2. Infinite Character Switching
So, on an episode of TNG a distress signal from a planet below says that a horrific creature is devouring people by the dozens and farting poison gas! How likely is it that Captain Picard will choose to lead an away team himself with his First Officer and Chief Engineer? That would be the Everybody Dies lost episode. In all likelihood, Data and maybe Worf would lead a small company of red shirts whose names are meaningless down to the planet. When video games place the player in a singular station or rank, sometimes this puts them in extremely unlikely positions. So if the player was stuck as the ships Captain they would have to go on unrealistic missions in order to experience the story. However, the player should be able to simply choose to jump into his Away Team leaders body and visit the planet in a way that makes sense to the story. Conversely, the player should also be able to stay as the Captain and totally not go down to the planet to find out what Cthulus insides look like. If the player has the ability to create, train, and cultivate every aspect of the crew and equipment, then it should go without saying that the pieces can move about autonomously from the player's direct input. That would create the Star Trek experience of watching in horror while men and women under your command are brutally murdered because youre curious.