Posted by Adam W. in Academy Ship Experience

Posted by Sarah M in Academy Ship Experience
The Challenger recently lost its counselor for the second time in a few months and this led to a brief discussion with the current club and Academy leadership about CADET and the guidelines surrounding the Academy ship experience. I personally find it very difficult to follow the way bills are structured without the full updated text, so I have included the relevant portions of CADET as currently enacted at the end of this post for reference’s sake.

There are three topics that I would specifically like to raise for discussion, two related to the amount of time players spend on the Challenger and one related to character ranks.

The current policy we have on the ship is that new cadets are first to report to their department head, who helps troubleshoot any immediate “getting used to STF” issues. We keep new members in that single thread until the DH thinks they have a good grasp of the system because that means that there aren’t a whole bunch of people trying to jump in and lend advice, which can be overwhelming to a new member. Once the DH feels comfortable with that, the player goes on to tackle the medical exam and the psych eval and, then, hopefully, the main sim and any side sims. The CNS uses the psych eval to make sure that the player has come up with a reasonable backstory and feel of their character, hitting a few key points along the way. Within a three month period, that’s a lot to try to accomplish and we frequently run into players who haven’t resolved their psych eval thread before they’re ready to graduate! It also means that the player has to go from one thread with their DH to two threads (med eval / psych eval) to four concurrent threads (med eval / psych eval / main sim / side sim) in order to fulfill the requirements on the Academy graduation evaluation.

Related to this, Academy sims are required to last last three to four months per CADET and then any “eligible” (which is not defined) cadets are evaluated for graduation at the end of the sim. This simply does not work if we want to have players really learn how to interact in STF, so we have been working on a policy of trying to graduate cadets after being on the ship for three to four months (historically, it has been quite difficult to have sims last only three to four months too, but that has been a major focus of effort by me since I’ve been CO of the Challenger). With the system as written in CADET, if a cadet joins two months into a sim, they will only get to experience a short bit of it before theoretically being eligible to be evaluated/graduated, but it’s nearly impossible to get through the steps listed above in only a month (given the posting requirement of the Challenger is once per week). At the same time, since cadets can’t join other ships, it feels a little disingenuous to insist that the player remain on the ship for four months until the next cycle of graduation.

I don’t have any good proposals for this, but I’ve been the CO of the Challenger for quite a while now and I’d be interested in hearing some perspectives about how this process could be smoothed over a little while making sure that Academy cadets are graduating to the main fleet with a good foundation in how to role-play in STF (and maybe some basic introduction to government).

The last topic is related to character ranks. This came up before, but I think that the promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade for graduated cadet DHs should also influence member rank. By being selected/agreeing to remain as a graduated cadet DH, these players are taking on quite a bit of responsibility in diligently posting, reaching out to new members, supporting them in Discord, etc., and I think that they should receive this promotion to member rank along with character rank to reflect this service to the club.

• Sarah

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Academy Fleet Command Structure

A member can only hold a total of one CO, XO or CNS position in the Academy fleet, at a time.

An Academy mission lasts for three months; should a mission last for more than four months (120 days), the Gamemaster is to work with the CO and the XO in order to end the mission as soon as possible. Gamemasters are required to submit a mission plan to the Academy Commandant and Vice Commandant prior to the commencement of a mission.

Preference for filling DH positions goes to a Lt (j.g.) graduated Cadet, however an exception may be made if, in the opinion of the CO and the Academy Commandant, the field of graduated Cadets are not strong enough to handle the responsibility of a DH role, and thus training incoming Cadets. In this instance, an experienced Lt DH from a mainstream ship can be used instead.

Commanding Officer (CO)

The CO is appointed by the President of STF, with the advice and consent of the Academy Commandant. The CO will have the powers and responsibilities of a mainstream CO, except that he cannot promote members of his crew. The character rank of the CO must be Captain. Academy COs must have held the position of CO on a mainstream ship for a minimum of three months, and Academy experience is preferable.

Executive Officer (XO)

The XO is appointed by the CO, with the advice and consent of the Academy Commandant. The XO will have the powers and responsibilities of a mainstream XO. The character rank of the XO must be Commander. Academy XOs must have held the position of XO on a mainstream ship for a minimum of three months, and Academy experience is preferable.

Counselor (CNS)

The CNS is appointed by the CO, with the advice and consent of the Academy Commandant. The CNS will not have any administrative tasks, but will be required to assist Cadets with posting. The character rank of the CNS must be Lieutenant Commander. Academy CNS must have held the position of DH on either on a mainstream ship or an Academy ship for a minimum of three months.

Gamemaster (GM)

The GM is appointed by the CO, with the advice and consent of the Academy Commandant. The Gamemaster of an Academy ship must be an experienced GM holding the classification of Full Gamemaster. If a Full Gamemaster, or higher, cannot be found, a Junior Gamemaster may be considered. Gamemaster Trainees may not be considered, under any circumstance. Should the GM be removed mid-mission, the mission is to be continued by the Command Staff, without interruption, and a replacement Gamemaster is to be found within two weeks.

