Elite: Dangerous rank changes

[Pyros]

Expert and master do not make any sense in the progression, their positioning before dangerous is forced at best.

Two separate rankings for combat and non-combat make more sense.
The old ranking list was great. Keep it for combat ranking. Maybe replace poor with novice as suggested before.

IMO, only non-combat ranking should have expert and master and keep dangerous for combat ranks where it really belongs.

Being dangerous because I mined x thousand asteroids or dangerous because I crashed x thousand markets, just makes the rank loose it's flavor.

Edit: Forgot about Deadly which has no place whatsoever in a non-combat ranking list.

Before I ran out of battery, I had new ratings aligned with this idea:
A "general" Elite level, starting with novice and ending with elite
A rank per type of activity:

• Combat: from harmless to Elite, quite similar to the traditional combat rating, but without poor and average, reflecting how experienced you were in killing people
• Trading: from "vendor to elite, each rank reflecting your increased net worth derived from astute commerce deals
• Exploration: from local surveyor to Elite, reflecting how experienced you were in exploring and mapping the unknown

All lists had 9 different ranks, the final one being Elite in all cases. Another option is to have the top rank in each activity as a different alias, and to have the Elite rank only to appear in the global rank (as a 10th level?mmh).

 

[popuptoaster]

Mosquitos can be deadly and they can't fight their way out of a paper bag.

You guys need to get over your obsession with combat, you know what's currently stopping the Europeans having a pop at Russia for annexing part of the Ukraine?

That's right, it's fear the Russians will turn the gas and oil taps off, that's real power and that makes them dangerous.

 

[Luniticisi]

I'll post the same thing here as I did in another thread on this subject in the PBF .....

Personally I would rather they kept the original Elite ranking names ... but what's in a name ? .... I can't see the new titles reducing enjoyment in the game so .. hay-ho! .... It doesn't really make any difference in the long run ... it's just a title ... as long as it takes AGES to reach Elite I'd be fine if they named half of the ranks after the tellytubbies ...

 

[fireFly1000]

Before I ran out of battery, I had new ratings aligned with this idea:
A "general" Elite level, starting with novice and ending with elite
A rank per type of activity:

• Combat: from harmless to Elite, quite similar to the traditional combat rating, but without poor and average, reflecting how experienced you were in killing people
• Trading: from "vendor to elite, each rank reflecting your increased net worth derived from astute commerce deals
• Exploration: from local surveyor to Elite, reflecting how experienced you were in exploring and mapping the unknown

All lists had 9 different ranks, the final one being Elite in all cases. Another option is to have the top rank in each activity as a different alias, and to have the Elite rank only to appear in the global rank (as a 10th level?mmh).

+1 for this

 

[Googol]

Before I ran out of battery, I had new ratings aligned with this idea:
A "general" Elite level, starting with novice and ending with elite
A rank per type of activity:

• Combat: from harmless to Elite, quite similar to the traditional combat rating, but without poor and average, reflecting how experienced you were in killing people
• Trading: from "vendor to elite, each rank reflecting your increased net worth derived from astute commerce deals
• Exploration: from local surveyor to Elite, reflecting how experienced you were in exploring and mapping the unknown

All lists had 9 different ranks, the final one being Elite in all cases. Another option is to have the top rank in each activity as a different alias, and to have the Elite rank only to appear in the global rank (as a 10th level?mmh).

I was hoping for this too. Something like the rankings in X2 you can see here, although there are perhaps too many trading levels for ED while it doesn't allow player-owned facilities.

Edit: Sorry, the link doesn't go direct to the page I'm talking about - scroll down and click on the Rank and Race Standings guide.

Edit Edit: Now it does

 

[Stachel]

Mosquitos can be deadly and they can't fight their way out of a paper bag.

You guys need to get over your obsession with combat, you know what's currently stopping the Europeans having a pop at Russia for annexing part of the Ukraine?

That's right, it's fear the Russians will turn the gas and oil taps off, that's real power and that makes them dangerous.

Don't disagree however it really doesn't feel right to shoehorn these tokenistic new ranks in to the exhisting structure. I mean the majority of ranks are still overtly militaristic. Why not just keep it as it was and call it an anachronism/sentimentality on behalf of the EFP? They could have said it was because to retrospectively alter the rankings would be detrimental to the achievements and memory of past members/forebears. A lot of real world organizations anachronistically maintain military rank structures for example; not because its fitting just because its tradition.

Personally - subjectively - I think it was unnecessary to expand the Elite Fed concept in to a catch all for every play style. Like it or not you will have to defend yourself against pilots sooner or later - human or NPC. So even a trader will over time advance their combat rating. I am sure nobody will do one thing exclusively in the game and to try to make the EFP somehow fit every vocation seems trite and naff.

The game space is after all arguably big enough and the backstory potentially rich enough to create all manner of paramilitary groups, conglomerates, corporations, secret fraternal societies etc. All with their own paths to achievement and recognized ranks/roles etc. There was no real need to *******ize the Elite Federation imho.

Even though they have, and won't be changing that now, I still think keeping the old rank structure would be more logical and fitting with the spirit of Elite than trying to shoehorn 2-3 rather meaningless new ranks in to what remains essentially a record of military prowess.

 

[Iskariot]

That doesn't sound right. They'd be harmless when they begin and poor would be several ranks higher. I honestly don't know why people have a problem with it as a rank, it's not implying you're poor at playing. You have to put it into context.

