HCO Officer Simming Guide: Difference between revisions

The '''HCO Officer''' is an abbreviation for Helm/Comm/Ops, this is one of the most important members of a ship. The HCO officer, as the name suggests, will be trained in three fields of operation, firstly the Helm, which is flying the ship. Secondly the comm, which is communications. And lastly, Ops, which is Operations. You only have to look at the characters in the shows to realize just how important the HCO officers are. You can follow such great examples as, [[ma:Hikaru Sulu|Hikaru Sulu]] and [[ma:Uhura|Uhura]] from the [[ma:TOS|original series]], [[ma:Wesley Crusher|Wesley Crusher]], [[ma:Data|Data]] and Lieutenant [[ma:Hawk (Lieutenant)|Hawk]] from the [[ma:TNG|TNG]] series and movies, [[ma:Tom Paris|Tom Paris]] and [[ma:Harry Kim|Harry Kim]] from [[ma:VOY|Voyager]], [[ma:Miles O'Brien|O'Brien]], [[ma:Jadzia Dax|Jadzia Dax]] and [[ma:Nog|Nog]] while on the [[ma:USS Defiant|USS Defiant]] from [[ma:DS9|DS9]], and let us not forget [[ma:Travis Mayweather|Travis Mayweather]] and [[ma:Hoshi Sato|Hoshi Sato]] from [[ma:ENT|Enterprise]].  

All the HCO stations are on the bridge of each of your ships, however, your character may be called away help out in engineering or fly a shuttle or something else, so do not get complacent. But while on the bridge he or she is a bridge officer and depending on their rank may be called it service as the First or Second officer depending on what the situation is. The HCO office will have qualifications for all three fields of service. Whether like my character a Major in Helm/Navigation, a Minor in Communication and basic understanding of Operations or your character can have them completely the other way round it is up to you depending on the station you wish your character to be at the most.  

While at the Helm your character while be the pilot of the ship, it while be his or her job to take the ship in and out of warp, position the ship and make an attack run on an enemy target, and will en essence be the driver/pilot of the ship. As the Helm officer you will need to work closely with other departments on the bridge like Tactical. For example if your ship is going up a against a Romulan War Bird you will need to get the ship in a good enough position so that the Tactical officer gain bring the ships guns to bear. Because of this it is important to have some sort of a relation ship with the other officers on the bridge, not necessarily the good ones (remember the most interesting simmers make enemies as well as friends). Also remember that not everything runs perfectly on a ship. So if a torpedo hits your ship, how has it effecting the handling of the ship? Is it a bit sluggish? Have you lost power to the port impulse engine and can't turn as fast? My point is that every action has a reaction and should affect your sim.

''By: Lt. Michael Soul''

The helmsman (or flight controller, Conn for short) is a bridge officer broadly responsible for all flight and navigation operations of the starship. In particular, these are: navigational references and course plotting.

After the flight, Paris has elevated serotonin levels in the hypothalamus and his cells start mutating.

While at the Communication Station your character will quite literately be the eyes and ears of the ship. It can be a very exciting job for a good simmer because there is so many things that your character can do and almost everything you do will affect the plot. For example, your character may receive a distress call from some colony on a world that has been attacked by the Borg, you may be coordinating attacks with friendly FA-150s against a rouge Klingon  Battle cruiser. Also it is not just on the ship where your character you will be important, you may be on an away mission and need to set up a portable communications device so that your team can contact the local Starbase to come pick you up because you are under fire by unknown forces. There is a whole load of other things your character can de to change the plot but if you a going to put a major spanner in the works and change the plot dramatically it is a good idea to ask the captain first, after all it is their ship and their mission.

One of the most important positions on any ship. The Operations Officer is responsible for a lot of management tasks. He, or of course she, controls schedules like whose turn it is to visit the Holodeck, or what shuttle the away-team will use. Together with the First officer, the Operations Chief or HCO Chief is responsible for the crew rosters.