So there are - that I know of - two ways to generate officers via story points. Both offer 100% bonus XP. Neither are worth it unless you're out of bonus XP entirely.
So my suggestion is to upgrade the options so that they are (potentially) worth it.
For the promoting a promising crewmember:
- Allow the player to select their starting skill; officer gets the 'mentored' bonus for free.
- Initial officer personality either matches fleet doctrine, or is also player-selectable.
- Reduce the bonus XP granted by this option - 80% instead of 100%.
- Reduce crew by one when you use this. (If this doesn't already happen?)
This basically gives the player a chance to spend a fifth of a story point to get a specific officer starting point
now; if you're not overly particular on what skills your officers have, or if you're willing to wait and keep checking around, it's going to be better to keep checking comm listings - but that can take quite a while if you're being picky.
For hiring a former Luddic Path operative, just make them start at a higher level - or even make it work like the mercenary contracts. But in either case, make sure the player can get a preview of what skills the operative has before committing to spend the story point!
