Your Charecter Ingame Ranks In STO

EARTHDATE 2009.09.16

Ask Cryptic: Player ProgressionPosted by Rekhan
Good news to our forum veterans: For this upcoming Ask Cryptic, we’re not talking about combat! Instead, we’ll be focusing on player progression. We’ll be focusing on how your character becomes more powerful and the systems behind that, rather than content or story progression, at least this time around. If you have a question you’d like to ask, just ask it in this post’s comment thread.

You can also read on to learn more about player progression.

When you think of progressing in Star Trek Online, it’s best to picture an inverted triangle. You begin the game with broad skills available to you – the wide part of the triangle – and as you progress in rank, the skills you select become more specialized as the triangle narrows to a point.

There will be five ranks through which to progress at launch:



Star Trek Online is a skill-based game, meaning the experience you receive for completing missions and finishing episodes awards you skill points, which you use to directly improve the skills available to you. There’s a set number of skills available to you, depending on your rank. For instance, there’s a group of broad skills available at the Lieutenant rank; when you reach Lieutenant Commander, more refined skills become available to you.

The skills available in the early game affect the skills you take later on, and provide blanket bonuses to the more refined skills you select. Again, think of that inverted triangle.

For example, an Engineering officer has the option at lower ranks to decide between focusing on Maintenance or Modification. (He could also generalize in both, if he were to choose to do so.) Let’s say he decided to work exclusively on Modification, and maxes his Lieutenant Modification skill. When he becomes a Lieutenant Commander, new, more refined skills will become available. By the time the officer reaches the rank of Commander, he can choose to spend his skill points by specializing in one of three branches in his Engineering career.

All of a character’s skills influence their potency with their career abilities, as well as their equipped Kit (which grants additional abilities suited to a particular specialty of their chosen career). A character will collect several Kits as they advance in rank, allowing their role or ‘spec’ to change by equipping the Kit that contains the abilities they currently need for the mission.

In order to advance in rank, you’ll need to spend a specific number of skill points in your currently available skills. To advance from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander, you’ll need to have invested a certain number of skill points before you’re offered a promotion. Were a player to invest the minimum-required skill points to reach Admiral, he’d be about half-developed in terms of a maxed character, though in terms of time it’d take significantly longer to completely max out each available skill.

[VKF]Sybok Kuhr wrote:

EARTHDATE 2009.09.16

Ask Cryptic: Player ProgressionPosted by Rekhan
Good news to our forum veterans: For this upcoming Ask Cryptic, we’re not talking about combat! Instead, we’ll be focusing on player progression. We’ll be focusing on how your character becomes more powerful and the systems behind that, rather than content or story progression, at least this time around. If you have a question you’d like to ask, just ask it in this post’s comment thread.

You can also read on to learn more about player progression.

When you think of progressing in Star Trek Online, it’s best to picture an inverted triangle. You begin the game with broad skills available to you – the wide part of the triangle – and as you progress in rank, the skills you select become more specialized as the triangle narrows to a point.

There will be five ranks through which to progress at launch:

Lieutenant
Lieutenant Commander
Commander
Captain
Admiral

Star Trek Online is a skill-based game, meaning the experience you receive for completing missions and finishing episodes awards you skill points, which you use to directly improve the skills available to you. There’s a set number of skills available to you, depending on your rank. For instance, there’s a group of broad skills available at the Lieutenant rank; when you reach Lieutenant Commander, more refined skills become available to you.

The skills available in the early game affect the skills you take later on, and provide blanket bonuses to the more refined skills you select. Again, think of that inverted triangle.

For example, an Engineering officer has the option at lower ranks to decide between focusing on Maintenance or Modification. (He could also generalize in both, if he were to choose to do so.) Let’s say he decided to work exclusively on Modification, and maxes his Lieutenant Modification skill. When he becomes a Lieutenant Commander, new, more refined skills will become available. By the time the officer reaches the rank of Commander, he can choose to spend his skill points by specializing in one of three branches in his Engineering career.

