I'm having problems with my bridge officer abilities

bravomonkey76

Jolan tru
I'm kind of new to this so I just want to know if I'm doing something wrong.
I recently upgraded to a Romulan T6 Ar'kif Tactical carrier. I'm all super excited to finally have some fighters at my disposal and a turn rate that can beats making a 180 degree turn in lest 4-6 weeks.
My problem is I have bridge officer abilities are not loading. I look at my tactical officer slots and it reads that I have the manuel, expertise points, correct rank, and it reads available to add, but when I click on it...nothing. Not even something warning.
I'm new to the online gaming but I love my Star Trek.
If anybody can tell me what I'm doing wrong, I'd really appreciate it.
Thank you!

davefenestrator

There are 2 things needed to use a boff power with a ship:
- You must assign a specific bridge officer with the right career (tac, eng, sci) to that seat
- The boff must know the skill

To teach the boff the skill, you click on the boff on the left side, then skills, then the correct rank for the skill, then choose LEARN. If they will not learn the skill then either a) you do not have a training manual for that skill or b) you need to PROMOTE that boff to a higher rank, see the bottom-right of the screen (on PC).

To learn a Commander level skill, you must first promote that boff from their starting rank of Ensign.

Also, for specialized skills like Intel or Pilot, you either need a boff who already knows that specialization, or you need to craft or buy a training token that will add that specialization on to their main career, like Engineer + Pilot.

where2r1

bravomonkey76#4375 wrote: »

My problem is I have bridge officer abilities are not loading. I look at my tactical officer slots and it reads that I have the manuel, expertise points, correct rank, and it reads available to add, but when I click on it...nothing. Not even something warning.

We need more information...... Where are you?

Are you looking at individual BOFF Skill Tab?

Are you on the Ship Stations tab?

where2r1

Or do you mean one of these places???

Space Abilities....BOFF Tray




Space Abilities.... Personal Tray (a.k.a. "Space Tray")

bravomonkey76

It's definitely the space abilities, BOFF tray. I can see that some of my officers have the slot to learn the ability but when I get the chance I'm going to go down the check list and make sure I'm not missing one the criteria to learn those skills.
Thank you so much of the help! I really appreciate response.

thunderfoot

I'm not trying to be a smartass but did you Promote your BOff so it can Learn the Ability? I;ve been playing STO since 2012 and I recently wanted to Train a BOff in a new Specialization Ability. Had the Manual. Had the Slot. Didn't have my BOff at Lt. Cmdr level. Felt stupid when I finally noticed this.

Some other things, I've had some BOff Abilities not "take" until I change maps or Instances (i.e. go through a Loading Screen). I've also tried to change BOff Abilities in combat. Which is a no go. So now whenever I am reconfiguring my BOff Ability tray, I got to Sector Space and then change Instances to make sure the Ability Tray is how I want it. I then IMMEDIATELY create a Loadout for it and save it TWICE to the same name. Yeah, a little time consuming but worth it.

BTW, Welcome to the Show!

salvation4

thunderfoot006 wrote: »

I'm not trying to be a smartass but did you Promote your BOff so it can Learn the Ability? I;ve been playing STO since 2012 and I recently wanted to Train a BOff in a new Specialization Ability. Had the Manual. Had the Slot. Didn't have my BOff at Lt. Cmdr level. Felt stupid when I finally noticed this.

Some other things, I've had some BOff Abilities not "take" until I change maps or Instances (i.e. go through a Loading Screen). I've also tried to change BOff Abilities in combat. Which is a no go. So now whenever I am reconfiguring my BOff Ability tray, I got to Sector Space and then change Instances to make sure the Ability Tray is how I want it. I then IMMEDIATELY create a Loadout for it and save it TWICE to the same name. Yeah, a little time consuming but worth it.

BTW, Welcome to the Show!

LOL..Same ship here..After I returned in 2016 I totally forgot about promoting and nearly kicked my entier bridge crew!!

bravomonkey76#4375 wrote: »

It's definitely the space abilities, BOFF tray. I can see that some of my officers have the slot to learn the ability but when I get the chance I'm going to go down the check list and make sure I'm not missing one the criteria to learn those skills.
Thank you so much of the help! I really appreciate response.

Just my two cents here..Have a look at your ships seating..For example..The ships may have only a certain amount abilities for your Boff station..The ship could have only 3 BoFF abilities for a particular station so your ability to use the 4th BoFF ability is of no use because of the limit and hence will not appear at all..


And welcome to the abyss we cal space!!

seaofsorrows

pryor#5476 wrote: »

remember when you want to change abilities you must first UNSEAT that officer, change the ability, then re seat him............. then it will show up in the tray....... I had this problem too when I first started.

This is not true.

I have never had to unseat a bridge officer to change out their abilities.

ihatepwe735

My biggest gripe is if/when you have a specialisation manual, and an acceptable BOFF, but your captain doesn't have the necessary 15 points in that specialisation, is the system will let you try and train the specialisation without showing an error. It just won't work. At least the manual doesn't get consumed.

ikonn

The way around that is to make sure your Boff is fully promoted and buy a Specialization Qualification - (ex. Command) from the exchange. This is in addition to the specific specialization skill you want to train. You can still train Boffs in specializations even if your Captain doesn’t have that specialization.

ihatepwe735

ixionveridian wrote: »

The way around that is to make sure your Boff is fully promoted and buy a Specialization Qualification - (ex. Command) from the exchange. This is in addition to the specific specialization skill you want to train. You can still train Boffs in specializations even if your Captain doesn’t have that specialization.

You literally can't though. It doesn't need to be an active specialisation, but according to the text for the thing you get at level 15 in a spec, you need 15 points in a spec to even train a BOFF in that spec. Unless.a Specialisation Qualification is different to the Specialisation Training Manual you can craft when you max the specialization!?

ikonn

At lvl 15 of... let’s say Command... you gain the ability to craft the Specialization Qualification. Yes, this is different than an actual skill from that specialization. It allows you to train a boff in Command skills. It “unlocks” the ability to do so. You can craft them and throw them on the Exchange if you wish. They have been running between 200 and 300k EC... depending on what spec the qualification is for.

An example of an actual Command training manual would be Strategic Analysis I, II, or III. As stated before in my earlier post, you can buy Specialization Qualification - Command, for example, from the Exchange and not have to even spend Spec Points in that yourself. You can also buy the actual skill from there as well.

bravomonkey76

Thanks so much for all the feed back. I definitely has one of bridge officers seated in the wrong position ie. My science officer, who was specialized as a Pilot, was put in a neutral seat. So even though I had the specialty manuals it would work either way. Then there is the fact of me being a huge idiot.
My Science/Pilot officer did have those abilities available but the reason they wouldn't activate is because I had the manuals stored in my Bank. So the abilities where available but not in my immediate possession.
Bwuap Bwuap
I'm still a newb but I'm getting the hang of it.
Thanks for all the help and guys. I really appreciate it.