One of the first things about the duty officer systems that i found out is that it is pretty complicated. Apparently, there are over 30 thousand individual duty officers and they have tons of different jobs, specializations and qualities. With so many choices how do you figure out where to start? Luckily, some of the people who have played for a while gave me some hints and tips that I will pass on to you.
Duty officer departments
There are currently 7 different types of duty officers. Each of these different types are useful in different assignments which I will cover in a later post. These departments seem to cover what the general crew on a starship would do. You know the guys who keep the ship running so you can do all the important stuff.
Duty officer specialization
Remember when I said things were complicated well this is your first taste of it. There are 47 different specializations for duty officers. With only 100 slots for duty officers this creates a problem. Which ones do I really need, and how many of each? So by now my eyes were glazing over, this duty officer thing seems to be extremely complicated. But fear not, some smart people have been here before us 🙂
The spreadsheet
After spending some time talking to other players, they eventually led me to a spreadsheet with the answers. It can be found here. Here is a quick summary.
- Tactical (12)
- Conn officer – 2
- Energy weapons officer – 4
- Projectile weapons officer – 4
- Shield distribution officer -2
- Security (15)
- Armory officer – 6
- Assault squad officer – 3
- Security officer – 6
- Engineering (25)
- Damage control engineer – 4
- Diagnostic engineer – 4
- Fabrication engineer – 4
- Maintenance engineer – 4
- Matter-antimatter specialist – 1
- Systems engineer – 4
- Technician – 4
- Warp core engineer – 2
- Operations (18)
- Deflector officer – 2
- Explosives expert – 4
- Flight deck officer
- Hazard system officer – 2
- Quartermaster – 3
- Sensors officer – 3
- Tractor beam officer – 2
- Transporter officer – 2
- Science (22)
- Astrometrics scientist – 4
- Biologist – 2
- Botanist – 2
- Development lap scientist – 2
- Geologist – 2
- Gravimetric scientist – 2
- Photonic studies scientist – 2
- Research lab scientist – 4
- Warp theorist – 2
- Medical (11)
- Biochemist – 2
- Counselor – 4
- Doctor – 3
- Medic
- Nurse – 2
- Civilian (18)
- Advisor – 4
- Bartender – 2
- Chef – 2
- Colonist
- Diplomat – 4
- Entertainer – 2
- Prisoner
- Refugee
- Trader – 4
Now, some of the more mathematically minded among you have already see the problem. Yup, thats right the spreadsheet says that 121 is what you need. While that maybe an optimal amount if you have the room, you start with only 100 slots so this doesn’t work.
The solution
After some tinkering with the above, I suggest that you take out 2 of the following: traders, advisors, diplomat, research lab scientist, explosives expert, systems engineer, armory officer, security officer, astrometric scientist, systems engineer and 1 photonic studies scientist for an even 100.
Conclusion
At an even 100 duty officers you are going to find out that you are locked out of a couple of types of missions. Specifically, you can’t do the colonial ones. I will explain how to get around this problem in another post.