Is there a way to change the age of a commander?

[TCD (OP)]

I'm setting up a new game and it is a bit strange that my senior rear admiral is a very precocious 21 year old.  As is the governor of the Earth.  I can't seem to work out how to change the age of an officer in SM mode- is there a button I've missed?

[Erik L]

Realistic promotions on?

[TCD (OP)]

Yes.  That only helps after new game generation though, doesn't it? It seems that all the commanders are in their early twenties.  I'm guessing that Steve hasn't put in an aging algorithm?

[Garfunkel]

You cannot change the ages of commanders and at the start of a new game, they are all young, yes. You can just hand-wave it and retire some after 10-15 years as having reached retirement age.

[Erik L]

Turn SM mode on. Got to the Leaders/Commanders screen. Bottom is a button labelled "Replace All". Click.

[TCD (OP)]

Thanks Erik, I tried this and the new commanders have a better age distribution. I guess Replace All uses a different mechanism to the basic new game commander generation. That's not at all obvious.

[Garfunkel]

And I've never used it because I thought I would just get the same early 20-somethings. Oh well, live and learn.

[Erik L]

Thanks Erik, I tried this and the new commanders have a better age distribution. I guess Replace All uses a different mechanism to the basic new game commander generation. That's not at all obvious.

It uses the same mechanism, but the pop-up that is shown right after you click it tells you how many years to run the process. You could run it for 50 years and have leaders go it, rank up and retire before play.

[MarcAFK]

You learn something new every day.