Weapon Falloff - Long-Range Combat and Cinematic Effects

Battles in X4 end in one pass. Two fleets drift into knife-fight range, both melt in seconds, and there was nothing to command. If you went looking for an X4 combat overhaul, a weapon range mod, or just "make fights last longer" - this is that mod.

Every vanilla weapon and turret shoots 4x further, with damage that falls off over distance, plus a cinematic pass on weapon impacts and ship explosions. No custom content - only the game's own ships, weapons, turrets and effects are rebalanced. Compatible with all DLC content.

Why falloff and not just longer range: plain range mods keep damage flat, so fleets delete each other on the first pass and the fight is over in seconds. Here damage drops with distance, so battles last and pushing in close is a real decision instead of a formality.

Solo-developed and actively evolving - expect experimental tweaks across combat, visuals, and AI as new ideas hit the battlefield. Occasional bugs may slip through the crossfire.

Which archive should I download?

This page hosts 4 archives. Install only one - they are alternative variants, not stacking add-ons. Pick by how much you want changed:

┌────────────────────────────┬──────────────┬──────────┬───────────┬───────────┐

│                            │ Standard and │          │          │ Cinematic │

│ Feature                    │  Invasions  │ Standard │ Cinematic │  Lite    │

├────────────────────────────┼──────────────┼──────────┼───────────┼───────────┤

│ Weapon rebalance & falloff │      +      │    +    │    -    │    -     │

│ Extended missiles          │      +      │    +    │    -    │    -     │

│ Cinematic weapon impacts  │      +      │    +    │    +    │    +     │

│ Bigger ship explosions    │      +      │    +    │    +    │    +     │

│ Bullet brightness          │      +      │    +    │    +    │    +     │

│ Lens flares                │      +      │    +    │    +    │    -     │

│ Heat-haze ripple on hits   │      +      │    +    │    +    │    -     │

│ Extended render distance  │      +      │    +    │    +    │    -     │

│ Wider AI & radar ranges    │      +      │    +    │    -    │    -     │

│ Cargo rebalance            │      +      │    -    │    -    │    -     │

│ Xenon & Khaak invasions    │      +      │    -    │    -    │    -     │

│ Static asteroids & wrecks  │      +      │    -    │    -    │    -     │

└────────────────────────────┴──────────────┴──────────┴───────────┴───────────┘

Standard and Invasions

combat overhaul weapon range damage falloff longer battles turret rebalance invasions reactive defense ship explosions bullet impacts lens flares bullet brightness render distance weapon momentum radar range cargo rebalance

This is how the developer plays X4 - recommended for RTS-style commanders who want a real fight. Massive Xenon and Khaak invasions will test your empire. May push your system harder than the standard mod.

Everything in Standard, plus:

INVASIONS

• []The Xenon and Khaak don't wait to be built - they pour in through the jump gates[/]

  []The onslaught escalates for a full week, one wave a day: by week's end the Xenon are about 2. 5x their usual size, their capitals 4x, the Khaak 4. 5x[/]

  []Khaak swarms hunt your miners in packs while the Xenon grind forward cold and methodical, their destroyer wolfpack gaining a hunter a day, up to seven[/]

  []Boss megaships prowl the sectors - a Khaak battleship, and with Timelines a Xenon mothership and the 'Dace' carrier - hulls the game has and never fields[/]

  DEFENSE

  • []Idle faction military actually responds now - garrisons in quiet sectors redeploy toward the fighting and keep circulating to wherever the front line is[/]

    Beyond the table above, it also brings faster trade and supply across AutoTraders, station traders and construction, a livelier faction economy that hauls, produces and builds roughly twice as fast, sector police that answer the first hit, and a small map trade-filter UI fix.

    Protected UI Mode: that trade-filter UI fix needs X4's Protected UI Mode turned off to load - open the Extensions menu, disable Protected UI Mode (above the mod list), and restart. The weapons, effects, invasions, and cargo work regardless.

    ---

    Standard

    combat overhaul weapon range damage falloff longer battles