Perhaps rank could be adjusted... but the idea of tons of Vice Admirals running around saving the Galaxy during a time of war and great instability shouldn't be blowing everyone's mind... Let's just think about this for a minute.
At this point in time the Federation is at war with the Klingons, the Borg are always annoying, the nonsense with the Rommy's is going on, and on top of all of this there is still random Galaxy saving to do (I.E. the normal nonsense). This means things are different, Star-fleet is pulling ships out of mothballs and/or keeping them running... there are 150 year old Excelsior class ships still taking on baddies, and everyone once in a while you still see an Ensign flying a Miranda...
One would think that before you start doling out Miranda's and Oberth's for Ensigns to be cannon fodder.... you'd get all the Vice Admiral's out there driving ships too... If it's all hands on deck... it's all hands on deck buddy.
The show and movies have shown Admirals aboard ships several times, though there is likely a Captain in command. We are VA's, who are really just the dumb schmucks following the Admirals around agreeing with them or doing their bidding. So if they can justify giving Harry Kim or Wesley Crusher command a ship due to a shortage of officers, I don't see why they wouldn't send us (VA's) out there too.
join Date: Sep 2009 - I want my changeling lava lamp!
Reserve Rear admirials and Vice admirals for Fleet Leaders and Fleet officers, which would have more in common with how a naval rank structure should work.
IE Have Vice Admiral as Fleet Leader (with a lock in game code that only allows people who are Fleet Leaders to use VA) and a Couple of Fleet Officers as RA. as i said, it would be more inline with a proper Naval Rank Structure of a Task Force
...
Changing the actual ranks 3.5 years after the game launched is too late and lots of people don't want their characters to be demoted.
I think that any players who would perceive this change as "being demoted" don't properly understand the reason why this change is being requested.
For all intents and purposes, the current gameplay experience doesn't offer any "Admiral" gameplay unless you're actually a Fleet leader. Everything you do now can be done at the rank of Captain.
Forget the possibility of PvP, for so much has become pay-to-win, never to be balanced. Forget the promise of exploration and research, for in the grim dark future of Star Trek Online there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting publishers.
Why does everyon always use the argument of shouldn't be millions of admirals around? THE GAMES STORY ONLY RECOGNIZES YOU ONE CHARACTER AS EXISTING SO THERE ISNT MILLIONS OF ADMIRALS IN THE STORY. On a lesser note pvp doesn't exist story wise so that can't be used either.
Toss me in as one of the many how have said that Captain should be the highest rank you can get (unless you form a fleet). While my main is actually a VA, I always think of him in my head as Captain Th'Esh", not Admiral.
I love this game.. but seriously.. I got a feeling that a lot of us came here to be Capt. Kirk or Sisko, Archer or Janeway... For those of us that choose to start a fleet, Admiral should be their rank... or Commodore if they choose.
Why does everyon always use the argument of shouldn't be millions of admirals around? THE GAMES STORY ONLY RECOGNIZES YOU ONE CHARACTER AS EXISTING SO THERE ISNT MILLIONS OF ADMIRALS IN THE STORY. On a lesser note pvp doesn't exist story wise so that can't be used either.
Because its an MMO not a single player game.
The game may only acknowledge me (or us individually), but i see all the players. I play and MMO and i want it to act like an MMO. I dont play an MMO and do it in single player mode by ignoring all the other players or treating them as NPCs. If i were to dress my STO character all in black, name him Darth Cupcake and name my ship the USS Death Star a lot of people would find that immersion breaking. Everyone-is-an-Admiral is immersion breaking for me and i dont want to have to ignore it. It's like watching an episode of Voyager (or maybe actually living it) but everyone calls each other Admiral. How weird would that be?
Admiral Janeway: Admiral Tuvok scan the sector
Admiral Tuvok: aye captain...err Admiral
Admiral Kim: Admiral i am detecting tachyon particles straight ahead
Admiral Chakotay: huh?
Admiral Neelix: what?
Admiral Paris: who me?
Admiral Janeway: i think he was talking to me...
Admiral Tuvok: Admiral...Janeway...a Kazon ship is hailing us
Admiral Janeway: put it through Admiral Tuvok
Lieutenant General Maj Kulah: give me all your water, hair gel and transporter tech!
