X4 Oversimplified: Minor Guide to the Major Factions
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- Опубликовано: 2 июл 2024
- In this video, Captain Snuggles lures in gullible newbies with the promise of a "guide" but instead bombards them with sarcasm and conspiracy theories.
00:00 Introduction
01:14 Queendom of Boron
01:54 Split Families
02:40 Teladi Co. & Co.
03:46 Paranid & Pals
04:50 Minor Factions
05:18 Theory Time
06:05 Argon & Antigone
07:08 Segaris Pioneers
08:46 Terran Protectorate
10:39 Hot Take
11:09 Outro
* CORRECTIONS THREAD *
I'd like to reserve the main comment section for newbie questions, Teladi appreciation, and conspiracy theories. So, if you don't think I hit my "80% truthiness" benchmark, please post any corrections here. If possible, please include a source as well. If I can verify the source and it doesn't conflict with the sources I used for this video, I'll give the comment a "heart" to mark it as a Snuggles-approved correction.
*Truthiness* (noun): truth that comes from the gut, not from books. American slang. In this context, think of it as the unifying themes and overall “vibe” of each faction.
For this video, when individual facts conflict with unifying themes, I’ve chosen to focus on the latter. However, I still don’t want to say anything that’s blatantly untrue, which brings us to this thread. Have at it!
First correction: I didn’t include ALI or HAT in my Minor Factions section. I would label them “Space Librarians” and “Libertarian Ex-Pirates”, respectively. I also didn’t include any factions that have to be unlocked via story missions, but that was deliberate. Source: Roguey.
@@CptSnuggles07I think you are too harsh on the Teladi here. They do not consider a deal a good deal if only one side made a profit. (Judt cant remeber where that was said)
In fairness to the Terrans, when they first disconnected from the Gate Network, all they knew was a small fleet, headed by Argon, was luring away the massive Xenon Fleet, with no hope of defeating it, to buy Sol enough time to destroy the Jumpgate.
When the Terran opened back up and found their 5 new 'allies' against the Xenon, they did originally treat them like allies, they where actually fairly in line with the Argon in their relations, having good relations with the Boron and Teladi, cold relations with the Paranid (warmer than the Argon at the time who had just finished fighting a Split/Paranid alliance), and semi-hostile relations with the Split. What drove the Terrans to become so Xenophobic was an Argon "fun event" done by an Argon "underground group" that ended with the equatorial shipyard ring that ringed Earthbeing destroyed, and pieces of said shipyard raining down on Earth ending Billions of people. Then when Sol demanded the Argon Federation hand over the group responsible for said event to trial and sentencing, the Argon refused, and after Terra pushed the point, the Argon declared war on the Terrans, and proceeded to raid into Terran space destroying stations and settlements as they went. Meanwhile, their new "allies" refused to help, or even just condemn the Argon Federation's invasion, even helping the Argon in the Boron's case.
Hence, I don't think it's just "Terrans have an irrational fear of the cosmos" it's more of a "Every other empire turned their back on us in our moment of need, and even the prodigy of our empire, the Argon Federation, allowed 'harmful' people to target us, and declares us an enemy when we demanded justice." Which bred the Terran outlook we see today, which is more of a "we will protect ourselves, even if it means we have to invade your space to do it" and less of a "fear everything" outlook.
I actually did a ton of research on the Torus attack and other events leading to X3AP, since I knew it would come up in the comments. Here's the timeline. Buckle up for a wild ride!
* EDIT *: after doing a ton MORE research, I've finally pieced together the complete lore. It's way too insane for a single comment, so stay tuned for a new video! Although the timeline below is incomplete, I'll leave it up as a monument to my own hubris.
>Sol jump gate reconnects
>Successful joint operation vs. Xenon
>Argon offer Terrans membership in Federation. Terrans refuse.
>Terrans demand annexation of Argon Federation. Argon refuse.
>Terrans falsely accuse Argon of developing AGI and deploy a massive armada to the Argon border. Tensions rise.
>Badly outgunned, the Argon make a deal with the Beryll, a Yaki faction who are, in fact, developing AGI.
