Should Frontier adjust the rankings of ascent to ELITE?

[jj.justme]

Hello Commanders!

First of all please know that this post I think without the intention of creating discomfort in the community. Please read my words as a reflection aloud to which you are invited to participate.

I put a little in situation of my personal case:: you see, taking advantage of the offers of last Christmas, I bought a second account of this one, for me, wonderful game. I have to tell you that I've been playing with my main account since the first day that the game came out virtually uninterrupted and I have more than 5000 hours played on that account.

With my main account, I am currently doing the DW2 expedition and thinking that I will be months away from the bubble, I created this to entertain myself by playing in the bubble zone exclusively (well, I just did a 5000 ly excursion to unlock Palin).

In this case and as I practiced mining (the old form of mining) with my other account and taking advantage of the new mining, because I've been doing occasionally (really, I have not spent much time on this) while quietly unlocking the remains of Engineers and missions.

And here comes the reason for my reflection: Today, after 35 days! I've gone up to the Elite rank in trade. In just 35 days!. And not only that, just doing Palin's 5000 ly, I'm at 9% of the Pioneer range in exploration. And I really haven't noticed this amazing climb, don't you think you're disproportionate?

To make them a comparison, right now I'm 4% novice in combat thing I see more normal in my days played. I consult you do not think this ascent crazy?

I am aware that years ago, there was the massacre of Skimmers of 17 Draconis, the missions of passengers that went up a lot of commerce and exploration but, in my opinion, now is everything as much faster.

For example I remember that in my main account, doing only trade, took about 2 years or more to go up Elite. Two years! In more or less the same exploration... even in the range of combat (the role that I like the least of the game) I climbed Elite rank almost after 5 years playing! That yes, without taking advantage of the bug of 17 Draconis, for example, to climb faster in range combat...

Some photos of my beginnings with this account, the days played, and ranges:

Spoiler

What do you think? Should you adjust down the range rise so that it is not as effective?

Sincerely for me, the Elite rank title and entry to Shinrarta Dezhra has lost all its value

 

[Deadlock-3000]

Nah.

Just wait for someone else to make a better game.

I got to combat Deadly in about two years. It was only when I got to about 75% past Deadly that I made any conscious effort to push it up to Elite. Achieved that pre-Thargoids, so I didn't have the luxury of shooting down space barnacles in a barrel.

I'm something like Pioneer in so-called "exploration" (probably for the same reason as the OP) and I honestly couldn't tell you what I am in trade, probably Merchant or something equally informative.

None of it matters.

 

[Wolf Starslayer]

Nah.

Just wait for someone else to make a better game.

I got to combat Deadly in about two years. It was only when I got to about 75% past Deadly that I made any conscious effort to push it up to Elite. Achieved that pre-Thargoids, so I didn't have the luxury of shooting down space barnacles in a barrel.

I'm something like Pioneer in so-called "exploration" (probably for the same reason as the OP) and I honestly couldn't tell you what I am in trade, probably Merchant or something equally informative.

None of it matters.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

p.s. don't want your stuff;stinks of troll

 

[Deadlock-3000]

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

p.s. don't want your stuff;stinks of troll

You couldn't have it anyway. You can't transfer money between accounts or even gift people any of your assets.

Just like you'd expect for a collection of galactic space empires who all behave like capitalists, even the communists.

 

[mistohise]

Sure. Once I've finished off my Elite rankings you can raise the bar as high as you want for future participants.
i mean, that's how this works, right?

 

[jj.justme]

In my opinion it should matter. If the Elite rank means something, it should have a curve of rise according to what it is supposed to grant within the game.

For example the rise curve of the Elite range in combat seems appropriate. It takes effort and dedication to do so. Another example is the rises to the ranks of Federation and Empire. In my opinion they are also appropriate in time and forms. But this rise aberration, you know? According to my logs of Inara, I only needed to do 15 sessions of mining... only 15 to get the approximately 1 billion that it costs to rise to the Elite rank in trade. And only 10000 ly climb to almost Elite in exploration. Maybe 3 or 4 game sessions (maybe a few more but not many) to go up to Elite rank in exploration.