Each standard department (Engineering, Medical, Science and Security) has one department head. A DH position may be filled in one of two ways, at the discretion of the CO, notifying the Academy Commandant.

The maximum number of Cadets each standard department (Engineering, Medical, Science and Security) can hold shall be determined by policy set out by the Academy Commandant, balancing the needs of the Personnel Department in placing new Cadets with the ability of the ships to properly mentor their current Cadets. Cadets who serve on the Academy ships shall hold the member rank of Cadet and are not eligible for rank promotion while they take part in their training. Due to the high demand for Academy spots, Cadets on the training vessels (who have not graduated, or are not in the process of graduating) can only be transferred or offered a position on another ship with the consent of the Academy Commandant.

With the exception of Cadet, all Academy ranks do not affect the player’s member rank.

Joining The Academy Fleet

New members may request to join an Academy Training Ships when joining STF. The Personnel Department is required to honour department and posting speed choices, if possible, and allocate them evenly throughout the fleet. If the department and posting speed choices cannot be honoured, the new member will be placed on a mainstream ship. The Academy Commandant is to be informed if a member was unable to be placed.

Current members on mainstream ships may also request to join the Academy. In this case, admission is dependent on the judgment of the member’s Commanding Officers and Academy Commandant. They are to assess whether the member is struggling and whether he would benefit from Academy training. If a member does join the Academy in this manner, he must drop all of his mainstream ships. No member can be forced to join the Academy.

Departing From The Academy Fleet

There are three ways a Cadet can leave the Academy Fleet.

1. Graduation from the Academy.
2. Departure from the Academy prior to graduation.
3. Removal from the Academy by the Academy Commandant.

At the end of each mission, Cadets who have served an appropriate amount of time will be promoted to the rank of Ensign, and positions will be found for them on mainstream ships. The Academy will provide support to Cadets who are deemed to be needing it, and will notify the ships CO on areas the Cadet is weak in. Cadets who have exceeded expectations may be asked to stay on board the Academy ships as Lt (j.g.) Department Heads.

The Academy Commandant, in discussion with a Cadet’s CO, may choose to graduate the Cadet prior to the end of the mission. In these cases, the Cadet will be granted all the rights and privileges of a regular end-of-mission graduation.

In the case of AWOL Cadets, should they return to STF, the Academy Commandant may allow them to re-enter the Academy training program on a case by case basis. There is no guarantee, however, that they will be placed in the same department or on the same ship.

Serving on any training ship is optional. Cadets may approach the Academy Commandant and request to be transferred to a mainstream ship prior to graduation. The Academy Commandant is required to give such requests due consideration. Upon the Academy Commandant’s approval, the Cadet may be found a place on a mainstream ship as an Ensign, with all the rights and privileges that a new member, who is placed directly on a mainstream ship, has.

Any other reasons for early departure are to be reviewed by the Academy Commandant and Vice Commandant on a case by case basis.

The Academy Commandant, in discussion with a Cadet’s CO, may remove a Cadet from the Academy program, and find a place for the Cadet on a mainstream ship at the rank of Ensign. The CO and XO of the mainstream ship will be notified of the circumstances surrounding the Cadet’s removal. If deemed appropriate by the Academy Commandant, the President may also be informed.

I don’t personally like trying to limit cadets to one thread. I have trouble imagining value being gained from it. And I think the downside could be pretty high as new players tend to be impatient, wanting to post more frequently than the veteran players that are their initial writing partners. If cadets have offered positive or negative feedback on this approach it would be interesting to hear about their opinion of it.

I agree on the Lieutenant Junior Grade suggestion. I had progressed beyond that rank by the time I had realized my Academy rank didn’t actually affect my member rank. If nothing else it would be more intuitive for the graduate.

Adam W.

Re, this one bit:

It also means that the player has to go from one thread with their DH to two threads (med eval / psych eval) to four concurrent threads (med eval / psych eval / main sim / side sim) in order to fulfill the requirements on the Academy graduation evaluation.

The requirement is that they know how to manage multiple threads. It is not that they master more than three threads at a single time. As a matter of fact, the reason why we added the menu item on the form to allow evaluators to select the option “More than three threads at a time” is that we thought this was actually extremely unlikely, and we wanted to evaluate whether or not the Academy staff were just blindly filling out the form. We don’t expect anyone to handle more than three (e.g. DH, med, and psych, or a main and two sides) at any one time.

The perfect score on the form is impossible by design, it is not a goal anyone is expected to achieve. If I see someone with a perfect score on the evaluations it’s one of several signs that the evaluators aren’t really doing their job right.

Joe