Xenon Invasion Missions, game killers aren't they?

PaxRomana · Post by **PaxRomana** » Sun, 19. Feb 06, 19:39

I've just done my first one after a couple of weeks of play (have a personal mamba, several complexes and a TL). I killed one K doing it (easy) and a few fighters and got over 6 million for it. This has just financed a new complex. Now, if I can do this every other hour, by the end of the day I'll have several more complexes and money to burn.

What's the point? I keep seeing posts from people moaning that they've got the money for capital ships but not the rank and what a drag it is getting it. Well folks, this is why. I'm not blaming you, it's another game imbalance thing from Ego, but to just knock out millions of credits easy as you like completely ruins the game. Until I'm filthy rich by my own industrial efforts and money is no longer an issue, I won't be doing another one. Damn

.

8_bit · Post by **8_bit** » Sun, 19. Feb 06, 19:55

Thing with them is you'll be very very lucky if you get one every other day (in my experience, playing 4-6 hours/day average) never mind every other hour. They're not that easy to come by.

When I did my first one I'd just finished the plot and was manually sending my Merc between The Wall and Argon Prime selling energy cells while tooling about in my Buster, wondering how long it would take me to make enough cash buy some more transporters.

Thing is as well, 6 mil isn't an enormous amount of cash in X3. And it's not like having a shedload of credits will just let you buy any ship you like so I don't see it as an imbalance that lets you whiz straight to the top of the pile unnecessarily quickly.

EDIT: first paragraph was mince, makes (a little more) sense now

PaxRomana · Post by **PaxRomana** » Sun, 19. Feb 06, 20:07

Well I did one 'cos I was curious to see if they were any different from X2 (nope not really) and saw on the forums here about people making like tens of millions. If you're right about em only turning up every couple of days then that's a bit fairer but the way the other guys were talking in the other thread it made it sound like they're more common. I'm gonna go have a look see if I can get another one and report back. I agree that in the great scheme of things 6 million ain't a lot but if as I say you can bash that out every hour or two then the game suddenly becomes very much easier money-wise, and rep becomes the only thing that matters. That would be an imbalance, IMHO. Still let me go have a look around and I'll get back...

8_bit · Post by **8_bit** » Sun, 19. Feb 06, 20:12

I get one every few days or so probably, and at least once a day I scoot round the usual places to get them for a look. Sometimes it varies - once i went to Scale Plate Green and got one there, then immediately after happened to be in Black Hole Sun and got one there as well for the first time.

I just did one in Menelaus Paradise (first time there), I think I've done 8 in total now and never got more than about 6.6mil. by the time I get my hands on that I've usually got big plans for it!

With the complex I'm putting together at the moment (about 35 facts) if I wasnt earning some money off a few little complexes it would take me about 50 XI missions to get the cash together for the big one at about 6.5mil each time.

I'm currently ranked as "Vindicator" in the combat ranks and I still only get em worth about 6.5 so I guess you've got to be a good bit higher up than I am to get the big cahoonas.

Geggo · Post by **Geggo** » Sun, 19. Feb 06, 20:19

I have played 8 game days now and I have done about 8 XI mission, rewards ranging from 6M-32M.

the best way to "repair" this would be to give those Xenon capital ships the shielding theyr supposed to carry.

Though it's everyones own game so if you think it's too easy you can refuse those missions or let the sector defence kill the capital ships while you take the fighters on. L's are about 100k a pop so that's pretty fair sum for the work it takes.

PaxRomana · Post by **PaxRomana** » Sun, 19. Feb 06, 20:26

Geggo wrote: ....let the sector defence kill the capital ships while you take the fighters on. L's are about 100k a pop so that's pretty fair sum for the work it takes.

that's a thought

Nyax · Post by **Nyax** » Sun, 19. Feb 06, 20:27

I've done 4 xenon invasion missions after about 10 game days. The last one featured a jumping J and so i had to wait for it to stay put before i could take it out.

I Killed the j as well as 105 other ships (Mosly Ls)and got over 14 million for it. Very nice. But even that isn't anything like enough to buy the most expensive ships and stations. They do however provide a nice little boost to your economy.

8_bit · Post by **8_bit** » Sun, 19. Feb 06, 20:55

Nyax wrote:I've done 4 xenon invasion missions after about 10 game days. The last one featured a jumping J and so i had to wait for it to stay put before i could take it out.

I Killed the j as well as 105 other ships (Mosly Ls)and got over 14 million for it. Very nice. But even that isn't anything like enough to buy the most expensive ships and stations. They do however provide a nice little boost to your economy.

What fighting rank rank were you at when you did the last one, if you don't mind my asking?

I've done my 8 in about 14 game days and haven't seen a jumping J on an XI mission...

Nyax · Post by **Nyax** » Sun, 19. Feb 06, 21:03

Warlord about 5%.

That one mission propelled me more then half the way up to the next combat rank as well

8_bit · Post by **8_bit** » Sun, 19. Feb 06, 21:25

aha OK, better get busting pirates

cheers

Metalic Crab · Post by **Metalic Crab** » Sun, 19. Feb 06, 23:31

i am a militant combat ranking, i have been playing casually for about a month, yet i still can't find a xenon invasion mish. Do you have to complete the plot to do them? And where do you look for them?

PaxRomana · Post by **PaxRomana** » Sun, 19. Feb 06, 23:37

Couldn't find any more myself atm. Guess you guys must be right

.

