So ive got a number of Blue BO candidates as well as my borg bridge officer, however I really am not sure what it is about them that makes them rare...is it one or all of their abilities or what?

is there anyway we can have a change to the description so we know what it is about them that is so special.

Also as I hover over a candidate BO, it would be nice to see another window popup allowing me to compare an existing slotted BO of the same class much like what we see with inventory items.

You can right-click "Info" to read more about them, but even that is a bit confusing. Now I see where the company go its name.

Usually it's having a superior species trait as opposed to a basic one, or having a higher level skill in a lower level slot.

Basically they get a better trait set than regular officers. If you're a min-maxer it can make a difference but realistically it just gives them some small bonuses on ground missions. I upgraded mine to rares because I had the cash and I wanted to but it is by no means required.

So this used to be the case. My Admiral had 2 this way, out of all the blue and purple officers she's gotten.

My Cmdr has gotten almost a dozen blue officers, and not a one of them has a higher skill in a lower slot, anywhere. Did Cryptic remove this? I've a blue and a green officer that are virtually identical in every sense but their face.

I keep pondering this myself, they state that they have extra skills that isn't offered by the Officer Trainer, but yet they are all the same. Science gets Viral Matrix III, Engineers get Aceton III, and Tactical gets Pattern IIII.

It would be nice if there was something that shows that they are more worth it than those you originally started with.

If I would get just one energy credit each time I copy past this link...
http://forums.startrekonline.com/sho....php?p=1881805

Hope this helps.

And as this has come up
There are a few rank III skills found on rare/very rare BOs that replace rank II versions situated in the commander level ability slot (that's probably not what was meant here though), but other than that there are no higher level skills in lower level slots at all. This has never been implemented and (to my knowledge) was only a rumor.

Who knows, it might get implemented in form of super-rare loot-BOs or so, at some point in the future, but at this time it is not in the game.

To be a bit more precise:
The only benefit to replacing common BOs of your crew with rare/very rare ones are the "superior" versions of the racial traits. Any special skills they might have you can transfer to your existing crew through the train-up feature whereas racial traits cannot be upgraded.

Regarding the rare skills: with one single exception any rank III skills (as well as a few selected rank II skills) that you see on rare/very rare BOs are only optainable through these said BOs. None of them are buyable at the trainer or unlockable. The one exception being attack pattern omega III wich can be unlocked as well as found on reward BOs. This, along with the superior racial traits is what makes them special.

SInce you can use higher tier boffs to train any of your other boffs in the rank III abilities, the only real reason to use a rarer boff is their traits.

White rarity boffs have 2 basic and 2 regular traits.
Greens have 3 regulars and 1 basic trait.
Blues have 1 superior, 2 regular, and 1 basic trait.
Purples have 2 superior, 1 regular, and 1 basic trait.

Going from basic to regular or regular to superior is a 2.5% increase in effectiveness for most traits.

So I am curious, how much am I gimping myself if I only ever train up some skills from new BO's, and I otherwise keep the ones I started with (or most of them anyway)? I ask because in RP terms I like the idea of having at least a few of my officers being characters with whom I journeyed and leveled up, from day one. Kirk didn't replace Spock, Picard didn't replace Riker, etc. My highest character is just Commmander 1, and so far I haven't replaced any BO's on him since the very early LT levels. Is it feasible to keep it that way till the end game? Thanks in advance.