Noob questions

[bobo]

Hi, I just started playing a couple of weeks ago and have a few questions. I'm playing the iOS version 4.3.1.

1. What is the advantage of luxury rations on crew consumption?
I recalled testing a ship with 60 water-fuel and then using the same ship with 50 water-fuel and 10 luxury rations, and it used .01 less water-fuel with each move when it had the 10 luxury rations vs water-fuel only. To me this was negligible and did not warrant including any luxury rations. As I didn't record the info, and I could have been misremembering, I recently tested this on the following two ships:
I tested a Pride of DeValtos holding 55 water-fuel, 5 luxury rations and 60 weapons, 156 crew and Battleship Architecture, and found that the crew consumed 1.21 water-fuel per move in green space. I then changed the 55 water-fuel and 5 luxury rations to 60 water-fuel and 0 luxury rations, and there was no difference; it was still 1.21 water-fuel per move.
I tested a Steel Song Templar with 42 crew and 102 water-fuel and 0 luxury rations, and it used 0.15 water-fuel per move in green space. I then sold off all of the water-fuel and bought rations, so it now had 0 water-fuel and 19 luxury rations, and it used 1 unit of luxury rations per move in green space.
It seems to me that luxury rations are completely inefficient. They are more expensive and less effective than water-fuel, so I'm not seeing any benefit to carrying them. I've seen posts where people mentioned carrying 5-10 luxury rations in their cargo holds, but I don't see why. What is the benefit?

2. I've read that Strength doesn't increase level and Stealth increases level at twice the rate of other abilities. I have seen my level increase upon increasing Strength. I verified this again with a level 25 Military Officer with the following stats:
Strength 35
Quickness 22
Wisdom 22
Charisma 20
Warrior 33
Pilot 22
Tactics 22
Stealth 1
Negotiate 1
Intimidate 20
Explorer 1
When I increased his strength to 36, he jumped to level 26.
The manual says that
Character Level = [(Quickness + Wisdom + Charisma + Negotiate + 2x Stealth + Intimidate + Pilot + Explorer + Warrior + Tactics - 50) / 6) + 1]. Based on this, my Military Officer should be level 20, but he is level 26. What am I missing?

3. I see suggestions for a good boarding captain to keep Strength at 300% level and Pilot and Warrior at 150% level. This isn't possible when Strength does level the captain also, and one also must level Quickness to keep Pilot levelling, and also needs to have additional points to put into things like Intimdate and Tactics (and thus, Wisdom and Charisma.) Any suggestions for a uber-boarding captain that are actually possible? I would like to eventually get the award for defeating a level 100 alien.

4. I've read the forum posts on Smugglers, but I still don't see any reason why anybody would use a Smuggler for smuggling instead of an Explorer. It appears to me that the Merchant is intended for non-restricted goods trade and Explorers are designed for restricted goods trade. The Smuggler is supposedly intended for restricted goods trade, but I do not see any advantage that the smuggler has for restricted goods trade over Merchants or Explorers. The Explorer, however, has a massive advantage in the trade of restricted goods as they can acquire the goods for the costs of doctor visits only. If I want to smuggle restricted goods, why would I ever want to use the Smuggler class over the other two? I'm still not getting it.

Thanks for the help.

[Cory Trese]

1. Luxury Rations (LR) are a fixed-rate consumption good, that is, they do not fluctuate with Ship or Crew conditions. That is their primary definition.

The Crew does not use LR until all Water-Fuel (WF) for powering food generators has been exhausted. They have no impact on Water-Fuel use.

The Benefit is that your Ship and Crew can be in Red Zone using 8.54 W/F per sector, and you run out. In an emergency, that same Crew/Ship could be using 1.6 LR per sector. LR is a backup to W/F, a valuable trade good and a morale boost for the Crew, knowing it is there.

4. Smuggers are used because they generate Profit Records from the Restricted Goods Trade, Experience Points and have stacking with Rumors that (a) add XP or (b) stack on Profit Records.

[Deleted]

2. Strength does not increase LV. I've had lv15 captains with 2500 strength. If this is not the case on your phone, it's a bug. Keep in mind though that Warrior does increase lv.

3. Again, Strength doesn't increase lv. For Pilot, it depends on ship agility. For a medium agility ship, yes, for a quick ship,120% Pilot should be enough. The logic behind Pilot for boarding is that for board vs ram, you need Pilot to dodge ram and then Warrior to board. Warrior, Strength, Crew and Weapons alone is not enough, no matter how high. Tactics and Intimidate are normally never as important as Warrior and Strength for boarding situations. Hence, Tactics and Intimidate does not need to be too high, or invested in at all of you invest more in Warrior. Keep in mind though that crew and Weapons are also highly important for boarding. Omega Cruiser is good if you want a QUICK ship, and Carnifex Cruiser is best if you don't mind a MEDIUM ship (and hence a need to invest more in Pilot).

Board vs Aliens
Warrior
Strength
Tactics
Stealth
Intimidate
Crew
Engines
Leviathan (bomus based on Warrior)
Shuttles
Sonics
Cutters
Battle Prow
Reinforced Prow
Templar
Military (increased bonus with Weapons)
Bodyguard
Vet (increased bonus with Artifacts with Artifact Chamber)
Weapons

Ram Evasion
Pilot
Agility (bonus based on Pilot)
Stealth
Strength
Battle Prow
Impact Shield
Dreadnought
Reinforced Prow
Ancient Reactors (most important with Engines and bonus combined)
Reactor Superstructure

[slayernz]

Cory Trese, have you modified the leveling formula to remove the Strength loophole from your equation, or is it still there? It still seems wrong that you can have a gajillion points in Str and still be very low level.

