So after starting a new 7.0 game without mods, past the initial phase, I started noticing the Xenon losing in almost every single front. Worried about the long-term fun on this save, I searched for Xenon buff mods, such as Xenon Hell, which, to me, was way too extreme, so I tried searching some more for the more 'rational' Xenon buff mod. Reddit sent me right here (this mod needs a namechange imo), otherwise I would have never found it.

After a few minutes of installing, I found Xenon aggresively building defense stations on enemy territory on several sectors, Xenon pouring from gateways trying to push, and the respective factions *finally* using their massives fleets for something. There's starting to be some action, and things look positive.

Will update on how things went after a few hours.

Originally posted by -vEloCity!:

So after starting a new 7.0 game without mods, past the initial phase, I started noticing the Xenon losing in almost every single front. Worried about the long-term fun on this save, I searched for Xenon buff mods, such as Xenon Hell, which, to me, was way too extreme, so I tried searching some more for the more 'rational' Xenon buff mod. Reddit sent me right here (this mod needs a namechange imo), otherwise I would have never found it.

After a few minutes of installing, I found Xenon aggresively building defense stations on enemy territory on several sectors, Xenon pouring from gateways trying to push, and the respective factions *finally* using their massives fleets for something. There's starting to be some action, and things look positive.

Will update on how things went after a few hours.

Thanks for the feedback, they are losing sometimes in my games too, I had to buff them with OOS turret changes or whatever I named it to get them to do more damage out of system, the P and S both lost a shield generator with 7.0 so they are much more squishy then 6.2

Okay, after the initial onslaught... it got even better (or worse?); there were a LOT of K's and I's (which I suspect were the patrols mentioned on the description, but were later reassigned to attack instead by the AI). The attack has permanently crippled the Split, as they lost their *only* engine parts factory and there are several shortages of everything galaxy-wide from the increased attack rates as the AI struggles to build stations.

Which is definitely what I signed up for. This is far more interesting than my previous save.

I might be trying your other Economy Fix mod and see how it fares, right now the shortages are a bit *too* much.

EDIT: It definitely is *too* much. I have temporarily disabled the mod, the Xenon are just everywhere and the AI cannot harvest enough resources to deal with them; their initial fleets challenged the Xenon, but afterwards, the Xenon could replenish ships much faster than the AI's, and thus all factions are getting steamrolled.

It definitely buffed the Xenon a bit too much, but maybe it just my luck.

In my current 7.0 beta 8 game (started on beta 6) with vanilla AI factions and Xenon Jobs+, detailed feedback below.

10-30hrs in.
Nothing much different from without xenon jobs. Xenon runs into sectors, fights stuff and gets destroyed after a while... no sector changes. AI fleets are on par with Xenon fleets.

30-60hrs in.
Xenon taken over about half of 3 sectors. Massive battles in Haktiva's Choice... but defence platform holding them off. Xenon fleets are much larger, beating AI fleets and are controlling sectors. Defence Platforms seem to be the only thing beating the larger numbers of K's swarming everywhere.

60-80hrs in.
Xenon have taken over 5-6 sectors entirely. 3 more Sectors about to be taken as well. Haktiva's Choice is half taken by Xenon, Xenon have 3 I's and 9 K's and over 100 ships in Haktiva's Choice destroying everything that flies through. Every AI fleet that flies into Haktiva is exterminated. AI factions still try sending freighters and miners into that sector to deliver resources and they are all destroyed. This is the point of no return, the AI factions are facing massive shortages in their shipyards and can no longer put up a fight.


Extended Feedback.
Basically at this point, I can't really do anything to help. My own traders are getting destroyed all over and I basically have no economy left since all the important trade routes are controlled by the Xenon. The xenon build up is far quicker than my own economic build up. Unmodded AI fleets (war jobs?) are too small to keep up with xenon expansion.

Only option at this point is to build those rediculously OP defence stations at the gates... BUT... since my traders keep getting destroyed delivering resources there is no way to actually build anything anymore... This COULD have worked if I had rushed econ and built those stations around the 40hr mark, but have to grind 20 faction relations early to buy defence platform modules.

I started with the Split Free Family Spacesuit start and I was spending most of my time doing story missions so I had a pretty stagnant and slow economy buildup. Boron plot also put my PHQ in Heretic's End instead of Grand Exchange so it's basically frontline vs the Xenon. Game over. :(

In my previous run I used your AI boosting mods (war jobs, econ etc) and the AI factions ran over the xenon... so I removed all the AI boosts and just boosted the xenon. Xenon Jobs+ appears to be neither here nor there, too strong for vanilla and too weak for modded AI factions.

