X4 Foundations: Let's Rant and Talk about Patrol Fleets

[@calebshingledecker3610]

I have found that a patrol of 7 Hydra with ion rails will make most problems go away. If you're worried about an I then add more Hydra. They are also great for playing whack a mole on enemy station that pop up in your systems.

[@T-Skillet]

Love the Hydra! They really did a great job designing it. One of my favorite ships.

[@pseudonym5872]

Hell yes on the videos for Hatikvah and becoming the Great Unifier! And thanks for showing the behavior change towards different factions. I was hoping there was something like that, as I've had Kha'ak plaguing Grand Exchange I and taking out all of the medium miners and transports. I need my combat ships to be more unfriendly to the enemy ships...

[@T-Skillet]

If you get like 3 Phoenix go look for their outpost. Should be on fringe of the sectors. Should just be one in Grand Exchange. A sector away should be the installation. If you destroy them both their spawns will be eliminated for the time being. Think it's 12 game hours for them to come back.

[@pseudonym5872]

@@T-Skillet When you say "fringes of the sectors" what exactly do you mean? Are you talking about the areas near the lines between sectors? I've had fighters scouring those lines in GE1 and they've never marked anything other than individual ships. What do Kha'ak outposts and the larger ones appear as on the map? And do they stay like stations do, or do they disappear once out of range?

[@T-Skillet]

@@pseudonym5872 They act as a normal station. Sometimes you can see them far off in the distance and a blob. That's the best way to describe it. Upon getting close it looks a lot like their ships, pyramids connected to more pyramids. They should show up a pink color. For distance they should be close to the line of the sector if not a tad farther. You might want to take a trip around. Here is a link to better help, i was a little off in terms of sectors they are in. forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=443020

[@alejodavies]

I built a defence platform in Hatikva's Choice and another in Frontier's Edge, about 15k from the Xenon gates. Havent really had any issues since, but im going to avoid blocking off any other Xenon gate so that there's still soething to shoot at sometimes. Both platforms were only a few million to set up, but paid for themselves tenfold. Every session I hop to their collector ship just to take the inventory then cash it in at a trader. Last session I picked up 400 spacefly eggs and hundreds of SETA parts. Made over 30 million in 2 minutes. Unfortunately I find my patrol fleets useless. Large and even medium ships are too slow doing their rounds, so theyre never where the action is. I guess the ideal would be many squadrons of fighters with a corvette trailing behind each. The squadrons would be independent and hopefully spread out in the sector, fighters would tie up the enemy and the corvette would clean up what's left, once its gets there. I also park a destroyer at busy gates on a "protect position" order, with the radius down to like 10km so it can always see traffic, scare off pirates and nuke Kha'aks harassing traveling miners.

[@T-Skillet]

I typically place a defence fleet instead of a defence station. Once I quelle the threat I’ll push the fleet to the next sector and gate. It works well when you have ships to combat the L class Xenon. Nice haul on the drops! I did the patrol fleet(s) to spread out through the sector to also combat the stray Xenon. Multiple “wings” larger area, like you mentioned. But they can also combat Kha’ak and Scale Plate as well. I need to add one to two M class with the two Nodan wings to make them more sustainable. If two or three P’s and a handful of M’s come in 5 nodans are toast quick.

[@alejodavies]

I would prefer a fleet to a station as the gameplay is more dynamic, but the cost of a fleet compared to a station is astronomical, especially when said fleet takes major losses if I don't instantly react to the XL alert when a K or I shows up. With my stations the K doesn't even trip the alarm since it instantly despawns when it comes into the sector 😂

[@T-Skillet]

They can be costly if you can’t keep up. Aux ship is a must. With or even without a carrier. You’ll need a group for the bombardment command to tackle the K and I’s. Torps or dumb fire work really well for M and L class ships. But as long as you have the right groups under the right commands the fleet works really well! Especially in OOS combat, when you are in system can cause some trouble but still should be fine.

[@moonraven8394]

Meanwhile in my Universe the Xenon are so docile that I have to activly support them to break into Split space. Antigone holds Frontier Edge and Argon wards of everything in Hatikwah. Last time I dealt with an Xenon-I in my previous universe. My defense station melted the I in 5 seconds (my station is a slightly modified version of the Argon model). Since my trade-fleet only consisty of Barbarossas, pirates don't attack me at all. My collection of S-ships are from story missions, except of 1 Shiv + 1 Minotaur.

[@T-Skillet]

It’s really fun and frustrating how the dice rolls on some starts for the Xenon. They can be super aggressive or not. I remember before this series I was just playing around(all DLC active) started a fresh game and there was an I in HAT space…. From start! Just floating around having the time of its life. Just a great time! lol

[@net2000man]

It's the XEN incursions that make this game so much fun, though! It's why I secure gates with Laser Tower blockades while I build defense platforms, and then as I push back their scout fleets, I build up my factory capabilities so I can invade THEM!!!! The fun never stops!

[@T-Skillet]

Those do make for fun times!

[@CoronisAdair]

For Xenon capital containment I'll throw up a defense platform , 5 disks with Argon plasma and flak, 4 bridges with argon beam and flak. Set construction to closed loop and it goes up quick for a bit less than 10 mil credits. Instead of a cross, i turn it 45 degrees to make a huge X. For S, M sized pirates, I've had good luck with groups led by a Sapporo on 20km position defense. Attached to the Sapporo are 8 Odachi arranged in 2 flights of 4 set to intercept. Has worked well for piracy prevention where I've set them up!

[@T-Skillet]

Need to actually start ordering them to start a fleet up.

[@ragingchimera8021]

9:25 That isn't how patrol fleets work. They only respond to what is in their range, not to distress calls.

