Starfleet New Players Guide

Welcome to Starfleet

If you need help

Feel free to use +ufp to talk to other players, or use @fed/helpers to see players selected to help assist you. Feel free to ask questions!

So you want to join Starfleet?

If you'd like to join Starfleet as an active duty member find your way to the recruiting station in San Francisco. You can find it in Presidio. If you would like to join as a Reserve member send an IC Mail stating your interest to the DCSOPS, as of this writing it would be Commodore Zitto (alias Zitto).

Now I've joined Starfleet, now what?

Once you've applied to Starfleet you will have some orientation training to do. These brief training sessions will teach you what you need to know to compose yourself as a new crewman aboard a Starfleet vessel or station. Once you have completed them you will be automatically tossed into the 'to be assigned' group and then manually assigned to a duty station. This may take an hour or a day or so. In the meantime, read through the rest of this article to know what to expect - and chat with people on the UFP-OOC channel - use +ufp to chat with them.

One important thing you'll need to do is set up SUDS - the multi-descer that we use.

To set up SUDS first you will need to have created your PADD, parented it properly and set it TRUST and set it !NO_COMMAND.

Once you have done this, you can use the SUDS HELP file to review the help for SUDS.

You'll want to know which department you've been assigned to (flight operations, helm, tactical, medical, security) and which uniform will be your base uniform (in almost all cases will be the duty uniform).

Follow the instructions in the help file to the letter - the order I'd recommend is:

SUDS CONF (sets up your con format for your SUDS)

SUDS DESC (Sets up what is seen before and after your automatic uniform desc created by SUDS)

SUDS SET DIV (Sets what department you are in: for example medical, this will control the color of your uniform and other information.)

SUDS SET UNI (Sets what uniform you will use - duty for example, or formal.)

If you run into any issues don't be afraid to ask for help on the UFP-OOC channel!

Also, while you're waiting you can set up your character's attributes, skills, class and console skills.

Class

Classes are a way to automatically setup your character quickly without having to make a whole bunch of decisions. Think of it as a template geared towards where you want your character to head to. It also assigns feats, skill points, and feat points.

Noble

Members of this class are not first-generation anything. They have inherited position, wealth, power and destiny. They excel as diplomats, leaders, and moguls. This is a non-player class.

Specialist

The Specialist is heavy in skills and starship combat, light in feats and personal combat.

Hybrid

The Hybrid is average in feats, skills, personal combat, and starship combat.

Warrior

The Warrior is heavy in feats and personal combat, light in skills and starship combat.

Attributes

There are six basic attributes: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. Three resistant modifiers: Reflex, Fortitude, and Will. Four Combat Statistics: Defense, Vitality, Level, and Experience.

You have the ability to buy, unbuy, reset, or select class defaults for your attributes.

For help on the commands to set up your character's attributes, feats, classes and skills check out the base help file $help @combat. You'll also want to check out char help talents and char help attributes as well as char help classes and char cons list to show your console points. char cons buy TYPE will buy a console skill point.

Feats

Feats are special actions that can be used in combat situations. These are bought with feat points. For example, you need Weapon Proficiency: Light Ranged to use a standard Starfleet Type II phaser pistol. To wear Starfleet security armor would need the Armor Proficency: Medium feat.

Skills

Skills fall into two types: general and console. Console skills are those skills that relate to the using of consoles aboard ships. They map out to the various consoles and commands, without the specific console skill you can not operate that console or function. For example, to fly a vessel you will need the helm skill, to switch between various modes on the consoles you will need each skill. Generally if you have engineering, helm, tactical and damage control you have the basics covered but consider also picking up transporter, operations, science or communications if you can. In the future having more points in each console skill will allow to special abilities - a helmsman may be able to coax out more speed, a tactical console specialist more accuracy or so on.

General skills are more tuned to skill checks, such as using specific types of equipment or objects.

The higher the skill, the greater the bonus.

How do I get to my assigned vessel or station?

You have a few methods:

1. Coordinate with someone OOCly to come pick you up. This can provide you with excellent RP. Use @sf/roster to determine who is also assigned to your duty station and find a petty officer or officer in your section or on your vessel/station - ask them via page if they'd be willing to fly to Earth to pick you up. This can provide you with excellent introductory RP.

2. Take the transport systems. Transports are available at each space port and entering one will show you a list of it's available destinations. You can use @trans/select DESTINATION to head in that direction. Don't be afraid to use your IC and OOC communication methods to help get guidance on where you need to go.

OOC vs IC communication methods.

You have several OOC methods available to you:

Paging: You can use pages to communicate with players OOCly.

Channels: You can use the +ufp channel to ask for help or chat with other players. This is not IC information.

@mail: You can use OOC @mail to communicate with other players. This can be very useful if they are not online. An example of a @mailbox below:

@mags: Many of the magazines available to you are OOC - the Federation OOC or Personal OOC magazines can be used to communicate with players on a wide spread basis. A common example of the way it should look when you type @mags could be this:

And likewise, you have many IC options available to you:

Subspace: Channels like Starfleet subspace (-starfleet) or the various quadrant channels (-bq,-aq,-dq) and shared channels (-ksfj for the Klingon/Starfleet subspace channel) can help you communicate real-time with other players. This is heavily used in space combat and communication.

