Tutorial : Defence platforms, designs and weapons : X4 Foundations

A good solid fast to build defence tower using a closed loop system to simplify and speed up creation. I struggled to find any good information on building a defence tower when I went looking, it turns out all you need is about 5 discs of plasma/flak and you can stop effectively infinite waves.
Included DLC
Split Vendetta
Cradle of Humanity
Tides of Avarice
Kingdoms end
Credits Song
Rise of the protectorate by Alexei Zakharov
Save file :
/ francisjohn
Discord server : / discord
X4: Foundations is a huge space sandbox simulator that lives and breathes within your gaming system. Thousands of ships and stations trade, mine and produce, all realistically simulated. In this universe, you can grow from being the lone pilot of a fighter ship, to managing a vast empire, commanding your fleets and designing colossal space stations. Transition seamlessly from first-person action, boarding ships and visiting their bridges, to an expansive strategy and management simulation. Choose your own path at your own pace. The decisions are yours. Trade - Fight - Build - Think.

[@masterofthedeathwing2839]

you should put a couple of large beams on there. just like 2. they are hitscan, sometimes their miners come through in travel mode, and blast past before your station can react, a beam will tap them and drop them out of travel mode, prevent them going back to travel mode.

[@clonorchis00]

FYI, the defense disks do not have to be connected to anything else. You can rotate and place them wherever you want in the build space. It can solve some of the field of fire issues.

[@salemprompthous3820]

This also applies to anything else on a station. Want a free-flow station producing "Everything", it can be done.

[@stopbegging4likes]

Why aren't mine shooting any thing that comes through?

[@salemprompthous3820]

@@stopbegging4likes only reason I can think of is the turrets themselves haven't been built...? Can be checked through looking at the construction and see whether or not all resources have been delivered, and that the construction ship is still on-site (sometimes they can get targetted by attackers and they'll either flee or get destroyed)

[@stopbegging4likes]

@@salemprompthous3820 I don't understand why it takes so long, i nearly wiped out the xenon and the stupid builder still hasn't finished my simple defense platform, it's been 2 weeks and is only a dock and 4 disk, smmfh

[@remuluson2904]

@@stopbegging4likes maybe there are no components in the local area to feed the turrets?

[@MrFevill]

3:36 The split platform can be rotated vertically. And then all the turrets will be directed to the right place.

[@b0inGy]

Hold down shift while you rotate to lock to 90 degree angles.

[@michaelwade9073]

for your collection ships you can also tell them to deposit inventory, it will make them take their inventory to your headquarters and you can pick up everything all at once. also you can sit in your chair in your personal office while using seta.

[@salemprompthous3820]

When building the very first defense defense disc/bridge, configured loadout. Copy module then also copies the loadout. Not really a big change, but a helpful tip, I hope. And, thanks for the closed loop stuff, @Francis, was wondering why my "build this station" missions sometimes got messed up. Completely missed the "Only applies for Argon modules" part of it 🤣

[@salemprompthous3820]

Also, a bit curious: which ship is @FJ flying during the building process? (Looks like a Split design..??) 6 forward-facing weapons, I wanna try that one 😅 Been loving the Nemesis Sentinel so far; 5 forward-facing, 2 medium turrets and a boot full of laser towers, annihilates most of what I aim at, and anything that tries to come up my tail gets a laser-beam (or ten) to the face by way of the towers, and flak turrets if they're not otherwise occupied. Usually start out with a quick 5x beam or bolt setup, then work my way (in terms of both rep and cash) to 1 Ion + 4 plasma to hunt L-size for hijack-runs. Other builds/tips are highly appreciated, as I'm still fairly new to the game ❤

[@AnzusWarGames]

@@salemprompthous3820 Pretty sure it's the Split Dragon. It's an awesome ship, tons of guns and FAST! I need to buy more of them xD

[@salemprompthous3820]

@@AnzusWarGames it is the Dragon, yeah. Thanks. Managed to get one by asking a pilot to surrender, while they were fighting someone else. Completely banged up ship, so was unsure at first. After a major overhaul, repair and upgrade, it left my Nemesis in the (space)dust 😍

[@AnzusWarGames]

@@salemprompthous3820 That's awesome! haha nice find man!

