home base in Xenon sector 347 - done!

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fireanddream
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home base in Xenon sector 347 - done!

Post by fireanddream » Sun, 31. Jan 16, 15:47

So I did it last night, picked 347 over all the others. 101 is too lonely, 472 too small, 598 too dangerous and 596 beautiful but in the middle of no where. I also use the hub to link the gates between paranid prime/empire's edge, thuruk's pride/family pride, 347/scale plate green together in hope of having four armies passing by. So far I've only seen boron and teladi military.

At first I set up my headquarters and defense like this which was terrible. The laser towers were too far from each other and too deep. I bit more than I could eat.

Here's the modified version. 15 is the minimal number of lasertowers required to destroy a Q IS without taking losses, and ~12km is the closest I could place them to my headquarters. I'll also surround the lane to the north gate with more once my factories produce more. The xenon will slow down after 2 in-game days according to other people, jeez, my save is only 5 in-game-day old.

As for patrols, so far a single tyr is enough for everything OOS. Praise Gazz for the new OOS combat mechanism in AP, although ships seemed to deal a lot more damage OOS than IS. For one, the patrol tyr I was using consistently one shot any Qs without taking any damage while in IS ai combat it typically lost ~30%-50% shield fighting a Q.

I've tried various combat commands including attack nearest enemies of... (one of my satellite), defend position, attack capitals and they all were terrible. The best one so far was SEWN defending, but the tyr would chase a faraway M5. I want my destroyers to take out the big opponents and a wing of fighters to sweep the battlefield for anything smaller than an M6, aaaaand have no idea how to implement that in vanilla; even if I assign a wing to support the tyr they'll all travel at 64m/s.

I need two more tyr and a couple of M7s. For the M7 I'm in a dilemma between deimos and panther. Deimos on its own is much more tougher, but PSG and fighters? Not the best combination ever. Panther has its shaky 4gj shielding, but it and its 20 fighters should be able to take out Qs before receiving serious damage OOS. I might just have two panthers running the defend sector command.

Finally a bit of additional comments for those who want to do the same.
- Your configurations on the the headquarters will be removed (I don't know what I was expecting), that includes NPCs can trade with your station yes/no. I didn't notice that until I found a duke's dangerous good transporter on my headquarters, as a result I lost a hundred slaves and a few spaceflies. :evil: And yes, I kept slaves in my headquarters, really really beautiful captured genuine female terran virgins.
- Rotate your headquarters so your freighters don't fly to the other side before docking IS, that's like 20 km of flying and an invitation for disasters.
- NPC ships helped a lot. Their freighters distract the xenon and their military help killing them.
- I heard 472 is the only xenon sector where Qs don't spawn from thin air but at somewhere else. If that's true 472 is much easier to defend than any others.
Last edited by fireanddream on Tue, 23. Feb 16, 10:31, edited 4 times in total.

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JSDD
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Re: A bit of crazy thoughts, home base in Xenon sectors

Post by JSDD » Sun, 31. Jan 16, 15:58

fireanddream wrote:Still have a few follow-up questions for you guys:
1) Will the respawning ships be limited to Q/L/M/N?
2) Will they respawn near enemies or roughly around the center?
3) Will Xenon stations respawn (if the sector is still under my control)? I don't wanna come home and found my headquarters glitching inside a Xenon shipyard.
4) Will CLS pilots ignore jump beacons? That might post some problems even for hyperion traders.
1. no, i think every class will respawn
2. respawn position is random, respawn sector also, but there are exeptions: (3.)
3. stations as well as ships will respawn in "your" xenon sector, even if you've technically taken that sector over (ownership)
// because some respawn sectors are not random, egosoft has set them to the current xenon sectors (but you can change that in types/jobs using the x3editor2)
4. ?
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Bill Huntington
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Xenon sectors

Post by Bill Huntington » Sun, 31. Jan 16, 19:06

fireanddream, excellent goals and questions! I did extensive 'research' on the Xenon questions in TC. Most of it still applies, I believe. The one exception I know of concerns X347. In TC no Xenon spawned after you destroyed the SY. I hear in AP they do.

The big ships only spawn in a SY with two exceptions. One is the Xenon sector next to TU2. Save before you try this one, everyone does: if you destroy all the SY then J and K and everything else will go on a spawning spree in every Xenon sector and won't stop; they'll come out on missions too. And they don't have any financial limits.

Usually the big ships spawn in their local SY up to their sector limit. If one is destroyed when its SY is gone it will spawn in the closest Xenon SY and migrate back to its own sector.

