For those who develop an attachment to that “First Mate” whose been with them since day one, they can also have their abilities modified. Each one comes with certain abilities hard coded into them, which brings a collection aspect to the game, but unlike a gun which is replaced when you get a newer one, a new officer with an ability you need can instead be used to teach that to someone you’re familiar with. This swaps out one ability in the tree of your choice.

The ships themselves determine who is active. The basic ships have three slots, one for the first rank of each officer type. More advanced ships allow people to seat higher rank officers (and thus have access to more skills) and more than one of a type.

On land, the player simply selects the complimentary crew from their collection to follow them down. At early levels, pre-fabricated generic characters come along if the character does not yet have four officers. It is entirely possible, and even plausible to have two distinct sets. For example, a player may choose to promote a Bridge Officer solely because they love his away mission skills, even if he’s totally useless or redundant in space.

Their decision, though, to stick to three officer types struck me as odd. Everyone knows the iconic characters. What about a Security Officer like Worf? A ship’s councilor like Deanna Troy? A doctor like Voyager’s EMH? A helmsman like Tom Paris or Sulu?

You can point to aspects of them within each of the three generic roles, but certainly there would be the opportunity to have larger, more defined crews?

Zinkievich said they considered this, but ultimately felt that a more compact crew was the way to go.

A bridge that combines a retro look with the scale necessary for a 3D game.

“We wanted to make [the roles] a little more general purpose so you develop more of an attachment to them,” he pointed out. For example, really, how often would you have to talk to the Security Officer day-to-day? He has a point, and by combining the roles, you get more familiar with the 3-5 characters you’re using on a daily basis.

Zinkievich also pointed out that by simplifying the overall roles, they’ve actually increased the customization options for players. Doing a double take there? I was at first, but he actually raised a very valid point. If everyone had to hire 15 crew, there would be defined roles and thus very limited options of what those officers could do. Helmsmen would fly the ship better, Doctors would heal better.

The broader, general categories force players to make choices. Do they want a Tactical officer that knows how to perform some evasive maneuvers, or is it better to find someone with a really nice ability to deal heavy damage? This creates some interdependencies between ships and encourages people to work together. It also lets people use their crew to essentially tailor their role to their particular role within a group or situation.

At each rank, there are dozens of possible skills an officer could have. This collection game encourages people to seek out, create or trade for the officer with the ideal configuration of eight skills for them. Even if they have not yet been promoted, those eight skills will be visible from day one to help people plan.

Bridge Officers provide players with a more iconic and complete Star Trek experience. Part of the fantasy is to be the Captain and while some out there would no doubt love to travel the galaxies in the role of Ship’s Doctor, that’s not exactly compelling gameplay for the average player. This system of NPC Bridge Officers hopes to find a comfortable middle ground between the authenticity of real players as subordinates and full fledged characters of single-player RPGs. With Cryptic’s reputation for customization, the Bridge Officers seem to be a great start. In one system, players gain a collectable item, a side-kick and the ability to tailor their character to any group or situation.

The addition of bridges only enhances the relationship between the player character and their crew and ship. It is a very limited system to start, but hopefully the seed of something much larger down the road.