[@ZlothZloth]

Telladi defense turrets have a LOT of L turrets on the bottom half. The shields for them are on the other half. If you know which way the enemy is going to come from, you can twist the module so all those L turrets are pointed toward the baddies. Fighters that come in and try to destroy the L turrets will have to fly to the other side to get at the shields. The Boron modules are also nice for anti-fighter work. Hello large flak turret!

[@edwardwinkelman7988]

Been experimenting with a few different designs beyond the basic Plasma/Flak design. Aside from causing friendly fire issues, flak is just too low range to really stop ships from just flying by your defense platform. First I tried Large Beams (for handling fighters) with dumbfire turrets for shooting Heavy missiles at destroyers. Works a treat in high attention, gets wrecked in low attention. Next it was back to plasma for the large turrets with guided missiles for the medium turrets combined with interceptor missiles. Using the same closed loop building style an interceptor missile costs just 10 energy cells. Slap 4 solar panels and a medium container on the base and it's basically set for missiles for life. It only really struggles to kill some Ps, but otherwise virtually nothing gets by this.

[@shanecameron1546]

How do you make the closed-loop station use the closed-loop ver of the missiles? I have build the station closed loop with all argon parts but once I select a missile it puts an automatic buy offer for missile components and smart chips...?

[@shanecameron1546]

Never mind... as soon as I asked the question I found the answer after 2 days of searching....

[@ZlothZloth]

Have you tried the new Boron weapons with this? The large Ion Net shoots fast and far. It does not seem to slow anything down and doesn't do much damage, but all you need to do is annoy the Xenon and it should come and attack.

[@edwardwinkelman7988]

@@ZlothZloth I have not tried it with Boron platforms yet. Was just thinking about this yesterday actually since I have time to experiment with them again.

[@feronanthus9756]

In my Split games I rotate my defense platforms up 90 degrees to get generally half of the turrets on target. Also it makes a nice net looking structure which I like

[@MrFevill]

Me too bro! It`s greate decision! Splits are cool!)

[@steeneugenpoulsen8174]

You only have to set weapons once... You COPY the first disc (after adding weapons) when you place the others... This is why it is so easy to overbuild defense platforms because you can build any size with just copy and paste each module.

[@brianhauptman]

AFK farming in space? Of course Francis can cheese this mechanic.

[@MelfiortheOne]

Perhaps I missed it in the video, as an additional FYI, Administrative Center allows you to capture sectors (if there are no other centres in the sector). You don’t even have to build platforms:)

[@OldGamingGeezer]

Great stuff. I'm really enjoying your videos on x4, they got me back into the game after a couple of years off from it. Keep up the good work.

[@EJ_42]

Thank you mate. Awesome Tutorial!

[@sg4tw509]

closed loop SAVES MY BRAIN SO MUCH. thank you

[@CuriousMind477]

Thank you so much for this. I was looking at reddit posts and so many of the platforms looked incredibly complicated (not to mention expensive), and so I have just been trying to have a few destroyers stationed to stem the tide. I think this will work a lot better lol

[@thomasstensson8407]

Great vid! Once the AI collector does have a item in thier inventory, right click the ship and give it a order to Drop Inventory at HQ. This works great with the repeat orders thet you already have. Then later on just teleport/fly to your PHQ and go to science lab and collect all the items gathered there from your multiple drop collector ships!

[@MelfiortheOne]

IMO, teleporting to pilot is faster :) Especially when you have highest teleport tech.

[@thomasstensson8407]

@@MelfiortheOne once you have a few collectors its easier to gather all stuff at once. Besides if your collector dies before you have time to collect you lose alot of income unless you teleport to them often

[@MelfiortheOne]

@@thomasstensson8407 next level is to build a scrap recycler nearby and run tugs around :))

[@craigbalnaves4326]

Thanks heaps. Never heard about the "closed loop" in any other videos or comments. Well presented video. I put my platform 11K's from the gate and I have the capitol ships teleporting about 15 or 16 K's from the gate so I added some more discs facing backwards. Had I known where they were going to materialize I could have faced the platform that way, but it was so cheap it didn't matter.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I have heard of the teleporting problem before, do you have any mods installed that affect the Xenon? It's just all my Xenon so far as I saw came though the gate like other ships.

