Our Crew

[R1B5]

Does anyone know how many crew we can design and what their ranks/designations are going to be? I've already made provisions for:

1st office:
2nd Officer:
Tactical Officer:
Astrometrics officer:
Helmsmen:
Science officer:
Operations officer:
Security officer:
Chief engineer:
Ships Doc:

[Velociraptor]

I'd say all the officers should get customization (I'm not saying they will, I have no idea what they will do but this is what i'd prefer). I mean in all the movies crew are faceless background designed to get blown up when parts of the ship get hit. The officers; basically anyone with rank, are the guys you know and live with. The ones on the bridge or commonly part of story arks. like the ship counceler, chief engineer or the doctor you don't necessarily have to be on the bridge but you are a notable officer with a rank. Maybe even things like ambassador, chef (VOY) or bartender.;)

[Velociraptor]

Did you mention communications officer? they're vital

sorry 'bout the double post lad(s) *bump*

[R1B5]

I knew there was somebody I forgot. Thanks.

[ParkerHayden]

Having both a Tactical chief and a Security chief is redundant post-TNG. They're merged. Also, communications officers aren't a specific division either. An Astronomics officer can just be put into the same role as Science. Also, I doubt there will be an Operations chief since Science and Operations are generally the same thing.

Finally, the NPC ranks will most-likely progress with your character's rank.

[GambitAce]

Heres what I was thinking so far:

First Officer
Chief Engineer
Chief Medical Officer
Chief Security and Tactical Officer
Helm Officer
Navigation Officer
Communication Officer
Science Officer
Counselor

[TruthSeer]

I'm hoping that we will also have generic/randomly generated officers that we can take on away teams. For example if you want the away team to be: you, chief of security, doctore, and then two extra security officers.

[evan.is.weyoun]

Actually, since an away team will only consist of 5 (including you), here's what I see.

First Officer
Chief Engineer
Chief Tactical Officer
Chief Science Officer

Engineering, tactical, and science are the 3 known careers in STO, combined with the First Officer who can be any of the 3. Seems fair and balanced and definitely goes with what we know.

[TruthSeer]

Actually, since an away team will only consist of 5 (including you), here's what I see.

First Officer
Chief Engineer
Chief Tactical Officer
Chief Science Officer

Engineering, tactical, and science are the 3 known careers in STO, combined with the First Officer who can be any of the 3. Seems fair and balanced and definitely goes with what we know.

While we do know for sure that it will be 5 man away teams, I'm really hoping that there are more than 4 bridge crew members. That way we can have some variation and also specialization for missions.

[R1B5]

I was under the impression that we'd have about ten, then we'd pick the five best people suited to any particular mission.

[knightofhyrule730]

heres the thing. we dont know enough to start any of this. as craig has said, there may be times when you will have 2+ engineers, science and tactical officers, and maybe none of one of the others. It all depends on how your ship is configured.

but yes, id agree that youd need at least 1 chief engineer, 1 tactical and 2 science (science officer, medical officer)

oh, and as far as we have heard, yes, they are all fully customizable.

[Spire]

I remember reading somewhere that it depends on the ship. For example, if your flying around in a defiant your not going to have a science officer, but will probably have several more tactical officers.

[TruthSeer]

I remember reading somewhere that it depends on the ship. For example, if your flying around in a defiant your not going to have a science officer, but will probably have several more tactical officers.

I don't know about not having one. Not having as many, yes, but there would still be stations that require someone in the science field.

[lvjayman]

I think it would be cool if the appearance of your officers, such as race or sex, is random. This would be closer to real life, with new personel being assigned from HQ. We could still maybe tailor there skills and names, but it would have more of an UFP feel. Except for the Klingons of course, it would all be Klingon :D.

Then again I might be like Kirk, and so pick an all female crew :cool:

[Devren]

Does anyone know how many crew we can design and what their ranks/designations are going to be? I've already made provisions for:

1st office:
2nd Officer:
Tactical Officer:
Astrometrics officer:
Helmsmen:
Science officer:
Operations officer:
Security officer:
Chief engineer:
Ships Doc:

Yeah, you need to make sure to have enough Red Shirts though :-P

In all honesty I would not be surprised if STO would take a similar approach to crew members as Silent Hunter (Sub-Sim) did: http://www.subsim.com/sh4/images/c_screen_sh4_1.jpg. I'd also agree w/ previous posts that it probably depends a lot on the size of the ship you're in charge of (though granted, your bridge crew probably wouldn't change a whole lot... perhaps you'd get more substitutions like in a soccer-sim??? haha)

[Kinjiru]

Having both a Tactical chief and a Security chief is redundant post-TNG. They're merged. Also, I doubt there will be an Operations chief since Science and Operations are generally the same thing.


Actually, that's a bit inaccurate.
There was an official post for a Security Chief post TNG.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Tasha_Yar

Also. reading into Worf's history on the Enterprise, he progressed from:
2346 Command Division Bridge Officer
2364 (Tasha's death) Acting Security Chief
2365 Chief Tactical Officer and Security Chief

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Worf

Note that there is an official title for Worf as CTO and CSO, so both did exist.

Honestly, the guy who's station is on the bridge, sets up attack/defense patterns, locks on and fires weapons and handles power transfers would be a little overwhelmed if his duties also included supervising a ship's internal security, keeping all cargo/passengers secure, providing guards for VIPs, maintaining the brig, and assuring the safety of all crew members both aboard and ashore.

