And before the defense force jumps on me let me be very clear and say right off the bat that I am a HUGE fan of Elite. I have followed the game for years and when it finally came out on PS4 I bought it day 1 and have been playing ever since. I love the game and I love the community that supports it.
BUT
Rank Grinding in Elite is the most tedious and unrewarding slog I have ever experienced in a game. There is just no sense of reward. No sense of progress. All I get is a Comms message telling me that I went up a rank. Hurray. I can barely contain myself. Look at me smiling. And that is it. Just a text message as reward for HOURS of grinding and tedium. A basic "Hey bro thanks here are some words" is all we get. Sure we get access to ships and systems at certain ranks, but the game does literally nothing to get you excited for them. There is no description of the ships and there is no explanation of why we should even care about the systems we just gained access to. In fact pretty much the only way to get a full grasp of what we just unlocked is by going to third party websites for the information on WHY we should care about this ship or that system.
The real tragedy here is that it doesn't need to be like that. FDev could make Rank grinding a little less tedious and a bit more interesting with what I assume is very little effort on their part. Here are some ideas of mine that I feel could really help out the process without FDev actually needing to change the process itself.
Ranks
1) Everytime we gain a rank include an entry in our codex about some interesting things and maybe even some heroic deeds that have been performed by Commanders who have held that rank. It would be easily implemented seeing as its just another Codex entry and all it would need is the writers to sit down and write it all up. It would also provide much needed depth to the lore. The Dev team could also use these Codex entries as a foundation for future content and GalNet stories. A way to give some hints and nods to the playerbase. Maybe even a few easter eggs.
2) Everytime we reach a milestone (Say every 3 or 4 ranks?) send us a personal message from that factions leader or someone who is important within that faction. Have them tell us they have heard of us and what we are doing for the Federation/Empire. Let us know that our work is being appreciated. And as we get higher and higher the messages can be altered as needed to reflect our rise in the ranks. Once again this can be used as a way to provide more depth to the game by allowing the writers to give a bit of personality to the leaders. For example at the lower ranks the messages could simple be generic "Congratulations" sent by a secretary or servant. Then later on when we attain higher ranks the leaders themselves start to take notice and personally write to us. This once again has the benefit of being nothing more that text based content, but still would provide at least SOME semblance of progress and appreciation for our hard work.
3) Incentivize players to climb these ranks by also providing material rewards along the way in the form of rare engineering materials for key upgrades like Power Plant's, Shields Generators, FSD's etc. The team could use this as another chance to introduce newer players to the engineering system. If the players already have the required materials then they are probably more likely to give the engineering system a try. Which results in more time played which is exactly what FDev wants in the first place. This can be accomplished fairly easily I think seeing as engineering materials do not take up cargo space and can be rewarded on the spot regardless of what ship the player is in. These could also be retroactively rewarded to players who have already completed their rank grind.
Rank-up Missions
1) This is really vague and slightly more involved than my previous text based solutions, but also really simple. Just make the missions more interesting. If I just spent 2 days doing random missions to get to 100% it seems rather lame that in order to move on to the next rank all I have to do is yet another random mission. Give us some flair. Give us something we haven't seen yet. Send us out to rescue a Senator's Escape pod in the middle of a Capital Ship fight. Task us with transporting a member of the royal family to Cemiess. Send us out to a system that is at War/Civil War so we can meet up with a Naval Convoy to confront the leaders of the opposing parties and bring the system back under control. Give us something that FEELS unique without actually BEING unique. Because if you notice everything I just listed is a mission type that already exists in the game. All you would have to do is just dress them up a little bit. Add some flavor text. Give us some extra hoops to jump through during the missions. Just some stuff to make the rank-up missions feel more unique. And then you could take the template for these special missions and make them periodically occur in other systems and stations as well. Or even make them exclusive to systems that are the home systems of the faction leaders. Say a 10% chance that they pop up when you visit the mission board and then tie them into the stations current ruling party or state. If they are at war the special mission is a dangerous, but highly rewarded combat mission. If they are in an economic boom then the special mission can be a highly lucrative trading mission. You can kill two birds with one stone. You can make rank grinding more interesting as well as provide a new mission experience to the rest of the playerbase as well.
