Commands fleets and headquarters

Section titled “Commands fleets and headquarters”

Naval administrative commands, their headquarters, their officer appointments and the bonuses they pass to fleets follow separate rules. Administrative membership, geographic reach, rank effectiveness and direct ship officers are separate conditions. No single global command bonus applies to every ship statistic.

An admin command (FCT_NavalAdminCommand) holds a race, a parent command, an assigned commander, a headquarters population or headquarters ship, a command type, a name and an ID. It also stores three officer selection bonus preferences, shown as Required Bonus, Secondary Bonus and Tertiary Bonus on the Admin Command tab of the Naval Organization window (BonusOne, BonusTwo, BonusThree). It stores the automatic assignment flag (Automated Assignment for Admin Command, AutoAssign), the assignment priority (Admin Command Priority (1 = High), CommandPriority), the minimum rank priority (Minimum Rank, MinimumRankPriority) and whether its node is expanded in the fleet tree (FleetNodeExpanded). A command created in play starts with priority 5, minimum rank priority 10, automatic assignment off and its node expanded. The required rank, the commander’s effectiveness and the list of systems in range are derived values that the game recalculates. A command’s population is its headquarters location. It is not a list of colonies governed by that command.

Each fleet belongs to one admin command, its parent command. A command’s direct fleets are the fleets whose parent command is exactly that command. Its subordinate fleets are gathered through every child command, level after level. The ships in a command hierarchy are the ships whose fleet appears in either list. None of these lists checks range, officer presence, effective rank, headquarters strength, maintenance or ship readiness. Membership in an admin command therefore does not prove that a ship receives a bonus. Sub-fleets and squadrons are another organisational layer inside a fleet.

A race’s root command is the first command of that race with no parent. The game does not create a missing root and does not enforce a single root. Ground formation headquarters, parent formations and ground commander authority use a different model, described in ground force organisation. A Naval Headquarters installation is also distinct from a Sector Command installation and from the shipboard Command and Control and Flag Bridge components.

Creation reparenting removal and relocation

Section titled “Creation reparenting removal and relocation”

Creating a command allocates an ID, copies the parent, location, name and type it is given, sets the required rank to the naval rank at grade 2 (the second most junior naval rank) and adds the command to the game. Creation does not check that the races match, that a physical headquarters or a Flag Bridge exists, that the tree has no loops, or that the command has only one of a population and a ship. Its bonus preferences contain an assignment slip. Creation sets the Required Bonus to Crew Training, then sets the Secondary Bonus to Reaction, then sets the Secondary Bonus again to Engineering. A new command therefore ends with Crew Training, Engineering and Mining, because the Tertiary Bonus keeps its starting value of Mining.

The Naval Organization window adds further rules and state changes.

Operation Window behaviour and limits
Create Admin Requires a selected race and a selected parent admin command. Rejects a ship-based parent (“Admin commands located on a flag bridge cannot have subordinate commands”). Defaults to the General type and the parent’s population unless another host is selected, then asks for the name (default “New Admin Command”).
Update Admin Applies the selected type first. Selecting a population sets the population and clears the ship. Selecting a ship rejects a command with child commands (“Admin commands with subordinate commands cannot be assigned to a ship”), then clears the population and sets the ship. A rejected ship move can therefore follow a type change that was already applied.
Dragging a fleet onto a command Requires the same race and replaces the fleet’s parent command. It does not require range or an effective officer.
Dragging a command Rejects moving the root (“The highest level administrative command may not be moved”) and requires another command of the same race as the target. Dropping a parent onto its immediate child swaps those two relationships. Otherwise it replaces the parent.

These checks belong to the window, not to command creation. Dragging a command rejects a ship-based target only when that target already has a child (“Ship-based admin commands cannot have subordinate commands”). The first child is not rejected by that condition. The swap with an immediate child is a special case, not a general check against loops through deeper descendants. Every bonus and rank rule that walks the tree assumes a usable hierarchy.

Creation has one more edge. Choosing a ship as host gives the new command that ship but does not clear the population it inherited from its parent. Create Admin can therefore give a command both locations. Update Admin always makes them exclusive. The range refresh uses the ship first, whereas the parent bonus calculation uses the population first. A command in this mixed state follows both rules.

