What's your secret formula (xp allocation)

[slayernz]

Officer Genious congrats on getting established with your captain Yes, keeping your promotion levels to low-mid means you keep your contracts relatively risk-free.

Note Cory is aware of the strength issue and is considering options to close that as a potential exploit/loop hole, so it might not be worth sinking significant amounts of XP into Strength.

[Officer Genious]

Thanks slayernz - I dunno if not promoting so much makes the difference but I've only had one rough fight and I still even torped a too-persistent bounty hunter on the way to a friendly star port. Even crazier, I'm Steel Song this time and played nice enough with other clans that they gave me a rank too (but I keep them at ranks 1 and 2). Clan Javat is especially useful for this kind of stuff as they seem to have their planets rather close to deep space and one is close to just about any Syndicate zone.

I'm even doing 30+ AU delivery missions and only having to buy sails and torps at the end! I may need some promotions to liven things up a bit.

P.S. - I also crushed a level 2?? Bollish alien with 200 hull (with Mortifum Telum). They only came close to my ship once (but not point blank) but I was dancing and torping circles around them. I'll pull up my stats.


Level 11

Attributes
11 - 13 -13 -11

Pilot/stealth - 13
Tactics - 12
Strength/intimidation - 11

[HateSolstice]

I was with you until you said you were Steel Song. Now you have to be excommunicated from the church of St. Trese. I hope it was worth it.

Someone get the shackles!

[slayernz]

Yeah that Steel Song admission kinda stopped me dead for a minute. If it's okay by you, I'm going to pretend I didn't just read that and assume you're one of the reputable houses ... say Javat. So looking at your stats, you can definitely beef up your Pilot a lot more. In fact if you are not a boarder, I'd say investing the next 15 - 20 skills points purely into Pilot would not be a bad move. Yes, it means adding points to Agility, but no, it doesn't mean you should add any more to Stealth. Your Stealth level is about right for at least the next 10 - 15 LEVELS. That is, you can probably afford to get to at least level 25 before you even consider adding more to Stealth. Then, if you're comfortable with the amount of encounters you get while you do your runs for Javat, then you can probably leave Stealth where it is from now on. If you find you are struggling to get away from the occasional ship, then boost Stealth to about 20 (again, after you have reached Level 25).

Tactics look right for the next 8-10 levels. You will be able to do Surveillance and Blockade missions within a few turns, and hit targets comfortably. When you find you are beginning to miss more than you hit, start adding to Tactics again, but no more than 2 per level and again after you are level 20.

[phantombudgie]

I just started a new captain - Thulun again, it's really growing on me - and went off my usual path to try some of this advice. I stopped stealth at 8 and tactics at 8. This does not appear to have reduced (subjectively) my ability to gun everything into oblivion. Level 36: Pilot is 52, warrior is about 38, intimidate is about 35. No negotiation skill etc. I'm just clearing the quadrant of Rychart, those annoying weaklings that have spent most of the whole game embargoing at least one other faction.

An Inquisition cruiser with upgraded engines lets me chose how I fight most of the time. Except just a short while ago when a 1000-crew Narvidian-holy-****-it's-a-damn-space-Hive (full name from the ship's audio log) came to say "goodbye" to me.

Since I had lots of boarding stats I thought that now might be the time to test them, or more likely might be a more lengthy way to die than trying to run, but somehow I made it out alive! Not too many of my crew did, mind you, but Thulun Prime had many more ranks of fine men waiting to join.

[Officer Genious]

HateSolstice No not the shackles!!!!!

Nov 10, 2013 16:01:05 GMT -5 slayernz said:

Yeah that Steel Song admission kinda stopped me dead for a minute. If it's okay by you, I'm going to pretend I didn't just read that and assume you're one of the reputable houses ... say Javat. So looking at your stats, you can definitely beef up your Pilot a lot more. In fact if you are not a boarder, I'd say investing the next 15 - 20 skills points purely into Pilot would not be a bad move. Yes, it means adding points to Agility, but no, it doesn't mean you should add any more to Stealth. Your Stealth level is about right for at least the next 10 - 15 LEVELS. That is, you can probably afford to get to at least level 25 before you even consider adding more to Stealth. Then, if you're comfortable with the amount of encounters you get while you do your runs for Javat, then you can probably leave Stealth where it is from now on. If you find you are struggling to get away from the occasional ship, then boost Stealth to about 20 (again, after you have reached Level 25).

