Exploration Initiative - Station Personnel discussion thread

paxfederatica

Per the main exploration discussion thread, I've taken it upon myself to do the honors of starting up the separate thread to discuss the station's officers. I did so because it's occurred to me that, before we start nominating characters to fill roles, we should decide exactly what those roles are. It's also occurred to me that a facility like this would involve roles that aren't necessarily comparable to those of a starship, or even another station like DS9. So, for starters we should consider just what the various roles should be, the chain of command, etc.

markhawkman

Well aside from the obvious: commander, engineer, security, I figure the station would likely have a lot of science personnel. Maybe some foreign government representatives, at least on occasion. It seems like an unlikely place for an actual embassy.

paxfederatica

Here is my take on what the command and personnel structure of the station should look like:

Commanding Officer: I'm thinking whoever commands the station should have a rank higher than Captain, but not too much higher. Maybe Rear Admiral Lower Half or the equivalent rank for the KDF or Romulan Republic.

Commander/Subcommander-level positions:

• Federation Starfleet Executive Liaison
• Klingon Defense Force Executive Liaison
• Romulan Republic Militia Executive Liaison

These would be the ranking officers for their respective factions (except for whichever faction the Commanding Officer comes from). The Starfleet Executive Liaison would essentially act as an intermediary between the CO, the Starfleet personnel, and Starfleet Command. Likewise for his/her Klingon and Romulan counterparts.

Lieutenant Commander/Centurion-level positions:

• Eng: Chief of Mission Operations
• Eng: Chief of Station Operations
• Sci: Chief of Science Operations
• Tac: Chief of Security
• Tac: Chief of Station Defense

Mission Ops would be in charge of logistics and preparations for exploration missions; Station Ops would be in charge of running and maintaining the station itself. The other positions here are pretty self-explanatory. The Eng, Sci and Tac designations are just to indicate which department color each should be wearing.

Lieutenant-level positions:

• Eng: Station subsystem specialists
• Sci: Specialists in specific scientific disciplines (including social sciences and linguistics)
• Tac: Weapon and shield specialists; senior security officers

Positions outside the chain of command, or with separate chains of command (including civilian positions):

• Chief Medical Officer
• Counselor
• First contact/Prime Directive consultant
• Starfleet, Klingon and Romulan Republic Intelligence liaisons
• Federation Department of Temporal Investigations liaison (and KDF and Republic counterparts)
• Starfleet Judge Advocate General liaison
• Starfleet Diplomatic Corps liaison (and KDF and Republic counterparts)
• Starfleet Corps of Engineers liaison
• Commandant of MACO detachment (for when the merde hits the fan, as Picard might say)

Ensigns/Enlisted/Civilian support:
Of course there should also be plenty of junior officers and civilian support staff populating the station too. To spice things up, perhaps one of these could turn out to be a Daniels-type figure who has infiltrated the station crew for some unknown (but not necessarily sinister) purpose. One (sinister) idea would be a Section 31 operative who is secretly monitoring Initiative activities to identify, and possibly even act upon, "threats" among the Initiative's discoveries, which could compromise missions or even threaten to unravel the Initiative from time to time.

captainhunter1

Should it be a military style chain of command or a civilian one? Even a non-standard hierarchy is an option - triumvirate panel, a collective, computer AI, etc. (though this may lead to more headaches than it's worth )

captainhunter1

paxfederatica wrote: »

Commanding Officer: I'm thinking whoever commands the station should have a rank higher than Captain, but not too much higher. Maybe Rear Admiral Lower Half or the equivalent rank for the KDF or Romulan Republic.

If a military style chain of command is used, shouldn't it have a Fleet Admiral equivalent as the ranking officer? I'm sure I'm not the only person tired of having my Fleet Admiral characters taking orders from subordinate officers.

paxfederatica wrote: »

Positions outside the chain of command, or with separate chains of command (including civilian positions):

• Chief Medical Officer
• Counselor
• First contact/Prime Directive consultant
• Starfleet, Klingon and Romulan Republic Intelligence liaisons
• Federation Department of Temporal Investigations liaison (and KDF and Republic counterparts)
• Starfleet Judge Advocate General liaison
• Starfleet Diplomatic Corps liaison (and KDF and Republic counterparts)
• Starfleet Corps of Engineers liaison
• Commandant of MACO detachment (for when the merde hits the fan, as Picard might say)

This seems a bit Federation-centric. I like the positions, but think they should be mixed up a bit with Klingon and Romulan equivalents too.

paxfederatica

captainhunter1 wrote: »

paxfederatica wrote: »

Positions outside the chain of command, or with separate chains of command (including civilian positions):

• Chief Medical Officer
• Counselor
• First contact/Prime Directive consultant
• Starfleet, Klingon and Romulan Republic Intelligence liaisons
• Federation Department of Temporal Investigations liaison (and KDF and Republic counterparts)
• Starfleet Judge Advocate General liaison
• Starfleet Diplomatic Corps liaison (and KDF and Republic counterparts)
• Starfleet Corps of Engineers liaison
• Commandant of MACO detachment (for when the merde hits the fan, as Picard might say)

This seems a bit Federation-centric. I like the positions, but think they should be mixed up a bit with Klingon and Romulan equivalents too.

