Commanders

Commanders are the “talent pool” of every Empire, improving performance in their respective fields. Commanders are divided into:

Scientists – lead research projects
Civilian Administrators – govern colonies and sectors
Naval Officers – command ships
Ground Commanders – command ground units

Each commander type has abilities relevant to their field. Commanders are trained at military academies and may have one or more abilities. Some assignments require specific abilities or ranks. Commander bonuses grow over time in their positions, though it may take time for qualified personnel to gain skill and advance in rank. Commanders can die in combat, be captured, die of poor health, or retire.

You can manage all commanders and assignments from the Commanders interface (F3).

Types of Commanders

Civilian Administrators

Civilian Administrators govern planets and sectors. Administrators can make a huge difference, especially early in the game, as they can grant significant bonuses to Mining, Shipbuilding, Wealth, and even Terraforming.

Administrators are rated by their Administration Rating, which determines how large a population or sector they can manage. Administration Rating increases through experience.

A Planetary Administrator applies full bonuses to their colony.
A Sector Administrator applies one-quarter of their bonus to all colonies within their sector.

Scientists

Scientists are assigned to research new technologies and projects. Assigning scientists effectively is crucial for empire expansion.

Each Scientist has:

a bonus in a single field of study
a maximum number of labs they can manage

Their bonus applies to any research project, but assigning them to their specialization will quadruple their bonus.

Scientists are also rated by an Administration Rating, determining how many labs they can manage. Each Scientist can lead one research project at a time.

Naval Officers

Naval Officers command ships, fleets, task groups, or serve as staff officers. They enhance the stats of their commands. A skilled officer in the right position can swing the tide of battle.

Ground Commanders

Ground Commanders function similarly to Naval Officers, but for your ground forces.

Abilities and Traits

Commanders can have one or more Abilities and Traits.

Abilities improve performance in various fields and increase the chance of promotion when using Automatic Assignments.
Traits have no mechanical effect and exist purely for role‑playing flavour.

Non‑team abilities can increase with experience, and the ability that improves is related to the commander’s current assignment. Examples:

A survey ship commander may improve Crew Training, Fleet Initiative, or Survey Bonus.
A carrier commander may improve Crew Training, Fleet Initiative, or Fighter Operations.
A planetary administrator may improve any population‑related skills.

Naval Commanders can have any combination of the following abilities:

Crew Training: A buff to getting crew grade points
Reaction: jump shock and firing delay
Survey: survey
Engineering: Reduces chance of maintenance failure and weapon firing failures, and increases chance of repairing damaged components
Tactical: Bonus to hit
Production: Reduces time needed for jump point stabilisation, Lagrange point stabilisation, and salvage.
Mining: Orbital mining/fuel production
Carrier ops: Reloading box missiles on fighters and repairing fighters when they are a parasite craft
Terraforming: Orbital terraforming buff
Diplomacy: presumably a diplomacy point gain buff if a ship has a diplomacy module
Communications: Improves rate of progress towards establishing comms with new race
Intelligence: Intel point gain buff from ELINT modules and other ship-based sources
Logistics: Reduces time to load and unload freight cargo only (not colonists, troops, etc.)
Fighter Combat: Does nothing - being replaced in 2.8
Ground support: Something to do with orbital bombardment
Political: Promotion score increase if enabled in settings

It is believed that Mining, Production & Terraforming are considered Industrial skills for the purposes of Naval Admin Commands.

Assignments

Assignments require specific commander types and ranks. There is no universally “correct” placement for your best commanders — it depends on strategy, talent pool, and empire needs.

The Commanders window shows all commands and vacancies. Commanders can be assigned manually or via Automatic Assignments.

Tips and Misc

Build more military academies as your empire grows — they increase the number of new commanders per year.
Give promising junior scientists a single lab to train them. Let promising administrators govern minor mining colonies. Skills