Races, Bridge Crews, Uniforms

[A_Martin]

I just had a couple of question to throw out to my fellow forum trekkers and see if we could get some discussion going,

1) What are the racial stats/skills likely to be like in creating a character and/or bridge crew?
I remember reading somewhere that different races would have different natural inclinations towards certain fields as determined by racial stats/skills.

We know that Vulcans are stronger and smarter than the average human and that Andorians are strong willed and consider themselves a warrior race. But what of races that are omnipresent in the background of Star Trek like the Bolians. What exactly is a Bolian trait? Are they particularly charismatic? Are they smart or strong? Are they into Computers like the Bynaus or into Engineering like the Benzites? I'm not only interested in Bolians, just using them as an example.

2) What are the numbers and positions we are looking at for members of a bridge crew? What do you think would work best? Why?

Throughout the series there seems to be roughly seven senior staffers on every ship. But what does that mean for departments/positions?

Ops, Science, Navigation, Medical, Engineering, Tactical, Captain, First Officer, Security
One could likely combine Tactical and Security into one officer leaving eight bridge positions for one PC and seven NPCs... is that too many crew members? If so, what gets cut? In TNG Data kind of overlapped from Ops to Science and practically assistant engineer. Voyager was also lacking in a dedicated Science officer... does this mean that Science is a forgotten role and can be lumped into Operations?

do we have first officers in the game? do we really need one or at least do we really need a dedicated first officer who doesn't man another station?

3) I noticed that there seems to be a fourth colour added to the normal red, blue, gold scheme. I was wondering if anyone had any more insight than I into the gray uniform. My guess would be Cryptic is separating engineering and security, but I'd be interested to know if anyone has read this confirmed.

[TruthSeer]

1) Don't really have much to say in regards to traits.

2) Now when your asking about bridge crew do you mean bridge crew or senior staff? Because bridge crew would vary by ship but senior staff would remain the same from ship to ship. I think seven is a nice number, that way you can pick to the right roles for the right missions.

Though I do hope you get to bring down no names along with you. Say (on a team of 5) if your on a rescue mission to a damaged ship and you want to have yourself, engineering (repairs), and 3 medical.

Or your on a mission you expect to have a lot of fighting on and you want a team full of security officers.

3)Maybe they are throwing in the extra color for customization purposes. So that we/fleets can use it and delegate colors as we see fit.

2/3) This kind of goes with both. I hope that we can have marines on our ships and that they can have a uniform variation like in DS9. Also if they're in game I hope we can take them on away missions.

[A_Martin]

I guess when talking about bridge crew I do mean senior staff... because I figure you'll be seeing most if not all of your senior staff on the bridge... I can't imagine it being desirable to have your doctor and engineer not there but have some Ensign Expendable at the engineering station or a 'Counselor' on the bridge but no navigator of note.
As for the away team, it could be interesting to have lesser recurring characters to fill in gaps should a mission require more security or medical. Perhaps the customizability of these 'lesser' characters would be less and they don't have the potential of the regular bridge crew. I'm just thinking of people from TNG like Alyssa Ogawa or Reginald Barclay who weren't part of the bridge crew but could still contribute when called upon... perhaps content for an expansion?

btw: nice quote.

[Mattastic]

1) What are the racial stats/skills likely to be like in creating a character and/or bridge crew?
I remember reading somewhere that different races would have different natural inclinations towards certain fields as determined by racial stats/skills.

We know that Vulcans are stronger and smarter than the average human and that Andorians are strong willed and consider themselves a warrior race. But what of races that are omnipresent in the background of Star Trek like the Bolians. What exactly is a Bolian trait? Are they particularly charismatic? Are they smart or strong? Are they into Computers like the Bynaus or into Engineering like the Benzites? I'm not only interested in Bolians, just using them as an example.
I've thought the same kind of thoughts, and I think some races might be rather tricky. It's possible that Cryptic will add a huge amount of background to races which haven't previously been well explored by the shows. They may give Bolians traits that make sense according to a background which they have devised. It's the same kind of reasoning as if a new series came out with a Bolian (say) first officer -- we would expect the creators of that character to tell us a wealth of new things about Bolian culture.

Alternatively, we might find that humans are no longer the sole "average Joe" in every race lineup. Certain races might be entirely identical to humans with the exception of their culture and appearence. Personally, I'd prefer the alternative.

