Some insight from a military individual here, certain ranks are not part of the normal ranking structure but are instead equal to more familiar ranks, example. Master Sergent is the same rank as a First Sergent, the difference being that First Sergent is special designation for a Master Sergent who is in charge of a company. The same rule could be applied to the Republic Army where Commander is a special title given to someone in charge of a specific or larger sized force and its equal rank might be Major. But like in the real army you wouldn't call a First Sergent, Master Sergent because his rank and responsiblities are different, instead most First Sgt's are affectiontly refered to as Top.

Since Troopers are only in charge of a squad, they really wouldn't have enough people under them to warrant a title such as Commander, you would have to command a company of men like a fleet, or battalion of troops like we see in the movies were Commander Cody is actually the top clone in charge of hundreds of clones.

Now if someone were to make a guild of Troopers and Smugglers then some of those ranks could easily fit General and Commander because they the leadership roles would effectively be in charge of several other squads which would equate to a battalion of soldiers.

The Republic military uses similar ranks to the US Military. In the US Military, as has been said previously, "Commander" is not a rank. It simply refers to the "guy in charge"... whether that be a tank commander (in charge of the vehicle) or a base commander, etc. "Commander" is, however, a rank in Her Majesty's Royal Navy. Note that a Captain in the Royal Navy actually outranks a Commander... (for example, Star Trek is based on that ranking system... and Captain Picard naturally outranks Commander Riker.)

Likewise in Mass Effect. When you begin the game, Commander Shepard isn't actually the commanding officer aboard the Normandy. He was outranked by Captain Anderson and was his XO.

Shep became CO later on. Shep still hasn't been promoted to Captain and at one point in ME2 I believe he actually has to correct somebody who mistakenly refers to him as a Captain.

The Republic military uses similar ranks to the US Military. In the US Military, as has been said previously, "Commander" is not a rank. It simply refers to the "guy in charge"... whether that be a tank commander (in charge of the vehicle) or a base commander, etc. "Commander" is, however, a rank in Her Majesty's Royal Navy. Note that a Captain in the Royal Navy actually outranks a Commander... (for example, Star Trek is based on that ranking system... and Captain Picard naturally outranks Commander Riker.)

 

Likewise in Mass Effect. When you begin the game, Commander Shepard isn't actually the commanding officer aboard the Normandy. He was outranked by Captain Anderson and was his XO.

 

Shep became CO later on. Shep still hasn't been promoted to Captain and at one point in ME2 I believe he actually has to correct somebody who mistakenly refers to him as a Captain.

Wrong, Commander is a rank in the Us Navy as well. In fact it is 2 ranks as you have LT Commanders and full Commanders. Star Trek follows the US Navy ranking system. The Devs in this game are all over the boards on rank structures. In a BH quest, you talk to a LT Major, there is no rank in any military that I know of.

Wrong, Commander is a rank in the Us Navy as well. In fact it is 2 ranks as you have LT Commanders and full Commanders. Star Trek follows the US Navy ranking system. The Devs in this game are all over the boards on rank structures. In a BH quest, you talk to a LT Major, there is no rank in any military that I know of.

Guess there is now, in the imperial army there seems to be a Lt. Major. Good thing they aren't a real army, they'd be laughed off the face of the planet for making up their own ranks in their military.

According to the Republic Military Ranks codex entry, available quite early on in-game, there is no rank of Commander. The game's grasp of how military ranks work is shakey enough, so I'd be perfectly happy to end up as a Colonel.

The game is based in "a galaxy far, far away." In a galaxy where a flashlight is called a glow lamp, exactly why would you expect rank names to be identical to those here? Is there universal agreement even here? No.

In the U.S. Army, Marines, and Air Force, the lowest ranking officer is a 2nd Lieutenant, which happens to be the same for the British Army and Royal Marines. However in the U.S. Navy, that same rank is an Ensign, and in the RAF, it is Pilot Officer. The Royal Navy does not use that rank, but rather, starts at Sub Lieutenant, which is a Lieutenant Junior Grade in the U.S. Navy, Flying Officer in the RAF, First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, Air Force, and Marines, and Lieutenant in the British Army and Royal Marines.

But a Lieutenant in the U.S. and Royal Navies is the next rank up, which is a Flight Lieutenant in the RAF, but a Captain in the U.S. Army, Air Force, and Marines as well as the British Army and Royal Marines. Of course, a Captain in both Navies and a Group Captain in the RAF is a Colonel in the other mentioned services.

