Newcomer / Intro Navy Rank - how does it work, by number of missions completed or by the value of those missions

[ste234]

I've been spending some time grinding up the navy ranks and have noticed something that makes me question how it works. I was previously doing courier missions with typical payout of less than 100k, however once i reached warrant officer this seemed to be only making about 1% progress per mission ran. So i switched out my ship for my large transporter and used it to run a supply mission worth 18million expecting this would rank me faster. When i completed the mission i checked navy rank and found that i'd again only progressed by 1% even thought the mission was worth 180x the payout of the courier ones.
Is there a counter of missions completed or is there a hidden rank boost value associated with each mission, as it doesnt seem based on the missions value, nor the reputation reward, which scales with the missions value

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

grinding up the navy ranks

Well that's your first mistake . Don't fall for the grinding trap too hard, it has serious potential to burn you out and ruin the game in the long run. Having said that:

only progressed by 1% even thought the mission was worth 180x the payout of the courier ones.

It is not the payout that is important for your rank progression, it is the reputation the mission gives. For one, you have to actively choose the reputation reward from the reward options; if you choose the money reward, you get no to very little reputation. Second, have an eye on how much reputation a mission gives you. It is in the rewards description, but you can single the rep reward out in the mission overview for a better display if needed. You can do that by setting the reward filter above the mission list to "Reputation".

If it is rank you are after, prioritize missions that give you the highest reputation as reward.

 

[Aleks Zuno]

It is the Reputation reward, although please note that all rewards increase as your reputation with the specific faction increases, including the reputation reward itself. The missions themselves also have several different grades, but it helps much more to ignore that and focus instead on gaining reputations in one system which has a lot of Imperial or Federal factions, hence the popularity of Ngalinn for the former.

The Ngalinn example also illustrates another point; completing a vast number of small, quick missions will move your Navy rank much faster!

 

[ste234]

Thanks for the pointers - i think something weird is happening with this though. The potential rewards are scaled together so higher paying missions also have higher rep rewards. When you compete and take cash, you still get some rep as shown on the reward select page. So taking cash (with rep) reward on a higher value mission should also yeild more rep than taking a cash (and rep) reward on a lower value mission. What seems odd is that isnt whats happening - they yeilded the same. The comment "completing a vast number of small, quick missions will move your Navy rank much faster" is in line with this. Its like the lower value mission are worth much more navy rep than they should be. This would be explained by a rounding issue or similar, where the min you can get is 1% so any mission that rewards <1% is rounded to 1%. Either way is doesnt seem right that an 18million high risk mission pays the same rep as a 27k courier mission, with other factors being equal, ie ally with both mission givers and only 1 federation affiliated recipient benefiting from the misson and cash reward chosen for both

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Thanks for the pointers - i think something weird is happening with this though. The potential rewards are scaled together so higher paying missions also have higher rep rewards. When you compete and take cash, you still get some rep as shown on the reward select page. So taking cash (with rep) reward on a higher value mission should also yeild more rep than taking a cash (and rep) reward on a lower value mission. What seems odd is that isnt whats happening - they yeilded the same. The comment "completing a vast number of small, quick missions will move your Navy rank much faster" is in line with this. Its like the lower value mission are worth much more navy rep than they should be. This would be explained by a rounding issue or similar, where the min you can get is 1% so any mission that rewards <1% is rounded to 1%. Either way is doesnt seem right that an 18million high risk mission pays the same rep as a 27k courier mission, with other factors being equal, ie ally with both mission givers and only 1 federation affiliated recipient benefiting from the misson and cash reward chosen for both

the rep reward does not scale with the cash reward. I have no clue what it means in absolute numbers, but a mission that offers a rep+++ reward gives you the same rep no matter if the cash reward is 100k or 10 million. That's just the way it is.

 

[ste234]

"a mission that offers a rep+++ reward gives you the same rep no matter if the cash reward is 100k or 10 million" Thanks, thats useful to know. Seems the rewards dont work as i'd thought then.
So these two mission rewards would be expected to pay the same amount of minor faction rep and navy rep, even though they're vastly different in terms of difficulty?

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

I would say so. And it seems to match what you experienced.

 

[alexzk]

So these two mission rewards would be expected to pay the same amount of minor faction rep and navy rep, even though they're vastly different in terms of difficulty?

Yes.
You need to pick missions with most filled REP line, best are REP+++. But those are different too, +++ just means it is overfilled. But how much overfill is - it is not known.