Tactics look right for the next 8-10 levels. You will be able to do Surveillance and Blockade missions within a few turns, and hit targets comfortably. When you find you are beginning to miss more than you hit, start adding to Tactics again, but no more than 2 per level and again after you are level 20.

You can, but Javat is full of snooty people. I just let everyone laugh at my SS ship until I Cadar-torp the smack outta them. I'm a master of disguise. 

I don't have trouble controlling encounters, but I do wish I would stop running into friendlies every three squares. Yes, acknowledge, go the hell home all ready!! 

I'll work on Pilot then I guess. Off to torment De Valtos. They never let me play with them, told me I wasn't cool enough... 

[Alex Fury]

Officer Genious - Stealth skill and any upgrade that 'provides a bonus in deep space for avoiding encounters' will help a lot with that. Omni-Stealth array is great for that. Also make sure you don't use too many upgrades that give a penalty for that, like many of the cargo modules (only exception is the cargo-vault I believe for a dedicated-cargo mod)

[Officer Genious]

Nov 12, 2013 11:16:06 GMT -5 Alex Fury said:

Officer Genious - Stealth skill and any upgrade that 'provides a bonus in deep space for avoiding encounters' will help a lot with that. Omni-Stealth array is great for that. Also make sure you don't use too many upgrades that give a penalty for that, like many of the cargo modules (only exception is the cargo-vault I believe for a dedicated-cargo mod)

Thanks Alex. I haven't used the cargo mods on this captain but I'll toss a few points in Stealth. I really only use pilot tqctics and stealth on this one, and since I have no issues with my pilot yet (I think my current ship hull is like 18 and I'm waiting to find a torp-heavy ship to upgrade to while I have money to burn), I can just toss into stealth until people leave me alone.

A lot like throwing cats at small children to get them off my lawn, really.

[HateSolstice]

Every time I start getting my pilot skill past 15, I start running into pirates that just bum rush me and get all up bizniz. I don't even have to to work on tactics, stealth, or any other good skills.

Just for clarification, points into Warrior do not increase survival chances during exploration. Only Strength does. Right?

[Officer Genious]

Nov 10, 2013 16:01:05 GMT -5 slayernz said:

Yeah that Steel Song admission kinda stopped me dead for a minute. If it's okay by you, I'm going to pretend I didn't just read that and assume you're one of the reputable houses ... say Javat. So looking at your stats, you can definitely beef up your Pilot a lot more. In fact if you are not a boarder, I'd say investing the next 15 - 20 skills points purely into Pilot would not be a bad move. Yes, it means adding points to Agility, but no, it doesn't mean you should add any more to Stealth. Your Stealth level is about right for at least the next 10 - 15 LEVELS. That is, you can probably afford to get to at least level 25 before you even consider adding more to Stealth. Then, if you're comfortable with the amount of encounters you get while you do your runs for Javat, then you can probably leave Stealth where it is from now on. If you find you are struggling to get away from the occasional ship, then boost Stealth to about 20 (again, after you have reached Level 25).

Tactics look right for the next 8-10 levels. You will be able to do Surveillance and Blockade missions within a few turns, and hit targets comfortably. When you find you are beginning to miss more than you hit, start adding to Tactics again, but no more than 2 per level and again after you are level 20.

Well, my captain just died horribly-- only 10yrs before that achievement in 151 AE.   Just... so angry.

I upgraded from a Javalin to a Code Cruiser, which despite higher stats didn't feel as strong as my Javalin. I almost had Javat at Exempler status too... *screams in anger*

Anyway, here are my ship stats:

Hull: 23
Armor: 11
Engines: 32
Sails: 57
Crew: 60
Hold: 45
Gun: 16
Torp: 22

Skills: 16 Warrior, 15 Intimidate, 25 Pilot/Stealth, 24 Tactics (I did notice that I was still getting a lot of encounters, so I pumped stealth again). Everything else one.