IMHO, You should probably create one balanced for vanilla factions and one for OP boosted AI Factions because the balancing would be vastly different. I really wanted to keep playing this run since I spent hours unlocking black markets in many stations and it was really tedious but it seems over as my PHQ is located at Heretics End and all sectors to the north and east of it are overrun by xenon.

Hope this helps with balancing, cheers!

Originally posted by Twitch.tv/KAEN_SG:

In my current 7.0 beta 8 game (started on beta 6) with vanilla AI factions and Xenon Jobs+, detailed feedback below.

10-30hrs in.
Nothing much different from without xenon jobs. Xenon runs into sectors, fights stuff and gets destroyed after a while... no sector changes. AI fleets are on par with Xenon fleets.

30-60hrs in.
Xenon taken over about half of 3 sectors. Massive battles in Haktiva's Choice... but defence platform holding them off. Xenon fleets are much larger, beating AI fleets and are controlling sectors. Defence Platforms seem to be the only thing beating the larger numbers of K's swarming everywhere.

60-80hrs in.
Xenon have taken over 5-6 sectors entirely. 3 more Sectors about to be taken as well. Haktiva's Choice is half taken by Xenon, Xenon have 3 I's and 9 K's and over 100 ships in Haktiva's Choice destroying everything that flies through. Every AI fleet that flies into Haktiva is exterminated. AI factions still try sending freighters and miners into that sector to deliver resources and they are all destroyed. This is the point of no return, the AI factions are facing massive shortages in their shipyards and can no longer put up a fight.


Extended Feedback.
Basically at this point, I can't really do anything to help. My own traders are getting destroyed all over and I basically have no economy left since all the important trade routes are controlled by the Xenon. The xenon build up is far quicker than my own economic build up. Unmodded AI fleets (war jobs?) are too small to keep up with xenon expansion.

Only option at this point is to build those rediculously OP defence stations at the gates... BUT... since my traders keep getting destroyed delivering resources there is no way to actually build anything anymore... This COULD have worked if I had rushed econ and built those stations around the 40hr mark, but have to grind 20 faction relations early to buy defence platform modules.

I started with the Split Free Family Spacesuit start and I was spending most of my time doing story missions so I had a pretty stagnant and slow economy buildup. Boron plot also put my PHQ in Heretic's End instead of Grand Exchange so it's basically frontline vs the Xenon. Game over. :(

In my previous run I used your AI boosting mods (war jobs, econ etc) and the AI factions ran over the xenon... so I removed all the AI boosts and just boosted the xenon. Xenon Jobs+ appears to be neither here nor there, too strong for vanilla and too weak for modded AI factions.

IMHO, You should probably create one balanced for vanilla factions and one for OP boosted AI Factions because the balancing would be vastly different. I really wanted to keep playing this run since I spent hours unlocking black markets in many stations and it was really tedious but it seems over as my PHQ is located at Heretics End and all sectors to the north and east of it are overrun by xenon.

Hope this helps with balancing, cheers!

Yeah this is closely resembling my current playtest at the 40 hour mark even with my AI economy mod on, with the economy mod I lowered the production times on the Xenon capitals and that should be enough to balance this independently, I am likely to cut down on some of the Xenon in the mod, I really appreciate the feedback.

Edit:Opening the Boron gate was a massive help in Heretic's End and stemming the tide, they pretty much managed to completely push aside the Xenon in Heretics End and now offensives are occuring in the wretched skies sectors to take them from Xenon control.

Started a pure vanilla run now to see if I can get a stable run going. Would have liked a bit more aggression from the xenon in vanilla but oh well...

Originally posted by Twitch.tv/KAEN_SG:

Started a pure vanilla run now to see if I can get a stable run going. Would have liked a bit more aggression from the xenon in vanilla but oh well...

I just put out a "lite" version of Xenon jobs if you want to try it

Ok, started a new game with the economy overhaul, and xenon jobs (also VRO, not sure if that affects the Xenon balance).

Only 10hrs or so in, so potentially things have not kicked into action. But so far the Xenon are not bursting through.

Savage Spur > Getsu Fune: the Xenons are trying to get into Getsu Fune, but Antigone is holding up. ANT has 1 defense platform set up in Savage Spur, and they are trying to make a 2nd one.

Atiya's Misfortune > Frontier Edge; Xenon are quiet.

Tharka's Crusade > Hatikvah's Choice 1: gate is clear; haven't set up yet a satellite on the other side so I don't know whether the Xenon are getting pushed.

Matrix 451: Teladi are pushing in from Ianamus Zura, they have 1 defense platform, and they are halfway done with destroying the Xenon defense platform

Tharka's Fall - XEN are being quiet in their own sector, no one is pushing in or out.

