Kind of curious what other people think about the skill classes. To me there are really 2 main reasons to pick any of the skill classes. One is to boost your stats enough in something to get a trait you want that has minimum requirements you can't get from boosting attributes directly (like Deadly Strike, Wildborn, or Crafter). The other is the expert level special bonus. The special bonus is really the only part of that which makes me consider taking a skill class. Otherwise I would rather spend my points on traits or boosting attributes directly.
I tend to either pick no skill classes at all, or a single expert class and no others.
Here's what I think about the expert skill class bonuses so far after having tried all of them:
Best bonus for the first week of the game:
- Expert Soldier: The combination of good combat stats, 3 free suits of combat armor, and the immediate availability of Einar at a reduced salary makes the first week of the game go much easier than any of the other expert perks.
Best early to mid game bonuses after the first week:
- Expert Doctor: If you're focusing at all on combat, this one saves you so much money on stims that it quickly eclipses the value of Expert Soldier after the first week or so and remains useful for the whole game.
- Expert Scholar: If you're not focusing on combat much, this one gives you a fairly significant permanent income source for the early game plus starts you off with decent academic stats to dig into the classes or books or to start homeschooling your slaves.
Strongest late game bonus:
- Expert Businessman: Oddly enough this one gives you literally nothing in the early game unless you're set on a pure crafter so I would put it as the absolute weakest early game perk but the combination of the workshop bonus plus the investment bonus makes it scale up to be the strongest late game bonus IMO. This is also the only way to start with high enough crafting skill to be able to make most of the best gear yourself without having to grind up stats first. So you can actually make decent money from crafting alone if you wanted to. For me it takes about 2 months for the Entrepreneur income to scale up to more than the bonus you get from Expert Scholar and it continues to scale infinitely after that. Add in the workshop bonus and nothing else comes close to generating the kind of money this bonus provides. Then again, in the late game you have tons of money anyway so that might not matter to you.
RP only bonuses:
- Expert Slaver: This one gives you a free slave that you can just buy if you don't start with her. She's guaranteed to have both Workaholic and Perfectionist but that's just 1 slave. The real reason to take this one is the boost to sex related stats if you want to focus on slave training early.
- Expert Hunter: I found this one to be entirely pointless except during the small window of time where I decide to train up a bunch of my scavengers to 60 survival. That's the only time an extra hunting grounds makes any difference to me. It could be a decent money maker at low prosperity if you were focusing on selling food but once prosperity goes up that kind of dries up.
I tend to either pick no skill classes at all, or a single expert class and no others.
Here's what I think about the expert skill class bonuses so far after having tried all of them:
Best bonus for the first week of the game:
- Expert Soldier: The combination of good combat stats, 3 free suits of combat armor, and the immediate availability of Einar at a reduced salary makes the first week of the game go much easier than any of the other expert perks.
Best early to mid game bonuses after the first week:
- Expert Doctor: If you're focusing at all on combat, this one saves you so much money on stims that it quickly eclipses the value of Expert Soldier after the first week or so and remains useful for the whole game.
- Expert Scholar: If you're not focusing on combat much, this one gives you a fairly significant permanent income source for the early game plus starts you off with decent academic stats to dig into the classes or books or to start homeschooling your slaves.
Strongest late game bonus:
- Expert Businessman: Oddly enough this one gives you literally nothing in the early game unless you're set on a pure crafter so I would put it as the absolute weakest early game perk but the combination of the workshop bonus plus the investment bonus makes it scale up to be the strongest late game bonus IMO. This is also the only way to start with high enough crafting skill to be able to make most of the best gear yourself without having to grind up stats first. So you can actually make decent money from crafting alone if you wanted to. For me it takes about 2 months for the Entrepreneur income to scale up to more than the bonus you get from Expert Scholar and it continues to scale infinitely after that. Add in the workshop bonus and nothing else comes close to generating the kind of money this bonus provides. Then again, in the late game you have tons of money anyway so that might not matter to you.
RP only bonuses:
- Expert Slaver: This one gives you a free slave that you can just buy if you don't start with her. She's guaranteed to have both Workaholic and Perfectionist but that's just 1 slave. The real reason to take this one is the boost to sex related stats if you want to focus on slave training early.
- Expert Hunter: I found this one to be entirely pointless except during the small window of time where I decide to train up a bunch of my scavengers to 60 survival. That's the only time an extra hunting grounds makes any difference to me. It could be a decent money maker at low prosperity if you were focusing on selling food but once prosperity goes up that kind of dries up.
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