Most helpful skills?

[Dubious]

Now that there has been some time to get a better feel for the game (and even win it by some non-beta players), what are people finding to be their preferred "Captain" skills in the early game, and why?

I find "Shuttle Ace" extremely helpful in the beginning, because it gives you a random LZ every time you touchdown on a planet. Without it, many areas are not accessible unless you have lots of Away-Team enablers like "Water Walkers" or "Mountain Climbers".

I also like "Warp Specialist" because it reduces the remaining "cool down" of the drive after warp (by 23 turns in my case with a basic RNG:1 CD:75 drive).

-Dubious-

[Tim Brooks]

I used to always go for Targeting, thinking better skills in fighting would be helpful. But now I always go for Shuttle Ace for the same reason you do.

[JimSB]

In the early levels, I have found the most useful skills to be field medic and damage control (its a game and my captain often goes out with the away team early). FM allows your away team to survive the slings and arrows of outrageous combat much more often, and DC heals the hull. After you get going, an engineer or engineers with the combination of "Build it Better 3" and "Efficient Construction 3" along with lots of crafting parts will give you the ability not to get some kick-butt weapons (one of my favorite away team sidearms is a plasma mini-gun, range 10, adjacent 7+, damage 200+ - it can clear the eyeballs and bashers), empty your cargo hold of all but the most essential equipment and build what you need "on the fly", and also get tons of cash when you need it (crafting good reactors gets about 500K credits in the pawn shops). Most of the other skills are duplicated by a device, but the crafting skills are not.

[OrionM42]

Still learning -- I have been playing for about 10 days. For the present, I prefer my Captain to be of the Science Officer class, with a starting skill of Ship's Surgeon. Obviously the Ship's Surgeon skill increases the survival chance of Away Teams; but it does so without requiring the Captain/Surgeon to accompany the Away Teams. As a result, I can choose another officer (usually from the Tactical Officer class) to be my Away Team leader. Choosing a Captain from the Science Officer class also dovetails well, with my usual choice of an Explorer class ship, to be my starting vessel. Other early promotions that I typically seek for my Science Officer class Captain are Researcher and Analyst.

[zircher]

I subscribe to the JimSB plan of Field Medic Captain and craft mastery. :-)

[Dubious]

Originally Posted by zircher

I subscribe to the JimSB plan of Field Medic Captain and craft mastery. :-)

I note both of you have either finished or are deep into the game sectors. It seems to me that Crafting skills are more likely to be useful in mid to late game, when you have had the chance to accumulate sub-components. Can you recall how early in the game you were able to craft anything useful?

-Dubious-

[Tim Brooks]

Originally Posted by JimSB

In the early levels, I have found the most useful skills to be field medic and damage control (its a game and my captain often goes out with the away team early). FM allows your away team to survive the slings and arrows of outrageous combat much more often, and DC heals the hull.

Field Medic would be an excellent choice if you are willing to risk your captain. I really like this skill and always promote a science officer to this skill. However, I play loose with my away teams and sending out my captain just ends in a loss when my away team dies.

[Cyberis]

I really like "Shuttle Ace" and make that my Captain's initial skill. I also like the Cargo Specialist skill so I can get major cargo space in a Light Explorer ship. I haven't had good results with crafting yet but I have put some points in Build It Better. I should probably work more at my crafting skill. Archaeologist doesn't seem to have helped me at all. I like Ship's surgeon too so I don't have to hire so many crew. I'll probably add damage control since hull repairs are still pretty expensive.

[Waltorious]

I do long-term planning and start my captain off with one of the crafting skills. Basically I want to get "Build It Better 3" and "Efficient Construction 3" (and even "Crafting Consultant 2") as fast as possible, and I'm willing to spread those skills out over multiple officers. Although note that More than one office with "Efficient Construction" won't stack, which is why it's nice to have the captain get an early start to get the higher levels of one of those.

For crafting, it's also important to disassemble extra equipment rather than selling it, as this will often increase the crew's base crafting skill. Finally had this explained in the manual! If there's a ^ next to the item on the salvage screen, it means it will increase your base crafting level if you salvage it. I was crafting some decent stuff by Sector 10 or so I think, but the really awesome stuff wasn't until I had the officer crafting skills maxed out, which takes longer. It also varies a lot depending on what it is; I had good luck making new space suits and sidearms, but it's a lot harder to craft a good engine and it's often possible to buy better ship weapons than you can craft until you get highly skilled.

Oh also be sure to take the first Tentaculon quest as it gives you a lot of crafting bits for free.

[JimSB]

In one game I just got an artifact with a "build it cheaper" which did stack with my level 3 engineer. I am now building things with a cost of 1! I had fun crafting a bunch of weapons, shields, etc, essentially for free. Note that I am deep into the game at this point, and trying to figure which of the winning paths I am going to take. I still think crafting ultimately the most useful of the skills.