C-Auto-Assignment

For auto-assignment purposes, each ship class now has a specific rank requirement for its commander, based on its command and control modules. The rank requirement for the XO, CAG and Science Officer is one lower than for the ship commander. The rank requirement for the Chief Engineer and Tactical Office is two lower than the ship commander. The rank requirement for a fleet commander is one higher than for the ship commander. You can manually assign higher-ranked ship commanders and fleet commanders if desired but other officers can only be assigned at the specified rank. The commander priority setting for each class of ship remains as before and is still set manually. It also applies to the other officer types as well. Auto-assignment will work in the following sort order:

• 1) Class Priority
• 2) Survey Ships by descending size
• 3) Warships by descending PPV
• 4) Unarmed Military Ships by descending size
• 5) Construction Ships by descending construction speed
• 6) Terraformers by descending terraforming capacity
• 7) Sorium Harvesters by descending harvesting capacity
• 8) Asteroid Miners by descending mining capacity
• 9) Salvage Ships by descending salvage capacity
• 10) All other ships (primarily freighters and colony ships) by descending size

Ship commanders will be assigned first (checking every category above), followed by executive officers, science officers, air group commanders, chief engineers and tactical officers. The ships will cycle through in priority order and commanders will be assigned if they meet the criteria for the ship type (correct rank and suitable bonus).

These changes should make ship design more interesting, create better histories for commanders (as they progress through different roles) and provide lots of potential roles for the junior commanders. Date 07.12.2018