Advice for Patrol, Spy, Explore Build

[tenbsmith]

I'm looking to build a captain that is good at Patrolling, Spying and Exploring, using the default map with tutorial on low difficulty. 

I'm especially interested in feedback on:
1) Starting contacts. Contacts are set to D, so I only have two. One will be a Retired Explorer, the Story provides a Prince, who else??? 
2) Additional Jobs for Officers. Early picks may include Military Officer to help with Patrol, Spy to help with spying, Merchant to help with Contacts. 

Keep in mind, my captain/officers avoid crew combat. 

I plan to start with a modified version of the Explorer template with priorities:
A) Attributes: Strength 20, Quickness 20, Fortitude 26, Charisma 28, Wisdom 22, Resilience 20

B) Skills: Stealth 4, Doctor 4, Intimidate 3, Explore 4 

C) Ship: Galaktak(sp?) Freighter.

D) Contacts (see above) 

E) Experience

[lancelotbiggs]

I'm playing such a captain. This is what I consider helpful:

Contacts: you need someone who buys your intel records. My favorites are smugglers, smuggler princes and fixers as they also enable access to black market. You'll be willing to sell artifacts you find on exploration somewhere.

Retired spy is an option for you can hire spies as crew members.

Stats: what about higher stealth and explore? Those are most important to you.

Officers: doing your jobs you'll meet ships you don't want to meet. It's great to have talents that help you out like 'stiff salute' and 'forged permit'. First is provided by military officers, second by smugglers. My captain is a smuggler, merchant and a spy, as officers serve a doctor/combat medic/military officer, a quartermaster/commander/zealot.

For patrolling it's useful to have a Zealot (crew or officer) as you can replace a risk card with a reputation gaining pirate contact card. Even if you don't fight that pirate, you gain the reputation. Even better is the military officer's skill 'commanding sweep' which replaces a risk card with a reputation bonus.

I'm flying the galtak too, like it a lot. Been replacing some weapon with that triple sensor module for 50 % Intel bonus.

It is a build I love to play. Hope you enjoy it. If you like please share your experiences you've made with it.

[tenbsmith]

I'm having fun with this build on Basic difficulty. Captain is currently level 11 Smuggler, Commander, Military Officer with $44k in the bank. I'm really enjoying the Smuggler talent that allow you to avoid ship combat. It seems to me, one of the key paths to success in this game is avoiding ship combat, except when you want to.

I've upgraded the Galtak with improved torps and a missle array. I swapped closer ranged weapons for a Medical Bay, prisoner cell, and Armored Bulkheads. In this configuration, I've one a couple of ship-to-ship fights with minimal damage thanks to the Talent Evasive Maneuvers. I'm considering swapping a cargo bay for a large medical bay to make room for a Navigation Module, which would help with dodge in ship-to-ship combat and range change/ability to flee, though perhaps i'll upgrade my bride next.

Don't think I'll be getting a officer cabin for a fifth officer.

This build is very good at Patrol, relying primarily upon CrewDog/Gunner Talents to reduce risk. I often retreat from ships I encounter during patrols using Smuggler and Military Officer Talents. I've been using patrol to maintain my reputation with all factions, my lowest rep is currently -4. It'll be interesting to see if I can get all faction reps positive.

I replaced one of my starting Soldiers with an Exo-Scout, and using her Exploration card removal Talent has worked reasonably well. Currently Explore = 12 (+6). I need to level the Explorer job for my Doctor/Diplomat/Explorer Officer.

Spying has taken a back seat until recently when the eTech Spying risk reduction Talent became available. Currently Stealth = 5 (+8), my lowest skill pool. I need to level up the Spy job for my Quartermaster/Merchant/Spy officer. I'd also like to recruit a Spy as part of my crew.

I originally intended to get a 4th Officer Cabin, so I could recruit a 5th officer, but I've changed my mind. I'm going to try to fill out my needs with Crew like Exo Scout, Diplomat, Spy... maybe even Smuggler.

Zealot sounds very useful, may need to try that next time. For this game I was avoiding officer jobs with crew combat skills.

[MintDragon]

Zealot/Quartermaster/Swordsman blend nicely at the moment, but that's partly due to the lack of talents above 8 on Zealot/Quartermaster, so I can get to a pretty powerful combat officer with the mix.

[lancelotbiggs]

Nov 27, 2017 10:47:07 GMT -5 tenbsmith said:

I'm really enjoying the Smuggler talent that allow you to avoid ship combat. It seems to me, one of the key paths to success in this game is avoiding ship combat, except when you want to.

You're so right about this.


My captain is Level 21, playing on difficulty challenging. I encountered 387 enemy ships so far, 333 ended with a draw and 54 in me surrendering.

I haven't had a combat in a long time. Even (faction) pirates let me
retreat or acknowledge them because of my good reputation with all
factions. I've been selling Intel Reports and Rare Trade Goods to all of
them. I'm everybody's incredible rich darling

The only ones who want to battle with me are independent pirates and xeno.
If I have no cargo and prisoners, I surrender to everyone except xeno.
They loot me, but my cargo hold is empty, so what? If I go to battle and
escape my ship gets damaged an I loose money and time and maybe even
crew members. If attacker is xeno or if I have valuable cargo (rare trade goods, artifacts), I use 'Skip off the void' to save my a**.