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Starship Engineering Skillpoint Spending Worth To Not Engineers?

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited March 2010 in The Academy
When I read through the Starship Engineering skill tree, outside of the few skills that affect actual ship stats, is there any reason for a non-engineering main to invest here? I mean, do these skills have an impact on engineer BO abilities? I know the Startship Operations tree affects science BO abilities, but that seems to be because it affects an actual measurable statistic like Deflector Field or Sensors.
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  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Yes, pretty much every ability in the Engineering skill tree will affect at least 1 Engineering bridge officer ability. Most of those abilities will list the skills that affect them when you look at them in your ability screen. There are abilities that have measurable effects (such as Emergency Power to <System> abilities).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Here's a partial list showing which skills modify which abilities (among other things).

    http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tc-kxtdrWyw3ehLcG0l5gqQ&hl=en

    -HD
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    thanks for the spreadsheet link.

    so let me just clarify: if I want to improve my shields, do I put skillpoints in them, or is that only helpful if I have a BO with the appropriate skill?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Greeen wrote:
    thanks for the spreadsheet link.

    so let me just clarify: if I want to improve my shields, do I put skillpoints in them, or is that only helpful if I have a BO with the appropriate skill?

    If you put points into Starship Shield Efficiency, then you will receive some bonus power to your shields if they are below 60 power (I think, that may or may not be the correct number).

    If you put points into Starship Shield Performance or Starship Shield Maintenance, that may improve your base shields in addition to any BO powers they modify. I'm not entirely sure though, and I can't log in to look at the skills and check.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    If you put points into Starship Shield Efficiency, then you will receive some bonus power to your shields if they are below 60 power (I think, that may or may not be the correct number).

    If you put points into Starship Shield Performance or Starship Shield Maintenance, that may improve your base shields in addition to any BO powers they modify. I'm not entirely sure though, and I can't log in to look at the skills and check.

    thanks a million!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Yea...some of the descriptions seems very vague with some siting baseline increases and some only affecting "abilities"...I just wish that as a tac officer I could max out engineering training to be able to train my engineering BO's.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    If you put points into Starship Shield Performance or Starship Shield Maintenance, that may improve your base shields in addition to any BO powers they modify. I'm not entirely sure though, and I can't log in to look at the skills and check.

    What is does is increase the 'recharge' rate of your shields. Say your shields have a recharge rate of 100 every 6 seconds. With 50% power to shields that lowers the recharge to 50 every 6 seconds. If you train Starship Shield Maintenance then you can increase the recharge rate to say 55% instead of 50%. So you would get a recharge rate of 55 evey 6 seconds. Add Starship Shield Performance and you could get that up to 62%, etc, etc.

    It doesnt effect your shield strength and it has no effect when you have 100% power to shields. Engines and Auxillary work similiarly.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    I thought research had been conducted that says this isn't accurate; at 50 shield power, you get 100% of the item tooltip regen, at 100 shield power you get 3x the item tooltip, and at 25 power you get 0 regen. For that matter, I'm pretty sure it's been determined that anything with a power relation is standard at 50 power and increases/decreases in potential from there.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Greeen wrote:
    thanks for the spreadsheet link.

    so let me just clarify: if I want to improve my shields, do I put skillpoints in them, or is that only helpful if I have a BO with the appropriate skill?

    Outside of BO skills, the only things that affects how well subsystems perform at the base equipment, consoles and power settings. Spending points on Starship Shields Maintenance will not improve your Shields. Those captain skills improves you BO's skills. The place where Captain skills can improve subsystem directly are power skills (and traits).

    Starship Warp Core Training (and Warp Core Theorist trait) will give a power settings bonus to subsystems at lower power settings (i.e. less then 75). The lower the setting, the higher the bonus. Subsystem Efficiency skills likewise will give a power setting bonus like Warp Core Training does. The Subsystem Performance skills give a straight power setting bonus regards of power setting (+1 /rank).

    All of the above skills will improve your power settings in various ways and increase how well you subsystems work. TL;DR More Power == More Better subsystem. IF you want to know more about the skills, read the Ship Power guide liked in my sig below.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    I thought research had been conducted that says this isn't accurate; at 50 shield power, you get 100% of the item tooltip regen, at 100 shield power you get 3x the item tooltip, and at 25 power you get 0 regen. For that matter, I'm pretty sure it's been determined that anything with a power relation is standard at 50 power and increases/decreases in potential from there.

    In general, at power level 25, the subsystem is barely operational. Weapons will fire, but energy weapons will only do a mediocre amount of damage. The ship can move forward and turn (Engine and AUX) at slow rates. Shields will protect the ships, but they don't regenerate.

    From there, power level 50 == 1x (or base performance level), 75 == 2x, 100 == 3x and 125 == 4x. For shields, 50 means the shield regnerate at the base level as shown on the tool tip. At 75, it's 2x the base regen rate, 100 is 3x the base regen rate, and finally 125 means you are nearly unkillable at 4x regeneration rate.

    Note: Nothing makes a Cruiser Captain cry more than a Science Ships with Regenerative Shields running at max power level (125). (Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Why won't you DIE?!?!?!?!)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    I thought research had been conducted that says this isn't accurate; at 50 shield power, you get 100% of the item tooltip regen, at 100 shield power you get 3x the item tooltip, and at 25 power you get 0 regen. For that matter, I'm pretty sure it's been determined that anything with a power relation is standard at 50 power and increases/decreases in potential from there.

    I simplified to make it more understandable. When you start adding the actual formulas you quickly get lost in the explanation.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    fuzun wrote: »
    Outside of BO skills, the only things that affects how well subsystems perform at the base equipment, consoles and power settings. Spending points on Starship Shields Maintenance will not improve your Shields. Those captain skills improves you BO's skills. The place where Captain skills can improve subsystem directly are power skills (and traits).

    Starship Warp Core Training (and Warp Core Theorist trait) will give a power settings bonus to subsystems at lower power settings (i.e. less then 75). The lower the setting, the higher the bonus. Subsystem Efficiency skills likewise will give a power setting bonus like Warp Core Training does. The Subsystem Performance skills give a straight power setting bonus regards of power setting (+1 /rank).

    All of the above skills will improve your power settings in various ways and increase how well you subsystems work. TL;DR More Power == More Better subsystem. IF you want to know more about the skills, read the Ship Power guide liked in my sig below.
    Thank you mate.

    I think for someone who doesn't have the nerv (I guess I should though) to think about points here, points theres, it would be cool to have a short summary as in
    Increase shield: invest in skill xyz
    Inrease shield regen: invest in yyy
    Then again, that is what most faqs are, just a bit more thorough, since many skills are connected and don't stand alone. Guess it wouldn't matter for a casual player with testing if there were a respec.
    Maybe I will reroll - think I have done some useless skill point distributions :(
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    You might also find BigBadB's blog useful, it's filled to the brim with great tips.

    http://theenginescannaetakeit.wordpress.com/articles-3/

    Careful you don't trip and fall down the rabbit hole, you might find yourself comparing weapon ranges lying in bed at night :P.

    -HD
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    When I restarted my fourth character I made a note to check the shield skills. When I trained Starship Shield Maintenance it gave me more shield bonus per activation of Emergency Power to Shields, and when I trained Starship Shield Efficiency it prolonged the energy bonus to shields by a few seconds per activation in addition to giving a slight increase in power. Since I mostly go in guns blazing and shields at 50+ the latter skill wasn't quite as useful to me though, and I will skip it entirely in my next build.

    That char is Captain now, so I'm about to train Starship Shield Performance. Other than giving +1 to setting per level, I am not yet sure what other effects it gives on the skills.
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