Fear the Xenon

[lostboron]

During my exploration of the Home of Light sectors, I was contacted twice by desperate travelers asking for my help. I tried to say something to them and come to their rescue, but none of my ship controls let me do that. I thought I knew my ship well after my campaign in DeVries and Maelstrom, but I could not figure out how to respond to a distress signal. I thought nothing of it at the time, because I was busy exploring anyway.

Eventually I came back to the HoL sectors in search for more adventures, after someone told me I should wait for a distress signal and somehow hit the guy on the screen when it happens. I travelled to the far reaches of the Cold Star and Home of Light sectors, to no avail. I then switched to Torride, and used anomalies to travel to many places, without success. Eventually, I got the much anticipated signal: a ship was being attacked near Strange Transmissions (I should have known). I hit my screen as hard as I could, and was somehow able to converse. I was starting to wonder if the Xenon were playing a trick on my mind, as I usually use other means to communicate. But it seemed real. I used my booster to get to the ship, but it was moving away from me at even greater speed. Perhaps he did not get my message ? Still, the attacking Xenon must have given up the chase at this point, so why did he keep running away ? I decided to put my newly acquired jump drive to good use, and jumped to Sol Gate to intercept him. That did the trick, but as I neared the ship, I noticed a bunch of Xenon fighters surrounding it. How could they have flown so fast ? In any case, that would explain the pilot concerns, and I rushed to help. I discarded the fighters quickly, and gained quick thanks.

Since the locals obviously needed my help, I stayed around longer, waiting for another chance to help. Which happened eventually, but in a rather disconcerting way: a ship called me, and I started hurrying towards it, but I barely had the time to notice it was 200km away before I heard the pilot screaming and the ship blowing up, resonating with a ghastly blast in my cockpit. Why did he call me so far away ? Really, people don't know how to die with dignity these days... Or maybe my radar was giving me an incorrect distance...

I travelled and waited further in Torride, and got another call. I hit the screen, but it did not work this time. I looked at my bulletin board, just in case, and found that this time a mission had appeared. I opened the briefing, accepted the mission, and saw the pilot for a brief second before he disappeared. I tried again, but every time I accepted the mission, the transmission got cut off. There was nothing else I could do, so I left the poor soul to his tragic fate. But I was starting to get seriously concerned about my ship systems.

I was about to give up any hope for this sector when I heard another call near Strange Transmissions. This time the ship was pretty close to me, and I could see the Xenon fighters surrounding it. I warned the pilot to wait for me and raced towards it, but again the pilot ran away. I could not believe what I saw next: as the capital mining ship used his turbo, quickly distancing me, the fighters were able to follow him. Within a few seconds, they were all more than 200km away. I was warned to think during my pilot training, and I could only come to the realization that the Xenon had somehow managed to put capital ship turbos on their small ships, which was widely thought to be impossible. I shivered at the implications, when I heard the pilot tell me "they lost, so we won !". Huh ? Did he really believe we could win against such a fast enemy ?

Noticing more Xenon around me, I called a capped Olmekron to my help. He arrived slowly, but started behaving erratically near Strange Transmissions. As I was getting surrounded by enemies, I called him to me, but he went the opposite direction, without any haste. I shouted at the microphone, used other kinds of orders, and he started moving away faster. Only then it hit me: the Xenon were controlling the captain's mind, and moving him randomly around. I finally ordered the crew to tie him up, and my ship finally started moving, at a snail's pace, in my direction.

Hoping a decisive move could perhaps save the day and prevent the Xenon from spreading their new technologies to other colonies, I recalled my entire fleet to Torride. They left my stations undefended, but I had to risk all I had before it was too late. Patrolling the sector while waiting for them, I noticed a sharply increased activity near the Maelstrom gate. Bands of fighters were patrolling the area, no doubt preparing to defend their newly acquired knowledge at all cost. I asked my veteran captains to join me near the gate, together, warning them of the Xenon abilities. Despite their amazing navigational skills at home, they were however unable to stay together: as one was coming fast in my direction, another one came very slowly, another went in the opposite direction slowly, and yet another one went farther away at full speed. Could the Xenon control so many bright minds at the same time ? I realized that they were most likely imitating my voice and giving wrong orders, as my crews would not have moved away like that without direct orders.

I struggled with my map, as I was frantically giving orders, but it was probably corrupted too and every time I zoomed in or out the map shifted and I could not keep sight of my ships. This is when I saw the largest known Xenon capital ship cross the gate, surrounded by a massive escort of fighters and capital ships. I tried as I could to organize my fleet, trying in turn to control them together or independently, asking them to move or attack, but there was no hope of keeping them together. I destroyed as many fighters as I could, and finally, in a last effort, I ordered my disoriented fleet to attack. A brave Arawn arrived first, and got assaulted immediately. I told the captain to flee, but how likely was that to happen with the Xenon using their speed, mind control tricks and fake transmissions ? He very slowly turned around and slowly moved away, narrowly avoiding complete destruction. A Fulmekron and Olmekron arrived next, hitting the I and two K in the Xenon fleet with a massive power of turrets, missiles and drones. Meanwhile, I sent guided missiles to destroy turrets on the I and destroyed more fighters. The battle seemed uncertain before my second Arawn and Fulmekron finally arrived, turning the tide in my favor.

The battle was won, and my ships had miraculously survived. But there was no escaping the conclusion: the Xenon had massively superior technology, and we had no hope to win the war.

I give up. The Bugzon are just too strong. I have no choice but to surrender to them and go to the nearest disintegration station.