Originally posted by waffles_and_pancakes:

Ok, started a new game with the economy overhaul, and xenon jobs (also VRO, not sure if that affects the Xenon balance).

Only 10hrs or so in, so potentially things have not kicked into action. But so far the Xenon are not bursting through.

Savage Spur > Getsu Fune: the Xenons are trying to get into Getsu Fune, but Antigone is holding up. ANT has 1 defense platform set up in Savage Spur, and they are trying to make a 2nd one.

Atiya's Misfortune > Frontier Edge; Xenon are quiet.

Tharka's Crusade > Hatikvah's Choice 1: gate is clear; haven't set up yet a satellite on the other side so I don't know whether the Xenon are getting pushed.

Matrix 451: Teladi are pushing in from Ianamus Zura, they have 1 defense platform, and they are halfway done with destroying the Xenon defense platform

Tharka's Fall - XEN are being quiet in their own sector, no one is pushing in or out.

Based on my experience and others, sometimes it does take a while for the XEN to push, i hit the 40 hour mark on my last game and suffered a crisis as Heretic's end let loose a flood of Xenon into the galaxy, I hadnt scouted the Split Sectors at the time but when I checked after the flood, half of it was all taken. It seems like MOST Xenon jobs end up spawning/building against the split, although my map mod with the added sectors does alleviate some of that issue with more destinations for the jobs to build into but its either an underlying issue in the code or a logic one where they see the split as weak therefore concentrate firepower exclusively there at the expense of their other sectors.

But either way, I do welcome the feedback.

Would you say that the Xenon become more dangerous if they lose a few sectors? Especially if they lose sectors without Shypyard/Wharf, because that concentrates their jobs in fewer sectors?

Originally posted by waffles_and_pancakes:

Would you say that the Xenon become more dangerous if they lose a few sectors? Especially if they lose sectors without Shypyard/Wharf, because that concentrates their jobs in fewer sectors?

Yes, many times I've seen Scaleplate Green fall and then another Xenon area becomes much more active, they definitely get stronger the more centralized they become since the jobs will be more compacted into a few sectors and they will rebuild wharfs/shipyards in their sectors to keep the number the same.

I've started a 7.00 (7.10 now) with your mod enabled. Didn't rush exploring the galaxy while playing some plots. Then I've started seeing massive xenon patrols in Hatikva and started countering them. But the flow was almost endless. When I've moved my attention toward the split sectors I've noticed there are no more "northern" split sector but Zyarth Dominon IV.
So I've disabled the mod and put some patches here and there for about 40 hours of gameplay.
Today, worried by xenon passive behaviour I've decided to enable it again..

After about 2 hours, this is the scenario I've witnessed: https://i.imgur.com/9hRzeIh.jpeg
Those cockroaces you see in the picture are 3 Is and 13 Ks went out from Litany of fury Gate alone with hundreds of fighters on their tail...

I've managed to kill the capitals with my modded Asgard and sent 3 more Asgards to in other places to stop the raids OOS, teleporting when capital ships come into play, I've lost a def platform in the process but stopped them for now. And I'm going to disable the mod for a while again :P

I think this is tuned a bit too high atm. While I enjoy such fights, having this mod enabled require a full time dedication to push them back, some people may like it, but I like doing many other things in this game so I'll keep on enable/disable the mod just to keep the xenons alive.

And yes, the vanilla xenons are hopeless, while the mod was disabled I could have wiped them out OOS while sitting in my HQ office.

Tested it for a long time now and god this is strong!
Even with mod buffing the rest of the ai with your other mods this is brutal, might even be a tad overtuned ? at least at first. This is great to feel under pressure though but I used it for 3 games going 30 to 100H and hatikvah always dies immediately, zya in the 20h after, terran and borons feel big pressure too.
I feel like your lite mod is perfect to make the xenon a credible threat or roadblock, and this one is making them what I feel they should be. Only "problem" is the AI does not follow, with hatikvah dying in the first 10 hours the highway becomes dangerous (and annoying) to use, argon is also then cut in half which cause other problems.
Not sure what I am trying to say but thats the feedback and experience I have with it.

I'm about to start my first long playthrough and i have decent mod list, nothing to fancy, things like DynAir wars jobs reshuffle and classic mode 3.0.

I want to combine Clear Universe (full xenon or default version where xenon will have to develop from own starting sector) mod by Rudi with this one or Lite version (leaning towards this one).

Can anyone advice what combination of those would be for first serious playthrough (I have done few short ones mainly focused on storylines and questing and some simple economy building, so it cannot be too challenging)

I want to buff Xenon because they been bit dumb and got push back very quick and early to their starting regions.

You can remove and readd this mod dont worry, I would start with the same authour lite version, and use this one if its still too tame for you.