is it just me or were the Xenon really nerfed recently?

[Hebrux]

This is my first ever play through where I didn't have to play as the Guardian of the Galaxy. The main empires took care of the Xenon before I even had a reason to build defense stations

[Carlsberg]

Trying to please everyone is a non starter, its just not possible to please all the people all the time. No matter which way it goes some will not be happy and that's just reality. Democracy works because it pleases the majority and that's about all you can do.

[Narn]

Originally posted by Carlsberg:

Trying to please everyone is a non starter, its just not possible to please all the people all the time. No matter which way it goes some will not be happy and that's just reality. Democracy works because it pleases the majority and that's about all you can do.

The whole balancing thing for the Xenon is over complicated nonsense. Its just gotten to be a tired excuse for having weak Xenon now. The solution is simple:

1 Make the Xenon ships good and powerful. 2 Make two separate scripts to run for Xenon production, fleet numbers, and growth rates. 3 Just make a check box for players to check on a brand new game start. If the players want powerful Xenon they check the box. 4 when the game starts it runs only the script associated with the box being checked or not.

It would take the Egosoft team maybe a week to implement that, at most. It would probably really only take a few days. Just copy paste the scripts they have for the Xenon. After that take one copy and make it harder; Tie it into a checkbox . Have the game check the game save status for the checkbox value on load. Have the game load the correct scripts for the save game. Why is that a problem? Its so easy.

The alternative is only making the Xenon Noob friendly. Doing that will cater to the New players at the expense of the veterans.

But there is a problem with that. Everyone becomes a veteran if they play long enough. So really the game is ruined for everyone in the long run. That is why the checkbox solution works.

[Erei]

Originally posted by Carlsberg:

Trying to please everyone is a non starter, its just not possible to please all the people all the time. No matter which way it goes some will not be happy and that's just reality. Democracy works because it pleases the majority and that's about all you can do.

Status quo would please the majority. Options would allow for the rest to be happier.

Having extreme xenons one side or another will displease the majority.

[flywlyx]

Originally posted by Carlsberg:

Trying to please everyone is a non starter, its just not possible to please all the people all the time. No matter which way it goes some will not be happy and that's just reality. Democracy works because it pleases the majority and that's about all you can do.

That's why most sandbox games include a difficulty setting—so players can choose whatever suits them. Egosoft could really take a lesson from other games.

[Narn]

Originally posted by flywlyx:

Originally posted by Carlsberg:

Trying to please everyone is a non starter, its just not possible to please all the people all the time. No matter which way it goes some will not be happy and that's just reality. Democracy works because it pleases the majority and that's about all you can do.

That's why most sandbox games include a difficulty setting—so players can choose whatever suits them. Egosoft could really take a lesson from other games.

100% agree. This is what I have been saying for a while now. It would be easy to just let the player decide.

[Frienby]

I don't think it's as easy to set difficulty settings in X4 as some might believe. You can boost their stats as in Rebirth, but afaict, that was wildly unpopular. You can make it so "hard" Xenon have more available jobs. However, this may mean that Xenon weakly hold onto more territory and rarely get beaten back to consolidate into regions where they become more of a threat. "Easy" xenon might collapse into one region quickly and menace some newb who feels lied too if they start near it.

Just recalling how variable my own experiences since starting in 7.5, I am not confident they can so easily be balanced into typical difficulty settings without the sandbox putting on more guard rails and making it track more calculations than it already struggles with.

[Narn]

Originally posted by Frienby:

I don't think it's as easy to set difficulty settings in X4 as some might believe. You can boost their stats as in Rebirth, but afaict, that was wildly unpopular. You can make it so "hard" Xenon have more available jobs. However, this may mean that Xenon weakly hold onto more territory and rarely get beaten back to consolidate into regions where they become more of a threat. "Easy" xenon might collapse into one region quickly and menace some newb who feels lied too if they start near it.