[@craigbalnaves4326]

@@FrancisJohnYT No mods. They were doing it before I built the defence platform because I had 3 lines of laser towers running perpendicular to the gate, about 40 towers in each. The towers started at 4 k's from the gate and went back another 5k's [end at 9 k's from the gate]. So the Capitol ships would jump high and to the side and 12 to 15 k's away from the gate. When I built the platform I just removed one string of towers and left the rest there and built where the towers were. I left the rest there cause I'm lazy and they do still clean up the small ships. I have 3 other platforms now and all these act normally.

[@borisbojic]

Awesome tip with the all-Argon-stuff … I have the Averice DLC and didn’t even think about it 😅🙈

[@filippe999]

Thanks for the hot tip, now i can properly defend locations and keep any survivors from fleeing the devastated systems in my campaign of destruction

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Walling in a faction before going to war like say the Vigor Syndicate is a time honoured tradition. Also helps deal with massive fighter swarms.

[@LeeAndrewVideos]

Best video I have seen on this topic, thanks! Also that environment button was a nice bonus, had issues seeing anything in one of the pirate sectors, it was way too bright.

[@Rhondaandjames]

Lol! These things work great. I put one in Split space at The Xenon gate above Hatikvah's choice. They dropped an "I" two "K's" and a handful of small ships on top of it. they didn't last two minutes. One tip, put a small container storage on the back so the base can make repair drones. The only downside is the split don't buy as much of my stuff anymore because they aren't constantly losing ships...

[@lucag1175]

AWESOME VIDEO. Thank you for this keep them coming. Was wondering what ship are you using

[@nahco3994]

Thank you so much. I've been playing this game off and on pretty much since day one, but the closed loop build mode **completely** slipped past my attention.

[@johnfeedback6784]

I have about a week in my first X4 play through. I built the defence station outside Hatikva's Choice I AND put another at Family Zhin. Then I went and picked a fight with the Xen in Matrix 598 in my Earlking. That day I pulled 107 million in loot drops. I'm regularly pulling 60K+ from the two stations. I have other stations but their just for aggressor control and have no loot collectors (yet).

[@FrancisJohnYT]

As far as I can tell the defence platforms are insane overkill. Have not seen anything in the base game even scratch them.

[@Mr76Pontiac]

I watched your video on when you discovered this layout. I use it, but in a 2km radius instead of 1. Considering the costs involved, the extra few credits, worth it if you just want to expand out with more crazy. ;) Edit: Oh.. The Closed Loop thing... Wish I knew that before I built the 5 other platforms. {sigh}

[@nemoralis4713]

You can also add a second station off to the side with a recycler and scrap processor, with a Minotaur set to auto collect, to make tons of Hull Parts and Claytronics from all the wrecks the defence station is creating 😄

[@kamilbialo4549]

Aliens: Write its down , write it down 😂

[@grandfremdling3841]

Another great video

[@_AutoCoder]

Great vid and info thanks. I just built a similar station (with def bridge arms) at all Xenon choke points and while highly profitable and effective there is an unseen affect on the game: stopping Xenon incursions = less faction ship death = less demand for your factory wares. So.. lots of $ from loot but less $ from factories. In my universe there aren't any full blown wars so far. Also, the factions end up using your defense bases at stepping stones into Xenon space = you gotta beat them to it = steps up the Xenon busting navy phase.

[@_AutoCoder]

I suggest the Pegasus from ALI wharf w combat engines filled w laser turrets for the loot grabber. Crazy fast and can bounce when it gets hairy then come back. Haven't lost one yet.

[@user-ty4mw7rk8g]

thanks for the videos the help a lot could do do one on commanding ships and setting up command orders

[@K162KingPin]

7:00 if you put one of the Disc down, and put your loadout on it, you can then just "copy module" and place the rest of the disc where desired, and they will all already have the loadout from the first one.

