Bridge Crew

[Jorgen_CAB]

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.

[Erik L]

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.

[Hyena]

Yeah, I'd like to see this.

Even if it were something as simple as being able to assign officers as 'crew' on ships (any 'crew' would need to be of lower rank than the captain), where they don't provide the ship any bonuses, but do gain skill experience from their position and can be killed if the ship explodes.

It'd be a nice way of training up officers by putting them into the field, with the usual risks associated.

But I'm always in favor for more simulation, so letting bridge officers impact the performance of the ship would be extremely interesting to me.

[Aloriel]

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.

Code: [Select]

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:

Code: [Select]

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.

[Lamandier]

I would love something like this. Especially in the early game, there's too many Lieutenant Commanders, not enough assignments. Particularly if you don't have fighters yet.

At the very least, it would be nice to have a CO and XO for each ship. I also like Hyena's idea about being able to assign officers to ships as crew without necessarily having to specify what that position is. So much else of Aurora is letting your mind fill in the blanks, so why not here? That would create a bunch of additional billets for officers without overly mucking up the database, I would think.

[Saibot]

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.

[Erik L]

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.

There actually is an algorithm in the program to determine the minimum rank. I think if it has weapons then it is automatically R2.

[Saibot]

Hm, makes sense.