-established the Xenon are in this sector. I've pushed the Xenon out of many of their sectors, so perhaps that's why they're so concentrated here.

What's supposed to happen? This mission is playing out differently to last time, can't recall what game version that was, but I don't recall being constantly hassled by regular Xenon during plot events. I've had no choice but to IGNORE the objectives, initiate an dialogue, then enter travel mode to flee the massed Xenon forces. It's more than a little ridiculous.

When I finally get to the point (zooming around the map during the conversations to avoid being destroyed) I get three objectives, but start being followed around by that (useless) group of ships right away. I was going to destroy the thingy, but this group of ships cannot do it. I certainly cannot as, unlike them, I'm dealing with a huge mass of Xenon. Dozens of Fighters, many P's, K's and an I is roaming around.

This is where missions fail. Emergent (natural) progression of the game can massively compromise "events" like this. Now, I could readily crush the Xenon with my fleets, but I've deliberately left this area alone, due to wanting to do the Yaki plot-line. I didn't want to risk blowing something up I shouldn't, prematurely.

How is this supposed to go?

Edit: to add... I'm trying to play this mission but it goes from bad to worse. The Yaki station and the nearby Xonon shipyard (and a second Xenon Station) are now fighting. I guess one of the many shots trying to hit me, hit the YAK station so it started shooting Xenon. Now it's turned into a War. This actually happened the last time I did this mission too, making me unable to complete the final steps, due to Yaki station going boom. I might as well just roll in with my fleet at this point lol.

[Uwe Poppel]

Which of the two stealth ships are you traveling with? With the cloaked Katana (the one of the secret service woman), the attacks of a Xenon group were more violent at that time. But after this Xenon group was destroyed, the other Xenon no longer cared about me.

My experience.

[Alan Phipps]

Yes, once you've destroyed the small Xenon fleet that detects you on sector entry, the cloaked ship you should be in should not attract any further attention from them. That cloaking does not extend to any other player ships that you may have brought with you at that point though.

[alt3rn1ty]

You can also get the Litigious Rodent (Moreya) with the special AI which cloaks you against Xenon.
Depends who you handed it over to, Terran get the Katana, Boso you get the Rodent.

I started recently with a Custom Budgetted start, and used that to increase the Yaki rep from game start.
So once I had the Rodent, I just waltzed into Savage Spur and bought the blueprints.
(Also had a bit of fun exploring the insides of Xenon stations, scary).

Later in the game while I had built up a fleet big enough to start whittling down the Xenon in that area, I progressed towards Savage spur, but also the Terran Asgards at the time were doing the repeat attacks on Xenon .. And they took out the Yaki station ..

.. After that, when it came to the Missions with Haille (the 5 star pilot in a Kuraokami) - The Yaki station (and the Amplifier) did respawn for these missions. I chose to save them from themselves, told the Terrans a lie, and then got the lockboxes from the Yaki full of goodies once Haille had talked to the Yaki Rep again and made her realise the situation was now good for them.

It was a surprise to me that the game will respawn the Yaki station as a necessity for these missions if its already destroyed.

But heads up, its been destroyed since by ANT in my game who took over all those sectors, and the Yaki are now gone (although they still buy ships from my Wharf). So a second respawn of the station will not happen if you are unlucky enough that they get taken out twice.

Its a shame they dont rebuild again, as I was hoping to get some random Yaki Borg crew members off the station. If they can keep buying ships forever after from my Wharf they still have money .. so its weird they can't rebuild.

[Alan Phipps]

The Yaki HQ station will respawn as many times as required (in a less complex format than initially mind) as long as the Yaki plot is incomplete. Once the plot (not including the follow-on mission to clear local sectors of Xenon) is over, the HQ is vulnerable to permanent loss.

[alt3rn1ty]

Ah thanks for the more accurate info.
Really wish it would come back though after the plot, miss my Seven of Nine pilot from my previous game

[Scoob]

Hmm, which Stealth ship should I have gained for this plot line? I do recall retrieving a ship from inside a station / asteroid thing, but it totally failed to "cloak" when near Xenon ships, so I assumed I'd miss-remembered something. Last time I did this plot line, it was from a Terran game start.

Thought: I think my game glitched out when getting that special ship. As I had a Marine aboard my ship at the time, I just hit "claim" and got the ship that way. I then flew my current ship out, parking it somewhere safe, before teleporting back to fly the new ship out of the station. As the ship has a Pilot, I can order it to do things, but it won't ever actually move. Perhaps claiming it this way - which is a perfectly valid method of course - broke something?

I ended up taking the brute force approach, so I'm clearing the Xenon from those sectors step by step. Only the sector with the Yaki station and the sector with the one-way superhighway are left to clear. So, not there yet, but have a plan. With the Capital Ship vs. Station issues introduced in v6.20, taking down stations takes MUCH longer that previously. Really hope they fix this soon, as it's really annoying having large murder fleets that are almost totally ineffective vs. stations unless extensively micro-managed. I.e. I manually move them into position so they can fire effectively.

[Uwe Poppel]

Putting a pilot on the two ships ("rodent" or "katana") with cloaking ability should not really be possible. Only the player should be able to use these ships with cloaking capability (until the destruction of the Xenon power station).