[@gcohee]

thank you

[@dazzzmanschannel]

I put my plot as close as possible in Second Contact close to a Defense Station close to the highway with lots of laser towers.

[@EricKendrick2]

Admit it, you are just playing a tower defence idle game now ;)

[@onlytwogenders420]

Where is part 2 of your tutorial, I really wanted to understand the midgame better.

[@rickjamesbitch7632]

Wow thanks I think I actually learn something useful watching an x4 video 😁

[@BL4ckViP3R]

My first "Gate-Sec" platforms had the issue that they were not wide enough and those pesky little Xenon miners mostly never came through the gate properly but instead spawned bit further away - and starting from there they could easily avoid my station. Now, with my Gate-Secs being wide enough (equipped with L-sized Lasers + Plasmas + Flaks), not a single ship will pass. Ever.

[@ArthurOseven]

Informative video. Thanks. Are you in the cockpit on a Pulsar Vanguard?

[@miziu89]

Where is the rest of the newbie guide? You left us on such a cliffhanger and I really want to learn how to make the big bucks 😀

[@locki13]

This is superb, really worked for me, currently working my way to plugging the pinch points. Quick questions, how do you stop the ships which collect the drops from fleeing straight into the xenon system?!!

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Why are your collector ships fleeing to Xenon systems!! You can set up no go systems in one of the menus, not specific to a ship but specific to all your automated ships. It's to stop traders wandering into dangerous systems, can't remember where it is exactly but a google should be able to locate it.

[@locki13]

@@FrancisJohnYT many thanks, I found it! Under blacklists; slightly obscure menu, that makes you feel dumb for not noticing. Thanks again! Now my ships don't decide to commit suicide, at least not death by sector jump anyways.

[@welshgamer1864]

I've just spent about 36 hrs on the game and have recently seen this video, and was looking to make one, but as a new player, I've put the tower together with the discs, but the weapons to complete the loadout are missing, what am I missing here? This video is really good and I'll be watching more, so keep up the good work, thank you.

[@spectre1725]

Not Great, not terrible is also what the soviet engineers said when reading the radiation charts after the explosion at chernobyl nuclear plant :D

[@magicwordxyzzy]

How can these be modified to be in-sector friendly, to minimize friendly fire risk while still being effective? Even if more disks are required, it's be worth it to not have to avoid all my sectors that neighbor Xenon space.

[@shanecameron1546]

I liked this vid (especially the closed loop part) so I built one of these at the bottom of The Void, exactly 10km in front of the gate. I have about 6 Xenon K carcasses (plus lots of small wrecks) floating around the station so it worked, however now when the gate activates the Xenon K/I are appearing 20km away from the gate and flying straight past. Not 100% but i feel like this happens when multiple Xenon hit the gate at once...

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Weird, I have had the K/I's accelerate through but none managed to slip by without engaging the station. Were you in sector or out of sector? I find in sector transits of ships jump about a bit depending on how busy the gate exit is.

[@shanecameron1546]

@@FrancisJohnYT it's happening both in and out of sector (the void), K/I are appearing in an area up to 30km around the gate. Confirmed it happens with singles as well.... not one has come thru the actual gate (or even close).... I had my carrier fleet behind the defence station (its been defending the sector for weeks) which the xenon would make a b-line for... so I moved that fleet further away and now the xenon are attracted to the defence station first.... a significant litter of bodies around the station when I return from OOS... but watching on the map they are still appearing a long way out when OOS... I have also added L.Beam and missiles as per post below and now catching 90% of small craft too (unless they come thru at speed). I have been watching their arrivals at Holy Vision, and they seem to appear within 10km of the ring, so I will build a defence station there and see what happens.... anyway happy with the overall effect... thanks for posting your video

[@OGSomeOne]

I tried 3 x 2 discs and 2 k destroyers came through and killed one of the discs before I could do anything. So I go 3 x 4 now :D Also blew the 1m6 dock out for a 3m6. Got tired of some random trader camping my dock so I couldn't land the corvette I use to harvest the drops. On active docks, i.e. Hatikvah 1, I would build a L XL dock so I could park a destroyer, in case you get multiples of the station killers, there is something with a heavy hit in system. The Destroyer will help defend the base with the turrets while docked.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Strange the K's should have gotten shredded before they even got in range. You got any mod installed to make the enemies more dangerous?

