Spoilers possible : Endgame Crisis

[Cythal]

I have read about the endgame crisis from other players and actually look forward to playing it. But it seems many do not like it and I think I know why from what I have read.

Not building station defences!

It cost a lot to fortify stations when you are starting out but as a player that likes to expand all around the known universe, I tend to actually build them for the foreseeable future I may go to war with a faction. Similarly each sector I own has a defence fleet once I am able to fund the required resources and they should be able to respond to threats within 2 or 3 Jumps from the home sector. And Clustered sectors also have a dedicated mobile fleet.

What do others think?

[zpc]

It's awful. A huge step backwards. This shouldn't go live.

There is also no true opt-out at the moment. Every player who has a certain military strength triggers a spawnfest of Xenon K/I and Kha'ak GKS right above player assets and gets smoked. THEN the opt-out mechanic is offered for a measly 500.000.000 credits.

Egosoft has to trash that and rework it from the ground up.

[Wraith]

Personally I like it

They should definitely not spawn everything on top of what you own but instead have them spawn on nearby sector and converge to attack your assets though.

Though you need an ungodly amount of military assets to even get the crisis to spawn. (unless your using Terran then it might be a problem)

[zpc]

Enemy spawning really has no place in X4. This is X³ level arcade mechanic (and it was awful back then as well). There should be a source of all these ships and a way to counter those jumps from Kha'ak. Xenon ships never should be allowed to spawn in. This is completely out of sync with the rest of the game.

[Zloth]

Defense stations are a big problem for sure. The first guy that posted about the crises noted he has... was it 75 defense platforms around the gate to his sector?? WTF is supposed to get through that!?

When I first heard about this, I figured it would be good for the gates to kick out some sort of EMP burst that wiped out turrets just before the invasion came through, along with whatever is in build storage. Then the attackers sail on through - or maybe delay it by about 10 minutes to give the player a chance to repair the turrets.

Another possibility would be to give them HUB like technology. Give the Xenon a really monstrous sector with great resources and multiple wharfs/shipyards and give them the ability to put that sector between any jump. So, for example, instead of the gate from True Sight going to Holy Vision, it would go to the Xenon supersector and a gate in the supersector would go to Holy Vision. Attacks would come out of the supersector but, eventually, the player would win out and take over the supersector, possibly getting the HUB tech as well so they could put that sector anywhere on the map.

Unfortunately, it couldn't work with highways. Somebody could set up monster defenses in the Asteroid Belt and Neptune to make the whole of Terran space safe. Plus the Kha'ak are very important to all this. They aren't allied to Xenon at all and they've never really been interested in gate technology, either.

So I'm still cheering for my EMP bursts.

[Cythal]

Originally posted by Zloth:

Defense stations are a big problem for sure... [Snip]

Another possibility would be to give them HUB like technology. Give the Xenon a really monstrous sector with great resources and multiple wharfs/shipyards and give them the ability to put that sector between any jump. [Snip]

Unfortunately, it couldn't work with highways. [Snip]

So I'm still cheering for my EMP bursts.

Defence stations should be built near important gates to stall the enemy until the main fleet, or sector fleet arrives. However, in such a crisis, especially with Kha'ak Technology, your other production stations should also have their own defences, again to delay the enemy until the arrival of a fleet. So rather than building defence stations alone around gates I would recommend fortifying all other stations, at least 4 or 5 station defence modules, drones and missiles.

Bottle-necking the crisis will make it too easy, allowing you to always have a support line to reinforce your fleet until the enemy is defeated. So I think the aim of the crisis is spot on. Can you manage and command your varied fleet, secure your fleet production lines and deal a defeat to the invasion.

Players who build one mega complex may have a different experience but still you have mining fleets mining outside of it that you will need to also protect as no raw materials to the station will surely cripple you fleet re-reinforcements.

Of course my view is limited as I have not experienced it but from what I have read it sounds very exciting.

[SinisterSlay]

Almost needs a command like age of empires where you can in a panic tell every ship in a sector to flee or dock because an invasion is happening.

[zpc]

Originally posted by Cythal:

Of course my view is limited as I have not experienced it but from what I have read it sounds very exciting.

I'll give you an example how this crisis plays right now:

• As soon as you opt-in, a timer with 10 minutes between crisis starts
  
• A crisis spawns multiple layers of enemies in one sector. First Xenon K/K/K/I, then Kha'ak GKS and Kha'ak swarms
  
• Rinse and repeat

A more detailed example:

• First wave of Xenon K/K/K/I spawns at one of your stations, opens fire
  
• After a while, 2 Kha'ak GKS spawn at one of your stations, opens fire
  
• 2 Kha'ak GKS are basically annihilating everything - you can see your news ticker flooding in red if you happen to have carriers with lots of fighters on patrol (trust me, after the crisis no one will have undocked fighters anymore)
  
• Destroyers are your only chance against Kha'ak GKS. Too bad the Kha'ak GKS disable the weapons on your destroyers as easily as the chew through your fighters / corvettes / drone boats
  
• Did I mention that the Kha'ak GKS have a main weapon, too? Think Asgard ray of doom - your destroyers go "poof"
  
• When your GKS are battling the Kha'ak GKS with their turrets and squad mates go poof, the next wave of Kha'ak GKS spawns in - right at the same spot of the others. What were 2 Kha'ak GKS now has a number of 6 Kha'ak GKS

Lots of "fun".

Basically paying Boso the 500.000.000 credits to opt out is way cheaper. Players without own self-sustaining complexes will have a hard time to replace the majority of their fleets. If you can do that at all - remember the 10 minute timer for the next crisis?

