Noob question about starship rules

[Mahavira]

While I have owned the rulebooks for a while, I have yet to actually play Starfinder. There is something that seems odd in the starship combat rules, specifically the stunts. The DCs are set based in part on the tier of the ship, and at least one of them has the DC increase by more than 1 per tier. Unless I'm missing some expected means to increase skills, it seems like you'd eventually hit the point where it is harder for an expert (aka high level) pilot with his custom ship (aka equal tier to his level) to perform stunts than if he stole some off the assembly line scow, and may even be worse off in his custom ship than a lower level pilot would be in the scow. Am I reading something wrong, or is there some rule I've missed that escalates skills more than I think? On one level I get that "you don't give a ferrari to someone with a learner's license", but on the other, I think that the Starfinder version of the Red Baron should be doing stunts fairly routinely.

[BigNorseWolf]

The DCs were errata'd right after printing to be more saneish.

Linky

There are still some that level up faster than 1 per level though.

Starfinders increase their skills from

Level/Ranks
Increasing their stat
-Every 5 levels
-around levels 3 8 and 14 with stat boosting crystals
Scaling Skill class bonus or Skill focus.

After level 10 (where your stats are unlikely to increase meaningfully and there are no more ability crystals) The DCs do start to get away from people still.

[Mahavira]

Thanks for the errata and summary (which matches what I gathered, so I'm at least not blind). You'd think they'd tie DCs to size rather than tier. Tier covers too much ground, I think - a fairly old battleship and a the Normandy from Mass Effect might well be the same tier, and I have to assume most PC parties don't suddenly switch to a dreadnought once they are high level. I'm a little surprised there aren't more skill boosting items or systems - an improved set of helm controls that Grant a bonus to piloting doesn't seem like a crazy thing to have exist.

[BigNorseWolf]

Mahavira wrote:

Thanks for the errata and summary (which matches what I gathered, so I'm at least not blind). You'd think they'd tie DCs to size rather than tier.

You really don't want a level of high level adventurers not needing to roll to take their miniature nuclear armapocolypsorok deathsphere through a starship combat. There would be even less for the non pilot non gunners players to do.

Quote:

I have to assume most PC parties don't suddenly switch to a dreadnought once they are high level.

You do level up your ship as you advance. Its assumed you're taking things out, putting things in, up dating the computers, when you travel through the drift or whatever.

Quote:

I'm a little surprised there aren't more skill boosting items or systems - an improved set of helm controls that Grant a bonus to piloting doesn't seem like a crazy thing to have exist.

Most ships do add to piloting with some kind of bonus.

Most ships have computer nodes that do that add to any roll you want. Although you could easily reflavor them as Grandpas old gunnery chair or a reclining spinning gyroscopic pilots chair. They give a bonus equal to their mark to a number of skill checks per round. For example a mk 3 duonode system adds +3 to any 2 rolls you want. A mk 1 trinode adds +1 to any 3 checks etc.

[Garretmander]

Mahavira wrote:

Thanks for the errata and summary (which matches what I gathered, so I'm at least not blind). You'd think they'd tie DCs to size rather than tier. Tier covers too much ground, I think - a fairly old battleship and a the Normandy from Mass Effect might well be the same tier, and I have to assume most PC parties don't suddenly switch to a dreadnought once they are high level. I'm a little surprised there aren't more skill boosting items or systems - an improved set of helm controls that Grant a bonus to piloting doesn't seem like a crazy thing to have exist.

the only reason PCs don't switch to a dreadnaught/whatever is that they don't have the crew for it.

Well, that and medium/large frames are in that sweet spot where they have room for all the power cores you need to make a death sphere, but don't cost a lot (both for the frame and armor on the ship) and still can mount most items outside capital weapons.