Hm, makes sense.

On a related note, I'd like to see fighter minimum rank default be Lt. Commander. Sure you can change it manually, which I do and assume most others do, but if it's so common why not make it the default.

A solution I have to some of these issues is to create a large collection of fighters and PDCs that Lt-Cdrs take control of. This way, all of my junior staff have something to do. I also don't suffer from the clearing house every 6 years.

An additional plus of this is that these junior staffers gain skill constantly. Many of them end up being fighter aces (though this was especially true in 6.2 with the glitch, it is still true in 6.42... just within reason), even if the fighters in question do not have guns.

This is one of my game start "fighters". I don't even have weapons on it, and they're dirt cheap to build. Run off 200 of these, and you'll never have an officer sitting idle.
F-0a Trainer class Fighter    130 tons     1 Crew     22.9 BP      TCS 2.6  TH 15  EM 0
5769 km/s     Armour 1-2     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 0 Years     MSP 110    AFR 0%    IFR 0%    1YR 0    5YR 0    Max Repair 7.5 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 9    

Jones Aerospace 15 EP Ion Drive (1)    Power 15    Fuel Use 155.65%    Signature 15    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 5,000 Litres    Range 4.4 billion km   (8 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
You will also want these:
Fort Hampshire class Planetary Fighter Base    3,850 tons     57 Crew     393.6 BP      TCS 77  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 5-21     Sensors 1/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Flight Crew Berths 1    
Hangar Deck Capacity 2500 tons    

Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres    Range N/A
Strike Group
7x A-2 Tigershark Interceptor   Speed: 6250 km/s    Size: 6.4


This design is classed as a Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 2 sections This PDC can hold 19 of the trainer fighters, so you don't need more than 11 to hold your 200 trainers. It is also useful for later when you have real fighter craft, as you can see above.

Simple solution to the idle officers issue.

That being said, I also support the idea of having bridge crew. I want a Sulu and Chekov, not just a Kirk.

This is a feature I very much would like to have as well.

I think smaller ships would only have one commander, but the more crew you have the more senior officers (Lt.Commanders and above) you can assign up to a certain amount. Let's say you get a maximum of five plus the captain on a ship with 1000 crew and above. Something like...

1-49 (1 commander)
50-99 crew (1 commander, 1 XO)
100-249 crew (1 commander, 1 XO, 1 officer)
250-499 crew (1 commander, 1 XO, 2 officer)
500-999 crew (1 commander, 1 XO, 3 officer)
1000+ crew (1 commander, 1 XO, 4 officer)

Or some such... each officer position would obvious also get a name/title which you set on each ship design.

Or you can just freely add any number of officer position on any ship as you wish as long as there are crew available, but perhaps no more than say ten positions are necessary for really large ships.

Later on the feature could be expanded to actually have a meaning to the ship. But people assigned to junior positions should gain some experience at least.

Gives rise to possible new commander skills. Command, Engineering, Science, Medical, etc.

I have tried things like that and they work but Flag Bridges are large and I don't want to have to do things like that.

Random thought, have you considered using Flag Bridges and then assigning a task force commander and staff to the most important ships? If you declare the Task Force Commander as CO, the actual ship commander as the XO, and state the Survey/Inteligance/Logistic staff to be junior officers you might end up with most of what you are looking for.

You go into the SM mode and promote some of your guys up a rank or two so you have some captains.

I know to make it realistic and simulate ALL junior officers it would be huge but I am not saying that. I am saying have like 5 positions call them bridge crew and do it like Star Trek. I honestly don't care how an actual navy treats junior officers, I don't even care if I have lower ranks called Ensign, they can be called anything for all I care. The negative replies toward this seem based on "Well this is how the actual navy treats junior officers and that would be unwieldy." I don't want to simulate all junior officers, I want a couple officers that I call a bridge crew that acts like the senior officers on a space ship. That is not something we have in this game right now. What we have is one officer per ship.

I'm agreeing with you, i like the idea alot. Guess me and writing don't get along and my point was missed.

-Five

But with this idea there would be jobs for all those junior officers so you would still have enough to make the senior ones. the junior officers could have positions on the ship similiar to the the staff officers or so. A sensor officer, a tactical officer, supply officer, damage control officer, etc...all filled by junior officers. My last command i was stationed with we had 600 people and my CO was Commander, we had 4 LCDR's, and tons of LT's, JG's and Ensigns. you don't need to similate all them but a few others wouldn't be bad and would be nice for something for your junior officers to do, the stats don't even need to matter or count for bonuses like the staff officers, this could be more for a RP thing. As it is now i have them just in fighters or civilian ships as i don't give my big warships to junior officers. And if i don't have fighters it messes up the balance even more.

Just my thoughts on it.

-Five