We could certainly do that. I'm just not sure some of these Starfleet positions even have canon-established counterparts in the KDF and/or Republic Militia.

primar13

paxfederatica wrote: »

Here is my take on what the command and personnel structure of the station should look like:

Commanding Officer: I'm thinking whoever commands the station should have a rank higher than Captain, but not too much higher. Maybe Rear Admiral Lower Half or the equivalent rank for the KDF or Romulan Republic.

Commander/Subcommander-level positions:

• Federation Starfleet Executive Liaison
• Klingon Defense Force Executive Liaison
• Romulan Republic Militia Executive Liaison

These would be the ranking officers for their respective factions (except for whichever faction the Commanding Officer comes from). The Starfleet Executive Liaison would essentially act as an intermediary between the CO, the Starfleet personnel, and Starfleet Command. Likewise for his/her Klingon and Romulan counterparts.

Lieutenant Commander/Centurion-level positions:

• Eng: Chief of Mission Operations
• Eng: Chief of Station Operations
• Sci: Chief of Science Operations
• Tac: Chief of Security
• Tac: Chief of Station Defense

Mission Ops would be in charge of logistics and preparations for exploration missions; Station Ops would be in charge of running and maintaining the station itself. The other positions here are pretty self-explanatory. The Eng, Sci and Tac designations are just to indicate which department color each should be wearing.

Lieutenant-level positions:

• Eng: Station subsystem specialists
• Sci: Specialists in specific scientific disciplines (including social sciences and linguistics)
• Tac: Weapon and shield specialists; senior security officers

Positions outside the chain of command, or with separate chains of command (including civilian positions):

• Chief Medical Officer
• Counselor
• First contact/Prime Directive consultant
• Starfleet, Klingon and Romulan Republic Intelligence liaisons
• Federation Department of Temporal Investigations liaison (and KDF and Republic counterparts)
• Starfleet Judge Advocate General liaison
• Starfleet Diplomatic Corps liaison (and KDF and Republic counterparts)
• Starfleet Corps of Engineers liaison
• Commandant of MACO detachment (for when the merde hits the fan, as Picard might say)

Ensigns/Enlisted/Civilian support:
Of course there should also be plenty of junior officers and civilian support staff populating the station too. To spice things up, perhaps one of these could turn out to be a Daniels-type figure who has infiltrated the station crew for some unknown (but not necessarily sinister) purpose. One (sinister) idea would be a Section 31 operative who is secretly monitoring Initiative activities to identify, and possibly even act upon, "threats" among the Initiative's discoveries, which could compromise missions or even threaten to unravel the Initiative from time to time.

I really like what you have Pax....

Now a lot of people have had issues with one faction being head of the Station.... and I think I have a solution to this. What if another species was providing the Station/Outpost or just the Space where we built the thing? Then the "Head" of the Station could be one Designated Officer from that Planet. Just to illustrate this, say we built the Station in Order of say..... Askaar Prime, then they provide One Officer... ONE to represent their interests while SF/KDF/RR oversee operations and the station it self?

This could be some generic Species we Create, thatway no one faction is leading this thing, and we are more on equal footing.

drogyn1701

Keep in mind that we don't want to overload this. We're making efforts to keep the maps simple, I think we should do the same with NPCs. We want to keep things open ended, and leave a lot of room for people to add their own characters to this station as needed. I'd say no more than 10 NPCs.

paxfederatica

drogyn1701 wrote: »

Keep in mind that we don't want to overload this. We're making efforts to keep the maps simple, I think we should do the same with NPCs. We want to keep things open ended, and leave a lot of room for people to add their own characters to this station as needed. I'd say no more than 10 NPCs.

Maybe just the CO, exec liaisons and Lt. Cmdr.-level positions would be regulars and have their own stations. The rest would only appear as needed.

duncanidaho11

An alternative CO is just an individual with an ambiguous relationship with the three factions. Maybe not the first choice by each of the big three but someone they'd all be willing to settle with. Tarkaram (Step Between Stars) comes to mind from the list of official NPC's, (that probably won't be brought back, pretty hard to see a dyson revamp in the near future.)

