Noob questions, wingmen, etc.

[Kha'ak bait]

So, I'm a total noob when it come to the X-universe. [shrug] That's OK by me, everyone should have unexplored frontiers to keep life interesting. But there's a few things niggling me... mainly lack of documentation about small details. I've read the FAQs, done some searches, scratched my head and am still none the wiser.

Wingmen: does setting the wingmen flag do anything besides allow you to filter them out in the listings?

What are the formations used by wingmen? Some are obvious (line, delta, x) but what's x-delta? I assume that's just an X formation with the leader in an advanced position?

Does the squad leaders Formation setting have any effect on the formation? Or does it only apply to any ships he (hence the squad) are following/protecting? Would this allow me to set up a convoy of TS/TPs in line formation and have 4 squads of 5 M3/4/5's (each in delta formation) following the convoy leader in an x-delta formation?

Questions, questions, questions.


Oh, yeah... another one. The boost extension. AFAICT it just permits you to accelerate more rapidly, correct? So why does it have a keystroke? Surely it's either on or off all the time... else it'd just be another afterburner, wouldn't it? And if you have it, what's the point in turning it off? Does it consume energy? Why assign a key at all?


Ooh! Ooh! A couple more!

Patrols. HOW? I can manually steer a point by point route of course, but is there any way to define route in advance and then assign a squad to follow it?

SETA. The more I read, the more this confuses me. All these suggestions about flying way off into the distance and leaving SETA enabled to generate a fast buck. Huh? SETA simply won't run when I'm flying manually and autopilot kills itself as soon as I get to my destination. The only way I can see to work around this is to define a patrol route way off in the boondocks... but... well... see my previous question.

There've been times when I'd like to engage SETA when I'm not going anywhere. Like, outside a factory and just waiting for it's stovks to fill. I may not be in a hurry to be anywhere but I'd much rather wait in one spot than be zooming around a sector just so's I can enable SETA. Others seem to be able to manage it, why can't I? Or is this something that has changed in the latest release of X3?

Sick of me yet?

OK, I got some more... nar, I'll take pity on ya. For now... but I'll be back!

[grim company]

there is no way ican answer any of thos questions cose i'm a noob myself
but i just want to and one more, what are those ufo's and what to do with 'em

[r4yne]

The wingman command enables u to use shift +6 to attack your target shift +7 to protect you, this happens WHEREEVER your wingmen are albeit in your hangar or half way across the galaxy, they will help you. Ive noticed with formations if all are on the same formation type they end up crashing into each other.

Boost extention when enabled puts your engines on full power rather than having to accelerate manually.

As for SETA if you got a few UT's just undock when u goto bed and leave SETA on or something, I dont do that but, Ive read some people do.

[Tsar_of_Cows]

About SETA - what they mean is just point your ship in a direction, fly along at full speed, hit SETA and go do something else for a few hours.

Your ship will fly into the distance, safe from pirates and Kha'ak, and your factories and UT/STs will tick over making money for you.

SETA by itself doesn't make money, the idea is to leave the game running with SETA on hile you do something else so that your money making schemes willl well... make money.

It's risky though, as your traders may well get stuck or killed without your assistence, and many people look down on it, but it's a single player game so it's up to you.

[r4yne]

Thats one of the main reasons I dont do it, My money turnover is above average and I would rather be playing the game just in case a UT needs help as I can get there in seconds if I need to.

[crgray]

SETA simply won't run when I'm flying manually

As soon as you touch the controls SETA should cancel. If you mean it cancels itself before you touch the controls you might find you have the same problem I used to have. When flying by joystick and using the mouse as a pointer the mouse pointer dissapears after a few seconds inactavity. I eventually found my SETA was cancelling every time the mouse pointer dissapeared. No idea why and it now seems to have cured itself

[willat]

You can just park your ship out in space somewhere at zero speed and engage SETA and leave it. Best would be to be outside the gate area and away from traffic, also in a secure sector.

[Kha'ak bait]

Thx folks.

Since making that post I've been playing with buttons and finally managed to get more info on wingmen than I really wanted to know. Ain't discovering where they hide things in new forums fun?

I still haven't made heads nor tails of setting up patrols... the main reason I ask about that is 'cos next session I'll be setting up my very first factory (OK... OK... old hat to you, a lot of hard work and exciting times for me!) So far I've set up some UT & ST's but spent most of my time capping. Enough to have a couple of reasonably equipped wings of 1xM3/2xM4/2xM5 spare... and it's either use them for something or sell 'em off.

I really don't like the idea of leaving a factory unprotected, can't afford any serious protection and I'm hoping one of these wings'll do against the "casual pirate." I'd rather have 'em patrolling the lanes of connecting sectors than have 'em hovering close to home... at least until I have enough spare cash that, along with selling 'em off, will get me something more suitable.

As for SETA, I don't plan on any get rich quick schemes. But I really would like to use it when I'm waiting for a factory to restock. With all controls zeroed, no speed, it still clicks off after a second or two. I hadn't thought about the disappearing mouse thing, but that could very well be it... I'll find out tomorrow, on my next adventure to be killed by some more Kha'ak. 'Tis 4AM here now, no play tonight.