= 2015, State of the Fleet =

Greetings Captains!

Yes, it’s really Captains now, as you will see that most of you now hold Captain rank on the fleet roster. There was some annoyance among players – some who are in our fleet since it was founded five (!) years ago – who were still a ‘mere’ Commander, which just didn’t compute with the Fleet Admiral rank we have in-game. So all senior and veteran members are now of fleet Captain rank to bring a bit of balance and ‘canon’ to the game.

In time, the rank of Ensign will disappear from the 44th Fleet; that rank will ‘move’ to the 44th Strat Log Div. Once new members completed the 4wk trial and 50K donation, they will be promoted to the main 44th Fleet and automatically start at LT rank.

Added is the rank of Commodore; this fleet rank is for command staff that assist in running day2day operations, and/or have special jobs within our ever growing fleet.

To that end, we have two new Commodores in the fleet.
For his valuable contributions to the fleet player base, Blackout has been promoted to the fleet rank of Commodore, in recognition of his continued support and advice on STO game-mechanics. Éven if a bit dated, his forum posts are still a definate ‘must read’, which is testament to their quality.
It’s fair to say that most, if not all of us have benefitted from this, one way or the other (the ‘other’ being on the receiving end of his vaping disruptors. Ouch).

The other Commodore is Sensei_Krieger, one of our long-time members who has kindly offered to take on the role of Instructor, guiding new members and helping them settle in. Especially players new to MMO’s in general are often overwhelmed by the vastness of STO, and having a dedicated Instructor will be a great benefit.

An overview of the current 44th command structure;

= 44th Fleet =

Fleet Admiral – Latinumbar*
Vice-Admirals – Sargon*, Marcase*
Commodores – Grouchy, Sensei_Krieger (Instructor)

Latinumbar, Sargon and Marcase are the only admins with full access to our 44th forum and able to unlock it for new members, and have admin rights to our own teamspeak server.

Fleet Ambassador – Damix
Fleet Top Guns – Commodore Blackout (TopDog), CPT Fatman (Starfighter)

There are a few additional Vice-Admirals (Zippy, Intrepid, Redshirt) who are however permanently afk from the game. They run our website and teamspeak server and as such will always be on the ‘command staff’, even if just virtual.

= 44th Assault Squadron =

High Chancellor – Latinumbar
Vice-Admirals – Sargon, Marcase
Commodore – Grouchy

= 44th Strategic Logistics Division =

Fleet Admiral – Sargon
Vice-Admirals – Grouchy, Marcase
Commodore – Damix

Our in-game 44th-diplo chat-channel has a very active player base -though that does depends on compatible timezones- and it’s one of our key attractions for new and old players alike.
In contrast, our teamspeak channel is often empty with only a handfull of (silent) fleeties online, and I know that this has been a turn-off for some.

Teamspeak is a valuable tool when running joint STFs but due to the vastness and complexity of STO as an MMO teamspeak is sometimes an annoying disturbance when you’re playing an episode or talking to your family and others are running an intense STF – finding a balance will remain difficult.
Teamspeak is a usefull and fun way to expand your STO experience; give it a try if you can, but it’s not a requirement.

We are three fleets, operating as one. It’s quite an organisation keeping track of it all and I’d like to thank everyone who’s stepping up in assisting with this and especially keeping it a fun fleet and not a massive behemoth with various (and utterly useless) ‘must attend’ meetings and other admin nonsense that’s invariably a fun-killer.

Thank you Latinumbar, Grouchy, Sargon, Damix and everyone in the mighty 44th.

Live long and game on, Captains.