Is X3 Reunion viable with no SETA ?

[Kitteh]

Just wondering. Is it viable to play X3 Reunion on no SETA ? I have tried to do just that. In 27 hours of total game time (a week in real time) I seem to have made not so bad progress. I have a solar power plant, an Argon Nova Vanguard, an Ore mine and a 1 MJ Shield factory. And two Universe Traders. My initial money to set them up mostly came from capping Paranid ships.

But it seems I hit a ceiling. M6 ships, factories and such cost millions. I seem to make a few hundred thousand credits per hour real time. I literally have to sit and wait 4-5 hours to buy each new factory. At 10X SETA that would be about 30 mins of waiting for enough funds to pile up for next investment.

There is nothing I can do to speed up the process. So what should I do ? Give up the no SETA challenge ?

[ancienthighway]

It really depends on how anxious you are to move forward. I'm basically doing the same thing in TC, no SETA over night to beef up the bank. But I'm actually doing more missions than I have in the past because I make more money doing those than trading right now. Just a couple million more credits and I can buy an Elephant, and then finally look at station building!

[Hellfire29]

Sure, it's viable, but it will take about 9 or 8 times as long, assuming it's not 10x SETA all the time.

Personally, I wouldn't do it, it just seems to be adding an unnecessary element to the game. Having just played the first couple of hours of a game with no SETA, I know how boring it gets. Basic trading in a slow freighter made it coffee time.

You do use it less as the game progresses I find as there's always some micromanaging you could be doing.

[pr0nflakes]

I only use seta when i'm traveling without a JD or turning a capital ship so i would say yes its entirely possible.
I would even go so far as to say its better as you can concentrate on reinvesting your earnings doing missions and controlling MORT's.
You don't have any idle time and don't lose any combat skill to afk decay.

You could argue that in Reunion you needed to afk seta to earn money to begin with, but bonus pack TC and AP fixed that issue with better mission's and hired traders.

Just remembered i use it when i'm using repair laser occasionally but i wouldn't count it a a massive loss if i couldn't do that, would just have to go make a cup of tea i guess.

[jlehtone]

I did not use passive income in X3R. SETA for travel only and for a quite while not at all. Disabled hotkey for self-control. I don't claim sanity, and the start was casual.

There is a Xenon Invasion mission around almost three times per ingame day.

[Kitteh]

I did not use passive income in X3R. SETA for travel only and for a quite while not at all. Disabled hotkey for self-control. I don't claim sanity, and the start was casual.

There is a Xenon Invasion mission around almost three times per ingame day.

I have heard the Xenon invasion mission plays very well. At Federation Guardian level what kind of money would it bring ?

Edit: Also the build times for some late game items seem crazy without SETA from what I read in the online guides. 5 hours to produce on GPPC and a M2 can take two dozen to arm. Reverse engineering a ship can take days.

[jlehtone]

Federation Guardian is an Argon reputation rank. The invasion looks at Combat rank; the more you have, the more Xenon will spawn. The reward is based on what your ships kill. At Xtreme combat rank you can get 4 J, 4 K, ~320 L, ~70 M, so 80 mil credits in total, but it takes a while.

Code: Select all

J	8 306 494
K	5 932 199
L   	62 587
M   	40 502
N   	     ?

I presume a Harmless does face couple N's.


5 hours is a relatively short time. (Not so short non-SETA operation.) You can build a Complex of 24 gPPC Forges that builds guns for one Destroyer in 5 hours. Building such Complex consumes time too.

[Cpt.Jericho]

A thing maybe worth to note: The capships in XIs spawn equipped with 125MJ shields and not 1GJ shields, making it possible to take them down fairly easy.