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Crew piloting competency - worth it in your opinion?


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Just want to know everyone's opinions on this to be honest, as I've had a real hard time debating this. Not sure if the 25% speed boost is worthwhile

For context, I only have the pilot fly when I'm off-ship. I know their AI is useless at targeting objectives or crewships, but that's not what I'm interested in here. I just want to know if you think the 25% speed boost from having maxed piloting is worth it or not

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No matter how good of a pilot the NPCs are or what the ranks actually do: for me it's a no. I'm not handing the pilot seat over to an NPC, because I'm gonna be in the pilot seat. Better to have two gunners who can fight, repair, or survive and an engineer who can fight and survive than to have one of the three specced out for a role they'll never be in.

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Just now, PublikDomain said:

No matter how good of a pilot the NPCs are or what the ranks actually do: for me it's a no. I'm not handing the pilot seat over to an NPC, because I'm gonna be in the pilot seat. Better to have two gunners who can fight, repair, or survive and an engineer who can fight and survive than to have one of the three specced out for a role they'll never be in.

When I'm on the ship, I feel the same, but when I'm off the ship handling a missile battery or ice mine, I feel like it improves survivability of the ship to have someone flying. Especially with those comet shard things, those are annoying as hell

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Pilot competency/rating for hired crew only affects the speed they fly at, not how well/smart they fly.  Hired crew won't target radiators or other key points, so really their value as pilots is zero.  I pilot the RJ myself until I need to take an artillery shot or go to a POI.  When I need to go to a POI I just park it and leave the AI crew to do their thing.

I have two crewmembers with gunnery rank 5, other stats are irrelevant as they never leave the gunnery seats.  They are aimbots and I equip them with hitscan weapons for the gunnery seats.  My last crewmember is an engineer with 5 engineering, 3 combat, 3 endurance after leveling up.  They are always assigned engineer duty and I gave them one of my shotguns.  They repair the ship and engage borders pretty well.  I just wish they would work the forge to top off dome charges and such.

I think the crew pilots even just hold stationary when you go out to a POI/crewship anyway don't they?

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Worth it? Not sure, as far as compared to other combinations, but my current set up I find adequate on all missions. My current set up, is 1 Engineer/Repair that can fight/defend, 2 Gunners, but one Gunner also max stats as Pilot, the other a Fighter. So sometimes I'll sub in the pilot, whenever I aren't piloting. They are good enough to evade the Shipkiller Platform, Crewships, etc haven't had to worry about them during Voidstorms etc 

So in some situations, I feel more comfortable having 1 Gunner, 1 Pilot, and a Repair/Engineer, and other times I'll prefer 2 Gunners/1 Engineer/Repairer. 

Has been fun/chill experience so far. 

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I don't think pilot is a useful skill for crew. I don't know how speed effects what damage the ship takes but I suspect it is marginal at best. Outside of this speed is mostly a quality of life stat. It feels good to play but doesn't really do much. Even for a dedicated full time pilot I wouldn't prioritize ranks in piloting.

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2 gunners with hitscan armaments (5 gunnery) , 1 Engineer (5 repair, and decent combat + endurance) with one of my better guns.

Zetki shield with 1 second recharge delay (bonus if you have the defensive fire mod)

never have to worry about the railjack.

I rarely get boarded and even rare for me to get a breach.

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If you're off-ship, the 25% extra speed will not be necessary to bring the Railjack wherever you need it to go in the time it would take you to exit the ship, reach the point of interest, do the thing, then go back out (and this is assuming the Railjack moves at all while you're in the POI). I would therefore not bother with competency points in Piloting at all, even if you intend to make your crew pilot your ship on occasion.

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I think the AI for mine is broken. 

Literally all it does is circles in place while making  absolutely certain the front of the ship never faces an enemy ship under any circumstances. 

I'm not  exaggerating. When I forget to change the Pilot to Gunner and immobilized a Crewship, it'll hop into the Pilot seat and 180 the ship (Which was pointed directly at the immobilized Crewship) while I'm getting into the forward artillery. 

Likewise when I decide to use the Slingshot. It'll actively ensure no Crewship ever gets within sight of the Slingshot. 

It's broken as hell lol

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I hope they add a forward artillery "skill" to the pilot role. Like, if you are piloting the RJ, your pilot crewmember would be on the FA console. The pilot skill should then also increase FA targeting speed (it'd still be slower than a player even at r5).

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They're banned from the helm here. Last thing I need is a pilot taking the wheel and going for a spin when I'm lining up an artillery shot.

They cant evade ramsleds for crap either. Much better have them fight off boarding parties. 

Ship is more than tanky enough to take hits as a static battery

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Ive always 1 engineer and 1 gunner, 3rd one is assigned pilot but has r0 pilot and usually the railjack stays mostly safe especially in the Veil when I go to objectives and I just manage tactical like Void Cloak. If I want to pilot I reassign him to gunner as he has around r4 gunnery.

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Pilot AI is bad... like really really BAD.

He/She is NOT boosting and ALWAYS flying in the thick of it.

You are probably fine with 2x 5 star insta popper gunners when it comes to fighters but against crewhips you are effed.

Also, when you do solo and go in a derelict, wouldn't you want your jack to wait for you and not fly over to the ship killer and invite some ram sled squads?

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not tried it, but would I trust an AI to do something that requires that level of intelligence? no. it's not just flying the ship, it's knowing where to fly the ship and where to stay away from, at least until it's necessary. can the AI tell the difference between clear space and a big a$$ swarm of fighters backed up by multiple crewships? if not, no way are they piloting. 

so far I've found 1 crew of each type is the best way to go: I handle piloting and aggressively chase down fighters, the gunner takes out stray fighters on my flank (though I wish they could also take down those bloody drones on Corpus Crewships, god I hate those things..), the defender occupies boarders, and the engineer handles repairs. with defenders, I treid using my best Lich, but their AI kinda sucks, whereas this New Loka person I hired and gave my trusty Tigris to has no problem dispatching enemies anywhere on the ship. my engineer talks a lot but she's polite, and being from Suda, has funny quotes about taking samples form the hull, and getting a close view of space in the event of  a catastrophic decompression...

the only change I'd occasionally make is *maybe* use 2 engineers on the veil missions, reason being engineers seem to get shot by boarders first, and then the only person who can repair in a pinch is you. I don't get enough boarders or fighters to warrant needing 2 gunners/defenders. 

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No. I only do RJ solo, and I only use AI pilots in corpus missions while I’m in a POI, just to keep the ship moving. It’s probably unnecessary but it feels wrong to park it.

I don’t do grineer missions anymore. Too annoying with the radiators. 
 

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