[RAVEN.myst]

Hehehe, a most entertaining read - thank you.

Incidentally, I rather like the fact that the distress signals come from a variety of ranges and are often impossible to respond to in time - it feels more "realistic" (yes, I know, a dangerous word in a gaming context, but still...) this way - and also make the successful rescues that much more satisfying (and also justifies how well they tend to pay.)

[j.harshaw]

Thank you very much for that. i really enjoyed reading it.

A question: 200km is indeed the maximum distance from which you can receive these distress calls from the Skunk, unless you have a modified radar range. And yes, it was designed so that you might get calls from ships that you can't save, or that might get away before you get there. However, do you feel that 200km is too far away? Would it be better if this distance were scaled to, say, game difficulty?

Regarding fighters boosting, yes, think that was added in 4.0. All fighters can do it now, not just the Xenon.

About responding to interactive calls, there's a hotkey for that, if you're playing with mouse and keyboard. Think it's "F" by default? That said, do you feel that the calls time out too quickly to respond to? Was trying to balance having the option to interact be there for enough time to respond to it, but not so long as to be annoying if you're not interested.

And i don't think the Xenon have developed mind control, but they're AIs in a computer program, so i guess anything is possible.

[RAVEN.myst]

If I may also respond to those...

A question: 200km is indeed the maximum distance from which you can receive these distress calls from the Skunk, unless you have a modified radar range. ... However, do you feel that 200km is too far away? Would it be better if this distance were scaled to, say, game difficulty?

Personally, I think the range is fine. However, scaling according to difficulty is an interesting notion, and probably a welcome one to some (those of us who play on the highest difficulty would be unaffected, still receiving those unreachable ones to add to atmosphere.)

About responding to interactive calls, there's a hotkey for that, if you're playing with mouse and keyboard. Think it's "F" by default? That said, do you feel that the calls time out too quickly to respond to? Was trying to balance having the option to interact be there for enough time to respond to it, but not so long as to be annoying if you're not interested.

In my own opinion, the time could be a touch longer. I also remember that there was a problem with interacting with these if cruising around on a capital ship at the time, but that was addressed in 4.1, if I'm not mistaken?

[j.harshaw]

If I may also respond to those...

Most welcome, as always.

I also remember that there was a problem with interacting with these if cruising around on a capital ship at the time, but that was addressed in 4.1, if I'm not mistaken?

Mouse won't work while on a platform, of course, since the mouse would be controlling where you look moving the monitor with it, but the hotkey should. Should even work while on a station.

[UniTrader]

About responding to interactive calls, there's a hotkey for that, if you're playing with mouse and keyboard. Think it's "F" by default? That said, do you feel that the calls time out too quickly to respond to? Was trying to balance having the option to interact be there for enough time to respond to it, but not so long as to be annoying if you're not interested.

In my own opinion, the time could be a touch longer. I also remember that there was a problem with interacting with these if cruising around on a capital ship at the time, but that was addressed in 4.1, if I'm not mistaken?

Agreed with increasing the Time, but also add a possibility to decline eplicitly to shorten the time. For example [Del] could be re-used to cancel this Message immediately since these messages iirc only show up when not in a dialogue/menu where this one cancels it completely, and out of them this Hotkey has no other function anyway

[RAVEN.myst]

I also remember that there was a problem with interacting with these if cruising around on a capital ship at the time, but that was addressed in 4.1, if I'm not mistaken?

Mouse won't work while on a platform, of course, since the mouse would be controlling where you look moving the monitor with it, but the hotkey should. Should even work while on a station.

Oh, I remember where the problem lay, and don't know whether it has been addressed - while cruising around on a capital ship and in external view. While in first-person view, the mission can indeed now be accepted, but in external view it still can't (unless I'm very much mistaken), which is a pity, as when hitching a ride, I tend to view externally - though with the removal of the silly pinball effect in asteroid fields this is no longer necessary, of course (previously, max zoom-out was the workaround, and thus crucial.)

[j.harshaw]

while cruising around on a capital ship and in external view.

i actually don't recall having tested that case. Will try to steal some time to do so, but probably not before XCon.

@Uni, will look into your idea as well, thanks. Won't get rid of the balancing act, though.

[RAVEN.myst]

while cruising around on a capital ship and in external view.

i actually don't recall having tested that case. Will try to steal some time to do so, but probably not before XCon.

That's great (and frankly a bit surprising) to hear, thanks. (It's a small thing, and insignificant/irrelevant to some, so I realise it can't reasonably be a priority, so this is doubly and patiently appreciated.)

[j.harshaw]

Just quickly tested hitching a ride on an L ship and viewing from external camera (F2). Interactive notification popped up and was able to trigger with "F", so looks like that's working.

i do remember spending a lot of time hitching rides on these things while testing, but can't remember if i was viewing in external camera or not. Guess, for this purpose, doesn't matter.

Also briefly tested cancelling the notification while in external camera mode while on the L-ship. Triggers the options menu (which pauses the game). Not sure if changing it to cancel interactive notifications would be good in this context since it already does something and some people are probably used to it working that way, but if DEL already cancels some notifications but not others, could be worth looking into to make consistent. No promises, though.

[RAVEN.myst]

Just quickly tested hitching a ride on an L ship and viewing from external camera (F2). Interactive notification popped up and was able to trigger with "F", so looks like that's working.

OK, I must be remembering pre-4.1 - so this is doubly welcome news: ALREADY working and (good news for you) requires no further attention. Thanks for taking the time to check it (and beating me to it, heheheh) (And, additionally, my apple-orgies for the false alarm, so to speak.)