Our Bridge Officers

[cipher_nemo]

In regards to ground combat, I haven't seen much in terms of specifics for the bridge officers we choose to take along on away missions. I did hear that we'll be able to level them up, etc., but I have no idea how dynamic they'll be.

For example, would we be able to have one bridge officer focus on healing, one on debuffs, one one buffs, and one on controlling mobs (cc)? Or are we stuck with having them as just phaser fire support? Of course other captains (players) could join us to run ground missions.

Anyone knows either way? Or can make a guess?

[CrazyVulcan]

In regards to ground combat, I haven't seen much in terms of specifics for the bridge officers we choose to take along on away missions. I did hear that we'll be able to level them up, etc., but I have no idea how dynamic they'll be.

For example, would we be able to have one bridge officer focus on healing, one on debuffs, one one buffs, and one on controlling mobs (cc)? Or are we stuck with having them as just phaser fire support? Of course other captains (players) could join us to run ground missions.

Anyone knows either way? Or can make a guess?

think of them as levelable pices of gear and as far as AI mechanices all that has been said is that you can set them to do difrent things or give indidulal command or group commands though it is better to have the Human support

[cipher_nemo]

think of them as levelable pices of gear and as far as AI mechanices all that has been said is that you can set them to do difrent things or give indidulal command or group commands though it is better to have the Human support

I'm asking because I'm trying to get a feel of what focuses for our captains (ie: "classes" via skills and equipment) are more desirable for either group or solo play.

If bridge officers are just there for phaser DPS support, I doubt I'd want to focus on tactics if I plan to group more (since added bridge officers are easy to fill in the gaps). But if I wanted to solo, and bridge officers could fill various roles, I could focus on whatever I wanted for my character.

[Zepath]

I don't think you want to make that decision based on that.

I think, from what Cryptic said, that your "Captain Skills" are really quite diverse even within their chosen "profession".

Rather than skilling up your Captain based on a specific aspect of the game, you'd likely better serve yourself to be a "jack of all trades" with a leaning towards a specific profession, and let your BO's be your specific skil set based on the missions you're doing.

That makes sense to me, I hope it makes sense to ya'll.

[scholarman]

As for me, I'd like a better idea of who our Bridge Crew can be -- especially for Away Teams.

We know we can have Helm, Tactical and Science. Can we have Ship's Counselors for diplomatic missions? We can have medical specialists on the ground -- will medical BOs mean better regeneration rates for our crew in space combat?

And once and for all -- do we have first officers, and if so do they count as their original specialty or what? ;)

[cipher_nemo]

These sort of questions entered my mind as I watched gameplay footage on YouTube from a person who interviewed the Executive and Associate Producer (the four-part video).

The gameplay I saw had bridge officers on an away mission do little other than firing phasers at enemies.

[billybob442]

These sort of questions entered my mind as I watched gameplay footage on YouTube from a person who interviewed the Executive and Associate Producer (the four-part video).

The gameplay I saw had bridge officers on an away mission do little other than firing phasers at enemies.
The bridge officers in that video came off as phaser-toting zombies.

Of course the game is in alpha with beta still months away but I'm hoping Cryptic puts that time to good use giving the bridge officers a little more "life". I mean not only how they react in combat (on officer continued attacking a target completely ignoring another klingon who was shooting him repeatedly) but also in the types of actions that they can take on the ground. It would be nice to see bridge officers get used for specialties - doctors healing, engineers jury-rigging equipment and so on.

[shadowsafer]

As for me, I'd like a better idea of who our Bridge Crew can be -- especially for Away Teams.

We know we can have Helm, Tactical and Science. Can we have Ship's Counselors for diplomatic missions? We can have medical specialists on the ground -- will medical BOs mean better regeneration rates for our crew in space combat?

And once and for all -- do we have first officers, and if so do they count as their original specialty or what? ;)

Actually it's engineering, tactical and science. Helm is part of tactical and medical is part of science. From what I know medical will indeed mean better regeneration in space combat for the red shirts and shorter downtimes on personnel.
I haven't read anything about us having first officers, as far as I know right now all BO's have the same rank directly below captain. It might be cool to see 1 BO above the rest as a first officer though.

I have great plans for my tactical BO, which I want to be my 1st officer. Since I'm gonna play medic I'll need a good bodyguard for my ground missions. :D

[billybob442]

... I haven't read anything about us having first officers, as far as I know right now all BO's have the same rank directly below captain. It might be cool to see 1 BO above the rest as a first officer though.

They may all start the same rank (ensign or lieutenant JG) but the devs have talked about giving your officers promotions so they're not all going to stay the same rank. I assume we'll have a first officer but to be honest the devs have said nothing one way or the other about a first officer position on our ships.

[shadowsafer]

They may all start the same rank (ensign or lieutenant JG) but the devs have talked about giving your officers promotions so they're not all going to stay the same rank. I assume we'll have a first officer but to be honest the devs have said nothing one way or the other about a first officer position on our ships.

