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[Jo Jo]

I'm quite new to the game and I'm struggling at times to understand how captain's skills in 95.a are designed to influence my fleet comp. I read in the thread "Dealing with endgame faction fleets?" that adding militarized subsystems to freighters would make them count as combat ships, even if you don't use them as such and would affect combat readiness once you hit a certain threshold. I believe the poster is talking about losing some of the bonus that comes from Leadership - Crew Training, but I'm not sure.

I have a bunch of Colossus freighters, which are the best (largest capacity) I currently have access to, and they are slow. Their default speed is 7, so I've just been adding militarized subsystems to bring them up to 8, which matches with my Prometheus Class tankers (6) + (2) with augmented drive field. I sure like the Prometheus tankers and the best I've been able to do is take them to 8 (maximum burn) which is the same speed as my cruisers. I have the skill Navigation, which is +1 maximum burn level, but it seems to be broken since every ship in my fleet has at least 8 maximum burn and the fastest I travel is 16 and not 18.

Either way, I have to find a way to get my freighters moving at faster than 7 and the only other way I know to do that is by adding augmented drive field (ADF) 7+2=9 which is overkill and costs more OP than militarized subsystems (MS). My fleet is out in space, so all I can see is that MS costs 15 OP since it's already installed, and my guess is that removing MS and installing ADF would add around +5 to +15 OP, but at least I don't think installing ADF would make a freighter count towards my combat ship points.

BTW, I just hovered over the tooltip under "Fleet Composition Data" in the "F" screen and saw two skills highlighted in green and one in yellow -

-Leadership Weapons Drills - +10% damage at 120 or less total combat ship recovery cost
-Leadership Crew Training - +15% max combat readiness / + 30 seconds peak operating time --240 or less total combat ship recovery cost
-Field Repairs - increases ship repair rate and instantly heals some percent of damage --max 60 or less total recovery cost

The Field Repairs bonus appears to cover any ship regardless of combat/non-combat status. Doesn't seem there is anything I can do except run with smaller fleets or accept a penalty to both speed of field repairs and instant healing following combat. No sweat. It is what it is.

So maybe what they were discussing in the thread is the Leadership Crew Training and maybe the decrease in combat readiness is a reduction on the + 15% max bonus which comes into play when you have over 240 total combat ship recovery cost? I'm at 220 right now with just a few combat ships on a survey / hauling run and I believe it's because I have so many of the freighters with MS.

Also, I just checked the Wiki and the Prometheus has a base burn of 6, so I'll be darned if I know how the skill Navigation is helping me. I'm still at a base = 6 + ADF (2) = 8, and my fleet travels at 16 max burn not 18, which would be base = 6 + ADF (2) + navigation (1) = 9. There are no ships in my fleet with a lower max burn than 8 under the tooltip (?) in the fleet (F) screen. It's no fun to travel slower than 16 through hyperspace or subspace or even around the solar system. What am I missing?

What's the short-term fix for my Colossus freighters? ADF and just waste the extra speed and OP? Is there some other way to get a freighter from 7 to 8 without making it count towards my combat ship total?

If I remove the MS, will that help solve my issues with crew readiness and cause the game to see my non-combat ships as what they are? I would like to see real combat ships reflected in the total of "combat ships" and not slightly faster freighters.

What's with the navigation skill's +1 to max burn? When should I see it? I read - "Affects fleet." I do feel the 30% reduction in effects when flying through nebulae in solar systems and clouds in hyperspace, which is nice. Other than that, I wouldn't know I had it. Edit: Of course there's also the option to jump immediately to hyperspace. That, too.

[Megas]

If you need exactly +1 burn from Militarized Subsystems just so your slowpoke civvie transports match your fleet's speed, get Bulk Transport in Industry and dump Militarized Subsystems.

The only reason to use Militarized Subsystems on many ships is the +1 burn to keep up with normal ships, and Bulk Transports gives that +1 burn if the civvies are not militarized.

In this way, Bulk Transport becomes a combat buff by removing the need for civvies to get Militarized Subsystems and become ships that count toward the military DP pool.  No Militarized Subsystems, and the civvie stays a civvie.

(Usually, I get Bulk Transport because more capacity to handle sudden loot bombs is more useful than more loot that my fleet may not be able to haul.)

[Jo Jo]

If you need exactly +1 burn from Militarized Subsystems just so your slowpoke civvie transports match your fleet's speed, get Bulk Transport in Industry and dump Militarized Subsystems.

The only reason to use Militarized Subsystems on many ships is the +1 burn to keep up with normal ships, and Bulk Transports gives that +1 burn if the civvies are not militarized.

In this way, Bulk Transport becomes a combat buff by removing the need for civvies to get Militarized Subsystems and become ships that count toward the military DP pool.  No Militarized Subsystems, and the civvie stays a civvie.

(Usually, I get Bulk Transport because more capacity to handle sudden loot bombs is more useful than more loot that my fleet may not be able to haul.)

Ahh. That's a thought. Gosh, I hate to lose the +50% salvage from abandoned stations. My current cargo capacity is over 16k, and the last station I found netted me almost three times that cargo capacity in loot. Well, my choice then. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. It's a shame we can't have both skills - Bulk Transport and Salvaging.

[Jo Jo]

I want to finish up this thread for other new players who are like myself and who love to read the forums and learn about the game.

1. Navigation captain's skill - It works. My goof. I had just bought a freighter and I failed to notice that it had degraded drive field (-1). Check those d-mods that affect flight speed or else your whole fleet will suffer.

2. @Megas is a genius! Bulk Transport captain's skill is much, much better than salvaging. Bulk transport allows you to fit both Expanded Cargo Holds and Efficiency Overhaul and still get a speed of 8 + Navigation (+1) = 9 or 18 on full burn. Yes, when exploring you will miss out on an extra 50% random loot, but you'll save fuel and supplies with the Efficiency Overhaul wherever you fly. My playstyle is to take the 200k-300k bounties to far regions, kill the baddie, then survey the region only to return once my cargo holds are pretty full. I also take every fight I can get which brings in more loot and tends to replenish my supplies.

3. Removing Militarized Subsystems in the current build is a very smart move if you have taken the Captain's skill - Crew Training. Having an extra 15% combat readiness is sure nice, and losing it to freighters that the game considers "combat ships" is a real bummer. Use combat ships for their purpose and keep freighters / tankers as civilian craft.