


When the player completes (or skips) the tutorial, a Pioneer-class starship is assigned to them. In combat, the career choice and racial traits affect the gameplay and strategies used by the player. The career determines the character's native abilities, and the race determines the character's innate traits and, in certain cases, special abilities. Upon starting a new TOS Starfleet character, players must choose a career (analogous to a 'class' from other MMORPGs) and a species (or race). The title of Commodore is used in games by NPCs, notably Jacob Ross, but is not a player rank.

Senior officers hold the ranks of Vice, Rear and Fleet Admiral. Ship commanders are usually at the rank of Captain, but sometimes a commander is referred to as Captain even if they are at a different rank. Starfleet ranks roughly mirror those of the US navy, with crew being given ranks of Lieutenant Junior Grade, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander and Commander. Starfleet's uniform in this era is the TOS design (right) with the red-gold-blue division colours for operations, command and science respectively. While the faction loading screen uses the eras pennant of the Federation (seen in the infobox above) for the Starfleet faction, the more common faction emblem is based on Starfleet's standard insignia an asymmetrical, arrowhead-shaped pennant (right).
