Game Mechanics Question: Rank, Promotion, Medals

[Fistandantillus7 (OP)]

  I do not get it.  Any of it.   

I am playing 1. 9. 5 and it is my first ever game of Aurora.  I assigned (basically at random) an Earth Administrator and an Academy Commandant and clicked the 'Automated Assignments' checkbox at the start of the game.  Other than the occasional notice like 'As a result of promotion, Aiden Morgan was relieved from command of TFMR Albatross' none of it seems to matter and searching the forum has not provided much information.

I assume 'Promotion Score' is something like XP.  I have a Vice-Admiral with 1627 points who appears to never have done anything but get promoted every few years.  Where did the Promotion Score points come from? I have a Commander with 1615 points, another Commander with 226 and a Lieutenant Commander with a promotion score of 629 who was created 17 game days ago.     Random starting promotion score when first created? So who gets promoted and why? I can understand how officer bonuses affect gameplay but what game mechanic does rank affect?

I can create a medal called "Participated in the Great Us versus Them War" give it a zero promotion score modifier and manually assign it for role play reasons, but personally: no.  I could give it a positive promotion score modifier but what game mechanic reason would I want to do this? There are a list of automatic medal conditions, so I am thinking one medal for each condition.  But then I am wondering why those medals do not exist by default? Why would I choose to create only some and not all of those possible medals? What game mechanic impact does an officer discovering 1000 system bodies with minerals have? Why would I wand to assign a medal and encourage the promotion of that officer? All I have seen so far is that rank promotion removes people with great survey bonuses from my survey ships and replaces them (or not) with people with lower bonuses.

Help!

[Pedroig]

You are asking a lot of questions which are all subjective.  They can be honestly answered, why would you NOT want to do those things?  The argument can be made, with all sides being equally right, that discovering 1000 mineral deposits deserves a medal for looks, for promotional value, and doesn't deserve a medal since the intrinsic value to the Empire is all the reward needed.

So what do YOU want to do with medals?  Use them not at all, CORRECT decision.  Use them as acknowledgement of a threshold, action, battle, campaign, theatre, CORRECT decision.  Use them as a means to "fast track" promotions, CORRECT decision.

Without knowing how you have the game set-up it is hard to say on the promotion points.  Overall each rank has a minimum threshold point, and then the points get reset upon promotion, with the next rank requiring more points to obtain then the one prior to it.  If you have political turned on, then that hidden number is taken to account by weighting the promotion points accordingly.

[davidb86]

Promotion scores are calculated by a combination of skill rankings, time in grade, political reliability (if you have realistic promotion on) and medal award modifiers.  within each rank, the highest promotion score officer will be promoted if they have the minimum time in grade and there is an opening at the next level.  I searched, but could not find, Steve's post on the exact formulas used for calculating the promotion scores, It may have changed with the C# implementation, but the basic concept is still the same.

[skoormit]

...
All I have seen so far is that rank promotion removes people with great survey bonuses from my survey ships and replaces them (or not) with people with lower bonuses.

If you want to prevent this, check the "Do Not Promote" box for your officers with great survey bonuses.

[Vortex421]

Promotion scores are calculated by a combination of skill rankings, time in grade, political reliability (if you have realistic promotion on) and medal award modifiers.  within each rank, the highest promotion score officer will be promoted if they have the minimum time in grade and there is an opening at the next level.

I think there's one other piece as well - a ratio of the ranks.  Get enough of the lower ranks, you have to add a slot to the next rank up, and so on.

[Fistandantillus7 (OP)]

So what I am getting so far is that Rank has zero impact on any other game mechanic.  Its only purpose is to allow a player to write/imagine novel-like AARs.  Higher ranked officers are limited in what they can do, so if a newly generated officer has good bonuses I should designate her/him "Do Not Promote".  While features of the game, rank, promotion and medal choices (at least currently) have little or no in game consequences.

In contrast, engines have a classic triangle tradeoff: you can only pick two of three parameters.  Want small and powerful, the engine is super fuel inefficient.  Want power and fuel efficiency, the engine is going to be big.  Big, slow ships are easy to see, easy to target, and easy to hit.  Big, fast ships are easy to see, a little harder to target, a lot harder to hit, but use a lot of your limited fuel resource.  Engine and ship design have many in game consequences.

[skoormit]

So what I am getting so far is that Rank has zero impact on any other game mechanic.  ...

This is nonsense.
Are you aware of Naval Admin Commands?
Are you aware of the new command and control rules?

[Fistandantillus7 (OP)]

No.  This is why I am asking.

[skoormit]

No.  This is why I am asking.

Perhaps you should read through the C# change list? There's a lot there.

[Steve Walmsley]

No.  This is why I am asking.

Check out the links provided above as they answer your questions. It is also worth reading through the whole thread as most of the game mechanics are explained.

http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.0

[Fistandantillus7 (OP)]

Actually, I did read all of that but forgot a lot of it especially the Admin Commands structure and using it to stack bonuses.  I now know what I need to learn.  Thank you everyone. 

[Thrake]

TL;DR: Low rank officer can only be affected to the least important positions. High rank officers will end up providing (a fraction) of their bonus to multiple ships. If you want a ship to be commanded by more experienced officers, you also have a senior checkbox in ship design. So for your survey ships, perhaps the geosurvey can be normal rank, gravitation senior and it will increase the size of the pool of commanders that can lead your ships.

Survey stat is cool but in the grand scheme of things isn't game changing IMO.