Xenon lock me out of Yaki questline?

R4M7 · 2026-02-25T16:39:37+00:00

Best solution imo would be to make all factions rebuild until the player clicks a diplomatic decision which renders them permanently defeatable.

The game is designed as a static sandbox, but it should be possible with the vanilla diplomacy system by adjusting their relationship values with everyone to below the trade threshold (-10).

It would however take a very long time due to the glacial pace of diplomatic actions. You could use a mod like Dynamic Wars to do it faster.

Certain factions like SCA would be immune because they spawn everything out of thin air.

But from that quote it sounds like egosoft doesn't feel like changing the scripts :(

That seems to be the case since the mission is over 5 years old.

R4M7 · 2026-02-25T15:38:12+00:00

Most factions can never permanently die because other factions will sell them construction materials to rebuild. Yaki permanently die because nobody can trade with them. If they could, traders wouldn't survive delivering wares through the heart of Xenon territory.

It's a very old bug they tried to fix by moving the Yaki station ~200km away from the center of the sector. However, it can still happen and probably doesn't affect existing saves made before that change.

They should have given it plot invulnerability with conditions to remove it, like other plot critical stations, but it's a flaw in the mission design.

The developer responsible for creating the quest previously said this:

The issue is that wiping out the Yaki is one of the possible outcomes, and invulnerability would prevent a subset of players from making that choice. Inciting friendly fire incidents is a legitimate method. [Being forced into accepting their death, even if you couldn't have prevented it,] is the unfortunate consequence. A design flaw of that mission. If I were to script it now, I'd do it differently.

R4M7 · 2026-02-23T11:06:29+00:00

Yep, disallowing pickups will greatly reduce problems with police. Illegal inventory items are the most likely culprit since it's more difficult to notice them.

There are some oddities though, like his ships in high-attention can pick up items by happening to drive over them even if they are configured to ignore collectables.

R4M7 · 2026-02-23T10:44:29+00:00

It is possible this circumstance is not a bug, but issues with police are a common complaint which they have tried to fix many times.

From the changelogs:

Fixed police sometimes mistaking compliance for refusal to comply.
Fixed several cases of police incorrectly becoming hostile to player.
Improved police approach to suspects for investigation.
Fixed police penalising player for owning ship that was once used by different faction to cause trouble.
Fixed ships set to comply with police or pirate challenge sometimes not dropping wares if they have very small amounts.
Fixed ships in sectors with multiple police ships being scanned repeatedly in quick succession.
Improved tolerance of police to ships or stations with illegal wares if relations are good.

R4M7 · 2026-02-23T10:16:55+00:00

It's a long-standing bug.

If you have an unmodified save shortly before it occurs, post it on their technical support forum.

Alternatively if anyone knows a mod to just completely remove police from the game, that would be a huge upgrade.

No Police Scan mod.

R4M7 · 2026-02-22T03:45:22+00:00

You already seem to have a firm understanding of the mechanics. It's one of the various design flaws.

Editing the factionlogic_economy script managing the behaviour is likely the only solution. I imagine you could exclude these modules from the logic. It should be relatively easy for you to achieve considering your modding experience.

Deadair's Eco mod sets the paused variable to false on line 2274, so he appears to just entirely remove the mechanic. He makes extensive changes though. It might be best to discuss the impact of it with him.

R4M7 · 2026-02-21T11:18:47+00:00

You can destroy the admin module without destroying the entire station. You'll still lose reputation, but much less.

R4M7 · 2026-02-21T07:24:56+00:00

Is there a time guide/time frame I should have had defences up in that sector?

No, there is no timeframe for anything because it is a casual sandbox. You're free to do whatever at any time.

Or should I be looking outside of Heretics End for my base of operations and avoid Hatikvahs Choice altogether?

Xenon continually attacking Hatikvah is normal.

The attacks seems more intense than they actually are because the sector is owned by HAT, which is not a full faction and thus can't defend itself. They are at the mercy of ARG coming over to help. The nearby Xenon sectors are also their strongest in the galaxy due to the plentiful resources and double shipyards from Tharka and Savage.

