Officer
Officers are skilled individuals who captain ships in battle, adding combat abilities similar to those of the player's flagship. They can be found in both player and NPC fleets.
An officer can dramatically increase the effectiveness of a ship, especially if they have skills tailored to that specific ship and fit.
Officer Basics
By default, the player can command up to 8 officers; their maximum level is 5, and they can have 1 elite skill.
- The maximum number of officers can be increased to 10 with the Officer Management skill
- The maximum level and number of elite skills can both be increased by 1 with the Officer Training skill
- The maximum level of elite skills can be increased by 2 with the Cybernetic Augmentation skill
Thus, with all three skills unlocked, the player can command up to 10 officers; their maximum level is 6, and they can have up to 4 elite skills.
The number and level of officers (and some of their skills) in NPC fleets can vary wildly depending on faction. Generally, the higher the technological level of a faction, the more they prioritize quality over quantity. Furthermore, the faction's "aggressiveness" affects the personalities of officers you can find in its markets.
The number and quality of officers in fleets belonging to the player faction can be modified on the Doctrine & Blueprints screen.
Officers cannot die in battle even if their ship is completely destroyed and not recovered afterwards; the only way to get rid of them is to dismiss them.
When the player switches flagships before an engagement, the player character and any officer present exchange ships. When switching in combat, the officer's skills are replaced by the player character's while commandeering the ship.
Acquiring Officers
Officers can be often found in the comm directory of markets, especially if the market has a military industry (Patrol HQ, Military Base High Command) and faction homeworlds. These will always be level 1-2 and have to be trained to reach the maximum level.
Rarely, stranded officers can be found on shipwrecks during exploration. These function the same as regular officers, except they start at level 5.
Very rarely, legendary officers can be found on shipwrecks during exploration. Those are all level 7 with 5 elite skills. There can only be up to four of them per campaign. Note that if you dismiss them, they disappear forever and cannot be regained.
Training Officers
Player officers gain XP when participating in combat, split among all officers present and weighted by the amount of time they spent in the battle. Like the player, officers gain a new skill at each level. Their skill pool is the same as the player's flagship skills (the entire combat skill tree plus the Tier 2 skills found in both Technology and Industry trees). You can pick which skill they gain from a selection of 4. The possible picks are randomised, but from level 4 onwards, the game will always include the two Combat skill tree capstones (Systems Expertise and Missile Specialization) if they have not been picked yet.
Officer skills can be upgraded to elite in exchange for 1 SP 0% XP per skill upgraded. By default, an officer may have 1 elite skill, though if the player takes the Officer Training and/or Cybernetic Augmentation skills, this cap is increased by +1 and +2, respectively.
Officers can be Mentored for 1 SP 100% XP with the following effects:
- Doubled XP gain
- Wider selection of skills on level up (6 instead of 4)
- Immediate ability to shift the officer personality by one step (i.e. from Steady to Aggressive)
In practice, if you want your officers to have a very specific set of skills, Mentoring is almost mandatory, and it's recommended to take at least one capstone as well. Since skills cannot be changed or unlearned, if the game does not offer an officer a skill you want, the only solution is to dismiss them and start again with a new one.
Officers can also be Retrained for 1 SP 100% XP once they reach maximum level. This allows you to change their elite skills and personality one step at a time. Note that this can be done as many times as you want, which means you can turn even a Timid officer into a Reckless one by Retraining them over and over if you're willing to pay the SP cost.
Mercenary Officers
Mercenary Officers can rarely be found on the comm directory like regular officers, with their titles highlighted in green. Compared to regular officers, they do not count towards your maximum officer limit, which means you can theoretically have as many of them as you wish in addition to your regular officers. They are between levels 4 and 6, with 1 to 3 elite skills.
To hire them you need to spend 1 SP 100% XP, with the contract only lasting 720 days. After that, you either need to let them go or spend another 1 SP to extend the contract.
Furthermore, the Mercenary Officers do not benefit from any of the player's officer skills (i.e., higher maximum level or more elite skills), and they cannot be Retrained. This means they have permanently fixed skills, elite skills, and personalities.
Officer Salary
Regular officers require 2,000 credits/level upfront, and then have a monthly salary of 500 plus 400/level.
Stranded officers of either type join for free but still require a monthly salary.
Mercenary officers require double pay across the board, in addition to the SP cost.
Officer Personality
Officers come with one of five different personalities that determine how they behave in combat.
- Timid: Attempts to completely avoid enemy weapon range.
- Cautious: Attempts to stay in the range of the longest range non-missile weapon.
- Steady: Attempts to stay in range of all non-point defense, non-missile weapons. Default behaviour.
- Aggressive: Attempts to stay in range of all non-missile weapons, even point defense (even if they cannot actually be used, i.e., they point towards the back of the ship), will also utilize fighters more aggressively in the case of carriers and will pilot civilian ships as if they were combat ones.
- Reckless: Same as Aggressive, but does not consider the threat of non-target enemy ships when deciding to close distance.
Note that in addition to personality, the AI will also change its behaviour based on a myriad of other factors, such as relative ship size, relative flux level, etc. See AI Behaviour page for details.
[REDACTED] Officers
If the player takes the Automated Ships skill, they will be able to utilize AI Cores as officers on Automated Ships. AI Cores come in three tiers:
- Gamma Core: has 3 skills
- Beta Core: has 5 skills
- Alpha Core: has 7 skills
AI cores do not count towards the regular officer limit. Their skills can be changed at any time at no SP cost, and all of them are always automatically elite. They are not affected by the player's officer skills.
AI cores can be "fully integrated" with the ship for 1 SP 0% XP, which will give them an additional skill but will permanently tie them to the ship; the core cannot be removed afterwards, and the only way to get it back is to scuttle the ship. Note that fully integrated AI cores cannot "die" in combat even if the ship they're integrated into is completely destroyed (as long as you still recover it after the battle).
All AI cores have the fixed Fearless personality, which is identical to the Reckless personality found on fleshbags. They do not require a salary.
Change History
0.95a
- TBD
0.8a
- Now start with 2 skill selections at level 1
- Max out with 7 level 3 skills at level 20
- Limited to 10 skills total
- Added new officer personality: "Reckless"
- A more aggressive version of aggressive; always behaves as if "search & destroy" was on
- Potentially outdated
- Game concepts