I said a long time ago that I'd rather see levels tied to year than rank.
Levels 1-5: First Year (2401)
Levels 6-10: Second Year (2402)
Levels 11-20: Third Year (2403)
Levels 21-25: Fourth Year (2404)
Levels 26-30: Fifth Year (2405)
Levels 31-35: Sixth Year (2406)
Levels 36-40: Seventh Year (2407)
Levels 41-45: Eighth Year (2408)
Levels 46-50: Ninth Year (2409)
Rework references in missions to line up better. Not hard with the Feds since the Klingon skirmishes don't suggest a full-on war or really with the Klingons since the incidents feel more like espionage.
The big timeline change is that the Vega incident would be said to happen in 2401. As for why time moves so fast? It's because travel time is compacte in the game.
Gear and ships become gated by year rather than by rank.
Then have rank be a vanity unlock that is purchased with expertise but have many other uses for expertise like bridge officers of all species, maybe extra BO slots for high amounts, etc. An expertise based BO exchange system. I have more detailed thoughts on this. But the point is, there are many things you can do with expertise.
Maybe vanity ranks 1-5 (Lt. through Captain) come with improved quality bridge officers (BOs cost expertise and so would other perks).
Rank 1 - Grey
Rank 2 - White
Rank 3 - Green
Rank 4 - Blue
Rank 5 - Purple
At rank 5, you have a choice. This is a one way or the other choice. You are offered promotion to admiral. If you take it, you begin the Admiral 1-5 track which unlocks crazy good duty officers and non-direct-combat perks like pets. If you don't take it, you begin the Veteran Captain 1-5 track which unlocks great bridge officers and combat perks like weapons.
As part of this, existing players do lose all established rank. But would be granted a box which contains enough expertise to buy whatever rank they had previously.
So if you WANT to be an admiral? You can become one again (although you'll need more expertise for the store perks unlocked). If you want to cap out at captain? You stay capped at captain. The "rank" you are addressed by is set by a trait placed on you by your progress in this system.
This is basically a reputation system but no marks. Pure expertise costs and no cooldown on projects. (But it will be expertise expensive for the player who hasn't accumulated much and the BOffs are going to cost into the millions of expertise each at the high end.)
Ohh also regarding 'this is all make believe/fiction it doesnt matter lol'
Star Trek and Star Wars are both fiction...but the difference is that ST is based on a future earth while SW is from a galaxy far far away. You can even compare the science portion of the two shows. ST does attempt to make their science sound believable (google Tachyon). While SW doesnt really bother with trying to explain its science (google Midichlorians).
SW has a bit of a military organization but it has a lot of made up ranks and titles too like Darth and Moff. But look at the ST series...they time travel back to TRIBBLE Germany, a Korean era US Air Force base, late 80's San Francisco, and in the TNG pilot Q dresses up as a WW2 era serviceman. And there are the ships...USS both used in IRL and in ST. A lot of the ship names in ST come from old WW2 warships or ship types. Enterprise, Intrepid, Lexington to name a few...those are names of actual warships or warship classes. There was actually a WW2 Japanese warship called the Yamato and in STverse she is the sister ship of the Enterprise.
So thats why i think 'its a game lol' isnt really a good argument to use. If i were playing a military FPS but they gave us nerf guns that shot rubber chickens i would complain. All i want is a little bit of realism in STO. I dont need the game or devs to stroke my epeen by awarding me the rank of "Admiral of Everything" when in actuality all i am is the Admiral of one ship and one crew.
I think that any players who would perceive this change as "being demoted" don't properly understand the reason why this change is being requested.
For all intents and purposes, the current gameplay experience doesn't offer any "Admiral" gameplay unless you're actually a Fleet leader. Everything you do now can be done at the rank of Captain.
And the devs have mentioned numerous times about increasing the level cap and having Admiral gameplay where we can control our own npc fleet composed of our old ships and Bridge Officers. A change like what is being requested would show that the devs are not interested in Admiral content anymore and will disappoint a number of players. Being a Vice Admiral means that we should have Admiral content not be limited to the current Captain content we have.
