@Treybor
That would remove some of the chaos from ships in transit randomly attacking things, but each cluster would be much stronger. I feel that is a good compromise. I've been watching carefully at one example where xenon constantly send ships from frontier edge to reinforce tharks's, but it's pretty much all they do. The xenon don't actually send deliberate incursions from there into ARG space, it's all just opportunistic chaos.
Kinda torn on that, but i think it would be a really good change of pace, expecting (or knowing) that some really badass xenon blob could come out of a gate at any time and ravage a system if the player does not intervene.
A new player would not be able to deal with this, but we're not them, right? 🙂

I may restart again and try a new run, just lost the behemoth (3v1 H's seem to be too strong. I may have gotten a bit arrogant XD) - but now I understand the game far better i'll probably do better on my next run...

Good points all around! But yeah, no DLC means they concentrate pretty hard HC

@Alyarin It may feel like they are infinite in number, but the biggest thing you have is TIME, it takes hours for them to rebuild their capital fleets when you defeat them, they have a much longer build time then the commonwealth.. The S/M ships are still somewhat fast but every fleet/squadron you destroy may not be built in the same "cluster" they might rebuild those to go attack the teladi or something

If you have Split Vendetta then I would go check on the Split since they will be getting overrun as usual, if you don't have Split Vendetta then yeah the cluster near Hatikvah's choice will be the strongest in the base game for you to defeat since the Teladi "usually" can keep the Xenon at bay in their space since they have such a good economy to replace ships

Overall at least with Split Vendetta (This DLC adds multiple new xenon entry points) the main push will slow down eventually and they will hard push in another direction eventually

Haven't tried taking on a xenon station yet, but I imagine that I am maybe in position with a behemoth and some smart turret cleansing to start destroying the stations... Could be wrong though?

As their expansion continued, however, so did mine. I have a trading fleet large enough to supply the construction of L ships (or new stations), and am in position to help the Argon rebuild their Wharf. meanwhile, before their shipyard was destroyed (I actually saved it from an I to do so), i was able to construct a L ship, with main guns powerful enough to destroy I's, K's, M's (reliably) and L's

My plasma-cannon armed minotaur sentinel can take down most small xenon patrols, and I have a group of S interceptors for dealing with larger squads.

I've been loving the tooth and nail fight for survival. The only downside to me is that their resources seem a little... Infinite. It feels like whenever I destroy a ship, its replacement is coming soon after. Do you think I can make a dent with a single behemoth and vanguard, or am I perhaps taking on a challenge beyond the scope I was expecting?

I've been playing this mod since... My first playthrough. The only X universe I have known has been one with your influence, Treybor!

Yes, it's otherwise Vanilla. I had heard that the Xenon often stand still, but I wanted a challenge. A risk of the Xenon taking over the universe if the player does not intervene. I saw that lite had them only expand a little, so I took this mod, and this mod... Has certainly delivered. I'm Argon centric, and over a good 50 hours or so, the Xenon have pushed through Haktivah's choice to Argon prime, built 2 defense stations and a factory in Prime itself, harassed Second Contact with countless raiders (creating EXCEPTIONAL trade opportunities when I use a destroyer to defend my ships...), and used I's to destroy the Argon shipyard and Wharf.

@Xenomorph I do have a snippet of code that Deadair allowed me to use in my economy mod that prevents the xenon from throwing themselves at gates, I might upload it as a standalone that it is so good. Basically forces any AI with more then 1 wharf/shipyard to only build locally, so ships for scaleplate wont be built in emperors pride and have to fly all the way down through the commonwealth

Been playing with this mod for quite some time now (over 100hour ish?), and with me NOT interfering with the Xenon unless they get in my way or something critical, it looks like it has been a success. Not everywhere, tho, the xenon AI fixation with throwing ships away on things that achieve nothing and failing to assemble counter attacks where it really matters always was and still is very noticeable. I do have to give them a hand by watching some of their fights (like attacks on stations and such, then they run in high attention), which they would miserably lose in low attention.
Either way, they're cooking with fire, great to see :)
Also have the AI xenon miners mod to give them a hand with survivability, which works great with xenon jobs. For those of us who want to see the xenon being an actual threat, this is a must have :)
As for balance, without peeking at the code, i think this is completely fine as is.

@Moon-Shadow Lite is just a lighter version of xenon jobs+, so if its too easy with lite then turn lite off and go too jobs+

Xenon Jobs+ 8.0

Xenon Jobs+ Lite

It says both would overwrite each other, so downloading and turning both off would overwrite the first. ?

Or does it just mean you can't use both at the same time, which would be normal since they both do the same thing, just one less than the other.

I haven't loaded any yet, but I would turn them off, as I've been playing without mods so far, but I load the mods that I use later, rather than having to search for them in all the favorites and then starting them up and forgetting some, as there are mods that need a new run.

@Black Heaven Nothing here needed updating, other then the title I guess

Hello Treybor, do you have any plans to update this mod for 8.0 as other your mods?

