I have been pushing for BO position assignments over class assignments thus assigning a position on the ship to your BO. It would give more of a trek feel to assign your BO.
http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/zz58/Tragamite/AssignmentsMod.png
Additionally the promotion of 10 Commanders to serve on one ship feels too outlandish! You as the Captain of your own ship start as an Ensign. You gain your first BO during the tutorial with others soon to follow. BO start at the rank of Ensign but cannot be promoted until you the Captain reach LTCmdr.
How the promotion process should work:
(Captain Rank) Ensign=(BO Max rank) Ensign(Tutorial promotion of Officer from Crewman to Ensign)
Lieutenant=Ensign (0 promotions available)
LT Commander=Lt (4 promotions + reduction available)
Commander=LTCmdr (7 promotions)
Captain=Cmdr (10 promotions)
RALH/BG=Cmdr (12 promotions)
RAUH/MG=Cmdr (13 promotions)
VA/LTG=Cmdr (15 promotions)
In order for a BO to merit promotion they must improve their performance. Using the current skill point requirement for a promotion. BO skills are not rank specific however and you can apply skill points to any Skill the BO possesses.
Reducing a BO grants you back the promotion so you could grant it to someone else. Discharging, Trading or promoting to Captain grants you back your slots. You cannot demote a BO until you gain LTCmdr.
BOff skills should be more conducive to the Captain Skills but still split between space and ground. However, they should be to improve powers like the captain not give them. Space powers would be generated by the ship and the BOff you assign to the positions on your ship.
http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/zz58/Tragamite/BoffPowerMod.png
You would be striving to find the BO that is best suited for what you need them to do. Planning the skills that you want your ship to have you would be looking for a BO to assist you in maximizing the effects of those powers.
Ground powers come from the same place as your captain, Kits! Even though you are using a Ensign on your Away Team doesn't mean you should suffer the loss of those powers. This would be allowed through the use of kits. Kits, like shields, weapons and armor are based off the level of the PC (Player Captain) not the character wearing the gear.
http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/zz58/Tragamite/BoffStatusMod.png
I think of BOff skills in this manner as what they specialized in at the academy or what they are best suited in. Like in JJ's 2009 Movie when Sulu said he is specialized in "Hand to Hand Combat" because he is a good fencer! I picture a Science officer choosing Medical over Chemistry, Astrometrics over Photonic Theory.
Traits
BOffs should all have 1 space trait and 3 ground traits. Traits are what truly make a BOff common or very rare. This should not change. Common=2 basic traits, Uncommon=1 basic trait, Rare=1 Superior trait, Very rare=2 Superior traits.
Skill points
Skill points are used to improve the effectiveness of powers for the BO. BO skills are not rank driven though and points can be placed into any skill at any time to improve it. For this reason it is conceivable that you would still be able to max out all your BOffs skills even if the BO is still an Esn.
How the ship function:
10 assignments on the ship for your BOffs to fill. Filling those functions opens up the space powers based on the BO to fill them. The level of power would still be based on the BO filling the position. A Cmdr gets 4 powers while a Esn gets one. Esn and LT have access to level 1 powers while LTCmdr and Cmdr have access to level 2 powers. A Captain can train a Cmdr BO in Level 3 skills. (current system) By applying 9 skill points to certain skills the captain gains access to level 3 powers.
http://stowiki.org/Bridge_officer_abilities
Executive Officer: Must be LTCmdr to be assigned this position, the captain in training. These powers are rank 1 of the captain skills based on the class of officer used to fill this position.
Tactical Operations Officer: This is the primary weapons systems and targeting officer.
Engineering Operations Officer: Primary Engineering functions
Medical Officer: Primary for health and well being of the crew, grants Brace for impact
Ship Operations Officer: Secondary Engineering functions, grants Abandon ship
Scientific Research Officer: Primary science officer
Chief Security Officer: Primary Security (Tactical Team) secondary weapon systems.
Intelligence Officer: Primary insight into other cultures, tactics, attack patterns
Communications Officer: Primary scans, communication
Helm Officer: Primary navigation, grants evasive maneuvers, ramming speed
Color denotes power selection not the type of officer to fill the position. All position are "Universal" however the BO skills affect only the powers he is assigned to use. Thus assigning a TAC BO with Projectiles and Torpedoes skills to be your TacOps he would improve powers like Torpedo High Yield or Torpedo Spread.
Where BOffs are accepted as crewmen and need to be promoted to Ensign this will limit the number of "powers" a ship has.
I think this would ultimately assist in placement of proper personnel into key assigned positions where they are supposed to be positioned on the ship. So as you go through your ship you will be able to address them accordingly.
http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/uss-enterprise-bridge-sheet-1.jpg
Additionally this, I feel, makes a BOff more addaptable to being a future playable captain.