And the devs have mentioned numerous times about increasing the level cap and having Admiral gameplay where we can control our own npc fleet composed of our old ships and Bridge Officers. A change like what is being requested would show that the devs are not interested in Admiral content anymore and will disappoint a number of players. Being a Vice Admiral means that we should have Admiral content not be limited to the current Captain content we have.
Well...talk is talk, though i welcome something like this i'll be happy once it becomes live, and only then will i stop asking to be demoted :P
On a side note, i actually didn't know anything about what you mentioned but i had started a thread in the doff subforum about something like this. Basically a similar system just like the DoFF system but instead of people you have little icons with ships. Sort of a way to make Admirals feel like Admirals, while at the same time using a game engine mechanic that was already in game.
EDIT: also slightly off-topic has there been any mention of what they are doing to ships when level caps go up? i hope they arent planning on making the ships we bought obselete with a level cap raise.
And the devs have mentioned numerous times about increasing the level cap and having Admiral gameplay where we can control our own npc fleet composed of our old ships and Bridge Officers. A change like what is being requested would show that the devs are not interested in Admiral content anymore and will disappoint a number of players. Being a Vice Admiral means that we should have Admiral content not be limited to the current Captain content we have.
Thing is, commanding multiple ships is not reserved for admirals. Sisko did it as a Captain. Data did it as (acting) Commander.
It isn't as if there's a necessary link or that players being ranked "Captain" limits them from commanding a fleet.
EDIT: also slightly off-topic has there been any mention of what they are doing to ships when level caps go up? i hope they arent planning on making the ships we bought obselete with a level cap raise.
My inkling is that it will mean another tier of fleet upgrades, probably for an extra FSM (ie. 5 if you have no prior ships, 1 less for owning the fleet ship, 3 less for owning the C-Store ship). Likely something related for lockbox ship owners where they can get the upgrade for fleet credits plus a single FSM.
Or maybe it won't and they'll just focus on having people try to get 5 fleet ships who don't already to maximize their armada. (I have 5 Fleet Tier "10 console" ships on my main already but gearing them alone would still be a chore since I currently just swap gear.)
Just speculation. I'd be very disappointed if you didn't at least get a discount for owning the Fleet Tier version and the C-Store version since they have a precedent for that kind of thing.
My inkling is that it will mean another tier of fleet upgrades, probably for an extra FSM (ie. 5 if you have no prior ships, 1 less for owning the fleet ship, 3 less for owning the C-Store ship). Likely something related for lockbox ship owners where they can get the upgrade for fleet credits plus a single FSM.
Or maybe it won't and they'll just focus on having people try to get 5 fleet ships who don't already to maximize their armada. (I have 5 Fleet Tier "10 console" ships on my main already but gearing them alone would still be a chore since I currently just swap gear.)
Just speculation. I'd be very disappointed if you didn't at least get a discount for owning the Fleet Tier version and the C-Store version since they have a precedent for that kind of thing.
I think they should just roll out Mk XIII, MK XIV and Mk XV gear lol and put a level cap on it.
When they raise the level cap in other MMOs pretty much thats all that's being done. Your old level 70 epic chestpiece is like a MKXII very rare shield which gets replaced by a level 80 green quality chestpiece or a MKXIII uncommon shield. The difference between that level 70 and 80 chestpiece is just the requirement to wear it and of course the stats. While that other game has a paper doll of your character with slots for shoulder pads, chestpiece, boots, etc our ship is it's own paper doll.
Anyways i dont want to derail the topic too much...
Well...talk is talk, though i welcome something like this i'll be happy once it becomes live, and only then will i stop asking to be demoted :P
On a side note, i actually didn't know anything about what you mentioned but i had started a thread in the doff subforum about something like this. Basically a similar system just like the DoFF system but instead of people you have little icons with ships. Sort of a way to make Admirals feel like Admirals, while at the same time using a game engine mechanic that was already in game.
EDIT: also slightly off-topic has there been any mention of what they are doing to ships when level caps go up? i hope they arent planning on making the ships we bought obselete with a level cap raise.
Search for Full Admirals on the official website. Think the December 2012 Ask Cryptic and January 2013 Ask Cryptic reveals some of what the devs want to do with Admirals.
Thing is, commanding multiple ships is not reserved for admirals. Sisko did it as a Captain. Data did it as (acting) Commander.
