Character Creation Theories

[En1gma]

I'm finding that with the militant (MO, Bounty, so far) characters I create, going

Attributes (1/2)
Ship (2/1)
Contacts (3)
Skill (4/5)
Profession (4/5)

makes my life so much easier. If I don't need that expensive a ship, I move it down, keeping everything else the same.

You might have a slower, more jack-of-all-trades character until you get some levels and start to specialize, but I think (in possibly my noobishness) that having maxed out attributes makes up for the lower skills and profession levels.

What are your go-to setups? Any ship preferences for the various price levels?

[John Robinson]

En1gma

Built my first Explorer, he started to tour the ship. The crew hasn't seen him since Thursday!

I let the ship type determine which priority it ends up in. Pick the cost set the priority. This table is helping me remember Startup Ships
Until customization goes in I might be wasting one of the Priority picks?

(A) Profession	Explorer  Level 6
(B) Skills	+15 to spend
(C) Ship	Paladin Cruiser
(D) Attributes	+50 to spend
(E) Contacts	1 Retired Explr

[Cory Trese]

At this point I think putting Attributes first is crazy. You just aren't getting enough return.

[bookworm21]

I find attributes tends to slip down the rankings fairly quickly for me.

I normally go:

Skills
Profession
Ship
Contacts
Attributes


Sometimes contacts and attributes swap - I'm not a huge fan of only starting with a single contact, but it's workable. 

[Cory Trese]

Look I'm telling you, this is madness

[En1gma]

You need to explain, Cory Trese =]

[Cory Trese]

Attributes really just give you pools like Health and Morale. Attribute build Captains aren't really be viable unless you're taking them into combat, which I don't think you guys are doing. You shouldn't be, at least not early game. Attributes A is a long play with high up front risk -- imagine you're aiming to start peaking at like Level 16 or something.

I would advise against these high risk - high reward strats when you're testing the game (in phase 1.) There just aren't enough features for you to use to offset that risk.


A: Profession
B: Ship
C: Contacts
D: Skills
E: Attributes (Only Boost Resilience / Fortitude)

That's the early advantage build right now.

* You get maximum starting SKILLS for the ship (Profession = Levels)
* Your ship, which cannot be upgraded, is CRITICAL in Phase 1.
* Contacts give you the ability to take multiple missions at once, and maximize benefit from a Faction Rep
* Skills will prove late game impact
* Attributes are very late game impact

[xdesperado]

Cory Trese
My current and by far most successful Captain to date started with Attributes A, Ship B, Skills C, Profession D, Contacts E.
Think part of the issue with attributes at least for me is that lower priorities are a double penalty. Not only do you have fewer points to spend on your attributes, but the base level is also drastically reduced. At E priority your captain with balanced stats of all 10s will have lower attributes by an average of 5-10 points across the board compared to everyone in the crew and any new hires.
Makes you wonder why they are person in charge.
If minimum attributes were set at say 14 regardless of priority then think people would be more inclined to use the lower priorities even if the points available to spend was severely reduced.
Alternatively give all priorities the same points to spend and then adjust the minimum starting attributes down so people that want to play characters with severely disadvantaged attributes can do so or else they can simply bring most attributes up to close to the lower end of crews attributes for a more balanced build.

[Cory Trese]

Cool man, if the Attributes A build is working for you (for role playing and game play) then stick with it.

I'm just trying to help the average player based on the metrics I have.

[John Robinson]

Cory Trese

Thanks for the great advice, especially placing emphasis on phase 1 testing.  Printed it out sitting on my desk.  Time to go create next Captain. (Explorer)

+1 

[bookworm21]

Feb 4, 2017 1:33:15 GMT -5 John Robinson said:

Cory Trese

Thanks for the great advice, especially placing emphasis on phase 1 testing.  Printed it out sitting on my desk.  Time to go create next Captain. (Explorer)

+1 

I think explorer might be my favourite.

Or spy, actually - the intelligence officer gives some fantastic missions.

[johndramey]

Cory, that is very interesting and makes sense. I've been going:

Attributes
Skills
Ship
Profession
Contact

I figured it was a long term build, but didn't really think about trying out a short-term focus build.

If you have the time, would you mind sharing your design philosophy with us? Like, what do you consider the focus of each priority? What helps early game, what helps combat focused captains, and what is a late game focus? That kind of info would be super helpful for players. We could synthesize it and have it posted in a new player info thread for when the game goes live.

On the topic of what we like, I've been loving the Merchant. He seems to get nice bonuses to trading, and getting trading permits helps you make more money cause it unlocks more expensive trade goods.

[En1gma]

One difference I notice with Attributes A, is I don't see as many negative/red notifications go by on the dice rolls.

[En1gma]

I'm enjoying the Explorer and the Bounty Hunter so far. Starting to branch out, next I'm going for a Zealot I think, so I can start testing boarding.

[John Robinson]

Feb 4, 2017 5:06:18 GMT -5 bookworm21 said:

Feb 4, 2017 1:33:15 GMT -5 John Robinson said:

Cory Trese

Thanks for the great advice, especially placing emphasis on phase 1 testing.  Printed it out sitting on my desk.  Time to go create next Captain. (Explorer)

+1 

I think explorer might be my favourite.

Or spy, actually - the intelligence officer gives some fantastic missions.

 Absolutely!  The Explorer is the one that appeals most to my imagination. It's the one I hope gets allot of attention.  My dream is to explore a huge number of quadrants checking out abandoned stations, and wilderness worlds. I enjoy playing  ground encounters with the card driven deck mini game way more than slugging it out in space.  I want to make enough cash to "pimp out" the ultimate explorer ship.  That can be pretty hard if you get clobbered before you can get to port.  

Earlier today I was playing a Bounty hunter, prowling in my fancy Dragoon Cruiser.  Got slaughtered in my first space battle on basic difficulty. I just couldn't open up enough range to excape.   I'm trying the Spy this evening, hoping stealth will let me avoid the worst of them.  High Pilot (S-Job, S-Skill) hopefully I can fire a couple torpedoes and get out of town.

Seriously does anyone have good advice on the best way a rookie captain can escape ship to ship battle without taking allot of damage?  

Captain Dummy's motto: To discover new worlds, seek out new civilizations, to boldly go where no ship has crashed before.