You niggers convinced me to play NetHack. Any starting advice? I'm still figuring out controls right now.
Just pick Archaeologist every time and dig down as far as you can go with the pick-axe you start out with.
That's a joke. (Although that's something I like to do sometimes.)
Actually the best preliminary advice is you have infinite amounts of time to think. Use it. Literally any keystroke could be the gigantic mistake that kills you instantly. And sometimes you will get killed absolutely unfairly, and God will laugh at you if you get mad.
The absolute top-tier players still win nearly every time, even doing insane challenges like "I'll wear a blindfold the whole game, and never use a weapon, and oh yeah, no food challenge."
Also, don't upgrade doors. Just use melee + medbay and wait until you get another crew member to man the door module instead. The 25 scrap saved this way often makes a big difference later.
I usually max doors (and man them) but this is generally only with the fat stacks I have entering the flagship fight when nothing else is worth buying. Really before the flagship fight upgrading doors (beyond maybe to level 2) is usually overkill. There are better uses of scrap.
Once piloting, weapons and engines are manned, it's best IMO to ignore manning your shield first and instead put your next crewmember on doors.
Man shields when you have crew who aren't doing anything more important. If you have one of the goofy layouts with sensors or doors next to shields, it can be worthwhile to man whatever systems let you switch the dude out to the more important system, which will depend on the situation.
It's of very minimal importance to have shields charge a tiny amount faster, because this does not affect the vast majority of your encounters. It might have some impact if you're facing fast-firing weapons with a manned enemy weapons room and weapons that fire really close to each other.
But unless you're one of those nerds who memorize every single weapon's charge-up time and know, it doesn't do much to help you.