[bobo]

Thanks for the answers, guys.

If there is a morale boost for having luxury rations even when you're not out of water-fuel, I can see that this would give an incentive for carrying luxury rations instead of more water-fuel. I know that they mitigate morale-loss when you're out of water-fuel, but I would rather carry more water-fuel if that's the only benefit, other than circumstances like Cory's example in which luxury rations become more efficient to use. Is there a morale boost for carrying them even when you have plenty of water-fuel?

Perhaps the strength levelling thing is a bug with the iOS version, as it certainly does level my captains. I just quadruple checked again by creating a new Star Trader on Challenging. He was level one. I spent the 9 XP to add 3 strength without doing anything else at all and he is now level two. I'm playing the Elite version 4.3.1.

For the smuggler, I knew about the trade records, which are still much less profitable than just digging up free artifacts, weapons, and electronics from the wilds, but I didn't know about the XP bonuses; that might make them worthwhile. Do they get XP bonuses for the trade of restricted goods that other classes don't get? When would they get such bonuses, and how does that work?

Great game, by the way. There's so much depth and so much to do.

[slayernz]

bobo, if you are flying a ship that has terrible fuel consumption through red-zones, and you have a mission that requires you go through those zones, then it actually does pay to stock up on some LR's. Think of it this way. If you find your WF consumption is around 3 or 4 in red zones, and you have 40WF and 10LR, you will be able to travel about 10-13AU with WF, and then an additional 6 or so AU with LR. What's even better, is if you get major sail damage (like have a nasty encounter with an enemy captain, your WF consumption goes through the roof, yet your LR doesn't budge. SO, you're traversing the Red Zone, and have the choice of 80WF or 40WF and 40LR, and you are expecting trouble, it might actually pay for you to take the WF/LR combo because if you get attacked, at least it won't end in a nasty mutiny when you've run out of water. If, you do make it through the red zone intact, then you are able to either sell the LR on the other end, or just keep it in case of trouble the next time round.

I say all of this with the massive disclaimer that although I know all of the above, I don't tend to buy any LR at all because I have reasonable fuel efficiency, repair as soon as I get any sail damage, and carry more water than I need to in case of problems.

[Deleted]

Jan 22, 2014 17:51:05 GMT -5 slayernz said:

Cory Trese, have you modified the leveling formula to remove the Strength loophole from your equation, or is it still there? It still seems wrong that you can have a gajillion points in Str and still be very low level.

I believe this is intentional. I brought up a similar point before. The logic behind this is that enemies can have a wide variety of strength no matter their other skills or class, making boarding and ram defense more unpredictable. This also allows explorers to invest alot in strength without leveling up, and it's still not too unbalanced because exploration difficulty increases with time and a high strength is not enough. High strength also won't evade enemy attacks and increase/decrease board damage, meaning it's enough to just have high strength. And for those that base success or progress on level like me, just investing in Strength won't be satisfying.

[Deleted]

Jan 22, 2014 22:57:35 GMT -5 bobo said:

Thanks for the answers, guys.

If there is a morale boost for having luxury rations even when you're not out of water-fuel, I can see that this would give an incentive for carrying luxury rations instead of more water-fuel. I know that they mitigate morale-loss when you're out of water-fuel, but I would rather carry more water-fuel if that's the only benefit, other than circumstances like Cory's example in which luxury rations become more efficient to use. Is there a morale boost for carrying them even when you have plenty of water-fuel?

Perhaps the strength levelling thing is a bug with the iOS version, as it certainly does level my captains. I just quadruple checked again by creating a new Star Trader on Challenging. He was level one. I spent the 9 XP to add 3 strength without doing anything else at all and he is now level two. I'm playing the Elite version 4.3.1.

For the smuggler, I knew about the trade records, which are still much less profitable than just digging up free artifacts, weapons, and electronics from the wilds, but I didn't know about the XP bonuses; that might make them worthwhile. Do they get XP bonuses for the trade of restricted goods that other classes don't get? When would they get such bonuses, and how does that work?

Great game, by the way. There's so much depth and so much to do.

For exploration, explorer is better. For trading, particularly contraband trading (when buying and selling goods at the exchange, as opposed to obtaining goods from exploration), smuggler is better. For a exploration/trading hybrid, it depends on the situation. Also keep in mind that exploration becomes more difficult with time, eventually making exploration impossible. But trading difficulty will always remain static and trading will always be possible.

XP is gained when creating records, by trading in shortage rumors, surplus rumors, trade ban rumors among other rumors. Other classes do not get such XP bonuses when trading except the merchant, who gets XP bonuses from tradng in planets with different rumors and dealing with different types of cargo (particularly licensed goods, such as metal and spice).

Luxury rations can easily be more efficient for use in red sectors and with a damaged ship, making them an important backup source as they last longer. Rations do also decrease morale loss with water-fuel, with an increased morale loss prevention bonus with First Mate, but the decrease is relatively minor.