All of a character’s skills influence their potency with their career abilities, as well as their equipped Kit (which grants additional abilities suited to a particular specialty of their chosen career). A character will collect several Kits as they advance in rank, allowing their role or ‘spec’ to change by equipping the Kit that contains the abilities they currently need for the mission.

In order to advance in rank, you’ll need to spend a specific number of skill points in your currently available skills. To advance from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander, you’ll need to have invested a certain number of skill points before you’re offered a promotion. Were a player to invest the minimum-required skill points to reach Admiral, he’d be about half-developed in terms of a maxed character, though in terms of time it’d take significantly longer to completely max out each available skill.

The answer to your question Lt. Daho on Command structure. I think it would be logical to use the above structure once STO comes out. This is open for discussion as well.

I propose that we use the Vulcan language to provide in-Fleet designations of rank, both to follow canon and in keeping with the traditions of the VKF. FYI, I'm using http://www.starbase-10.de/vld/ as the definitive Vulcan lexicon.

VKF internal rankings should be:

Admiral = Halitra-lan
Captain = Khart-lan
Commander = Zhel-lan
Lieutenant Commander = Tra-lan
Lieutenant = Ot-lan
Cadet = Ne-lan

That might be cryptic (pun intended) to outsiders, but a great team-builder (secrets always are imho). For new recruits not assigned a starting rank , I would suggest S'thora (that translates to Starship Commander). I recommend that these rankings be adopted in all Fleet signatures on the STO boards, and that we revise our forum configuration to show such designation.

Furthermore, VKF's 'position of authority' rankings need not necessarily correlate with traditional in-game STO rankings. The VKF should follow STO in terms of traditional rankings for use in-game, but use both VKF (Vulcan) rankings as above, and 'position of authority' rankings within the Fleet as appropriate. As an example of the latter:

Fleet Marshall (aka Fleet Admiral)
Fleet Chief of Operations
Fleet Chief Tactician/Chief Tactical Officer
Fleet Chief Scientist/Chief Science Officer
Fleet Chief Engineer/Chief Engineering Officer
Fleet Chief Medician/Chief Medical Officer
Battle Group Commander (assign Wings within the Fleet)
Task Force Commander (assign Quadrant Forces within a Battle Group/Wing)
Strike Team Leader (assign Sector Teams within a Task Force)

and other such designations as events require. These positions of authority will help us to designate who's in charge of what aspect of respective in-game and forum issues, and keep clear the lines of authority without conflicting or causing confusion between STO rankings and Fleet rankings.

Respectfully submitted for consideration, Ot-lan K'Salor, Fleet Chief Science Officer, CO USS Corona, NCC-85527E

[VKF]Keysailor wrote:

I propose that we use the Vulcan language to provide in-Fleet designations of rank, both to follow canon and in keeping with the traditions of the VKF. FYI, I'm using http://www.starbase-10.de/vld/ as the definitive Vulcan lexicon.

VKF internal rankings should be:

Admiral = Halitra-lan
Captain = Khart-lan
Commander = Zhel-lan
Lieutenant Commander = Tra-lan
Lieutenant = Ot-lan
Cadet = Ne-lan

That might be cryptic (pun intended) to outsiders, but a great team-builder (secrets always are imho). For new recruits not assigned a starting rank , I would suggest S'thora (that translates to Starship Commander). I recommend that these rankings be adopted in all Fleet signatures on the STO boards, and that we revise our forum configuration to show such designation.