Or we could go with that neutral faction. Here's a few other ones that come to mind as possibilities (however good :P)

• Deferi
• First Federation (aka: the Tranya people)
• Talaxian
• Kobali
• Cardassian
• Lukari
• Ibi

captainhunter1

duncanidaho11 wrote: »

An alternative CO is just an individual with an ambiguous relationship with the three factions. Maybe not the first choice by each of the big three but someone they'd all be willing to settle with. Tarkaram (Step Between Stars) comes to mind from the list of official NPC's, (that probably won't be brought back, pretty hard to see a dyson revamp in the near future.)

Or we could go with that neutral faction. Here's a few other ones that come to mind as possibilities (however good :P)

• Deferi
• First Federation (aka: the Tranya people)
• Talaxian
• Kobali
• Cardassian
• Lukari
• Ibi

Neelix for station CO!

thay8472

Tovan Khev as the XO.

duncanidaho11

captainhunter1 wrote: »

Neelix for station CO!

<-

captainhunter1

I forgot, are we supposed to nominate specific characters - like T'nae, Karererak, etc., officers from various Foundry missions that we thought were cool, our own characters/BOffs, and so forth? Or were we brainstorming wholly new NPCs to fill the positions?

drogyn1701

Well we need to figure out what positions we want to fill first, then we can nominate characters. Specifically they should be either characters from existing Foundry missions, brand new characters, or Cryptic NPCs that have vanished because of revamps (such as NPCs from Memory Alpha). We don't want to use major Cryptic characters because they exist elsewhere, and Cryptic may do things with them.

As for the positions, looks like we have three general options:

1) The command crew for the station

2) A few command officers, plus department heads for the various types of exploration missions

3) Minor and major race representatives

Currently I'm leaning toward option 2. I think these people would be the most useful to the most authors as mission givers. If someone wants to put a Cardassian representative in their mission that's cool, but probably useful only to one or two authors. Plus, once the mission building gets going, people can always post "Here's this character I'm making for my mission and here are there sliders, feel free to use them in your missions."

rangerryu

So they're disabling Foundry content.......Guess this will come to a standstill design wise then for now! Oh well I can work on in my head a story to do!

markhawkman

We can still do theoretical work.

drogyn1701

Should be a short downtime. Trendy said on twitter they're trying to get it back up today at the earliest.

duncanidaho11

drogyn1701 wrote: »

2) A few command officers, plus department heads for the various types of exploration missions

Currently I'm leaning toward option 2. I think these people would be the most useful to the most authors as mission givers. If someone wants to put a Cardassian representative in their mission that's cool, but probably useful only to one or two authors. Plus, once the mission building gets going, people can always post "Here's this character I'm making for my mission and here are there sliders, feel free to use them in your missions."

Same. I think the same basic rule to map building applies here: keep it simple. A specified crew of more than 10 people is probably going to be pretty unwieldy to work with at a group level. The way I'd go is a core crew (analogous to the cast of a Star Trek series) with a few extra science officers to handle the exploration theme specifically.

For example:

Core Station Personnel (ie. character group A, gives Starbase personality)

• CO
• Doctor
• Chief of Station Operations
• Communications Officer
• Chief of Security
• Strategic Operations Officer
• [Insert idea here]

Sciences (ie. character group B, gives us exploration contacts)

• Astrophysicist (for space phenomena briefings)
• Anthropologist (for alien culture/civilization briefings)
• Planetary Ecologist (for biology/planet briefings)

I'm also going to be the first to throw a character out there for an science position (one of however many we end up deciding on). Screenshots to come once foundry comes back online, new character.

Name: Rigith
Gender: Male
Species: Ibi
Age: Older
Affiliation: Klingon Defense Force

Backstory:

• Administrative program drop-out
• Training in [Science!]
• Recently joined KDF under new alliance with Iffar (see. Continuity [SSF-4] ending), third Ibi to do so.
• Spent last two decades wandering galaxy
• Various odd-jobs in that time; surveyor, pilot, cook, botanist, mechanic, bounty hunter

drogyn1701

A good list. I think maybe I'd rename "Tactical Officer" to Strategic Operations Officer. Someone who monitors possible threats and coordinates ship movements to deal with anything that arises. And maybe lose the officer in training in favor of another specialist. If someone wanted to do a mission about a Wesley type character they could invent their own.

duncanidaho11

drogyn1701 wrote: »

If someone wanted to do a mission about a Wesley type character they could invent their own.

True but the pain of Wesley was just how frequently he was a problem. I just had the idea of a communal punching bag for inter-species misunderstandings and near catastrophes. :P

drogyn1701

duncanidaho11 wrote: »

drogyn1701 wrote: »

If someone wanted to do a mission about a Wesley type character they could invent their own.

True but the pain of Wesley was just how frequently he was a problem. I just had the idea of a communal punching bag for inter-species misunderstandings and near catastrophes. :P

That's also what everyone hates about him and should not be duplicated. They'd have to fight to the death.