You cannot get universal agreement on how ranks are named between services in a given country, let alone between countries even on this one planet. Why in the world would you expect the military ranks in a military made up of many, many worlds in a completely unrelated galaxy to match up to something we cannot even standarize here? Even so, the militaries of the Star Wars galaxy do not separate the Naval (i.e., space) forces from the ground forces (i.e., Armies) as distinctly as we do here. Therefore, you would expect some odd combination of ranks even if you could assume they evolved from the same history as ours on Earth did.

There is nothing "shakey" about the games grasp on military ranks. The ranks match Star Wars lore, not something here that we cannot even agree on.

All Wookipedia and real world military references aside, The way the story is written Commander Tavus defects, you are given command of his squad, take said squad further than he ever did, and are more revered by your squad members and the galaxy at large than he ever was.

In the context of the game, I am actually really surprised that by the end of the story you aren't given the Commander title, even if it technically carries no official rank and is just that - a title.

The whole story is pretty much set up around that actually happening - especially in a game where every Empire faction force user becomes a Lord or a Darth.

The whole story is pretty much set up around that actually happening - especially in a game where every Empire faction force user becomes a Lord or a Darth.

This actually has nothing to do with anything. In whatever is eventually going to be canon, each class is just one person. There aren't 300,000 different Jedi Knights that went and defeated the Emperor, there was just one.

What does that have to do with us not being able to get an honorary title attached to our Trooper that the entire Trooper story seems built around attaining?

"Canon" has nothing whatsoever to do with it - as evidenced by the seemingly 1/3 of the server population running around with "Darth" over their heads.

Signed

A'dorah Lore COMMANDER of Riot Squadron

According to the Republic Military Ranks codex entry, available quite early on in-game, there is no rank of Commander.

This. You implicitly have the commander title after the starter planet. Commander just means head of a unit.

What does that have to do with us not being able to get an honorary title attached to our Trooper that the entire Trooper story seems built around attaining?

 

"Canon" has nothing whatsoever to do with it - as evidenced by the seemingly 1/3 of the server population running around with "Darth" over their heads.

Wow, can you read at all?

First of all, as has been said ad nauseum, Commander is not an actual rank. So the story hasn't revolved around it. I can't remember a single time anyone ever called me Commander.

Secondly, as I said ... in the grand scheme of things there aren't that many Darths ... there's one. If someone were to write a book covering the major stories of this game like Revan did with KOTOR and KOTOR 2, then those stories would be condensed into one person per starting class. So the number of people who have a Darth title has nothing to do with whether or not we should get Commander. That makes no sense.

Commander isn't a rank in western armies.

It can be used as a form of respect when you talk or refer to a senior officer in charge of an unit.

I don't call my platoon commander "commander". I call him LT.

And I call my company commander Captain.

Regiment commander (wich is a Colonel in my country) can be referred to both as Colonel or Commander.

Nobody's going to ever refer to a squad leader as "commander" but again, a Major (or above) is not going to make any grunt work in any western army, no matter how elite the squad is.

But at the end of it, this is Star Wars, so they can make up the entire hierarchy, if they please so.

Personally, I wouldn't use a "commander" title.

Why in the heck would any of you want to be a General? There's no way in any galaxy that a (non-Jedi) General would be in the field doing actual fighting.

Why? because thats not how it works here? see Sotaudi's excellent post.

First of all, as has been said ad nauseum, Commander is not an actual rank. So the story hasn't revolved around it. I can't remember a single time anyone ever called me Commander.

They call Tavus "Commander Tavus" at least 20 times on Ord Mantel - in fact, I believe they refer to him as "Commander Tavus" every time he's addressed before he defects. Then, immediately upon his defection, they give you his command. It would follow, since this is a video game, that you would go on to become "Commander Whateveryournameis".

I am entirely aware that "Commander" isn't an actual military rank. It doesn't matter, since this is a video game, and it would look awesome attached to our names. "Black Bisector" isn't a military rank either, but we can attach that and a lot of other things to our name.

Secondly, as I said ... in the grand scheme of things there aren't that many Darths ... there's one. If someone were to write a book covering the major stories of this game like Revan did with KOTOR and KOTOR 2, then those stories would be condensed into one person per starting class. So the number of people who have a Darth title has nothing to do with whether or not we should get Commander. That makes no sense.

I don't know why you keep bringing it up - as near as I can tell, you're the only person who's ever addressed the whole "canon" issue. It doesn't pertain to this conversation in any way. The only reason I brought up how many people have the "Darth" title is to point out this is a video game, and in such a loosely based scenario as an MMO, there isn't anything wrong with letting us display the honorary title "Commander". How many there actually are, could be or would be in the fiction has nothing to do with it. At all.

If you still don't understand what I'm trying to say after my explaining it three times now, maybe you ought to learn how to read.