Furthermore, VKF's 'position of authority' rankings need not necessarily correlate with traditional in-game STO rankings. The VKF should follow STO in terms of traditional rankings for use in-game, but use both VKF (Vulcan) rankings as above, and 'position of authority' rankings within the Fleet as appropriate. As an example of the latter:

Fleet Marshall (aka Fleet Admiral)
Fleet Chief of Operations
Fleet Chief Tactician/Chief Tactical Officer
Fleet Chief Scientist/Chief Science Officer
Fleet Chief Engineer/Chief Engineering Officer
Fleet Chief Medician/Chief Medical Officer
Battle Group Commander (assign Wings within the Fleet)
Task Force Commander (assign Quadrant Forces within a Battle Group/Wing)
Strike Team Leader (assign Sector Teams within a Task Force)

and other such designations as events require. These positions of authority will help us to designate who's in charge of what aspect of respective in-game and forum issues, and keep clear the lines of authority without conflicting or causing confusion between STO rankings and Fleet rankings.

Respectfully submitted for consideration, Ot-lan K'Salor, Fleet Chief Science Officer, CO USS Corona, NCC-85527E

as i said in the pm i sent i like the idea of using the vulcan term for the ranks but i dont have any problems if command wants to stick with the in game ranking system.

[VKF]Keysailor wrote:

I propose that we use the Vulcan language to provide in-Fleet designations of rank, both to follow canon and in keeping with the traditions of the VKF. FYI, I'm using http://www.starbase-10.de/vld/ as the definitive Vulcan lexicon.

VKF internal rankings should be:

Admiral = Halitra-lan
Captain = Khart-lan
Commander = Zhel-lan
Lieutenant Commander = Tra-lan
Lieutenant = Ot-lan
Cadet = Ne-lan

That might be cryptic (pun intended) to outsiders, but a great team-builder (secrets always are imho). For new recruits not assigned a starting rank , I would suggest S'thora (that translates to Starship Commander). I recommend that these rankings be adopted in all Fleet signatures on the STO boards, and that we revise our forum configuration to show such designation.

Furthermore, VKF's 'position of authority' rankings need not necessarily correlate with traditional in-game STO rankings. The VKF should follow STO in terms of traditional rankings for use in-game, but use both VKF (Vulcan) rankings as above, and 'position of authority' rankings within the Fleet as appropriate. As an example of the latter:

Fleet Marshall (aka Fleet Admiral)
Fleet Chief of Operations
Fleet Chief Tactician/Chief Tactical Officer
Fleet Chief Scientist/Chief Science Officer
Fleet Chief Engineer/Chief Engineering Officer
Fleet Chief Medician/Chief Medical Officer
Battle Group Commander (assign Wings within the Fleet)
Task Force Commander (assign Quadrant Forces within a Battle Group/Wing)
Strike Team Leader (assign Sector Teams within a Task Force)

and other such designations as events require. These positions of authority will help us to designate who's in charge of what aspect of respective in-game and forum issues, and keep clear the lines of authority without conflicting or causing confusion between STO rankings and Fleet rankings.

Respectfully submitted for consideration, Ot-lan K'Salor, Fleet Chief Science Officer, CO USS Corona, NCC-85527E

This is very good Keysailor. I will make the changes to the ranks. Thanks for the foot work on this brother.

[VKF]Keysailor wrote:

I propose that we use the Vulcan language to provide in-Fleet designations of rank, both to follow canon and in keeping with the traditions of the VKF. FYI, I'm using http://www.starbase-10.de/vld/ as the definitive Vulcan lexicon.

VKF internal rankings should be:

Admiral = Halitra-lan
Captain = Khart-lan
Commander = Zhel-lan
Lieutenant Commander = Tra-lan
Lieutenant = Ot-lan
Cadet = Ne-lan

That might be cryptic (pun intended) to outsiders, but a great team-builder (secrets always are imho). For new recruits not assigned a starting rank , I would suggest S'thora (that translates to Starship Commander). I recommend that these rankings be adopted in all Fleet signatures on the STO boards, and that we revise our forum configuration to show such designation.

