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I'm noticing a lot of changes to rank-ups, including the fact that we now get promoted without spending skillpoints.
I think now is the time to go back to what a lot of us said since Beta:
Rename the max rank from Vice Admiral 1 to Captain 21.
I'm NOT suggesting that Admiral be unobtainable but I think it should be a NON-rank based accolade title, maybe for maxing out the duty officer system.
There are 12 DO categories, right? Make it so that completing any 4 unlocks the Rear Admiral title and pips, completing any 8 unlocks the Vice Admiral title and pips, and completing all 12 unlocks the Fleet Admiral title and pips. The DO system tests your ability as a paper pusher and delegator and makes more sense as the means to progress your Captain sideways into the admiralty rather than as a field commission rank up.
Likewise, other advancements could be done through other progression systems.
On DS9, we saw Starfleet Intelligence had Deputy Directors and Directors with unique pips. This could be the post-Captain PvP progression.
In turn, maybe Fleet Actions, STFs, and Fleet Activity take you down a Fleet Captain -> Commodore path.
And then, maybe crafting could lead you through a special Corps of Engineers progression with pips based on the Marquis pips from Voyager and O'Brien's special badge on DS9, as both the Voyager Marquis and O'Brien were exemplary and unorthodox engineers in large part who could have become synonymous with great engineering.
But your rank in game mechanics terms would be Captain. This other stuff would be stacked on top of that based on what you are in addition to being a Captain, as opposed to a linear rank-up. (Which fits with the shows, where Admiral wasn't really treated so much as a progression so much as it was a Captain who was also a skilled bureaucrat, with a chain of command that almost never treated Admirals as being ABOVE Captains.)
I think now is the time to go back to what a lot of us said since Beta:
Rename the max rank from Vice Admiral 1 to Captain 21.
I'm NOT suggesting that Admiral be unobtainable but I think it should be a NON-rank based accolade title, maybe for maxing out the duty officer system.
There are 12 DO categories, right? Make it so that completing any 4 unlocks the Rear Admiral title and pips, completing any 8 unlocks the Vice Admiral title and pips, and completing all 12 unlocks the Fleet Admiral title and pips. The DO system tests your ability as a paper pusher and delegator and makes more sense as the means to progress your Captain sideways into the admiralty rather than as a field commission rank up.
Likewise, other advancements could be done through other progression systems.
On DS9, we saw Starfleet Intelligence had Deputy Directors and Directors with unique pips. This could be the post-Captain PvP progression.
In turn, maybe Fleet Actions, STFs, and Fleet Activity take you down a Fleet Captain -> Commodore path.
And then, maybe crafting could lead you through a special Corps of Engineers progression with pips based on the Marquis pips from Voyager and O'Brien's special badge on DS9, as both the Voyager Marquis and O'Brien were exemplary and unorthodox engineers in large part who could have become synonymous with great engineering.
But your rank in game mechanics terms would be Captain. This other stuff would be stacked on top of that based on what you are in addition to being a Captain, as opposed to a linear rank-up. (Which fits with the shows, where Admiral wasn't really treated so much as a progression so much as it was a Captain who was also a skilled bureaucrat, with a chain of command that almost never treated Admirals as being ABOVE Captains.)
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Grinding?
I'm suggesting taking a HOTLY requested retooling of the ranks that's been a sore point since beta. People want to play Captains in Star Trek.
With autoranking now a reality (ie. spending skillpoints is not required to level in any sense on Tribble), we finally have a time when it would be doable to scale things around into a galaxy of Captains. Heck, Lt 1-5 could become Lt. JG now.
We're at a point where it wouldn't break anything to re-evaluate the rank names in a more IP-friendly direction.
If somebody wants to be addressed as an Admiral, they can push papers for an optional title... and maybe that would add incentive for Cryptic to add the Eric Pressman/Riker Admiral Uniform as well as Klingon General rank insignia.
I'm not suggesting adding a grind beyond the grind we're being provided with. I am suggesting tossing a reward onto that grind for people who want to roleplay being more than Captain.
People don't watch Star Trek and dream of being an Admiral. Only one character became an Admiral during the time they were starring in a show or film franchise, outside of alternate futures, and that was Kirk. And it was treated as an unwanted headache and a relief when he got demoted, back to where he was "supposed" to be. There's nothing glamorous about being a Star Trek admiral. It's an administrative job that should be represented by people doing administrative work.
I think a lot of fans would have a lot less trouble if the Admirals who cropped up actually did administrative work (which the DO system exists to represent) and if Admiral wasn't presented as a more desirable or superior post or rank than Captain, which almost every instance of an Admiral in Star Trek indicated that it wasn't. (Heck, I can think of at least two occasions outside of Kirk when a member of the Admiralty jumped at the idea of throwing off their duties as an Admiral and resuming the life they had when they were Captain-ranked.)
But if your issue with it is the idea of a grind... Then I'd be fine with it just being unlockable title and pips at the rank people presently get them at but game rank and title of address used by NPCs being Captain.
It does raise some questions though. When the level cap is raised, what are we going to have? Thousands of fleet admirals? Thousands of presidents of the ufp? When does it stop?
A lot of characters in the show spent a long time as commander, just as much as the captains stayed captains. It also "fits" since in the star trek universe, commanders did have command of their own ship (unlike these "lieutenant captains" we have now) In the shows and movies, it seemed like advancement from ensign to commander could happen pretty fast (you saw a fair number of pretty young commanders) but then you spent a long time as commander, and only the best of the best were able to advance to the rank of captain.
It would also be cool to have some "test' missions associated with gaining rank. Kind of like the simulation test that Troi had to do when she ranked from LtC to Cmdr. Something more involved than a visit to Admiral Quinn's office and an optional side trip to the stateroom. But I know asking Cryptic to actually make game content is like asking a pig to fly.