The host list (Admin Command Assignment Locations) shows same-race populations with positive Naval Headquarters capacity and same-race ships whose class has a Flag Bridge (FlagBridge in FCT_ShipClass) and which still have an undamaged Flag Bridge component. Each row shows the system, the NHQ level (the capacity for a population, 0 for a ship) and the jump distance from the command’s current headquarters system. Neither creation nor the bonus calculation repeats all of these host conditions.

Removing a command treats the root specially. A root moves to the same race’s population with the largest existing number of Naval Headquarters installations, and that path clears its ship. With no such installation it picks the race’s largest population, adds one Naval Headquarters there and moves its population there. With no population at all it clears the population. These two fallbacks do not clear the ship. A non-root command’s direct fleets and child commands move to the race’s root, its officer’s assignment is cleared, and then the command is deleted. They do not move to the removed command’s immediate parent.

When an attack destroys the last Naval Headquarters at a population, every command based there tries to relocate. The command picks the same race’s population with the highest positive Naval Headquarters capacity and logs that it “has been moved to” that population “due to the destruction of its current headquarters” (event type Admin Command Update, ID 286, in DIM_EventType). If none exists, it logs that the command “is currently ineffective due to the destruction of its current headquarters” and changes nothing. It keeps its headquarters population, its effective-commander flag and its list of systems in range. That message alone does not mean that later bonuses from this command are 1. Removing a population, and transferring a population’s control to another race, also run command removal for every command based at that population.

A destroyed headquarters ship takes a different path. The command’s ship is cleared. A non-root command then moves its population to its parent’s population, or to the root’s population when the parent has none. The command survives instead of being deleted. A root has no such parent fallback on this path. Officer casualties and evacuation belong to the separate ship destruction processing, which also covers the admin commanders carried on the ship. Moving the command does not by itself provide a successor officer.

Headquarters capability and geographic range

Section titled “Headquarters capability and geographic range”

Naval Headquarters capacity is sum over the population's installations of NavalHeadquartersValue x amount, with the value from DIM_PlanetaryInstallation. In the game database as shipped only the Naval Headquarters installation (row 44) has a value, 1 per installation. This capacity is not multiplied by colony workforce efficiency or by the governor’s Production bonus. The command range takes the whole-number part of that capacity, finds the base headquarters radius, multiplies by the command type’s Radius and drops the fraction again.

For a positive whole headquarters level H:

base radius(H) = 1 + floor(log2(H))

command range = whole part of (base radius(whole part of HQ capacity) x type Radius)

Level 0 gives radius 0. Otherwise the radius starts at 1. The game then halves the level repeatedly until it falls below 1 and adds one to the radius for each halving that leaves 1 or more. This is the exact rule behind the logarithm shorthand. Fractional capacity is dropped before this naval command base radius is calculated. A population with no Naval Headquarters still covers its own system when its zero range is refreshed.

Whole HQ capacity Base radius Radius=1 command Radius=2 command
0 0 0 jumps 0 jumps
1 1 1 2
2 to 3 2 2 4
4 to 7 3 3 6
8 to 15 4 4 8

A range refresh first empties the command’s list of systems in range. A ship headquarters adds only its current system, whatever the command type’s Radius and whatever population the command also has. A population headquarters adds every system within its jump range. A command with neither location covers nothing. The range calculation itself gives 0 when the command has no population, but that does not stop a ship command covering its own system.

The jump search starts at the headquarters system at distance 0 and expands one jump at a time. It follows the race’s explored jump points that have a linked destination which the race also has in its known systems, as explored adjacency describes. It explicitly includes unstabilised jump points, so no jump gate is required. It ignores kilometre distance, needs no Naval Headquarters in the systems along the way, and does not apply the auto-route bans or threat filters used by other route searches. The jump distance it writes is stored on the race’s shared record of each system. It is a working value for display and searching, not a separately saved distance for each command.

Required rank and effective command

Section titled “Required rank and effective command”

A lower rank priority number (Priority in FCT_Ranks) means greater seniority. The next higher rank is the race’s rank of the same type at priority minus 1, and the next lower rank the one at priority plus 1. The required naval command rank starts from the direct fleets. Each fleet contributes its most senior assigned ship commanding officer, with equal ranks broken by seniority. The command requires one rank higher than the most senior of these officers, or that rank itself when no higher rank exists. With no commanding officers in its direct fleets the starting rank is grade 1 (the most junior naval rank), which normally gives a requirement of grade 2. The rule reads the actual commanding officers, not the captain rank that each subordinate ship class asks for.

