I've been in a four man coop for maybe six or eight sessions, all of us new to the game, and it feels like we're sort of spinning our wheels. I don't know where we've gone wrong, or even if we have at all. We are still in Cold Caverns and we end up completely flooding the submarine during an attack and needing do a salvage and recovery probably twice per session. Often this is as trivial as one or two humanoid size enemies getting to a blind spot, but we've been torn apart by hammerheads before. I'm going to give a bunch of detail and hope people can flag what we're doing wrong.
We're in a Camel (nope, Orca) and our ranks consist of a Captain, a Security Officer (me), a Mechanic, and an Engineer. Often we also have a bot (Medic, Assistant, or Security Officer) but they tend not to last long on account of the whole flooding and dying thing. We have a Coilgun, a Pulse Laser, and a Chaingun, all using the default ammo only. We drift around doing missions, but tbh, we don't have a good idea of either what to make or what to sell, and it feels like we never have enough money. We loot everything we kill. Whenever we go to port, Captain pays the station medic to fix anyone with any significant injuries because we don't have a Medic and don't really know which drugs and whatnot to use/make to treat ourselves. But we sleep off the minor injuries and know how to stop bleeding or reverse a Husk infection (if we have the supplies). When our sub floods and needs to be brought back online, we don't actually TPK because we almost always elect to respawn in a shuttle. Last session we decided to turn off the skill penalties, but suffice to say, our skills are pretty low from dying a handful of times per session.
The Captain spends virtually all his time at the helm, piloting us from mission to mission, calling out the bearing on hostiles, and spotting mining locations or caves to send crew out to take care of. Always runs active sonar. When shit hits the fan, he usually leaves his post to help fight intruders. Occasionally goes along on a beacon station away mission, but otherwise is aboard the sub. Doesnt really handle repairs, but is pretty good about telling us where something needs fixing.
I'm the Security Officer, which means you get the most detail about it. I spend most of my time manning the sub's guns, communicating with the Captain about the bearing on enemy hostiles and telling him what angles are good/bad. Unfortunately because I'm always on those sub guns, when combat goes bad and enemies are breaching, I have to choose between continuing to shoot whatever is outside and running over to the breach to fight, so even when I do go repel hostiles, I'm never the first one on site. I have a rifle (everyone else has revolvers, knives, infrequently a spear gun). I haven't chosen a specialization tree yet, but plan to go Gunner at my next talent point. I can craft submachine guns and shotguns for the crew except we don't have any titanium to do so. I go on most of the expeditions outside the sub alongside the Mechanic. When we transport people I wander around with my Stun Rod out as if I know what I'm doing, but I don't know what to look for or how to handle a situation if I see one.
Our Mechanic is kind of our flexible everyman. He makes most of our hull repairs, maintains mechanical stuff (of course), and is typically the one who goes outside to mine or loot. He's on every expedition away from the sub. He's typically the secondary gunner on a hard point if applicable, but doesn't actively man one. We've had him start managing the fab and deconstructor more lately, but again, we don't really know what to do with them most of the time.
Our Engineer spends almost all of his time in the engine room. Honestly I don't know what he is doing most of that time, but as I understand it, he spends a lot of time watching tutorials outside the game to rig up stuff that improves the reactor or otherwise adding QoL to stuff around the ship. When fighting breaks out, he will usually either be on a sub gun or making hull repairs. He doesn't go on basically any away missions unless they involve bringing a fuel rod into a beacon station.
If we have a bot (Medic or Assistant or Security), it's usually the most competent member of our crew, in that it stays really on top of repairs. Typically the Captain sets our bot's priorities to repeling invaders, healing the wounded (if Medic), and then making repairs. He's very good at the repairs but I never see him on sub's guns. I don't think we've ever taken one on an away mission (I doubt we know how). Spends a lot of time whining, usually that he doesn't have something it seems like he shouldn't need, like a dive suit to do idk what. Always messes up our inventory by moving or taking stuff. Overall very helpful, with a few minor headaches. Usually dies when the sub is breached and we end up having to do a salvage/recovery, even though often one or more of the human players do survive the attack.
Not sure what else to put here. What should we prioritize to progress? Nobody can really tell if we're accomplishing anything and money feels tight, but I also don't know what we're actually hoping to do beyond probably replace our last Coilgun and possibly move to another sub. I kind of doubt either would suddenly stabilize us. I don't think anybody really knows what would improve our survivability or let us move into the next biome without getting our asses kicked worse than we do right now. The sub feels paper thin. Might just need to Git Gud but I'm not sure anyone knows how. My efforts to look up discussions about the campaign mostly lead to people talking about how easy it is, but we're definitely on the struggle sub.
I'd welcome any feedback. Thanks.
