Which rank is more prestigious, combat, trade or exploration?

So which do people pay most heed to? Is it combat simply because you can see it when you scan a cmdr?

Just wondering, when I finally get to founders world, how people will think of me! 84% left to go.
 
Depends on your career and why you play the game.

Everyone sees your combat rating when they scan so thats bound to be the most popular, however since I haven't traded since beta/release my trade rank doesn't really interest me.

I'm not sure people really see rank that much anyway if they have a bigger ship than you or you have a big bounty you'll be targeted.
 
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Well if you had to ask me which I'd like to do the least, I'd say exploration.
So, exploration.
It's incredibly inconvenient to explore. You can map the entire galaxy, but it means little to your exploration rank if you don't make it home to sell.
Combat and trading is somewhat iterative. You can't exactly lose much at a time. However, you can potentially lose weeks at a time of exploration. This to me makes it a little more prestigious than the others.
 
I generally don't pay attention to ranks other than combat, even to my own, because there is no real benefit to a high rank, except you can take on some different, maybe better paying missions.
 
I will be an elite explorer first, then probably trader and finally combat.
It depends on your play style. I will get to Elite in all three eventually but I dont rank one as being more imprtant than another. They are all significant achievements.
 

rootsrat

Volunteer Moderator
They're all equal in my eyes. It depends on your career path entirely, so for a pure trader Explo and Combat ranks may not matter at all etc.

Pilot Federation certainly doesn't favour any!
 
I think they are all the same in terms of prestige, but it takes a special kind of commander to grind a billion credits in trade !

/edit
especially now without the old "seeking performance enhancers" shortcut
 
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In a historical context the answer is combat. The stated objective of Elite circa 1984 was to achieve an elite combat rating, that was the only type of rating in the original game and that's why the game is called 'Elite'. Personally I still think it's combat because ... well it just is. :)
 
How is achieving exploration Elite any less by grinding than the other two, it is still supercruise, scan, scan, supercruise, scan, scan....

Elite lore, the original 1984 game, and the fact that it is the only visible one to other commanders means Combat is the one that carries the most prestige. By far.
 
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I would say Explorer, even though I'm mainly focused on combat at the moment. Being 20000ly from civilisation with millions worth of scan data sitting in your ship, takes a special type of dedicated player.
 
1 of these 3 takes physical skill and logical skill, 2 of these can be done with just logical skill.
 
Well if you had to ask me which I'd like to do the least, I'd say exploration.
So, exploration.
It's incredibly inconvenient to explore. You can map the entire galaxy, but it means little to your exploration rank if you don't make it home to sell.
Combat and trading is somewhat iterative. You can't exactly lose much at a time. However, you can potentially lose weeks at a time of exploration. This to me makes it a little more prestigious than the others.

What he said.
 
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