Preparing the commands then applies the configured minimum rank. When the calculated priority number is greater than the command’s MinimumRankPriority, the requirement becomes the naval rank at that priority. The game then aligns parents with their children repeatedly until nothing changes. Alignment takes the most senior of the children’s required ranks and actual assigned officer ranks and demands a parent one rank higher, except at the top of the rank ladder. An overqualified child commander can therefore raise the parent’s requirement.

Preparation runs under one of two rules, strict or lenient. Its final effectiveness pass marks a command without an officer as not effective. Under the strict rule, an officer whose priority number is greater than the requirement is not effective, and the game logs that the officer “is too junior to effectively command” the command, naming the rank required “for this Admin Command to provide bonuses” (event type Senior Officer Required, ID 289). Otherwise the officer is effective. Under the lenient rule any assigned commander is marked effective, even a junior one. Bonus calculations later read that stored flag and do not recheck rank. Assigned, qualified under the current hierarchy, and marked effective are therefore different states.

This distinction matters after promotions, hierarchy changes and window refreshes. Building the fleet tree in the Naval Organization window and the single-command Assign Admin Commander button prepare commands under the lenient rule. The construction cycle prepares the commands of every standard race under the strict rule, and special races skip that step. Range refresh and rank preparation are separate operations. Nothing here checks that the assigned officer’s location still matches the headquarters, and the bonus calculation makes no fresh prisoner or lifepod test.

Appointments and automatic assignment

Section titled “Appointments and automatic assignment”

The assignment model shared by every commander type, including the assignment filters, the scoring and the ways an assignment is cleared, is on the commander lifecycle page. This section keeps the naval appointment rules.

Manual assignment to an admin command in the Commanders window rejects a commander whose rank is junior to the required rank (“is too low for this assignment”) and rejects assigning the commander who already holds the post (“is already assigned to this role”). It clears the new officer’s former assignment and the incumbent’s assignment. It then links officer and command both ways, records the post as a naval admin command, sets the population and transport ship location from the command, stamps the assignment time and writes an “Assigned to” history entry. Ship assignment is a separate action with its own list of commanders per role. Being an admin commander does not also make someone a ship’s commanding officer.

Automatic assignment to one command first considers active naval officers of the same race at exactly the required rank who hold no post, are not in a lifepod, are not prisoners and have an explicit Required Bonus entry. Candidates sort by Required Bonus plus Political Reliability, highest first, then by Secondary Bonus and then Tertiary Bonus, highest first. Political Reliability is added to the first sort key. It does not multiply operational bonuses. A missing bonus reads as 1 when the bonus type is a percentage (Percentage = 1 in DIM_CommanderBonusType) and as 0 otherwise, so requiring an explicit entry is a stricter test.

If no exact-rank candidate exists, the game searches the rank immediately below. That search requires strictly more than one year since the last promotion, no DoNotPromote flag and no prisoner status. It does not repeat the naval officer, race, unassigned, lifepod or Required Bonus tests of the first search. Matching the exact rank normally limits it to that race’s naval ranks, but this is not the same as applying every first-search test again. It can pick an officer who already holds a post, and clears that post before the appointment. The winner is promoted once, then assigned, and the assignment is logged. The replaced officer’s assignment is cleared.

Race-wide automatic admin assignment first prepares the race’s commands under the strict rule. It then takes only commands with automatic assignment on, ordered by required rank priority number from highest to lowest, so junior requirements come first, then by Admin Command Priority from lowest to highest (1 is high priority). Assign Admin Vacancies takes only commands with no officer. It does not replace a staffed but ineffective officer. Reassign All Admin Commands clears all of the race’s active naval admin appointments, including appointments to commands without automatic assignment, then fills only the commands with automatic assignment on. The Admin Command tab has separate buttons for one command (Assign Admin Commander), for vacancies (Assign Admin Vacancies) and for a full reassignment (Reassign All Admin Commands).

