I've had an idea which is kinda related to this idea of commanders, but would be (hopefully, since I have no idea on the actual coding needed for it) easier to implement into the game. It gives a similar result, with certain ships having particular bonuses over other ships seperate from the basic statistics.
Basically, it would be implementing a feature like that of the vices and virtues generals could gain in the total war series, with each "skill" having multiple levels ... some examples would be the following:
Expert Engineer
The ship gains a hull repair rate bonus after having taken hull damage on X different occassions.
Legendary Engineer
The ship gains a further hull repair rate bonus after having taken hull damage on 3X different occassions.
Experienced Weapons Officer
Ship weapons fire accuracy increased X% (assuming this would be based off a function of a random number) after having inflicted XXX damage in X battles (or something along those lines).
Cowardly commander
If you order the ship to retreat from combat too many times, then you incurr a negative effect on ship crew experience.
Commander skilled at defensive operations
Crew experience rating is raised 1 level (ie regular -> veteran) in combat situations where the ship has not moved to enter combat, but combat has been brought to it. Could gain this after winning X battles in which the ship was in command of the defensive forces.
Commander skilled at offensive operations
Crew experience rating is raised 1 level (ie regular -> veteran) in combat situation where the ship had to move to engage the enemy (thus intercepting enemies would fall under this).
Additionally, if this kind of thing were implemented (especially the last two) then it would also be an idea if the ship present in a sector (both in and out of combat) with the most crew experience or whatever was officially the fleet 'command' ship, and it's bonuses from these virtues/vices would also provide some minor bonuses to ship serving "under" it.
For example, if the fleet command ship had the legendary engineer bonus, then other ships in the sector under its command would gain a small bonus to hull repair rate as well.
Or if the commander was good at defensive combat, then when in those combat conditions, ships under his command get a temporary boost to crew XP (not a large one, but significant enough that it could have an effect ... some ships on the higher end of 'regular' experience might just get knocked over to the veteran bracket for example).
Basically, this would give something along the lines of having specific commanders like was mentioned at the start of this thread - but is much more closely tied to the ships so you don't have to consider moving them about.
It could also make you consider your own ship movements a bit more carefully ... if your 'command' ship was travelling to a different fleet, you might want to send some other ships with him for safety's sake, since even with his bonuses, he wouldn't last long against a superior force.
If you like the idea, I could spend some time working on a fuller list of possible vices and virtues, and flesh out the descriptions a bit to detail effects of a command ship as well.
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. Btw. that feature is probably gonna make it one way or the other in bote too, we already discussed that. Won't be on a ship crew/fleet level though, more generally in an overall admiral-type management, but still those medals would serve well and admirals sure also get medals when the fleets under their command were led to victory by him!
