Something that may help those of you who don't have another person SIMming with you at your post (i.e.- if you work in security, and we have another security officer on the crew, you can work with them... but some posts on our crew only have 1 person, like HCO) may find Non Playing Characters a big help.

    You are all free to play out as many "Non Playing Characters" (NPC) within our SIM as you wish. Many people in UFOP create two or three (some people, like Hamlet, have about 20 NPCs) "extra" characters. These characters aren't your main characters, but every now and then you use them as someone else to interact with in the SIM.

    For example: If you don't have anyone else in your post, (say, we only have 1 science officer on the crew at the time) you could create another character who's an ensign, and is also posted to science. During your SIMs, you could have your primary character interact with the new ensign by giving him orders, helping him fix things, or whatever. You don't HAVE to create a character who's in the same departement as you though. You could just create a civilian character which which your primary characters falls in love with, for example. 

    You may create NPC's who are of equal or lesser rank than you. (i.e.- A Lieutenant can create an NPC who's a lieutenant or an ensign. An ensign can only create NPCs who are ensigns, cadets, yeomans, etc.)

    NPCs are just there to add a little depth to your SIMs. If your characters are always working alone, you'll start to get bored. By showing how your main character interacts with other characters, you're developing your character for us more, which is always good.