There can be ONLY ONE!

duncanidaho11

drogyn1701 wrote: »

duncanidaho11 wrote: »

drogyn1701 wrote: »

If someone wanted to do a mission about a Wesley type character they could invent their own.

True but the pain of Wesley was just how frequently he was a problem. I just had the idea of a communal punching bag for inter-species misunderstandings and near catastrophes. :P

That's also what everyone hates about him and should not be duplicated. They'd have to fight to the death.

There can be ONLY ONE!

By extension then...no station cook either.

drogyn1701

Well we want to keep it to the people that will most likely be mission givers, while leaving everything else open for people to be creative in their missions. A station like this would have a crew of at least 10-20,000 after all.

duncanidaho11

drogyn1701 wrote: »

Well we want to keep it to the people that will most likely be mission givers, while leaving everything else open for people to be creative in their missions. A station like this would have a crew of at least 10-20,000 after all.

That was just a jab at Neelix, when I get around to using the starbase I'm planning on having some kind of background reference to an incident with a souffle, the station cook (maybe Haasra), and a brief loss of life support. :P

markhawkman

TNG actually had several guest stars who would have been as annoying if not for being seen less often. Lefler.... could have gotten annoying if she showed up all the time.

duncanidaho11

markhawkman wrote: »

TNG actually had several guest stars who would have been as annoying if not for being seen less often. Lefler.... could have gotten annoying if she showed up all the time.

This isn't a tangent the way my brain works, but once I'm done Trident I'm so making a Starfleet Security "Q" episode. New species arrives at exploration station, there's some kind of incident, team's called in, a Q shows up for another "trial."

Dammit why did the foundry have to be down today!

Edit: and I'll definitely throw out any miscellaneous station personnel I come up with for that mission for general consumption. Right now just thinking about one or two lower-rank security officers, a technician, and Haasra.

theyredeadjim

It strikes me that the base personnel are neither structural elements of the base nor fixtures. While it is important that modifications in respect of these latter elements be kept to a minimum on the base map, there really is no reason to put limits on the personnel. These folks move around in a large base, so sometimes you see them, sometimes you don't.

Certain personnel do have to be determined and defined. There will be some form of command structure, and those who figure prominently do require profiles. There will be other significant personnel as well. However, I think it would also be interesting for any NPC that is used on the base to be shared here. You never know when you might run into someone, or not.

Given Drogyn's base population estimate of 10-20K, we have much room to play here Even the command staff encountered can change, given 8 or 12 hour cycles.

duncanidaho11

theyredeadjim wrote: »

It strikes me that the base personnel are neither structural elements of the base nor fixtures. While it is important that modifications in respect of these latter elements be kept to a minimum on the base map, there really is no reason to put limits on the personnel. These folks move around in a large base, so sometimes you see them, sometimes you don't.

Certain personnel do have to be determined and defined. There will be some form of command structure, and those who figure prominently do require profiles. There will be other significant personnel as well. However, I think it would also be interesting for any NPC that is used on the base to be shared here. You never know when you might run into someone, or not.

There is a point of diminishing returns though for large, elaborate backstories and (perhaps more importantly) collaborative selection efforts for minor characters though. When I say "keep it simple" I mean keep the core group, the ones analogous to the main characters of a Star Trek TV series. The supporting characters and extras can come and go as need be (definitely leave that open to anyone who comes up with someone for the base), but we should try to limit ourselves with the main people (who we decide on together) or else it's not really going to feel like a single, consistent crew, (especially in Star Trek terms. We want our engineering department run better than TNG season 1's. :P)

duncanidaho11

Forgive what may become a double post but my last comment seems to have been lost to a "you will see your post when approved" message (think it was the screenshots). I'll come up with something new here if that one ever re-emerges from the depths of subspace. :P

I was poking around for [apparently] defunct NPC's on the wiki and I found a few who might be good candidates for key Starbase positions.
Bradden - Strategic Operations/Tactical/Intelligence Officer
Jenna Romaine - Chief of Operations/Engineering
Zara Dren - Chief Science Officer (better CV than Rigith, covers all major bases. Could re-work the Ibi as security officer.)

paxfederatica

In the main thread I suggested a holographic character in a major role. My idea was a Repair and Maintenance Hologram (RMH) who has been promoted to Ops (since presumably he's already been programmed with knowledge of the whole station's design and subsystems). It would be interesting to have a holo-character at this point in Trek history, especially right on the heels of the Photonomy series.

Since the mission idea I have in mind is a first-contact story, I'll volunteer to make an advisor on first contact protocols and Prime Directive issues. This character would be from the Federation (not necessarily from Starfleet) but would be available for consultation by any faction. (The Klingons and Romulans may not be bound by the Prime Directive but could still have reasons for observing it in certain cases, such as not wanting to get dragged into a war among aliens).