I find it disproportionate and if well, if Elite ranks do not matter do not think it is better to remove them?

 

[jj.justme]

Sure. Once I've finished off my Elite rankings you can raise the bar as high as you want for future participants.
i mean, that's how this works, right?

That's not what I'm thinking. Read my first post I think I explain what I really want to say.

PS: Please respect the opinions of others.

 

[Deadlock-3000]

if Elite ranks do not matter do not think it is better to remove them?

Yep. Why not.

I mean, it's a slightly blunt force approach to balancing, but you'd only need to do it once.

 

[Nigel_Loring]

Fair point, OP.

I have reached Merchant rank in trade after about half a year of casual playing, which feels abour right to me.
That is entirely without mining. If modern mining can take you to Elite trader in 1 month, that rank certainly looses all value.

Not sure how it could be easily adressed, though.

 

[Alec Turner]

As a counterpoint to this from someone who's been loving the heck out of this game every day for the last 4 years and has yet to hit a single Elite rank, personally I'd say nah, it's fine.

"What the hell have you been doing?" I hear some of you cry. Errr, dunno really. A little bit of this, a lttle bit of that and some of the other? Certainly never chasing those ranks, just letting them tick up casually as a natural consequence of my normal gameplay.

Anway, for what it's worth I'll leave these here:

Combat: Dangerous
Trade: Tycoon
Exploration: Pioneer
Approx. time played: 16w 2d
Systems visited: 13,830
Total jumps: 26,288
SRV distance travelled: 18.9MM
Engineering upgrades generated: 777
Insurance claims: 178

Perhaps they tell a story, perhaps not. No idea how they compare to others numbers.

Oh, and the insurance claims? I put those down to Buckyball racing, foolhardiness and general carelessness with my property.

 

[CMDR Woland92]

I had a similar thought the other day. What if FDEV changed just the elite rank to a percentile system? In other words to achieve “elite” in combat you have to be in the top x percentile of non-elite commanders in terms of combat success (using the current metric based on opponent rank) or bonds/bounties earned. For trade and exploration, top x percentile of non-elite commanders in terms of profit earned through the relevant associated activities.

You could then be “grandfathered” in once you attain elite status so you wouldn’t be constantly fighting to stay in the relevant percentile. And new commanders wouldn’t face an impossible task because they’d be compared to non-elite commanders only.

 

[jj.justme]

As a counterpoint to this from someone who's been loving the heck out of this game every day for the last 4 years and has yet to hit a single Elite rank, personally I'd say nah, it's fine.

"What the hell have you been doing?" I hear some of you cry. Errr, dunno really. A little bit of this, a lttle bit of that and some of the other? Certainly never chasing those ranks, just letting them tick up casually as a natural consequence of my normal gameplay.

Anway, for what it's worth I'll leave these here:

Combat: Dangerous
Trade: Tycoon
Exploration: Pioneer
Approx. time played: 16w 2d
Systems visited: 13,830
Total jumps: 26,288
SRV distance travelled: 18.9MM
Engineering upgrades generated: 777
Insurance claims: 178

Perhaps they tell a story, perhaps not. No idea how they compare to others numbers.

Oh, and the insurance claims? I put those down to Buckyball racing, foolhardiness and general carelessness with my property.

I think without using bug, the time and ranges you carry are more appropriate than the ones I carry in this account. I tell you that in my main account it took almost two years to rise to trade rank.

I had a similar thought the other day. What if FDEV changed just the elite rank to a percentile system? In other words to achieve “elite” in combat you have to be in the top x percentile of non-elite commanders in terms of combat success (using the current metric based on opponent rank) or bonds/bounties earned. For trade and exploration, top x percentile of non-elite commanders in terms of profit earned through the relevant associated activities.

You could then be “grandfathered” in once you attain elite status so you wouldn’t be constantly fighting to stay in the relevant percentile. And new commanders wouldn’t face an impossible task because they’d be compared to non-elite commanders only.

It is an idea although I think that difficult to implement. I think that adjusting the rise would improve enough for example, that the system detect that if I sell 100 million of mining materials not affect me as much the ascent as if I sell the same 100 million doing trade between stations.

