[FEEDBACK] Existential Crisis

[JMCorp]

maybe this should be a separate bug report thread instead of in this feedback post.

i just started the crisis last night and every single "attack" has been only xenon ships. i haven't seen a single ka'ak ship in any of them. this was a game i started from scratch during beta 3 to test out progressing up to the crisis from a fresh start.

https://1drv.ms/f/s!ArT62MwDSFt5hbwKjIs ... g?e=jm7YNO

so far it's been a dud for me

[JMCorp]

https://youtu.be/DYmWsntAS6U

here's a video of the mission only having xenon in it.

[adeine]

PS: POOR NON DLC (Asgard/Erlking) OWNERS I dont know if i would play it without named ships

Been tackling the crisis event with mainly Raptors & they've been a good choice too. I do agree that people without DLC's (or only Boron DLC added?) are screwed, vanilla ships pack too little firepower & the few times I used the Raptors as carriers, the fighters get burned hard so carrier isn't really an option for the Crisis (except to take out the Xenon capitals).
Erlking is indeed a near must-have for the crisis I feel, its speed means it can intervene in almost every crisis if you assign a high skilled pilot to it & let them fly to the attacked sectors.

A few people have said this, but at least in my experience this is just not true. As flywlyx suggested, they are easily overwhelmed with M ships and/or can be easily taken out in any single destroyer.

[SpaceCadet11864]

https://youtu.be/DYmWsntAS6U

here's a video of the mission only having xenon in it.

Same is true for me, I think it's intentional, because you don't get the kha'ak until you get close to the destroyers before they attack (they wont even fire at you when they first show up), then Bosa says he sees a kha'ak ship there. After that point, they'll have kha'ak with them. I'm not sure if it's a bug I guess, as I thought it was confusing, but you have to progress the story by physically being there, up close to the ships when they arrive.

[RubyRezal]

The Win/Loss condition for the Xenon incursions is unclear. I'm winning before all of the enemies are taken care of and losing before my fleet even encounters them. The guidance to the incursion location is way off, unless I have full satellite coverage in every sector I have no idea where the enemies are.

New incursions appear before the previous one is cleaned up, this is frustrating.

How many waves are there?

There was an option to pay credits to delay or prevent attacks, is there any way to get this option back after the attacks have started? It's really getting in the way of doing story missions.

Guess I wasn't as prepared for the incursions as I thought I would be. My fleets are slow and putting out fires everywhere is slow and tedious. I really want to go back to before the incursions started and learn how to better prepare.

[Gallakai]

OOS combat is horrible, I watched 3 of my 2 star terran takoba's tango with khaak queens guard for 5 minutes, after I teleport into one of them and the IS simulation starts they destroy the thing 100-0% within 15 10 seconds.

[dcarver]

Code: Select all

     Mission Failed
        Xenon Crisis: *
     > Await:                   Intel update

It is unclear how to pass and fail and is becoming frustrating. I believe I've failed 9 of 10 so far.

I travel to a sector, sit around and then I get a failure. (never see red dots)
My fleet destroys the enemies, sector defended, I get a failure. (Do I have to shoot?)

Location issue:
This is a Defense mission; I expect enemies or area highlighted. How about the scouts fly towards a base so we now about where they are at.

[dcarver]

I wanted to add I am liking the chaos this causes.

I seem to be taking a different approach and using a lot of S/M fighters. Easy to move around map, expect losses. And the views of the fights are amazing, and smooth!! This game is sooo beautiful, thank you!

[JMCorp]

https://youtu.be/DYmWsntAS6U

here's a video of the mission only having xenon in it.

Same is true for me, I think it's intentional, because you don't get the kha'ak until you get close to the destroyers before they attack (they wont even fire at you when they first show up), then Bosa says he sees a kha'ak ship there. After that point, they'll have kha'ak with them. I'm not sure if it's a bug I guess, as I thought it was confusing, but you have to progress the story by physically being there, up close to the ships when they arrive.

did you make your save game during the beta? i loaded a save from 2020 and progressed the story, the very first encounter had xenon and kha'ak. the save the video is from was made during 7.0 Beta3. i'm curious if that has something to do with it or if it's just blind chance. obviously it's REALLY hard to get to that point from zero resources. i opted out of the beta and started a new game in 6.0 and then opted back into the beta to test the version theory but i haven't built up the required infrastructure for this test yet.

[SpaceCadet11864]

did you make your save game during the beta? i loaded a save from 2020 and progressed the story, the very first encounter had xenon and kha'ak. the save the video is from was made during 7.0 Beta3. i'm curious if that has something to do with it or if it's just blind chance. obviously it's REALLY hard to get to that point from zero resources. i opted out of the beta and started a new game in 6.0 and then opted back into the beta to test the version theory but i haven't built up the required infrastructure for this test yet.