[Alan Phipps]

@ Scoob: IIRC, you have to decide whether to keep the Moreya you got from the asteroid (ie loan it to Boso), or give it to the Terrans to deconstruct and then you get the Katana. That decision decides which ship gets the cloaking for when flying it yourself while finding the Yaki base. As long as the Yaki plot Amplifier still exists, the plot cloaking ship will not take an NPC pilot and cannot be given remote orders; but once the Amplifier is gone then you can give it a pilot and order the ship about but it doesn't cloak any more.

It really sounds as if in your gameplay you have forgotten steps and/or done things in an unexpected order that has probably confused things with the plot.

I personally always give up the Moreya and use the Katana as I already have the Moreya recovered from the Void hazard area.

EDIT: Ninja'd by Uwe.

[alt3rn1ty]

I dont think you should be able to "claim" it, maybe being able to is an oversight by Egosoft.

I got it quite recently and recall when you find it in the asteroid, you have to find one of those broken circuitry bits sticking out of the ship and repair it. In my case it was on top and behind the cockpit. Then you are supposed to pilot it out of the asteroid through a small vent tube which doesn't look big enough to go through (Boso makes a comment about you being a clever assistant or something similar).
Memorable also because the ship is parked very close to a metal platform in the asteroid cave, I wondered how I was going to get underneath to the access hatch (didnt turn out to be a problem).

I also remember it very well because I got in there with a Nemesis (which is really a bit too wide for the tunnels approaching the area), and had to wait until out of sector before I could order the Nemesis to land somewhere else, otherwise it would have been stuck. I think I maybe missed a hint somewhere about using a small craft for this mission .. Easily done if its delivered by Boso, subtitles off and you turn the sound down low because the family are watching soaps in the same room , I do that often and curse myself afterwards for having subtitles off.

Edit : I also recall trying to buy a pilot to crew it, after Boso gave it back to me, but you cant assign a pilot to it. Only the player can fly it while it has its auto cloaking ability. So if in your case a Marine is able to claim it, I am pretty sure thats an unplanned ability.

[Scoob]

I used the game's own mechanic to Claim a ship. If I'm not supposed to do it that way, the game should disallow it. I chose to give this ship to the Boron, so it's currently docked at my HQ - with an assigned Pilot.

To be honest, I'm happier wiping out the Xenon at this time, as I'm doing this plot quite late in the game, when I have significant assets.

It's great that the game gives us flexibility on how we approach things, but if we HAVE to do things a specific way to avoid bugs, the game needs to make it clear we HAVE to do it that way, and prevent us using an alternate method.

I might jump in and try it again, but having a ship that I cannot simply leave at will, and order to go places is a pain. I'm NOT a pilot any more, I'm the leader of a sizeable faction.

[Scoob]

Had some time to play today, so, using my large fleet, I engaged the Amplifier and quickly destroyed it. The objective has updated to flee the system, but I think the system had best flee ME. Gonna finish of the Xenon to ensure the Yaki are safe, you understand...

[Uwe Poppel]

Thought: I think my game glitched out when getting that special ship. As I had a Marine aboard my ship at the time, I just hit "claim" and got the ship that way. I then flew my current ship out, parking it somewhere safe, before teleporting back to fly the new ship out of the station. As the ship has a Pilot, I can order it to do things, but it won't ever actually move. Perhaps claiming it this way - which is a perfectly valid method of course - broke something?

Here somewhere will be the reason why it went wrong for you.
I was far too curious about this ship (Moreya) at the time not to claim it myself.

[Scoob]

Interestingly, the Pilot I assigned to the Moreya has VANISHED - no action on my part caused this - and the ship has an Upkeep Mission telling me to assign a Captain. Can this ship be flown by an NPC or not? Game is giving my VERY mixed signals at this point.

As an aside, I've since taken out all the Xenon in the Yaki "home" sector, as well as any other relevant sector. Just finishing clearing out Savage Spur II, which of course has NO access to the deeper Xenon Sectors due to the one-way superhighway. I'm hoping the Yaki will expand... if they are able. ARG ships seem to be happily trading with them now, so perhaps they can hire ARG Builder ships to expand...

[Uwe Poppel]

Interestingly, the Pilot I assigned to the Moreya has VANISHED - no action on my part caused this - and the ship has an Upkeep Mission telling me to assign a Captain. Can this ship be flown by an NPC or not? Game is giving my VERY mixed signals at this point.

As an aside, I've since taken out all the Xenon in the Yaki "home" sector, as well as any other relevant sector. Just finishing clearing out Savage Spur II, which of course has NO access to the deeper Xenon Sectors due to the one-way superhighway. I'm hoping the Yaki will expand... if they are able. ARG ships seem to be happily trading with them now, so perhaps they can hire ARG Builder ships to expand...

The cloaked ship can only be flown by the player until the xenon booster station is destroyed.
The Yaki - unfortunately - do not strive for sector ownership (these faction properties can be read in factions and relationships).
Whether the Yaki build stations... no knowledge so far.

Edit: "Faction properties" corrected, not in the encyclopedia, but in factions and relationships.

[PV_]

but once the Amplifier is gone then you can give it a pilot and order the ship about but it doesn't cloak any more.

Trigger is not about destroying Amplifier but finishing associated quest. Inciting Xenon attack for TER systems unlocks no longer cloaked Moreya as well. You don't need to actually get rid of Amplifier physically.

[Scoob]

Ah well, Xenon in that cluster of Sectors are all gone now, so my malfunctioning Moreya is no longer relevant lol. Shame it didn't work when I needed it of course, but my fleet (with micro-management due to bugs) took care of things nicely.