The Alien that crushed me:

Krangg (lvl 50)
H: 20
A: 3
E: 35
S: 35
C: 100
H: 2 of 8
G:12
T: 0


The worst is that I can't for the life of me figure out how I couldn't lay a finger on this ship even with my super-tactics. I could retreat from him a couple of times, but he wiped my crew very easily and seemed fully capable of getting in my face (sails and engines be damned!). While I go throw a tantrum, could I get some feedback on how my build was? I'm too disheartened by my loss to really see what went wrong...

[Jacob]

Why'd you throw a Tantrum?...

A stone into a window, okay.
A Xeno into a Templar if you don't like both of them, okay.

But why the hell anyone would throw a TANTRUM??

Sent from Bravestar Control Center, Boston Core. Causing Havoc and Chaos in the NBZ since its beginning.

[Officer Genious]

Nov 23, 2013 14:32:57 GMT -5 Jacob said:

Why'd you throw a Tantrum?...

A stone into a window, okay.
A Xeno into a Templar if you don't like both of them, okay.

But why the hell anyone would throw a TANTRUM??

Sent from Bravestar Control Center, Boston Core. Causing Havoc and Chaos in the NBZ since its beginning.

Haha stone through a window!! I'd hate to pay for that... It was more like wailing grief and disbelief. Ohgodwhyyyy?!??!?

[slayernz]

Officer Genious, what level was your captain before he bit the wrong end of an Alien?
Your ship was always destined to be crap at space encounters - the Engines to Hull ratio was 1. Most shuttles probably had a better EHr than that. Your ship stats show that it would be a very efficient (long-distance) ship, but crap at pretty much anything else. Hold is too small, crew are too few, and ... err probably too many torps and too few guns

If you were below level 15, I'd say you had a pretty good captain build, although an all-rounder rather than a specialist. The way that levels are calculated though, I'm picking you were at least level 20 if not 25. In either case, your pilot skill was sorely lacking. It needed to be extremely high in order to fly that barge of a ship that you were flying in any meaningful manner.

Mind you, coming across an Alien is always something that chills the heart of even the most seasoned captain. Level 50 for an Alien means it's pilot skill would be at least 50 - 60. That, combined with an EHr of 1.75 meant you needed to have really decent (like +70) pilot skill to have much of a chance.

[Officer Genious]

Nov 23, 2013 23:22:56 GMT -5 slayernz said:

Officer Genious, what level was your captain before he bit the wrong end of an Alien?
Your ship was always destined to be crap at space encounters - the Engines to Hull ratio was 1. Most shuttles probably had a better EHr than that. Your ship stats show that it would be a very efficient (long-distance) ship, but crap at pretty much anything else. Hold is too small, crew are too few, and ... err probably too many torps and too few guns

If you were below level 15, I'd say you had a pretty good captain build, although an all-rounder rather than a specialist. The way that levels are calculated though, I'm picking you were at least level 20 if not 25. In either case, your pilot skill was sorely lacking. It needed to be extremely high in order to fly that barge of a ship that you were flying in any meaningful manner.

Mind you, coming across an Alien is always something that chills the heart of even the most seasoned captain. Level 50 for an Alien means it's pilot skill would be at least 50 - 60. That, combined with an EHr of 1.75 meant you needed to have really decent (like +70) pilot skill to have much of a chance.

I was level 25 I believe. This one was a zealot playing like a military officer, so I didn't worry much about the hold or crew. As for torps, that was the focus of my build- torp today, torp tomorrow, torp forever!! As for the engines to hull ratio... I didn't think of that. Dag. Okay, I'll work on knowing that for next time.

So engines are really important even if you torp all day. Hmm.

[slayernz]

If you want to keep the enemy away from you while you torp madly, then yeah, you need a good EHr. At level 25, you'd want your pilot skill to be between 40 and 50. Stealth was probably over-represented - you can almost stop pumping Stealth around 20, and if you do, it's a token point here and there.

You had reasonable Warrior, which would have helped you when you were boarded by the Alien, but you only had 60 crew and the alien had 100. Knowing how Cory tweaks enemy captain/alien generators, the Alien warrior score would have been higher than yours.

At the end of the day, you needed higher Pilot, and higher EHr in order to keep the Alien from boarding you and finding ways to use their probes in uncomfortable places.