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I've got several questions about starship combat.
Most importantly, I have no clue what the sentence on page 322 means
"Class features and items affect crew actions only if specifically noted in the class feature or item".
Does this mean that engineers do NOT get their insight bonuses on their engineering rolls?
Do they get a bonus if they have taken Skill Focus?
What about if they get skill focus as a bonus feat from a class?
Does the pilot theme +1 apply?
Does the +3 for a class skill apply?
Assuming that several of the above do not apply, then
1) PCs need to keep track of 2 separate scores for lots of skills
2) PCs absolutely suck compared to NPCS and this suckage just gets worse and worse.
I'm also not at all sure how to read NPC ship blocks.
1) Does the AC and TL include the enemy piloting ranks? I'm moderately sure they do NOT.
Lets take the simplest possible example, the first starship combat in the Into the Unknown quest.
The NPC ships AC and TL pretty much cannot include the pilots skill ranks in that example.
I've also got serious scaling issues after level 1 but that is probably a different discussion
I think that note was probably meant mostly for items, and they through in class features as a catch all...which was a bad idea.
Because as you note, skill focus and most class abilities don't make any mention of ship combat, meaning they shouldn't apply by the rule you quote.
But I'm fairly certain that they should apply. Else, why would you really bothering giving bonuses to piloting or take skill focus pilot.
I agree with Claxon's assessment of the situation.
The last math I saw a lashunta envoy could hit a 70 once per day if she rolled a 20 then 16 on 2d8. That's so obscure to not count.
Really though the Captain and the Pilot are the only people that can't have teams backing them up, and pilot DCs are lower (a reasonably optimized pilot (18 dex + 4 skill increases +6 implant + 20 ranks trained + 10 computer) can make the Death Star do a barrel roll on a 10 or better).
The one specific 10+3xtier ability needs to be tweaked as it's not only too high but the captain needs to match the skill that he's trying to inspire (computer use, piloting, or engineering). Even though he's the only other person on a large capital vessel that needs that +10 he still can't do that, like ever.
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The last math I saw a lashunta envoy could hit a 70 once per day if she rolled a 20 then 16 on 2d8. That's so obscure to not count.
It's actually not *quite* as bad as that; a Lashunta Envoy with every stacking buff in the CRB can actually hit a DC of 84 if everything goes exactly right (calculations here and here). And they can hit a 70 much more often than that... But they still can't hit it very often, and you have to completely min-max to get there.
So this actually just supports your main point: without the introduction of some further resources that aren't in the CRB (e.g., new magic items or ship upgrades that boost skills, or something like that), these numbers get too big at high levels.
I'm also not at all sure how to read NPC ship blocks.
1) Does the AC and TL include the enemy piloting ranks? I'm moderately sure they do NOT.Lets take the simplest possible example, the first starship combat in the Into the Unknown quest.
The NPC ships AC and TL pretty much cannot include the pilots skill ranks in that example.
It is possible that NPC ships work like the monsters and don't add in their bonuses, but use some other template.