Bridge Officers play a key role in how any ship performs. The player can assign his Officers to specific stations on a given ship. These stations can be Science, Tactical or Engineering stations, and ships of different type favor stations of a specific type, as well. Science ships focus their stations on Science, Escort ships on Tactical and Cruisers on Engineering. The more advanced the ship, the larger number of Bridge Officer stations there are (generally).
The stations, like Bridge Officers, are ranked: Ensign, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander and Commander. A Bridge Officer can only access his skills that correspond to the rank of the station at which he’s positioned. For instance, if an Engineering Officer is a Commander but stationed at a Lieutenant Commander’s station on a ship, he’d only have access to his Ensign, Lieutenant and Lieutenant Commander skills. With this in mind, the way a player configures his bridge can dramatically affect gameplay, even on the same ship.