It isn't as if there's a necessary link or that players being ranked "Captain" limits them from commanding a fleet.
But they were always temporary positions like commanding the fleet for a single battle. Admirals would send various ships on missions like Patrol the Klingon Border or Investigate an Interstellar Phenomenon when not involved in Military Operations.
For our Federation crews and characters, it should be:
Levels #1 - #9
Ensign
Levels #10 - #19
Lieutenant Junior Grade (the pips already exist in game for this)
Levels #20 - #29
Lieutenant
Levels #30 - #39
Lieutenant Commander
Levels #40 - #49
Commander
Level #50+
Captain
We are a single character, commanding a single ship. We should be Captains, all of us. The option of Admirals should be restricted to Fleet Founders and / or Accolade Completions (or something). Not via level up.
Hey now! My Engi earned the title Moist! And I think she desrvers to be Master Moist! Wait earned the title and I have no bloody clue how... just saw it one day.
OT:
I dont think rank matters one bit, make it a title one can choose earned at the same levels we do now. If someone wants to use Vice Admiral then let them and all those who want to remain Captain can choose to.
As for a sea of admirals... I dont go checking others info out so as far as my admirals are concerned.. sea of captains. But thats something they can do.. make everyone apear as captain rank when you do look but 0 for level differance. That would make anal retentive ones somewhat happy.
Join Date: Nobody cares.
"I'm drunk, whats your excuse for being an idiot?" - Unknown drunk man. :eek:
Hey now! My Engi earned the title Moist! And I think she desrvers to be Master Moist! Wait earned the title and I have no bloody clue how... just saw it one day.
OT:
The Moist Title is for doing the Light in the Dark mission which is the mission with the Iconian gateway on that Undine outpost. The accolade is called Gateway and it is for rescuing Celestara Mex.
the problem is, the storylines of the game's most mmo's is that you the player are the only one that matters story wise. sure WE see hundreds of Vice Admirals running around on new romulus, but story wise, its just you.
Everyone else doesnt matter, except when it comes to PvP Queue stuff.
That's the thing with Star Trek, really. It could easily be a time-space anomaly due to the Iconians trying to take over all timelines. Thus the best and brightest captains are all thrown together in one heavily intermixing mix of timelines. So yes, we're the "only ones that matter..." yet at the same time so does everyone else.
Commodore is, so far as I know, a flag rank that isn't treated like an Admiral, so it would be easier for them to command large swaths of ships - but it would also not be unusual for them to command their own ships. Fleet Captain is, I think, a Star Trek invention, or at the very least not an official rank IRL (and probably not an official rank in Starfleet in the present era, either), but I think it would be fitting. Implicit half-flag rank, below the admirals giving you orders, above a lot of run-of-the-mill captains, and obvious seniority when you need to take charge of a task force, yet plausible as you're ultimately still below Admiral.
One would think that before you start doling out Miranda's and Oberth's for Ensigns to be cannon fodder.... you'd get all the Vice Admiral's out there driving ships too... If it's all hands on deck... it's all hands on deck buddy.
This is admittedly an interesting thought, really.
Another thought I'd considered was that it's entirely possible that different sections of Starfleet have rank mean different things. While we are unaware of it as players/viewers, there could be very large divisions of the fleet. For instance, we're pretty obviously ultimately under Admiral Quinn's command, or so it seems. He's a Trill, and it is not out of the question their culture is somewhat different. It could be that making it to Vice Admiral, or a similar rank, would be culturally akin to making it to Captain elsewhere. Elsewhere in the fleet, this could be effectively similar authority to Captain.
While it's complicated to be sure, and the sort of complexity that would be handwaved away off-screen or put in trivia knowledge that's mentioned once or twice off-hand, it seems to me it'd make sense and it'd be fairly realistic, given the nature of the Federation.
In retrospect, I'd have everyone start as a Captain and work the levels as a sort of reputation you gain over your career. You could simply rename it as Reputation Levels. You know, the difference between a Kirk and a Harriman.
Really, I'd just be happy if I had a way of getting the NPC's to refer to me as "Captain." I've been wearing my 4 pips since I got them, but it's irritating that everyone calls me Vice Admiral. On the other hand, if I were RPing an admiral, I'd be really annoyed if I were bumped back to captain.
