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What makes a good captain?

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Sammy B. T.:
My list.

1. Sammy
2. B.
3. T.

 :P

Squidslinger Gilder:
-Play like your ship and the lives of your crew matter

This is the most common idea that gets passed up. You can have moments of just silliness where you go on a ramfest for fun. But if you change your overall mindset into thinking about keeping your ship alive, you'll find yourself a lot harder to take down. Think evasion. Then spam Muse...FIX HYDRO!!!

-Know the limits of your crew

Are they experienced? Noobs? People who don't listen or refuse to listen after repeated attempts to help?

There isn't always a huge gap between vets and noobs. Sometimes you have to scale back your piloting to compensate. It'll usually take them a few matches to be able to get up to speed. For crews which refuse to listen, you might as well be ground chuck. Usually it isn't an entire crew but just one person. Ask them to leave. No sense in that one person bringing down the game for everyone because they want to dink around or be a jerk.

-Know the limits and capabilities of your ship

You gotta know every angle. Every firing arc. What the ship can handle, what the ship can't handle. How much sustained fire it can take before the armor goes down. Limitations in the game engine and the loads of bugs related to that. Gotta put your ship into positions where the crew can perform. Think about what they are dealing with. Can they shoot properly? Can they repair/rebuild in time? What is the ranges on the guns? Speed of the ship should you need to make an escape?

-Tactics

Using your environment, your ship, your tools, everything. Try to predict what your opponent may be thinking and work out ways to counter it.

-Awareness and communication

Be aware. Your crew is going to be busy, they can't always check around. Communicate often and they'll help spot every chance they get. Talk to your other captain(s), unless of course they don't seem to want to.

-Leadership

You are the orchestrator. You control if the team gets kills, if they die, and if they survive. A gunner cannot shoot unless they have a target and an engineer cannot repair effectively under heavy fire. Different ships may need different repair orders. Some need speed to evade hits, others need faster rebuilds on hulls to soak damage.

Moo:
One thing that I don't think has been mentioned yet... Don't act like you're literally tied to the helm!

The only reason you need to be at the helm is to steer the ship. Other parts of being a captain can be performed from elsewhere too. And there are situations where trying to move the ship isn't the best idea...
Unavailable: You have no engines. Banging on the control keys won't get you anywhere, so perhaps a better idea to go bang on something else with a tool to take pressure off the crew and help get up and running quicker.
Unwanted: You're sniping. Moving the ship will mess up the crew's aim. You could shoot or repair, or maybe even just get off the helm and spot.
Unwise: If you've taken heavy damage, or are facing superior firepower, sometimes running away is a lost cause. Helping to shoot or repair may let you survive, or at least damage the enemy more before you die.

Also remember that the ship will keep going straight if you get off the helm with the throttle set. This means you can do other things even while moving.

Sammy B. T.:
I must strongly disagree with getting off the helm in most scenarios. If you are in such disrepair that your ship is either about to go down or become immobilized, you should have already put you crew in a tankn/flee/cower mode. Every second spent running to a component and repairing is a second not spent evading. Even with one engine, evasions can still be made (one turn lets you turn, one primary lets you change speed) Even with no engines, changing elevation can still help. There are of course exceptions such as Galleons, where minor turns don't exist, and Junker Balloon repair where you just have to look up. However, few things make me rage more than when the ship is going down and the capatain has decided to stop evading in favor of hitting the hull with his pipe wrench when the rest of the crew is already in repair mode.

Parkourwalrus:
1. not being a $#$%#&^%^&*%%^$ gunner.
2. equipping at least one non harpoon weapon.
3. knowing what captains chat is.
4. sharing the moonshine.
5. communication.
6. understanding fire arcs.

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