Profession: Captain

[celu]

So what does "morale loss protection in Faction space" mean?
It sounds like something that can be useful in Impossible level with heavy W-F consumption early on. But it does not seem to work.

I'm trying to get a different angle on playing this game and trying out the Captain Profession (that nobody really use).

It also describes the Captain as "lucky"...in what way?
Is it on dice rolls? something useful? or he just "feel" lucky?
...something that can be useful in Impossible level?

[Cory Trese]

maybe that should be boosted. let me look again

[blackgauntlet]

Jan 10, 2012 0:02:57 GMT -5 celu said:

I'm trying to get a different angle on playing this game and trying out the Captain Profession (that nobody really use).

It also describes the Captain as "lucky"...in what way?
Is it on dice rolls? something useful? or he just "feel" lucky?
...something that can be useful in Impossible level?

You're right, it's one of those professions I never really use BECAUSE of the questions you stated.

Hard to pick a class that you have to stick with for the rest of your character's life when you don't really understand how it works.

[Cory Trese]

Anyone playing Captain care to disagree?

[absimiliard]

I tried one a few times, but it never felt different from any other class to me.

-abs

[Cory Trese]

OK, here is how Captain works.

You get 50% off of Pardons. That's potentially, for the correct play style, the difference between Trade Permits with everyone and enemies galore. If you do not use Pardons in your play, then Captain isn't for you.

You get a 50% Morale Save in Faction space. That's potentially, with a high difficulty, the difference between 10 Mutinies and 5, which could easily translate into survival vs. death. If your losses are not due to Mutinies, or you don't need help with Morale management, Captain might not be for you.

Captain, like Star Trader, are character classes that infer generic bonuses aimed at the 'jack of all trades' play style that existed in the pre-character class era.

As some of you may remember, Star Traders RPG originally did not have character classes at all. Everyone was a Star Trader. My design notes for Captain indicate it is the same as the Star Trader pattern -- designed to provide bonuses that are used constantly (morale loss, reputation purchases) or (repairs, upgrades and trade in.)

[blackgauntlet]

This sounds like a great class for newbies. Couple this class with old Turdlip and the crew would become a legion of mindless zombies who'd die on your command.

[absimiliard]

Actually those are pretty good abilities.

I'd forgotten the pardon cheapness. That's incredibly potent with certain play styles.

I should probably try a Captain again. I love exploiting a trade war, spy war, or solar war for rep gains while buying pardons up cheaply.

-abs

[Cory Trese]

one thing it probably needs is a toast saying "morale loss stopped by Captainness"

[absimiliard]

That would certainly bring more attention to the moral ability {edit: Or even to the "morale" ability, *sigh* Typing, it had to be typing . . . . }, to be sure.

But damn, half price pardons, I can't believe I forgot that.

Currently the cost of apologizing for "I shot your merchant to hell, looted his stores, and sent him on his way" tends to be just about the value of the typical merchant's hold. So hanging around a faction-world shooting up merchants and then landing to apologize tends (for me) to be a cash-neutral activity. (I do it because I enjoy it and for the rep gains during X Wars)

But at half-price pardons pirating actually becomes economically viable. You still will need to watch things closely, since keeping trade permits in place can be tricky (and restricted goods are a big chunk of a hold's "value"). So most people can only friently-pirate at cost, but Captains could do it AND make money. Nice.

(I really like friendly pirating, for those who tend to have enemies it's obviously not the right answer but if you want positive relations with all factions it's pretty much the only option that allows targeting faction-ships.)

It occurs to me that it would make the Captain a pretty good bounty hunter too, since he/she could take out faction ships and apologize on the cheap.

-abs

[celu]

I used to play captain early on and enjoyed the pardon discounts (suckers!!!)
But I never understood the morale loss and it takes a while to build up stats to be effective sooner.
It may be harder to survive on impossible, I think.
Let's show some love to the forgotten captain profession.
So what about the "lucky" part of the equation, Cory? Any explanation on that?

[slayernz]

I've played countless games, but never once played as a "Captain". My Jack of All Trades class is 'Star Trader". Captain seemed just too watered down to be useful, even when I was a newbie.

My class choice evolved as I played
Star Trader --> Military (Cadar of course) --> Explorer --> Smuggler --> Spy

I haven't given Zealot a go, and each of my bounty hunter characters didn't last beyond their greenhorn stages.

[celu]

And if you consider late game potential, the pardon discount is somewhat useless as it gets boring being a good citizen and the invoice would be just as expensive.

I tried Captain a few times recently and I'm kind of lost (or dead) trying to develop him. Starting abilities are just too low. The vacuum of space from hull breach, dismemberments and other physical injuries, neutralizes the handsome traits of Captain.

[antixeele]

Captain is generally the main profession of my... Erm, Captains! With morale loss protection, the captain takes on some of the responsiblities of the first mate, which makes it easier to drop the boozing scoundrel at the nearest stardock in favor of a more productive piolt, or military officer. I like to have a Captain captain, with pilot military mechanic officers for quests, bounty hunting, faction warfare, and piolt military alienhunter for, well, hunting aliens.

Also, for my Captains named after renowned fictional starship captains such as Captain Nathan Brazil, Captain Jean Luc Picard, and the ever-reincarnated Captain:IMPOSSIBLE!, the Captain profession seems only fitting!

And as for stats... Captain starts with 14charisma and 14 quickness. In comparison to a star trader, it would take at least 60 xp to raise those from 9! imagine your captain starts with all 9s base statistics and all 1's secondary statistics. With base stats costing six xp and secondary costing 3, that would mean the star trader starts with 36 points worth of skills. The Captain starts with 66.

[antixeele]

So I figured we could score every captain by the experience value of his starting skills. And an interesting pattern emerges! Just wrote all the characters and stats out in a chart. every base stat point over 9 counts as 6 xp, secondary stat points over 1 count as 3 xp.

Star Trader: 36
Merchant: 90
Smuggler: 90
Pirate: 72
Bounty Hunter: 72
Military Officer: 66
Explorer: 66
Captain: 66
Spy: 42
Zealot: 51