Ship automatic assignment is separate, and automatic ship officer assignment covers it in full. Candidate ships exclude classes marked NoOfficers, and the race-wide run also excludes shipping-line ships. Ships without a captain are taken in order of ship class CommanderPriority, then the ship’s assignment priority, then its assignment weight from highest to lowest. Captain selection can draw officers who currently hold department posts, matches the class captain rank and the ship’s preferred bonus, and can promote an eligible officer from the rank below. The remaining department posts use available officers and the design components of the class.

Post Design component Bonus sought Target rank
Executive officer Auxiliary control Crew Training One below the class captain rank
Science officer Science department Survey One below
Commander, air group (CAG) Primary flight control Carrier Operations One below
Chief engineer Main engineering Engineering Two below
Tactical officer Combat information centre Tactical Two below

Assignment uses the class design, while the effective department bonuses later test for an undamaged component on the ship itself. The promotion fallback for a department post checks that the officer holds the ship’s preferred captain bonus, not necessarily the post’s own bonus.

Promotion experience and career continuity

Section titled “Promotion experience and career continuity”

Promotion scoring, demotion, bonus growth and the shared health and retirement check for all commander types are on the commander lifecycle page. This section keeps the naval career rules.

Recruitment uses the common commander creation. The first rank is the most junior rank of the commander’s profession. The career start, promotion time and assignment time are backdated by d5 years, and naval bonuses are rolled one by one. A naval officer can hold industrial and logistics bonuses as well as operational ones. Holding a bonus does not create an appointment. Academy recruitment, shared bonus generation, health, saving and loading and the general personnel controls are introduced under scientific personnel. Its scientist-specific research and retirement values do not apply to naval officers.

The rank promotion pass uses a staffing ratio of 2 for naval officers and 4 for ground force commanders. For each rank, the number of promotions allowed is floor(officers in the rank / staffing ratio) - officers already in the next higher rank. A positive allowance promotes eligible officers in order of promotion score, highest first. Officers marked DoNotPromote are excluded before that. The game runs this pass when a new race is created, when a population breaks away as an independent race, and when SM: Replace All in the Commanders window recreates a race’s commanders. All three runs waive the time requirement, so the alternative rule, strictly more than one year since the last promotion and not a prisoner, never applies in play. A waived run skips the time and prisoner condition, backdates the career start by another 2 + d5 years and clears the assignment as a promotion. The promotion step itself only updates rank, seniority, promotion time and history. Clearing the assignment is a separate decision of the pass that promotes.

The promotion score weights the raw personal bonus excess x = B - 1. It is not the effective command chain multiplier. The base score sums these terms and keeps the whole-number part.

Bonus Term
Political Reliability, Crew Training (100x)^2
Reaction, Survey, Engineering, Tactical, Carrier Operations (75x)^2
Fighter Combat, Ground Support (50x)^1.75
Production, Mining (100x)^1.5
Intelligence, Logistics (50x)^2
Ground Combat Occupation, Artillery, Anti-Aircraft, Logistics (100x)^1.75
Ground Combat Defence, Offence, Manoeuvre, Training (100x)^2

The score then adds a whole-number seniority credit of min(25 x years since promotion, 100), adds 25 for holding any assignment, and adds the points of every medal awarded (medal points x times awarded). A strong specialised operational officer is therefore not necessarily the first promotion candidate.

Experience has its own rolls. Active personnel of every race get the general improvement roll with a chance of elapsed years x 2500 out of 10000 when assigned, versus elapsed years x 500 when unassigned. A research project assignment whose project has no facilities (0 or fewer) also uses the lower 500 rate. A successful roll gives a .10 increase on a d3 roll of 1, otherwise .05. Political improvement is a separate roll, made only when Commander Political Bonuses (FCT_Game.PoliticalAdmirals) is on in the Game Information window. It has a chance of elapsed years x 1000 out of 10000 and adds .05 Political Reliability. Naval admin experience targets depend on the command type.

Type Improvement choice after the general roll
Survey Survey or Engineering, even chance
Industrial Mining or Terraforming, even chance
Patrol Reaction or Engineering, even chance
Naval Crew Training, Reaction, Engineering or Tactical, d4
General Crew Training, Reaction, Engineering, Tactical or Survey, d5
Logistics Logistics
Training Crew Training

These admin experience gains need neither an effective-commander flag nor a subordinate in range. Training commands improve Crew Training, which matches the fleet training bonus reading that same personal value.