Aye I know about the promotions, but yeah, I'm not sure either about first officer positions atm. It is a very nice idea though. :D

[maxgrimberger]

I think it will be comparable to the "henchman" system in Guild Wars.

Your Bridge Officers will level up, and during ground combat act like pets (hopefully with good AI and pathfinding!!!!).
So, I'm sure you will be able to give them basic orders (stop, attack, guard, heal...) and will quite likely work in the way you describe.

[billybob442]

Aye I know about the promotions, but yeah, I'm not sure either about first officer positions atm. It is a very nice idea though. :D

TNG, DS9, and VOY all had dedicated First Officer positions in their crew so that why I was assuming we would too.

For that matter will the be a Communication-Ops position like Uhura had in TOS or Hoshi in ENT??
I'd actually like to have a comm specialist on my bridge. Just for nostalgia if nothing else.

[shadowsafer]

TNG, DS9, and VOY all had dedicated First Officer positions in their crew so that why I was assuming we would too.

For that matter will the be a Communication-Ops position like Uhura had in TOS or Hoshi in ENT??
I'd actually like to have a comm specialist on my bridge. Just for nostalgia if nothing else.

I wonder if this is something tactical can specialize in as well. Being a languistic can be a huge advantage in diplomatic and first contact missions.

[casdegere]

I wonder if you will be able to substitute missing crew slots like in guild wars

[shadowsafer]

I wonder if you will be able to substitute missing crew slots like in guild wars

I haven't played guild wars, but here is how missions work;
A ground mission will always consist out of 5 team members, you the captain and 4 AI bridge officers, or 4 players. A combination of for example you, 2 players and 2 BO's is also possible.

How this will be taken care off in raids/ fleets is not yet announced.

[cipher_nemo]

I'd like to see some dynamic AI included for bridge officers so that they can perform basic "class"-like functions such as healing, tanking, cc, and of course DPS.

Have you guys ever had to cancel a large quest because you couldn't find that last key class to help you? That's where bridge officers are supposed to help out.

For example...

Let's say you have 4 players to join in on a quest -- an away mission with ground combat -- and you have 1 slot left for a bridge officer. None of the players have any gear or skills to help with healing. So naturally, you'd want to add a bridge officer that can serve as a doctor/medic. But if all we have are phaser-toting zombies at our command, we'd turn into a "pug" (pick-up group for non MMO people) and have to find a random player with healing capabilities.

For me, that's almost a no go since the people I quest with would most likely be on Vent or some other voice over IP software in my fleet, etc. Adding a person without that voice access is a pain since typically in-game voice doesn't cut it (ie: can't change player volume). And even if we could hear them ok and vice versa, we'd constantly be hitting the wrong key and speaking in Vent instead of in-game. On top of all of that, we really don't know how good or how polite that pug will be.

I hope we're given some intelligent AI for bridge officers with a somewhat dynamic range of capabilities.

[blujester]

In the 4 part interveiw Zig talks about needing to bring his med officer for missions with the other guy because he's so wreckless so yes the Meds are pocket healers. Engineers seem to be the buffers while science is debuff/control and tactical is blaster/demolition.

[billybob442]

I wonder if this is something tactical can specialize in as well. Being a languistic can be a huge advantage in diplomatic and first contact missions.

See I'd assume a linguist would be a type of scientist. Hoshi wore the blue-science trim but Uhura wore the old style red which was for engineering & support personnel. So I'm not sure which it belongs under.

Either way they should be a big help in first contact & diplomatic situations not to mention having skills to jam or tap enemy communications. If they're placed in engineering (like Uhura) you could also throw in building comm devices & jammers along with things that would fit with acoustic engineering - like sonic stunners or uhf devices to drive off alien animals.

Regardless, I started as a fan of TOS and my bridge crew just wouldn't feel complete without a comms officers.

[shadowsafer]

See I'd assume a linguist would be a type of scientist. Hoshi wore the blue-science trim but Uhura wore the old style red which was for engineering & support personnel. So I'm not sure which it belongs under.

Either way they should be a big help in first contact & diplomatic situations not to mention having skills to jam or tap enemy communications. If they're placed in engineering (like Uhura) you could also throw in building comm devices & jammers along with things that would fit with acoustic engineering - like sonic stunners or uhf devices to drive off alien animals.

Regardless, I started as a fan of TOS and my bridge crew just wouldn't feel complete without a comms officers.

Hmmm.. you're right yes, this could be part of both... When making first contact it would make sense to study a new language, but then again for diplomacy you need a lot of tactic to prevent offending another species and making good deals with them.
Because of the universal translator I would put it under tactical thesedays though. I'm not sure if at the time of Uhura the universal translator already existed (I think it didn't) but thesedays there usually aren't much problems figuring out a new language.

Also I'm pretty sure that in Voyager and I think TNG you don't see anything but red on the bridges, blue shirts only make an appereance when their specific expertise is needed on the bridge.
I could be wrong about this though, it's been a while since I saw any star trek show on tv.

