How do captains gain experience?

[keenriser]

Do they need to be assigned to a convoy?
Does the convoy need to move for the captain to gain experience?
Does it matter if the convoy has any military ships / crew?
Does it matter how much cargo is loaded and/or sold by the convoy the captain is captaining?
Do battles give more experience than just being assigned to a random trade route?

I checked the help for the captains window, but it does not go into any detail about how this works and if there are ways to improve the rate of experience gain (besides playing as the adventurer).

[Dray Prescot]

I know that they get some experience as long as the convoy is moving. Sitting in port does nothing. Other forms of experience you need input from other players.

There are two special events that I know of:
a rare random event: "Hermit By the Coast" when you find it, send a convoy with the ship captain whose skills you want to improve to visit him, for a small amount of cash you can add 3 skill levels in the skill areas of that captain.You get to chose which skills get improved. This adds 3 levels to the captain and should increase his number of command points. I have seen this event during the Beta in both the Spanish and English Campaign Games. I have not seen it yet in the release version of PR4.

"The Instructor", as far as I know is a multi use version of the Hermit, he is an expected event in the English Campaign Game that does not happen until after the War with Spain starts. I have never seen him myself. Supposedly when you get the Instructor, he can be used either for 3 times or 5 times (it may have changed during the Beta). Each time you used him you got 3 skill levels added to that ship captain. I do not know if he can happen outside the English Campaign Game. One ship captain could use him more than once.

Remember that ship captains have a Maximum total skill level in the 9 to 12 range. This will be listed in the data describing that captain, including before you hire him.

It is a good idea to get a 6 Command Point Captain (which is NOT the same thing as his total skill level although they are related) for fighting John Hawkins in the Spanish Campaign, Frigate size ships are 1 Command Point, major warships, i.e. Ships of the Line, War Galleons, etc are 2 Command Point battle ships. John Hawkins will have to be defeated twice in the Spanish Campaign. The 1st fleet is four Frigate type/size ships, the 2nd fleet I think is four stronger ships. (I only fought twice him, the last time back in early June during the Beta, and I used the auto resolve combat command).

The maximum for a ship Captain is 8 Command Points. You can never leave a harbor with more points of ships than the captains number of Command Points. However, it is possible to board and capture enemy warships, then partially repair them and have up to 10 ships (supposedly), but you will short on crew and be partially damaged. That fleet can still sail around and fight, but as soon as you anchor at a port you will be unable to leave again with more than your captain's number of Command Points.

HINT in the Beta Spanish Campaign John Hawkins did not appear in the game until the Bluefields set of Tasks was completed: Own 2 Sugar and 4 Rum (Distilleries) businesses in the Town of Bluefields ( just south of Puerto Cabezas) and produce 100 Rum.

When John Hawkins appears he will start attacking your Spanish cargo convoys and looting their cargoes. He is a big pain in the rear end to you. So if you are not ready to fight him, wait to finish off the Bluefields tasks. This is based on the Beta, not more recent experience. Usually when I get to the Bluefields Tasks I have more than a year of game time left to do them.

In particular, get the Large Ship Yard built in Seville (requires 6000 population / 1500 workers in Seville total) and BUILD the QUEEN ANNE design warship. It is a modified version of the Spanish War Galleon, i.e. a 2 Command Point battle ship. You can ONLY build ONE of this design at a Large Ship Yard at your Home Port in ANY game of PR4, Campaign game or Free Mode game. You get the design by completing all of the tutorial missions.

[Computer Fraud and Abuse]

Being on a moving convoy gains a small amount of experience, beyond that I don't know for sure because I've never leveled-up after doing something besides just moving. I would _assume_ winning battles gives XP, and it would make sense if completing tasks while using a convoy that has a captain would give XP to that captain, but I haven't noticed a correlation.

All this is to say that the hermits are _by far_ the best way to boost experience, so keep a careful eye out for yellow circles on the beach. As Dray said, the biggest goal is to get captains to lvl 6, so they max out their convoy size.

Also remember that each captain has a maximum possible level and some are quite low (the lowest I have seen is lvl 8, the highest is 12 IIRC). There aren't enough skill points to fill up every skill, so choose carefully.

[Dray Prescot]

Try to hire your Captains with a starting level of 2 or 3. After a year or two you can even hire new Captains at level 4. Do not bother hiring level 1 Captains, they will probably come back as level 2 in a couple of months, and then at level 3 (I have seen this happen with Captains that I refused twice). I think that level 2 or 3 will get him to 4 Command Points, and level 4 or 5 will get him to 6 Command Points, and level 6 or 7 will get him to 8 Command Points (which is the most a Captain can have). Skills level can go as high as 12 or as low as 8 to 9 for Maximums, depending on the Captain.

