I'd like to see a system whereby you could take a bridge officer candidate and make him a duty officer instead.

To keep it balanced I think when making such a change Boffs would have to get reduced one level in rarity: i.e. a rare (blue) bridge officer would become an uncommon (green) duty officer if transferred. Also you wouldn't know what characteristics the Doff would have although since these are based on race you would have a general idea of what they will end up with.

This makes sense to me because you seem to end up with a surplus of bridge officer candidates that seem rather worthless. From a thematic standpoint it also makes sense because ultimately bridge and duty officers are all just crew members and they ought to be transferable from one post to another.

Peet

Well, "thematically" you wouldn't demote the equivalent to a board member to a forklift operator, which is what going from a bridge officer to a duty officer is similar to.

But, I like the idea, its solid, I think you could even keep the rarity, since (correct me if I am wrong) BOFF rarity only affects what BO skills they have, and those wouldn't relate to DOFF skills


I think an even better addition to this would be if you could pick what specialty the DOFF would have, so you could "downgrade" a tactical officer to a projectile weapons specialist, or energy weapons specialist, or assault squad, etc; and a science BOFF to a deflector specialist, or an matter/antimatter specialist, etc.. Being able to choose that would make it more enticing, and give more options.

It would make more sense to have the proposed system in reverse, where by DOFFs are promoted to BOFFs. Perhaps an idea for revamping the current BOFF recruitment system.

I'm thinking Starfleet Academy is going to be very cross with us for downgrading purple quality officer candidates to entertainers and technicians

Actually, it's not, because the OP was only talking about bridge officer candidates, not your commissioned Boffs -- i.e. they're still forklift operators who are being considered for board membership. All this system would be doing is declining their board application or whatever, telling them, "You're an awesome forklift operator, and we think you'll be of much more value to the company if you remain in that role."

In "traditional' military hierarchy, a commissioned officer is a commissioned officer. Be it they be in transit to a new duty station or assigned one. In this case, a Boff candidate is in all intense and purposes a commissioned officer. He/she has gone through the required education and training to successfully perform his/her duties in their field of study. So technically the Boff candidate would be, in essence taking a demotion in job title if they take the Doff position.

I think of Boff's as commissioned officers and Doff's as enlisted personnel.

Edit: Actually, i would propose Boff's to accompany Doff missions to enhance the success % and rewards %. It is not uncommon for commissioned officers to managed an away team assignment.