Furthermore, VKF's 'position of authority' rankings need not necessarily correlate with traditional in-game STO rankings. The VKF should follow STO in terms of traditional rankings for use in-game, but use both VKF (Vulcan) rankings as above, and 'position of authority' rankings within the Fleet as appropriate. As an example of the latter:

Fleet Marshall (aka Fleet Admiral)
Fleet Chief of Operations
Fleet Chief Tactician/Chief Tactical Officer
Fleet Chief Scientist/Chief Science Officer
Fleet Chief Engineer/Chief Engineering Officer
Fleet Chief Medician/Chief Medical Officer
Battle Group Commander (assign Wings within the Fleet)
Task Force Commander (assign Quadrant Forces within a Battle Group/Wing)
Strike Team Leader (assign Sector Teams within a Task Force)

and other such designations as events require. These positions of authority will help us to designate who's in charge of what aspect of respective in-game and forum issues, and keep clear the lines of authority without conflicting or causing confusion between STO rankings and Fleet rankings.

Respectfully submitted for consideration, Ot-lan K'Salor, Fleet Chief Science Officer, CO USS Corona, NCC-85527E

This is indeed a most logical ranking system, great work .

I was hoping a real graphics artist might join us and do this work, but haven't yet seen one, so I thought I'd give my meager talents a workout. I have taken the liberty of coming up with a VKF member insignia design (draft) to use on the STO forum.

See my examples at http://www.positek.net/sto/insignia.htm

I took the VKF emblem (gift from {UFP}), the STO forum background (top-left image snippet), career insignia from the latest ST movie (yes, I know it's alt. universe, so I colored them similar to our emblem and reassigned Command to Tactical), and ranking indicator from a fleet very far back in the Fleet Registration thread (where their colors were complementary to our emblem). I can switch these out for the insignia shown on the VKF, but I only have access to what's showing on the site right now (just Kuhr's and the Tra-lan/Ot-lan one). I added a single star for the Fleet Chief Officers, and 5 stars surrounding a single star for the Fleet Admiral.

This gives our STO forum avatars 4 indicators:
1. Fleet affiliation in top-right
2. Ranking within the Fleet at bottom right
3. Career Field at bottom left
4. Assigned area of responsibility at top left (optional)

These were all done in Photoshop, with the online images saved as gifs. The original files have all sources in layers, so we can swap out any parts for something better, if anyone has something. The images are also scaled to 100x100, which is the maximum STO avatar size. Any of the avatars on the link above can be right-clicked to save to disk then imported into STO, pending Vulcan High Command approval, of course.

Thoughts or comments?

[VKF]Keysailor wrote:

I was hoping a real graphics artist might join us and do this work, but haven't yet seen one, so I thought I'd give my meager talents a workout. I have taken the liberty of coming up with a VKF member insignia design (draft) to use on the STO forum.

See my examples at http://www.positek.net/sto/insignia.htm

I took the VKF emblem (gift from {UFP}), the STO forum background (top-left image snippet), career insignia from the latest ST movie (yes, I know it's alt. universe, so I colored them similar to our emblem and reassigned Command to Tactical), and ranking indicator from a fleet very far back in the Fleet Registration thread (where their colors were complementary to our emblem). I can switch these out for the insignia shown on the VKF, but I only have access to what's showing on the site right now (just Kuhr's and the Tra-lan/Ot-lan one). I added a single star for the Fleet Chief Officers, and 5 stars surrounding a single star for the Fleet Admiral.

This gives our STO forum avatars 4 indicators:
1. Fleet affiliation in top-right
2. Ranking within the Fleet at bottom right
3. Career Field at bottom left
4. Assigned area of responsibility at top left (optional)

These were all done in Photoshop, with the online images saved as gifs. The original files have all sources in layers, so we can swap out any parts for something better, if anyone has something. The images are also scaled to 100x100, which is the maximum STO avatar size. Any of the avatars on the link above can be right-clicked to save to disk then imported into STO, pending Vulcan High Command approval, of course.

Thoughts or comments?

Your talents speak for themselfs Tra-lan Keysailor! Great stuff.