Captain Feedback?

[Officer Genious]

How is my captain faring?

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Demanding, Smuggler lvl 11

Currently in Picky Beggar (with escape shuttle upgrade), Javat Cutter at Dry Dock awaiting upgrades and a little more Pilot skill
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Charisma: 12
Strength: 10
Quickness: 18
Wisdom: 9
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Explorer: 0
Pilot: 16
Negotiate: 12
Tactics: 9
Stealth: 8
Warrior: 10
Intimidate: 10

[slayernz]

Officer Genious, you're doing really well. Getting to level 11 means you're past the starting hump that is one of the biggest challenges. It's nice to see that you've saved enough to be able to afford the Javat Cutter - a very nice ship with decent specs. In fact, it's one of the best rank-ships available anywhere until you've unlocked ships of honor.

I'm shocked you haven't invested heavily into Explorer (just kidding) ... your pilot skill level is okay - keep injecting points into that skill with the aim of maintaining 150% - 200% of your captain's level. I'm a cat who always overcompensates and tends to get pilot to around 250% of my level up until I am about level 30, but that's just me

If you are a gunbunny, then you could probably slow down on your Warrior and Intimidate - it is something that I don't invest in at all because I disdain of stepping onto an enemy ship before the stuffing has been beaten out from them first.

If you are a boarder type captain, then you should continue to invest in Warrior and to a lesser degree, Intimidate. Actually, warrior should even be higher than it is if you wanted to focus on being on the first boarding shuttle during any conflict.

Tactics is okay at 9, but you want to keep throwing a point or two that direction every few levels. You'll notice when you're a little too low in Tactics when you find yourself missing your target with your ship guns.

[Officer Genious]

Actually, I have a trade permit and 10+ rep with all factions (got my award too!). So I should invest in Pilot for about how long? Trying to get it higher, but I keep having to raise attributes. X.x

[Alex Fury]

Officer Genious - Always keep your piloting up. It helps VASTLY with xenos, and the occasion a-hole of an indie captain who decides to pounce on you. Also just helps for keeping w-f costs down, keeping ship damages down, etc, etc, etc

[Officer Genious]

Thanks guys! I'll work more on pilot. Gotta raise me some money so I can get upgrades for that Cutter. Like another escape pod. Meanwhile, I have to find work against indy planets so I can buy rarities to smugg-I mean, deliver. To the appropriate customs offier, of course.

[slayernz]

When you buy ships, always always try and have:
a) Pilot = hull size of new ship (or at a stretch, Pilot + Intimidate)
b) $50k left over AFTER the critical upgrades are paid for. You don't know when you'll get yourself into a pickle and need to pay for hull/armor/guns/etc damage

That means if a ship costs $200k, don't buy one when you've just scraped up enough to cover the purchase because there are always unforeseen events in the early game that you can't plan for. Mid-game you'll be invincible, but until then, always have cash reserves.

Enthusiastic captains will have pilot at around 200% of level - that is, if you are level 12, your pilot should be 24. If your captain is 54, your pilot will be 108. Idiot captains flying Slayernz's banner tend to have pilot a little higher than 200%, but that's the gun-bunny style

Cash can always be had if you follow the trade shortage rumors

[Officer Genious]

Ok, I'll pump Pilot... trying to get more shortage rumors, but theyre never in cheap stuff. Need money to make money, right?

[slayernz]

You don't have to be friends with everyone to succeed. Actually, Cory's coded the game to gently discourage such "friendship". It is always better to have a few good relationships and a couple of bad ones. That way you aren't always dancing around on that knife edge with trade embargoes! Might I recommend knocking Steel Song down a peg or two - they're no blimmin good anyway, (especially now that we have custom ships and I don't have to chase after that MYTH that is Slayernz Cruiser). It also means that you don't have to pick up contracts against independents all the time.

Contracting is okay for making money if you are willing to piss off another faction or two. If you are fussy, it's fine but you won't win the awards like 50 Exemplar Contractor or Expert Contractor (or higher). Who needs those awards anyway right?