Career availability changes independently of current command performance. After the shared accident and health checks, the minimum service for a naval officer is 9 + (priority of the race's most junior naval rank - officer's rank priority) x 5 years. The career check first requires at least ten service years and then this minimum. Its strict retirement test is d10000 < (service years - minimum) x 20 x elapsed years x 100, with the chance doubled for an unassigned officer. Promotion can therefore change career longevity through rank priority. Retirement or death clears the assignment and removes the officer from the active commanders. It does not install a successor. Story characters skip the ordinary health and retirement check.

Local bonuses and parent recursion

Section titled “Local bonuses and parent recursion”

For a requested bonus b, the local command must have the requested system in its list of systems in range, must have a commander, and must have that commander marked effective. If any condition fails, the command’s factor is 1 and the game does not ask the parent. A vacant or out-of-range command in the middle of the chain blocks every command above it for that request.

When all three conditions hold, the local factor is:

L(b) = 1 + (commander's personal bonus for b - 1) x the command type's weight for b

Requested bonus Type weight column Personal bonus read
Survey Survey Survey
Logistics Logistics Logistics
Mining, Production, Terraforming Industrial The requested bonus
Crew Training CrewTraining Crew Training
Fleet Training FleetTraining Crew Training
Reaction Reaction Reaction
Engineering Engineering Engineering
Tactical Tactical Tactical

The type weights are data, read from DIM_NavalAdminCommandType when a game loads. The game database as shipped gives the values below. Another database can carry different values. A zero weight still lets the parent’s factor through when the local conditions pass. For fleet training the local factor is therefore 1 + (Crew Training bonus - 1) x FleetTraining. The FleetTraining weight is 1 for Training, 0.1 for General and 0 for every other command type.

CommandTypeID Type Radius Survey Logistics Industrial CrewTraining FleetTraining Engineering Tactical Reaction
0 General 1 .10 .05 .05 .10 .10 .10 .10 .10
1 Naval 1 0 0 0 .25 0 .25 .25 .25
2 Survey 2 .25 0 0 0 0 .25 0 0
3 Patrol 2 0 0 0 0 0 .25 0 .25
4 Logistics 1 0 .25 .10 0 0 0 0 0
5 Training 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
6 Industrial 1 0 .10 .25 0 0 0 0 0

If a parent exists, the local factor multiplies the parent’s factor, and the parent is asked about the child command’s headquarters system. That is the system of the child’s population first, otherwise the system of its ship’s current fleet. The parent is not asked about the system of the subordinate fleet that made the original request. Each higher link repeats this rule. A child with no headquarters location cannot ask its parent. The chain is multiplicative. It is not a sum of commander percentages and not an average. A requested bonus outside this table leaves the local factor at 1 but can still pass through to the parent under the same conditions. If one link of the chain fails with an error, the game shows a Function #758 error and that link gives 1 in place of its own factor and of every link above it. The links below it keep their own factors.

Operational consumers and separate command paths

Section titled “Operational consumers and separate command paths”

The table lists the game rules that actually apply the admin factor. A bonus having a weight column does not prove that something uses it.

