Most useful crew type?

General discussion about the game.
thereaverofdarkness
Posts: 72
Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2012 3:21 am

Re: Most useful crew type?

Postby thereaverofdarkness » Fri Jun 22, 2018 9:54 pm

I think how useful they are depends on the station. Here, I'll rank best to worst per station:

Piloting:
1.) Engi - fast to repair it
2.) Rockman - sturdy, less likely to have to leave
3.) Lanius - prevents boarders from taking over the station
4.) Slug - it's nice to have 1 slug, and it's okay for pilot to be just anyone
5.) Crystal - sturdy, good pilot but better elsewhere, too few to waste on pilot seat
6.) Human - trains fast, good as late-game replacement when you lose your pilot
7.) Mantis - can thwart off attackers but terrible at repairing
8.) Zoltan - worst pilot, too brittle

Engines:
1.) Rockman - good against both fires and attackers, which are the biggest threats to the system
2.) Engi - helps repair it quickly, and engine room is usually big enough to bring in help for attackers
3.) Mantis - can thwart off attackers, repair difficulties usually not a problem in engine room
4.) Zoltan - not their best place but here they provide power to a system you nearly always want on
5.) Crystal - not their best position but they do well in it
6.) Slug - usually centrally located, so good view of other rooms when sensors off
7.) Human - quick to train, good as late-game replacement if you lose your engineer
8.) Lanius - location of engine room means other crew usually have to run through it frequently, also room you frequently bring other crew into to help

Weapons:
1.) Rockman - same as above
2.) Engi - same as above
3.) Mantis - same as above
4.) Crystal - same reason as above
5.) Slug - decent positioning, weapons can be done by whoever
6.) Zoltan - useful to power weapons but it causes issues from time to time
7.) Lanius - a bit to high traffic for comfort, but not too bad
8.) Human - weapons are slow to train, so human bonus is barely noticeable

Shields:
1.) Zoltan - having 1 zoltan on shields enables you to have better control over how many power bars you are using
2.) Rockman - same reason as above
3.) Engi - same reason as above
4.) Mantis - same reason as above
5.) Crystal - same reason as above
6.) Slug - central location, good visibility
7.) Human - shields are slow to train, same reason as above
8.) Lanius - shield room is in a bad location to remove air, and you often need to send crew to help

Sensors and doors:
While I usually pick whoever is left over, there are a few choices I tend to prefer if I have a choice:
1.) Mantis - your boarding party can wait on sensors and doors when not boarding, also nice to use these crew for defense in a pinch
2.) Engi - good to repair anything, always nice to have extra engi just around the corner
Who I don't want for sensors and doors:
7.) Zoltan - waste of power
8.) Rockman - too slow moving, I have the sensors and doors crew moving about the ship a lot

Oxygen:
1.) Lanius - what better way to prevent the enemy crew from destroying your oxygen than to fight fire with fire?
7.) Zoltan - sometimes I want to shut the oxygen off
8.) Engi - when oxygen is attacked, I only want good defenders in there. I'll bring an engi in later to repair it.

Medbay:
1.) Crystal - best place to lock enemy boarders in
2.) Rockman - great against all threats when inside the medbay
3.) Mantis - great against boarders inside the medbay
4.) Engi - medbay enables engi to be combat effective, engi on standby good for being called to repair elsewhere
5.) Slug - good out of the way job
6.) Human - good out of the way job
7.) Zoltan - a bit wasteful, but I never really want to switch off the medbay
8.) Lanius - I'm not saying this is a bad option, all are good options, but Lanius in medbay is sometimes bad

In the rest of the ship I like to have at least 2 mantis who can defend, and random engi spaced fairly evenly about the ship. The perfect crew would likely be 4 mantis and 4 engi.
User avatar
stylesrj
Posts: 3644
Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2014 7:54 am

Re: Most useful crew type?

Postby stylesrj » Sun Jun 24, 2018 11:13 pm

Piloting:
4.) Slug - it's nice to have 1 slug, and it's okay for pilot to be just anyone


Are you sure you've got your order right there?
Shouldn't Slug be at 1)?
Why the Slug makes for the best pilot? Mind Control Immunity.
Especially if you have only Level 1 Piloting, you don't want to lose your Evasion and have someone damaging the system.
Also, since they have the same combat stats as a Human, they can fight off intruders long enough until you can get something heavy in.

Engines:
6.) Slug - usually centrally located, so good view of other rooms when sensors off
8.) Lanius - location of engine room means other crew usually have to run through it frequently, also room you frequently bring other crew into to help


Are you sure about them being "usually" centrally located? Because if I recall correctly, engine rooms are typically placed near the back of most ships, except perhaps the Mantis B, but you shouldn't be running crew through it anyway.
The Lanius should actually be placed much higher because of the Engine Room's location meaning boarders are less likely to go in there and kill your evasion; just turn off Life Support and have the Lanius go to another room. The boarders will bugger off and you can put the Lanius back in.