I started with zero resources, doing the Young Gun start on Beta 3. I actually posted in this thread about it, but here's a shorter version

What I personally experienced was

How I understand this is:

1. Player reaches military asset threshold
2. Kha'ak and xenon attack random sector - first encounter, which is not skippable (at least it wasn't when I started) you won't run into the kha'ak until after you fly close to the destroyers before they attack, one plops out a forager and then boso ta says something.
3. After things cool off, Boso Ta says he needs to talk to you, timer starts 60 minutes
4. Then you're given the three options: defer, pay off the crisis, or fight head on
4a. If you defer, you get 20 hours before paying to defer again
5. If you fight head on, a random sector will be selected, boso ta will tell you to investigate them before they attack. 3 K's and 1 I, along with fighter wings will deploy from a random corner on the selected sector.
6. If you fail to find the kha'ak forager that the destroyer plops out, then the xenon attack group will go after a nearby station or gate. sometimes they will just derp there for a while.
7. Once you find the kha'ak forager, boso ta will say something about it, and then kha'ak will start spawning.
8. each subsequent event will be harder then the previous, with more ravagers spawning, and some will spawn on top of your stations.
9. the last one you'll face a lot of ravagers, but not all at once. they'll keep spawning in after you kill one.
10. lastly, you'll be given a location of the CPU ship, once you defeat it - the crisis will be over.. for a time.

[SpaceCadet11864]

2. Kha'ak and xenon attack random sector - first encounter, which is not skippable (at least it wasn't when I started) you won't run into the kha'ak until after you fly close to the destroyers before they attack, one plops out a forager and then boso ta says something.
5. If you fight head on, a random sector will be selected, boso ta will tell you to investigate them before they attack. 3 K's and 1 I, along with fighter wings will deploy from a random corner on the selected sector.
6. If you fail to find the kha'ak forager that the destroyer plops out, then the xenon attack group will go after a nearby station or gate. sometimes they will just derp there for a while.
7. Once you find the kha'ak forager, boso ta will say something about it, and then kha'ak will start spawning.

Sorry all, I can't edit and I just realized I made some mistakes so wanted to clarify:

at point #2, the xenon plopping out a forager thing doesnt apply. That only applies to the subsequent battles. The first one which was before I even talked to boso ta, was just a ravager with a bunch of kha'ak, and I think at least one I and 2 K's, but I did not realize it was happening until some time. So I'm fuzzy here.

As for points #5-7, the key point I forgot to state here is, if you fail at finding the forager, go to step #5 - the crisis does not seem to progress. Maybe there's a limit, but I'd venture to guess it's an infinite loop at least right now. You won't progress the crisis to the "next level" until you find the forager. To do that, you have to physically be quite close to the xenon fleet, before it attacks. You cannot do this OOS.

ONCE you find the forager and Boso Ta says something about the kha'ak, you progress to the next level of the crisis - from that point on, I can personally confirm, you dont need to even attend the rest of the battles, and each event will occur at a random sector with ravagers and the xenon. I ignored at least 2 of the battles and still got to CPU ship.

[pittlebelge]

Ok, so I just faced my first wave of the crisis and I just had to chat with Boso Ta about delaying the next wave. I'll mostly focus my feedback on the narrative aspect of the crisis.

1. I liked that the first wave was unannounced, it made reacting to it feel like a bit of high tempo gameplay witch is rare at this stage of the game. The first wave went after a sector with a lot of miners in activity, but no stations of mine (one of the Saturn sectors) and I was in Windfall at that moment. I didn't really have any personal ships in the vicinity, but I just had build a brand new fleet of carriers near Segaris, so I sent those.

2. I handled the fight OOS through the map and I got the dialog bits only after I had left the map and the fight was over. The dialog wasn't quite fitting as a result and I think I might have missed or inadvertently skipped a few bits as I fiddled with my fleet. I think it would be best if either the dialog was played continuously, no matter what menu is on or if SETA is active, or and this might be difficult, have a little cutscene with Boso Ta's dialog playing and the Xenon and Khaa'k jumping in system.

3. I'm not quite happy with the payment to delay or cancel the crisis. On one hand, I like that there is the option to do so, but it makes no sense to me as to why Boso Ta is able to do it. I'd rather have a new antagonist with mysterious power over the Xenon hack the comms and blackmail me or something like that.

