Pilot Exp.

[Chief Smackahoe]

Do pilots gain experience? Had a trader do about 20 profitable local trades and no increase in stars. I also have pilots who constantly kill xenon with no exp gain. Is pilot seminars the only way to increase pilot rating?

[Azrelus]

No, pilots gain exp from various actions. The fastest way is to have them get kills, be it xenon or kha'ak or whatever.

My destroyer captains level up way faster killing Ks than killing Ms and Ps.

When you get to terraforming, you'll be able to train pilots and marines.

[Daleorn]

If i recall correctly the chance of skill up on completion of a task is like a dice roll. So you complete a task and then there is a % chance you will gain skill xp. Im not certain if different task have different % chances of skill increases.

[Venerable_Sin]

Alternatively to what Dreokor said, The rule used to be this: Your traders have to have several successful docks and profitable trades in order to gain experience. So it may take several hours for your crew/captain to gain 1/2 a star of experience. With that said all ships action/activities are capped at how much xp they can gain doing their assigned activities. Miners can only gain so much xp mining, traders gain only so much xp trading, combat can gain only so much xp doing combat. i believe dog fighting is the fastest way to gain moral which will be the fastest way to increase average star level of your crew/captain. Builders/Capital ship salvage is fastest way to gain service crew xp. I think service crew is only thing that is not capped. Moral may be capped at 4.5 stars, haven't really paid too much attention to it though. These have been my experiences. Good luck.

[ArcticISAF]

I also find they get some skill and morale even when you're piloting them. Mostly morale but a bit of pilot skill, I'm not sure how that works. My main destroyer (in a relatively short game) has like 2 1/3 stars piloting, 5 stars morale. Some other ships like a katana I flew a lot, 2 stars pilot 3 2/3 morale. Moreya (Rodent) has 2 stars pilot, 3 1/3 morale. You might check your own personal ships you fly a lot and check how they're doing.
Edit: To note, the destroyer definitely has a lot of kills on their own action but the other two I've not risked in some patrol/attack duties.

[Wraith]

Originally posted by Vinerable_Sin:

With that said all ships action/activities are capped at how much xp they can gain doing their assigned activities. Miners can only gain so much xp mining, traders gain only so much xp trading, combat can gain only so much xp doing combat. i believe dog fighting is the fastest way to gain moral which will be the fastest way to increase average star level of your crew/captain. Builders/Capital ship salvage is fastest way to gain service crew xp. I think service crew is only thing that is not capped. Moral may be capped at 4.5 stars, haven't really paid too much attention to it though. These have been my experiences.

That somewhat wrong yet also right.
There really isn't EXP
More of if your skill level up or don't

Certain activity has a cap yes but it applies differently for certain things.

Combat for example
Individual exp for piloting:
Killing easy targets (cap at 3 star)
Killing hard targets (cap at 5 star)
Killing Surface elements (cap at 3 star)
Killing station module (cap at 3 star)
Killing station (cap at 5 star)
Disabling ship (cap at 5 star)
Repelling hard targets (cap at 5 star)
Repelling easy targets (cap at 3 star)
Fleeing (cap at 3 star)
Fleeing deadly ship (cap at 5 star)

Now for Group EXP for piloting:
Most cap at 2.66 star then the ship need to start doing some actual killing.

Morale tend to have 4 star - 5 star cap as group exp which is why it level so fast.

Same rule applies to everything.

You can gain 5 star in every activity pretty much.
The issue come with how much proc trigger when the activity is done.

For trading and mining let say it take forever because of distance travel doesn't give a leveling proc.

It only when they finish trading.

[Humble]

Originally posted by Dreokor:

No, pilots gain exp from various actions. The fastest way is to have them get kills, be it xenon or kha'ak or whatever.

My destroyer captains level up way faster killing Ks than killing Ms and Ps.

When you get to terraforming, you'll be able to train pilots and marines.

Problem with terraforming is late game, not early game where player need most while late game player not need much train pilot. Idk.

[Wraith]

Originally posted by Humble:

Problem with terraforming is late game, not early game where player need most while late game player not need much train pilot. Idk.

Terraforming definitely is late game.

Rushing terraforming training however is mid game

You just got to choose the right planet and rush the right projects.
It not to crazy really.

[Chief Smackahoe]

ok i guess i'll just stick to local mining.

[deuxhero]

Start early game and max service crew for every ship you build that doesn't need those slots for marines. Once the ship has been active for a while, the service crew will have leveled their engineering and morale to a decent level. Once you need a new captain, look through those crew and find people with a high (4+) morale stats (and preferably low engineering, since they won't need it at their new job), comm them and give them the two pilot seminars you can buy cheap. 4 morale and 2 piloting is enough for actions that require three stars. If you see anyone on a station with decent morale but low everything else (making them cheap) hire them and use them to fill service crew openings (it doesn't matter if they're supposedly a marine) that were created by prior promotions or because you got the ship through other means (story, capture, or found abandoned)

[Humble]

Wow, I didn't know that, so even 2 pilot skill, you could get 3 star command with 4 morale, I thought it's had to be 3 pilot skill star?

[deuxhero]

Morale and the main stat are averaged for everything as far as I know.

[PeaceMaker]

My pilot does fine until he gets to 3.5 stars and then stops. I never let him do the fighting. I didn't realise letting them fight made such a difference. I'm kinda afraid to let my personal pilot fight though... hmmm.

[trooperrob]

I usually check traders or miners for 2 * pilots and assign them to new captured ships. promote a crewmember to pilot on the miner / trader.