[Bug?] Xenon fleets spawning atop my station sectors

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ForteMaster
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[Bug?] Xenon fleets spawning atop my station sectors

Post by ForteMaster » Wed, 30. Nov 22, 18:23

This is partially intentional behaviour, but I think it might be somewhat flawed. I'm using the Unofficial Patch, by the way.

I like to set up in Harmony of Perpetuity, due to nostalgia for its appearance in X3TC. Problem is, small (M3-to-M5 ish) Xenon fleets kept showing up and blowing up my freighters. I figured it was a problem with sectors I'd set up in the Hub, but changing that didn't stop anything, even with fiddling with the Hub sectors to connect it to highly secure and defended core sectors. So I wasn't really sure what the problem was.

Until, that is, I eventually caught it in-sector - a Xenon fleet popped into appearance right before my eyes!

Now, HoP is one of the sectors that can be spawned with a HSAP to another sector. And on the forums, Cycrow has said that Xenon spawn and make a beeline for those sectors, which is an intentional design choice. Not one I know how to handle, admittedly, but I've never had a need for this kind of fleet defense before because enemy spawns and patterns were more predictable, since they had to physically get to my assets rather than pretty much appearing on top of them.

Thing is...my Harmony of Perpetuity is not connected to HoP's HSAP sector. Harmony of Perpetuity beta doesn't exist in my game. So why are the fleets spawning here? Or is it that they're spawning in HoP beta and getting across the non-existent HSAP?

Worse, it's happening in the Unclaimed sector next to Legend's Home that I'd poked into for mining purposes, which also doesn't have an HSAP in my universe. So attacks are coming faster than I have the time to react, and the Xenon corvettes love nothing more than blowing up my Mistrals within seconds. (They seem to have trouble jumping out of danger when station managed, which doesn't help.)

Of course, now it's also even worse because the spawns are faster, and it's started spawning Xenon Ps and PXes that stand a significant chance of blowing up an ordinary TS in no time flat. (Presumably because of my Fight rank?) I don't really know how to set up an effective defense against 'random spawn in the middle of sector', y'know? If it's an intentional design choice that even these non-active HSAP sectors will see random Xenon spawns, I'll fight back as best I can, though my finances aren't exactly endgame or anything. (Obviously, armored TS are one solution, but an expensive one - and a slow one, too.)

Hwitvlf
Posts: 484
Joined: Tue, 13. Apr 21, 21:36

Re: [Bug?] Xenon fleets spawning atop my station sectors

Post by Hwitvlf » Wed, 30. Nov 22, 23:52

Weird, did the 'pop ins' happen near the gate? I've had my home base in Harmony of Perpetuity lots and have never seen Xenon spawn into mid sector. I have seen small Pirate/Yaki groups pop into mid sector. Xenon squads regularly jump in through the gate, and sometimes destroyer groups fly in from Black Hole Sun. I dropped laser towers near the gate no problems so far.

iXenon
Posts: 177
Joined: Wed, 1. Jun 22, 20:00

Re: [Bug?] Xenon fleets spawning atop my station sectors

Post by iXenon » Thu, 1. Dec 22, 08:58

Hwitvlf wrote:
Wed, 30. Nov 22, 23:52
... have never seen Xenon spawn into mid sector. I have seen small Pirate/Yaki groups pop into mid sector. Xenon squads regularly jump in through the gate, and sometimes destroyer groups fly in from Black Hole Sun.
Same for me. They always appear at the gates, flying the whole path to that sector. I had a lot of problems with them, because I and J/K appeared in my sector many times. But then something happened and they completely stopped to do these bad things.
Hwitvlf wrote:
Wed, 30. Nov 22, 23:52
I dropped laser towers near the gate no problems so far.
That's may be the crucial point! I protected all my sectors with big forces and some of them with laser towers. The only problem here was when a new Strong Arms small fleet appears randomly it may happen in my sectors. And in that case these ship are being killed by my laser towers, dropping down my reputation rank. So, I decided to move laser towers away from the gates in one sector but during the process decided to use them in another 'project', so I didn't place them back. Then I returned to my complex that I wanted to finish and during this job Xenons appeared about five times in that sector! I sent my Kogarasu and other ships to kill them and they did it quickly. But that's interesting. What I did:
  • Removed Laser Towers
  • Placed Jump Beacon and moved capital ships to the sector center
And something triggered their appearance.