Consumer Command contribution and important boundary
Geological and gravitational survey orders Fleet survey sensor capacity x admin Survey x Survey Speed / 100, where Survey Speed is the game option FCT_Game.SurveySpeed. A geological survey order recalculates the rate each time it runs. A gravitational survey order sets the rate only when the fleet’s stored gravitational survey points per hour are zero. The fleet summary also shows the Survey factor in its Geo Survey and Grav Survey figures.
Ship reaction and fire delay Reaction offset = commanding officer Reaction x admin Reaction - 1, with a commanding officer Reaction of 1 without one. Fire delay = round((1 - fleet training points / 500) x (1 - offset) x d10 x d10 x .5 x mode multiplier), rounded to the nearest whole number with an exact half going to the even neighbour, and with a mode multiplier of .5 for the two fire-at-will modes. Fleet training points are TFPoints in FCT_Ship. A larger existing delay stays, except in fire at will with all fire controls, and the delay is 0 when no hostile contact detected by the race in that system was updated at the current time. This path reads the commanding officer directly, not the department bonus rules.
Fleet order reaction Average commanding officer Reaction across all ships of the fleet, counting 1 for a ship without one, times admin Reaction. The fleet reaction fraction is that product minus 1, and .99 when the product is 2 or more. Order execution uses 1 - fraction.
Colony cargo shuttle transfer Ship shuttle bay capacity x commanding officer Logistics x admin Logistics x governor Logistics x sector governor quarter Logistics x race shuttle modifier, with a shuttle bay capacity of 1 for a ship of 10 HS or less and the race modifier from FCT_Race.CargoShuttleLoadModifier. The governor and sector governor bonuses are described on their own pages. The game then adds one more race shuttle modifier when the colony has cargo shuttle capacity of at least 1, or, where maintenance support counts, positive maintenance facility capacity or an assigned fleet with an undamaged maintenance module.
Ship-to-ship cargo shuttle transfer Actual shuttle bay capacity x commanding officer Logistics x admin Logistics x race shuttle modifier. No 10 HS substitute and no governor or sector factor apply.
Orbital mining and terraforming Component output of same-race fleets within one unit of the colony’s position and assigned to it, each multiplied by its own fleet’s admin Mining or Terraforming. A nearby fleet with no assigned colony becomes assigned to this one. Orbital mining counts only when the body’s diameter is within the race’s MaximumOrbitalMiningDiameter. It is not a colony-wide admin bonus on every installation.
Sorium harvesting Harvester capacity with commander bonuses / 2000 x elapsed years x deposit accessibility x admin Mining, then capped by the deposit and the ship’s empty fuel space.
Crew grade growth The commanding officer and executive officer training passes each multiply personal Crew Training by admin Crew Training. Each pass has its own gates, a personal bonus above 1 and live Command and Control capacity or a ship of 20 HS or less, and caps grade at 1000.
Active fleet training Ships in fleets under a Training command gain (admin Fleet Training x crew performance - 1) x 1000 x elapsed years, added to the ship’s fleet training points, which stop at 500, with separate eligibility and passive training. The command type also triggers fuel, clock and maintenance behaviour, and those effects do not all depend on a bonus above 1.
Maintenance exposure Failure exposure = elapsed years x base failure chance x uncovered fraction x (2 - crew performance) x (2 - ship effective Engineering x admin Engineering). The base is doubled under a Training command. No clamp is added.

Production and Tactical have rows in the bonus table, but the consumers above include no general admin Production multiplier for colony construction and no general admin Tactical multiplier for weapon fire. The colony production modifier instead multiplies the governor’s own Production bonus, the sector governor’s quarter Production bonus, the species production rate, the race economic production modifier, efficiency, the radiation modifier, stability and the political status production modifier. Research leaves that modifier out entirely, as laboratories, output and wealth describes. The colony terraforming modifier likewise multiplies the governor’s Terraforming bonus, the sector governor’s quarter Terraforming bonus, efficiency, the radiation modifier, stability and the political status production modifier, separate from orbital fleet output. The colony mining modifiers likewise use the governor’s Mining bonus and the sector governor’s quarter Mining bonus, separate from orbital fleet output. Production mechanics owns the colony side.

The personal, half and quarter bonus forms are B, 1 + (B - 1) / 2 and 1 + (B - 1) / 4. The half and quarter forms give 1 when the commander lacks the bonus. Ship effective department bonuses have their own composition. Survey requires a live science department for the science officer, Engineering a live main engineering for the chief engineer, Carrier Operations a live primary flight control for the CAG, and Tactical a live combat information centre for the tactical officer. The commanding officer contributes a half bonus where the rule requires command capability. A ship of 20 HS or less counts one unit of command capability when its undamaged Command and Control capacity rounds down to zero. Crew Training uses the executive officer under command capability plus the commanding officer’s half bonus. These factors do not include naval administration automatically. Each consumer has to multiply in the admin factor itself.

Ship readiness and recovery owns the full grade, fleet training, morale and maintenance formulas. Movement and logistics owns transfer and order timing. Space combat resolution owns the fire and reaction consumers. Component design and ship and station design own class capability, rank and role configuration and Flag Bridge design. Nothing described here lets an intact Flag Bridge improve engines, sensors, weapons, crew morale or industry through a universal factor.