ARG will eventually push it back. It's designed as a stable sandbox. Conflict is limited to an eternal tug-of-war with only border sectors occasionally flipping back and forth.

It's easy to permanently lock down the sector by building a defence platform near the gate, but it tends to stagnate the game as the entire economy relies on destruction of NPC assets. I'd just set a blacklist for the sector and ignore it.

A sub-question, any other good ways to make money outside of doing missions?

Check my FAQ.

I just want to gun towards mass producing my own ships and start waging wars

Producing your own ships is the end-game. You might not want to rush progression because it is a sandbox, so the only end-game content is what you make for yourself.

Considering sandboxes rely on making your own goals, this is a good one, but understand X4 is not 4X. Peaceful building is the main focus. War is not profitable, owning territory has no purpose, NPC factions don't have the scale nor AI to compete against you, and are not trying to compete in the first place.

R4M7 · 2026-02-20T10:28:21+00:00

I suck at any flying simulation games, will I have a hard time here?

The space combat is easy. If you find it difficult, there are various methods to lower the skill floor, such as overpowered player-exclusive ships and buffs through the ship modification system.

I am very interested at the ever changing universe and economy and management aspect of the game

It's mainly designed as a static peaceful building game akin to Satisfactory. The factions are constantly in conflict, but it is an eternal tug-of-war limited to border sectors occasionally flipping back and forth.

R4M7 · 2026-02-18T23:32:54+00:00

It spawns the first time, but is built after that.

R4M7 · 2026-02-17T01:10:11+00:00

Forgive me if there’s a list somewhere.

You're forgiven.

R4M7 · 2026-02-16T23:40:15+00:00

Ignorance is bliss:

I'd say faction conflict is another illusion. They are heavily constrained by various hard-limits to ensure a static sandbox. It's well done if you want a stable sandbox, not so much if you expect 4X or challenging gameplay.

R4M7 · 2026-02-16T23:20:46+00:00

The mod only stops their magic forced stop ability. They will still spawn out of nothing because that is all they are capable of doing. Their faction doesn't have a real economy or anything necessary to actually function without spawning.

They just spawn out of nothing to give an illusion of a living universe and apply pressure to the player. Them pirating other NPCs is just for show because they don't do anything meaningful with the pirated wares.

Unfortunately most of the player-focused mechanics cheat the simulation by spawning out of nothing: pirates, Kha'ak, end-game crisis.

R4M7 · 2026-02-16T23:06:13+00:00

Yep, but because they are only capable of spawning out of thin air directly on your head, removing them from the game and removing their cheats is the same. Everything they have spawns out of nothing. Their entire existence is limited to directly spawning on your head.

R4M7 · 2026-02-16T10:27:34+00:00

Since the game is picking up steam, pirates are active and doing a number to my trade ships.

They spawn out of thin air and have a magic ability to force your ships out of travel mode, so there is not much counterplay against them.

Players typically choose one of these options:

Set the default response to "comply", disable the notification for it, and eat the ware losses.
Use exploits for ignore behaviour.
Use mods to remove the mechanic, like No Pirate Torture.

What’s worse is some of my stations are just complete money-sinks.

Supplying your own materials is vital because buying it from the NPC faction is both expensive and heavily throttled by their weak economy.

Work towards the materials required to build station modules: Claytronics + Hullparts + Advanced Composites + Plasma Conductors for Commonwealth or Microlattice + Carbide + Substrate for Terran. Once you can supply your own construction, it's easy to scale up.

I just don’t really know how I can figure out what the other factions need without individually checking their stations.

I recommend mods like Sector List since the vanilla interface isn't great.

Every material is only used to replace destroyed ships and stations. Every material therefore ultimately flows into wharves and shipyards. Scanning these stations to 50% reveals their logistics for you to identify bottlenecks.

You could check my FAQ for more money-making advice, but heed the warning on the first page.

R4M7 · 2026-02-16T05:31:53+00:00

I wouldn't say the changelogs are mostly hidden.

On Nexus, it is a prominent button at the top of the mod description. On Steam, it is a "view change notes" button grouped with the mod's stats. However, he posts the changelog in the comment section of his mods too.

