For the final time: Faction Leader Ranks

[MysticWind]

Was Yang Executive Officer of Head of Security or Ship's Doctor when aboard the Unity? Which source is most official?

[WotanAnubis]

Personally, I take in-game information as most canon, more canon than Mike Ely's stories, at least.

And the in-game Datalinks say Yang is the Unity's Executive Officer.

It also says Santiago is Chief of Security, by the way.

[Senethro]

Hes a Dr of Psychology and in the story appears to occupy some position only just subordinate to Captain Garland. I'd say this is consistent with being Unity Executive Officer no matter what else hes called.

[Lazerus]

Yeah Yang has been described as 2nd in charge with Santi being subordinate to him in all things ive seen. Ship Doc was Lal wasn't it ? Miriam as chaplain, Morgan was a stowaway, Dee was something to do with studying the native biology and Zak chief engineer.

I wonder what Capt. Garlands faction would have been like ...

[GeoModder]

Originally posted by Lazerus
I wonder what Capt. Garlands faction would have been like ...

A madhouse, with all those distinct officer personalities running around.

[Illuminatus]

Yang is Unity's Chief of Security and Executive Officer. Santiago is second in command of Security forces.


Speaking of ranks here are they:

John Garland- Captain

Sheng-Ji Yang- Commander
Prokhor Zakharov- Commander
Ulrik Svensgaard- Commander

Dierdre Skye- Lt. Commander
Miriam Godwinson- Lt. Commander

Aki Luttinen- Lieutenant, Junior Grade

Corazon Santiago- Lieutenant
Asa Wright- Lieutenant

Pravin Lal- U.N. High Commissioner for Alpha Centauri
Arthur Donaldson- Civilian Contractor

Nwabudike Morgan- stowaway

[Senethro]

Asa Wilson? Is that Roze's actual name?

[Illuminatus]

Actually it is Asa Wright. My mistake.

[Mr. President]

Svensgaard was a Commander? Pfeh. No wonder the Unity mission was so messed up if their chain of command was like that.

[WotanAnubis]

Actually, Svensgaard was the Unity's Astrogator. Which is presumably some kind of navigator, except for space.

[Illuminatus]

Rank is not the same thing as position on Unity.

There is no strong need for astrogator as Unity's path has been calculated before the journey. Entire crew spends the journey in cryosleep and when crew awakes before arrival, he is obviously not one of the essential staff.

This means that he has a specific purpose. He was probably supposed to direct the ship in case ship went off flight path (which would explain the commander rank).

I think it would be better if Firaxis created him as a director of future sea operations than an astrogator.

[Sperber]

"None of the essential staff"? I daresay ... you got a trillon-dollar-operation's success (and the lives of thousands of settlers) depending on the ability of the astrogator to guide a projectile that was thrust from one needle point in space aiming for another needle point in space - of which they probably had only a rough estimate of its orbit around Alpha Centauri.

And the point they got to hit for a safe descending orbit is probably just a few kilometers in diameter. I bit off to one side, and the ship hits atmosphere so steep, that it will burn up in it - a bit to the other side, and it just slingshots back into endless space with no fuel left to turn around and try again.

No ... I wouldn't call the astrogator "non essential staff"

[Illuminatus]

"None of the essential staff"? I daresay ... you got a trillon-dollar-operation's success (and the lives of thousands of settlers) depending on the ability of the astrogator to guide a projectile that was thrust from one needle point in space aiming for another needle point in space - of which they probably had only a rough estimate of its orbit around Alpha Centauri.

Wrong. Entire Unity mission has been completely planned on Earth. Svensgaard doesn't guide Unity at all, after all he does spend the ship in cryosleep. He is probably there in case Unity strays of flight path. Of course, if the Unity abandons flight path, he is the key person on the ship. But this did not happen. It is Saratov (Zakharov) who briefs Garland on the possibility of the overshoot.

Unity arrived in Alpha Centauri system just as planned, the crisis erupted when a meteor strike damaged the reactor, hampering ability to manuever. At no point anyone poses the question as who is to manuever the ship into the orbit, astrogation is not mentioned at all.

Svensgaard spends the entire journey in cryosleep, just like the rest of crew. Firaxis decision to make him Lead Astrogator is bad as it makes it seem he is no one of importance if you take Journey to Centauri into account. In Journey to Centauri why no one asks Astrogation for estimates about hitting the orbit? Why not even mention him? While other Crossfire faction leaders are not people of importance on board the Unity Ulrik outranks all but two of future faction leaders. After all, they do awaken the stowaway Morgan has more mention although his position and skills are of no relevance to original Unity mission. Svensgaard's rank and position certainly make him a powerful presence - why is not present when the big six are voting in favour of abandoning the ship? Wouldn't Lead Astrogator and Commander be considered one of key staff? Yet Morgan can cast his vote. Common sense says Svensgaard would definitely be one of making the key decisions, but he is not mentioned at all.

As for the "rough estimate", the same telescopes that can make only the "rough estimate", were able to detect presence of water, nitrogen and oxygen on the planet decades before the mission. The "rough estimate" has been discovered just thirty years prior to mission launch, certainly no one has attempted to calculate it more precisely? Computers on board are not capable of making slight adjustments for flight trajectory?

And the point they got to hit for a safe descending orbit is probably just a few kilometers in diameter. I bit off to one side, and the ship hits atmosphere so steep, that it will burn up in it - a bit to the other side, and it just slingshots back into endless
space with no fuel left to turn around and try again.

Unity was never intended to land and indeed it is incapable of normal landing. It crashed on Chiron. Its objective was to achieve safe orbit around Chiron for planetary observation. Unity carried eight landing pods that would carry the crew to the surface. The rest of tools and materials would be launched via supply pods to surface.

No ... I wouldn't call the astrogator "non essential staff"

Neither would I, but what we want to call it is irrelevant. Bad design on Firaxis part makes Svensgaard look as unneccesary.

Since the expansion characters have not been planned, Journey does not mention him. But it is the only accurate description of the final crisis. This makes an extremely awkward situation. Surely a commander would have been at least mentioned as awakened? Not awakening a commander in emergency is strange, but Lead Astrogator not being mentioned in situation when the entire starship is to overshoot the target planet is even stranger. But he is not mentioned at all, which could indicate that he was not awakened at all. The only conclusion we can make is that Unity can adjust its final course without the Lead Astrogator.

By not taking this into account, Firaxis limits Svensgaard to status of emergency redundancy system which is a bad decision. This is also one of bad points of Ely's Journey to Centauri, but I did not mention it in the other thread since Svensgaard wasn't even planned for the SMAC, so it is not his fault.

[Sperber]

I'm not understanding where you want to go with your argumentation, insisting on the stories so much instead of acknowledging the raw necessity of someone with astrogation skills on such a mission - even if only for a failsafe against a computer failure. But you definitely overestimate the ability of astonomy to locate planets in other solar systems (at least by today's standards) and to propel something at such a perfect trajectory, that it hits something just a few kilometers wide at several light years away without the need of periodical course corrections.

Also, chemical composition of Chiron can be discovered by analyzing the spectrum of Alpha Centauri's light as it passes through Chiron's atmosphere when it passes between the sun and the Earth - but this is by no means enough data to reveal a precise location of the planet.

[Leon Trotsky]

Svensgaard's absence in the plot is yet another reason why I take Alien Crossfire as non-canon.