Hey man! Wanted to ask you a bit about the mod, tried both lite and normal version, wanted to cook something in the middle by myself. Sent you a friend request.

FYI I loaded this mod in the middle of my game (7.60) because the Xenon were getting crushed big time even though I also use a mod to buff their ships. I use an AI economy improvement mod (among others), and the Xenon just couldn't keep up after the Capital ship AI improvements. When I loaded the mod the ships appeared instantly. Later on after they were wiped out, I disabled and then re-enabled the mod and it spawned them all again. I was able to even things out a bit by doing this. I also rammed my Rattlesnake into about 10 Phoenixes to knock them into firing range and save Matrix #9 which was fun.

Has anyone tried this with After The Fall? I know that mod also tweaks Xenon jobs since they start with way more territory, wondering which one creates the hardest xenon faction.

I think this mode has quite satisfied with what I need, I have the another mod which is used to strength the economic of the other AI, that made they have many industries. That why I need this mod to strength X to balance the game, and these two mods makes my game more interesting!!!!

3 I's + 6 K's fleet feels a bit OP and unmanageable for early game players. Splitting it up might be more balanced.

"Tried really hard to like this mod, but when my 200+ Flak Turret defense stations with a 15 destroyer, 2 Carriers w 100 Fighter wing each, 20+ M Gunboat/Odachi support group, gets constantly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rolled by 100's of fighters and 10 K's escorting a pair of I's it is literally not even ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ playable. Even when I show up with a second carrier fleet the ungodly number of PE's and B's make it literally impossible to fight back."
Flak turrets are terrible at killing fighters now though, better to use beams.

very bad optimization, without this mod I got stable 360 fps, but with this mod my fps constantly drop to ~320, cant imagine how much fps it will consume in late game

I think this a really interesting idea, however, playing on a larger map, the xenon steamroll every faction, noone is safe, 2 hours in and there's destroyer fleets everywhere, it's just not very balanced

Tried really hard to like this mod, but when my 200+ Flak Turret defense stations with a 15 destroyer, 2 Carriers w 100 Fighter wing each, 20+ M Gunboat/Odachi support group, gets constantly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rolled by 100's of fighters and 10 K's escorting a pair of I's it is literally not even ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ playable. Even when I show up with a second carrier fleet the ungodly number of PE's and B's make it literally impossible to fight back.

Finding like others are that the fleet sizes are pretty massive in later game. 100+ hours in I've probably lost (though it would take days to play out). Zyarth is gone but most factions haven't lost much territory yet - but with 200+ Xenon ships in Hatikvah I, similar numbers pushing into the Void, traders are getting killed everywhere. Biggest problem is I didn't sprint for a wharf and can no longer buy ships because economic demand is so high (for example) 5+ hull parts modules in the adjacent factory isn't enough to keep hull parts in the wharf above 0. So I can't push into Hatikvah, the Void, or Silent Witness - and can barely build stations anymore, either. 7.5 basic economy is strong - but Xenon now are stronger!

This is such an awesome mod and I love everything it does

It is a shame however that Egosoft left the Xenon so outmatched in 7.50 that all it does it prevent them from being wiped out. This is not a criticism of the mod in any way and I look forward to playing it again when Egosoft get around to rebalancing the war.

Hi. What lines in "jobs.xml" should I change to:
1) Reduce the number of miners and battery traders at Xenon? There are too many of them for me.
2) Increase the number of K in each attack fleet?
I would appreciate a hint, because I don't understand modding the game.

Thanks for this - X4 is one of my favorite games to come back to, and I've been giving it my first go. Unfortunately, I'm about 24 hours in, and the only Xenon threat indications I've seen so far are the defense station lost in Hatikvah's choice and Getsu Fune turning red. My favorite vanilla playthroughs were as a Split trying to push back against the fall of the Patriarchy (Family Zhin went dark after about 6 hours) and as an Argon trying to save the network after Argon Prime and Hatikvah weere wiped out a day in - causing trade in the center of the network to collapse.But either the number of jobs isn't enough to keep up with all the territory added in the expansions or the different factions have upped their defense game. So I'm hoping to see a little more of the threat kick in soon ;)

I found xenon every place,argon defense station is fine,but shipyard destroyed

@Moessus yeah this will always work unless they ever redo how jobs are created

Works fine on both beta and release of 7.5, tested with and without VRO

Second this, anyone tested on 7.5?

Does this work with the 7.5 release?

The triple I and triple H fleet are nuts if they get into the highway ring early game. My games economy is really starting to stall out now. No more Arg shipyard or wharf. Playing on the new beta build seems like nobody can deal with them at all. Friendly AI doesn't stand a chance. Only time their capitals die is if they suicide themselves on certain stations

@Treybor Maybe I just gotta play the game more then? Cuz as it stands in my playthrough, they've been beat back to only one known sector. And they don't even have a Wharf. Do xenon even spawn back in if they are wiped out?