 

[ste234]

Thanks guys - i'm a bit disappointed to find it works that way as it means there no link between difficulty and rep received, but at least now i know that and can tune my approach accordingly

 

[oblivionmanman 2476]

run courier mission for rep make sure they are for the faction you want the navy rank ie fed empire best two,for empire cutter or fed corvette.stack missions about 10 and complete collecting rep as you go keep a eye out for navy missions popping up and do them that gives you the next rank,welome to the world of grind thats the way it is im afraid if in a hurry. 07

 

[ste234]

prompted by the above i've taken a closer look at the mission briefings - seems that you can also be offered unprofitable missions which to me is a bit questionable balance wise

Here i would spend 4.6mil and then get rewarded at most 2.9mil losing 1.7mil for my effort, but gaining 2 rep and influence.
Alternatively

If i dont play a mission and just donate 1mil instead, i get the same 2 rep and influence and save .7 mil

 

[metatheurgist]

That's a wing mission, intended for multiple players. Either way, if you're trying to rank quickly, one courier trip is more time effective than 10 trips shipping cargo.

 

[ste234]

Cheers, i realised its a wing mission but its still a bit crap that its not profitable for a single player to do and that its more efficient to not play in this instance and just give money away with that yeilding better results (+.7mil). I was hoping to mix up the navy grind with some supply missions too rather than just doing the courier ones but i can see that its set up such that those are just far more efficient - thanks again for the pointers

 

[oblivionmanman 2476]

why donate cred for rep,a courier mission take a few minutes and you get the rep and creds. i agree with

• metatheurgist post.(think my typing messed up lol}

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

You have to make up your mind what your goal is. Either it is getting reputation and rank, or it is being profitable. You can't have both; if you want to be profitable, your rank progression will slow down, if you want to push your rank, you have prioritise missions that are efficent instead of what profit you make.

 

[ste234]

Yup, its not as well connected and balanced as it could be - logically if i run a long, high risk mission to deliver 1000's of goods, requiring several trips each with multiple jumps, while being chased by elite pirates - that should give me more rep than running a no threat data package from one system to the one next door. Its a bit of a shame that it doesnt always with how it works at the moment, the risk and reward aren't always proportional

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Yup, its not as well connected and balanced as it could be - logically if i run a long, high risk mission to deliver 1000's of goods, requiring several trips each with multiple jumps, while being chased by elite pirates - that should give me more rep than running a no threat data package from one system to the one next door. Its a bit of a shame that it doesnt always with how it works at the moment, the risk and reward aren't always proportional

maybe the data you carry is more important to the mission giver than running cargo? .

 

[oblivionmanman 2476]

no free meals in this game lol. but you can make it easy for youreself. ie. dont run before you can walk, take advice from players we do try to help new player s well i do anyway we have all done it before.

 

[Ashnak]

but its still a bit crap that its not profitable for a single player to do

Not quite right - the game seems to have been adapted to the use of crowd sourced data, too. You can buy those 2070 units of Reactive Armour for ~350 kCr. if you look in the right places. So, still profitable for a single player. However - if you're after profit and have a big cargo ship, shipping e.g. Silver can easily get you ~50kCr./ton, so around 30 MCr. per trip (or >120 MCr. for the four trips you'd need to shift that Reactive Armour).

Edit: which can be (actually, has been) another way to gain rank: make some money from cargo shipping (or whatever you like doing), then bribe/buy your way into the rank through donation missions. Imperial officials are just as easily bribed as federals.

 

[aRJay]

Cheers, i realised its a wing mission but its still a bit crap that its not profitable for a single player to do and that its more efficient to not play in this instance and just give money away with that yeilding better results (+.7mil). I was hoping to mix up the navy grind with some supply missions too rather than just doing the courier ones but i can see that its set up such that those are just far more efficient - thanks again for the pointers

The thing to do is think long term and focus on the stuff you enjoy doing at that time, as has been said if you go all out just grinding to get rank in one or both of the two navies you are very likely to get burnt out or jaded.

I would play the game doing what ever but mostly not missions until I felt prepared to put up with being told what to do then I would head off somewhere and do mostly donate or courier missions just accepting the rep rewards unless there was something very desirable in the materials option. So it took me a few years* but both I and the game are still here and I am still having fun.

*Almost entirely due to me only doing missions occasionally.