
About

Second-in-Command is a
full overhaul of the games skill system.
It replaces the existing skill screen with new UI that functions differently to before.
Make sure to read the compatibility section further below before downloading.All skills except for
Combat skills have been replaced. In their place, you now find
Executive Officers.
Where you previously found the
Leadership,
Technology and
Industry trees, you now find
three slots to assign this new type of officer to.
Each executive officer has an aptitude, said aptitude determines which skills they provide when assigned in to one of those slots.
Every officer has their own skill points to spend, up to
five. The player now uses their maximum of
8 skill points on any of the
14 vanilla combat skills.
Overall, the mod as of now adds
105 new skills mixed in to those new aptitudes.
You can find an overview of all of them on the mods wiki.WikiThe mod has its own Wiki, with a list of all aptitudes from the mod itself, and also pages for crossover aptitudes from other mods.
You can find pages both for individual aptitudes and a page that lists all aptitudes in a single page.
Additionaly you can find an overview of every aptitude in the ingame codex.


What differences does it make?With those changes, as the players
skillpoints are seperate, the player no longer has to decide between piloting and fleet-wide skills.
No longer do you have to give up your fun in piloting a ship to get great logistical bonuses.
With the
10 aptitudes and
105 skills within them, you now have much more choice for your builds.
However, since only
three aptitudes can be active at the same time, you have to make much more specialised choices.
You could say that the base-games system brings you towards a Jack-of-all-trades build.
Meanwhile this mod encourages you to combine the aptitudes that would most support your fleet build.
You could combine the
Automation,
Smallcraft and
Piracy aptitude to create an a swarm of automated ships.
Officers have to first be found, that can be in
comm-links on colonies, or in
cryo-pods during exploration.
A
unique bar-encounter is available right after beginning a game to choose a starting officer.
Very importantly, NPCs have not been left out!
All
NPC fleets have their own executive officers with their own choice of skills.
As you face stronger fleets, you also encounter them with more of skills.

CompatibilityAs this mod is a rather intrusive change to the system, some minor issues are to be expected.
Notably,
this mod is not compatible with most other mods that perform changes to vanilla skills or the system.Those are currently:
Quality Captains,
A New Level of Confidence,
Truly Automated Ships &
Adjustable Skill Thresholds.
Mods that add skills that are
not normaly visible on the skills screen however will generaly work.
If for example, a mod adds a skill that is applied to an officer or the player through some unique interaction, it will generaly work.
Mods that add skill bars to the base games system will have them not show up here, but should otherwise do fine.
Custom Starts that start the game of with the "Automated Ships" skill will have the skill replaced with an Automation XO.
If a mod gives the player a vanilla skill that isnt a combat one, it is automaticly deactivated.
Cross-Mod SupportList of Mods with Second-in-Command IntegrationRandom Assortment of Things (2 Aptitudes)Emergent Threats (2 Aptitudes)Secrets of the Frontier(1 Aptitude)Dustkeeper XO - Secrets of the Frontiers Integration (1 Aptitude)Integrating your own modThe system is easily modifieable to add new aptitudes with their own skills.
Aptitudes can be made to be unique and only show up on custom officers, or only spawn on a specific factions fleet.
You can the modding documentation hereYou can ask me to have your mod added in the list above, however i may not add it there if it doesnt atleast somewhat follow the design guidelines shown in the documentation.
Frequently Asked QuestionsCan this mod be added mid-save?Technicly yes, but as there are a few things during progression that differ, and since leveling up officers takes some time, i would not recommend it.
Can you do X large change?I'm pretty happy with how the mod is at its core, so i don't plan to really change its fundementals at all.
I am mostly looking for feedback on the things existing in the system as it is.
The logistical aptitudes feel required, can you do something about them?Personaly i think you can do just fine without Logistical aptitudes.
Invest more in to your logistical ships, install some logistical hullmods like Efficiency Overhaul in to your military ships.
The tradeoff of using a few hullmods like this is very much worth the additional combat skills you can get instead.
When you make a build, take a bit to consider if you could not make do without one, or if you want the pure convenience of having one.