If you're bored, try this. Clear all the Xenon SY except one. Then clear the J and K from the Xenon sectors. You can ignore the one by TU2 if you choose (TU2 is Megnir in AP). Then all the Xenon capitals will spawn in Core 023 or wherever you leave the last SY. I believe that's about 15 of them. Then take your favorite M2 and perhaps one sidekick and blow them all up. Then jump out for a minute or so and jump back. They'll spawn again one by one. Rinse and repeat as long you want. I killed 200 or so before I bored with them. I could have stayed with it to Xtreme rank but couldn't.

Q don't always spawn near you but they can. It seems much more often than random.

The Xenon Stations respawn on a long schedule. They'll respawn on their original coordinates. If your station is on those coordinates, they'll shift to new ones nearby. If you're not in sector in your personal ship, they'll stay on those original coordinates until you enter the sector. Then they'll shift. ??? The SY means something in the game. The Xenon Station has no effect whatever. Killing it or not killing it has no game consequences that I've seen.

There might be a delay in X101 before the spawning starts but it's continuous when it starts. It continues until a sector limit is reached. The ships themselves aren't replaced one for one. Sometimes you might get 2Ps instead of a Q, or some Ms instead an L. But the Xenon are relentless and don't stop spawning except when they reach their sector limits.

I did put structures into active Xsectors. Then I put blocks of Lasertowers on each corner at the same altitude. Blocks of 20 were okay but 50 or 100 were better. Even these wear down over time so I had a good plan to replace them. The Xenon are relentless. You can stay even with them in their own sectors but you can't eliminate them, with the exception of X347 in TC.

Let us know how it goes. If you get a count of total capitals including the I, I'd like to know.


Enjoy.
Last edited by Bill Huntington on Sun, 31. Jan 16, 19:24, edited 2 times in total.
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Timsup2nothin
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Post by Timsup2nothin » Sun, 31. Jan 16, 19:10

If you "take over a sector" and install enough military to destroy anything that spawns you can operate fairly easily. The only limitations:

Some stations do respawn in "their place," so don't build in those designated reserved locations. Things that respawn "somewhere in the sector" will be placed with collision already considered so they won't be a problem.

"Enough military" is a very substantial amount. You want anything that spawns, anywhere in the sector, to encounter overwhelming force before it runs into a soft target like a station or one of your trade ships.
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fireanddream
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Post by fireanddream » Mon, 1. Feb 16, 02:48

Wow thanks for all the replies, it sounds totally possible now except the jump beacon may still be a problem. Half a dozen tyr should be enough for any respawns, although SSC is such a pain to come by I might just equip them with PSP/EMPC. Shame that we don't have access to orbital weapon platforms.

Now my plan is to build a bowl-like fort, opening toward the nearest gate and my headquarters in the middle. I'll have a few tyr guarding the back and a few guarding the route to the gate. With NPC traders in 347 diverging the interest of Qs I should be fine most of the time.

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Post by MarvinTheMartian » Mon, 1. Feb 16, 11:18

CLS/CAG don't use jump beacons sadly. You might want to put your stations just behind one of the gates.

If you're not interested in NPC traders then you could could consider X534, the west gate is well away from prying Xenon scanners and it, and the unknown sector to the west have some respectable asteroids. Or you could use the hub to connect the west gate.
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fireanddream
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Post by fireanddream » Mon, 1. Feb 16, 12:33

MarvinTheMartian wrote:CLS/CAG don't use jump beacons sadly. You might want to put your stations just behind one of the gates.

If you're not interested in NPC traders then you could could consider X534, the west gate is well away from prying Xenon scanners and it, and the unknown sector to the west have some respectable asteroids. Or you could use the hub to connect the west gate.
Well the good news is I don't need prepare two jump beacons. I've uncover the whole galaxy scanning every RRF ships on the way and found none.

I would pick 101 over 347 but I like my home sector a bit "populated", even if everybody is just booking it toward the gate. 534 is too far from the center I'll probably stick with 347.

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Post by zazie » Wed, 10. Feb 16, 19:31

Haven't been around for a while...

How is it going ?

I can contribute from my experience:
- Taking over a Xenon sector is hard in the beginning as the spawns will be frequent
- the first waves might be the toughest as the Xenon go "all in"
- after 2 IG days and without having rebuilt a station (lasting longer than approx. one hour) the Xenon will give up
- well, almost: you will always encounter Q- or P-patrols, but at a irregular schedule
- from time to time (>24 hrs) a new J- or K-patrol will spawn IS
- It is no problem to build your own stations within a Xenon sector (I had a Dream farm within TUS3/Xenon sector in Vanilla-TC) as the patrols are scripted to attack ships, not stations.
- If a Xenon-patrol destroys a station it will happen randomly: the turrets - set to attack ennemies - will be responsible for the attack, not the main weapons.
- This gives you enough time after the first "one of your stations is under attack"-warning to intervene.

imo you can have a very quiet and undisturbed experience in 101. A well shielded M2 is needed to attract and destroy the inevitable random Xenon patrols. The heavy shielded Teladi ships are good for such purpose as speed is irrelevant.

