Does my NPC Pilot still gain combat experience if she is piloting my ship?

CoyoteXStarrk

CoyoteXStarrk
I am interested in trying out using the SLF myself, but I am also trying to level up my pilot. Does she still gain combat experience if she is piloting my Cutter while I am in the SLF?



Also when she is piloting my ship will she use things like Shield Cell Banks and Chaff?
 

DMC831

DMC831
In my experience, even when the crew is ranked Elite they're not great with Shield Cells. They kinda waste them. They're damn good with fixed weapons, and can pull off the FA-off moves ya see other Elite NPCs do, they also cheat with rail guns like other NPCs, but they're not super smart with anything heat related and they waste cells.

I am PRETTY sure they still earn the same amount of rank if they're flying the mothership and you split the rank gains the same as if they were in the SLF, since I did that plenty as I ranked mine up, but I can't say for 100% certain.

An Elite crew member is pretty cool though! They can practically clean out a CZ on their own.

EDIT: They do still use chaff and other tools like that, but they just don't use them as intelligently as a human (which prolly won't surprise you). I don't always use a lotta chaff so I can't tell ya how good they are with it, or if they just shoot them off as quick as they can or time it perfectly.
 

CoyoteXStarrk

CoyoteXStarrk
DMC831 said:
In my experience, even when the crew is ranked Elite they're not great with Shield Cells. They kinda waste them. They're damn good with fixed weapons, and can pull off the FA-off moves ya see other Elite NPCs do, they also cheat with rail guns like other NPCs, but they're not super smart with anything heat related and they waste cells.

I am PRETTY sure they still earn the same amount of rank if they're flying the mothership and you split the rank gains the same as if they were in the SLF, since I did that plenty as I ranked mine up, but I can't say for 100% certain.

An Elite crew member is pretty cool though! They can practically clean out a CZ on their own.

EDIT: They do still use chaff and other tools like that, but they just don't use them as intelligently as a human (which prolly won't surprise you). I don't always use a lotta chaff so I can't tell ya how good they are with it, or if they just shoot them off as quick as they can or time it perfectly.
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Okay that is good to know. I made my Cutter a flying shield fortress so she shouldn't be able to die even though she is low rank. Most of the targets I am hunting at the moment are Deadly and Dangerous. So they don't really offer up much challenge.
 

DMC831

DMC831
CoyoteXStarrk said:
Okay that is good to know. I made my Cutter a flying shield fortress so she shouldn't be able to die even though she is low rank. Most of the targets I am hunting at the moment are Deadly and Dangerous. So they don't really offer up much challenge.
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Yeah, I did it similarly with my Corvette in a bunch of CZ's to rank them up. It took a while but not as long as I expected! I imagine Scouts would work best, but I haven't tried to rank a new crew member up with them to see how much faster it felt. With the shields of your Cutter, I gotta imagine you'd have nothing to worry about no matter their rank.

Until they were around Dangerous rank, I kept them in gimbled SLFs and gimbled/turreted motherships, but they might be effective with fixed before then. From Dangerous and on, they felt really good with fixed weapons to me.
 

CoyoteXStarrk

CoyoteXStarrk
DMC831 said:
Yeah, I did it similarly with my Corvette in a bunch of CZ's to rank them up. It took a while but not as long as I expected! I imagine Scouts would work best, but I haven't tried to rank a new crew member up with them to see how much faster it felt. With the shields of your Cutter, I gotta imagine you'd have nothing to worry about no matter their rank.

Until they were around Dangerous rank, I kept them in gimbled SLFs and gimbled/turreted motherships, but they might be effective with fixed before then. From Dangerous and on, they felt really good with fixed weapons to me.
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Well I use turrets on my Cutter due to the fact that it turns about as fast as a moon, but I think that will still work okay.
 

DMC831

DMC831
CoyoteXStarrk said:
One last question. When you say they don't really pay attention to heat does that mean she is gonna fry my ship? I have a Class 4 Plasma Accelerator.
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I used two huge PA's in my Corvette and it was fine, but they were also engineered for Efficient so the heat was really reduced. They did let things get real hot when I did too-many-railguns type loadouts for fun, and when they wasted shield cells, but it wasn't something that made me worry they would destroy the ship.

I don't know for sure, but I assumed it's just like how NPCs we fight don't seem to get bothered by heat, so our crew members don't worry about it the way we do. They'll use a shield cell without NEEDING to right after using one already and not seem to pop a heat sink to cover the heat, so ya get some fry that way, but unless ya combine that with several unengineered railguns or something, I would bet it'd be fine. I would need to test it out more though! I've not lost a crew member from it at least.
 

CoyoteXStarrk

CoyoteXStarrk
DMC831 said:
I used two huge PA's in my Corvette and it was fine, but they were also engineered for Efficient so the heat was really reduced. They did let things get real hot when I did too-many-railguns type loadouts for fun, and when they wasted shield cells, but it wasn't something that made me worry they would destroy the ship.

I don't know for sure, but I assumed it's just like how NPCs we fight don't seem to get bothered by heat, so our crew members don't worry about it the way we do. They'll use a shield cell without NEEDING to right after using one already and not seem to pop a heat sink to cover the heat, so ya get some fry that way, but unless ya combine that with several unengineered railguns or something, I would bet it'd be fine. I would need to test it out more though! I've not lost a crew member from it at least.
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I think I will bring out my Conda just to be safe. My Conda runs like a refrigerator lol
 
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