Pros and Cons of a non-Pilot Captain?

[MonsterMutt]

I ask because I've seen a few higher level captains opt for the engineer or gunner class instead of pilot.  What's the deal?  Is it just to have a handicap and make the game more interesting?

The obvious cons I can think of:

1) The person at the helm will be flying an unfamiliar ship
2) The pilot can't use captain chat

Pros:

1) If you don't trust your crew you have the option to kick the pilot off the wheel or gun/fix things?

[N-Sunderland]

It's only used by engis/gunners who want to be in charge but not pilot. The other ship on my competitive team used to go that way, and that's because the gunner/gungineer was really the one calling the shots.

Captaining as an engineer and having no pilot at all, however, does have some distinct advantages on certain ships.

[Imagine]

No idea, but frankly, don't. Or, at the least, even if the captain isn't the pilot, have at least a pilot on board.

[Zenark]

I can see a different class acting as captain, but it'd have to be someone aware of the battlefield in order to communicate with the other captains. An engineer has an awareness over the ship, a gunner has awareness of the enemy ship, a pilot should be in charge of being aware of every ships positions and movements, meaning they probably should be the one communicating, but, as I like to say with my weird build.. "Why not?" Whatever floats your airboat.

[HamsterIV]

I have seen Charon and Sushi swap rolls, where Charon is the captain/gunner and Sushi is the pilot. I guess they are on teamspeak with the rest of the ducks and it doesn't matter who has access to captain com. I have also seen 0 pilot ships where the captain goes engineer for the extra rebuild power. This is mostly done on galleons where the ship isn't piloted as much as it is deployed and oriented. 3 engineer galleons are a pain to take down.

[N-Sunderland]

Squash does the engi-captain thing, and it makes his Galleon run a lot better.

[Queso]

It can work on a few select ships to have no pilot, like the galleon and maybe the junker. I usually only see captain slots filled with not pilots in competitive matches where someone else handles communication. I've flown like that before.

[N-Sunderland]

Engi captaining works on the Galleon and Spire. Junker is stretching it, and no other ships work with it at all.

[Eukari]

I could see it working well on a Galleon. Every one I've ever flown on had the (major) issue of a single engineer having to cover the widely-spaced hull, balloon and engines all by their lonesome...and that's ignoring any attempt to use the light guns. Having a second engineer up top to help repair the balloon/hull would let you keep two people on big guns, which you really need. And, as others have said, if you're flying a Galleon enough to need three pilot tools...you're probably moving too much.

[N-Sunderland]

Yup, that's pretty much it. It also allows you to get a buff tool on the top deck, which is a huuuuge boost.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

You loose a lot of movement options by not having a pilot. Course if you are a giant turret you don't really need many but still all someone has to do is exploit that. If you absolutely need 4 engineers pounding on a hull or balloon then your pretty much screwed either way you go. Your engines, guns, and everything else will be broken and your left with totally relying on your ally to do all the work. Better to use extra evasion to not put yourself in that position in the first place.

Course overall this is just a byproduct of 2v2. Why I traditionally don't like 2v2 because combat is far too predictable and boring. Try to pull this in 3v3, just too easy to get owned even if you do get a kill off. More options in 3v3 for flanking and breaking up engagements thanks to that 3rd ship being there.

[N-Sunderland]

If you absolutely need 4 engineers pounding on a hull or balloon then your pretty much screwed either way you go. Your engines, guns, and everything else will be broken and your left with totally relying on your ally to do all the work. Better to use extra evasion to not put yourself in that position in the first place.

That's not really the idea behind it. The engi captain is great for managing hull and balloon repairs while the main engi uses the left gun. You end up getting way more damage out than you would if the engi had to constantly jump off the gun for repairs. As for maneouvrability and evasion... Honestly, the balloon buff is better than hydro/chute. The main engine buff also helps compensate a little bit for the loss of kerosene, and the hull buff (and left gun buff) help further justify it.

[Gambrill]

I ask because I've seen a few higher level captains opt for the engineer or gunner class instead of pilot.  What's the deal?  Is it just to have a handicap and make the game more interesting?

The obvious cons I can think of:

1) The person at the helm will be flying an unfamiliar ship
2) The pilot can't use captain chat

Pros:

1) If you don't trust your crew you have the option to kick the pilot off the wheel or gun/fix things?

ona  galleon as captain i will play engineer. my pilot tool would be the claw. that way once the guns are in range and arc i can focus on keeping the ship alive at the same time.

[Orangey]

For me ive only seen use for non-pilot piloting on the Galleon, a brawler one that is. This way you can tank as a pilot with the main engie and let the gungineer and gungineer take care of all the gunning. The engie pilot should only stay on the balloon tho, because it can then quickly go back on helm. Id choose carrosene as a pilot tool and let the buff/gungineer buff the side engines so you dont need the claw. Id even take a second buffgineer because youre close combat anyway and you probably only use 1 ammo type, this way you can buff your entire ship so you dont really need piloting tools for movement. You can go all engineer on a ship and still be super effective if not more effective as a normal crew+pilot.

[Sprayer]

Classes that are more of a nice to have than necessary on Guns of Icarus Online battleblimps:
-Gunner
-Pilot