Comments
I am really curious as to how they will implement it. Like your story archs for BO I think they really need to have more personality to them. The promotion system for one! No one should have all commanders serving on the ship, and I know it is an easy RP and costume design work around, but the BO is still a commander! You shouldn't be limited though based on your BO rank to the assistance they give you especially on ground. Kits is the answer here. They could easily be a Commander through a Kit while still very much an ensign or leuitenant.
An officer Duty assignment should be the same. Also when you assign your BO to a position they should get a title. So when I'm doing my away missions with a friend or friends are visiting my ship they will know who is who.
For this we'd need more than 1 space trait that only exists on one specific race at one specific grade (Green Saurian).
Like to see things like Tac BOFFs with ship modifieres . . . + (1 to 5) Accuracy, Defense, Damage, etc . . . can even further specialize the bonus by adding Beam / Cannon / Torp restrictions onto the trait.
The Efficient trait should be made an Eng BOFF trait only . . .and so on and so forth.
The rank you pin on your guys and the rank that you need to set them at for game skill use don't have to be the same thing. I've only got 2 BOFFs pinned with COM, the rest wear ranks from ensign to LTCom based on how I want them to be. Use some imagination and the tailor and make your crew ranks fit how you want them to. Nothing needs to change since you can already customize them.
I have done the same thing with my BOffs but there is more to this then just placing rank badges. The ship structure now being emplaced with the retrifit process, BOffs being promoted to be new Captians for you to play, actual assignments to place BO on your ship etc.
With the use of kits you would still have Commander skills on the ground even with an Ensign BO. For space you are limited right now because of how they are setup. You referenced Worf only being a LT but having Commander skills but on a cruiser or Research vessel he would not be able to use those skills.
As a captain you should have the option to arrange your ship as you see fit. This setup will allow you to manage your ship and your BOffs more completely and be more accutate to the Star Trek Universe.
I referenced how BOff space traits could work here
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=163065&highlight=Space+trait
And no, I don't mean Captain the postion, I mean the rank. I've always found it completely TRIBBLE-backwards that the CO of a ship can jump all the way into the Admirality while the XO and senior officers are stuck at Commander?
Didn't anyone see Kirk, Spock, and Scotty? All at one time held the rank of Captain, and not all of them were 'the Captain'. One was the First Officer and another the Chief Engineer. The billet does not always limit a rank, if the one at the top as a higer rank then usual as well.
I'd like to promote my First Officer (and maybe a Department Head or two) to Captain and have them still serve on the ship. No reason they should be career stunted just because 'the Captain' is a Vice Admiral (or by that time an Admiral or Fleet Admiral? lol) That's already four + promotions ahead of them.
Of course that means adding another tier of training, but I can guess that many are like me, and have heaps of Bridge Officer skill points just waiting to be used, and adding up by the thousands.
Mechanically I reckon that would also make a complete re-write of the bridge consoles available on a ship as well.
PvP issues aside (which is not my concern, only PvE, sorry.) it's somewhat do-able, Especially with any high-tier ships.
But this is just my rusing aside. (Please don't quote any silly US Navy regulations that don't apply to a TV show about Captains. It's already been done with the movies, so too late.)
Basically, I support this idea, I just want to promote a BO one rank higher as well.
Engineering Operations Officer or Chief Engineer, Operations Officer is another Position altogether.
I like this idea. This could go in sooooo many directions like having a Security Officer to reduce the effectiveness of a Boarding Party.
If it's true they are allowing one to have a first officer and 7 bridge positions in season 3, then that's just awesome right there. Even designating a first officer is awesome in it's own right.
Hopefully down the line, more interesting and cool features with the crew will be implemented. I've heard rumors of future seasons having more things involving the crew, and crew changes coming down the pipe in the future. Good things coming in my opinion, and stuff I can't wait to see implemented in game.
I also think that any communications that come from your officers during missions should come from the correct person, like if an enemy ship has just been spotted on sensors, the comm would come through from either my Ops officer, or my first officer.
Edit: Oh, and I also think that your BO's should not always be on your bridge if they have these positions, like science officers down i the labs, or my chief medical officer hanging out in sickbay. But, this will involve some more work on the ships first.
I really hoping to find out so much more about season 4! I don't care if they took my ideas exactly as long as it is along the lines and makes it feel more Trek!
Ensign
Lieutenant junior grade
Lieutenant
Lieutenant commander (highest rank)
Take out commander all together, and that would be reserved for your FO who would have a special power. This would be mostly a text change. However I think something similar may be rolling out with the crew revamp in season 4.