Another option could be to have ranks above Captain tied to Fleets. Fleet Leaders can be Admirals, secondary can be Commodore and so on.
Comments
At this point in time the Federation is at war with the Klingons, the Borg are always annoying, the nonsense with the Rommy's is going on, and on top of all of this there is still random Galaxy saving to do (I.E. the normal nonsense). This means things are different, Star-fleet is pulling ships out of mothballs and/or keeping them running... there are 150 year old Excelsior class ships still taking on baddies, and everyone once in a while you still see an Ensign flying a Miranda...
One would think that before you start doling out Miranda's and Oberth's for Ensigns to be cannon fodder.... you'd get all the Vice Admiral's out there driving ships too... If it's all hands on deck... it's all hands on deck buddy.
The show and movies have shown Admirals aboard ships several times, though there is likely a Captain in command. We are VA's, who are really just the dumb schmucks following the Admirals around agreeing with them or doing their bidding. So if they can justify giving Harry Kim or Wesley Crusher command a ship due to a shortage of officers, I don't see why they wouldn't send us (VA's) out there too.
0-10 Ensign
10-20 LTJG
20-30 LT
30-40 LTcom
40-50 CDR
50- Cpt.
Reserve Rear admirials and Vice admirals for Fleet Leaders and Fleet officers, which would have more in common with how a naval rank structure should work.
IE Have Vice Admiral as Fleet Leader (with a lock in game code that only allows people who are Fleet Leaders to use VA) and a Couple of Fleet Officers as RA. as i said, it would be more inline with a proper Naval Rank Structure of a Task Force
@Mad-Larkin
Fleet: http://www.unrepentantgaming.com
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I agree.
..........
I think that any players who would perceive this change as "being demoted" don't properly understand the reason why this change is being requested.
For all intents and purposes, the current gameplay experience doesn't offer any "Admiral" gameplay unless you're actually a Fleet leader. Everything you do now can be done at the rank of Captain.
I love this game.. but seriously.. I got a feeling that a lot of us came here to be Capt. Kirk or Sisko, Archer or Janeway... For those of us that choose to start a fleet, Admiral should be their rank... or Commodore if they choose.
Because its an MMO not a single player game.
The game may only acknowledge me (or us individually), but i see all the players. I play and MMO and i want it to act like an MMO. I dont play an MMO and do it in single player mode by ignoring all the other players or treating them as NPCs. If i were to dress my STO character all in black, name him Darth Cupcake and name my ship the USS Death Star a lot of people would find that immersion breaking. Everyone-is-an-Admiral is immersion breaking for me and i dont want to have to ignore it. It's like watching an episode of Voyager (or maybe actually living it) but everyone calls each other Admiral. How weird would that be?
Admiral Janeway: Admiral Tuvok scan the sector
Admiral Tuvok: aye captain...err Admiral
Admiral Kim: Admiral i am detecting tachyon particles straight ahead
Admiral Chakotay: huh?
Admiral Neelix: what?
Admiral Paris: who me?
Admiral Janeway: i think he was talking to me...
Admiral Tuvok: Admiral...Janeway...a Kazon ship is hailing us
Admiral Janeway: put it through Admiral Tuvok
Lieutenant General Maj Kulah: give me all your water, hair gel and transporter tech!
Levels 1-5: First Year (2401)
Levels 6-10: Second Year (2402)
Levels 11-20: Third Year (2403)
Levels 21-25: Fourth Year (2404)
Levels 26-30: Fifth Year (2405)
Levels 31-35: Sixth Year (2406)
Levels 36-40: Seventh Year (2407)
Levels 41-45: Eighth Year (2408)
Levels 46-50: Ninth Year (2409)
Rework references in missions to line up better. Not hard with the Feds since the Klingon skirmishes don't suggest a full-on war or really with the Klingons since the incidents feel more like espionage.
The big timeline change is that the Vega incident would be said to happen in 2401. As for why time moves so fast? It's because travel time is compacte in the game.
Gear and ships become gated by year rather than by rank.
Then have rank be a vanity unlock that is purchased with expertise but have many other uses for expertise like bridge officers of all species, maybe extra BO slots for high amounts, etc. An expertise based BO exchange system. I have more detailed thoughts on this. But the point is, there are many things you can do with expertise.
