Newcomer / Intro NPC crew - Levelling

[jpjeffrey]

1. I had always thought that NPC crew only 'levelled' by actually flying and being successful in battle.

However, I saw a recent post somewhere that suggested that an 'Active' NPC gained levelling experience for every success by the the player
(ie if you go to a Conflict Zone and have a series of hits, then the active NPC crew obtains some experience, whether they fly or not)

From my own observation, this appears to be correct - can someone confirm this..?

2. Assuming the above is correct, would if the NPC level up faster if they were indeed actually flying...?

3. Is there any way of renaming the NPC crewmember..?

Thanks
JJ

 

[Chris Simon]

1. NPCs are "leveling" by stealing a chunk your YOUR XP
2. No, you get all the XP for all activities, including kills done by NPC pílots. They then take a percentage of that overall XP to level themselves, so it doesn't matter if they actually are doing anything, but as they are stealing your XP anyway, they as well should!
3. Nope.

 

[jpjeffrey]

Thanks Chris

Aha! So NPC crew take a cut not just of your credits, but of your XP as well!
Do you happen to know at what RATE they take the XP..?
(ie if they are earning credits at, say, 6%, do they also take a cut of your XP at 6%...?

Also, for the player to level up combat-wise, it is necessary to be victorious over equally-ranked or better-ranked opponents; if you are well advanced in rank but your NPC crew is 'Harmless', it seems to me that some combat situations could benefit the NPC crew, but not benefit the player at all. Is this correct..?

 

[Chris Simon]

Do you happen to know at what RATE they take the XP..?
(ie if they are earning credits at, say, 6%, do they also take a cut of your XP at 6%...?

Also, for the player to level up combat-wise, it is necessary to be victorious over equally-ranked or better-ranked opponents; if you are well advanced in rank but your NPC crew is 'Harmless', it seems to me that some combat situations could benefit the NPC crew, but not benefit the player at all. Is this correct..?

Last time I checked, they took exactly half. Yeah, I know. They will definitely slow your own combat rank progression unless you make really good use of them. (killing twice as many ships in the same amount of time)

As for the XP gains, it is based on YOUR experience gains.
If you (or your pilot, whichever rank they are) kill a ship that is the same combat rank as you, you get 100% XP. If you kill ship that is higher rank, you get more XP and vice versa:

As you can see here, from ranking-up standpoint it's pointless to kill enemies that are more than two ranks below you as you are not gaining any XP for them.
Also it should be noted that only legitimate (legal) kills count. Murder doesn't raise your rank.

edit: oh, one more thing - as I said, they are stealing half of your XP, whether they are active or not. So be sure you only have one NPC pilot hired, btw. If you have one on your ship and one inactive at the port cantina (or wherever they hang out), you lose TWO THIRDS of XP gained, if you have one active and two inactive, you lose three quarters to them, etc.

 

[jpjeffrey]

Thanks again Chris

I think there may be a little wrinkle to this....

I tested it out by entering a conflict zone
After killing about 20 ships I checked my Active NPC's percentage, but it hadn't moved.
So I launched a fighter, and it died within a minute or two
(Heh, these little guys don't last long in a conflict zone! )

Then, without relaunching another fighter, I continued to kill enemy ships - and was pleased to see my Active NPC increasing percentage, eventually gaining promotion

THEORY: Mebbe the Active NPC has to actually 'check-in' to the battle before the percentage starts to accumulate....?
Q. ... if this is true, then perhaps it's the same for 'normal' combat....?

 

[d8veh]

If you want to level up your crew, you should go to a high RES and kill the wanted guys there. If you want to rank up yourself, don't take a crew with you but the high RES is still the place to go today.