The Most Peaceful Universe Ever

[Winter's Embers]

After 72 hours in game, HOP are building in Second Contact II, Faulty Logic, and Pious Mist II and keeping the stations. PAR are building in Pontifex's Claim. ANT has stations in True Sight and Frontier's Edge. TER has stations in Savage Spur.
No major battles in over 24 hours of play on any front.
Not one major Xenon incursion. They pester the Defense Stations in Frontier's Edge and Hatikvah's Choice but have yet to destroy a single station. Nothing happening anywhere at all. No one will order more than one ship at a time!!!
This is bad for business!!!!

[DBAA3]

I agree, I'm just over 3 days into a new start and I've just steamrolled through to Savage Spur and completely cleared out the Xenon and saved the Yaki. 8 Syn's for stations, K's and I's and 15 Katana's for clean up - not a single lost ship (all with Out Of Sector commands while running in SETA). I've never had it this easy. No movement from any of the other factions, they all own their default sectors.

On the up side, they have definitely fixed the dumb capital ship AI. Both in sector and out of sector, no more suicides against stations!

[Winter's Embers]

Originally posted by Psycho Dad:

Ok newb question..is there somewhere that has ALL the story quests and how to start and what is needed to complete it?

https://wiki.egosoft.com:1337/X4%20Foundations%20Wiki/Manual%20and%20Guides/Objects%20in%20the%20Game%20Universe/Plots/

[Winter's Embers]

Yeah, unfortunately, it's getting damn hard to make any money since I modeled my economy on ship sales and shipyard supply and now nothing is selling. There is not one shipyard, wharf, or equipment dock buying hull parts. I sell an average of 1 ship every 4 minutes and they're rinky-dink 200k fighters or 500k frigates. The yaki buy but even they only grab a few ships and then stop. At this rate, it'll take a month in real time to save up enough for the large fab...
Almost everywhere I check, there's a glut of product, all in the green but no demand anywhere.

[Winter's Embers]

Here's the Seed if anyone wants such a wanker universe!!!

1788095942

[Captain Canard]

Originally posted by Winter's Embers:

Here's the Seed if anyone wants such a wanker universe!!!

1788095942

So is there an option at the start to enter a seed (I've never seen it), or are folks just editing their save files to use these?

If sharing and using seeds is as easy as entering a number in a custom game start, I could definitely see the benefit of sharing these. I'd love to try an "aggressive" universe, where Xenon just steamroll everything. I've yet to have one of these. Closest I've come is my last save where the Xenon threw a LOT at me to take back Tharka's Cascade, though I suspect it was still not their very best effort.

[🎮 PalkoVvodets 🔑]

Originally posted by Captain Canard:

So is there an option at the start to enter a seed (I've never seen it), or are folks just editing their save files to use these?

Budgeted and/or custom gamestart has a text field to input seed somewhere.

[Winter's Embers]

Yes. You use a budgeted or custom game start, open the Universe screen, and you can enter the seed there.

[Captain Canard]

Well that's cool!

[Winter's Embers]

I am curious whether the universe will turn out the same way again, though. Once the sandbox starts, everything goes its own way, right? Because, in the beginning, things were going pretty normally. Big fights in Second Contact, Pontifex's Claim, and Pious Mists. But then, it just seemed like everyone got a whiff of Peace Gas and stepped off the pedal. Even the massive Xenon Fleet I found in Scale Plate Green was just sitting by the gate. There were 2 I's, about 8 K's, enough M and S ships to blot out the map. There were several other battle groups (I, 2K, support ships) scattered around the sector.

[Captain Canard]

Originally posted by Winter's Embers:

Once the sandbox starts, everything goes its own way, right?

I've seen things change from one shift-F5 (reload last save) to the next, so yeah, it can be very random when it comes to ship movements and such. I do wonder how well the "universe generator" works when it comes to assuring a good supply chain. In my new save that I just started, it seems the Teladi are missing key stations needed supply their wharfs and shipyards. Maybe this is on purpose so they'll interact with other factions? If so, it doesn't seem to be working... I shouldn't have to babysit every single faction in the game to get them going, and I'm a Terran, not a Teladi, so one would think a good universe creator would make sure every faction is self-sufficient when it comes to starting stations. Not necessary EFFICIENT, just SUFFICIENT.

I don't know if this has anything to do with your problem - sounds like your universe has navies, it's just not using them (whereas in mine, certain factions lack navies).

[Winter's Embers]

Yeah. Everything in that universe was actually working so well that each faction was not only sufficient but utterly efficient, enough so that my goods wouldn't even sell at minimum prices because there was no demand.
I restarted on the same seed and the station set up for each faction was exactly the same as the first time I played. I decided that it would be just like before and abandoned the whole works for a new universe seed and a restart. The budget start didn't really cover the 1.2B in assets I had but it gave me just enough to get started. And from the look of the stations in the areas I've scouted, the factions are going to be real hard-up for certain basic supplies like claytronics and hull parts. There's 16 advanced electronics factories in Silent Witness, Hat 1, Hat 3, Arg. Prime and Second contact but only one claytronics and NO hull part factories. Good thing I decided to set up in Argon Prime this time!
I think the peaceful seed would work really well for those that absolutely have to fight everyone, everywhere, at every second of the day. With the exception of the Xenon, the factions will put up one HELL of a fight!!!

[SiliconStew]

The seed affects initial station placement, initial faction fleets and placement, and yields of resource patches. Beyond that, it's all random. But a lucky seed on initial station placement and resource yields can impact economic efficiency of factions for the rest of the game. Initial defense station placement and fleet locations can determine success or failure of all the initial battles that will have long-lasting impacts on each faction's economy, including leaving some completely crippled.

I believe one big thing that is leading to weaker Xenon is the fact that the Xenon's S miner had 2 shields but its replacement SE mining ship only has 1 shield. With the Xenon's default mining ship now being half as strong, they are simply losing more of them, so it's more likely their shipyards starve of materials and they go dormant.

[Captain Canard]

Originally posted by SiliconStew:

Beyond that, it's all random.

I would love to know what logic, if any, dictates the "strategic moves" of a faction. What makes them form a fleet on one side of the gate, and what makes them send that fleet across the gate? Sometimes there feels like an actual strategic algorithm is at work, and other times it seems utterly nonsensical.

[piep]

Xenon is a joke now. Gone are the days of a single Q getting good rolls and destroying a complete gate camp fleet

[Winter's Embers]

Originally posted by Captain Canard:

Originally posted by SiliconStew:

Beyond that, it's all random.

I would love to know what logic, if any, dictates the "strategic moves" of a faction. What makes them form a fleet on one side of the gate, and what makes them send that fleet across the gate? Sometimes there feels like an actual strategic algorithm is at work, and other times it seems utterly nonsensical.

And I'd like to know how to manipulate it! I'm not talking about big diplomacy stuff... that's covered in several different threads. I mean more like delivering the box with the severed triangle to the HOP leader with a note that says, "Sincerely, Godrealm" and having them fly off in a rage and try their luck in Pious Mists... just... one... more... time!