How does leveling up crew stats and officer stats work?

[Rather Useless]

I've seen a couple threads and links on this subject, but nothing definitive. Roughly speaking, the impression I have got is something like, "everyone gets better by doing stuff, but officers only get better by doing stuff when they're leading men with lower stats than they have. And if men have high stats than their officers, they stop getting better at stuff."

All of which suggests to me a meta of "keep trash units until you've maxed officer stats, then try to level up elite units". But the key question is, "is any of this actually true?"

So seriously, if anyone knows, please let me know and I'll put a big QUESTION ANSWERED on this thread and hopefully spare some others in the future the pain of sorting through endless speculation.

[Ninjasquirrel]

Officers gain xp when their unit is improving their stats by doing stuff. The higher the stat goes, the longer it takes for it to level up more, so the potential for xp gain for their officers is lower than an officer put in a less experienced unit.

[Rather Useless]

Actually, you know what I'll even elaborate further, and do some citations for whoever has to come digging in the future for this same mystery.

First, my principal sources are this thread here, and the link provided therein.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1069650/discussions/0/2144217412759984179/

This is about as definitive a source as I've encountered so far. But even then, ultimately there ends up with handwaving and kind of "but we're not really sure because this game is obtuse". And you know what fair enough, because to be clear I certainly don't hold the lack of good documentation against these other players, I appreciate their doing the best they can to try to tease as much as they can out of this frustratingly vague game.

Nevertheless, again, I'm trying to understand the core meta for optimizing officer and crew growth. What it SEEMS to me to be the conclusion reached is something like this:

1) When officers' stats are higher than the crew they lead, they give bonuses to crew. In addition, when they perform actions, officers' relevant stats improve the more they do said actions. I roughly assume this is somehow in proportion to the actions of the crew, is what I mean to say.

2) When officers' stats are at the same level or lower than their crew, crew stats will still improve (maybe??), but officers will no longer get better at things as long as their stats are below the same values of the men they lead (also maybe??).

So the my understanding of this, if both my understanding and the actual descriptions given are correct, is that essentially you should keep watering down crew with raw recruits to keep their stats low, in order to keep officer stat growth happening at all. And then, only once officers have actually gotten really good should you begin assigning them capable crew.

Is this right? Can anyone say for certain? And if it's wrong, what is wrong?

[Rather Useless]

Originally posted by Ninjasquirrel:

Officers gain xp when their unit is improving their stats by doing stuff. The higher the stat goes, the longer it takes for it to level up more, so the potential for xp gain for their officers is lower than an officer put in a less experienced unit.

Okay well that's good so far, in as much as that jives with my current understanding, so thanks for that.

[Ninjasquirrel]

Originally posted by Rather Useless:

1) When officers' stats are higher than the crew they lead, they give bonuses to crew. In addition, when they perform actions, officers' relevant stats improve the more they do said actions. I roughly assume this is somehow in proportion to the actions of the crew, is what I mean to say.

yes.

Originally posted by Rather Useless:

2) When officers' stats are at the same level or lower than their crew, crew stats will still improve (maybe??), but officers will no longer get better at things as long as their stats are below the same values of the men they lead (also maybe??).

No, they still get better.

Originally posted by Rather Useless:

So the my understanding of this, if both my understanding and the actual descriptions given are correct, is that essentially you should keep watering down crew with raw recruits to keep their stats low, in order to keep officer stat growth happening at all. And then, only once officers have actually gotten really good should you begin assigning them capable crew.

Yup, you should do that.

[Rather Useless]

Alright, grand. I shall do so, and hope for the best. And will in fact, make a point of remarking should the difference be dramatic. Actually I have so far been doing the usual (and frankly more intuitive) "try to keep your men alive" style of play, which has led to many exceptional vets, but low to middling stat officers by mid-game. We'll see if I can get them improved.

[Rather Useless]

Hmm, technical followup question: Do you know if the bonuses to crew stats given by traits, such as +15 morale for instance, count against the growth rate of that stat? Ie, will morale increase slower now as if they had suddenly gained 15 levels in morale?

[Ninjasquirrel]

TBH I never paid enough attention to that, but I don't think so.