What they did was combine these functions under Worf for story purposes. Just because a position was merged in one of the series for story purposes doesn't negate the need for one. In the case of Ops, the associated article says that Data assumed the duties of Science Officer and Operations Manager, which again, means that both did exist, they were just combined in Data's specific case.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Security_chief
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Tactical_Officer
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Operations_officer
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Science_Officer

Just throwin' that out there. :)

[Sarile]

Wouldn't the size of your crew also depend on 1. your rank(lower rank can recruit fewer crew?) 2. the size of your ship you command(smaller ship, less crew needed)

Live Long and Prosper

[ParkerHayden]

Actually, that's a bit inaccurate.
There was an official post for a Security Chief post TNG.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Tasha_Yar

Also. reading into Worf's history on the Enterprise, he progressed from:
2346 Command Division Bridge Officer
2364 (Tasha's death) Acting Security Chief
2365 Chief Tactical Officer and Security Chief

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Worf

Note that there is an official title for Worf as CTO and CSO, so both did exist.

Honestly, the guy who's station is on the bridge, sets up attack/defense patterns, locks on and fires weapons and handles power transfers would be a little overwhelmed if his duties also included supervising a ship's internal security, keeping all cargo/passengers secure, providing guards for VIPs, maintaining the brig, and assuring the safety of all crew members both aboard and ashore.

What they did was combine these functions under Worf for story purposes. Just because a position was merged in one of the series for story purposes doesn't negate the need for one. In the case of Ops, the associated article says that Data assumed the duties of Science Officer and Operations Manager, which again, means that both did exist, they were just combined in Data's specific case.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Security_chief
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Tactical_Officer
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Operations_officer
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Science_Officer

Just throwin' that out there. :)
And what of DS9 in Voyager? There was no Ops Chief on DS9, and Tuvok was assigned as Chief Tac/Sec officer on Voyager. Not to mention that Voyager didn't have a (legit) Science Chief.

[Kinjiru]

And what of DS9 in Voyager? There was no Ops Chief on DS9, and Tuvok was assigned as Chief Tac/Sec officer on Voyager. Not to mention that Voyager didn't have a (legit) Science Chief.

Again, story plot devices. Not necessarily Starfleet SOP.

Edit, also:
Aboard the USS Voyager, Lieutenant Commander Tuvok, as security chief, had thirteen department heads report to him every day on ship's protocol. (VOY: "Scientific Method")

In the 2270s, the role of security chief was combined with that of the chief tactical officer. The chief tactical officer could be a separate position or be combined with that of helmsman or navigator.
bold and color mine for emphasis.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Operations_Officer

Edit: Also, also:
Miles O'Brien was assigned as Chief of Operations for station Deep Space 9

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Operations_Chief

[Ontas]

Again, story plot devices. Not Starfleet SOP.


True, it seems like a lot of the department positions in Starfleet were merged (Navigator + Helm = Flight Controller) or given broader duties (Science + Shipboard Management = Operations) in the Next Gen era. The reasons for this were probably to give the characters more to do, so that the security chief wouldn't just be limited to handling shipboard security and away teams or the tactical officer to ship-to-ship combat. The behind-the-scenes motivations therefore do appear to be largely dramatic, so that each character would have a use in a wide range of situations.

But what it seems to ultimately imply is that the crews of Starfleet vessels are flexible, that different people can fill multiple roles and perform various duties depending on their specific talents and the needs of the ship in question.

I suppose the question here is: will this multi-tasking bridge crew carry over into Star Trek Online, or will departments be more rigid and compartmentalized as they seemed to be in TOS, for the sake of simplicity and streamlined gameplay?

[Loekii]

Wouldn't the size of your crew also depend on 1. your rank(lower rank can recruit fewer crew?) 2. the size of your ship you command(smaller ship, less crew needed)

Live Long and Prosper

Cryptic has stated that we will have a 'Stable' for both ships and crews. So we will probably have more crew than we need. I believe the example they used was 'having two science officers, but using a ship that only has one science station, so one science officer/pet/crew would remain at the starbase'.

Can't find the exact quote now, but here is a summary of info from the 'What We Know About STO' Sticky:


Starships and crews:
You can keep your old ship when you get a new one. You can keep on upgrading one of your old ships to make it more powerful, but in the end higher-tier ships have greater potential. [AC6]
You will be in control of your own starship, but you will not start out with the rank of Captain.
You will have a fully customizable and partially controllable Bridge Crew, similar to "pets" in many MMOGs.
You will also have tens, even hundreds of lower ranking officers; your "redshirts".
You will receive bonuses depending on your crewmembers' races/species.
Members of the alien races you encounter may join your crew. [LVWc]
You control how your NPCs progress. [CZ6]
No cooperative bridge play, at least not at launch. [GCI08]
While there probably won't be much conversation with your NPC crewmembers, they'll be the ones keeping you up to speed on what's going on around you. [CZ3]
Other:
With Starfleet, you start out with a ship of the Miranda configuration. [CZ11]
Holograms and changeling have been considered as possible crewmembers.
You can do away missions with your NPC crewmembers or with other players. Your away team will consist of five characters (PCs or NPCs). [IGN1] The Captain is always a part of the away team. [AC10]
Select your away team well; you'll be able to make use of the different members' abilities to secure success.

Sources: Click on "HyorD" at the top to go to his thread. He has links to the Sources in his 3rd post in the thread.

[TruthSeer]

True, it seems like a lot of the department positions in Starfleet were merged (Navigator + Helm = Flight Controller) or given broader duties (Science + Shipboard Management = Operations) in the Next Gen era.

In regards to Voyager it could also have been because a number of the crew were killed off in the first episode.

Wouldn't the size of your crew also depend on 1. your rank(lower rank can recruit fewer crew?) 2. the size of your ship you command(smaller ship, less crew needed)

Live Long and Prosper

Not necessarily. A Miranda is bigger than a Defiant or a Nova but I wouldn't expect it to be higher tiered.