Academy gives experience

about the only way, I can think of, is modifying a file.

You can make an "ACADEMY" research item that is similar to the maxbuylevel (TEC) and constantexperience (PSI).  Set to tier 3 or just modify the crew training research.

First research modifier says you can purchase 2 levels +1 per level researched.
Second says .91 experience is gained per second per level researched.
Third is the maximum level attainable just by the XP/second
Fourth is an XP bonus from combat.  Killing a 100xp ship gains 125xp (per level researched).

researchModifier
    modifierType "CapitalShipMaxTrainableLevel"
    baseValue 2.000000
    perLevelValue 1.000000
researchModifier
    modifierType "ExperienceConstantGainRate"
    baseValue 0.000000
    perLevelValue 0.916666
researchModifier
    modifierType "ExperienceConstantGainLevelCap"
    baseValue 0.000000
    perLevelValue 2.000000
researchModifier
    modifierType "ExperienceAwardedAdjustment"
    baseValue 0.000000
    perLevelValue 0.250000

An Academy for capital ship crews sounds like a great idea, one of the better new ideas I have seen as of late.

   Did uz jus' speak asian?

Edit: Oh I also like this idea, anything that supports my passive-aggressive pressure gameplay style I'm all for.

Nope, that's SinsTxt.  SinsBin is much more difficult to get. 

Basically what that is saying:

This allows ships to be trained up to level 2.  The more times it is researched, the trainable level max will raise by 1 level.

This means that that all capital ships affected gain 0.916666 xp per second once it's been researched.

This sets the cap for the previously mentioned trickle xp gain.  To be more clear, this specific example says you will not gain trickle xp until you research it, at which point you will trickle gain until reach level 2 at which point you will cease to get trickle xp.  Researching it again will adjust that cap to level 4.

This basically means that you get a percentage more xp per kill based on what the value is.  In this example its 25% more per kill.  So popping a cap ship worth 200 xp in turn gives yours 250 xp.

Thanks for the replies guys. Thanks for the info SemazRalan, but I don't want to give experience to all my ships through research. Just ones that are nearby to the Academy planetmodule structure I've made. This should give the impression that the ships nearby are attending the Academy. I want to make an ability linked to this structure that overtime will give out a steady trickle of experience.

I think the only way to do what I want is to create an enemy ship from the academy and then make it so the buff instantly kills it. 

The only bit I can't figure out is how to spawn an enemy ship in the first place. I can create ships that belong to me but not enemy ones.

The intention is to create a friendly ship with a tiny mesh so it's not visible, change it to the enemy's side, then have it destroy itself. This should give experience to capital ships in the gravity well?

I've been playing around with buffInstantActionType "ChangePlayerIndexToFirstSpawner", but can't get it to work.

Any ideas how I can change a friendly ship to an enemy one? 

Yup, in theory that works.

The problem here is getting the enemy ship to spawn. All of the Sins abilities that spawn ships or change owners need either the target or caster to determine which player they spawn for... resulting in every way I can think of to approach this problem requires an enemy entity to be in the gravity well.

The only exception to this is ships spawned by the insurgents tech, but I don't think this is controlled by an ability so I don't think that will be of any use to you either.

I believe in the planet templates you will be able to specify an enemy ship (pirate or militia) spawns with normal forces.  You could make a home world default or alternative like this for example--or do it for a pirate/militia base or even non-colonizables--just put it in the planet template.

You may even be able to have it default spawn player ships but this may cause some stability issues (player starting types being wrong or even absent) if players are called for that aren't present in a particular match.

Just create an "experience ship" for the neutral faction (that's what my "Cargo Box" mod does) and have it spawn.  You can create a variety of "ships" like this and give them varying experience values.

nice solution Sinperium.  Could be a nice way to have militias respawn.  structure is impossible to capture, is invulnerable and spawns/beacons enemies... probably more challenging than just that.

Thanks.

You can use some of my map tricks in a template--say you want an invunerable non-pirate planet module at a pirate base.

Make it a militia structure and have it spawn with no other defenses or forces at a militia owned planet as part of the template for the planet entity you use. Also have a pirate force spawn there complete with siege ships and a pirate colonizer.

The pirates will siege and colonize the planet but the structure will remain.  If you pattern your indestructible base after trade ports, it will churn out "experience freighters" (which pirates and militia will love) for you--just make a custom one for the neutrals with custom trade ships.

If you want active pirate raids, a second pirate base will be needed.  If the game starts without any planet-owning pirates they are auto-defeated--though they will still siege and colonize the neutral planet where they spawn.

You can easily reverse the process and militia trade places with the pirates, etc.

if you make a default template that spawns a specific player slot, it may mess with your starting races and positions if that player is not present and the map uses fixed starting positions.

If you don't want a permanent "experience factory", just allocate varying hit points to it to give it enough time to spawn ships but eventually die.  You can do other things like give it a phase defense or diplomatic immunity so that it's"offline" most of the time and only spawns for brief periods when not under attack.  You could make it a hangar with high value strikecraft or have it drop turrets with good experience values--possibly making these strikecraft and turrets heavy hitting and making players earn things.  In addition to experience ships, you could add another ability that only has a chance of activating--say one that spawns an enemy capital ship.

Credits and resources can also be gained this way.

Off-topic a bit:  I think I figured out how to fix my pirate raids the way I want.