Maybe vanity ranks 1-5 (Lt. through Captain) come with improved quality bridge officers (BOs cost expertise and so would other perks).
Rank 1 - Grey
Rank 2 - White
Rank 3 - Green
Rank 4 - Blue
Rank 5 - Purple
At rank 5, you have a choice. This is a one way or the other choice. You are offered promotion to admiral. If you take it, you begin the Admiral 1-5 track which unlocks crazy good duty officers and non-direct-combat perks like pets. If you don't take it, you begin the Veteran Captain 1-5 track which unlocks great bridge officers and combat perks like weapons.
As part of this, existing players do lose all established rank. But would be granted a box which contains enough expertise to buy whatever rank they had previously.
So if you WANT to be an admiral? You can become one again (although you'll need more expertise for the store perks unlocked). If you want to cap out at captain? You stay capped at captain. The "rank" you are addressed by is set by a trait placed on you by your progress in this system.
This is basically a reputation system but no marks. Pure expertise costs and no cooldown on projects. (But it will be expertise expensive for the player who hasn't accumulated much and the BOffs are going to cost into the millions of expertise each at the high end.)
Star Trek and Star Wars are both fiction...but the difference is that ST is based on a future earth while SW is from a galaxy far far away. You can even compare the science portion of the two shows. ST does attempt to make their science sound believable (google Tachyon). While SW doesnt really bother with trying to explain its science (google Midichlorians).
SW has a bit of a military organization but it has a lot of made up ranks and titles too like Darth and Moff. But look at the ST series...they time travel back to TRIBBLE Germany, a Korean era US Air Force base, late 80's San Francisco, and in the TNG pilot Q dresses up as a WW2 era serviceman. And there are the ships...USS both used in IRL and in ST. A lot of the ship names in ST come from old WW2 warships or ship types. Enterprise, Intrepid, Lexington to name a few...those are names of actual warships or warship classes. There was actually a WW2 Japanese warship called the Yamato and in STverse she is the sister ship of the Enterprise.
So thats why i think 'its a game lol' isnt really a good argument to use. If i were playing a military FPS but they gave us nerf guns that shot rubber chickens i would complain. All i want is a little bit of realism in STO. I dont need the game or devs to stroke my epeen by awarding me the rank of "Admiral of Everything" when in actuality all i am is the Admiral of one ship and one crew.
And the devs have mentioned numerous times about increasing the level cap and having Admiral gameplay where we can control our own npc fleet composed of our old ships and Bridge Officers. A change like what is being requested would show that the devs are not interested in Admiral content anymore and will disappoint a number of players. Being a Vice Admiral means that we should have Admiral content not be limited to the current Captain content we have.
Well...talk is talk, though i welcome something like this i'll be happy once it becomes live, and only then will i stop asking to be demoted :P
On a side note, i actually didn't know anything about what you mentioned but i had started a thread in the doff subforum about something like this. Basically a similar system just like the DoFF system but instead of people you have little icons with ships. Sort of a way to make Admirals feel like Admirals, while at the same time using a game engine mechanic that was already in game.
EDIT: also slightly off-topic has there been any mention of what they are doing to ships when level caps go up? i hope they arent planning on making the ships we bought obselete with a level cap raise.
Thing is, commanding multiple ships is not reserved for admirals. Sisko did it as a Captain. Data did it as (acting) Commander.
It isn't as if there's a necessary link or that players being ranked "Captain" limits them from commanding a fleet.
My inkling is that it will mean another tier of fleet upgrades, probably for an extra FSM (ie. 5 if you have no prior ships, 1 less for owning the fleet ship, 3 less for owning the C-Store ship). Likely something related for lockbox ship owners where they can get the upgrade for fleet credits plus a single FSM.
Or maybe it won't and they'll just focus on having people try to get 5 fleet ships who don't already to maximize their armada. (I have 5 Fleet Tier "10 console" ships on my main already but gearing them alone would still be a chore since I currently just swap gear.)
Just speculation. I'd be very disappointed if you didn't at least get a discount for owning the Fleet Tier version and the C-Store version since they have a precedent for that kind of thing.
I think they should just roll out Mk XIII, MK XIV and Mk XV gear lol and put a level cap on it.