[@OGSomeOne]

@@FrancisJohnYT playing vanilla, as I have not played through x4 completely and steam is notorious for removing access to the badges when you mod. I noticed that the turrets can be upgraded just like the ship weapons. Probably had generic turrets. But, I've seen 2 K and an I walk through on my 3 x 4 and melt

[@the_elder_gamer]

Any chance you'll be giving _Farworld Pioneers_ a try?

[@arseyrc]

Why did you add the Admin Centre? If you plan on taking over the sector it makes sense, but otherwise it seems a bit expensive?

[@blshouse]

That would be why. He put it on the station in this video just to show how.

[@josefrees]

Thanks for playing this game for me lmfao

[@timthorson52]

Will a fighter go around the station to harrass other stations, traders, or transit to other systems? Does this actually take diwn full invasion fleets, including "I"s mixed with "K"s and fighters?

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Enemy ships can potentially leave the gate fast enough to skip by the platform, but I have not seen an I or K manage to do that. Where I have placed them and observed everything got drawn to the platform and destroyed. It can stop entire invasions, can take out three xenon capital ships at the same time. It also comes with repair down to heal chip damage in between waves.

[@timthorson52]

@FrancisJohnYT thanks for getting back to me. I tested out a similar station since I posted this. I was very surprised when I checked on it later and saw a dead I. It apparently took a lot of damage, I had forgotten to have it make repair drones, and it dropped to about 74% health. I did have a couple extra modules on that one. i think a pair of the straight argon ones with similar weapons, and I think that damage came from multiple fights. I did notice fighters slip by, but adding a boron ring defense with a few large ion net turrets solved that problem. It's pretty rare that anything slips past without being engaged now. I even noticed that it can hit some things using the travel drive, trying to go in the gate from elsewhere. Thanks for the video. This is becoming my key to resolving xenon problems, and I think it'll work against ZYA and most other threats. It's good to know the "standard" small one can fend off a K + I attack. I haven't tried it against a terran attack. How well will it work when getting hit by a syn, asgard or the other terran one with long range weapons? I suppose a similar story for the hop or argon, who can at least field long ranges destroyer weapons, split's are only 6-7km.

[@angrypidgeon1714]

or you can first build the loadout of 1st disc, then copy the disc along with the loadout :P

[@o0pinkdino0o]

Do you eventually get Marines to recruit from your own platforms ?

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Not that I can recall. Some NPC stations give better marines than average, you can google the good one's if your interested.

[@Parzival117]

Where do I get the flak guns, I don't have that option?

[@FrancisJohnYT]

You get access to flak from four races, Argon, paranid, teladi and split. You need to have 10 relations with them to buy it.

[@DrProfessorRobot]

A little thing to help you when it comes to building modules... I imagine you probably know this, but I don't see you using it in the video, so just in case... If you hold down shift while you're rotating a module, instead of smoothly rotating, it'll move in 15 degree snaps. This makes it much easier to get perfect 90 degree rotations and the like

[@EngaFFS]

I set up that 5disc defense platform. It got taken down pretty fast. Might be one or more mods making Xenon more powerful? 🤔 But biggest issue is collateral damage. So not many hours in the Argon went from +25 to negative. How do I get around that issue?

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Generally I try and not stay in the system as the platforms for to long, out of system combat their is no friendly fire. Also removes a bunch of the targeting inaccuracy. But generally I never had any issues with friendly fire, I usually only place the platform at locations where Xenon come through. Not many live friendly ships nearby.

[@EngaFFS]

@@FrancisJohnYT Ahhh. That explains it.. I was in the same system I think. I will try one more time :) Cheers mate.. Love your vids :D

[@lemonoeye]

Instead of a nemesis, get a katana. Way faster in collecting and escaping. And, its practically free!

[@frag0mat1c]

What weapons would you use on a terran version?