>Both sides employ increasingly sketchy types of subterfuge and political maneuvering to gain an advantage.
>Argon/Beryll dispatch Saya Kho, a well-established heroine in the X Universe, to Earth as a double agent.
>Saya is tasked with activating the Torus Aeternal’s failsafe system, which will disable its weapons and separate it into 400 self-contained ring segments in stable orbits. No loss of life expected. Theoretically, with the mighty Torus disabled, the Terrans will have to withdraw their armada back to Earth, and war will be avoided.
>Saya unknowingly befriends a Terran agent, Lea Singer. They discover one another’s identities and a fight breaks out. Saya accidentally kills Lea.
>Stricken with grief, Saya continues her mission but is barely holding herself together.
>[Sources differ wildly here. Either Saya snaps, she makes a careless mistake, or she had planned to go rogue from the start.]
>Instead of a harmless activation of the failsafe system, huge explosions blast the 400 Torus segments apart, sending most of them plummeting to Earth like a massive orbital bombardment. Millions of people die, including Saya. The Terrans are furious.
>Inexplicably, the Argon admit their involvement, probably saying something like “our agent went rogue and we respect her freedom to do so”.
>Millions more almost certainly die in the ensuing war.
>Thanks for nothing, Saya.
Sources:
X3: Wächter der Erde, the official backstory novel for X3: Albion Prelude. I don’t speak German, so I had to read a synopsis.
Cutscenes and story missions from X3R, X3TC, and X3AP
X Encyclopedia
There are some discrepancies between all sources. There are even some internal inconsistencies in the X Encyclopedia. Wächter der Erde is the most thorough and topic-specific, so when in doubt, I went with its version of events.
@@CptSnuggles07 Well, doesn't that sound a lot like modern geopolitics. In short, it quickly became a clusterfuck!
@@CptSnuggles07 Damn now that i know that i should go destroy argon fr fr with my terran friend tho i did the terran quest long ago ( when the dlc released)
@@CptSnuggles07 Nice summary, it all felt useless in the end, they destroyed something that could only be used defensibly, I don't see why the Argon would want to destroy Earth they homeworld, original at least
@@NerZul007 The whole war was pointless and insane. I'll be publishing the entire story two videos from now, so stay tuned!
Thanks for the video. As an X fan I'll make a few personal points:
I think you understate the Argon's naivete and/or negligence as well as the Terran's practical if alienating approach to security they've adopted via learned experience. As you've mentioned: the split are outright villains, the Paranid are religious fanatics with the very real potential to be hostile at the whim of their leadership, and the Teladi are unscrupulous profit mongers who have problematic ties to piracy and are therefore unreliable. The Terrans have a legitimate concern about security that the Argon fail to address, and even more damning, actively undermine, so even if they could be at some point great allies, they instead turned themselves into a potential security threat.
...but all the paranoia of the Terrans, hubris of the Paranid and malice of the Split pale in comparison to the most dastardly of them all:
The player faction.
This utterly unpredictable faction could befriend you, cause you to become utterly dependent upon them for your shipbuilding needs, and then, without explanation, utterly wipe you out. Doing it with a fraction of your own ships which unfairly seem to recognize the importance of local concentration of force and micromanagement.
Profit, war , warcrime , drugs , this faction is so unpredictable one day it's shakes your hand the next it's destroys your station with 10 asgard and shank you in the back merely for profit or because he like watching the galaxy on fire, the xenon are the threat they say but they long forgot the player have actively destroyed all of them 10 minutes ago
I like the Terran summary. I really like that they're in the game, they're the only faction I see actually changing the galaxy. Hatikvah's choice was getting absolutely stomped by the xenon early on in my last playthrough. until a Terran "intervention corps" (love that by the way) rolled through and not only eliminated the attacking xenons, chased them back into their sector blew half of it up. this completely changed the trajectory of the sector and allowed it to actually build up and protect itself, and it's my only playthrough where Hatikvah's choice was actually a strong, successful trade hub. instead of a broken ship graveyard I have to blacklist my civilian ships from.
