Flag Bridge Rank Limitations

[Lornalt (OP)]

So theres an mechanic that's never made sense to me. Currently flag Bridges are limited to 1 rank above the ship captain rank.

But generally if a division of battle cruisers are dispatched they might be commanded by a Commodore. Or a squadron of said battle cruisers should be commanded by a Rear Admiral.

However with the current system I'm limited to 1 rank above the captain's rank. I know admin commands exist but admin commands are just that admins. They deal with large picture issues where else the flag officers in a fleet command deal with the fleet issues. Admin commands are stationed at the rear, fleet commands are the fleet commanders.

I would like to ask that the current system of Rx +1 (where x is the captain's rank) be removed and flag Bridges be allowed to host any rank above captain's rank.

[Droll]

This is actually possible, pick the commander you want to become fleet commander - demote him down to commodore, assign him, then re-promote him to his prior rank. He will stay on the flag bridge until he is reassigned with no issues.

[Lornalt (OP)]

Sadly if you use auto assign for officers they will be swapped out with in a day.

Or will it... let me test that..

[nuclearslurpee]

Sadly if you use auto assign for officers they will be swapped out with in a day.

Or will it... let me test that..

As far as I know officers are only removed from a position when they are auto-promoted or if they are in a sub-command position and a ship command at their rank opens up, which will never happen for a RADM or higher.

[Lornalt (OP)]

Yes, it worked! It a kinda roundabout way to do it but the argument in the first post stands.

I shouldn't have to promote and demote my officers in this manner just to get a higher flag rank officer into a position that was never meant for lower rank officers.

[Pixel1191]

I'm a bit iffy on the whole dead-set Rank + x System.

It bothers me that a ship with just a Bridge is commanded by a Captain, but as soon as a I add a CIC, which is a pretty standard thing for a warship, the CO needs to be a Commodore, which is a low-grade flag rank imo. Which also means that every lousy destroyer squadron suddenly needs an Admiral on the command ship's flag bridge.

[Jorgen_CAB]

I'm a bit iffy on the whole dead-set Rank + x System.

It bothers me that a ship with just a Bridge is commanded by a Captain, but as soon as a I add a CIC, which is a pretty standard thing for a warship, the CO needs to be a Commodore, which is a low-grade flag rank imo. Which also means that every lousy destroyer squadron suddenly needs an Admiral on the command ship's flag bridge.

I always change my lowest command rank to Lieutenant so that Captain become the highest possible rank to command a single ship. Most warships will have a Lieutenant Commander in charge and a Commander with a CiC on it. You can then tick the box of senior commander and add one more rank to the command position.

I want Commodores to be the highest ranking officer to be with the fleet in person... every admiral rank is then usually an administrative rank in my setting. Commodores either are flag officers or academy officers.

Rear Admirals are usually leaders of whole task-groups while Vice Admirals are the leader of mission fleets, the Admiral are usually the head of regional naval forces, sectors or something like that.

[serger]

The same as Jorgen_CAB.
I also use small crafts (missile fighters, recons, small orbital platforms), light boats (patrol corvettes and missile FACs) and auxiliary vessels (tugs, ELINT ships and so on) without strict specialisations for their COs, that are just enough to make all those junior officers busy and to give them appropriate service history.

[Pixel1191]

Well the name of the rank doesn't much matter. The problem persists. I don't use "Commander" as a rank, at all. That doesn't change the fact that adding a CIC skips an entire rank, which just doesn't make much sense. I don't see why I couldn't have a Captain commanding a ship with a Commander as a tac officer.

For the purpose of this, there's three ranks that "matter" regardless of their name. Rank 0, 1 and 2, with 0 being the lowest, where all your new officers end up.

Rank 0 commands Fighters, Commercial Ships and ALL shipboard positions (Science, Engineering, Tactical, Air Group, XO)
Rank 1 commands warships without a CIC or other command and control components.
Rank 2 commands warships WITH command and control components

If I build all my armed warships with CICs (which makes sense in my opinion, it's a warship!) that basically renders Rank 1 completely useless, as there is nothing that needs them as commanders. I can "downgrade" them, as in: put them in positions for rank 0's, but that isn't the point. It means I need a lot more higher ranked people and inevitably produces a shortage of commanders.

[Jorgen_CAB]

Well the name of the rank doesn't much matter. The problem persists. I don't use "Commander" as a rank, at all. That doesn't change the fact that adding a CIC skips an entire rank, which just doesn't make much sense. I don't see why I couldn't have a Captain commanding a ship with a Commander as a tac officer.

For the purpose of this, there's three ranks that "matter" regardless of their name. Rank 0, 1 and 2, with 0 being the lowest, where all your new officers end up.

Rank 0 commands Fighters, Commercial Ships and ALL shipboard positions (Science, Engineering, Tactical, Air Group, XO)
Rank 1 commands warships without a CIC or other command and control components.
Rank 2 commands warships WITH command and control components

If I build all my armed warships with CICs (which makes sense in my opinion, it's a warship!) that basically renders Rank 1 completely useless, as there is nothing that needs them as commanders. I can "downgrade" them, as in: put them in positions for rank 0's, but that isn't the point. It means I need a lot more higher ranked people and inevitably produces a shortage of commanders.

There always can be some ships that don't need a CIC such as scout ships or really large commercial stations and ships, I usually give them one higher command. Allot of rank 1 commanders should also be ship staff officers as well.

I also don't think that all ships need a CIC module if they are small enough so I would not put a CiC in a system patrol craft or the like personally who are mainly there to provide security. If you also put CiC in all ships you probably will struggle to find enough officers with tactical skills as well.

You also can require FAC commander to be rank 1 as well and keep rank 0 for fighter sized crafts only.

It is not hard to work with the system to be honest.

[brondi00]

Well the name of the rank doesn't much matter. The problem persists. I don't use "Commander" as a rank, at all. That doesn't change the fact that adding a CIC skips an entire rank, which just doesn't make much sense. I don't see why I couldn't have a Captain commanding a ship with a Commander as a tac officer.

For the purpose of this, there's three ranks that "matter" regardless of their name. Rank 0, 1 and 2, with 0 being the lowest, where all your new officers end up.

Rank 0 commands Fighters, Commercial Ships and ALL shipboard positions (Science, Engineering, Tactical, Air Group, XO)
Rank 1 commands warships without a CIC or other command and control components.
Rank 2 commands warships WITH command and control components

If I build all my armed warships with CICs (which makes sense in my opinion, it's a warship!) that basically renders Rank 1 completely useless, as there is nothing that needs them as commanders. I can "downgrade" them, as in: put them in positions for rank 0's, but that isn't the point. It means I need a lot more higher ranked people and inevitably produces a shortage of commanders.

I'm pretty sure you're wrong and rank 1 (which you're calling zero for some reason) only commands CIC and Engineering.

I use the same system Jorgen does and my science officers and xos are only one rank below the commander, not 2

[serger]

Sci +1, CIS +2, ENG +2
(v1.12)

[serger]

And XO isn't CIC, it's AUX.

[xenoscepter]

 - It'd be nice to have an "Ignore Rank Restrictions" option for GameGen.

[Stryker]

A drop-down menu on the miscellaneous tab of the design screen of any design with a flag bridge would be ideal.  This would allow the player to override the rank restrictions for these designs, but auto assignment would still function for the rest.  The player could set a destroyer squadron leader to a lower rank, and a fleet commander to a higher by simply selecting the rank from the drop-down menu.