4. As it is now, it seems like a fine challenge, but I'd love to have something of a narrative climax for this chapter of the X series (if that existential crisis is meant to be that point in the narrative), something big that justifies why these attack happen. This is very much personal preference, but I'd also like to have some sort of mini plot to find a weakness to the CPU ship, something to do in the middle of the crisis to prepare for victory besides just amassing a lot of ships.

I'll post another feedback when I've dealt with it all.

[Starlight_Corporation]

Crisis waves feel more spread out now, which is good & makes it more enjoyable. Able to do them all IS & get a breather in between to sort out possible losses & manage the economy side of the game.

Been unable to spawn the Khaak so far. Might be because I tend to fight them in capital ships, don't like getting within graviton range of the big Xenon ships. I do enjoy them warping in from somewhere, makes it feel like an attack from deep space.
Gonna see if I can get the Khaak to spawn by getting closer, being there early doesn't seem to be the sole trigger.

Focusing of the crisis event is also good I feel. They do target sectors where you got alot of assets, but don't focus on it in the crisis sector (you still can get targeted ofc, but it isn't the sole focus anymore).

Update:

Been at the crisis for a while, did my best to trigger the Khaak & have on two occasions managed to see & target the Khaak Forager that accompanies the Xenon (Boso-Ta mentions the Khaak doesn't seem to be happy to be there). Still no Ravagers in sight. Maybe needs more sightings? Or maybe need to get closer? Scan it? -> Just spot it a few times seems enough, as per update2 below.
It is important to arrive asap, so fast ship needed to intercept the Xenon fleet & spot the Khaak forager with it, Khaak Forager jumps out after a time.

Crisis is good in that it gives you a reason to have a large & spread out military to combat the Xenon that arrive with the Crisis.

Update 2

Shortly after I posted above, I got Khaak Ravagers in the crisis. Seems you have to spot that Khaak Forager a few times to make it trigger. Ravager adds some extra challenge to the combat; staying at range means the Ravager gets to use its beam on you, hurts badly (good thing! adds risk). Multiple Khaak groups jump in, sometimes with Ravagers, but seems less waves, so doesn't get tiring now.
If you powered the NPC economy, it will help greatly in this phase, as their patrols help in killing the various Khaak swarms.

Feels the Crisis is in a good shape now, still feels like a Crisis with the Xenon fleet jumping in (seeing them arrive looks good). Targets sectors you got assets in without explicitly targeting your assets in sector, good for folks who build tall or restrict themselves to one race, so they don't have to miss out or place warships everywhere.
Attacks happen regular, with an overlap sometimes, but you often get a (small) break between attacks so you can sort out you (possible) losses or, adjust tactics/military coverage to prepare for the next strike.
Focused on doing the Crisis in sector & went good, even with involving other ships. Mainly used Rattlesnake, Raptor & Erlking to fight the crisis & went well.

[sd_jasper]

I'm not sure how the crisis is suppose to work and progress, or if my game is bugged. Here are a few poitns:

1. The option to op-out isn't quite clear. Boso's dialog didn't seem like I was going to just end the quest.
2. Every crisis event/attack after the first has been Xenon only (no Kha'ak ships that I've seen). Yet after every event Boso mentions the Kha'ak so this seems like a bug.
3. Before each event the dialog says to try and observe how the events starts. But how is this done? I teleport to the sector right away, but nothing changes. Am I suppose to find where the xenon ships are going to come form? That seems nearly impossible. The sectors are big and unless I just happen to point my ship in the exact direction they will spawn, it seems unlikely I'll discover anything. Does this mean something else?
4. Am I progressing at all. The same message appears before and after each attack... so it just seems like I'm spinning in place making no progress.
5. Who Ravages the Ravagers? This achievement is bugged. I destroyed the ravager during the first event and it didn't pop. I've actually done this twice (reloaded my save the first time and retriggered).

[Halpog]

just to get it right....because i have trouble to rigger it this time after all

at some point after kiling here and there some xenon ships , boso ta plopps up with a new research of a xenon crystall or something correct ?

after that i can outft and build xenon ships ?

and than after at some point again i get what ?

is this triggering of this crisis, relatet to anything else as "money vs millitary assets " ? like any plot that needs to be finished before it can trigger after all ?

[xant]

just to get it right....because i have trouble to rigger it this time after all

at some point after kiling here and there some xenon ships , boso ta plopps up with a new research of a xenon crystall or something correct ?

after that i can outft and build xenon ships ?

and than after at some point again i get what ?

is this triggering of this crisis, relatet to anything else as "money vs millitary assets " ? like any plot that needs to be finished before it can trigger after all ?

