Skill and training Feedback

[StoneLegionYT]

-snip-

You dont need to hire crew from docks. The normal way to buy crew is to send ships to wharf/shipyard/EQ dock and fill with cheap crew there through the upgrade ship menu. The npcs on docks are an extra for people that want to look for good ones.

This I just want working leveling and I actually enjoy hunting and paying a bit more for qualified crew members on the side say my personal or fav ships I don't want to waste as much time leveling. I don't need or want free level 3 pilots, etc. I just want a fair system that is not made for afk over night / seta..

[Axeface]

Well, to add to the story of my manual trader... his just reached 2 stars. His morale went up a smidge. I can finally do distribute wares with this ship... lets see if THAT works (like Ive been told it does).

To continue the story of my Distribute Wares freighter. I've played maybe 10-15 more hours since my last post, the ship has been trading as Distribute Wares that entire time and now he really hasnt leveled up at all, he has stopped (not getting greyed out skills either). Also, none of my freighter or miner pilots have got to 3 stars yet, and many ive had working since the start of my game.

Egosoft, is the intention for lower skill orders to NOT be stepping stones to higher ones? The intuitive thing would be that they are, if it isnt we need to know that your intended design is for us to use seminars or combat to be able to achieve 3 star pilots. Is it intentional that our non-combat employees stop at 2 stars?

[dtpsprt]

Egosoft, is the intention for lower skill orders to NOT be stepping stones to higher ones? The intuitive thing would be that they are, if it isnt we need to know that your intended design is for us to use seminars or combat to be able to achieve 3 star pilots. Is it intentional that our non-combat employees stop at 2 stars?

And here I thought that X Universe was 75% Mind and 25% Combat woe me!!! Better go for Space Potatoes...

[Raevyan]

I wonder how many pages we need to get some input from the devs on the whole situation.
So far we have explore, sector automine, distribute wares not working at all. For me patrol and manual trading are also not leveling up pilot skill.
Only reliable way seem to be combat.

I personally haven‘t even found a skilled pilot (>=2 avg stars with morale and piloting) on the docks. Using seminars to at least get them to 2 stars is also very tedious clicking.

[TonyEvans]

I wonder how many pages we need to get some input from the devs on the whole situation.
So far we have explore, sector automine, distribute wares not working at all. For me patrol and manual trading are also not leveling up pilot skill.
Only reliable way seem to be combat.

I personally haven‘t even found a skilled pilot (>=2 avg stars with morale and piloting) on the docks. Using seminars to at least get them to 2 stars is also very tedious clicking.

Explore has been fixed as of the new Beta, at least according to the patch notes.

How exactly was it not working, exactly?

[StoneLegionYT]

I wonder how many pages we need to get some input from the devs on the whole situation.
So far we have explore, sector automine, distribute wares not working at all. For me patrol and manual trading are also not leveling up pilot skill.
Only reliable way seem to be combat.

I personally haven‘t even found a skilled pilot (>=2 avg stars with morale and piloting) on the docks. Using seminars to at least get them to 2 stars is also very tedious clicking.

Explore has been fixed as of the new Beta, at least according to the patch notes.

How exactly was it not working, exactly?

If I recalled ships just stood there doing nothing. Just because it's fix does not mean it's going gain you levels so keep that in mind.



Come on Developers be transparent and open with us. Give us information on what you like to do with Crews so we know if your going to fix them or not...

[Max Bain]

The situation is very strange because the whole concept is not balanced.

If Egosoft wants that gaining skills takes a looot of time, then I dont understand why managers for example gain 100+ times faster experience than pilots. All my managers are already 5 stars while my pilots started trading and mining way earlier and have only 2 stars.

What makes it even harder is the fact that pilots in general die way more often than managers, so it should be the other way round that pilots gain faster experience than managers. I could live with managers gaining skills a lot slower than pilots especially, because managers should be something more special. Their skill is way more important than the skill of a single pilot because their skill will be added to all of their subordinates.

Also the seminars as rewards are a joke. I never take missions with seminars as reward because for pilots a single one is not worth it and a manager seminar is wasted because they level so fast, you dont need them.

The situation really needs an overhaul. It could be a real benefit to the game if the skill mechanic would be more transparent, more balanced and easier to use (hint: space academies ).

[StoneLegionYT]

The situation really needs an overhaul. It could be a real benefit to the game if the skill mechanic would be more transparent, more balanced and easier to use (hint: space academies ).

They can also start with explaining how they plan to fix it and work with the community directly with Idea's or hire a CM.

[lordmuck]

The situation really needs an overhaul. It could be a real benefit to the game if the skill mechanic would be more transparent, more balanced and easier to use (hint: space academies ).

They can also start with explaining how they plan to fix it and work with the community directly with Idea's or hire a CM.

asked for that a couple of pages back :/ ROFL I could CM as that is my job for another game haha

[Gregorovitch]

If Egosoft wants that gaining skills takes a looot of time, then I dont understand why managers for example gain 100+ times faster experience than pilots. All my managers are already 5 stars while my pilots started trading and mining way earlier and have only 2 stars.

