Core Ship Skills

In Close but no Kill Starwalker noted that his Drake was barely fit for purpose. This battlecruiser had seen action for mission running and got the job done but against live targets it was only adequate at best. Its tank and gank was simply too low. Similarly, Starwalker noted that the Rifters are much better currently because more of the relevant pilot skills are trained to a higher level and more ships are properly fit for purpose. Last but not least, the frigates are far more expendable than battlecruisers because of the ISK replacement cost.

Starwalker moved to the Neocom console in his Captain’s Quarters and checked his ISK balance, less than 10 million. It would be some time before there was enough ISK to have a fleet of expendable battlecruisers. As Starwalker sat there contemplating the future and sipping some Quafe he decided that waiting a while was not necessarily a bad thing as there were many skills to be acquired too.

Thinking about that further Starwalker listed some of the core ship skills that needed to be maximised to Level 5 and applied to any ship and added them to his training plan:

·         Electronics – 5% bonus to CPU for each level

·         Engineering – 5% bonus to Power Grid for each level

·         Energy Management – 5% bonus to Capacitor Capacity for each level

·         Shield Management – 5% bonus to Shield Capacity for each level

·         Hull Upgrades – 5% bonus to Armour Hitpoints for each level

·         Mechanic – 5% bonus to Structure Hitpoints for each level

·         Navigation – 5% bonus to Speed for each level

·         Evasive Manoeuvring – 5% bonus to Agility for each level

Learning other electronic, engineering, navigation or mechanic skills would be dependent on ship or type of fit and typically add improvements (Repair Systems...) or make something easier to fit (Weapon Upgrades...). Starwalker did a quick calculation and realised that to complete the skill training of even this short list would take around two months. What would be the best way to do this learning and include the other keys skills for gank and tank?

That was a question for another day, it was getting late and looking at this would take some time to come up with an answer.