How to recruit Mid/late-game.

[Quantummagic]

Hey there.
Just started playing, and enjoying it on brutal right now.
I read everything, where to recruit, and how and stuff, and I always get a very good team at the start. 13-25 to 15-27 initiative.
If you are fast with missions there level is even higher than yours. Lvl8

I mostly recruit 2 with 2-3 recruiting talents, check both, patrol/block/spy for 3 weeks and try again.

Works really good.

NOW THE QUESTION:
How do you get higher lvl than 8?
How do you recruit mid-late game??
When you are lvl 15-30 isn't it bad to get a lvl8???
Or do you rely only on conscripting crew later? I found that they are always ♥♥♥♥♥♥.
You prefer a very good lvl8 over a average lvl15???

What is the game plan??
Recruiting all at the start???
If you lose important people, especially combat, you just suck it up and look for another lvl8?
When you are getting bigger ship with more crew, you have same problem??
So how does it work??

[JimmysTheBestCop]

Stats/Attributes are really only Important for combat officers/crew. There are only a couple of normal non combat talents that are helped by higher attributes.

So mid to end game its always conscripting for me. But on impossible you run into max level 40 enemy while your captain/crew/officers are in their early 20's. So its beneficial to conscript a level 40 pilot and replace your level 20 pilots as an example.

There are bonus to level recruitment from contacts based upon reputation, rumors, permits, edicts, and ranks. Can often recruit level 10-12. I think around 15 is highest if everything falls right with the right rumors.

A proper all officer combat team on level 10-12 should be able to take on enemies at a much higher level once you are familiar with the system.

If I need spies or military officer for card games I don't even care about their character screen just their levels and talents.

[Quantummagic]

Thx. I have more read than played. Read 40hours before playing about everything. I know what everything is used in, I know all the dice pools strong/big. Last mystery is crew combat. But I have found many crazy guides detailed guides. The yekbot crew combat is best.

OF COURSE I DID THIS ONLY FOR COMBAT CREW...lol my mistake.

"A proper all officer combat team on level 10-12 should be able to take on enemies at a much higher level once you are familiar with the system"

That was helpful.thx

Ok thx. By any chance you know how to get to lvl 10-12? From contacts?
Maybe military more?

Also when your captain is lvl 10-12 what is the average money you should have??

I mostly got like 1,5 mil through missions.

I know there are several factors for difficulty level. Captain lvl, story, time, etc.
But how is the factor own xp calculated? When you are killing ships, this gives everyone same xp.
So difficulty rises,..so the xp earn is a bit diminished by faster killing ships, or exploring/patrol/spy etc. To get ahead of the curve.
But how about xp from combat crew???

Are they in the equation?? Is the average crew xp in the calculation. If not you could come ahead of curve more. You could also put non combat officers in the mix in easy crew fight, just to give them more xp.
When only the Captain's XP is in the calculation, then you could get ahead more, by doing a lot of crew battles. Where there XP is much higher than the non-combat captain.

[Doesn't Learn From Mistakes]

Conscripting crew can result in more bad traits which adversely affect various ops of your ship.

There is at least one talent which can help mitigate that, but I prefer not to even on impossible.

***

XP earned in crew combat is spread only amongst the four who took part. All other XP is distributed amongst the ship. The downside is that CC exposes your officers to a much higher risk of death

[davea]

The QM level 8 talent Welcoming Conscription is important for a conscription strategy. What I do is conscript one enemy per combat, and make sure the talent is off cooldown before the next conscription.

The devs have made some changes so that recruiting from contacts can result in a little higher level, but still when you have a level 20-30 crew it is painful to recruit a level 8. Maybe they can adjust that more.

Of course the best way to have a crew which is all high level is to not have any die :-)

[Quantummagic]

Thx to both previous posters. I already knew all that.
My question was a different one.

Exactly because ONLY the crew combat members earn more xp.
If second statement is true, then it would be better to get ahead of the difficulty curve to do more crew combat (if difficulty curve is only calculated:

Enemy scaling=
(captain xp + xy)
or
(crew average xp + xy)

[davea]

Some people have suggested that you can make crew combat easier by keeping your captain out of combat (so they don't level up as fast) and doing a lot of crew combat (so your combat crew does level up faster). But I doubt anybody other than the dev team knows the exact formula. I am sure it includes time as well. Crew combat is a small part of the game, and to me, not the most interesting, so getting ahead in this small part of the game may not be so critical.

