Rules for Sims

## Creating A Sim

When creating a sim you should decide: (a) era, (b) year, (c) ship class. That will start everything else. If you want to start off in the movie era, you would choose a sim in 2271, Enterprise Class, and name the ship something like the USS Lexington NCC-1781, as an example. If you choose TNG era, that's 2363-2379, so let's say 2363, and Ambassador.

After that, you need to recruit a crew. At a minimum you should have 5 people simming on your ship, and you should have at the very least a captain (you), an executive officer / second in command, doctor, engineer, and a tactical officer. It would be better if you recruited an operations officer, flight controller, and one other (8 total) to ensure people don't have to sim multiple characters just for the ship to run, and can focus on one main character.

## Requesting a Ship Class

Each ship is part of a fleet. Fleets have larger numbers of some ships, and smaller numbers of others, just like the US Navy. Each fleet era has different proportions of ships and ship classes. Sim captains with no experience will start on a smaller ship. As they gain experience they can graduate to larger ships if they wish. Each year of real time will be evaluated by the admiralty, and given a score of up to 10 points; the captain can then use these to 'purchase' a larger ship to operate. He can then chose to decommission the existing ship and transfer the crew to the new ship, move some of the crew, or just himself. Each fleet in each era has a limited number of ships, but you will determine the ship name, class, and registry, appropriate to that era.

### 2230-2269

Each fleet will be:

* 4 Constitution Class ships
* 1 Constellation
* 50 Hermes
* 4 Kelvin
* 18 Kiev
* 12 Loknar
* 7 Miranda
* 22 Nelson
* 10 Nimitz
* 50 Ptolemy
* 15 Sheridan
* 10 Stuart

## =2363-2394

Each Fleet will be:

* 4 Galaxy
* 8 Sovereign
* 12 Nebula
* 10 Excelsior (mixed between refit and original)
* 6 Ambassador
* 20 New Orleans
* 20 Miranda (mixed between various derivative classes)
* 12 Constitution Class
* 30 Norway
* 40 Sabre
* 32 Steamrunner
* 36 Akira
* 12 Defiant
* 10 Vesta Class
* 14 Luna Class
* 4 Odyssey Class

Captains with no prior ship experience will have a year of ship time at least on a smaller ship class (New Orleans, Miranda, Norway, Sabre, Defiant, etc.). If their sim runs well they can transfer to a medium ship; after two years ship time there, they can choose to transfer to a larger ship (Sovereign, Galaxy, Nebula, Vesta, Odyssey).

## Sim Time

Each sim runs on a clock that may be different from other sims, and may be adjusted forward. It is recommended that for each year of ship time, you have 13 missions. A year of ship time might take 5 years of real life time. Each mission should mention the year so everyone is on the same page and can age their characters appropriately.

## Stardates

In the 24th century, stardates run from 2363-01-01 being stardate 40000.0, and increasing from there. In 2364, it begins with 41000.0, and so on. The year 2353 is 30000.0; 2333 is 10000.0, and 2323 is 00000.0; 2373 is 50000; 2383 is 60000.0; 2393 is 70000.0. Each sim should run a sim stardate where each season within your sim runs 1 year of at least 13 missions.

## Ratings

Each sim should be rated on a scale of 1-5 for violence, language, sexual content. 1s all across the board are like a G-rated movie. 5 across the board allows what is acceptable in an unrated movie - as much violence as the captain will allow, cursing (within the captain's discretion), and sexual content (provided it does not break fleet rules, local laws, or captain's discretion).

## Ship's Complement

Starfleet is a star navy, and can carry marines on board at the captain's discretion.

## Rank Time

* Ensign to Lt JG - 2 years ship time as Ensign
* Lt JG to LT - 2 years ship time as Lt JG
* Lt to Lt Cdr - 3 years ship time as Lt; 9-11 years service as the character in Starfleet
* Lt Cdr to Cdr - 3 yrs as Lt Cdr, and at least 15 yrs total service time for the character
* Cdr to Captain - 3 yrs as Cdr, and 18 yrs total service time for the character

A character can be fast-tracked to the next rank if the character does something exceptional to deserve a fast promotion. A character should not be sitting idle at a rank for more than the time listed above unless they're not being particularly active or impressive to the captain.

With this time, a character that graduates the academy by 22 as ensign can be Lt JG by 24 at the earliest; Lt by 26 at the earliest; Lt Cdr by 29 at the earliest. Time spent gaining education does not hinder your character's progression and counts as in-rank time, but you will need a captain to promote you.

