Commander Bonuses

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

The purpose of this post is to list all commander bonus and their effects

Crew Training Bonus: Used by ship commanders. The number of grade points that are added annually to the ship that this officer commands. The effects of grade points are listed in the Crew and Grade section of the rules

Factory Production Bonus: Used by planetary or sector governors and commanders of construction and salvage ships. Provides a bonus to the construction rate of construction factories, ordnance factories, fighter factories and fuel refineries for a population if this officer is the planetary governor. If the officer is a sector governor, every planet in the sector receives 1/4 of his bonus. For construction ship or salvage ship commanders, the time required to build a jump gate or salvage a wreck is reduced by the size of the bonus

Fighter Operations Bonus: Used by carrier commanders. Reduces the time required to rearm and refuel fighters

Fleet Movement Initiative Rating: This indicates the level of intiative shown by the commander when it comes to maneuvering a fleet. A fleet or fighter group can have its initiative set at any level up to that of its commander. As fleets/FGs move in ascending order of initiative, this can be very useful when trying to intercept another fleet or fighter group.

Ground Combat Bonus: Used by ground unit commanders. Increases the strength of a ground unit by the bonus. If the officer is the senior HQ commander on the planet, his bonus applies to all ground units. Otherwise, it only applies to the unit directly under his command.

Ground Forces Training Rating: Used by the senior ground HQ commander on a planet. The annual chance that a randomly selected ground unit on the planet will receive an increase in morale of 1-10 points.

Ground Unit Construction Speed Bonus: Used by planetary or sector governors. A bonus to the rate at which ground troops are trained at the population if this officer is the planetary governor. If the officer is a sector governor, every planet in the sector receives 1/4 of his bonus.

Mining Bonus: Used by planetary or sector governors and commanders of mining and harvester ships. Provides a bonus to the production rate of mines and automated mines in a population for which this officer is the planetary governor. If the officer is a sector governor, every planet in the sector receives 1/4 of his bonus. For mining ship or harvester commanders, provides a bonus to rate of mineral or fuel production

Political Bonus: As well as being useful in a number of different ways, all bonuses increase the chance that a commander will be promoted and larger bonus provide a greater chance. The political bonus is an exception. It has the greatest influence of all bonuses on the chance of promotion but serves no other useful purpose. This is to simulate that sometimes the ability to create the right impression is a lot more important when it comes to promotion than actual skills.

Population Growth Bonus: Used by planetary or sector governors. Provides a bonus to the population growth rate for a population if this officer is the planetary governor. If the officer is a sector governor, every planet in the sector receives 1/4 of his bonus.

Research Bonus: Used by planetary or sector governors. A bonus to the number of research points produced by the population for which this officer is the planetary governor. In addition, if the planet is currently researching a project that falls within the planetary governor's research specialization, the bonus is quadrupled. If the officer is a sector governor, every planet in the sector receives 1/4 of his bonus.

Shipbuilding Bonus: Used by planetary or sector governors. A bonus to the Shipbuilding rate for the population for which this officer is the planetary governor. If the officer is a sector governor, every planet in the sector receives 1/4 of his bonus.

Survey Bonus: Used by survey ship commanders. A bonus to the number of grav or geo survey points generated by the ship that this officer commands

Terraforming Bonus: Used by planetary or sector governors and the commanders of terraforming ships. Provides a bonus to the amount of gas produced or removed. Applies to all terraforming installations for a planetary givernor and an individual ship for the commander of a terraforming ship. If the officer is a sector governor, every planet in the sector receives 1/4 of his bonus.

Team Bonuses: Each of these bonuses is used when a commander becomes a member of a team. A team comprises five members and the rating of the team is equal to the sum of the appropriate bonuses of its five members. The current teams are: Archaeological, Diplomatic and Cybernetic. A fourth team, Espionage, will be added a later date but the bonus for the commander is already in the game.

All the non-team bonuses have a chance to increase with experience and the bonuses that increase will be related to officer's current assignment. For example, an officer commanding a survey ship can advance in Crew Training, Fleet Initiative or Survey Bonus whereas a carrier commander could advance in Crew Training, Fleet Initiative or Fighter Operations. A planetary governor may advance in any of the skills that influence a population. Teams gain experience through successful actions. For example, a diplomatic team concluding a treaty or an archaeological team discovering a new tech will increase the team rating a little.

Steve

[Erik L]

Fleet Movement Initiative Rating: This indicates the level of intiative shown by the commander when it comes to maneuvering a fleet. A fleet or fighter group can have its initiative set at any level up to that of its commander. As fleets/FGs move in ascending order of initiative, this can be very useful when trying to intercept another fleet or fighter group.

Ascending or descending? If it is ascending, I'd want a lower score. Unless I'm missing something?

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Realistic Promotions

As an optional rule, the game will handle promotion of commanders. If this rule is used, the player has no control over when officers are promoted as he is assumed to be the Emperor and promotions are handled at a lower level.

During each 5-day increment, the game checks all ranks of each player's military. The number of officers in each rank is checked and then the rank above them. If the next higher rank has less than a third of the number of officers as the current rank, a number of officers are selected for promotion to bring the numbers up to one third. For rank 5 or higher, one half is used instead of a third.

When promotion is possible, each officer is rated for promotion using the following scoring system:

For most percentage bonuses, the officer scores equal to the percentage bonus squared. So an officer with Mining 10% would score 100, an officer with Survey 20% would score 400 and an officer with Research 30% would score 900

Certain bonuses are not really as useful in game terms so the percentage is halved before any calculation is performed. These include Terraforming Bonus, Ground Combat Bonus and Ground Unit Training Speed Bonus. So an officer with 30% Ground Combat Bonus would score the same as someone with 15% Mining.

