Should most officers always be combat crew? Seems odd...

[Captain Mickey]

Hello all, just getting into this game. I might be falling victim to analysis paralysis, but every guide or tip I read about combat crew seems to have the consensus that most should be officers. So why do we always start with officers without combat jobs? Shouldn't it be random generation? As it stands, to follow the suggestion, you usually need to either force a starting officer into the combat role without perfect synergy and often less output (Doc/DM/Pistols being an exception), or fire officers (wish you could just demote them) and promote a combat oriented person, but then they are often less strong, and the person you hire won't be as good at anything.



Would love some guidance with this. I typically play on normal difficulty, so can all non-officer combat crew survive well at mid to endgame? Am I overthinking, min/maxing too much? Worried about how the difficulty ramps up.

[Robb]

On normal I run a combat captain, with two other officers and then when I buy a bigger ship I promote my rating soldier. I think if you stay away from crew combat, especially with xenos, you could do just two officers on normal difficulty for a longtime.

[fallen]

Looks like this was cross-posted to Steam and got some great responses there as well:
steamcommunity.com/app/335620/discussions/0/3104638636525900698/

[captainmikeg]

Thanks!

[Cory Trese]

I see a lot of successful players using 1-2 combat officers in the end game (max level) on higher difficulties. There are certainly advantages to using some officers in combat, but it is by no means mandatory.

Some players use zero combat officers, some players use four. I think the sweet spot for most builds in somewhere in-between but it is a personal choice and depends a lot on ship and playstyle.