Refresh and persistence

Section titled “Refresh and persistence”

At the start of each time increment, fleets without a parent command are attached to their race’s root command, and every command’s list of systems in range is refreshed. Opening the Systems Within Range list for a command also refreshes it and sorts it by jump distance, then by name. The list shows each system’s range and the highest NHQ level in that system. The bonus calculation does not refresh anything itself, so a moved headquarters or newly explored jump points count only after the next refresh. Rank and effectiveness preparation happens separately in the construction cycle. Window preparation can temporarily mark a junior incumbent effective, as required rank and effective command describes. Game time and state refresh gives the larger cadence.

Stored with Stored or rebuilt state
FCT_NavalAdminCommand NavalAdminCommandID, GameID, RaceID, PopulationID, ParentAdminCommandID, AdminCommandTypeID, AdminCommandName, BonusOne, BonusTwo, BonusThree, AutoAssign, CommandPriority, MinimumRankPriority, FleetNodeExpanded and ShipID.
Loading commands The game restores race, population and type, keeps the ship ID, then links parents by ID. The ship is linked later, after ships load.
Commanders A commander stores the naval admin post as CommandType 12 plus the command ID (CommandID in FCT_Commander). Loading restores both the commander’s post and the command’s commander. Ship posts use their own command IDs and lists.
Fleets The parent command is restored from the saved ID (ParentCommandID in FCT_Fleet). A missing ID falls back to the race’s root command.
Derived values The list of systems in range, the required rank and the effective-commander flag are not saved. Preparation and range refresh rebuild them.

Shared officer identity, retention of retired officers and bonus rounding on load are covered by timing, previews and persistence and by object identity and reload.

Worked examples

Section titled “Worked examples”

Multiplicative survey chain. An effective, in-range Survey command whose commander has Survey 1.40 contributes 1 + .40 x .25 = 1.10. Its General parent with Survey 1.20 contributes 1 + .20 x .10 = 1.02, provided the parent covers the child’s headquarters system and is staffed and effective. The total is 1.122, a 12.2% increase over the underlying ship survey capacity. A capacity of 100 at Survey Speed 100 gives 112.2 points per hour. A vacant child gives a factor of 1 even if the parent covers both the child’s headquarters and the fleet.

Coverage can be relayed. A fleet can be inside its immediate command’s radius while outside the top command’s radius. The top command can still contribute if it covers the headquarters of the next child down, which is the system asked about at that link. Conversely, a parent that covers the fleet but not the child’s headquarters contributes 1 at that link. Each child must first pass its own range, staffing and effectiveness conditions.

Rank change without reassignment. A command has a requirement at priority 5 and an officer at priority 6. Preparation under the strict rule marks that officer not effective, and the officer stays assigned. Preparation under the lenient rule marks the same officer effective. If a child command is given an officer at priority 4, alignment can raise the parent’s requirement to priority 3, even if the child’s own requirement is less senior. These are stored operational states, not automatic promotions.

Logistics factors belong to different paths. Take a ship shuttle capacity of 2, a commanding officer with Logistics 1.20, an admin factor of 1.05, a governor with 1.10, a sector governor with personal Logistics 1.40 (quarter factor 1.10) and a race modifier of 1. The colony transfer’s multiplied part is 2 x 1.20 x 1.05 x 1.10 x 1.10 = 3.0492. A colony with cargo shuttles adds another 1, giving 4.0492. The ship-to-ship transfer gives 2 x 1.20 x 1.05 = 2.52. Moving the same officer into a naval command does not keep their former direct commanding officer factor.

Training uses Crew Training twice in different roles. A Training command officer with Crew Training 1.50 gives an admin Fleet Training factor of 1.50, because the type’s FleetTraining weight is 1. At crew performance 1 and one year, active training gives 500 points, before its cap. In contrast the type’s CrewTraining weight is 0 in the game database as shipped, so its local admin factor for the separate crew grade training pass is 1. Parent contributions can still pass through. Grade growth and fleet training gives eligibility, passive gain and clock consequences.

Concept map

Section titled “Concept map”

Resources

Section titled “Resources”

Related community documentation and developer posts. These may describe a different game version.