[@T-Skillet]

If you have a defense station is it only police that will respond to distress signals?

[@ragingchimera8021]

@T-Skillet I believe the only way to get them to respond to distress calls is through mods, I would love to be corrected if wrong. Otherwise, all other options available are controlled by distance either of scanner range or a distance from an object being defended. Police command is just patrol with the addition of contraband scanning. I wish they did respond to distress calls from your ships. It is how it should work and would save a lot of micromanagement and/or escort building. I'm loving your content, it is good stuff! 👍

[@T-Skillet]

Thanks! I’m gonna test the police feature, never used it before.

[@Tasaroo]

I usually build small defence stations (5 Plasma Disc, 2 Laser Bridges) in critical locations like Void South Gate, HC1, Bright Promis and Trinity Sanctum 3 (if Teladi get overrun). Later my Race specifics Carrier fleet will protect the areas and I remove or move the defence station away from the gate. I never try to go over powerful, no 100 Asgard fleets, gigantic defence stations etc.

[@T-Skillet]

We’ve had three Asgards before and they…. They did the lords work when it came to the Xenon. lol it was really cool to see them fire their lasers one after another when attacking a station. They just travel so slow.

[@oldmankatan7383]

I let the pirates pirate in my sectors. No questions asked. Until a ship asks one of mine to drop their cargo. Then I take the offending ship, and 1 other. Until they learn. And they never learn...

[@T-Skillet]

They'll never learn. lol

[@techstepman]

lol im trying to find ways to make the xenon stronger and more aggressive! in my games they seem to not care much and just let people run them over.

[@T-Skillet]

You may have gotten an easy start. But careful for what you wish for! They can become more powerful than you can imagine (or whatever Obi says to Darth in the hallway.) They may be expand elsewhere, if you have all the DLC active I’d keep an eye on the upper left hand corner of the map…. Then Zyarth territory. Probs will be the first to fall.

[@techstepman]

@@T-Skillet i got more than 400 hours on this and all dlcs...also use mods to make them stronger lol...then again i use a bunch of other balanced ship and weapon mods that most races can use...

[@T-Skillet]

@@techstepman lol Maybe thats why they are weaker! 😂

[@n8of949]

Defence Station in front of Xenon gates. L class miners with Flak to defend against Kha'ak. S class traders to gap all piracy. gg ez.

[@T-Skillet]

Why S class traders? Are they faster, i've never really put thought behind an S class trader.

[@n8of949]

@@T-Skillet S class for their turning speed, next, their travel speed. If you watch the A.I pilots handle piracy, they do dumb moves. Such as fly one direction for a few seconds then stop to do a 180 turn. There are L class ships that travel faster, such as the Barbarossa which is a combat ship first and a trade ship second. But the A.I pilots are just too dumb and slow to react, they'll get caught doing a turn and have to fight.

[@T-Skillet]

I’ll have to use a S class and see how it goes. I’m curious now.

[@xTatsuran]

S ships will get cooked while docking\undocking same as M anyways

[@n8of949]

@@xTatsuran Not as often in my experience, in my latest playthrough, I had 6 SPP around the ring sectors. Each with 10 S traders. I lost 1 S trader maybe every 10 hours (SETA). And it was because the dumb a.i would travel through the path of the approaching pirate, I've found pirates lose interest when a trader docks, however you are correct. Traders sometimes do get melted docking and undocking. I just found that it didn't happen at all for S traders. I'm not sure why but I think that S traders are too fast when a pirate loses interest.

[@lloydbaker1090]

I have never had any luck with Patrol fleets, they don't seem to engage targets. I pretty much exclusively use the Protect Space command to control gates into a system,

[@T-Skillet]

I do see them as a success. I’ve had to tweak them a bit. Currently using 2 Cerberus’ with drones in escort, I have two patrol fleets in Flashpoint.

[@Rhondaandjames]

Plop a Cross shaped defense station on that gate with Argon Flak and Large plasma's. costs about 15 mil. problem solved.

[@T-Skillet]

Believe this is what I’ll do next time. Play the game of containment.

[@guerillagardener2237]

Just drop walls of laser towers at vulnerable locations.

[@T-Skillet]

I’ve done this, have a video on it I believe as well. The one thing I hate about doing this is a can’t automate it. Lol

[@guerillagardener2237]

@T-Skillet True but if you put some patrols on the gates as well the towers just act like a parasite and those gates pretty quickly look like junk yards. Just make sure you pay attention to all of the axis on the map.

[@T-Skillet]

Honestly it’s been so long, I may have even mentioned it in the video…. But I will say I have not thought about that in a long while. For me, when I did it, I HAD to drop the towers myself. I couldn’t just click drop tower… I tried that and hated how they ended up. So I then dropped them…. Hate that whole hour. lol But if it’s even like 15-20 plus a flight of ships that would work and depending on your ships your biggest problem would be multiple L ships or just an I.

[@guerillagardener2237]

@T-Skillet Yeah they do get hammered eventually, but once you have a load down you can just forget about them for the most part, but it is frustrating that you can't select multiple towers and launch them or be given an option of deploying a formation.

[@T-Skillet]

Someone else made a video about it roughly the same time. From what I remember they had a ship defend position, a tight diameter, and they would click release tower. I tried that but didn’t get a result I was happy with. If there was a command to lay out a design that would be pretty cool and super efficient. Like triangles, a wall or a plane of them.

[@patrickrobinson545]

This is late but how did you get your station there to show up as an trade station, maybe not vanilla?

[@T-Skillet]

No mods installed. This is base game before any DLC. To have a trade station you can't have any production modules. Just storage and landing platforms.

[@patrickrobinson545]

@@T-Skillet Ah thank you Mr T Skillet been trying to figure that out for a while!