I'm one of those guys that likes to take his time, and the vast majority of pre-match prep is spent on trying to cajole some sort of response from my crew members (using voice chat and personal messages), and then to explain how to change their tools,
"No, you have to press 'customisation complete'. No, that parachute will not save you if you fall off the ship, please bring a spyglass instead. For the fifth time, heavy clip looks like a bullet with a crosshair, NOT a bullet with a flame. What, you have an achievement that requires you to buff balloon? Well, I am captain and I have an achievement that requires me to win games, so bring chemspray or we will die a horrible flaming death" and so on and so forth. The worst part is getting people to switch from gunner to engineer, while convincing them that they'll still be able to shoot guns, except those guns will be buffed and better repaired.
Of course you can still have fun when everyone is relaxed and has no idea what they are doing, but for me the fun is in the feeling of working together as a cohesive unit, adapting to the situation, and then winning, or at least not getting stomped on by the enemy team while screaming at my gunner that he should be shooting the pyra's chaingun instead of whacking the hull.
I've gotten to the point where I ask my crew 'do you guys feel like winning today', and if I get no repsonse I just load up my hwachafish and watch the pretty explosions.