Compin: You can use your compin to communicate with other nearby Federation players (wide-band) or a peer-to-peer communication, private and encrypted (p2p). This requires transmitters however so will not work on public transports or in an area without repeaters to transmit the signal. NOTE: To find the precise settings that Starfleet is using at the moment, type @sf/compin

IC Mail: You can use your PADD to write IC mail. You will often receive IC mail to notify you of re-assignments or new duties. @padd help mail can help you learn more about this.

@mags: Some @mags are IC - specifically 5 (Starfleet Command Directives), 16 (Starfleet Operational Reports), 46 (Starfleet Journal). You will often see IC information posted here and should make sure you are subscribed to these magazines and kept up to date.

Intercom: Vessels and bases have an IC intercom system you can use to communicate with small or larger areas.

When should I use IC and when should I use OOC?

In general you should learn towards IC over OOC methods. However, you may run into situations where OOC methods are preferred because it makes no sense from an IC perspective to contact someone about this. For example:

1. You may want to ask for directions on how to get to where your ship is berthed. From a strictly IC perspective your character would have been booked flights and given directions and would not be required to ask for help on how to get there. Either someone would pick them up or they would have pre-arranged travel. However, you could always ask IC and it's not going to hurt - but you aren't required to.

2. If you are a medical petty officer and have a foreign patient staying in sickbay. They are ready to be released but you do not have seclar (security clearance) to allow them to leave the ship. You wouldn't have to ask IC permission to handle an OOC issue - in this case OOC communication is preferred to IC.

3. You want to ask about a recent series of attacks. You should not use OOC communication for this (if your character is asking) and instead should use the IC methods available to you.

What do I do now that I'm here?

It's recommended you do a few things once you are assigned to a new duty station:

1. Learn your new assignment location: take the turbolift and travel around. Learn where places are at so in an emergency you can get to the right location (and also, this can help you find RP!)

2. Learn who your ship/basemates are: use @sf/roster and make note of who your leading petty officer is for your department. Who is your department head? Who are your fellow crewman? Who is your commanding officer, your executive officer? Make a note of these names and seek them out for RP- the more people you meet, the more active you can be and the more options will come available to you!

3. Read recent AAR (after action reports) and magazines so you are familiar with what is going on.

4. Meet with a member of the medical department: Get a physical and full checkup and workup. (Good RP!)

5. Meet with a member of the security department: Are there additional items you should be issued?

How do I get promoted?

Promotions are automatic. You can see the minimum TiG (Time in Grade) requirements in the Basic Starfleet article in order to understand how that works. In general, as long as you are active your promotions will come.

To become an officer you must attend the Starfleet Academy. This means you must be a minimum of Petty Officer Third Class and also means applying and getting approval for a slot and then training for a three month plus period as a cadet. During this time you will be given command opportunities (for example, as a division head) and closely watched to see how you interact with enlisted and officers. At the end of your training period you will be promoted to ensign unless you do not meet the minimum requirements.

What things can I learn?

There are many things you can learn as a new member of Starfleet:

1. @fed/manual will an excellent intro to starting out in the faction and has tons of great information!

2. Familiarize yourself with the ships in the fleet! @listclass will show you all the various classes that the UFP uses, and @sf/reg will show you all the currently registered vessels - you can match up named vessels with their classes.

3. You can learn more about your PADD: Your PADD contains a built in text editor, file sharing utility and IC mail options to name just a few. You can link your bank accounts to it and use it as a variety of tools. Use @padd help to begin learning about it.

4. . You can open a bank account at Starbase 001 or 35 - this will allow you to deposit your paychecks and take advantage of Starfleet's aggressive interest rates. Find an ATM object in the commerce area of either Starbase and use $help ATM to learn how to open an account. Once you've opened the account make note of your account number - you can link your PADD to it!

5. Learn how to use security panels - they can be used on the vessel for a variety of effects. See Security How To for how!

6. Learn to use your compin: See Compin How To for how!

7. For that matter, learning about @sf/help is a good step, it can teach you all the various Starfleet-specific commands.

8. You can begin studying for your FC1 certification. This base helm certification will allow you to crew vessels and fly at a basic level. See the IC mags for the latest certification information, as of this writing the certifications are being rewritten but you should feel encouraged to still work on them while they are being reworked. The current certifications are listed on @mag 46. Look for fellow crewmembers with an FC1 certification - they can teach you what you need to know. Crewmembers with FC2 certifications (or even FC3) are advanced pilots capable of instructing you further or teaching you the finer arts of combat flying or manual control.

9. You can additionally study for your FC1A certification if you wish to become a member of the FMO - the Federation Merchant Marine. This will allow you to take on merchant missions on behalf of Starfleet when you are not on duty. Talk to your department head and XO/CO to learn when you are expected to be on duty and when you could take on these merchant missions. You will need to open a bank account for Starfleet to take their portion of your profits. Check out @mag 46 to learn more about this! Boris has written an excellent Economy How To if you are interested in trading.

10. You can meet your crew and fellow other crew - ask what they can teach or certify you in!

11. If you have interest in learning more about consoles or space flight you can visit the sim site - the sim site allows you to study and practice space combat without the real risk of being killed. It can be found at ats.trekmush.org 1702.

12. Ask someone to teach you more about consoles - learn about damage control, or tactical, or science! Keep in mind even as a security person you can learn how to fly and fight, even as a science department member you could be a very competent pilot. You are limited only by your interest!

What are some ideas to stay active?

See Starfleet RP Ideas

List of ship console commands

Ship Command List