|
|
Post by Officer Genious on May 9, 2017 18:12:42 GMT -5
So I know you get penalized for being overstaffed, but is there an additional penalty for not having max crew? I mean still reaching 150% on stuff but not having max crew. If so, is it better to be 200%+ over or have half the proper staff?
|
|
|
|
Post by fallen on May 9, 2017 20:43:44 GMT -5
So I know you get penalized for being overstaffed, but is there an additional penalty for not having max crew? I mean still reaching 150% on stuff but not having max crew. If so, is it better to be 200%+ over or have half the proper staff? See the WIKI page on Skill Pools - startraders.gamepedia.com/Skill_Pools |
|
|
|
Post by Officer Genious on May 9, 2017 21:33:53 GMT -5
So I know you get penalized for being overstaffed, but is there an additional penalty for not having max crew? I mean still reaching 150% on stuff but not having max crew. If so, is it better to be 200%+ over or have half the proper staff? See the WIKI page on Skill Pools - startraders.gamepedia.com/Skill_PoolsSo I'm assuming that's the penalty, correct? I can still pass most skill rolls however thanks to a number of talent saves and high level crew, but I still haven't figured if under is better than overstaffed at high levels of play. |
|
|
|
Post by fallen on May 9, 2017 21:46:28 GMT -5
I think the examples given in the WIKI page should help? There is no penalty for being somewhat overstaffed. Moderately overstaffed is a good thing. See the "OPTIMAL" heading on the WIKI Page. If you are really overstaffed (more than 200% of your Skill Pool) then all you are penalized is NOT getting the Skill points about 200%. Compared to Understaffed, it is 1000% better to be overstaffed. Understaffed is real, big, nasty penalty -- instead of Strong Dice, you roll ALL dice as Weak Dice.
I have cut and paste the example from the WIKI below.
OPTIMAL: If your Ship requires 20 Pilot and your crew provide 30 you are very nearly at optimal staffing. There is more than enough Skill and hands to control the ship, but not too much. In this case, any Skill Points that you provide which match the Ship's requirement are rolled as Strong Dice, and the rest as Weak Dice. So, in a 20/30 situation, 20 Dice are rolled as Strong Dice and 10 Dice are rolled as Weak Dice.
UNDERSTAFFED: If you Ship requires 32 Pilot, and your Pilot Skill Pool is only 30, then you are understaffed. There are not enough hands to control your ship. When Understaffed, all of your dice are rolled, but they are all rolled as Weak Dice.
OVERSTAFFED: If your Ship requires 15 Pilot and your Crew provides 30 Pilot Skill Pool, then you have reached the maximum number of pilots who can assist in using the controls effectively. Adding more Pilot Skill Pool will not grant you any additional dice. The maximum Ship Skill Pool you can roll is twice that of the demand of your ship's components requirement for the Skill. Therefore, with 15 Pilot demanded by your ship, 30 is the maximum number of ice you can possibly roll. Therefore, if your ship requires 15 Pilot (therefore, 15 Strong Dice), the maximum number of Weak Dice you can roll is 15 as well. Exceeding 30/15 in Pilot Skill Pool is a waste of Skill points which are not being translated into dice. The exact same dice will be rolled if you have 35/15 compared to having 30/15. In this case, you are better off adding more components that require Pilot, so that you can shift back into the optimal range.
|
|
|
|
Post by Officer Genious on May 9, 2017 21:50:01 GMT -5
Okay, I thought there was a penalty to having 20 total crew instead of 30, for example. But if it's more important to fill the rolls, I'll do that.  |
|
|
|
Post by Officer Genious on May 9, 2017 21:51:53 GMT -5
Also, I realized I've been approaching this whole staffing thing wrong. Thanks fallen!
|
|
|
|
Post by fallen on May 9, 2017 21:55:02 GMT -5
Also, I realized I've been approaching this whole staffing thing wrong. Thanks fallen! Glad I could help  Adding more Skill Pool (Pilot, etc) is great up until you are 200% of your ship's demands. Then you want to add things like Boosters to increase the ship's demands, so you can keep using the Skill your crew provides. Or, you would fire some pilots once you get over 200%. If there is something specific that you think we could add to the WIKI to help make this more clear, that would be killer. |
|
|
|
Post by fallen on May 9, 2017 23:17:19 GMT -5
Thanks to whoever just updated the WIKI page to improve it!
Big +1!!
|
|
|
|
Post by grävling on May 9, 2017 23:19:31 GMT -5
me -- forgot to login
|
|
|
|
Post by Officer Genious on May 10, 2017 8:48:45 GMT -5
Also, I realized I've been approaching this whole staffing thing wrong. Thanks fallen! Glad I could help Adding more Skill Pool (Pilot, etc) is great up until you are 200% of your ship's demands. Then you want to add things like Boosters to increase the ship's demands, so you can keep using the Skill your crew provides. Or, you would fire some pilots once you get over 200%. If there is something specific that you think we could add to the WIKI to help make this more clear, that would be killer. That's what I've been doing, firing people. Now I have like half the max crew for my ship, so I was worried something would happen because of it there. But I should've been looking at soak values more closely. |
|
|
|
Post by fallen on May 10, 2017 9:47:21 GMT -5
Ah. There is no benefit to having less crew than your barracks allows.
|
|
|
|
Post by grävling on May 10, 2017 11:06:43 GMT -5
Ah. There is no benefit to having less crew than your barracks allows. I disagree. If you want to train some people up in a hurry, fewer people on board means that the experience is divided among fewer people, so the ones that are there level faster. The cost to maintain your crew -- salaries, spice and healing -- is also less, but by the time your soak scores are over 200, cash won't be that much of a problem for you, so there is no need to toss experienced crew out the airlock just to save money. |
|
|
|
Post by fallen on May 10, 2017 12:06:05 GMT -5
Oh man, so classic I am completely wrong lol. Queen grävling strikes again. There are lots of potential soft benefits. But, in terms of Skill Pools, you don't get any benefit. |
|
|
|
Post by grävling on May 10, 2017 12:11:30 GMT -5
Oh man, so classic I am completely wrong lol. Queen grävling strikes again. There are lots of potential soft benefits. But, in terms of Skill Pools, you don't get any benefit. Ah, this I agree with! |
|
athios
Templar
[ Star Traders 2 Supporter ]
Posts: 1,611 
|
Post by athios on May 10, 2017 12:56:03 GMT -5
It's important to differentiate being understaffed with regards to skill pools (less than 100% is very bad), versus being understaffed as in having empty beds on board.
If you are a non-combat type, as long as you have fulfilled your skill pool requirements, it's okay to have leftover empty beds. If you include combat crew on board, you likely won't have spare beds.
As grävling mentioned, having less crew overall makes them level up faster, and keeps costs down. This can be a big help in early game. In my current game I'm flying with 30 crew instead of 24 in previous game, and the level progression is very noticeably slower now. If you are consistently having less crew than your Barracks can support, you also have the option of downgrading to a smaller Barracks, freeing up some Mass that you can use for other ship upgrades.
The other option is fill up the beds with crew needed to get near 200% skill pool. Nowadays there are additional choices for other important hires (e.g. Doctors, Commanders, Pirates, Diplomats, etc) from Contacts. As with everything in ST2, there are tradeoffs to every choice.
Something to keep in mind, especially true on higher difficulties, is that having "spare" crew on board will help buffer against desertion and death. As an example, if you Pilot skill pool was just above 100%, a single death could plunge you into an Understaffed situation. If you have spare Pilots/Pirates on board to boost skill pool level higher, you have lower risk of running into that problem.
|
|