[keenriser]

Thanks for the input guys, definitely a good write-up on the current state of things. I'd love to find the hermits, but the ones that give captain xp are quite rare I find.

I had a captain going into a battle with about 99% towards the next level, and he did not level up, so that got me wondering if there is something that I can do to improve leveling up, or if it's best to just hire the highest level (3) captain available as early as possible and stick him on a trade route until he's needed to lead the troops?

For now, it feels the latter is the case which is a bit of a shame from a gameplay perspective.

[SunAndSteel]

Scaling in this game is terrible. Captain experience gain is very low, I've won hundreds of battles and didn't max out a captain's level.

[Dray Prescot]

During May, June, and July when I was quite busy playing the Beta, I saw the Hermit Three times, twice in the Spanish Campaign (and not in the same game) and once in the English Campaign. So he is a very rare random event.

[Computer Fraud and Abuse]

Originally posted by keenriser:

Thanks for the input guys, definitely a good write-up on the current state of things. I'd love to find the hermits, but the ones that give captain xp are quite rare I find.
...
if it's best to just hire the highest level (3) captain available as early as possible and stick him on a trade route until he's needed to lead the troops?

No, definitely do _not_ do this! You need a captain that has at least two of the following skills:
* Gunner
* Gunman
* Close combat
* Leadership
* Carpenter

I try to get one captain concession very early so I can keep my eye out of a captain that has the above skills, and ideally a max level of 10+. In the early game you won't have captains apply very often, so it can take a while to find a suitable one. That's ok--the important thing is to hire one and stick them on a convoy to gain XP. You will need at least 3 combat captains to really siege towns effectively (2 to conduct the siege and 1, your best fighter, to provide a screen to intercept incoming enemies).

Later on you'll have captains apply even when you don't have a free license. Look at every captain, because some might be lvl 2-4 and already have the skills you want. It's often worth it to go spend another fame point and unlock a license to get such a captain, because raising the XP takes a _long time_ and you'll definitely need combat captains late in the game.

IMO it is really not worth it to hire non-combat captains. I did it in the past, but I always found myself wishing they had combat skills when a war breaks out with a large nation. Sometimes I will hire a captain that has say, two points in Embarker already, but only if they have a max level of 10+ and two combat skills (so I can point 8 points into the combat skills).

I use my low-level captains on merchant convoys to passively gain XP during peace time. During war I use them to ferry my captured combat ships from ports that only have a repair dock to ports that have a shipyard so I can sell them, or to my central infrastructure hubs if I'm going to save those ships for future wars. In emergencies with unexpected losses, I can use low level captains to take reserve warships from my central hubs to the fighting frontier to reinforce my convoys that are taking losses, or even to participate in a siege (from the safest side of the city).

[69Inanna69]

Originally posted by Computer Fraud and Abuse:

No, definitely do _not_ do this! You need a captain that has at least two of the following skills:
* Gunner
* Gunman
* Close combat
* Leadership
* Carpenter

I try to get one captain concession very early so I can keep my eye out of a captain that has the above skills, and ideally a max level of 10+. In the early game you won't have captains apply very often, so it can take a while to find a suitable one. That's ok--the important thing is to hire one and stick them on a convoy to gain XP. You will need at least 3 combat captains to really siege towns effectively (2 to conduct the siege and 1, your best fighter, to provide a screen to intercept incoming enemies).

Later on you'll have captains apply even when you don't have a free license. Look at every captain, because some might be lvl 2-4 and already have the skills you want. It's often worth it to go spend another fame point and unlock a license to get such a captain, because raising the XP takes a _long time_ and you'll definitely need combat captains late in the game.

IMO it is really not worth it to hire non-combat captains. I did it in the past, but I always found myself wishing they had combat skills when a war breaks out with a large nation. Sometimes I will hire a captain that has say, two points in Embarker already, but only if they have a max level of 10+ and two combat skills (so I can point 8 points into the combat skills).

I use my low-level captains on merchant convoys to passively gain XP during peace time. During war I use them to ferry my captured combat ships from ports that only have a repair dock to ports that have a shipyard so I can sell them, or to my central infrastructure hubs if I'm going to save those ships for future wars. In emergencies with unexpected losses, I can use low level captains to take reserve warships from my central hubs to the fighting frontier to reinforce my convoys that are taking losses, or even to participate in a siege (from the safest side of the city).

As above.. best imo to wait for the right captain, with 10-11-12 max possible level.. and Close combat that can be leveled up as the main skill,,,, with the other skills mentioned also being useful 2ndary skills.

If they dont have that, I just dismiss them.