No, those are two different things. What you describe is getting Xenon technology. You need to capture the big Xenon H for Xenon components to appear in your research.

The crisis is when your combined military assets reach around 500M in value. Then a dozen or so waves of Xenon and Kha'ak ships will spawn on your stuff and try to destroy it every 30 minutes or so.

[Aeonova]

Hi Team -

I love the add but I think I'm bumping into a bug or loop.
I've got 1.5+ billion but when I try to pay Boso to stop or postpone nothing is deducted and nothing happens.
I tried putting the $ into the HQ account and same thing.
The incursions happen every X minutes and I've been able to stop them by force... but we're on wave 10+ of I+Kx3 with no change?
After the 1st one I'm only seeing XEN I\K groups and no more Ravagers.
Boso says get there ASAP to see something?

Am I doing something wrong or is there a glitch?

[Pesanur]

just to get it right....because i have trouble to rigger it this time after all

at some point after kiling here and there some xenon ships , boso ta plopps up with a new research of a xenon crystall or something correct ?

after that i can outft and build xenon ships ?

and than after at some point again i get what ?

is this triggering of this crisis, relatet to anything else as "money vs millitary assets " ? like any plot that needs to be finished before it can trigger after all ?

As you has been already pointed, this research is to unlock xenon shields, weapons and engines at you shipyards, wharfs and equipment docks, so you can equip the captured xenon ships.
But interestingly, in the encyclopedia, in the obtainable blueprints entry, appear all of the flyable xenon ships, this is, the B, the F, the H, the PE and the SE. For example, other ships like the Astrid, the Hydra Regal and the Raven, don't appear in this list, so I suppose, that at some point, the player can get the xenon flyable ships blueprints.

[Magister92]

I've tried out the crisis feature and it's really badly implemented in my opinion, I'm cool with RNG attacks and Xenon spawning out of thin air disregarding all the game logic but what irked me the most was getting "failure" notifications spammed at me every time I mopped the floor with the invaders on top of Boso Ta repeating the same voice lines over and over and over... Please, make it clear what it must be done or at least give the player an actual timer to prepare countermeasures/mapping the area before boso ta inevitably has a "bad feeling" for the 12th time in a row.

There is also no way to "find" where the enemy fleet spawn in the huge sector, unless you toss adv.satellites in the entire universe impacting negatively game performance I'm forced to wait until they start damaging something and then order my slow fleet to intercept which takes time, especially if I need to face a 3K+I every wave. I've read on other comments that you were supposed to find at least a ravager/forager during waves, I never saw a trace of kha'ak anywhere near the big XEN fleets or around the sector either.

[JMCorp]

2. Kha'ak and xenon attack random sector - first encounter, which is not skippable (at least it wasn't when I started) you won't run into the kha'ak until after you fly close to the destroyers before they attack, one plops out a forager and then boso ta says something.
5. If you fight head on, a random sector will be selected, boso ta will tell you to investigate them before they attack. 3 K's and 1 I, along with fighter wings will deploy from a random corner on the selected sector.
6. If you fail to find the kha'ak forager that the destroyer plops out, then the xenon attack group will go after a nearby station or gate. sometimes they will just derp there for a while.
7. Once you find the kha'ak forager, boso ta will say something about it, and then kha'ak will start spawning.

Sorry all, I can't edit and I just realized I made some mistakes so wanted to clarify:

at point #2, the xenon plopping out a forager thing doesnt apply. That only applies to the subsequent battles. The first one which was before I even talked to boso ta, was just a ravager with a bunch of kha'ak, and I think at least one I and 2 K's, but I did not realize it was happening until some time. So I'm fuzzy here.

As for points #5-7, the key point I forgot to state here is, if you fail at finding the forager, go to step #5 - the crisis does not seem to progress. Maybe there's a limit, but I'd venture to guess it's an infinite loop at least right now. You won't progress the crisis to the "next level" until you find the forager. To do that, you have to physically be quite close to the xenon fleet, before it attacks. You cannot do this OOS.

ONCE you find the forager and Boso Ta says something about the kha'ak, you progress to the next level of the crisis - from that point on, I can personally confirm, you dont need to even attend the rest of the battles, and each event will occur at a random sector with ravagers and the xenon. I ignored at least 2 of the battles and still got to CPU ship.

i did intercept the one of the xenon fleets. i got the voice lines about the khaak ship they had captured. and even in that one, the kha'ak ship that is being talked about never popped. it was only xenon. i went and reloaded an old save from 2020 that was pretty close to triggering it and ran through the process which worked fine. the same exact thing i did on the other save. so the xenon only thing appears to be a bug.