Asgard cheesing is ~very~ tempting.

[nZ RaifalM3n]

Xenon and Kha'ak are enemies too. Maybe this helps.

[Cythal]

Originally posted by zpc:

Originally posted by Cythal:

Of course my view is limited as I have not experienced it but from what I have read it sounds very exciting.

I'll give you an example how this crisis plays right now:

• As soon as you opt-in, a timer with 10 minutes between crisis starts
  
• A crisis spawns multiple layers of enemies in one sector. First Xenon K/K/K/I, then Kha'ak GKS and Kha'ak swarms
  
• Rinse and repeat

A more detailed example:

• First wave of Xenon K/K/K/I spawns at one of your stations, opens fire
  
• After a while, 2 Kha'ak GKS spawn at one of your stations, opens fire
  
• 2 Kha'ak GKS are basically annihilating everything - you can see your news ticker flooding in red if you happen to have carriers with lots of fighters on patrol (trust me, after the crisis no one will have undocked fighters anymore)
  
• Destroyers are your only chance against Kha'ak GKS. Too bad the Kha'ak GKS disable the weapons on your destroyers as easily as the chew through your fighters / corvettes / drone boats
  
• Did I mention that the Kha'ak GKS have a main weapon, too? Think Asgard ray of doom - your destroyers go "poof"
  
• When your GKS are battling the Kha'ak GKS with their turrets and squad mates go poof, the next wave of Kha'ak GKS spawns in - right at the same spot of the others. What were 2 Kha'ak GKS now has a number of 6 Kha'ak GKS

Lots of "fun".

Basically paying Boso the 500.000.000 credits to opt out is way cheaper. Players without own self-sustaining complexes will have a hard time to replace the majority of their fleets. If you can do that at all - remember the 10 minute timer for the next crisis?

Asgard cheesing is ~very~ tempting.

Thank you for sharing. Still sounds exciting.

I will probably position my main fleet in main sector cluster and defend it. If I was playing Terran this will be Getsu, Asteroid Belt and Savage Spur II, with some Void mining fleet with modifications. This will ensure reinforcement fleets continue to be produced to then deploy to main fleet or to other frontier sectors that need it.

It is expected to loose a station or two but victory can still be achieved if you manage things well. Says the optimist.

[zpc]

I'm only in this game for the fight component - and there really is no fun in that. There is no strategy involved, just pure meta gaming. And you need to have a pretty good economy to cover your losses. Which a combat oriented player normally not has. Which is kind of silly - as this is "our" endgame content. (terraforming -> trading players; crisis -> combat players)

[Meme Turtle]

Originally posted by zpc:

Originally posted by Cythal:

Of course my view is limited as I have not experienced it but from what I have read it sounds very exciting.

I'll give you an example how this crisis plays right now:

• As soon as you opt-in, a timer with 10 minutes between crisis starts
  
• A crisis spawns multiple layers of enemies in one sector. First Xenon K/K/K/I, then Kha'ak GKS and Kha'ak swarms
  
• Rinse and repeat

A more detailed example:

• First wave of Xenon K/K/K/I spawns at one of your stations, opens fire
  
• After a while, 2 Kha'ak GKS spawn at one of your stations, opens fire
  
• 2 Kha'ak GKS are basically annihilating everything - you can see your news ticker flooding in red if you happen to have carriers with lots of fighters on patrol (trust me, after the crisis no one will have undocked fighters anymore)
  
• Destroyers are your only chance against Kha'ak GKS. Too bad the Kha'ak GKS disable the weapons on your destroyers as easily as the chew through your fighters / corvettes / drone boats
  
• Did I mention that the Kha'ak GKS have a main weapon, too? Think Asgard ray of doom - your destroyers go "poof"
  
• When your GKS are battling the Kha'ak GKS with their turrets and squad mates go poof, the next wave of Kha'ak GKS spawns in - right at the same spot of the others. What were 2 Kha'ak GKS now has a number of 6 Kha'ak GKS

Lots of "fun".

Basically paying Boso the 500.000.000 credits to opt out is way cheaper. Players without own self-sustaining complexes will have a hard time to replace the majority of their fleets. If you can do that at all - remember the 10 minute timer for the next crisis?

Asgard cheesing is ~very~ tempting.

That sounds exactly like something Egosoft would make. Instead of implementing a working 4X strategy layer with proper tech tree, diplomacy and meaningful rules for expansion and sector control, here is a poorly made script to arbitrarily spawn enemy ships. You can achieve the same effect with a cheat menu and have control over what spawns where and in what quantities. All the more reasons to avoid the game till the next major update..

[Zloth]

Your solution is for Egosoft to change the whole genre of the game!?!?

[Alvendo]

this mode is terrible i gues, sadge that the game turns into trash

[Bozz 💀]

Originally posted by Zloth:

Your solution is for Egosoft to change the whole genre of the game!?!?

No but have them do what they started, kinda disappointed if Xenons just spawn ships, I would rather have them use a sector that has no gate from where they build ships and then make them jump into your sector on a random position.
Sector that you could reach after doing very expansive research with unfocused jumpdrive that makes you jump your fleet multiple times until you end up in that sector with no way to retreat but fight to the end hoping to cripple them enough in order to end the crisis.

I hope there is a way to end the crisis at some point or is it just endless attacks ?

I mean it could be a more deep mechanic.

[Rigi]

I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds very nice to me. IMO, defense stations are too OP. You can build a defense station just in front of a gate for a couple million credits, and it will instantly kill everything that comes through that gate. Spawning enemy fleets sounds great! Now there is a reason to fortify your main stations.