Basic Skill Requirements

[Aardvark]

These are the basic skills that will serve you well in ANY ship. You should be aiming to have them all done before you progress above cruisers really.

Skills useful for all ships (very high priority - should be trained to a minimum of IV):

*Electronics*
Electronics (fit more stuff)

*Engineering*
Engineering (fit more stuff)
Energy Management (more cap/use MAPC)
Energy Systems Operation (cap regenerates quicker)
Shield Management (more shields - harder to kill)
Shield Operations (regenerate shield quicker)

*Mechanic*
Mechanic (more structure - harder to kill)
Hull Upgrades (more armor - harder to kill)

*Navigation*
Navigation (fly faster)
Evasive Maneuvering (turn quicker)
Warp Drive Ops (warp farther)

*Spaceship Command*
Spaceship Command (turn quicker)


Skills useful for combat ships (high priority - train to at least III):

*Drones*
Drones (use drones)
Scout Drone Ops (use combat drones)
Drone support skills

*Electronics*
Long Range Targeting (target farther)
Signature Analysis (target quicker)
Targeting (target more ships)

*Engineering*
Energy Grid Upgrades (use PDS, RCU)

*Gunnery and/or Missile Launcher Ops (depends on race)*
Gunnery/Missile Launcher Ops (see above)
All Support Gunnery/Missile skills (as above)
Weapons Upgrades (fit more stuff)
Advanced Weapons Upgrades (fit more stuff)

*Mechanic*
Repair Systems (don't have to pay to repair ships)

*Navigation*
Acceleration Control (go faster w/AB/MWD)
Afterburner (go faster)
Fuel Conservation (use less cap)
High Speed Maneuvering (use MWDs)

You'll probably want to get the tier 1 learning skills to IV as well as you go, thats Learning/Instant Recall/Analytical Mind/Iron Will/Spatial Awareness. Don't worry about Empathy too much, as we all know Charisma isn't all that important. You WILL notice the difference from the learning skills! Training with 20+ in all the important attributes is more than 2x faster, so work your way there through skills + implants if you get rich.

And remember, battleships may be nice and shiny, but if you don't have the skills to support them you're a dead duck and you've wasted your money!

[JackPott]

I did some sums and worked out the most efficient way to train the learning skills is to leap frog. Ie, Learning, Instant Recall, Analytical Mind, Learning, Instant Recall, Analytical Mind etc

This is because the speed you learn ¨learning¨ is governed by Memory then Intelligence, so by leap frogging these you spend your time most efficiently. Once all three at are level IV, you can train the other two up in the same fashion.

I also read somewhere, that the payoff for training learning V over IV is over 200 days. Ie, it takes 7 days to train a level V, which will save you 7 days training time out of every 200 days training. Difficult to explain but I hope that makes sense.

A note about implants too, the secondary abilities stack to present more of a bonus than the description suggests. A full set of Snake implants will grant a 53% move speed bonus. However, they are worth about 400mil and thats a lot to lose if you get podded....

[Aardvark]

Instant Recall, Analytical Mind, Learning is the order to do it in. One level at a time, obviously.

JP I think you're referring to the second tier learning skills, which each take 200 days to pay off getting to 5. Getting them to 4 isn't too hard though, so should be looked into at some point.

Also a recent change means you only need level 4 in the basic learning skill to train the second tier skills. However I'd still recommend going back and getting to 5 in the first tier skill eventually.

[JackPott]

Hmm I worked out Learning, Recall, Mind myself and thought it came out quicker. I must have been mistaken.

Interesting what you say about only needed level 4 learning skills to get to the second tier ones now. Didn't realise they had changed that, I think i'll go out and buy some Tier 2's straight away.

Merry Christmas by the way!