I personally would like ranks to remain rigid. I like the clear defined line between people who I can joke around with and people who I should drop everything and give my attention to. Making more people senior officers would water down the fear/excitement of being in the presence of a superior. Much like the feeling of an office worker in the presence of their CEO; Both exciting and terrifying.
The problem of the ‘glass ceiling’ is more of a game design problem rather than a military/rank problem. In the military, gaining rank is a slow and selective process (it takes around 22 years of service to reach rank of Captain). In the TSN, we gain ranks in months. So the real question is how do we let current Lieutenants feel that they are making progress. I think that the solution to this is ribbons not ranks. In the US military, there are 6 non admiral officer ranks and 84 different ribbons. Looking at pictures of naval Captains, I usually see upwards of 20 ribbons pined to their suits. During my time playing, I have seen many promotions of rank; Yet I have never seen a ribbon being received nor even being talked about. Possibly expanding the ribbons system might be a good solution.
Another possibility is to possibly implement a console rank system. This will allow for better specialization, give Lieutenants something to strive for and give officers someone to cry to when yelled at by their captains ;). For example, A senior officer for Helm might be in charge of establishing the protocol of the console (Min engage dist, Fleet formations, etc.) and help train junior officers. The most senior officer could also be in charge of running their specialization exams. Console rank should not superseded normal rank though. The Fleet Captain had final word on protocol. You can think of the console ranks as sub ranks compared to their global rank. Since there are no military examples(that I can find), we have creative freedom on titles and number. Console ranks would also be a great solution for people who want to hold rank but do not have the skills to captain a ship. In order to get people interested though, there has to be something to strive for and also make rank easily noticeable, possibly through uniform.