I never take missions with seminars as reward because for pilots a single one is not worth it and a manager seminar is wasted because they level so fast, you dont need them.

This is my experience exactly so far and I agree with the conclusion. The pilots just don't accrue XP at a meaningful rate even if exploring or venturing continuously (my game is at 2d22h now which I assume means 70 hours play and in that time explorers and my venture pilot have gotten from 2* to about 2.66* indicating I would say somewhere between 50 and 100 hours of continuous venturing/exploring to get from 2* to 3*). My managers in contrast are all racing through their fifth stars.

The pilot seminars appear to give about 1/3 star boost but it may be as little as 1/4. Either way it matters little to me. In 70 hours of play I haven't received one 2* pilot seminar yet.

[Raevyan]

The situation really needs an overhaul. It could be a real benefit to the game if the skill mechanic would be more transparent, more balanced and easier to use (hint: space academies ).

They can also start with explaining how they plan to fix it and work with the community directly with Idea's or hire a CM.

You think 28 pages would be enough to at least get a statement on the situation?

[dtpsprt]

The seminars can not be the answer because Morale is holding the pilots back... more often worse than seminars.
I have two pilots with 2 stars BUT 1 1/2 Morale that doesn't go up no matter what... So the question is what now?

[grapedog]

what i find weird is morale, engineering, and management can all move very quickly. I've got LITERAL TONS of crew-people with 5 stars in engineering plus 4 or 5 in morale. I've got a LOT of captains who have 2-4 stars in piloting, and a solid 4 or 5 stars in morale, and a smattering of stars elsewhere.

They should go back to the earlier system, but tweak it. At 1.0 it was too easy, but this is not good either... a 5 star captain only going like 5 sectors? Just make it 2 sectors per star from a specific sector.... that way a 5 star captain can operate within 10 sectors, but 5 stars is really hard to get. A 4 star captain has 8 sectors, 3 star captain has 6 sectors, 2 star captains are 4 sectors, and a 1 star captain can go 2 sectors.

That way the vast majority of captains would fall into the 2 sectors to 6 sectors, and I think most people would be OK with that. Even 2 star captains would be useful, being able to move up to 4 sectors in any direction from their starting point, covers a decent bit of space.

[Raevyan]

As long as the adv automine and autotrade commands are bound to 3 stars, your suggestion would only help if they actually fix the leveling problem.

[GCU Grey Area]

The seminars can not be the answer because Morale is holding the pilots back... more often worse than seminars.
I have two pilots with 2 stars BUT 1 1/2 Morale that doesn't go up no matter what... So the question is what now?

Morale most definitely does go up. Majority of the service crew of my Rattlesnake currently have 4-5* morale. Here's a selection, filtered to see how good they'd be as captains:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i4z2rtacawbpi ... 1.jpg?dl=0

They certainly didn't start that way (all 0* idiots recruited from the shipyard). Interestingly they also seem to be gaining levels in piloting. They've never flown anything, apparently they're learning Piloting just by periodically wandering up to the bridge to see what I'm doing. Indeed, just checked the stats on my fighters & they're all significantly better than the pilots of the Balaur squad in the hanger. Suspect that might be because I don't tend to launch the Balaurs all that often (takes an eternity to launch/retrieve them with just the single docking bay).

Anyway, just an idea - serving as crew on my flagship might form part of a training programme for my future pilots. The speed at which they've gained Morale is astounding.

[dtpsprt]

Anyway, just an idea - serving as crew on my flagship might form part of a training programme for my future pilots. The speed at which they've gained Morale is astounding.

Exactly... I have also noticed that a pilot with high morale (2 pilot stars, 4 morale) gets the 3rd star quick comparing to 2+2 or even 2+2 1/2-3

[StoneLegionYT]

I was thinking when arguing with someone who was fine with the current system LOL...

I think one the better ways to fix the system is not go by 15 XP but rather larger number say 100,000 XP and break it down.

Say like 1k 9k 20k 30k 40k for each full star. Bad example but the point is when you play with more then 15 XP points you can start gaining experience overtime and less playing a really horrible roll the dice chance game with such insane restrictions.

Imagine if all MMORPG's removed the XP they have now and it was a low chance you would just hit level 2 or 3 just at random. It would be bloody insane and I think that is what the devs have had to resort to because of 15 XP points.

Just a random thought.

This way you can feel and even see the progress as time happens. Maybe throw in a little UI feature when you hover over it shows the %.

[micelak]

This issue with stars of pilots and hanky traders literally killed my 3.1 play through. Game is back on shelf.

[StoneLegionYT]

This issue with stars of pilots and hanky traders literally killed my 3.1 play through. Game is back on shelf.

Sorry mate Would you be interested in modding temp? There are some mods that can help with the issues I don't feel their good fixes though but they can make it at least bearable.

[grapedog]

This issue with stars of pilots and hanky traders literally killed my 3.1 play through. Game is back on shelf.

hanky traders? care to explain? and you can easily get a 2 star pilot through seminars almost immediately, so it's getting that third star that is the issue for you? how long do you feel is fair to just have auto traders all over the map? I guess, depending on your expectations, you probably should shelve the game.