The wording for how Combat Endurance handles malfunctions could do with further clarification.
It suggests that it only reduces malfunctions when at low combat readiness but when you look at the source code that doesn't seem to be the case.
In actuality malfunctions are reduced independent of the ship's combat readiness.
public static class Level5B implements ShipSkillEffect {
public void apply(MutableShipStatsAPI stats, HullSize hullSize, String id, float level) {
stats.getCriticalMalfunctionChance().modifyMult(id, 1f - MALFUNCTION_REDUCTION / 100f);
stats.getWeaponMalfunctionChance().modifyMult(id, 1f - MALFUNCTION_REDUCTION / 100f);
stats.getEngineMalfunctionChance().modifyMult(id, 1f - MALFUNCTION_REDUCTION / 100f);
}
public void unapply(MutableShipStatsAPI stats, HullSize hullSize, String id) {
stats.getCriticalMalfunctionChance().unmodify(id);
stats.getWeaponMalfunctionChance().unmodify(id);
stats.getEngineMalfunctionChance().unmodify(id);
}
public String getEffectDescription(float level) {
return "-" + (int)(MALFUNCTION_REDUCTION * NO_OFFICER_MULT) + "% chance of malfunctions when at low combat readiness";
}
This distinction is worth noting especially for those that are piloting ships with Ill-Advised Modfications that can cause malfunctions at any time e.g. LP ships or interactions with modiverse hull-mods which may add malfunctions as an act of balancing.
More comments while I'm here...
I've never been a big fan of EW scaling with officer's skills. Furthermore they need to have
either Gunnery Implants or Energy Mastery but no bonus of sorts for having both (not even a diminishing bonus)—I would rather spend my time playing the game then min-maxing fits or officer builds to fit fleet composition. Vanilla did it best here scaling with the amount of ships added (and thankfully it's customisable). It sucks even more when you're up against doritos that have ECM ratings of 50!
Also I prefer the vanilla 0.95.1a Helmsmanship so as to not have to ever encounter the scenario with enemy ships that have a ridiculous level of flux capacity and have low weapon flux usage which can result in being infinitely kited and sniped by ship with permanent zero-flux bonus that keep their flux usage at less than 1%.