When they raise the level cap in other MMOs pretty much thats all that's being done. Your old level 70 epic chestpiece is like a MKXII very rare shield which gets replaced by a level 80 green quality chestpiece or a MKXIII uncommon shield. The difference between that level 70 and 80 chestpiece is just the requirement to wear it and of course the stats. While that other game has a paper doll of your character with slots for shoulder pads, chestpiece, boots, etc our ship is it's own paper doll.
Anyways i dont want to derail the topic too much...
Search for Full Admirals on the official website. Think the December 2012 Ask Cryptic and January 2013 Ask Cryptic reveals some of what the devs want to do with Admirals.
But they were always temporary positions like commanding the fleet for a single battle. Admirals would send various ships on missions like Patrol the Klingon Border or Investigate an Interstellar Phenomenon when not involved in Military Operations.
Levels #1 - #9
Ensign
Levels #10 - #19
Lieutenant Junior Grade (the pips already exist in game for this)
Levels #20 - #29
Lieutenant
Levels #30 - #39
Lieutenant Commander
Levels #40 - #49
Commander
Level #50+
Captain
We are a single character, commanding a single ship. We should be Captains, all of us. The option of Admirals should be restricted to Fleet Founders and / or Accolade Completions (or something). Not via level up.
Hey now! My Engi earned the title Moist! And I think she desrvers to be Master Moist! Wait earned the title and I have no bloody clue how... just saw it one day.
OT:
I dont think rank matters one bit, make it a title one can choose earned at the same levels we do now. If someone wants to use Vice Admiral then let them and all those who want to remain Captain can choose to.
As for a sea of admirals... I dont go checking others info out so as far as my admirals are concerned.. sea of captains. But thats something they can do.. make everyone apear as captain rank when you do look but 0 for level differance. That would make anal retentive ones somewhat happy.
"I'm drunk, whats your excuse for being an idiot?" - Unknown drunk man. :eek:
The Moist Title is for doing the Light in the Dark mission which is the mission with the Iconian gateway on that Undine outpost. The accolade is called Gateway and it is for rescuing Celestara Mex.
That's the thing with Star Trek, really. It could easily be a time-space anomaly due to the Iconians trying to take over all timelines. Thus the best and brightest captains are all thrown together in one heavily intermixing mix of timelines. So yes, we're the "only ones that matter..." yet at the same time so does everyone else.
Honestly, this'd be a pretty cool storyline.
That said, assuming a level cap increase to 70, here's how I'd do it.
Level 1 - Ensign
Level 2-9 - Lt. JG
Level 10-19 - Lt.
Level 20-29 - Lt. Cmdr
Level 30-39 - Cmdr
Level 40-60 - Captain
Level 61-69 - Commodore
Level 70 - Fleet Captain
Commodore is, so far as I know, a flag rank that isn't treated like an Admiral, so it would be easier for them to command large swaths of ships - but it would also not be unusual for them to command their own ships. Fleet Captain is, I think, a Star Trek invention, or at the very least not an official rank IRL (and probably not an official rank in Starfleet in the present era, either), but I think it would be fitting. Implicit half-flag rank, below the admirals giving you orders, above a lot of run-of-the-mill captains, and obvious seniority when you need to take charge of a task force, yet plausible as you're ultimately still below Admiral.
Just my thoughts though.
This is admittedly an interesting thought, really.
Another thought I'd considered was that it's entirely possible that different sections of Starfleet have rank mean different things. While we are unaware of it as players/viewers, there could be very large divisions of the fleet. For instance, we're pretty obviously ultimately under Admiral Quinn's command, or so it seems. He's a Trill, and it is not out of the question their culture is somewhat different. It could be that making it to Vice Admiral, or a similar rank, would be culturally akin to making it to Captain elsewhere. Elsewhere in the fleet, this could be effectively similar authority to Captain.
While it's complicated to be sure, and the sort of complexity that would be handwaved away off-screen or put in trivia knowledge that's mentioned once or twice off-hand, it seems to me it'd make sense and it'd be fairly realistic, given the nature of the Federation.
Level cap can still be Admiral.
Another option could be to have ranks above Captain tied to Fleets. Fleet Leaders can be Admirals, secondary can be Commodore and so on.