Here are several proposals
- Allow multiple officers aboard ship. You add officers with a rank requirement and a freely changeable description. For functionality they would simply serve as backup if the CO dies, and maybe boost the COs stats. It would also be nice if the ranks could be set exactly.
- Currently there is only one command structure above the individual ship. Instead allow to create a command layer on each node of the fleet organization tab. On each command node staff positions can be made available. Rank requirement for the Commanding Officer of a formation would be one higher than the highest subordinate formation or captain.
While you could stack command layers, there is still a finite number of officers, and there are easier ways to abuse aurora than creating 100 ranks and filling them all.
- Make it both possible to manually forcibly promote officers with realistic promotions, as well as do the same by autoassign to fill all slots. Such officers would get an 'inexperienced' penalty that vanishes over time.
- Make it possible for officers to get promoted for distinguishing themselves in battle, as well as new officers added for the same reason. Such an event would inspire some nice stories to write what had happened.