With the introduction of the Krait and newfound popularity of SLFs, maintaining a stable of upper rank crew members seems more relevant than ever (especially for someone who expects to use, and eventually lose, them in conflict with other CMDRs).
I've generally found it most efficient to allow NPC crew to pilot the mothership while I provide support and orders from a fighter. Larger combat-fit motherships with bi-weave shields are essentially impossible for AI ships to down so provide perfect platforms from which NPC crew can gain combat experience with minimal downtime.
An example I recorded yesterday, where I stay in a High CZ while my Dangerous ranked crew fights with my standard Corvette loadout until I finally lose an SLF (which takes almost two hours). I don't expect anyone to be masochistic enough to watch the whole thing, but it's here:
[video=youtube;dr_NmZhL6wY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr_NmZhL6wY[/video]
Was originally going to allow the NPC to fight entirely unattended, but after about 25 minutes or so she ran into a bit of a hiccup with a pair of gunships and I was getting a bit bored, so I decided to help out.
Anyway, in the end, it took less than two hours to advance ~30% further through the Dangerous rank while racking up 4 million in combat bonds. A dedicated PvE fit vessel could have done even better; my NPC rapidly depleted my railgun and MCs ammunition, leaving only a pair of huge fixed beams and a large burst turret for most of the stay.
Smaller vessels will likely have much more difficulty doing this, but should still be viable in RES or when used in wings in CZs. Lower rank crew perform worse, but advance much more quickly, which more than makes up for it. In general, any crew one intends to retain should be hired at harmless and ranked up from there, as they are significantly less expensive in the long run.
Anyone have any other training tactics they've found to be effective?
I've generally found it most efficient to allow NPC crew to pilot the mothership while I provide support and orders from a fighter. Larger combat-fit motherships with bi-weave shields are essentially impossible for AI ships to down so provide perfect platforms from which NPC crew can gain combat experience with minimal downtime.
An example I recorded yesterday, where I stay in a High CZ while my Dangerous ranked crew fights with my standard Corvette loadout until I finally lose an SLF (which takes almost two hours). I don't expect anyone to be masochistic enough to watch the whole thing, but it's here:
[video=youtube;dr_NmZhL6wY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr_NmZhL6wY[/video]
Was originally going to allow the NPC to fight entirely unattended, but after about 25 minutes or so she ran into a bit of a hiccup with a pair of gunships and I was getting a bit bored, so I decided to help out.
Anyway, in the end, it took less than two hours to advance ~30% further through the Dangerous rank while racking up 4 million in combat bonds. A dedicated PvE fit vessel could have done even better; my NPC rapidly depleted my railgun and MCs ammunition, leaving only a pair of huge fixed beams and a large burst turret for most of the stay.
Smaller vessels will likely have much more difficulty doing this, but should still be viable in RES or when used in wings in CZs. Lower rank crew perform worse, but advance much more quickly, which more than makes up for it. In general, any crew one intends to retain should be hired at harmless and ranked up from there, as they are significantly less expensive in the long run.
Anyone have any other training tactics they've found to be effective?