I rarely use SETA anymore. In fact, I just enjoy XT3C in real-time!

General discussions about the games by Egosoft including X-BTF, XT, X², X³: Reunion, X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

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When do you use SETA?

All the time! I even use it to accelerate money-making operations!
24
22%
I generally use it just to travel. I don't abuse SETA.
69
63%
Actually, I really only use it on extremely large journeys. Otherwise, SETA is disabled during in-system flight.
10
9%
I do not use SETA.
7
6%
 
Total votes: 110

g04tn4d0
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I rarely use SETA anymore. In fact, I just enjoy XT3C in real-time!

Post by g04tn4d0 » Fri, 24. Oct 08, 21:12

You know, I used to use SETA on X2 not only to get around town but also to make money at night while I slept. Now, for some reason, I find myself no longer using SETA in X3TC. It takes however long it takes to get from point A to point B. And for some strange reason, I'm really enjoying the pace of the game.

I don't mind hyperdrives, warpdrives, or jumpdrives. That's all fine and good. But time-acceleration has always been something that I've not really cared too much for. It devalues some of the game experience to me. Kind of like map travel in Oblivion. I don't mind walking everywhere and taking my time and I'm okay with the concept of paying extra for instant travel. I get to see more of the game and it's easier to suspend disbelief. I also get to appreciate just how big some of these sectors are.

When I'm zipping around at 10x SETA, I don't get the excitement of passing close to another ship. It's done and overwith before I am even able to register that it just happened. Distances seem shorter. It also seems to reenforce impatience on my own part and I begin wishing for even faster SETA settings... kinda like microwaving a hotdog (soydog of course) and getting put off for having to wait 30 seconds when it otherwise takes several minutes using conventional cooking. :P

I realize most everyone probably uses SETA. But, just for my own morbid curiousity, I'd like to know specifics. Take the poll!
Last edited by g04tn4d0 on Fri, 24. Oct 08, 21:20, edited 1 time in total.

fud
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Post by fud » Fri, 24. Oct 08, 21:17

In X3R, I used it all the time. Then in later game starts, not at all.

In TC, I used it a bit at the beginning, now I don't bother.

I think it just makes the experience better.

It's also a good time to multi-task, I'll send my ship on autopilot across several sectors and cook dinner. :)

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Ecthelion
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Post by Ecthelion » Fri, 24. Oct 08, 21:54

In X3:TC I use it the same way I did in X3:R, which is basically only for travel. I have never used it as an exploit to get money, and never leave the game unattended (except for short breaks to the bathroom or kitchen when my ship is traveling on autopilot). I do use a few exploits (such as sticking close to a station when facing multiple enemies and occasional docking during combat), but that's never been one of them. When you get right down to it though, how many players don't use strafing during combat? That's exploiting the limitations of the AI for all intents and purposes.

It's been so long since I played X2 that I don't remember what I did there. I don't remember having any stations though, and I didn't do much trading. Therefore, using SETA in X2 wouldn't have made my money build up.

I suppose the game would be more immersive if I avoided SETA, but I don't want to still be trying to get my first M1 20 years from now... there's only so much time in the day for me to play (and I don't even have kids yet!). I'm more of a fighter than trader, so I guess that tells you I like my game to be somewhat fast-paced.
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Laelaps
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Post by Laelaps » Fri, 24. Oct 08, 21:56

This time, I only use it to travel. If I need more credits I just do a few combat or think missions.

The only reason I can see to abuse SETA would be to lower my combat rank. I'm not there yet but it looks like warlords get 1 fps patrol missions.

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Carlo the Curious
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Post by Carlo the Curious » Fri, 24. Oct 08, 22:03

At the moment I only use SETA to travel (and the odd instance of convincing annoying M5s to crash into something :p).

In X3R I rarely used SETA at all - I was too busy managing my empire.

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MegaJohnny
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Post by MegaJohnny » Fri, 24. Oct 08, 22:15

I use it for travel and when I'm waiting for something. Like if I've got a batch of future STs trundling over to Omicron Lyrae, so I can give them sectors.

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Post by GCU Grey Area » Fri, 24. Oct 08, 22:41

Laelaps wrote:The only reason I can see to abuse SETA would be to lower my combat rank. I'm not there yet but it looks like warlords get 1 fps patrol missions.
Very tempted to do that myself - getting an OK(ish) fps during patrols, the problem is there are so many capital ships that the AI simply can't cope - all the ships come to a dead stop & turrets stop firing (including mine).

Never even contemplated doing an overnight SETA in X2/X3R (too worried about losing ships while I was asleep) but for X3TC might just do it to get the patrol mission working again.

Anyway, this time, since I don't have any factories or trade ships to worry about, essentially there's nothing at risk by doing it. I'll just park somewhere safe & quiet in a remote corner of a Terran sector (never seen a single pirate, khaak or xenon in there) & hopefully when I wake up I'll be back at Harmless.