The Political Bonus is more useful than any other for purposes of being promoted. Therefore it is treated as being 1.5x its actual value. So a 20% Political Bonus would be the same as a 30% Mining Bonus

For Crew Training Bonus, an officer scores equal to the bonus/5 squared. So an officer with a bonus of 50 would score 100, an officer with a bonus of 100 would score 400, etc.

For Ground Unit Training Bonus, an officer scores equal to the bonus/6 squared. So an officer with a bonus of 50 would score 70, an officer with a bonus of 100 would score 278, etc.

An officer gains a score equal to half his Initiative Rating

An officer gains 100 points per year spent at his current rank.

If an officer currently has an assignment, he gains 100 points

Once all the commanders have been given their promotion rating, a number of officers equal to the available number of promotion slots are promoted in order of descending promotion rating.

If this rule is in effect, a new race's starting commanders are created by the program and assigned appropriate ranks.

The idea of this rule is to reflect reality a little more in that you can't just take a capable officer and promote him several ranks in one go. He has to be watched as he comes through the ranks. However, for this realistic promotion to have any meaning, potential assignments have to be restricted. Therefore only certain ranks of officer are allowed to command a particular type of ship or a certain size of population. The command level for ships can be overriden on the class window but this should be treated with care for roleplaying reasons.

For example, an unarmed ship with no survey capability or jump drive could be commanded by any officer. A ship with a jump drive or survey capability requires a officer of rank 2, a large warship would require rank 3, etc. Fighter Squadrons require at least a rank 2 officer and rank 3 for squadrons above a certain size. Planets require an governor with a rank based on the signature rating of the population. This means you won't be able to just put all the best officers in the best slots (and promote them immediately) and you will need to make do with what is available until the better qualified officers gain sufficient rank and experience.

Steve

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Fleet Movement Initiative Rating: This indicates the level of intiative shown by the commander when it comes to maneuvering a fleet. A fleet or fighter group can have its initiative set at any level up to that of its commander. As fleets/FGs move in ascending order of initiative, this can be very useful when trying to intercept another fleet or fighter group.

Ascending or descending? If it is ascending, I'd want a lower score. Unless I'm missing something?

Ascending is correct. So a fleet with initiative 50 moves before initiative 100. Therefore if you want to pursue more effectively, you need a higher initiative so you can see where the other fleet has moved to before you move.

Steve

[Erik L]

Fleet Movement Initiative Rating: This indicates the level of intiative shown by the commander when it comes to maneuvering a fleet. A fleet or fighter group can have its initiative set at any level up to that of its commander. As fleets/FGs move in ascending order of initiative, this can be very useful when trying to intercept another fleet or fighter group.

Ascending or descending? If it is ascending, I'd want a lower score. Unless I'm missing something?

Ascending is correct. So a fleet with initiative 50 moves before initiative 100. Therefore if you want to pursue more effectively, you need a higher initiative so you can see where the other fleet has moved to before you move.

Steve

I need more caffeine...

[Erik L]

Has this been updated to show the skills for the Staff officers?

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Has this been updated to show the skills for the Staff officers?

No not yet. I'll get it updated soon though.

Steve

[Father Tim]

Administration Rating:  Used by Civilian Administrators and Scientists to indicate the size of colony / number of labs they may oversee at one time.

Communications:  Used by Task Force Communications Officers to pass orders and coordinate the fleet.  Important if you use 'Inexperienced Fleet Penalties'.  Also assists in attempting to establish communications with alien races.

Diplomacy:  Used my Diplomatic Team members to make other races/empires like you (or hate you less).  Important if you ever want to do anything other than conquer & destroy.  Also used by Task Force Public Relations officers to convince the gullible public that your ships are better than they are, and up their perceived Planetary Protection Value.

Espionage:  Used by Espionage Team members to steal info from (designs, technology, survey data) and sabotage (installations) other races/empires, and to defend your empire from such activities by others.

Intelligence:  Used by Task Force Intelligence Officers to discern enemy capabilities, interpret sensor data, and identify enemy classes & ships.  Basically, everything found on the Ctrl F5 'Intelligence & Foreign Relations' window that isn't 'Political Relations'.  Also used to interrogate captured enemy personnell.

Logistics:  Used by Ship Commanders, PDC Commanders, Task Force Logistics Officers and Civilian Administrators to decrease the loading/unloading time* of their ships/PDCs/Task Force members/any military unit at their colony, or any civilian unit if the colony has a civilian spaceport.
     *Of cargo, passengers, cryo tubes, Marines, ammo, fuel, and maintenance supplies - assuming Steve remembered to program it in for all those topics.  Occasionally we discover he missed something, or added something new.

Operations:  Used by Task Force Operations Officers to coordinate the fleet.  Important if you use 'Inexperienced Fleet Penalties'.  Also used in 'Task Group Training' to overcome said penalties

Survey:  Also used by Geological Team members to discover additional, overlooked TNE on colony worlds and Task Force Survey Officers to grant a bonus to the Survey efforts of all ships in the Task Force in the same system as the TFSO.

Xenoarcheology:  Used by Xeno Team members to investigate alien ruins, identify the builders, and designate 'recoverable' tech, installations, or components.  Also used by Engineering Reg't (Brigade) commanders to recover the aforementioned items and put them into working order.

Wealth Creation:  Used by Civilian Administrator to increase the 'wealth points' (Quatloos, Megabucks, Newyen, Credits, Lunies, whatever) generated by population & Financial Centres under their control.