Guide to Command

Command is one of the most important roles on the ship, and also one of the hardest to fill. As someone in a command position, you are in charge of a certain department of the ship. You are the centerpiece of all the action within your department. Some situations will be simple and require nothing more than a passing word to deal with. Other matters, however, will require your full attention, communication, and powers of delegation to handle.

No pressure, right?

Command is not a role everyone can fill. Do not be discouraged if you get overwhelmed by stress, or can't keep up your first few times. There is a lot of baggage to carry, and a lot of things you can do wrong, when you will mostly be expected to be the best in your field.

The Whitelist

Command roles are locked behind an application, or whitelist, that requires certain conditions to be fulfilled on the player's part before they can be trusted to play a command character. You'll begin by writing an application, which will require being able to effectively summarize what the duties of a command character is, both OOC and IC. Then, you'll receive feedback on your application from other players on how effective you are at both department gameplay and being able to roleplay well.

Once you've collected sufficient feedback, an administrator will place you on trial to put theory into practice. This means that for a brief period of time, you get to try your hand at command roles! During this period, you'll gather more feedback from the playerbase by advertising your whitelist in OOC after the round, and by the end of your trial it'll be determined whether or not you're up to the task.

Do note that gaining your command whitelist does not guarantee its permanency. Breaking the rules or being banned means your whitelist can be stripped from you by administrators.

If you think you can play command well, click here to be taken to the applications subforum. Be sure to read the rules and follow the command whitelist format.

Species restrictions

Due to ability-related complications, laws, or corporate regulations, not all species can play all heads of staff. Vaurca and privately-owned IPCs cannot be heads of staff.

• Captain: Can only be Humans or Skrell.
• Head of Security: Cannot be Diona, Vaurca, or Hephaestus G2 IPCs.
• Executive Officer, Chief Engineer, Chief Medical Officer, Research Director: Cannot be Vaurca.
• Corporate Liaison/Consular Officer: Species restrictions depend on the interest group that the character is representing. For more information, see the guide itself.

General Guidelines

While every command role you may fill will be vastly different in the actions you and your department will take, there are some general binding ideas that can be applied to each role that involves leadership. If you wish to be a good leader, following these basic ideas is a must.

1. Communicate

This guideline is the most important to follow, and it is the one most command staff fail at. As command, you are an administrator first. Your job is to delegate among your department, ensure tasks are completed, and make sure your subordinates are part of a well oiled machine for when it gets to be crunch time. Make sure you know where everyone is, have people check in, and if there is something the entire ship needs to know, remember that each head of staff has a communication console in their office; any announcement you make here will be very visible. General comms tend to be so filled with clutter, especially in an emergency, that you trying to convey information via the common channel will fall on deaf ears.

2. Be Known

This point goes a bit in hand with Communication. If you don't have a presence in your department, taking control of a situation or organizing a panicking department becomes that much harder. At the start of a shift or when you join, check in with your department and get a quick impression of the people around you. Give out tasks and orders, even if it's as simple as "you know what you're doing, so go do it". Making the initial connection with each member of your department can be key to keeping things structured.

3. Use the Command Channel

Nothing is worse than being uninformed, especially when situations can necessitate the involvement of more than one department. For example, an explosive was set off, someone was caught in the explosion, and someone was spotted with a gun at the site. Now there are three departments involved! If engineers and medics arrive, but security hasn't been informed, then the other two departments might be put in danger. Coordinate with your fellow command staff, make things happen, and relay important information to your department as needed. As the saying goes, knowledge is power.

4. Know How to Play Your Department

Nothing is worse than a Chief Engineer not knowing how the Supermatter Engine is set up. When a leader has to be told by their subordinates how to complete a basic task, it inspires negative amounts of confidence, and means things can get that much more chaotic if an emergency happens and your department isn't going to listen to you. Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to be the ultimate super-doctor/engineer/security officer/etc., you just have to have a good idea of how to make everything run smoothly. If a specialist knows more than you in an area, that's fine.

Who Does What

When asking on the command channel for assistance from another department, it is helpful to know exactly who to talk to. As such, here are brief descriptions of each head of staff's role.

Captain

As the highest authority on-ship, the Captain is the final word on any issue, the coordinator of all heads of staff, and the endpoint of information on the ship. They know when something should happen and if something should happen, and they've got a general idea on what needs to be done.

Executive Officer

The service department's manager, the Executive Officer also helps manage the Bridge, crew contracts, IDs, and personnel transfer to other departments. If you need someone suspended for the shift, or you're looking to transfer to another department, the Executive Officer is your guy.

Head of Security

The Head of Security is the highest authority when it comes to the safety of the crew and enforcing the law on the ship. If a dangerous situation is unfolding, it's best to keep in contact with the Head of Security.

Chief Engineer

The Chief Engineer manages the engineering department, and thus is the best person to liaise with on ship breaches, compromised atmospheres, or a heavily-damaged area.

Chief Medical Officer

The Chief Medical Officer is the ship's top medical expert, and as such should be communicated with in regards to injuries, search-and-rescues, and certain biohazardous situations.

Research Director

The Research Director's area of expertise tends to lie in anomalous happenings, away missions to archaeology sites, and malfunctioning synthetics, particularly the AI.

Operations Manager

The Operations Manager is the head of logistics on-ship, and has authority over mining operations, crew orders, secure storage, and the procurement of ammunition for the ship's weapons. They can also be coordinated with to ensure that ship-bound synthetics and mechanical crewmembers are being repaired as needed.

Corporate Liaison/Consular Officer

If there are concerns about breaches in corporate regulation, ship directive, or legal issues, the Consular and Corporate Liaisons are more inclined to lend an ear if it so happens you belong to their interest group. Before making an incident report to the CCIA, it might be best to speak to them.