Terraforming ships with Science Department ? And other officer positions

[Louella (OP)]

Was having a think.   Should Terraformer ships/stations benefit from the "Science Officer" position ?

To me, it would make sense that a terraforming ship, since it is engaged in a long-term science-based project, would have a dedicated science team on board, to make best use of the terraforming equipment. 
Leaving the ships captain to handle the administration of the ship. 

[Garfunkel]

Not a bad idea! I'm all for finding new uses for officers and especially the extra command stations.

[skoormit]

Was having a think.  Should Terraformer ships/stations benefit from the "Science Officer" position ?

To me, it would make sense that a terraforming ship, since it is engaged in a long-term science-based project, would have a dedicated science team on board, to make best use of the terraforming equipment.
Leaving the ships captain to handle the administration of the ship.

I'm confused.

Isn't this exactly what the Science Department ship component does?
It gives a ship a Science Officer position, and the ship benefits from that officer's Survey bonus.

[nuclearslurpee]

I'm confused.

Isn't this exactly what the Science Department ship component does?
It gives a ship a Science Officer position, and the ship benefits from that officer's Survey bonus.

This is absolutely true, however the Survey bonus has no effect on terraforming which is the subject of the OP.

[skoormit]

I'm confused.

Isn't this exactly what the Science Department ship component does?
It gives a ship a Science Officer position, and the ship benefits from that officer's Survey bonus.

This is absolutely true, however the Survey bonus has no effect on terraforming which is the subject of the OP.

Oh hecks. Some day I will learn to read right.

[nakorkren]

Great idea! In the same vein, I'd love to see a "Load Master" position for logistics bonus.

[Louella (OP)]

I had a few more thoughts, and came up with a couple ideas for names for officer positions.

What I would like to see, would be something like. . . .

Terraforming Control, for coordinating the terraforming modules of the ship - officer position would be "Planetologist", uses the "Terraforming" bonus of the officer.

Xenolinguistics Department, for dealing with aliens - officer would be "Xenolinguist", uses the "Communications" bonus

Astrophysics Department, for jump stabilisation ships - officer would be "Astrophysicist", using the "Production" bonus

Information Warfare Centre, for ELINT ships - officer would be "Information Warfare Officer", using the "Intelligence" bonus

Astrogeology Department, for orbital mining ships - officer would be "Astrogeologist", using the "Mining" bonus

I've read the existing CIC module allows the Tactical officer to apply their "Ground Support" bonus, but maybe a distinct ground support module might be a good idea, to allow for more specialised ships ?  :-\ Officer could be called "Bombardier" or "Ground Liason Officer".


Basically the idea is to establish more consistency in the mechanics, so that for as many bonuses as makes sense, the ship captain applies half their bonus, and a specialist officer applies their full bonus.  So that the bonuses are easier to understand, and to further increase the number of positions available, to make leaders have a more varied career.

[Xanithas]

I would love to see something with more utility for my civilians ships, like a module that applied a officers miming bonus to a orbital mining, or industry bonus to a salvage craft along with the transforming bonus. This would lead to some interesting officer pipelines

[Borealis4x]

Yeah, I support this as well. I actually like putting a bunch of 'fluff' officer departments on ships that don't benefit from them just so they have something to do.

It'd be even cooler if the science module was able to apply different kinds of office bonuses instead of just survey. So a science module on a terraforming station would use the assigned officer's Terraforming skill. 

EDIT: While we're at it, could we get some incentive to add Aux Control, Flight Control, and Engineering to more ships including Commercial? I feel larger freighters and the like should have more officer departments.

[Vastrat]

This sounds like a great idea.

[Aloriel]

I posted a suggestion to the main suggestions thread once asking for misc components to have the possibility of having an officer position assigned to them. This way, you could name it whatever you want and get bonuses *you* think are reasonable.