Captains command a ship
Admirals command fleets
Everyone in this game is a glorified captain and as such should be named so. IF and when they bring out the ability to command multiple NPC ships or do it as a backstage assignment system then the Admiral ranks would be appropriate.
So true.
Supported!
There were issues with it when rank ups required spending skillpoints because it could have seriously messed upprogression.
They don't anymore. I think this is the one time we might have a shot at changing the devs' minds on this issue.
Lke I say, I'd be fine with the Admiral titles and pips unlocking at certain levels as options.
But a lot of people want to be Captain. Some have even avoided spending skillpoints to STAY Captain. Heck, we have an Ensign 51. As it stands on Tribble, those folks will automatically become Vice Admirals against their will.
"Thank you for saving us, Rear Admiral Lower Half Smith!"
I'd prefer even to be able to set a title even at Lieutenant or Commander and have NPCs address me at whatever rank I set, but that will never happen, so I'll settle for being re-ranked to Captain. Let promotion to Admiral be an option for those who achieve the proper accolades and want to choose it. I'll stay Captain, thank you very much.
Agree. 100% agree. You're 'revamping' the game, now is the perfect time Cryptic.
1-5 Lt. JG, 6 - 10 Lieutenant. 11-20 Lt. Commander, 21 - Anywhere, as someone else suggested, there are lots of Commanders in Starfleet that have their own ship, for a long time no less, so 21- 40 or 45 even as Commander.
46-51 Captain, with the additional levels as the cap rises keeping us in the rank of Captain for a while. Keep the ship tiers as they are already, or adjust by a few levels, but not many and it fits the IP far more than what we have now.
What I would be in favour of is an option to choose the rank by which you are referred in your bio section. That way you could choose to be captain if you wished, without forcing the change on everybody who doesn't RP.
Yes, please.
Flag Officers (Generals and Admirals) have a much broader scope of command, and really, being strapped to one (or any) ship and crew is kind of beneath them. Their roles are to preside over theatres. When they do serve on a flagship, it's just a temporary mobile field office for them (that's all a flagship is... a ship with a flag officer on board). They command the fleet, squadron, or battlegroup, but they're not in direct command of the ship they're sitting on (and if they are, something is seriously wrong because you now have a flag officer concerning themselves with the operation of a single ship instead of focusing on the bigger picture).
But the biggest annoyance is not that we are able to get to Admiral, but that so LITTLE time is spent as an actual CAPTAIN. It just flies by. 51 levels and only 10 of those spent as an actual, identified by the game, Captain. And then it's gone. After that, and into the remaining time we play on that toon, it will be referred to by the game as an Admiral, whether or not that's the role we play.
I'm also not a fan of Fleet Leaders calling themselves Admirals just because they got a bunch of players together (and yes, I'm a Fleet Leader too), but that's another layer of incongruity layered on top of the one we already have with ranks and skill levels.
I would like to take it a step further, though - I want boff ability unlocks to be uncoupled from their rank. I don't want to have to promote four boffs to commander just to get their full abilities unlocked. Each ship gets one captain and one commander. The rest can be up to lieutenant commander, but that's it.
Admiral ranks should be assigned via a fleet. So only fleet leadership can assign you Admiral ranks. Other than that I like the OPs general idea. Make everyone a Captain.
For over a year, I have been lobbying for a system similar to the DOff system, but with ships under your command, rather than individual officers. You would send the ships out on missions, off screen, and success would be determined based on how well the ship was equipped and crewed. The DOff system really has done a better job of this than I would have imagined possible in the STO engine.
The best advancement for Admirals would be to add these ships as BO's in space. For some missions, not all, we should be accompanied by the ships under our command. It would help make us more like Admirals and change the game play style. As it stands today, there is little difference in impact or scope between Lieutenant or Vice Admiral. You still do the same galaxy saving or flower scanning missions at all levels.
I think new game play features need to be added that differentiate between Captain and Admiral. I would rather not see simple accolades tied to existing features.
Hrm...fair enough. I had always thought Troi and Crusher were lieutenant commanders (with Troi being promoted to lt cmdr after her test) and were just simply referred to as 'commanders' as they often did in the show, but Memory Alpha says otherwise (and if you want to get downright technical about it - Worf was just a lieutenant while he was aboard the Enterprise D until right before it got blown up - should never have promoted the Klingon
As for the TOS era - I don't count any of that stuff; it's all so inconsistent with everything that you can't make heads or tails of any of it so I don't bother trying.
Still, not all of a ship's senior staff will be a commander, yet that is exactly what STO forces us to do if we want our boffs to be fully effective on the ground - and in some cases, in space. So, my request to uncouple boff abilities from rank stands!
Lower ranking officers have the ability to give orders to higher ranking officers when that lower ranking officer is the officer in command or at a higher tier of the command structure. This is true even in the real navy. It doesn't OFTEN happen, but it CAN happen. Typically when an officer reaches a particular position within the command tier, they have attained sufficient rank to at least equal all officers beneath them and if they have not then they are promoted a rank. But, still, like I said, it CAN happen even in the real navy. (typically it only happens with medical personnel, such as in this case both Troi and Crusher outranking Data but both being medical personnel [doctor and counselor] they are not in the direct chain of command)
In the modern navy there is also a distinction between line officer and staff officer. Line officers can hold command of ships and installations, where Staff Officers are specialized professionals (such as Doctors, Instructors, and in some navies, Engineers) that may hold command over their department, but not over the the ship. Ex: Hospital Ships may have an officer in command of the medical unit that has seniority and rank over the ship's commanding officer, but the ship's CO is still in command of the ship (although I imagine the senior officer has a high amount of pull)