If you don't like ranking at all, I fear you're missing the point a little.

You might be right about the 'poor' thing. English not being my first language might distort my perception of the word a bit. To me it just sounds wrong in this context.

But I'm not missing any points just because I do not care about ranking myself (which is not quite the same as not liking it). It just is not the way I play games. I don't even know what rank I had in Frontier after all the hours I poured into that game.

Well, whatever; I still prefer the old rankings.

 

[Jason S]

I would like the game just as much with no rankings and that went for the original as well. I never did play for the rankings.

 

[Luniticisi]

I would like the game just as much with no rankings and that went for the original as well. I never did play for the rankings.

and the beauty is you still can

 

[Memnoch]

Some people will love that stuff though and will enjoy posting up evidence on the forums and elsewhere of their exploits. Server firsts are inevitable.

 

[Iskariot]

I was wondering, why not introduce some kind of an alpha-numerical ranking system?

For such a big game you could easily add many more ranks that way. Elite is a big game and the way it is shaping up many will be playing it for many years. Having a more flexible, virtually endless ranking system might be much more interesting.
For example everybody would start out as a 000000 and might end up as a 008776. You might even meet a commander with the rank 999999.
I know it is not as romantic and nostalgic for the Elite oldies, like me, but it would allow for much more differentiation.
The number could be printed in the badge and auto update as you travel through the ranks.

A very important reason to adopt this is that after a year or two you will not be able to improve yourself in the current system. If you use an endless numerical system you will be able to level up endlessly.

 

[Memnoch]

Is that level up process likely to have any meaning though? I would guess that some content will be gated behind the rank system, like missions. If you allow potentially hundreds or thousands of levels, what do you do with all those extra ones?

 

[Captain N]

Is that level up process likely to have any meaning though? I would guess that some content will be gated behind the rank system, like missions. If you allow potentially hundreds or thousands of levels, what do you do with all those extra ones?

That was addressed in the newsletter wasn't it? You won't be admitted into the Elite Pilot's Federation until you are at least Dangerous. (The organisation within the organisation.)

 

[Virgil Tracy]

I suggest these as replacement ranks. :smilie:

n00b
Carebear
Newtonian Flyer
Banned
Infracted
Unknown
Pwner
PKer
Griefer

...LMAO!..dont forget Elite!..gotta have that

1337

 

[Iskariot]

Is that level up process likely to have any meaning though? I would guess that some content will be gated behind the rank system, like missions. If you allow potentially hundreds or thousands of levels, what do you do with all those extra ones?

I thought about that.
Of course every single rank would not get higher leveled missions per se. You could group the levels. ranks 000000 to 000200 get access to certain mission levels, rank 201 to 400 get higher level missions, and so on.
The gating of content in the background would in principle not differ much from the current system. Certain missions you would not be able to get below the rank of 3000 for example, but at a certain point there would be no need to add special missions for the highest ranks anymore (lets say 6000) (but FD could if it wanted to). It would just serve as a method to recognize very 'old' and experienced commanders.
I think this would work perfectly. It would motivate many players to no end I feel. Imagine how cool it would be for a relative beginner with the rank of 000510 to meet a commander with a ranking of 998750.

 

[Patrick_68000]

My favourite would be referring to mining, with John Stabler in an early episode of Lave Radio discussing "Dangerous Miner" How is one a Dangerous Miner

A miner who opens his cargo bay with its cargo of hundreds of tons of rocks on your spaceship parked, is a dangerous miner

 

[Frank]

I liked the humour in trying hard to reach 'Poor', 'Below average', etc. and will be sorry to see them go.

The change to the ranks has a hint of the modern 'there are no losers, everyone who takes part is a winner and gets to take home a trophy' school of thought.

I completely agree. The rank's names were always part of the Elite humour. You knew that they weren't to be taken too seriously when you saw "Harmless" flick over to "Mostly Harmless" and there was something sarcastic about how hard it was to become "Average".

I do believe it has less to do with the sportsday "You are all winners", and more to do with how much time Frontier Developments spend in coffee shops, "We have three sizes; Grande, Mega Grande, and super-duper Ultra-Ninjabast Grande."

 

[Patrick_68000]

The new classification is not bad. Like others, I would like clarifications of Frontier, on the articulations "Novice" and "Harmless" and also "Expert" and "Master"

 

[deMangler]

Not a change I was expecting or seems at all needed, or any kind of improvement.
Still - like most things like this, through usage it will become just a tag where the new meaning obscures the word itself.
Personally I still can't help cringing when I hear myself calling the game Elite:⁠Dangerous. Just Elite or Elite IV would have been fine.
And, "Expert"?..... "Master"?.... *deMangler wanders off shaking his grumpy-old-man-head*

 

[popuptoaster]

Personally - subjectively - I think it was unnecessary to expand the Elite Fed concept in to a catch all for every play style. Like it or not you will have to defend yourself against pilots sooner or later - human or NPC. So even a trader will over time advance their combat rating.

I disagree with that 100%, providing the game follows on in the spirit of the original there will be systems that are safe, you could sell your weapons and trade or mine for as long as you liked if that was your idea of fun and i see no reason not to expect the same in this one, can you really see places like the founders world or the empire and federations capital planets being in systems where pirates can operate?