Posted by: liveware
« on: June 18, 2020, 03:52:15 PM »+1 for allowing different racial life spans. I want me some elvses.
Promotions are actually not that hard to get and I believe it even mimics RL. During peace it is obviously problematic but as soon as war hits and you have medals set they can start earning a LOT of points which should lead to them quickly jumping 2-3 ranks.The problem is (for me) that I like slow start, with smth about 50 to 100 years of Sol system exploration and colonization, and only after that - "unexpected" discovery of Jump Theory, and though interstellar exploration, navy buildup and interstellar wars. And all this time I have to click "no promotion" on every new officer, because if I do not do it - the most ambitious of them tended to get flag ranks in their middle twenties with any plausible rank system.
I'd love to see a lifespan modifier. Have it affect commander health,retirement,death,promotion. Unless you storyline a commander, it seems impossible for them to earn much in the way of medals if you use realistic promotions. If they have a longer lifespan/career, they can spend longer per rank/assignment to earn those high level achievements.
To go with this, maybe a way to modify how many of a lower rank is required before a promotion is available. Instead of taking 10 ensigns before promoting one to Lt(jg), a way to change so its 15 ensigns before promoting one for example... not sure off the top of my head what the current ratio is & I know it's out there cause I've seen it, but I think you get the idea. Or maybe add a minimum promotion points required for each rank in addition to number of lower ranked officers to trigger a promotion.
That top level commander should have a full salad on his chest, right now, with realistic promotions, that just doesn't seem to happen unless you storyline & micromanage.
Another thing that feels off, shouldn't all commanders on a ship get the credit for discovering a star system for example, and not just the ship captain? Or at the very least, those assigned to relevant jobs in addition to the commander