NPC experience (5 stars): what tasks/actions influced by it?

[Browser_ice]

Hi, are the following tasks influenced by the NPC's experience?

- Flying path toward destination
- building of station modules (faster?)
- trade choice of NPC trader
- miner choice of which asteroid to mine (size, area, sector, ...)
- station manager (other then distance to do trades)
- ship dealers
- trade dealers located at station offices
- NPC when in a fight situation

[Imperial Good]

- Flying path toward destination

Not as far as I am aware.

However more skilled pilots might try to pull off more advanced combat manoeuvres when engaged. This is partly why the Xenon ships do all manner of crazy avoidance patterns since they always have max skill.

- building of station modules (faster?)

Both ship building and station building speed is unaffected by skill. It really ought to be but sadly is not.

Repair speed for both stations and M, L and XL ships is affected by skill. A maxed out crew will restore a ship fully in very little time while a newbie crew will only be able to restore to around 75% hull.

- trade choice of NPC trader

I think it does influence trade choices. Specifically it tries to make better ones at higher skill levels. That said this only really applies to station subordinates since independent auto traders will already be at least 3 star skill.

- miner choice of which asteroid to mine (size, area, sector, ...)

Apparently captain and service crew skill is factored into mining region selection. Specifically high skilled miners will avoid mining in hostile sectors in their range. That said this is as good as pointless now that blacklists exist since they will respect the blacklist irrespective of their skill.

- station manager (other then distance to do trades)

Higher station manager ranks improve station repair speed. Additionally the effective skill level of subordinates is the maximum of ship captain and assigned station manager skill level. A skilled station manager can be assigned a newbie trader and it will perform similar to a much more skilled trader working for the same station.

- ship dealers
- trade dealers located at station offices

These are not affected by skill. Traders are spawned on demand and so skill tracking for them does not really apply. Ship dealers technically are persistent, however they act more as a face for the transactions rather than doing anything.

- NPC when in a fight situation

Captain and service crew skill makes a huge difference to ship combat performance. Most of the more advanced combat manoeuvres require higher skill levels. Additionally high morale will make a ship less likely to flee or bail in response to damage. Even repair rate is affected for M and larger ships.

Be aware that the player character always counts as a perfect captain when you are in control of a ship. The result is that any M or larger ship you fly has a pretty astounding repair rate, especially with a few skilled service crew. Repair rate and maximum percentage is calculated when repairing begins, so quickly taking control of an already damaged ship will not make it repair faster. However if the ship stops repairing at a lower maximum hull percentage then taking control over it will allow the ship to quickly repair all the way to ~95% maximum hull as a new repair cycle will start based off the player character's skill.

As a final note, as far as I am aware marine skill or crew in general only play a roll with ship boarding. Since only the player can board other ships this means that outside of ships partaking in boarding operations there is no need to have any marines on any other ships. For aesthetics one might want a few marines on L and XL ships the player flies because the marines are assigned unique jobs on the bridge such as appearing to guard the captain which adds to the atmosphere/coolness of the ship.