Rewards
1) When we unlock a ship give us a more detailed and accurate description of it. Maybe even give us some deeper lore surrounding the ship. Its history. Its inspiration. Maybe even some famous battles or deeds that was done in one. Just make sure that we know why we should be excited for the ship. And yes I know we have the ship description at the stations that sell them, but everyone knows those descriptions are not exactly 100% accurate when it comes to the reality of the ships themselves. They are more lore based descriptions rather than being based on the actual statistics and performance of the ships themselves. Give us suggested ship builds. Give us a general idea of what areas the ships excel in and what areas they are weak in. That way we know right away when we unlock them if the ship is something that we are interested in. Don't make us look up ship reviews on Reddit and YouTube. Elite Dangerous should be the first stop for information about Elite Dangerous. We even have a codex that can accomplish this easily enough. We just need to put it to use.
2) Give a similar treatment to Systems that I just mentioned about ships. Tells us where these systems are. Tell us their history. Tell us why we needed a permit. Tell us why we should head over to those systems. Otherwise you are just telling us we have gained access to a system in a game with literally hundreds of millions of other systems. That not really exciting in my opinion on the surface. We should know why these systems are special. This could be yet another opportunity for the team to build up deeper lore for the series as well.
P.S. I'm sorry for the book, but I am just grinding away in Sothis/Ceos right now trying to get my Vette and the tedium has gotten to me I think. It also doesn't help that i already went through this song and dance with the Imperial Cutter. I just feel like the ranking system is a wasted opportunity as it sits right now and its something that can be remedied relatively easily in my opinion. And like I said none of these changes I described would require them to actually change the system itself. It all would stay exactly the same. The only things that would change is the information we are given as we go along. Which I think would be enough to at the very least break up the tedium of the grind.
BUT
Rank Grinding in Elite is the most tedious and unrewarding slog I have ever experienced in a game. There is just no sense of reward. No sense of progress. All I get is a Comms message telling me that I went up a rank. Hurray. I can barely contain myself. Look at me smiling. And that is it. Just a text message as reward for HOURS of grinding and tedium. A basic "Hey bro thanks here are some words" is all we get. Sure we get access to ships and systems at certain ranks, but the game does literally nothing to get you excited for them. There is no description of the ships and there is no explanation of why we should even care about the systems we just gained access to. In fact pretty much the only way to get a full grasp of what we just unlocked is by going to third party websites for the information on WHY we should care about this ship or that system.
The real tragedy here is that it doesn't need to be like that. FDev could make Rank grinding a little less tedious and a bit more interesting with what I assume is very little effort on their part. Here are some ideas of mine that I feel could really help out the process without FDev actually needing to change the process itself.
Ranks
1) Everytime we gain a rank include an entry in our codex about some interesting things and maybe even some heroic deeds that have been performed by Commanders who have held that rank. It would be easily implemented seeing as its just another Codex entry and all it would need is the writers to sit down and write it all up. It would also provide much needed depth to the lore. The Dev team could also use these Codex entries as a foundation for future content and GalNet stories. A way to give some hints and nods to the playerbase. Maybe even a few easter eggs.
2) Everytime we reach a milestone (Say every 3 or 4 ranks?) send us a personal message from that factions leader or someone who is important within that faction. Have them tell us they have heard of us and what we are doing for the Federation/Empire. Let us know that our work is being appreciated. And as we get higher and higher the messages can be altered as needed to reflect our rise in the ranks. Once again this can be used as a way to provide more depth to the game by allowing the writers to give a bit of personality to the leaders. For example at the lower ranks the messages could simple be generic "Congratulations" sent by a secretary or servant. Then later on when we attain higher ranks the leaders themselves start to take notice and personally write to us. This once again has the benefit of being nothing more that text based content, but still would provide at least SOME semblance of progress and appreciation for our hard work.
