I was designing my medal system for my current game and it occurred to me that I really only had three main groups. First up was the general science exploration type awards, then came the ones which could be classed as non combat came (anything where the receiver was not in a vessel capable of firing), finally came the combat awards. One thing I noticed was that others should perhaps get them too. Such as diplomats, scientists and such. But do medals have any effect on either the ability scores of such characters (in the case of diplomats, geologists, espionage), or on their chances to increase their administration rating?