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Post by g04tn4d0 » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 00:16

Wow! It seems that there is 1 other person who refuses to use SETA. Everyone else seems to use it all the time. Maybe I should start an anti-SETA cult?

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Post by jahulath » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 01:30

I do use SETA because it can take 5+ mins to cross a sector in an M3+ @ 150m/s BUT for X2 I used to leave it on all the time for the factory cash. It seems that because the pace of x3tc has changed so much I am happy just wandering round as a space merc (I haven't bought a single factory compared to plugging pretty much every hole in btf, xtension, X2 and X3r) I have a feeling that as soon as I find someone willing to supercharge my ship to a reasonable speed (is 300 so much to ask?) I will probably just fly around in real time - Your right of course the SETA drive does unimmerse one a bit.

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moggy2
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Post by moggy2 » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 01:47

I haven't used Seta much since X:Beyond the Frontier. I've always had too many other ships to look out for.

ocoini
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Post by ocoini » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 02:11

I think x10 is too slow -.- But I only use it to travel really.

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Post by Kor'ah » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 02:21

I'm still playing X3R mind you.

Only use SETA very early in a game. After I've got ASATs out and several UTs working I don't have time for SETA.
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ChickenSmeller
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Post by ChickenSmeller » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 02:23

I like to use it on only the longest of journeys that I'm actively 'participating' in. Mostly I leave SATA off while I do other things.

Working from home, I keep TC running and listen for the Betty alerts if I have a problem. I feel it adds to the realism, as I go about my day to day chores, and if a game emergy happens I can run to the 'bridge,' my game room, to issue orders.

So mostly, I leave SATA off unless I'm going nuts to get something done fast, which is rare.

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Post by Creston » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 04:29

I can't use SETA anymore, because it slows the game down to 1 frame every 5 seconds! Woot!

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Post by PabloRSA » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 05:52

I wanted to play the game with no Seta and i can only reside in the starting sector.

The bit where i only start in the 1 sector went out the window as for the humble merchant start you dont get a trade extension at the beggining. So had to go argon prime to get one so i can remote trade. Sure i could capped a ship for one but disco had 0 weapons too.

At this time i am currently 12 hours into the game with 0:00 seta usage.
Infact i have changed " j " key to autopilot rather than seta.

I will still use jumpdrives as i feel i have earned the right, not only that ill still none seta to SPP.

Aim is to have 0:00 seta usage for the whole duration of the game

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Post by kyoo » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 05:56

I find myself using it a lot less now that I have an encyclopedia to read.

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Post by fishface60 » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 10:01

What will you do when you've read everything though, I cheated all encyclopedia entries and it only lasted me one sector.
It's just a shame X3:TC doesn't like running in the background, then I could surf the internet or do coursework on the other monitor.

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Ecthelion
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Post by Ecthelion » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 12:22

fishface60 wrote:What will you do when you've read everything though, I cheated all encyclopedia entries and it only lasted me one sector.
It's just a shame X3:TC doesn't like running in the background, then I could surf the internet or do coursework on the other monitor.
Do you know any games that run in the background? I can't think of a single game I've played over the years that doesn't "pause" when it's switched away from.
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Forked
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Post by Forked » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 12:40

Only when I travel..

I haven't really gotten started yet though, but I plan to use SETA less and less.

As for having it not pause while running in the background I've had some random success with it when running TC in windowed mode .. and using RMB while pressing alt-tab it has worked 40% of the time :P
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Post by alex2069 » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 13:11

To those people that chose not to use SETA at all, are you masochists? lol
It isn't cheating, since it's a part of the game. It can be ABUSED, but it isn't cheating.

On that not, the first game I played (X3R), I used it all the time, and I'd leave my comp on overnight on x10... Saying that, I got bored of the game after a while and just stopped playing. A good 6+ months later, I decided to play it again, and told myself I wouldn't abuse it like that.
At the start of my new game, I used it a bit travelling and doing missions, but as my empire grew, I was using it less and less. The time spent getting around was time I'd spend managing my empire, and even that was sometimes not enough and I'd sit just outside of my target trying to finish managing before continue my mission or whatever.
This time I played for many months on end, and enjoyed it thoroughly.
Ecthelion wrote:
fishface60 wrote:What will you do when you've read everything though, I cheated all encyclopedia entries and it only lasted me one sector.
It's just a shame X3:TC doesn't like running in the background, then I could surf the internet or do coursework on the other monitor.
Do you know any games that run in the background? I can't think of a single game I've played over the years that doesn't "pause" when it's switched away from.
As for this, WoW could. I too have a dual monitor setup and was annoyed at this. When I played WoW it was perfect (especially when setup correctly - "fullscreen" windowed mode). I think I tried this in X3R... Not sure if I could do it or not... Been a while since I played now; infact, since TC was announced my playing times quickly decreased. I am eagerly awaiting X3TC in the mail. :cry:

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