Advancement Ideas: Delta Vector the Game

#1. Ships must level up quickly
#2. Nothing will be tracked - imagine the paperwork nightmare tracking XP for each ship!
#3. Combat should be encouraged

At the end of each battle, ships may see if they have "levelled up"

 Captain Picard initially thought he might have to track his crew's Experience Points

Levels
Currently I am using a dice system for crew quality - which may change if the damage rules get too clunky. Crew pass a 4+ on a die to pass their Crew Quality check.

d6 (green)
d8 (regular)
d10 (veteran)
d12 (elite)

Diminishing Returns
I think I will make this a CQ roll in reverse; i.e. crew must FAIL their crew check.
This means rookie crews with low CQ are more likely to level up to the standard of regulars, whereas veteran crews are less likely to become elite.


You can level up when.....
During the game, certain events must occur for a ship to qualify for the 'leveling up' roll

Your Ship Size    vs   Enemy Ship Size (Ratio)
                      1:4 - you must simply score hits on the enemy ship
                      1:2 - you must "shake" the enemy ship
                      1:1 - you must lightly damage the enemy ship
                      2:1 - you must heavily damage the enemy ship
                      4:1 - you must land the final blow that destroys the enemy ship

Heroic Actions
Some heroic actions lead to an instant level up chance - the roll is taken on the spot, and again at the end of the game. 

Your Ship Size    vs   Enemy Ship Size (Ratio)1:4 - you lightly damage the enemy ship
1:2 - you heavily damage the enemy ship
1:1 - you land the final blow that destroys the enemy ship

You can see that smaller ships have a greater chance of levelling up. This reflects naval tradition, where MTBs, strike craft and escorts/destroyers showed greater elan, dash and morale than battleships. This also compensates for their more expendable nature. 

Losing Levels
I'm not sure if I want to go down this path as we want to reward aggressive players. 

Damaged Ships: If a ship is heavily damaged it cannot level up, even if it deserved it. This represents the loss of life of key crewmen and the green replacements that will be drafted in

Optional: If a ship is crippled, it must roll above CQ or lose a level or trait

Traits
When a ship CQ becomes regular, any rolls after that must consider if they have gained a Trait instead. Check your roll.
If it is odd - you have gained a trait
If it is even - you have levelled up

Generic Traits
We want to keep these pretty generic so they work for any space race or genre. The trait you get is random.

Engineering = re-roll failed damage rolls?
Navigation = re-roll failed checks to navigate obstacles/allow thrust to be overboosted/add to evasive action? re-roll reaction checks if you are reacting by moving away
Weapons  = re-roll failed reaction rolls for firing?
Bridge = re-roll failed Initiative rolls

Well I'm not sure if I'll have to tweak the 'level up' criteria but so far no record keeping or tracking "Experience" so seems OK so far