Crab, this thread tells you how to find 'em :

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=128375

alphalvr · Post by **alphalvr** » Sun, 19. Feb 06, 23:41

PaxRomana wrote:I've just done my first one after a couple of weeks of play (have a personal mamba, several complexes and a TL). I killed one K doing it (easy) and a few fighters and got over 6 million for it. This has just financed a new complex. Now, if I can do this every other hour, by the end of the day I'll have several more complexes and money to burn.

What's the point? I keep seeing posts from people moaning that they've got the money for capital ships but not the rank and what a drag it is getting it. Well folks, this is why. I'm not blaming you, it's another game imbalance thing from Ego, but to just knock out millions of credits easy as you like completely ruins the game. Until I'm filthy rich by my own industrial efforts and money is no longer an issue, I won't be doing another one. Damn .

exactly why i dont do them, i want as much longevity out this game as possible and easy money isnt the way to get that

Kazuma · Post by **Kazuma** » Sun, 19. Feb 06, 23:58

I am a militant combat ranking, i have been playing casually for about a month, yet i still can't find a xenon invasion mish. Do you have to complete the plot to do them? And where do you look for them?

The XI missions are usually found on the BBS's of sectors that are within 3 jumps (maybe 2) of xenon sectors. They work like any BBS mission and are not directly plot related, as you can still do em in the non plot game.

I have done 5 or 6 in my game usually averaging around 6-12 mil a run... give or take a mil, and give or take if I have to do it in green scale plate. Does it break the game? Kinda so and kinda no...

On the one hand, its a BIG boost to your cash flow no matter how you look at it, really too big in comparision to what the other missions usually pay; even a top end assasination mission is only going to yeild a million or two, mind you, hastle factor on those is nothing compared to what an XI "run" can be.

On the other hand no; they can take a good little while to actually work your way through, specially if your laggin and don't have the force to drop in to win it OOS. Ultimately without these "boost" to my cash flow I wouldnt bother even tryin to build out complexes or a military on the eastern frontiers. I have also noticed that the more of these I do, the more friendly capitol ships are around during the missions... which is really hurtin my cash yeild on these... to the point where I have to keep an M6 around or have the M3 loaded with torps/missiles to get the cap kill.

Solution? The big money is coming from the seemingly endless amounts of fighters being dropped off the J'... upto 10 drops before it will sit and fight, reduce the number of drops it will do before standing and fighting... bring in a better "mixed" xenon force with some cruisers; I assume that sometimes the XI's will have K's but at Ace 3rd grade I have yet to see one during an XI. Properly equip the xenon cap ships with there shields, as it stands, any decent ship can cut through it like a hot knife through butter. Combat level should also change the scale of the ships being dropped out (as in there numbers), right now it seems pretty fixed; friendly losses should penalize the payout on some level; and fix some of the friendly ships that are nearly "indestructable".

It only "seems" easy cause the player is going to tenaciously grind at the mission till they get a win, set some objectives beyond the mindless gun spree, and have some distinctive partial vics, and no victory conditions.

Just my 2c on the subject neways... feel free to chime in.

MooMan7777 · Post by **MooMan7777** » Mon, 20. Feb 06, 00:12

well, i average about 35mil, though i'm at battlemaster rank..
but i really play them b'c they give me about 20-30% exp in whatever race its for, which is huge!

as i only gain around 2% in assissination missions, and they are probably equally difficiult to come by!

8_bit · Post by **8_bit** » Mon, 20. Feb 06, 00:25

the issue I have is that I never see any of the tons of weapons that people talk about seeing left by dying ships. Last time I took out the K and about 15 fighters and I got left with 3 mosquito missiles... wtf?

rizzo420 · Post by **rizzo420** » Mon, 20. Feb 06, 01:01

Since getting Warlord and Combat Ace 3rd grade, I've gotten more drops on XI and ass missions...last ass mission got 2 BPPC's. Sweet

Geggo · Post by **Geggo** » Mon, 20. Feb 06, 18:05

The weapon drops by killed ships is pretty rare random.

I think I have about 50 M1/M2 kills and 3 of those have dropped weapons (25 GPPC and asortment of 10 KYONS).

zergfest90 · Post by **zergfest90** » Mon, 20. Feb 06, 18:42

On my first XI mission yesterday, I avoided the capital ship because I was afraid of it.

Did any of you scan one to see exactly what its shield are?

I may have to see if that savegame is still around and go after the capital ship first. I think I killed a total of 15 ships and only made about 800,000.

Jolly_Roger_uk · Post by **Jolly_Roger_uk** » Mon, 20. Feb 06, 18:52

I can't believe someone got only 14 million from killing one J and over 100 L's, I got 6.6 million just from 1 K and 13 L's, things don't add up.

Anyway I think the shielding is fine on the J's, besides those things have FAA's and so getting close is impossible, unless your lucky, or uber l33t.

If you do get an XI mission though, just 1 or at most 2 hammerheads will take out all the xenon fighters, and then you can kill the K with MD's, thats pretty cheap profits.

But 6.6 million buys you about one maxxed out Nova, when you factor in the costs...

1 Nova Vanguard "Large" -- 2.8 million.
5 x MD's -- 560,000
4 x AHEPT's -- 560,000
Maxxed cargo space, speed and rudder -- over 1.5 million.
Jump drive -- 200,000
All the other upgrades -- 200,000
Ammo for MD's -- 60,000
Assortment of missile -- 50,000+

All that lot will set you back over 5.5 million, leaves you about just over 1.1 million.

6.6 million does'nt go very far, maybe about 2% repair hull damage to your M1.

Xenon Invasion Missions, game killers aren't they?

Xenon Invasion Missions, game killers aren't they?

Re: Xenon Invasion Missions, game killers aren't they?