Just recalling how variable my own experiences since starting in 7.5, I am not confident they can so easily be balanced into typical difficulty settings without the sandbox putting on more guard rails and making it track more calculations than it already struggles with.

You did not read what I had to say so your opinion is meaningless. You just want a baby hand hold game. Everything you say after that is just noise.

[Frienby]

Originally posted by Narn:

You did not read what I had to say so your opinion is meaningless. You just want a baby hand hold game. Everything you say after that is just noise.

You pretend to know what I want. Your opinion is meaningless. I can play your infant game too. :)

[eMYNOCK]

everyone has a different perception and different expectations, what means every opinion weighs the same.

end of the "my opinion is worth more than yours blah blah".

[flywlyx]

Originally posted by Frienby:

Just recalling how variable my own experiences since starting in 7.5, I am not confident they can so easily be balanced into typical difficulty settings without the sandbox putting on more guard rails and making it track more calculations than it already struggles with.

Show me a player who picks nightmare difficulty and still expects a perfectly balanced game — I’d really like to understand how those people think. Difficulty settings aren’t anything new; every player knows how they work. If a player chooses nightmare mode, they should expect the sandbox to spiral out of control unless they fight hard to keep it in check.

Originally posted by eMYNOCK:

everyone has a different perception and different expectations, what means every opinion weighs the same.

That’s why difficulty settings are so popular, and the countless mods out there prove how easy this change is to implement. It’s honestly hard to understand why Egosoft still hasn’t added a setting like this.

[Doom]

Originally posted by Frienby:

I don't think it's as easy to set difficulty settings in X4 as some might believe.

There's re-emergence mod which supposedly does just this. Buffs xenon. If a modder can do it, devs can do it too.

Originally posted by Carlsberg:

Trying to please everyone is a non starter, its just not possible to please all the people all the time.

Focusing on majority will likely result in userbase slowly shrinking. Because majority is less than 100%. So if you made 80% of customers happy this could mean you lost 20% of them. Do this three times in a row, and you lost half the userbase. That's why it makes sense to have options.

It is possible to please people with different elements. I.e. add combat aspect for those who need it, and customization aspect for those who want it. Game currently does this to an extent.

[eMYNOCK]

do i really need to repeat what i already wrote?

with how the game currently is setup you will need to entirely exchange parts of the job file, parts of their scripts etc.

best solution is a mod... or addon.

it is not hard to make a mod.. but since access to nexus, the steam workshop or literally any other mod database is so laughably easy very few if any even consider sending their work in to be signed... and god knows what any future update may change or breake... what in return would mean that a mod/addon not only needs to be robust but also needs to be maintained.

[flywlyx]

Originally posted by eMYNOCK:

do i really need to repeat what i already wrote?

with how the game currently is setup you will need to entirely exchange parts of the job file, parts of their scripts etc.

And? Jobs files and scripts are frequently changing during update what is your point?

Originally posted by eMYNOCK:

best solution is a mod... or addon.

Tell Egosoft to remove that Modified tag before you making this kind of hilarious "best" suggestion.

[eMYNOCK]

are you able to comprehend what i said?
if not i'll make it very simple.

i said that more modders should send their work in for a signature to not cause a modified tag in the first place.

because that modified tag is there to identify if issues and bugs are caused by vanilla circumstances or by 3rd party changes.

you understand or shall i phrase it even simpler?

[flywlyx]

Originally posted by eMYNOCK:

are you able to comprehend what i said?
if not i'll make it very simple.

i said that more modders should send their work in for a signature to not cause a modified tag in the first place.

because that modified tag is there to identify if issues and bugs are caused by vanilla circumstances or by 3rd party changes.

you understand or shall i phrase it even simpler?

So after it is players' fault those bugs are not resolved, now it is modders' fault that their mods are not signed.

Egosoft is good at blaming others, aren't they.

Let's make it clear, it is Egosoft should fix their game, not modders or players