ForteMaster
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun, 10. Jul 11, 00:29
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Re: [Bug?] Xenon fleets spawning atop my station sectors

Post by ForteMaster » Thu, 1. Dec 22, 11:55

Hwitvlf wrote:
Wed, 30. Nov 22, 23:52
Weird, did the 'pop ins' happen near the gate? I've had my home base in Harmony of Perpetuity lots and have never seen Xenon spawn into mid sector. I have seen small Pirate/Yaki groups pop into mid sector. Xenon squads regularly jump in through the gate, and sometimes destroyer groups fly in from Black Hole Sun. I dropped laser towers near the gate no problems so far.
I have seen some of them near gates sometimes, but in the case of the HoP spawn I caught it was definitely mid-sector (perhaps where the HSAP is supposed to be?). The nature of their attacks - often first targeting stations and freighters in the middle of the sector first, rather than freighters at the gates. (That said, my ships do use jumpdrives frequently, which could affect the data.) Again, as mentioned, I'm using the unofficial patch, which could be affecting things somehow?

Strong Arms have been spawned a lot when I've been going around space, but they always appear near the gates; I didn't know that was a spawn event (and explains why they're so far from Split sectors). So clearly, those are working properly, at least?

Unfortunately, I'm not exactly terribly rich - I'm really only just starting to make money, and I don't have any capital ships to speak of. Suggestions for cheap defenses or a good first capital ship would be quite welcome! I can try and put lasertowers near the gate, but production is pretty dire from NPC stations currently...

Hwitvlf
Posts: 484
Joined: Tue, 13. Apr 21, 21:36

Re: [Bug?] Xenon fleets spawning atop my station sectors

Post by Hwitvlf » Thu, 1. Dec 22, 20:37

Maybe everyone knows, but laser towers are unique in that they have a ranged attack in Out-Of-System combat. A cluster of towers can usually destroy incoming enemies before taking any damage themselves. For a South gate, I usually place 10-20 at 5km northward and 3km up from the gate location. This seems to be close enough to engage ships when they enter.

Also very important to set laser tower "show as enemy if enemy to me" setting to "No" or they'll turn hostile to any faction with a red ship in the sector and start vaporizing everyone from that faction. Even if you do this, if enemy ships ever engage a tower (Strong Arms turrets etc ), it will flip that tower's friend/foe setting to hostile toward that faction. When that happens, I just reset the friend/foe list in the Global Commands menu with 'transmit to all reachable properties'.

Sovereign01
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Joined: Wed, 25. May 05, 14:38
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Re: [Bug?] Xenon fleets spawning atop my station sectors

Post by Sovereign01 » Thu, 1. Dec 22, 22:11

Hwitvlf wrote:
Thu, 1. Dec 22, 20:37
Maybe everyone knows, but laser towers are unique in that they have a ranged attack in Out-Of-System combat. A cluster of towers can usually destroy incoming enemies before taking any damage themselves. For a South gate, I usually place 10-20 at 5km northward and 3km up from the gate location. This seems to be close enough to engage ships when they enter.

Also very important to set laser tower "show as enemy if enemy to me" setting to "No" or they'll turn hostile to any faction with a red ship in the sector and start vaporizing everyone from that faction. Even if you do this, if enemy ships ever engage a tower (Strong Arms turrets etc ), it will flip that tower's friend/foe setting to hostile toward that faction. When that happens, I just reset the friend/foe list in the Global Commands menu with 'transmit to all reachable properties'.
What's the toughest enemy they can take on when they appear when you have 10-20 or do you need more to be sure?

Hwitvlf
Posts: 484
Joined: Tue, 13. Apr 21, 21:36

Re: [Bug?] Xenon fleets spawning atop my station sectors

Post by Hwitvlf » Fri, 2. Dec 22, 01:42

Generally, 10 will take out any M7 groups and 20 will take out a single destroyer/carrier group in Out of System combat. In-System, 10 will take out just about anything but they are susceptible to missiles as they don't seem to target them. One gets destroyed or damaged occasionally, but you can just 'undeploy' damaged towers and drop them again.

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