Question, is that with or without mods? I haven't played for a long time and when I did the factions were pretty stagnant, so everyone used mods to make them do stuff.
@@IndustrialBonecraft without mods. and fair point, I really should get into mods I just hesitate to put any on there as X4 is already so fiddly and content heavy, I worry any mods would just add to the static. I tried VRO, and didn't end up liking it because i added so many things. I liked the balance changes, I just couldn't build a fleet that made sense to me with all the different options.
Recently started x4 and got into it. Was thinking something to fall asleep to with non spoiler x4 content and saw this perfect timing. Thumbs up.
For the conspiracies: I'd say that the Kha'ak have a spirutual connection to both the space flies and nividium. So the reason they are this agressive against the factions is that they see all vertibrates as people who'd are try to perform a genocide on them.
I'd put on 6+ hours of Captain Snuggles X4 space travel ambiance as background music & visuals.
Thanks for all the X4 videos, especially the science and lore episodes.
Now the explicit version😊
Thank you for this video! I recently picked up X4 and I am finally digging in. Its an amazing game! Subbed.
The fact the Teladi are welcome in every port and everyone uses their money leads me to think they're quietly the galactic hegemon.
Their not allowed in the inner sphere of the Terrans though
@ethanforster Yeah, the terrans exist to cause problems for everyone.
They're not even a great profit opportunity because they're an isolationist autarky that doesn't need anything from the Commonwealth.
@@ethanforster name any faction that's actually allowed in sol system sectors that doesn't have terran in its name
@@MesaAufenhand Rufio Industries
i'll give a like....
aslong as the terrans give permision first.
This is a great idea for a series look forward to watching these.
Plain and simple, just a great video.
More of these please!!!
What a cool and fun video.
Terran's are not bad, they just have some rough life experience that lead to the mature conclusion that they can rely only on themselves.
Especially after what happened to Torus.
Thank you for your content. X4 is hard lol
Ooooo. Can I play as the split families? Is it possible to capture ships and slaves with them? I have not seen slaves yet.
Buuuu! Down with the Argon Federation!
Yep, you can play as the Split with the Split Vendetta DLC (currently on sale)! No slaves in X4. They've removed some of the really evil gameplay since X3, although there may be mods to add it back in. But you can still capture ships and do other piratey things!
@@CptSnuggles07 ... That seem a bit absurd if its even a part of the lore. Weird of them.
I always felt like ALL the factions were some variation of "the bad guy". If there is to be a "good guy" faction at all in the universe, that responsibility lies squarely upon your shoulders.
I will accept that theory for everyone except the Boron!
Alongside with Terrans you should mention Yaki. According to the lore they deserve to be mentioned what they are even are not an empire... Maybe in the next lore video
They will make a guest appearance in the next lore video, although they're not the main focus.
I would put the vigor Syndicate more into the major Empire Category. They control their Space and have access to pretty heavy Ships. Junk Ship or not, they are effective.
There's definitely a strong case for that, but I had to draw the line somewhere and they didn't quite make the cut. Maybe in X5!
I know they aren't technically a "faction" per se, but if you decide to do a deeper in lore video(s) about the factions, include the Kha'ak and their history, along with the Xenon. I think new players would find all that fascinating.
That could be fun! I do think I'll be doing a deep dive into certain parts of Xenon lore pretty soon.
I wish the Terran shis looked more like the Syn and Asgard, rather than those donut things
Neat.
Though do the kha'ak count as a civilization?
Definitely a civilization, and a very fascinating one! Though not really a "faction" in the same way as the ones in this video.
In my 1k hours in the game my diplomacy with HOP was limited to declaring war on them, then profiteering from that war. The only thing that HOP has thats mildly interesting is the ares. But since the terran dlc i just use terran fighters so there is no reason for them to exist i guess
The Teladi Company thinks there are many reasons for HOP to exist! Many small, shiny, jingly reasons.
@@CptSnuggles07 Profitssssss
Bah, Teladi Propaganda, Just cuz Terran Security wont let the greedy little skinks near the inner solar system, they pitch a fit and call the Terrans evil.