Are there any drwabacks to using SETA?

[sebbelino]

Is it recommended? Or should I avoid it? What are your thoughts on it?

[DaBa]

Other than the game possibly not doing as good of a job with it's simulation due to you hurrying things along, not really. But there really isn't a reason to use SETA in this game either, at least I haven't found one. There's always something to do, you are never really sitting still doing nothing. That only ever happened to me when I was really late into the game, with all plots finished, and my empire being so well oiled I didn't have anything else to do other than pump out ships and kill things.

[Xautos]

SETA allows you to speed up time so slow tasks like station building or a big ship that moves slowly can cross the gate network faster, or cut down on the marine boarding waiting time. whatever the reason that's the positive to cutting down time spent waiting.

the only negatives to it:,

if your ships come under attack and they alert you or you come under attack in a ship not prepared to take a lot of damage, you could end up severely damaged or destroyed, the same with your ships.

the second issue is any time sensitive orders you might give could be missed.

if you keep on top of events around you and your ships though and any orders, you can prepare accordingly and those negatives go away. SETA is very useful to have when you can get the parts and craft it for use.

[Captain Canard]

Personally I prefer AFK over SETA, as long as I'm within audible distance so I can hear when something terrible goes wrong. The game struggles to keep up with everything happening in real time, so "fast-forward" (SETA) has got to make compromises in order to work at all. Consider EVE, that actually slows down time when things get busy. SETA is just the opposite, so it's definitely taking shortcuts that I wouldn't necessarily trust.

This reminds me of one winter when it was extra cold and I was down a heater. I fired up X4 and let it run overnight so my computer would blow out hot air to help keep things warm (my character was stowed away on an NPC large trade ship). It worked! And the galaxy was still in one piece in the morning, LOL.

[Troll]

I remember a game where I overdosed on SETA. As in, multiple hours straight when it managed to keep going without interruption.
The AI was broken pretty hard. All trades were at a standstill, station filled with wares but no trade ship doing their job. Even my own ships wouldn't act upon orders at times and would take long to react to events.
I left the game on normal for dozens of hours for it to normalize.

[OhHeyItsLee]

When ordering my scout ships to place any deployables (i.e. satellites), I've found that SETA causes the placement to catapult the deployed object a good distance away from where it was ordered to be placed.

Additionally, SETA can't be activated when you're on a ship that's using a highway, along with a few other restrictions on SETA usage. Like when docking, for example, you can open the map and then activate SETA with the keybind ([SHIFT]+4 by default) and you'll need no longer suffer the slow docking and departure sequences.

[sebbelino]

Originally posted by Captain Canard:

Personally I prefer AFK over SETA, as long as I'm within audible distance so I can hear when something terrible goes wrong. The game struggles to keep up with everything happening in real time, so "fast-forward" (SETA) has got to make compromises in order to work at all. Consider EVE, that actually slows down time when things get busy. SETA is just the opposite, so it's definitely taking shortcuts that I wouldn't necessarily trust.

This reminds me of one winter when it was extra cold and I was down a heater. I fired up X4 and let it run overnight so my computer would blow out hot air to help keep things warm (my character was stowed away on an NPC large trade ship). It worked! And the galaxy was still in one piece in the morning, LOL.

Hahah! I have actually done that, left the simulation on during the night. Waking up feels great, I fly out of bed to check statuses of my ships and my current credit balance.

[sebbelino]

Thanks for all the answers!

[bNp*]

Just don't use it hours at end, it can cause a crash.
I only use it when crystal hunting and sometimes to speed up orders before starting terraforming.

[Maniac]

I have always used it to generate money overnight.
Park my ship in a very safe space, turn of seta and the next morning my stations, traders and miners brought me in a few more millions

[CTHOMP]

I've noticed that when I SETA, somehow my traders/ships/stations start warring with allied factions. Example: I'll have +30 rep with Argon, but after II SETA for a while, they will start attacking my stations/ships in Argon Prime. No idea why this happens.

[Xautos]

Originally posted by CTHOMP:

I've noticed that when I SETA, somehow my traders/ships/stations start warring with allied factions. Example: I'll have +30 rep with Argon, but after II SETA for a while, they will start attacking my stations/ships in Argon Prime. No idea why this happens.

Happens in Terran space as well, also don't know why it happens. it's usually started by police ships and the military joins in not long after.