[Quantummagic]

Oh thx Dave.
The info about leaving the captain helps a lot, then my guess was right. I think I even read it from the trees brothers themself, when they said

diff curve = captain xp+ time+campaign + faction +. Etc

It's a big difference if captain xp, crew average xp or crew Max XP is used. Of course there are different factors as well. Thx Dave...that helped.

[JimmysTheBestCop]

I would double check I think it's heavily weighted on in game calendar of time passing.

I don't think your actual level has anything or maybe extreme minimal influence.

Middle game can be rough since you can be highly out leveled. You might be able to overcome it in ship combat but ground combat it's harder to overcome.

But double check to make certain

[antoca]

If you recruit someone lvl 8 with Discreet trait (just example), that means you lose potential +7 to Stealth. You have to wait while your fighter improves to lvl 16 for the same opportunity. That takes much more time. If you are unlucky, you may never earn enough of stealth -- just because you have recruited already experienced fighter. Thatswhy I always try to recruit low level crew.

I do recruit every time when I am on my faction planet and a talent is ready. No matter early game, mid game or late game. Doing a lot of crew combat improves their lvl pretty fast. I may stop recruiting when I have 2 backup fighters for all positions.

[davea]

Originally posted by antoca:

Thatswhy I always try to recruit low level crew. I do recruit every time when I am on my faction planet and a talent is ready. No matter early game, mid game or late game.

Interesting. What difficulty level do you play at? Do you replace mid level or high level crew with your low level recruits? Or is that only to fill open berths due to deaths?

Crew who don't participate in crew combat don't get the XP from crew combat. So do you put your low level crew into crew combats to level them?

[GrimSentinel]

Originally posted by antoca:

If you recruit someone lvl 8 with Discreet trait (just example), that means you lose potential +7 to Stealth. You have to wait while your fighter improves to lvl 16 for the same opportunity. That takes much more time. If you are unlucky, you may never earn enough of stealth -- just because you have recruited already experienced fighter. Thatswhy I always try to recruit low level crew.

My understanding was that bonuses from traits like Discreet only apply if the crew member that has them is an officer. And that recruiting at higher levels gives bonuses to attributes.

[antoca]

Originally posted by dave:

Interesting. What difficulty level do you play at? Do you replace mid level or high level crew with your low level recruits? Or is that only to fill open berths due to deaths?

Crew who don't participate in crew combat don't get the XP from crew combat. So do you put your low level crew into crew combats to level them?

Usually I don't level my backups intentionally, because my mains will suffer. So they earn exp like all other crew members on space events, missions, etc. Of course they are always lower than my main fighters, but with time they get pretty close -- even after late recruiting. Sometimes I may want to improve someone to replace my main, if he/she is not officer yet. So yeah, I may send them to perform easy fights (scavengers, low-danger pirates) to level and see how it goes on. Hard difficulty.

[antoca]

Originally posted by GrimSentinel:

My understanding was that bonuses from traits like Discreet only apply if the crew member that has them is an officer. And that recruiting at higher levels gives bonuses to attributes.

All skills work in crew combat even if not officer. Stealth, tactics, of course weapon mastery and evasion. Not sure about doctor (maybe not, but easy to check). Also I always want to promote fighters, because that makes them much stronger even without 2nd or 3rd job (more weapon and evasion skills, plus one device). I never heard about any extra bonuses because of high level recruiting, but this is an interesting thought. Maybe someone knows for sure?

[JimmysTheBestCop]

Higher level recruits and better planets the better the attributes plus recruiting talent. True

[Trese Brothers]

Originally posted by GrimSentinel:

My understanding was that bonuses from traits like Discreet only apply if the crew member that has them is an officer. And that recruiting at higher levels gives bonuses to attributes.

Depends on the skill. Crew combat skills are used in life and death situations outside of the hierarchy of command on a standard ship and therefore the bonuses are always counted.