Well I didn't expect *THAT*...

[Juniper]

I bought another Commander during the Christmas sale, because I like the starting game of Elite, and didn't fancy a reset.

Figured it would keep me busy for a while, since my main is Elite in both Trading and Exploration (my two main interests in the game).

With this Commander, I've gone all-out for credits from the start. I made my first billion doing Sol->Hutton runs in a Cobra MK3 (my only ship at the time). Bored with that, I decided to do the LTT 9360 passenger missions. So I did half a dozen or so. It's only money - it only enables me to do what I actually want to do in the game... means to an end and all that...

Now, suddenly, I'm ELITE????? I've made 35million in trading - how in the name of all holy chestnuts am I an "Elite" trader just by doing passenger missions? I'm baffled, and slightly annoyed... because that whole avenue of the game (trading... as in buying and selling goods for a profit) is now redundant without a reset.

Very strange game design FD... :S

 

[the source 0179]

I bought another Commander during the Christmas sale, because I like the starting game of Elite, and didn't fancy a reset.

Figured it would keep me busy for a while, since my main is Elite in both Trading and Exploration (my two main interests in the game).

With this Commander, I've gone all-out for credits from the start. I made my first billion doing Sol->Hutton runs in a Cobra MK3 (my only ship at the time). Bored with that, I decided to do the LTT 9360 passenger missions. So I did half a dozen or so. It's only money - it only enables me to do what I actually want to do in the game... means to an end and all that...

Now, suddenly, I'm ELITE????? I've made 35million in trading - how in the name of all holy chestnuts am I an "Elite" trader just by doing passenger missions? I'm baffled, and slightly annoyed... because that whole avenue of the game (trading... as in buying and selling goods for a profit) is now redundant without a reset.

Very strange game design FD... :S

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd....947/0989B8B85FB12B2C454808E3BBC6A66B705E507D/

You must of done ALOT of passenger missions to go from 35mcr to elite

 

[Starwolfe]

Transport missions pay cheap, but add to the Trade rank, where ironically normal Haul missions pay well for the same results.

Transport runs can pay nice if you get good routes, but they tend to need you to travel a bit in SC.

 

[Juniper]

Transport missions pay cheap, but add to the Trade rank, where ironically normal Haul missions pay well for the same results.

Transport runs can pay nice if you get good routes, but they tend to need you to travel a bit in SC.

I made a billion doing delivery missions, travelling to Hutton Orbital back and forth (0.22ly in SC) and my trade rank hardly moved. To do the passenger missions and get good payouts, I needed a slightly better trade rank, so I bought a T9 and spent a couple of hours getting myself up to Broker level.

Then I did economy passenger missions to Smeaton Orbital (1.8million ls) - like I said, only about half a dozen of these.

Granted, each one made me around 150 million per trip in a Python. But it would whack 25% off the Tycoon progress bar each time! When I became Trade Elite on my main, I traded for hours on end to watch that rank creep up 1% at a time.

 

[Morbad]

I'm baffled, and slightly annoyed... because that whole avenue of the game (trading... as in buying and selling goods for a profit) is now redundant without a reset.

It's redundant because you don't need any more money, which was your goal in doing those passenger missions, not because you've gotten to the top of the list of meaningless rank badges.

 

[Phoenix_Dfire]

yeah, the smeaton run is a pain of an exploit. Talk about an 'edge case'. However, if your wanting to take on a Thargoids, you may need a lot of cash to back you up.

 

[Cmdr Ultra]

I think it is wrong as well. Trade rank should probably only move up with actual Trading Commodities.

I never expected I would be Trade Elite before Combat Elite when I bought this game.

 

[TWitko]

yes, I agree ELITE rank just for several missions is weird .. at least ...
.. but, what's even more important = that GREEN colour of HUD is .... great ... GREAT !
I'm jealous of this color scheme .... I don't care of your rank at all, but colour
.. as humble console player, all I want/need is this beautiful customizable HUD color ... blue or even green ...


TW

 

[shadragon]

Making money/rank in the game takes trivial effort now. New players take off and land once and get a 10K bonus.

Elite in 1984 was a game requiring hard work, dedication, strategy and was bloody hard. Elite: Dangerous used to be that. The effort needed to get ahead was one of its biggest attractions for me and the largest differentiation between it and most other games.