Same for passenger missions that go up much as much trading as exploration.

It is an idea although I think that difficult to implement. I think that adjusting the rise would improve enough for example, that the system detect that if I sell 100 million of mining materials not affect me as much the ascent as if I sell the same 100 million doing trade between stations.

Same for passenger missions that go up much as much trading as exploration.

In my opinion I think it is difficult to balance but not impossible

 

[Deadlock-3000]

I had a similar thought the other day. What if FDEV changed just the elite rank to a percentile system? In other words to achieve “elite” in combat you have to be in the top x percentile of non-elite commanders in terms of combat success (using the current metric based on opponent rank) or bonds/bounties earned. For trade and exploration, top x percentile of non-elite commanders in terms of profit earned through the relevant associated activities.

You could then be “grandfathered” in once you attain elite status so you wouldn’t be constantly fighting to stay in the relevant percentile. And new commanders wouldn’t face an impossible task because they’d be compared to non-elite commanders only.

You mean, make ranks more like a CG.

Are you counting all the players who got to Mostly Harmless and then stopped playing forever?

 

[60mm]

Trading certainly needs an overhaul. I'm halfway through Tycoon even though I despise Trading and have only gotten it with a handful of Mining sessions. Been doing Combat non-stop for 100s of hours and still low Dangerous.

I'm a "Trailblazer" despite never venturing past 5k Ly, never intentionally scanning bodies and only sold my pathetic data twice. So I think Exploration needs an overhaul too, but can't say how extreme.

I think the real issue is that they use only one basic metric ($$$) for these Ranks.

Merchant Ranks should have additional threshholds like Market Network Size, Tons Hauled, Distance Traveled w/ > X Tons in Cargo, etc.

Exploration Ranks should definitely have X Ly from Starting point at each Tier, as well as needing to make a first discovery for at least Elite. The fact that you can fly around in the Bubble scanning stuff everyone knows about and eventually make Elite Explorer is just sad.

 

[CMDR Woland92]

I was, yes. But an alternative could be top x percentile of all players in the rank below elite for the various categories.

 

[60mm]

Turning Ranks into a Curve competing with other Players would be garbage. Ranks should feel earned, but not be impossible for casual players. Which it would do.

 

[Deadlock-3000]

The inara.cz stats on who has what rank are interesting. I know they're probably not fully representative of the punters currently playing the game. But for combat, the bell curve peaks at about Expert. For trading and a lesser extent exploration, the ranks are all overwhelmingly piled up at the top.

So either inara doesn't attract many combat players, or trade and exploration are far, far easier to attain. I mean, nothing about that is news. But it's a data point.

TBH I think it's far too late to do anything about it now. It was a dubious decision to have three ranks in the first place, there should have either none, or if you insisted on preserving the nod to the original 1984 game, you could have had just one rank like 1984 did, and have all the different activities contribute to it. But what's done is done, game is a bit of a mess after 4 years of ad hoc decisions being rolled out, don't think there's any good way out of it that won't provoke howls of protest from one quarter or another.

Edited to add: Oh yeah, there's that other rank as well. 85% Helpless, nothing making a entire percentage point above Semi-Professional.

 

[Marklar_]

This horse is long gone from the barn. I don't see the point of doing anything about it now.

 

[CMDR Woland92]

Turning Ranks into a Curve competing with other Players would be garbage. Ranks should feel earned, but not be impossible for casual players. Which it would do.

How so? I’m only talking about the elite rank. The other ranks would retain the same progression requirements. And the curve would only apply to non-elite players. So if you have to hit an objective benchmark to get to the rank before elite, you’re on similar playing ground with the other commanders competing for elite.

Then, one you hit the percentile, you gain elite status and are taken out of the running. The percentile ranking could be updated with the weekly pp updates.

I mean, shouldn’t “elite” really mean elite?

Anyway, just a thought. I don’t have any problem with the current system.

 

[Marklar_]

I mean, shouldn’t “elite” really mean elite?

It's never really meant that, in any meaningful way.