This is way of implementing First Officers in STO using a well know MMORPG mechanic. The next paragraph is a dump of my though stream. If you want the meat of the idea jump right to the third paragraph.
WARNING incoming brain dump.... I was starting my dallies last night with lots of Trek lore floating around in my thoughts. My first B'Tran mission was a ground mission. My thoughts were about why Captains are leading away teams even for the routine scan X of Y items. I envisioned about being able to sending a full NPC team down and being able to see them run through the mission. And then my thought drifted toIthe change in how away teams were lead between the Kirk TOS Era (like STO is going now) and the TNG Picard/Riker era (the captain staying behind and the first officers lead the party.)
And them I had an epiphany. I had an inkling that First Officers the devs were probably some type of special BO position. But I though "Whycouldn't I play my First Officer occasionally?". But playing a BO would be limited, and that lead to think about the Alternate Builds that various MMORPGS have. And then that lead to why not make the First Officers a type of alternate build for my character. The First Officer could be an entirely different species and Career Track.
You have the obvious situation when you head out on away teams, you could choose to use your Captain or your First Officer. I see the first officers as primarily a ground based build. But once the tech is in place, they could have episodic missions where your captain is out of action. And your First Officer MUST captain the ship the part or all of the mission. The same could be done with ground combat. Also to keep players wanting to use their Captain character the most, the First Officers would be of a lesser rank and probably a lesser amount of skill points. Probably topped out a Commander, but I could see Captain, but I think that might be awkage from a story point of view. You can level develop your First Officer like your Captain, but it's not going to be as good as your Captain. Otherwise your First Officer would have his own command, right?
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