3) Incentivize players to climb these ranks by also providing material rewards along the way in the form of rare engineering materials for key upgrades like Power Plant's, Shields Generators, FSD's etc. The team could use this as another chance to introduce newer players to the engineering system. If the players already have the required materials then they are probably more likely to give the engineering system a try. Which results in more time played which is exactly what FDev wants in the first place. This can be accomplished fairly easily I think seeing as engineering materials do not take up cargo space and can be rewarded on the spot regardless of what ship the player is in. These could also be retroactively rewarded to players who have already completed their rank grind.
Rank-up Missions
1) This is really vague and slightly more involved than my previous text based solutions, but also really simple. Just make the missions more interesting. If I just spent 2 days doing random missions to get to 100% it seems rather lame that in order to move on to the next rank all I have to do is yet another random mission. Give us some flair. Give us something we haven't seen yet. Send us out to rescue a Senator's Escape pod in the middle of a Capital Ship fight. Task us with transporting a member of the royal family to Cemiess. Send us out to a system that is at War/Civil War so we can meet up with a Naval Convoy to confront the leaders of the opposing parties and bring the system back under control. Give us something that FEELS unique without actually BEING unique. Because if you notice everything I just listed is a mission type that already exists in the game. All you would have to do is just dress them up a little bit. Add some flavor text. Give us some extra hoops to jump through during the missions. Just some stuff to make the rank-up missions feel more unique. And then you could take the template for these special missions and make them periodically occur in other systems and stations as well. Or even make them exclusive to systems that are the home systems of the faction leaders. Say a 10% chance that they pop up when you visit the mission board and then tie them into the stations current ruling party or state. If they are at war the special mission is a dangerous, but highly rewarded combat mission. If they are in an economic boom then the special mission can be a highly lucrative trading mission. You can kill two birds with one stone. You can make rank grinding more interesting as well as provide a new mission experience to the rest of the playerbase as well.
Rewards
1) When we unlock a ship give us a more detailed and accurate description of it. Maybe even give us some deeper lore surrounding the ship. Its history. Its inspiration. Maybe even some famous battles or deeds that was done in one. Just make sure that we know why we should be excited for the ship. And yes I know we have the ship description at the stations that sell them, but everyone knows those descriptions are not exactly 100% accurate when it comes to the reality of the ships themselves. They are more lore based descriptions rather than being based on the actual statistics and performance of the ships themselves. Give us suggested ship builds. Give us a general idea of what areas the ships excel in and what areas they are weak in. That way we know right away when we unlock them if the ship is something that we are interested in. Don't make us look up ship reviews on Reddit and YouTube. Elite Dangerous should be the first stop for information about Elite Dangerous. We even have a codex that can accomplish this easily enough. We just need to put it to use.
2) Give a similar treatment to Systems that I just mentioned about ships. Tells us where these systems are. Tell us their history. Tell us why we needed a permit. Tell us why we should head over to those systems. Otherwise you are just telling us we have gained access to a system in a game with literally hundreds of millions of other systems. That not really exciting in my opinion on the surface. We should know why these systems are special. This could be yet another opportunity for the team to build up deeper lore for the series as well.
P.S. I'm sorry for the book, but I am just grinding away in Sothis/Ceos right now trying to get my Vette and the tedium has gotten to me I think. It also doesn't help that i already went through this song and dance with the Imperial Cutter. I just feel like the ranking system is a wasted opportunity as it sits right now and its something that can be remedied relatively easily in my opinion. And like I said none of these changes I described would require them to actually change the system itself. It all would stay exactly the same. The only things that would change is the information we are given as we go along. Which I think would be enough to at the very least break up the tedium of the grind.
