Xenon Behavior in XCore 023

[Bill Huntington]

Greetings, Pilots! I haven’t posted for a while, but I’m still playing TC. I wanted to report some interesting Xenon behavior that I hadn’t noticed before. Maybe it’s new to TC 3.1, maybe not. I got all the plots done about 10 days into the game, and about then my 4 x 100 marines were available. I capped 15 Tyrs, 2 Skirnirs, and a Tokyo for my Xenon invasion force.

I put a generic station behind each gate in all the Xenon sectors. I used a Snail Ranch L, though many others would work just fine. I placed the station 2.5 km behind the gate, so I wasn’t surprised by a Xenon gate ambush. The Xenon never killed any of them. They rarely attacked them except when I was in that sector.

After all the plots, I hung around and just raised my fighting and economic ranks. I raised myself from Vindicator to Legend, mostly in the Xenon sectors, and now it is 14 days. I toured all the Xenon sectors for a while, until I got ahead of the J and K spawning. I cleared X472 and left a little ambush with 3 Sats inside 100 Lasertowers, placed outside the normal traffic lanes. X472 is the one X sector that has no regular Q spawning, so you can actually hold it if you want to.

Then I spent a lot of time in Xenon Core 023. I have credit for 120 K, 146 J, 428 Q, 1852 L and others.

Most of the time I used one Tyr with a support ship. The best support was the Skirnir, with Shadow missiles and a big bay holding lots of E. Sometimes I used my Hype as the support ship, but it didn’t have the shields to last.

Here is what I wanted to report. The first time I brought the Tokyo into XCore 023, Qs stopped spawning. Maybe it was because it was a carrier, or just the third capital ship. But nothing spawned anywhere in the sector, not Q, or K or even Ls. But when I left the sector, all kinds of ships came out of the Xenon Shipyard. I was using the Tokyo for an extended time getting things the way I wanted, after the sector was cleared. I left and returned right away, and found 4 J, 5 K, 11 Q, 50+ L, and others. All were close to the SY. From a completely clear sector to all this! Since they were all near the SY, I didn’t have to fight them all at once. I used the Skirnir to kill some Qs, and then put 1 Shadow into most of the big boys. I had to be very careful with the Shadows. Sometimes a J takes 2 Shadows to kill it, and K usually takes 3. If you use too many, the remaining missiles find another target, like the SY. If you destroy the SY in Xenon 023, bad things happen! I’ve done it, and then ALL the Xenon sectors go into heavy production of Q and bigger, which then pour out into the TC universe and wreak destruction. Even X472 starts spawning, and they didn’t before that. And it doesn’t stop. So I don’t do that one anymore.

I had Starbursts in the Upper and Lower turrets of the Tyr, set to Attack Enemies. They did very well killing the Ls that came by in swarms. One by one, snap, snap, snap, 3 Ls gone. I like the Tiger as a killing machine because of the open main guns, but in the Xenon sectors, there is no time. One K or Q after another. I used strafe while the turrets fired automatically. I took some damage, but not too much, usually. Those PSP are awesome.

I used the Tokyo to reach out to the sides and get Ls and LX out there. If a wing gets involved, it is very hard to get them to return to base. So I tried not to use them in the middle of the sector.

I did a quick check in the other Xenon sectors. Q were still spawning in the usual places. But I didn’t find any J and K in the other sectors.
I stayed in XCore 023 for long periods. I even stayed close to the middle of the sector, and used the Unfocused Jump to leave and return quickly, using only 10 Energy for the round trip. Then I didn’t have to run all the way from the gate to get the big boys. It seemed that the SY production was just a matter of how long I was in the sector, and then it came out as soon as I left.

Once I left to take care of other things, and when I returned, this didn’t happen. I cleared all the Xenon sectors again, and came back with the Tyr, Skirnir and Tokyo. And then it was SY production only, no spawning elsewhere in the sector, and no spawning of J and K in the other sectors that I could see.

Have other pilots seen this?

[jlehtone]

I think yes, but I was not looking as carefully.

I don't have all plots done. I was clearing Xenon sectors regularly, sans SY's. The herd was good. Then I did blow out all SY's too. Their every sector seemed to reach full compliment in a blink, which seemed nice. However, they did not seem to get much replacements before a SY rehatched somewhere, and even then via migration.

It was bad for my rank that the milking cow got so dry.

I don't leave eyes to Xenon sectors. I did pop out and in from 023 occasionally (with SY there), but saw no such massive herds. Personally, I do like the 472 -- perfect size for culling sweep.

I did check several times though, and the SY's did tend to have several Q and even K/J landed and headed for Xenon sectors that I had just cleared. Formally they were there ready, but obviously waiting something before launch.


I can only think of X2. Fighters did spawn in SY and fly out. Capitals did spawn in SY sector (and migrate), but only when player was not there and the SY had to be present. What you told is very similar. I guess 023 was the only with SY at that time? If migrations originate from SY, having three SY's spreads them. What is different is that when no SY exists, there are still spawns -- everywhere.

X2 did wait for the only SY to respawn, before all ships to respawn did. Simultaneously, in 472. X3R had no SY nor migrations. X3TC apparently refined the X2 model, with more "get around that evil player" logic.

Nevertheless, you just them cornered.

[Bill Huntington]

Thanks for the reply, jlehtone. I’m only familiar with TC.

Before this, the behavior that I had noticed was spawning of the J and K in all sectors, with or without a SY. They seemed to spawn where the player had been recently. So it seemed like there was a schedule, short term for Q and below, medium term for J and K, and longer term for SY and Station replacement. If there was a SY in a sector, then it seemed like those were extra. Now I’m not sure of the exact relation. Whoever programmed the Xenon did quite a job. If we do a whole lot, we can contain them and stay even, but we can never really beat them or eliminate them. Even if we block every gate, and occupy every Xenon sector, we just share control of a sector with them, with all their spawning. (Except X472, which we can control unless we kill the SY in XCore 023.)

Early in the game, it’s a test of your abilities to take down a Q with a smaller ship. I like doing it with my Hype. Later in the game, it’s a nice to test to take multiple J, K, and Q at one time. Final exam is boarding a K.

jlehtone, that is a possible explanation, "having them cornered". They really make it tempting to kill the SY where they are all coming from. Then they go nuts everywhere, just when you think you might have really set them back.

[Girlinhat]

What does all this mean? How do I trigger a Xenon migration through Split space and watch them roflstomp them? How do I farm Xenon for rank?

[jlehtone]

The game has been told to maintain a "native" Xenon force of certain size. Ships spawned by missions are not counted for this. They lose a ship, they spawn a ship (after some delay).

Now, if 347 lacks a K and the replacement does not spawn in 347, then it will fly conventionally (aka migrate) to 347, or die in the process. If the latter, then 347 still lacks a K, a new respawns, etc.

Bill essentially reported where and when he had seen replacements to respawn. Does that make a migration route through Split sectors likely? The routing logic is very simple, or was before Mahi Ma.

Apart from migration there are "patrols" (more like sorties actually), usually headed by Q or P. Patrols head out from Xenon sectors to somewhere and then wreak havoc or something.

Culling the natives becomes quickly a simple routine. The real bread to the butter is in the generic combat missions.


Q in smaller ship? Fire-breathing Dragon.

Bottomline:
There is not much to explore in these games. Most things are quite simple under the decorative surface. Observing yourself how the AI behaves is one of the small victories.


PS. old


Edit: @Bill: at 16-06:40 240K 325J 832Q 3182L. Xtreme reached before 16-00.