[timverbesselt]

I was trying to figure out how this is possible.

I have seen every Star Trek series and movie, read a lot of Star Trek novels and I also looked up everything there is about starfleet ranks on google, memory alpha, … but I still don’t understand how it is possible to hold the rank of a fleet admiral as a character in STO.
According to all of the series / movies and all of the internet pages I have seen, this rank is the highest rank in all of starfleet, so that means that you would be the “big boss” of the entire thing here? Cannot be possible cause ingame you command a starship and also one of the many fleets there are out there in the admiralty’s system.
So for me, in the context of how you play your character ingame, it seems illogical for so many people to have that type of rank.

Can anybody shed some light on this or can give a plausible explanation on how the makers of sto saw this?

[Bridger]

Because it is a game, and when they created the Rank System they screwed up.

[Petrarch]

It's possible to have multiple Fleet Admirals (this occurred back in in World War 2 as a real life example) but only 1 would be designated as the Head of Service overall (a bit like Vance or Clancy in Discovery/Picard, who are stated to be the Commander in Chief of Starfleet) - you may get one who goes into the field if the need demands it, but in the way STO presents it, it would never happen. There'd never be that many of them in the first place.

[trekchu]

It's possible to have multiple Fleet Admirals (this occurred back in in World War 2 as a real life example) but only 1 would be designated as the Head of Service overall (a bit like Vance or Clancy in Discovery/Picard, who are stated to be the Commander in Chief of Starfleet) - you may get one who goes into the field if the need demands it, but in the way STO presents it, it would never happen. There'd never be that many of them in the first place.

This. We know that the post of "CinC Starfleet" existed at least as far back as Star Trek VI, and what @Petrarch said here is pretty much why I'm giving all my toons the "four star" badge as max rank even if they are 65.

[timverbesselt]

Also because it is made as a role playing game but the role you play doesn’t add up to realism. It is too bad that they arranged that like this.
Just going to admiral and no further looks like more like it as I have read in many canon stories you have to count over more then 5000-10000 starships and in some stories closer to 30000 starships and if you have about 100 starships in one fleet, then that can be commanded by a normal admiral, not a fleet admiral. Then you can give the rank of admiral and the job function of fleet commander.
Too bad that they didn’t consider that when building up that system.
So I agree with all of you (except of the answer that it is just a game, that’s an answer that feels too easy to me, no offence to Bridger for that but the second part is just how I see it too, they screwed up the system)
Also for petrarch , also true but then it is still as Bridger says, they screwed up the system
I like a role play game but it needs the correct details.
Maybe I sound old fashioned but that’s just the way I feel about it.
But for the rest, the game itself stays great!

[vonLuden]

After the next level cap increase we will all be Imperators.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impera...Roman_Republic

[Sul-Matuul]

The way STO is set out for the most part it's assumed that you are the only character in the game and therefore it makes sense for there to be one "hero" fleet admiral.

Team content is not really considered a part of the ongoing story; more a sort of side aspect of the game in that regard so it doesn't mater too much that 5 fleet admirals meet up for a fight!

Personally I just dress my toons as captain rank at max as it makes more sense to me.

[darthnovawave]

At least for my own headcanon I usually assume my character exists outside the normal military structure and use of any rank badges are part of my cover story. For example my Fed Tac is a Section 31 operative, my Fed Sci is a Daniels-like temporal agent, etc. It also makes it easier to believe the meteoric rise if it is due to a shadowy benefactor group pulling strings. KDF and Jem'Hadar are generally my only exceptions since Klingons prize success in battle and would probably be inclined to honor someone with the player's win streak legitimately, and the Jem'Hadar's short lifespan, pecking order rank system, and the fact that you start with 60 levels worth of experiences before you start play makes high rank feel legitimate too.

[Bridger]

Yeah the game makes more sense when you are a captain and not a Fleet Admiral.

[Sorotia]

I just rp my characters at different ranks....it is what it is, it's a game. Starfleet Admirals don't fly around killing hundreds of thousands of Terran ships on a daily basis, but it's a game so it would be boring to do 99% peaceful missions...but I guess it gets boring doing 99% killer missions too sometimes lol

[BravoKiloOne]

head cannon for my characters is that only a few of them are actually members of starfleet. only the ones that are have rank on uniforms and i tend to cap them at captains. it is a bit immersion breaking when everything refers to you as admiral though... i have long wondered why they dont have a rank tab for how your character is addressed, even if it only changed the text so they didnt have to pay the actors to record lines for say commander, captain and admiral for the end game items.

[T'Tan]

Having a rank tab would be such a great simple feature to keep immersion.

The rank system in STO always bothered me. If it would be possible I would stay Captain for most of my toons. What I do is to rank my characters as Admiral in line with my UFP rank and mostly avoiding the Fleet Admiral rank as it doesn't make much sense to me. Then sometimes I give my highest ranked BOff the Captain variant of the Odyssey uniform to emulate me being Admiral just temporary commanding the specific ship with its respective captain

[darthnovawave]

On the flip side, T6 ships scaling across levels now is also kind of immersion breaking in its own right, which is kind of entangled in the rank piece. Giving a lieutenant command of a recommissioned Miranda from 100 years ago or similar T1 ship seems more plausible than putting a lieutenant in command of dreadnoughts or something else more top-of-the-line and prominent in the fleet, so a more senior rank (not necessarily a flag officer rank) seems more suitable there.

The Admiralty system arguably is meant to make the flag officer designation feel more legitimate since you may "command" dozens or even hundreds of ships there, but the system is so abstract it lacks the immersion that you are sending off other captains on their own adventures instead of the simple trading card game mechanic it and the DOFF mission system are modeled around.

[JByb04]

I've been saying this for 12 years.

There is no reason any of us should be Flag Officers in this game. I really laugh when a Lower Ranked NPC gives me mission orders. In the back of my head, I'm always thinking to myself, I'm a Fleet Admiral; why don't you do go that dangerous mission that I could wind up dead in?

They could always link Flag Officer Ranks to Rep Grinds for those who really want to be an Admiral. But I would venture to guess if you polled the players.

The majority would want to stop ranking up at Captain.

[Remsus]

I totally agree with JBY04:

I've been saying this for 12 years.

There is no reason any of us should be Flag Officers in this game. I really laugh when a Lower Ranked NPC gives me mission orders. In the back of my head, I'm always thinking to myself, I'm a Fleet Admiral; why don't you do go that dangerous mission that I could wind up dead in?

They could always link Flag Officer Ranks to Rep Grinds for those who really want to be an Admiral. But I would venture to guess if you polled the players.

The majority would want to stop ranking up at Captain.

If I remember correctly, the maximum level was increased at least once, I think twice, without introducing a new rank. The ranks should be stretched more over the levels up to captain.