I absolutely agree that in 7.0. In each beta, I've seen the commonwealth overrun the xenon in some fashion removing xenon pressure and precious drops from entire regions of the game.
Even in Beta 5:
The Terran AI will consistently kill xenon a shipyard and warf within 2-3 hours of a gamestart. I'm watching this happen in real time while boarding an Asgard here. Only 2 hours at the start, this battlegroup will destory the shipyard and warf of emperor's pride letting PAR take the entire north west of the map.
(The ship being boarded is... a little bugged)
Link to Save:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7m76vx16 ... kexp9&dl=0
Link to Screenshot:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/hn8o9qko ... 4de10&dl=0
This lets the commonwealth faction snowball and take over the sector with overwhelming numbers of destoryers and S ships before the Xenon can rebuild the Shipyard or warf. In the example provided, the Paranid are already completing a defense platform in Emperor's pride. Meanwhile a terran intervention battlegroup is on its way to kill the shipyard here. Unless the player intervens in some way, even by at least keeping the Asgard In System view, this battlegroup will kill the Ks in the area, then the shipyard.
Then the Paranid will snowball and all Xenon pressure in the north west will be gone.
The Teladi take and hold Matrix 451 consistently now. This has happened 4-5 games in 7.0.
HOP takes Faulty logic consistently sometimes within 2-5 hours of gamestart even no terran support. Also 4-5 games.
Argon/Antigone will actually push into Atiya's within 12-20 hours taking all Xenon pressure away from the South of the map within 12 hours.
Split actually go on the offenseive constantly and 2-5 games they've taken Rhy bread's Defience even 1-5 games they took Tharka's which was a ride. Tharka's fall, falls to the Split 4-5 games.
The one time, the commonwealth doesn't crush the xenon within 12 hours, the 5-1? Was because I chose to intereven.
But why is this an issue if we have the late game crisis now? Wouldn't this new meta make it far easier for new players to expand and not feel like there is was the old "xenon ticking timebomb"?
In my 1600 hours of experiences in 6.0 you had roughly 15-24 hours before the xenon kill/perma cripple the commonwealth economy in some way. No defense station at HAT meant that the player had to build one there, or station some kind of reaction force... even a M ship with plasma to kill a K's engines to stop it for awhile early game. Or Argon dies within 20 hours. Etc. It felt, great personally. Because there was a sense of Urgency and a sense of reward...
Terran intervention fleets actually died usually to the first Xenon defense station they saw and didn't make it to xenon shipyards and warfs unless the player helps.
Commonwealth at the time rarely if ever went on the offensive like they do in 7.0. Unless the player helps.
It was a miracle if Antigone ever naturally held Frontier's Edge. Unless the player helps.
But now the player doesn't have to "help" anymore.
The AI can and will take care of themselves. So my options are now, spend the 20 to 30 hours in the new, more AI competent universe, and get to the Crisis and it will be a challenge again?
But then that means after the Crisis that's it? You have to chose to go to war with another faction for some personal lore reason, create a new enemy in save for yourself, or start over.
The biggest change for me personally has been "less Xenon over the course of a game time means far less drops for Ship Mods over the course of the game." More xenon/fighting = more Ship Mods. This hasn't been cripping, but since Missile and Torpedo drops are thing. Far less vauable items are available.
My solution/coping mechanism:
To enjoy 7.0 each game I have to personally intercept every single Asgard that passes through Getsu to stop them from helping the commonwealth snowball. Then hack the shipyards of HOP, TER, TEL, and ZYA as quickly as possible. This gives the Xenon enough time to actually mass up and feel/be some kind of threat mid/lategame. Then by building future infastructure for shipbuilding/terraforming in Boron space early game enables their economy to be relevant and properly go to war. This allows them to first build up enough so the Boron chose to take Heratic's End before the Argon. Even with BUC/TEM active, as an additional enemy for PAR and HOP, PAR still takes emperor's and HOP still takes Faulty logic.
TDLR: I have to make choices to nerf the AI through boarding and disabling production modules for the first 8 hours of a game, or the Xenon die, the best source of Ship Mod components disappears, and a majority of pressure is removed from the game. Games in 7.0 will stagnate and become uninteresting unless you either help the Xenon, go to war with a faction early, or focus and build up for crisis. Ironically, I've never been able to get to Crisis with a new start in 7.0. Because I never needed 500m in Military ships. By midgame, I would have to begin fighting another faction (which I would rather not because of their constant screams for mercy), or start over since there is no incentive to protect or help the AI militarily anymore.