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I don't have enough experience with terran weapons to comment definitively unfortunately.

[@bolinar6434]

Have to say in my game these get obilirated by about constand raids of s-m class ships and after that will K get in.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Are you running mods to increase the threat? I have seen multiple K's get evaporated by these defence platforms.

[@bolinar6434]

@@FrancisJohnYT nope vanilla. Somereason game just desided to send constany stream of fighters even skipping 100 l towers. After fixing and giving trade ship has been ok

[@bolinar6434]

Basically they sniped the flanks off

[@christhompson9140]

I built one but it either cant range far enough to shoot and kill a xenon I or soemthing else is messed up?

[@FrancisJohnYT]

You built plasma turrets on the platforms and they actually got built? Double check to make sure the necessary components were delivered. I had issues in the past when I did not use the closed loop system, the turrets required components that were not available within range so the turrets never got built until I manually did a cargo run.

[@davebriscoe1012]

Do you need to buy turret/shield blueprints?

[@DeanO418]

when trying to set this up, got to adding guns and it said I have no guns on the list. How do I get to add guns.

[@josephprins1258]

This thing is invincible. Is there a TER version using only TER guns and stations? As far as I can tel the TER stuff is bad.

[@Maxtorym]

How do you see the range from the gate = 10 km?

[@FrancisJohnYT]

If you are in a ship and select any object the HUD will tell you how far away the item is.

[@bigtoemagoo9257]

New to game really, Why does no one mention Boron tech? Are their Disc Platforms not good? They seem to be above average turret/shield slots.

[@DoctorChelo]

What is the use of the admin building?

[@FrancisJohnYT]

The Admin Building allows you to claim a sector as your own assuming no other faction has buildings left there.

[@SergeyPupkoMusic]

Lol, I completely overkilled my gate guards... 😂 something like 1500 M turrets and 700 L turrets... 🤦‍♂️🤣

[@CreatorOfWorlds]

If you care about hitpoints, then don’t use the basic dock but the luxury one.

[@isaacsanchezsancho2306]

Only 24 minuts?

[@xxGHOSTxx56]

i really hope, that comes on humble with the full game (dlcs etc)

[@craota]

My Argon Administrative center is totally different than yours... Are you using mods? Edit: NVM.. I just realized that's a TEL admin center

[@maxiu..]

100 hours in X4 and after thinking "defense platforms SUCK" I find out from this video you actually have to build the weapons on each module.. uhh

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Yeah.... X4 has a bit of a learning curve alright.

[@Wazza3110]

Have tried this 3 times in Hatikva's choice - Every time I get the build complete and all the resources in place, as soon as the builder shows up, the AI sends a couple of K's through and blows up my building before I can do anything. So frustrating!

[@ianwilliams7740]

I believe the AI only responds to stations being built once the builder is assigned. You can collect the build resources and once you have them, then assign the builder - which can be much quicker - especially if you're not abusing the cheese "closed loop" system like being done here.

[@salemprompthous3820]

As Ian Williams said, having some freighters on standby holding most of the cargo, getting the platforms up and ready is a lot faster. If you have the money; have a couple destroyers, each with a small fighter contingent, to defend the plot(s). Unless the Xenon come through with a huge fleet of I and K (the most I've seen in one attack was 4 I, three K and a whole bunch of frigates and fighters. My 4 Odyseus, each with 5 fighters on intercept orders, made metallic swiss cheese out them in no time. I did pilot one of the Destroyers, not sure if that was a benefit or a detriment, honestly), two or three destroyers with a nice loadout should be sufficient

[@Wazza3110]

@@salemprompthous3820 Will try that

[@juliotsd]

can you please speak more faster! please!

[@stopbegging4likes]

Why you need a dock?

[@sunstormer5064]

For the loot drop ship to dock with the assigned station.

[@ianwilliams7740]

i believe you need one for the drone components to be dropped off

[@alganhar1]

Manager and Drone components. The materials for the station and the weapons/shields will be dropped off into the construction storage so do not need a dock, but the drone components need a dock. As for the manager you need a dock to assign a manager, as far as I recall you cannot assign a manager if you do not have a dock.