Target contracts that are against specific factions, eg Steel Song, or maybe Steel Song. Or even the Song. Avoid contracts against "friendlies".

If you dislike Thulun, then there is actually a perfect place for you to fly around and pick up HUGE numbers of ship encounters. I have my Thulun fishing ground where I can average about 15-20 encounters per game year! With the Javat Cutter and high pilot, your fuel consumption will actually be really good and you'll be able to clock up significant kills in a hurry.
Advantages of this approach
1) You get lots of XP from ship combat - in fact, more than pretty much any other activity you do
2) If there is a trade/solar war, you clock up extra RP with other factions for doing this
3) You get money from the salvage (I much much preferred when that button said "Destroy" rather than the namby pamby "Salvage"
4) You get to loot good stuff. My captains ONLY loot A/W/E. I don't even bother with Records these days because Spy Wars add that extra niggle that I can't be bothered dealing with

Watch out for Alliances with Thulun though - unless it's an alliance with Steel Song, you don't want to attack Thulun because their allies get peeved with you. Hey Cadar High Council - THE THULUN SHIP SHOT FIRST damnit! That's a minor beef I have with the combat system If you've got a negative rep with Thulun and their warship decides to keep pushing you, AND you can't retreat even though you try, your only option is to shoot back (and win). To do anything else risks you being defeated, captured, tried, executed, minced up, turned into Luxury Rations, Fed to Steel Song and then your worst nightmare would have come true. You are giving Steel Song ENERGY. Either that or stomach cramps ... that wouldn't be so bad.

So you actually want to know this lucrative fishing spot do you?!? If I tell you, then everyone will go there, and before we know it, Thulun will become an endangered species, and someone will take us to the International Court and make us stop hunting Thulun ships. It's for research purposes only your honor!

Still want to know?
Fine ... it's here ...


Use your understanding of the quadrant map to find it but it's pretty straight forward as these two planets are Thulun home worlds

[Officer Genious]

Hehe, you really got it out for as, eh? What? Cat got your tongue?

I was on good terms with them for that award, but I like having permits and a rank with everyone so I only have to outrun independents and angry aliens. Going to jump back on st now to see if I can get this pilot skill UP... and if I find a player's cruiser, I'll close my eyes and pretend it isn't there. Should be easy once it blows me out of the sky anyway. Lol

[slayernz]

Once your pilot is 200%, you can pretty much win every battle you go into, even if you are flying in an escape shuttle. Okay maybe an exaggeration, but with a semi-good ship (and the Javat Cutter falls into that category), you should be unstoppable. By the time you are level 40 with pilot 80, Tactics 25-30ish, you'll be able to pass your phone onto a 5 year old and get him/her to do your Thulun fishing for you. I know because I did just that (on Crazy difficulty) .. "move like this, press that top-left button (Battlestations), press that button that makes you go closer twice. Press that button labelled "Engines" a couple of times, then tell me if there is anything left of the enemy ship".

My captain is up to 950+ battles (I'm working hard to get to the 1117 battle victories) and I bribe my children to help get through the sheer quantity of killing. Thulun really hate me right now

[Officer Genious]

Dead after encountering an alien ship. >.> It was one of the new ones too. Damn them. Q.Q

Started a new smuggler in Javat by the name of Duplicitous. And I'm going to keep the clans happy, Syndicates be damned!!

[Officer Genious]

Dead to a Rychart dog who only had maybe -10rep on me. ... I don't want to downgrade to Challenging, but this is just getting silly. I'm not getting anywhere near that Dark Century award...

