Increasing XP Gain for the Non Combatant

[Zer0Winds]

Okay, I love playing merchant, no clue why, it's more fun than it really should be... anyway, I feel I don't get enough XP to help increase my skills. As it's been said, combat with faction ships give the most XP. So is there any way to increase the amount of XP you can get as a NON Combatant?

[poryg]

Spy and solar wars - blockades and surveillances.
Other than that, you can get some xp from successful contracts.

[Cory Trese]

Actually, smoothed over 1,000 turn units, delivery of cargo is the fastest XP generation in the game.

[poryg]

Aug 3, 2016 9:06:54 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

Actually, smoothed over 1,000 turn units, delivery of cargo is the fastest XP generation in the game.

With surveillance during 2 spy wars I have been able to gain up to 70 xp in 40 weeks. Therefore I doubt the correctness of your answer. With three spy wars this number grew to 110 xp in 40 weeks. 

[Cory Trese]

Aug 3, 2016 12:57:57 GMT -5 poryg said:

Aug 3, 2016 9:06:54 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

Actually, smoothed over 1,000 turn units, delivery of cargo is the fastest XP generation in the game.

With surveillance during 2 spy wars I have been able to gain up to 70 xp in 40 weeks. Therefore I doubt the correctness of your answer. With three spy wars this number grew to 110 xp in 40 weeks. 

Awesome! You know a lot more about it than I do.

Thanks for the correction!!!

[Zer0Winds]

I'll think about Cory's package contract one... I'm a merchant, not a military officer, I'm not blockading.

Besides, then all my points would have to go into tactics to increase success, which I usually (as a merchant) prioritize Pilot (to escape) Intimidate (to make everyone fear me to help fuel consumption) and negotiate. For prices. And stuff.

[poryg]

Cory Trese I doubt I know a lot more than you do. These are just numbers. A cargo may be the fastest one time xp source. But still, nothing could beat the xp gained from spy and solar wars in the long term.
In other words, I have never had a captain, who didn't make use of spy and solar wars, be on par with the game considering level expectancy/real level.
But I have already had a captain, who made use of spy and solar wars regularly, ahead of the game, my most lucky case was ahead of the game by whole 120% (which was also due to the fact that he used stealth quite heavily, but before he actually started leveling up his stealth, he was already 50% ahead of the game... On impossible difficulty). These cases are very rare though, and three spy/solar wars against one faction haven't occured to me in months. 

For me, there is another great source of xp, btw... My bugged Surrendering to the space hive and then hitting Done. Everytime I hit Done, the time passes by a week, but I gain xp with each click. I have never measured how much xp I gain from it though. And I have never used it to my advantage, because even though it's just using an irregular glitch, I don't really like making my game easier with them... 

[poryg]

Aug 3, 2016 15:06:01 GMT -5 Zer0Winds said:

I'll think about Cory's package contract one... I'm a merchant, not a military officer, I'm not blockading.

Besides, then all my points would have to go into tactics to increase success, which I usually (as a merchant) prioritize Pilot (to escape) Intimidate (to make everyone fear me to help fuel consumption) and negotiate. For prices. And stuff.

No, far from all points would have had to go to tactics. 
My last merchant began with 6 negotiation and 6 pilot, like any other merchants. 
I gave him 30 tactics, just as always. From there, I went on. 20 negotiation, 12 pilot, 16 stealth (because stealth has proven better than pilot to me in terms of escaping), then I raised negotiation to 30, because too much negotiate skill actually hurts the profitability (it begins to erase the economy price differences, making zero profits) . And then I went on with 30 explorer and 20 intimidate, in addition to 20 strength to survive wound rolls better. In 135.8 AE he lost his last trade permit due to spy and solar wars, so he was ready.

Unfortunately my captain died in 178.28 AE with 5 extra Explorer and tactics and 20 warrior, as I used him as a lab rat for exploring, and met aliens while carrying a full hold of artifacts. 
He was a merchant just like yours... He just invested in tactics to gain xp in spy and solar wars. And from there he focused. 
I didn't need to cut down water fuel... It was crazy difficulty, and also, the planets could hardly fill up my cargo, leaving me always capable of carrying 50 water-fuel with no problems. So I didn't need huge pilot and intimidate. I only needed negotiation up to 30, because I wanted profits from trade... Then I made a mistake of buying rank 18 everywhere though (always keep at least one faction with low rank, preferably Thulun, if you ask me), so he had to start exploring to gain profits. 

[poryg]

I actually prefer Smuggler to merchant, since in the end I usually end up trading restricted goods, so merchant's special ability becomes rather useless, but smuggler's ability gets handy.

[resistor]

My last Merchant Captain got a lot of XP by taking contracts. Take whatever contracts you can (except maybe assassination/capture/blockade) when you aren't busy with trading. Also, I might be wrong about this, but I believe ending shortages on planets gives some XP (as well as massive profits).

This is how I would do it.

[Zer0Winds]

Eh. I guess. It's hard to find a balance between contracts and trading.

I use enter too much.

Anyway, I don't know, if I do the contract and trade approach, that's fitting with my smuggler style, where I mix contract based with trading. Oh! Maybe I'll just play smuggler!

[poryg]

[Zer0Winds]

Oh my god...








De Valtos scum!

Oh wait...

[poryg]

Poryg the Thirsty was blessed to meet a Space hive in the 16th week of his space travels... He ended up 500+ xp richer.

[Zer0Winds]

Were you thirsty when you made that name...?