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Post by LTerSlash » Thu, 11. Feb 16, 06:23

Personally i was thinking about taking the Xenon Sector (no number) West of Segaris, it seem to be a good sector to take over, it has 2 high yield Silicon Asteroids that can be used for a tiny e-cell and silicon loop.

The North sector is Xenon Core 023, where action is always guaranteed.

The West is Segaris.

And the South Unknown Sector is filled with silicon asteroids that can be used for a very good complex, actually you will run out of Ore first...

Also this Xenon Sector seem to be hard to take and keep, last time i was there there was an I, 2 K and a J, plus a few Qs and all the extra.

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xenon sector

Post by Bill Huntington » Thu, 11. Feb 16, 19:58

That would be a worthy project, LTer Slash! And thanks for the geography of the sector in AP.

In TC the Xenon sector next to Segaris (its only designation) is the only Xenon sector where the Xenon capitals spawn without a SY. I haven't checked in AP.

The force you describe are probably the standard quota for the sector. I wonder if they spawn in the Xenon sector or in Core 023 and migrate back now that there is a connection.

It would be much easier to defend the gates rather than face free spawning capitals but you could handle either one with thoughtful construction.

I set up both gate defenses and forts with LTs on all four corners in blocks of 25 up to 100. For both I use two long and straight stations like the Paranid Snail Ranch with a big M2 in the middle.

There's a nasty trick you can play on the Xenon when you defend a gate. You have to be there for it to work. Deploy a station that projects THROUGH the gate. When a Xenon comes out it'll destroy itself. No effect if you're not IS. And you can't use the gate either in your personal ship. But if you have a nearby JB or use another gate ...
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Post by LTerSlash » Fri, 12. Feb 16, 01:23

Also im thinking about making my own Xenon Fleet and destroy everything from Segaris to Earth.

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Post by glenmcd » Fri, 12. Feb 16, 02:09

Spawned NPC stations are delivered by NPC TL. It's possible to capture NPC stations before they're built if you know what to look out for. Perhaps you can do same for jump beacons?

Regarding none being in ships, you may be able to force this by destroying some NPC jump beacons? If that works reliably you could just do one sector at a time so you only have to look in one sector.

fireanddream
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Post by fireanddream » Tue, 23. Feb 16, 10:15

So I did it last night, picked 347 over all the others. 101 is too lonely, 472 too small, 598 too dangerous and 596 beautiful but in the middle of no where. I also use the hub to link the gates between paranid prime/empire's edge, thuruk's pride/family pride, 347/scale plate green together in hope of having four armies passing by. So far I've only seen boron and teladi military.

At first I set up my headquarters and defense like this which was terrible. The laser towers were too far from each other and too deep. I bit more than I could eat.

Here's the modified version. 15 is the minimal number of lasertowers required to destroy a Q IS without taking losses, and ~12km is the closest I could place them to my headquarters. I'll also surround the lane to the north gate with more once my factories produce more. The xenon will slow down after 2 in-game days according to other people, jeez, my save is only 5 in-game-day old.

As for patrols, so far a single tyr is enough for everything OOS. Praise Gazz for the new OOS combat mechanism in AP, although ships seemed to deal a lot more damage OOS than IS. For one, the patrol tyr I was using consistently one shot any Qs without taking any damage while in IS ai combat it typically lost ~30%-50% shield fighting a Q.

I've tried various combat commands including attack nearest enemies of... (one of my satellite), defend position, attack capitals and they all were terrible. The best one so far was SEWN defending, but the tyr would chase a faraway M5. I want my destroyers to take out the big opponents and a wing of fighters to sweep the battlefield for anything smaller than an M6, aaaaand have no idea how to implement that in vanilla; even if I assign a wing to support the tyr they'll all travel at 64m/s.

I need two more tyr and a couple of M7s. For the M7 I'm in a dilemma between deimos and panther. Deimos on its own is much more tougher, but PSG and fighters? Not the best combination ever. Panther has its shaky 4gj shielding, but it and its 20 fighters should be able to take out Qs before receiving serious damage OOS. I might just have two panthers running the defend sector command.

Finally a bit of additional comments for those who want to do the same.
- Your configurations on the the headquarters will be removed (I don't know what I was expecting), that includes NPCs can trade with your station yes/no. I didn't notice that until I found a duke's dangerous good transporter on my headquarters, as a result I lost a hundred slaves and a few spaceflies. :evil: And yes, I kept slaves in my headquarters.
- Rotate your headquarters so your freighters don't fly to the other side before docking IS, that's like 20 km of flying and an invitation for disasters.
- NPC ships helped a lot. Their freighters distract the xenon and their military help killing them.

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