For persons with existing experience at a given rank they can transfer into Alternatrek at that rank. For persons with experience as a captain of a vessel, they can transfer into Alternatrek at that rank and at an equivalent vessel size.

## Ship Time

Each year of ship time should have at least 13 episodes (missions), and the captain should have at least 2 or 3 episodes ready to go after the current mission finishes. A captain should endeavor to complete a season within 2-4 years of actual time with average activity.

## Issues with Other Characters

Many people sim characters differently. You should understand this, first. Second, if you don't like the way a person sims a character, the easiest thing to do is ignore that character and skip past it, and don't interact with that character. That's the easiest and most conflict-free way to resolve the issue you are having with another person, and avoid causing trouble with a long-time simmer that others might not have a problem with.

If you find yourself easily offended, triggered, or can't stand the way another person on a ship sims, then you should either ignore and don't interact with that character or find another ship where you don't find yourself so easily offended/triggered. There are other opinions out there besides your own, and others might disagree with you. You might be wrong and you might be overly sensitive to the point that you offend others with your over-sensitivity. It also possible that your interpretation of something is incorrect, and there could be a perfectly innocent interpretation of what "offended" you.

That said, if a character is actively trying to do something offensive, distasteful, or disrespectful, you need to bring it up to your captain first, and try to resolve the issue on the ship. If it's simply a matter of you not liking the way another person sims, then you should try to ignore that character and don't interact with him/her. Otherwise, try to work it out. If the issue cannot be resolved, the captain can bring it to the task force commanding officer for guidance.

An example of something that is an issue to bring to your captain: a character is being a Mary Sue, or is intentionally harassing you in-character or in private messages. The resolution here is to talk to the captain about it to try to resolve the situation. If the issue does not improve, then the captain should take it to his task force commander for further consultation.

An example of something that is not an issue to bring to your captain: a character is simmed descriptively by another player and you don't like it (such as describing their appearance more descriptively or alluringly than you would). The simplest resolution here is not to read that simmer's text and skip past it, and understand others write differently from you and might need to write things more verbosely than you. Or if a character is given more attractive than average physical features, such as muscles or female features; the resolution there is to ignore it and skip past that character's text. However, if the descriptiveness is an issue with more than 2 players that they would rather not play the sim if it continues, then the captain may ask the player to tone down their use of descriptive language with their character to preserve the sim.

Another issue is genetic engineering. Augments are illegal. However, if a character was forcibly altered at a genetic level into another body or gender, that is allowable. For example, if an ensign were captured by the Orions and altered into an attractive male or female for infiltration purposes, and subsequently rescued and returned to Starfleet, that is an acceptable character background with genetic engineering as it was not sought/intended by the character himself/herself.

## Politics / Religious Issues of the Present Day

Almost everything in modern day is a political issue, even religion, and things can get heated very easily. In any sim, you should actively avoid obvious modern day political issues or analogs, or obvious religious issues or analogs. The modern American Republicans and Democrats likely will not exist in 300 years, nor the issues we find so polarizing, so your sim characters \*should not\* find the same issues so important. Do you find King Charles I's Indian policy in the Dominion of Virginia important? It was critical in 1620, but how critical is it today?

Example: A sim character refers to a planet where there was a recent election where the new ruling party disenfranchised a large portion of the population; or a planet with a corrupt leader who hates minorities and stole an election would be an obvious Democrat reference to Trump. A sim character referencing a senile leader with puppetmasters who stole his election intending to collapse the planet's various governments could be taken as a Republican reference to Biden.

A good rule of thumb is for American sim players not to make obvious or veiled references to the Presidents or politics of the last 20 years to avoid inflaming passions.

Additionally, modern political beliefs, like being "woke," an "SJW," "feminist," and so on will not likely exist in the 23rd or 24th century, so characters should not be simmed in a fashion that would be seen as falling into those categories. In the 24th century, race and gender should not be seen as issues; with 'aliens' abounding, those kinds of concerns have long since fallen to the wayside and humans simply see each other as fellow humans, not caring about race, gender or other things modern day humans obsess over, and judging others by their actions and content of character. So, do not carry your own personal modern political concerns into the future with you. Sim your character as your character and remember that now is considered over 300 years ago by your character.

Similarly, making in-game references to 'religious fanatics' should be avoided or very carefully simmed to avoid causing issues with players who consider themselves religious or to appear as a thinly veiled shots at Christians or Muslims or other religions.