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[Megas]

Is there a reason to care about 20 burn? It seems almost totally irrelevant other than saving a little irl time. Nothing end-game is time sensitive if your colony is properly defended.

Pathers ignore defenses.  Pirates to some extent.  There is a reason why I consider Pirates and Pathers the primary endgame enemies.  And killing them not only to defend my colonies, but also core worlds to prevent decivilization and permanent income loss.

Exploration and/or blueprint raids takes time, especially if my colony is at one side of the sector and the Red Planet and other goodies are on the other.  Depending on what I need to do, I may really want burn 20 on my endgame death fleet, especially if I blunder into a 300+ pirate ship encounter.

P.S.  While Pathers are predictable (and manageable if I only have one base to kill), pirate activity can be as sudden as expeditions, and might need to be dealt with immediately, which hurts if I am at the other side of the sector trying to reach Red Planet or find other goodies.

[Thaago]

Navigation is the most powerful skill for me because it saves player time. Faster ships, ignoring terrain penalties, and longer range all reduce the amount of time I need to sit there with my finger on the shift key.

If you want to do an Iron Man game, navigation is essential. Avoiding enemies by being faster, dragging them through terrain which slows them more than you, and by jumping in/out not at jump points gives a VAST reduction in how many times you get ganked.

[intrinsic_parity]

I usually take navigation for convenience, but it seems unnecessary to spend tons of fleet slots (multiple tugs) and lots of extra fuel just to get 1 or 2 burn for an endgame fleet. The only thing you need multiple capitals for is stations that don't move, otherwise, you can just take a faster fleet. I just have never felt like 1 or 2 burn would have a significant impact. It's probably worth a few days, a month at most, of in game time difference in arrival time. I haven't encountered much where that would matter significantly. The terrain bonus of navigation seems way more significant. Being able to take the most direct path probably matters more than going a little faster.

[Megas]

I just have never felt like 1 or 2 burn would have a significant impact. It's probably worth a few days, a month at most, of in game time difference in arrival time. I haven't encountered much where that would matter significantly. The terrain bonus of navigation seems way more significant. Being able to take the most direct path probably matters more than going a little faster.

Trips to pirates and pathers bases can take significant time.  Same thing with core worlds (for blueprint raiding) if the best colony worlds (that you can claim) are in the fringe.  Not to mention Red Planet and/or other places with Remnants can be a meatgrinder.  Most memorable is eating a multi-swarm of 300+ pirates on their way out while I was on my way in to take out a pirate base.

I once thought less than 20 burn (like 14) was fine, until I had trouble trying to reach Red Planet or other distant locations in some games because colony threat alerts that I could not ignore kept interrupting my progress.  The easiest way to maximize free time between alerts is to have burn 20 whenever possible.  Stormriding helps, but it is not an option inside systems (where there are no storms and) where I want to scan all of the planets and/or take my time killing a pather base or, in core worlds, stealth raid for blueprints.

I really want Navigation, but taking it means giving up Officer Management, Fighter Doctrine, or some combat skill I want more.  Thus, none of my characters take Navigation.

[Thaago]

For me, any loss of combat power by taking the skill is easily offset by just bringing along another ship or two. Lets be real: combat power is never realistically an issue in the late game. But my real life time is very much!

In early/mid game, I find a tech start that prioritizes navigation is rather painful as taking a few personal combat skills is vastly more powerful, but by the time I have a decent destroyer line I try to fit in navigation.

[SapphireSage]

I am in a similar boat with Thaago. Often of late, I only really have about an hour or so to play SS and only really if I skimp out on sleep, which is very non-sustainable. Because of this, I generally take a couple skills for doing things quickly like Navigation or the salvaging skill that gives remote survey at level 1, and even Neutrino detector can help by quickly determining if there is any loot worth looking at in the system by doing a quick test of false positives around if I'm able to fit it. This is all because the top priority of my games is simply to lessen time required to do certain tasks, especially ones that can get a bit stale like searching through endless fringe systems with no/minimal planets and loot for the all important blueprints and colony sites.

Navigation also helps more than with speed, between increased burn speeds, maybe sensors, and transverse jump its possible to avoid a lot of unnecessary fights. Fights which, on the larger end, could take anywhere from 30 mins. to said hour to complete.

[Kohlenstoff]

The transverse jump is definitly a must have. The speed bonus is a nice extra, what can help to avoid fights too. Same with the less terrain penalty. This makes navigation really useful. But transverse jump is a must. It pays off to be able to jump into the planet with the fat station and jump out after exploding it without having to deal with jump point guards or fleets between jump point and station. The requirement for a fast entering leave applies even more in systems with large bases and one jump point, especially if the stations are blue and full.

[Megas]

Convenience is why I think max colony skills (Industry 3, Colony Management 3, and Industrial Planning 3) are must-have.  I compensate for less fuel with more pop-up bases and monthly income.  I almost want Planetary Operations 3 too (for one more planet for my empire), but again, that means one less skill that I want more.  Come to think of it, it is a choice between Navigation, Officer Management, Planetary Operations 3, or a combat (or industry) skill.

Transverse Jump at 3 is handy, but I find +2 burn more convenient than T.jump due to two less tugs I need or want to bring.  Two tugs is a lot of fuel if I need to travel half the sector to where I want to go and back.  Of all of the bonuses from Navigation, I like 2 for -25% fuel the most because an endgame fleet with multiple capitals (and tugs) needs so much fuel.

Bringing more ships does not help much if I can only deploy from four to eight ships depending on my fleet and map size.  With my fleet, more than 1 or maybe 2 Officer Management is not very useful because I cannot deploy enough ships at the same time (and I do not want another 100k monthly expense from four extra officers I cannot use).  Next game, I may downsize to default 300; I have played at the max of 500 and even that is not enough for the big fights of 0.9.  One time, I tried 200 map size, and Fighter Doctrine was useless because I could only deploy two capitals and no carriers (unless one of the capitals was an Astral), and combat was practically a series of tag-team endurance matches in a fighting game.

I find Neutrino Detector a pain to use, and I still have trouble identifying false positives unless I travel a significant distance.  It is easier for me to spam Sensor Burst at suspicious places to find stuff.  Free and no need to lug Volatiles.

With points spread between all four attributes, I barely have enough skill points to match level 20 officers.  I want at least as much combat power as an officer.  Most of the extra skill points given in 0.9 go to colony skills.  It helps that Helmsmanship 3 is a terrible perk now (unlike in 0.8 ), meaning one more point free to go elsewhere.