[X3-TC] Where have all the Xenon gone?

[zapza]

I've been away from the Game for the last two years but, in the last week or two, I've picked up where I left off.

I have a well developed "Empire" and I'm totally self-sufficient in virtually all wares, particularly weapons, shields and missiles. To give you an idea, I have 30 odd Arans,many of them at my player EQs and many more loaded with 30 SF ships, most stuffed out with missiles and weaps etc.

Anyway, all that might suggest I've "done a bit".

So, now I come to my question . . .

I've just been realigning the Hub Gates, hoping to give the Paranid some grief. I've never messed with the Gates before as I've used the Hub to generate income.

So, I've set it up so that I'm linking Xenon 597 & 596; Xenon Core 023 & Xenon 627 - I had hoped that all of this would divert rampaging herds of Xenon through Paranid sectors, notably Dukes Domain & Emperor's Ridge.

So far, nothing!

I've had one Q and a bored-looking bloke with a wheelbarrow ...

Is there some better combination of gate-pairings that someone could suggest ?

Thanks.

.

[Timsup2nothin]

You don't generally get much wandering Xenon out of it. The disruption comes from getting Xenon crossing the hub through one gate pair and then sticking another gate pair in a heavy traffic gate in Paranid territory...like between Empire's Edge and Paranid Prime for example. Ideally you get a line of traffic running across the HUB with a intermittent flow of Xenon coming in on their own path and intersecting in the middle. It will reduce productivity in the region.

[zapza]

Thanks Tim.

Dunno why, but I always thought the Hub could be used to flood certain Sectors with Xenon, Pirates etc - well, that's my dreams well and truly shattered.

I can already appreciate and see, as you pointed out, the effect this is having on that area of the map.

I could easily be tempted into flying around the Hub in a Hyperion and having a shoot-up fest, but I think I'd get tired of that pretty quick.

So, another question.

I'm sure I read somewhere that the Hub was "invulnerable" !!!

Could that be true? Could I just leave those Gate-pairings as they are, withdraw my defence forces from the Hub and, without fear of damage to the Hub itself, allow the Xenon to cheerfully mug the "Paranid passing-trade" ?

Thanks

.

[Timsup2nothin]

It probably is invulnerable, and even if it isn't no one ever goes up there. Any ship that enters the hub is on some sort of script that involves getting from the sector on one side to the sector on the other, so they will invariably just fly straight across if nothing interrupts them. The only exception being if you use the hub itself as a trading point then you will get traders turning upwards to do that.

So yeah, if you have a line of Paranids from one gate pair and a line of Xenon from the other gate pair they cross in the middle and the Xenon do get annoyed about it...but they will be annoyed at the Paranids, not the hub.

[Bill Huntington]

If you really want to have some Xenon cross traffic, blow up all the Xenon K and J, then the SY in the sectors that have them, all except X023. Then they would return to their home sectors across the HUB. If another turn of the HUB was a shorter route to their home sector, they would take it. In any case, you'd get a lot of Xenon cross traffic. When the Xenon are killed, they would spawn again in X023, to make another trip.

You could have a three ring circus! I guess it would be a one ring circus, but still a good bit of theater.

When you get tired of it, you don't have to realign the HUB, just let them get to their home sectors.

Enjoy!