[cipher_nemo]

Regardless, I started as a fan of TOS and my bridge crew just wouldn't feel complete without a comms officers.

I'd feel weird too if none of my bridge officers were comm officers/linguists.

[SenatorPardek]

I'm excited about the Bridge Officer system. I am pretty sure I remember hearing somewhere that your First Officer is the first one you get. Frankly, it'd be kinda weird if there was no First Officer system.

[scholarman]

See I'd assume a linguist would be a type of scientist. Hoshi wore the blue-science trim but Uhura wore the old style red which was for engineering & support personnel. So I'm not sure which it belongs under.

Either way they should be a big help in first contact & diplomatic situations not to mention having skills to jam or tap enemy communications. If they're placed in engineering (like Uhura) you could also throw in building comm devices & jammers along with things that would fit with acoustic engineering - like sonic stunners or uhf devices to drive off alien animals.

Regardless, I started as a fan of TOS and my bridge crew just wouldn't feel complete without a comms officers.

Uhura, for whatever reason, also used to do service, support and repair on her own bridge station, so I've always assumed that she (and other communications officers like her) was officially assigned to the engineering section. They were the ones who kept universal translation running. That she was also responsible for... well, communication didn't change that.

Hoshi was from the era before translation became 'universal,' and was far more a dedicated linguist/scientist. Though she was generally responsible for communication, she wasn't the one repairing her station when it blew up. So she was in sciences.

As of Next Generation and beyond -- well, they got so complacent with universal translation that they stopped carrying comm officers at all. Which occasionally led to scenes where they would encourage aliens to keep rambling on so that the comm system had a chance to work out their language. :)

I would think that you could have someone in Ops or Science colors that you mentally tag as Communications if nothing else, assuming they don't give us the real deal.

(All that being said? I also hope that if we can't have a given type of specialist to begin with we could unlock them in the course of the game. So we ultimately get a Comm officer as a subsection of Ops or Sciences, or get a Chief Security Officer as a subsection of Tactical, or the like.)

[Zepath]

Spock fixed everything, and he was science, not engineering. I mean I know he was 'the Spock" but I don't think your department assignment limited what you could work on, as much as it just dictated your daily chores and billet.

Hell, I know secretaries at companies with full IT departments that do a better job at maintaining their PC's than the IT service department does.

[CaptainFreeFall]

I'm excited about the Bridge Officer system. I am pretty sure I remember hearing somewhere that your First Officer is the first one you get. Frankly, it'd be kinda weird if there was no First Officer system.

Well the first officer holds no skill only rank on the bridge, hes like a care taker isnt he - when the captain isnt there he is in command so unless we're having ship interiors there is no point lol.

edit: in Star trek bridge commander she acted as the one who managed the Alert Status, contacted Starfleet and the main adjectives.

imo i'd like to see a full bridge crew, and the insides of the bridge but hey i wont go there again.

[Zepath]

In most military organizations ... the XO (or Number 1) is the Administrative aspect (General Manager, if you will). Yes.

But they are definitely in a Command Position, and are the one to take over in the commander's absence.

[billybob442]

In most military organizations ... the XO (or Number 1) is the Administrative aspect (General Manager, if you will). Yes.

But they are definitely in a Command Position, and are the one to take over in the commander's absence.
Yet the question still stands .. will there be XO's in the game. I for one think it wouldn't be quite right without one.
However I suppose it ultimately comes down to what game play impact they have.


If any devs are reading.... can we get clarification on First Officers and Communication Officers??
Yeah, they're prolly to busy to give a response I just wanted to toss that out there anyway.

[Tamgros]

would we be able to have one bridge officer focus on healing, one on debuffs, one one buffs, and one on controlling mobs (cc)? Or are we stuck with having them as just phaser fire support? Of course other captains (players) could join us to run ground missions.

Sorry for skipping reading anything on this thread, but the answer to this is quite easy, "Yes" and "No, you won't be stuck with only phaser support"

To expand a bit: You can customize each BO to have something different. This seems to be science/medical, engr, and tactical, each appear to be open ended like the captain.. Watch the ground combat in the Gamescom interview vid with zinc and you'll see a bit of the diversity in weapons and the way they use them. Some even have extra icons around them that have different functions. Once you get enough BOs, you'll have a choice of which ones to bring down and really customize it for whatever mission you are running.

If you are wondering, I saw all of this first hand at the demo in LV. It's legit. Customize away!

[fractaleye]

On the subject of our BOs, I've been wondering how the rare/famous BOs will work. I expect that they'll be harder to acquire.

I wouldn't want there to be only 1 "Riker" or 1 "Paris" or whatever, and I honestly think that won't be the case. But, on the other end of the spectrum, I wouldn't want everyone to have a cookie-cutter list of famous BOs that will out-perform the others we acquire/level.

Anyone know any more info on the famous BOs? I look forward to 'leveling' my regular BOs for the most part (if not all the time); just curious as to what the famous ones bring to the party and how prevalent they'll be.

I'm hoping we'll know more after PAX. :)