Noob Help - Boff Skills Disappeared

rocketman33

Week old noob here & have been totally stuck for two days now. I am a Rear Admiral level 49 Tactical officer flying an Advanced Escort.
I've been focusing on using heavy cannons and tried to use two key training manuals (Scatter Volley and Rapid Fire) but neither of my TAC boffs have ANY cannon training available- only beams & torps. Both boffs are now at Commander level & I tried removing them from their stations then putting them back. I had boff skills available but did not have the manuals, and now I can't use the manuals.

I must be missing something simple & obvious, but I've hit a wall now & don't want to start over if I can't understand how boff skills/abilities work.

seaofsorrows

Ok, first.. in order to use a skill, you have to promote your officers to the appropriate rank.

Assuming you're on PC (I don't know the buttons on Console) press U to bring up your Character Panel. Find the officer in the left side panel and click on them. At the bottom, you should see a box that says 'career options.' Pull that down and select Promote. Promote the officer until it won't let you promote him anymore. He should end up Commander Rank, now he can use any skill.

Next, click on the Skills tab at the top. You will now see the ground and space skills that Officer is currently using. The left side is space, the right side is ground. The first box are your ensign level skills, second is Lieutenant, third is LT. Commander, and last one is Commander. Click on one of the skills and you will see a list of skills that can be learned in that spot below. The 'Learn' button will be grayed out unless you have a manual for that skill in inventory. If you have the manuals, the officer should be able to learn the skill. Just click on 'learn' and he knows it.

Now click the Stations Tab to see the current set of skills you're currently using. Click on any officer and you will be able to change their current active space abilities over on the right side. Just once again, click on the Ensign, LT, LT. Commander, or Commander skill and select from the list below what skill you want the officer to use.

Hopefully, that quick little crash course helps.. let me know if anything was unclear. Good luck!

rocketman33

Arrrgh! I'm now swimming out of my Sea of Sorrows! Thank you. I did figure out to promote everyone to Commander but I was locked in the first spot (ensign) & couldn't see my available skills. I already have my level III manuals & good to go. Thank you for ending my red alert. Back to the bridge of my U.S.S. Restricted Word & off to level 50!

seaofsorrows

Happy to help, any other questions.. please feel free to ask.

The game doesn't really explain this stuff very well so no worries at all.