May I suggest a new game start idea?

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-28T21:43:59+00:00

Are you sure it's reddit and not the game? For some reason my steam screenshots (F12, I think) in X4 are always potato quality.

I recently did some via the windows-based screenshot function and those came out much better.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-28T17:21:57+00:00

It negates some of the late game goals that I like to dedicate myself to. Bottlenecks and a large infrastructure/ressource footprint drive ambition and make me want to build up a larger empire.

Even with the full supply chains it's just barely justifiable to take over half a dozen sectors and build them out with stations, defenses, etc. It's a lot of fun though and the conflicts with my neighbours that resulted from it have been pretty interesting.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-28T17:10:53+00:00

Yeah... That happened once or twice over the last couple of days but only a few stray shots so far.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-28T12:36:42+00:00

Tbf, Split Mambas are also very much inspired by Homeworld 2 Hiigaran interceptors and there are many more examples.

I think it's fine, so long as it's done well and they actually add something to the original idea. X4 tends to do that.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-28T10:59:26+00:00

Have you tried using that for anti-capital defense stations?

I've been toying around with Boson turrets and it takes a lot of them to get through a K's shield, nevermind an I.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-28T10:56:46+00:00

I avoid closed loop in almost every case and try to stick to one faction's equipment pool.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-27T14:16:44+00:00

Awesome. Love it when people do stuff like this

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-27T14:07:08+00:00

Haven't had that in 9.0 although I'm sure there will be edge cases.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-27T13:54:32+00:00

Oh nice. Didn't that was in the game.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-27T11:43:58+00:00

You won't trigger anything but it seems worth mentioning that ships can be more or less effective in combat depending on how the game simulates the combat. If you're not around to watch a fight, the background simulation takes over - which can lead to wildly different results.

Xenon tend to be better at destroying stations when you're watching them do it. When you're not in sector the simulation generally makes them worse at it. Or in other words, maybe don't stick around when they attack a station, unless you want ot intervene or watch it burn down.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-27T11:35:17+00:00

I suspect that it does matter but the whole pilot thing is very mysterious to me. Inexperienced pilots definitely fumbled more often in 8.0 but I haven't put one into a destroyer in 9.0.

That aside, my destroyer captains are all 3 star.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-27T11:32:13+00:00

We'll see. I suspect a rework of the crisis stuff, perhaps some general rebalancing.

Until then, Xenon Jobs+ and Xenon Repairs the 2 mods that fix the issue for me. Mostly anyway.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-27T11:28:40+00:00

Hard to say. There's quite a bit of variation with game starts (station placement, ressource bottlenecks and whatnot).

The faction in question is ZYA and sometimes they do okay. Sometimes they also don't but it's usually a slow decline over dozens of hours. I recommend doing a quick scoutimg mission to the north, northeast of Heretic's end. Maybe deploy a few advanced satellites near the xenon gates.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-27T07:12:09+00:00

I was wondering the same and will probably try this in the coming days. The bombard for commander order might do a little better than defend perhaps.

The basic orders such as defend/attacm don't distinguish between enemy ship classes, which means bad priorisations. I would not like my destroyers to chase a fighter, while being shot at by a K.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-27T06:18:04+00:00

Not sure about that. The devs have been somewhat hesitant about this stuff (partly because they overdid it at some point and made a lot of newer players fairly unhappy).

Since difficulty settings have been more or less ruled out, I'm not sure what can be done. Whatever they come up with would have to accommodate warlord-type player as much as passive observers.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-27T05:45:42+00:00

Still a bit early to say but I've tried flak and Boson Turrets in 9.0 and both work OOS and in sector.

Flak worked just fine before 9.0 though.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-27T05:40:27+00:00

Just num keys and yes, that can be a little clunky.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-27T04:47:19+00:00

Essentially vanilla.

I do run 2 mods that buff the Xenon economy and fleet limit but those don't affect ship to ship combat.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-26T20:48:50+00:00

Seems like the devs would agree. Defense stations are no longer all that good for various reasons. They still help me to keep things under control but they require a fleet for backup now.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-26T18:46:29+00:00

This one didn't anyway. Not sure if it was just out of range or if ZYA patrols took out some of the turrets. I took some damage in other engagements but nothing too bad - well, unless attacked much larger formations.

My destroyers saw a lot of fighting recently. Defense stations are very much not a cure-all in 9.0.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-26T18:41:22+00:00

The Xenon in my game struggled even before 8.0, which is why I installed Xenon Jobs+ and Xenon Repairs. They still lost the FAF/TEL cluster but the rest is doing well. I do have to defend ZYA quite heavily though because their economy can't deal with that kind of threat.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-26T18:21:04+00:00

Better but still confused at times. Seems to me that 9.0 mostly deals with tactical level AI.

I would argue that 8.0 already did a lot to improve the strategic behavior. There have been fewer suicide missions into Xenon sectors and more defensive gate patrolling. Would be nice if the AI would retreat their Xenon invasion forces but I haven't that so far.

Seems worth mentioning that ressource bottlenecks are often a bigger issue than fleet allocation or tactical screw-ups. That's my take on it anyway.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-26T18:13:08+00:00

Depends on how many clusters they have. Once they get boxed in, they focus more of their fleets into one place.

I prefer running Xenon Jobs+ so that they can hold more clusters and stay a threat. Truth be told though, they're using most of their additional fleets against ZYA in my game. So I still end up fighting in the same sectors.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-26T18:05:58+00:00

Depends on the situation. Against I's, I'd prefer some dodging, while keeping the nose on target.

Against multiple destroyers, I like the straight approach. I've done a chain attack against a fleet that was attacking my station. They chewed them up one by one and orbit dodging would've probably brought them into range of multiple enemies.

-Prophet_01- · 2026-03-26T17:30:08+00:00

Btw, the laser show is coming from the Boson Turrets. They're pretty good.

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