It's still good; but getting into an Anaconda in a week has taken the edge off for me. Welcome to the world of everyone gets a ribbon.

 

[metatheurgist]

Passenger missions count to trade rank and the payout is ridiculous at the moment. It's been that way since they factored in SC distance. FD can't seem to write a pay formula that doesn't ramp up preposterously.

 

[Juniper]

yeah, the smeaton run is a pain of an exploit. Talk about an 'edge case'. However, if your wanting to take on a Thargoids, you may need a lot of cash to back you up.

Indeed. I have no problem with making lots of money (or others doing the same), because it's only money. It doesn't actually get you anywhere in the game... you still have to achieve the ranks and promotions, and unlock engineers / permits etc.

It's redundant because you don't need any more money, which was your goal in doing those passenger missions, not because you've gotten to the top of the list of meaningless rank badges.

It's a computer game - it's all meaningless. However you're 100% correct - the goal was to have more money than sense. What I didn't expect was that this would also wipe out a major rank challenge of the game by doing something completely unrelated to the activity.

Passenger missions count to trade rank and the payout is ridiculous at the moment. It's been that way since they factored in SC distance. FD can't seem to write a pay formula that doesn't ramp up preposterously.

At best, the payouts are a bit excessive and need tuning. I get that - and I also expect that to be nerfed to hell and back in Beyond chapter 1. That's fine.

What I still can't get my head around is why doing something completely unrelated would count towards Trade rank. It would be like me doing a few planetary scan missions, and becoming Combat Elite without firing a shot.

 

[Arindor]

I agree OP, trade rank should only relate to trading. I became Tycoon in no time thanks to cargo run missions. Also, the three Elite ranks in ED are far too easy to obtain. I remember the good ol' days back in '84-'85, where obtaining a single combat rank was exhilarating and reaching Elite was an achievement.

 

[Juniper]

yes, I agree ELITE rank just for several missions is weird .. at least ...
.. but, what's even more important = that GREEN colour of HUD is .... great ... GREAT !
I'm jealous of this color scheme .... I don't care of your rank at all, but colour
.. as humble console player, all I want/need is this beautiful customizable HUD color ... blue or even green ...

Aye, it's a shame FD don't spend some dev time coming up with an in-game solution for this so console players can do it too. Even on the PC it's a compromise & a bit of a hack.

In my case, the green is only because I have an Oculus dev kit (DK2) and green pixels show up better than any other colour.

 

[CMDR Carbo]

That's what it is. A few runs to Smeaton and back will give you Trade Elite.
I stopped doing Smeaton runs after getting around 500'000 cr for some quick cash to spend, still catapulted me right to trade Elite rank.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Hard to believe that it once took ~800M Cr in trade Profits which had to be generated by selling into a Commodity Market, isn't it?

 

[ALien8ed]

Now, suddenly, I'm ELITE????? I've made 35million in trading - how in the name of all holy chestnuts am I an "Elite" trader just by doing passenger missions? I'm baffled, and slightly annoyed... because that whole avenue of the game (trading... as in buying and selling goods for a profit) is now redundant without a reset.

Very strange game design FD... :S

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd....947/0989B8B85FB12B2C454808E3BBC6A66B705E507D/

It boggles the mind.

Trade rank should exclusively be tied to commodity trading IMO. The fact you can become an Elite trader in a day or so by doing passenger missions is laughable.

 

[Lily from anim.o.v.e]

because frontier stciked with those stupid 3 ranks and ssqueezed all activities into these 3 ranks instead of givign us more ranks.

 

[Poseidal]

Passenger missions count towards the trade rank, but it's not recorded in general trading.

If you made about a billion combined that with trading, that will be the Elite rank.

 

[Sylveria]

Now let's see how quickly you get the Combat and Exploration ranks up there....

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

Passenger missions count to trade rank and the payout is ridiculous at the moment. It's been that way since they factored in SC distance. FD can't seem to write a pay formula that doesn't ramp up preposterously.

Clarification:

A->B passenger missions count to Trade rank.
A->B->A passenger missions count to Exploration rank.

You can tell by the rank 'requirement' of the mission.