[slayernz]

Getting started is the hardest phase of a captain's life, that's why we always have challenges that allow you to restart until you are level 12. Tips/rules to get going on the harder levels
1) The harder the difficulty, the more diplomatic you MUST be at the beginning.
- Don't go gung ho and try and kill everything/anything that moves. It'll likely just leave you with damage if you win and worse if you lose
- Don't be afraid of pressing "Surrender", but see #2 below first
2) Don't carry restricted goods to start with. Build up enough rep with at least a couple of factions first and make sure you have a trade permit!
- By not carrying restricted cargo, you can surrender to any ship but a pirate - nothing will happen and you'll be allowed to move along
- Pirates are slightly trickier - retreat if you can. Once you have a trade permit you can surrender and they'll not steal anything (apparently - never tried that)
3) For stats, focus on Pilot with a few points to Stealth if you want. Get pilot up to 20 as fast as you can, and if you are cautious, get stealth to around 10-15.
- For the first 10 or so levels, your pilot skill should be wildly above the 200% guideline. By level 3, you should be able to get pilot to around 12-13. By level 10, your pilot should be closer to 30.
- It helps to pick a starting captain that has good pilot skills - and for me being a gun bunny, I pick pilot/tactics a lot.
4) Watch reputation like a hawk.
- If have a bad encounter with a friendly faction that pushes your RP into the negatives, quickly go buy a pardon. Payment for pardons is geometric in the payment rate
- Watch your faction conflicts diligently. Get yourself a political officer so you can focus on other things
- Trade permits make you less likely to lose RP because you aren't boarded so often
4) Cash is king so pursue the shortage rumors very early on. Even if you can only afford to take 12 units of Metals from A to B could net you up to $20k in revenue. That makes the next shortage trade even easier. Why do you need cash? For repairs, fuel (which you consume in alarming quantities) and to fuel more shortage purchases
- Aim to get to $50k - $100k in the bank and keep that as a minimum even AFTER buying new ships. In fact, ESPECIALLY after buying new ships.
- Elaborating on the above, don't get caught out buying a new ship leaving nothing in the bank at all. One bad encounter, and you'll be left with a whopping repair bill and no cash to do the fix!

I just started a new captain on demanding who hit $100k cash by turn 340, is level 3 with pilot 13. From there, you should be able to dominate the quadrant

NOTE, the tips above don't force you to specialize between gun bunny and boarder type captains. Always feed your pilot stat, and boost up other stats as need be. As a gun bunny, you can almost get away with only feeding pilot and a little bit to tactics. One captain of mine playing Crazy difficulty is level 39, pilot 102, tactics 22, all other stats as they started with. He's at $1.9m.

[Officer Genious]

Heh, thanks slayernz, just getting a bit cross. The irony is that I can get my captains through the early stages, but somewhere around lvl 12-15 my captains hit financial/independent pirates/surprise alien attacks. >.> It's a shame, I love making smugglers that can smuggle stuff, but that last one wasn't even carrying illegal goods- just full of water and crystals for a shortage. x.x Maybe I'll make a war-mongering zealot and go on a cathartic rampage... lol.

Anyway, time for me to get back on board. And take out my pain on the Syndicate.

[Deleted]

Guys, about investing alot in Pilot, that only works in high difficulties. In lower difficulties (challenging, demanding, and even hard) it's more lenient. You can go the gun/ram/pilot route - investing all in pilot, getting a QUICK ship, lots of engines, pilot and engine upgrades, pilot officer etc. Or you can go the boarding/warrior route - investing alot in warrior and strength, a good amount in Pilot (to avoid ram), a little in Tactics, MEDIUM or higher agility, lots of crew, weapons, board upgrade, officers etc. Or you can go the torpedo/stealth route - lots of stealth, FAST speed, lots of sails, upgrades etc. Or you can do some combination of two (board/warrior and gun/pilot, torpedo/stealth and board/warrior, gun/pilot and torpedo/stealth etc). But what you DONT want to do is invest completly evenly in ALL skills and atrributes. Pick a specific type of combat (or two) and focus on that.

- Stealth also avoids encounters, increases explorer rolls and escapes enemies. Good for non-hostile captains (merchants, smugglers) and explorers.
- Pilot also prevents enemies from escaping and decreases water-consumption. Good for pirates, bounties, and long-haul captains (long-haul merchants, long-distance contractors)
- Warrior also increases blockade success and, together with strength and weapons, is the best method for defeating aliens and bounty targets with hull intact. Good for military, bounties and some pirates.
- Explorer, negotiate and intimidate play minimal/no roles in combat. The only skill that should be the highest out of these three is explorer, and thats only if you explore as your primary method of profit.