Where do you recommend that we put our skill points?

[Gzian]

Iguess that I am earning skill points to add to things like defense, offense, repair shields etc. Where should be put these points?

[Longinus]

Put a lot into offense and defense, and if you so desire.. negotiating.

I didn't bother to put much into repairs since I just use the emergency shields when I'm low.

[Vortex]

Originally posted by Longinus:
Put a lot into offense and defense, and if you so desire.. negotiating.

I didn't bother to put much into repairs since I just use the emergency shields when I'm low.

You don't fight Xiati very often then. I just bearly survived a simultaneous encounter with two Xiati battleships, two cruisers, and two destroyers, followed whilst my shields were only at 40% a Xiati carrier and its crusier escort.
I have shield regen 11 (three regenerators plus my skill of 1.2), Armour regen 0.8, and hull 2.5. When I started the encounter I had 16 shield capacitors and 10 emergency armour. When I finished it I had none and was down 2 fighters as well.

Spread your points out between offense,defense, shield repair, armour repair, hull repair. The first three are the most important.
In the early stages of the game Negotiation is important but after the first campaign you'll be making more money than you need from salvage so the price you get becomes pretty meaningless. I usually raise my negotion to 2. So on levels 1 through five put 1 point into each of offense, defense, shield repair, armour repair, negotiation.

[Longinus]

Hehe, yea I usually turn away when I see more than 2 Xiati battleships. Destroyers however, I like to kill them a lot, since most of them don't carry point defense, a single toxic injector hit will kill them

But still, I didn't put a whole lot into repairs(not that I didn't put any), in the heat of battle, the repairing rate is just too slow to be counted on.

And I was joking about negotiating if that wasn't clear, it's useless since you get so much money with nothing to spend on, except the use of shield recharges/armor plates, the occassional repairs and upgrades(which won't cost a lot since you can sell your old equip.)...

[Vortex]

Originally posted by Longinus:
And I was joking about negotiating if that wasn't clear, it's useless since you get so much money with nothing to spend on, except the use of shield recharges/armor plates, the occassional repairs and upgrades(which won't cost a lot since you can sell your old equip.)...

Yes I did realise you were joking.

However, its only true once you get to the point you can kill things easily without being killed yourself. ie about level 10/11. Up until that point it does make a difference, since I believe from other Posts it also affects the rates of pay you get for mercenary and commerce jobs.

If I remember correctly the ratio is 1 skill point = 0.5 negotiating skill. Somebody did post the rest of the ratios but I can't remember under what title.

[Phoenix-D]

Originally posted by Vortex:

If I remember correctly the ratio is 1 skill point = 0.5 negotiating skill. Somebody did post the rest of the ratios but I can't remember under what title.

The rates are all in Main_CharacterStats.txt.