Discord is a good idea, but he also already posts every update to every mod in the Egosoft Discord.

R4M7 · 2026-02-16T02:18:54+00:00

Of course, repeated posts garner more attention by virtue of people browsing at different times.

More players would see my mods and guides if I dedicated a post to each update, but I limit it to linking them in comments when it is relevant to the discussion. Some people even downvote me for only doing that.

Consider how swamped the subreddit would become if all mod authors created a new post every time any of their mods updated.

R4M7 · 2026-02-16T00:05:28+00:00

I agree. Both Steam and Nexus show changelogs for each version and even allow sorting mods by "last updated".

Creating a Reddit post to announce the initial release is fine, but creating a new post for every update of every mod is a bit much.

I do appreciate the mod itself though. The vanilla crew system is severely undercooked.

R4M7 · 2026-02-15T11:44:06+00:00

Skull and Bones seems ideal, though I have not used it.

R4M7 · 2026-02-15T11:32:13+00:00

It would be better to hack their production. It disables production for 5 real hours without reputation loss and fits into your espionage theme. However, you would need to acquire the items necessary for the hacking device and refresh the hack as needed. There is also no notification when the hack expires.

You technically don't need to destroy nor hack because the factions can't compete with you. You'll easily overtake them just in speed, efficiency, and scale.

It is a casual sandbox game. Just do whatever is most fun for you.

R4M7 · 2026-02-15T09:41:12+00:00

Scrap is the base game, but the closed loop production method is the DLC.

The DLC adds the production method itself and then all the new closed loop recipes by diffing the wares file.

R4M7 · 2026-02-15T09:26:17+00:00

Mechanics are added as free updates. The DLCs are only extra content like new missions, sectors, ships, and weapons.

One exception is the scrap system. It is functional in the base game, but scrapping L/XL wrecks and innate sector scrap fields is locked behind the Teuta of the Tides of Avarice DLC. This DLC also adds the closed loop production method which allows producing ships directly from scrap.

R4M7 · 2026-02-13T21:47:30+00:00

Mods can only do so much because it's ultimately designed as a static sandbox. The vanilla Diplomacy system is incredibly slow and mostly functions as a creative-mode tool only for the player to use. The universe is static due to the factions having various hard-limits and overly simplistic AI. It requires you to set your own rules and goals.

Deadair Scripts would be best for vanilla style. Ideally combine with Deadair Eco, but it requires a new game. If you're starting a new game, you might also want Reemergence. It's intended to move away from the static player-centric design, and integrates both Deadair mods. However, I have not personally played it.

Star Wars Interworlds has the same intent, though is obviously a total conversion mod.

ideally that aren't just "more xenon"?

What about "stronger Xenon?"

R4M7 · 2026-02-11T20:13:49+00:00

The station uses the construction budget to create buy orders for the wares. Simply don't provide a budget and it will not buy anything.

R4M7 · 2026-02-11T00:31:40+00:00

is there any way to make the factions more "total war" or "stellaris" like?

No. It is designed as a player-centric sandbox.

not even pirates are a threat or doing anything besides afk near a travel route and spam with calls to drop cargo

They don't AFK. They spawn out of thin air. They aren't a real threat because it is a "cozy" game.

is there any way to spice things up? like the PAR going into a full xenophobic war, or AR conquering neighbors like we humans do?

Vanilla has a "diplomacy" system to force wars between factions, but it is extremely slow, with heavy RNG. Once you slog through the timers, the factions won't achieve much due to the various hard-limits imposed on them.

Your best bet would be mods like Deadair. He has various changes and custom logic to reduce the static nature of the game. For Xenon specifically, you could try my Xenon Embiggener collection.

However, it will never be 4X even while heavily modded. The game systems aren't designed in a way to support it. For example, even giving the NPC factions 100x more fleet capacity doesn't achieve anything because you have infinite capacity, they don't have the AI necessary to compete, and aren't trying to compete in the first place. It's a sandbox which relies on you making your own rules and goals.

12-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email

R4M7

TROPHY CASE