@Ziodyne967 Idk, most common complaint is that they are too hard in this mod, but for every major xenon fleet that goes down, it takes over several hours to replace some of the larger fleets since in vanilla they can only build 2 L/XL ships at a time and those have particularly long construction times, I think an I alone takes about 20+ minutes for one to be built

Its going to be more of a time thing since they usually can get overwhelming in my own playthroughs once they start breaching the outer defenses of the commonwealth but that is like 20 hours in at a minimum.

I thought that the enemies would be a lot more aggressive, but in my new playthrough, they're just not there. Even found some spaces that used to be under Xenon control to instead be a part of another faction I don't interact with much. Maybe it's just too soon in my playthrough to say, just thought there'd be more action involved as opposed to my vanilla playthrough.

@Luenaris yes

Does it work with VRO?

They are still alive and well in 17 sectors, I made sure of it. Emperors, Litany, I gave them Savage II back and pulled out of Getsu because I wanted them to kick the Terrans in the stones. They have Wretched Skies sectors (I engineered that), Tharka's, Atiya's, the Matrixes.....and more.

They are just far too passive everywhere for the fleet resources they have. They have huge fleets in Emperor's VI and IV but they won'r redistribute to the front line. Idling again.... Must be something to do with the economy and the SE power ships. There are far more SE miners. I read that they like to build a defence outpost on the periphery of a sector (out of radar) before they invade it. Perhaps the lack of SE power ships is preventing building the defence station, too many ships destroyed?

@Bolshy if its the last xenon sector, its entirely possible for them to just be defensive fleets. they normally spread out amongst the sectors but if they get knocked down to one then they will just defend the only sector they can be assigned too

Thanks for the quick reply. There are very few ships moving into Company Regard, mainly small fighter groups of 5 or less. Since I posted last, a couple of Vs and 2 Ks went in, but were soon destroyed by well defended original Teladi factory stations. I've often wondered if some kind of trigger is required. I fast travelled into Scale Plate (at great personal risk) and killed a few Xenon, then escaped. Still nothing. It's almost as though the wrong AI ship is being built as in Sector Patrol Xenon rather than Raiders, but naming them as Raiding Party. I don't know if it's possible to write an algorithm that forces them to move when time =3 hours and Xenon forces = greater than 15XL and 300 s/m in one sector? I'm not a modder but if I can help with feedback to improve your work, let me know.

@Bolshy I havent seen Xenon warships get idle. I think they mentioned something in the 7.5 beta fixes about ships going idle, I have had a vanilla bug once where the entire universe essentially went idle and no ships moved anymore and I just had to reload an older save but that was a few patches ago. I know the S miners/traders can get stuck at xenon wharfs/shipyards bc there is a collision issue with the docks that I think 7.5 addresses.

Otherwise KUDA AI offers one really nice script that can massively help the Xenon and that forces ships to be built at the closest wharf/shipyard. I will have to talk to Deadair and see if he would let me export that particular script into this mod or something, since KUDA itself can be pretty CPU intensive with all those other options running.

Nice work, btw. I've invested over 1000 hours in this game and have a current game several days in. I've saved the Antigone and Xenon from annihilation before adding mods. Having used several of your mods, and investing another 50 hours or so, the Xenon still didn't seem aggressive enough, although my faction economies have recovered and they are fighting each other. The main reason for my post is that I now have a very large concentration of Xenon in both Scale Plate Sectors that remain idle. There are upwards of 30 XL ships and around 500 M/S plus a smattering of H. I have too many xenon buffing mods running to work out which one (if any) could be the cause of this. It may purely be a seeding symptom. Would your Jobs Shuffle mod have any impact on these idle Xenon ships?

None if you change the lite off for this one, but if you go back to lite, the ships in the new jobs will have to die to get to the old numbers. So it will not get easier immediately and it might not balance the right way the overall xenon forces, some sectors might stay stronger.

Im currently trying Xenon Jobs Lite. I was wondering if there would be any issues down the line if I decide at one point to turn it off and switch to this one?

@knightphantom420 Khaak operate completely different then the vanilla jobs system, I already touch some parts of the khaak in my spawn begone mod. But they just sort of operate on a "points" system where each mineral mined creates "points" then it generates khaak jobs based on the points from mining

@UberQuicks in all my tests, they usually do poorly against HOP/TEL (near ianamus zura), but that is with all my mods. they always thrive against the split and with my sector mod they usually capture company regard and become a menace is that region of space, most people seem to also see the same pattern emerge, it can just take some time for the XEN to get going since ships do take REAL time to build, without my econ mod, an I takes like a full hour to build

The Xenon are basically completely dead at around 18h, prior playthrough completely dead at around 25h. This mod was enabled alongside your Econ and War Mod. Only returned to x4 a bit ago, but i recall xenon lasting way longer/fighting and killing factions. Not sure if its the mod or maybe timelines update.

have u considered making a mod like this for the Khaak?

Dose this mod work with VRO and Reemergance?
Becaus they add some new Xenon ships

I want to try the mod but I'm gonna try it when they actually fix the defence station force

When is this month getting fixed for the damn defence station?