Staff officers and TF

[Rich.h (OP)]

The wiki states that "you can assign staff positions, these officers grant a bonus to the entire system they are in for fleets.", but I am wondering how it relates to extra task forces etc. If I only ever have my original task force from the game start (Fleet Command), then obviously all task groups will belong to that task force and reside under any branches I have decided to make for it. The bonuses provided by the staff officers will be passed (at 25% rate) to all ships therefore in that task force. Does this only apply when they are in the same system? If my main battle fleet takes a trip to Alpha Centauri will they now loose any bonuses that were being given to them while in Sol?

I expect the answer is yes and so I am wondering how extra task forces help, if I were to create a new task force (Alpha Centauri command) but not assign any ships to it. Now when my fleet moves into the system will it.
A: Exchange the bonuses from the sol task force for the ones being provided by staff at the Alpha task force
B: Loose the bonuses from leaving the Sol system but not gain any from the Alpha task force unless I reassign the fleet task group to the Alpha task force?

The other issue I have is how to move a task force, the task force organisation page has options for creating a new task force. But when I try to use the drop down menu to move it to a new population I only ever see Earth as an option. How do I move a task force to a location other than Earth and outside the Sol system?

[83athom]

The answer is the bonuses work for all ships under them in the system they are. Extra task forces are useful if you would want a fleet for patrolling/defending(1) colonies as well  as separate fleets for training(2) and attacking(3). Task force 1 would focus on political relations (public affairs) more than other fleets because they will be the ones with guns (no rhyme/creation of band name intended) over the heads of possibly billions of your own people, as well as focus on fighters (Fighter Operations) and missiles (logistics) so that task force will have the best in those areas. Task force 2 will be away for longer that most training in various systems across your empire (RP, it can be in any one system) so it would need officers with the highest training value that are free (Operations). Task force 3 will be general purpose and will need the best officers available that TF1 doesn't have ie communications, logistics (50:50 importance with TF1), and intelligence. TF1 officers would most of the time be on a colony and would be in a flag officer transport for short journeys to neighboring colonies, TF2 officers would almost always be in a transport with the training ships, and TF3 officers would always be on their mighty flagship that is protected by many other ships at a front-line base. And it is (mostly) for RP purposes. You can add task groups to a task force in the task group order menu (under the location of the task group, and you can transfer locations (colonies) by having a transport with a flag bridge over their location and using the Move to flagship drop down (then click save), move the ship to what colony you want, then the Move to Population drop down when over a different colony (click save), or to a command-ship/flagship (ship) by skipping the last two steps (all in the task force window). http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Leaders

[Bryan Swartz]

I have a related question here that I was thinking about posting on.  I have a couple of task forces that have their HQ on a ship because they are survey TFs.  It seems I cannot assign staff officers except when the TF is on Earth.  When I move the TF to the flagship, I can't assign anybody(it just disappears from the staff officer list).  Is there any way around this, or do I have to move the TF to Earth then back again every time I want to put a new officer in there? 

[Garfunkel]

Toggle the "Assign anywhere" box in the Leader window.

[Bryan Swartz]

Ah yes, good solution.  I thought you'd be able to do it after transferring the officer to the ship the TF is headquartered on, but apparently not.