2) What are the numbers and positions we are looking at for members of a bridge crew? What do you think would work best? Why?

Throughout the series there seems to be roughly seven senior staffers on every ship. But what does that mean for departments/positions?

Ops, Science, Navigation, Medical, Engineering, Tactical, Captain, First Officer, Security
One could likely combine Tactical and Security into one officer leaving eight bridge positions for one PC and seven NPCs... is that too many crew members? If so, what gets cut? In TNG Data kind of overlapped from Ops to Science and practically assistant engineer. Voyager was also lacking in a dedicated Science officer... does this mean that Science is a forgotten role and can be lumped into Operations?

do we have first officers in the game? do we really need one or at least do we really need a dedicated first officer who doesn't man another station?
Cryptic have mentioned that the positions you have available in your crew will partially depend on the kind of vessel you have. Science vessels might not have a tactical officer at all, but will have more than one senior science officer. Warships will have the opposite. I think this is quite sensible.

I would judge a good sized crew by what I consider a good MMO team size. I suspect we'll start with a very small crew. Perhaps yourself and three officers. You will have to judge which positions you will have to fill, while leaving other positions empty and relying on the skill of your crew to get you by. Or, as you mention, you might be able to have officers with skills that reach into other departments, which would be cool.

You might then accumulate more officers as you go by. A good cap would be 8, I think. If you change from a science vessel to a warship, you will probably have to leave a science officer behind, so you may have a collection of "crew contacts" if you choose to go back to an earlier vessel.

3) I noticed that there seems to be a fourth colour added to the normal red, blue, gold scheme. I was wondering if anyone had any more insight than I into the gray uniform. My guess would be Cryptic is separating engineering and security, but I'd be interested to know if anyone has read this confirmed.
I actually theorise that this is not a new department colour at all but an early example of a customised uniform. Some players might not be entirely thrilled at a bright colourful uniform and prefer something neutral, or might be fans of the grey shouldered uniforms with the coloured undershirt which we've seen on screen, and want to have something similar. I certainly can't see much point in giving security and engineering officers different department colours, since this would then require Cryptic to re-evalute every single department. I also can't see grey being a department colour when red, gold and blue are still there; picking out a grey-uniformed officer out of a sea of bright colour would be pretty difficult.

[A_Martin]

I've thought the same kind of thoughts, and I think some races might be rather tricky. It's possible that Cryptic will add a huge amount of background to races which haven't previously been well explored by the shows. They may give Bolians traits that make sense according to a background which they have devised. It's the same kind of reasoning as if a new series came out with a Bolian (say) first officer -- we would expect the creators of that character to tell us a wealth of new things about Bolian culture.

Alternatively, we might find that humans are no longer the sole "average Joe" in every race lineup. Certain races might be entirely identical to humans with the exception of their culture and appearence. Personally, I'd prefer the alternative.


Cryptic have mentioned that the positions you have available in your crew will partially depend on the kind of vessel you have. Science vessels might not have a tactical officer at all, but will have more than one senior science officer. Warships will have the opposite. I think this is quite sensible.

I would judge a good sized crew by what I consider a good MMO team size. I suspect we'll start with a very small crew. Perhaps yourself and three officers. You will have to judge which positions you will have to fill, while leaving other positions empty and relying on the skill of your crew to get you by. Or, as you mention, you might be able to have officers with skills that reach into other departments, which would be cool.

You might then accumulate more officers as you go by. A good cap would be 8, I think. If you change from a science vessel to a warship, you will probably have to leave a science officer behind, so you may have a collection of "crew contacts" if you choose to go back to an earlier vessel.


I actually theorise that this is not a new department colour at all but an early example of a customised uniform. Some players might not be entirely thrilled at a bright colourful uniform and prefer something neutral, or might be fans of the grey shouldered uniforms with the coloured undershirt which we've seen on screen, and want to have something similar. I certainly can't see much point in giving security and engineering officers different department colours, since this would then require Cryptic to re-evalute every single department. I also can't see grey being a department colour when red, gold and blue are still there; picking out a grey-uniformed officer out of a sea of bright colour would be pretty difficult.

I think that would be the point of having gray for security... it'd be a lot easier to flank a Klingon position if one weren't noticed 1km away from the bright gold top... ;-)