Combat!

There are a bunch of other threads on the topic, and to be honest, the way the game is coded, it would take pages and pages of info to give you a comprehensive answer to your question, but here is the 100,000 foot summary.

In combat, Sails help you in long-range maneuvers when you are using torpedoes. So having more sails means that you get slightly more accuracy than less sails. If you have damaged sails, you lose accuracy.

Engines are important for closing ranges and retreating. Also, engines help power weapons, so no engines, no ability to shoot.

Quickness is the over-arching physical stat that constrains your Pilot and Stealth skills. I've always believed that the higher the quickness score, the more effective you are at using ship guns and maneuvering, however, the ability to dodge enemy weapons fire is definitely more part of the Stealth skill than straight Quickness. If you have, say, 20 points allocated to Quickness, then the highest your Pilot and Stealth levels can be is also 20.

Stealth is very important in avoiding being hit by your opponent. Actually, taking one step back, Stealth is also important in helping you avoid even having encounters in the first place. The higher the stealth level, the less chance you have of being approached by another ship. Back to combat though, stealth is used to dodge gun and torpedo fire, and will help you with boarding actions.

Pilot skill, is principally used in combat to change ranges (Long range - 100km, Medium Range - 10km, Short range - 10m). This means that if you have a pilot skill of, say 20, and a ship with 20 engines, then you should be able to advance or retreat against an opponent who has an identical ship, but a pilot skill of 15. That's, of course wild generalization, but the gist of Pilot importance is there.

If you feel inclined to board your opponent in combat, then Warrior skill is important. Having a high Warrior skill means that it is more likely that any boarding action will cause your enemy captain to be hurt (along with enemy crew), and less likely that you will be hurt in the action.

Also, for boarding, it pays to have weapons in your hold. If you have 50 crew in a ship with 20 engines, then you effectively have 30 crew available for the boarding action. You can equip each of the crew with a weapon (meaning you'll need 30 weapons in your hold). Cory's advised you can even go for as much as 2 weapons per available crew, so in the example above, you'll need 60 weapons in hold.


Speed and Agility for ships is a way to quickly rate the different ship performances, but it's not something that you have to always look for the best for. Basically, if a ship has 2x (or more) the number of engines than hull size, then your ship is classed "Fast". Engines between 1x and 2x give you medium, and less than 1x is "Slow". Similar types of measurements go for when you have 2x (or more) sails compared to hull, etc.

Note that these descriptors (fast/medium/slow, etc) relate to the stock-standard version of the ship, so if you go and upgrade your sails or engine count, then you could take your ship from Medium speed to Fast speed in terms of performance, but your descriptor will still show "Medium".

Upgrades are a separate topic, but very important all the same. Upgrades not only provide you with more of something, but often have additional bonuses as well. For example, the Extended Gun Decks not only give you 7 more guns, but makes all of your guns slightly more accurate. Pick the upgrades that suit your playing style - more engines = better ability to shift ranges. More sails = more efficient travel + more long-range maneuverability.

Good luck and hopefully you'll have it all figured out by the time you reach the frontier.

Did I cover anything?