Rank requirements for Carrier Support Ships

Nadreck

N
We don't know how much Carriers will cost, and some have suggested that there might be a rank requirement too, such as triple-Elite. I think that would be a terrible idea, as it doesn't make any sense that you'd have to be Elite in Combat to use a Carrier for exploration, or Elite in Exploration to use one for combat.

But for the support ships, it does make sense:

Exploration support ship usually needs Elite in Exploration.

Mining support ship usually needs Elite in Trade.

Combat support ship usually needs Elite in Combat.

We don't know if there will be other types of support ship: a longer list of roles for support ships was given, but the three ships that we've seen might cover those.

The currently-useless top Federation and Empire Navy ranks could tie into this too, as another way to gain access to the Combat support ship. It makes sense for a navy to grant access to a warship.

The various Powerplay Powers could also be involved. This is slightly more problematic, as it's easy to get up to Ratiing 5 with a PP Power, but this isn't permanent. However, a Rating 5 player with a Carrier could maybe "lease" an appropriate support ship, that would be "repossessed" (with compensation) if the player drops below Rating 4. The obvious candidate would be Zemina Torval for Mining: other PP Powers could mostly offer Combat support ships, except Li-Yong Rui and Pranav Antal, who are more into scientific research than militarism: for them, maybe Exploration.
 

Berpol

B
Factabulous said:
These are the same people who think FC will be more than 100M. Meh. But thanks for the thread :)
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Given that M stands for mega (= 1,000,000) I am pretty sure it costs more, after all an Imperial Cutter costs 208,969,451 CR and you can fit 8 of these inside a carrier. Personally I doubt it will be over 10 G (10,000,000,000).
Linking it to a title wouldn't do a lot, I doubt where are many players with a billion credits in cash and more than one step away from one Elite.
 

Bob McBobblehead

Bob McBobblehead
Can't see it happening. Going by previous FDev streams, they don't really like the idea of locking ships behind ranks. It's probably one of the reasons we don't get new Core Dynamics and Gutamaya ships.
 

Nadreck

N
Well, no, I can't see Carriers being rank-locked either. Just that the suggestion/joke gave me this idea.

Rank-locking the support ships is really just something to do with ranks that would otherwise be useless. You don't get anything other than a label/badge for any Elite rank other than your first, the top Naval ranks give you nothing but a title, only the top PowerPlay ranks actually do anything at present (and rank 4 does nothing beyond 3 except a salary and cargo-allocation improvement).

With this, as you approach your Carrier, you can at least look across at your support ship and give yourself a pat on the back for being top-rated at something. You earned it. But as there are multiple ways of qualifying, it wasn't really "gated away" from you anyhow. Reward without (much) grind!
 

RolloTreadway

RolloTreadway
I think that the chances of carriers being rank-locked in any way are about the same as the chances of FD abandoning spaceships and turning this into an advanced lawnmower simulator.
 

RolloTreadway

RolloTreadway
(Essentially, I'm pretty sure that any such notion would come from that small group of regular grumblers who always think that they deserve to be treated specially. They always crop up here and there. 'FD need to reward ME because I am THE BEST', and so on.)
 

MK Regular

M
Bob McBobblehead said:
Can't see it happening. Going by previous FDev streams, they don't really like the idea of locking ships behind ranks. It's probably one of the reasons we don't get new Core Dynamics and Gutamaya ships.
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It's probably also the same reason why they didn't add an Alliance rank system for the Chieftain, Challenger and Crusader.

That said, if FDev wanted to add another Imperial ship I would not be opposed to them adding it at the rank of Knight (rank 5) or moving the Clipper to the rank of Knight and adding the new ship at the rank of Baron (rank 7). If FDev wanted to add any additional Imperial or Federal ships after that, I would not want them to be rank locked, even though I have spent the time to grind out the maximum rank for both navies.
 

sandkid

S
MK_Regular said:
It's probably also the same reason why they didn't add an Alliance rank system for the Chieftain, Challenger and Crusader.

That said, if FDev wanted to add another Imperial ship I would not be opposed to them adding it at the rank of Knight (rank 5) or moving the Clipper to the rank of Knight and adding the new ship at the rank of Baron (rank 7). If FDev wanted to add any additional Imperial or Federal ships after that, I would not want them to be rank locked, even though I have spent the time to grind out the maximum rank for both navies.
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Thing is, rank-locked ships really aren't that big of a deal as they all have a comparable not-locked variation. The Corvette and Cutter are literally the only ships that are in some way highly unique. Yet neither are the 'best ship' for any particular role (though they are very good) and instead represent a prettier Anaconda with various stats modified to suit the manufacturer's general design.

I'm all for faction rank-locked ships. Grinding rank is not remotely hard for factions and, again, lots of non-rank options exist already so this is in no way harming player gameplay or general balance.

Now for Pilot's Federation Rank, that's a different story...although it wouldn't be if combat rank wasn't so gooberish in design. Reaching Elite in trade or Exploration is not difficult (a little time consuming if you don't choose easy-routes like Road to Riches or VOPAL mining right away). Most importantly, these two ranks naturally climb with general player progression...which makes sense. I was a Tycoon when I got into my Type-9 after hopping out of an Orca. Reaching Elite didn't take too long swapping between trade and passengers.

Combat, though, is jacked up. It's pure grind of many, many hours. That the stock answer is 'farm Thargoid Scouts' - an interesting encounter for a few hundred kills at best - is indicative of this. Now I'm not going to say what I wish combat rank worked off of (I don't know if credits would be fair or not) but I will say this rank is the sole reason rank-locking anything in Elite for the pilot is a bad idea simply because the number of commanders who actually want to reach Elite in combat as opposed to those who wish to get there is a vast ratio. The tears would be worst than when carriers were postponed the first time last year!

If combat rank were redesigned to have a more natural progression (heck, I'd like to see all three have a redesign that reflected gameplay milestones more than just raw credit gains - would strengthen the RPG aspect a lot) then creating pilot-rank-locked content would be sensible and provide yet more ways to expand our career in space. As it stands, that's a no go.

On a related note: Alliance doesn't have ranks for a simple reason that could be supported by lore. It lacks a navy, relying on militia forces from members to work together to enforce peace. Thus, there wouldn't be a rank as that flies in the face of the 'independent' nature of how the Alliance is structured both economically and militarily. I do think the Federal and Imperial navies need for goodies - modules would be nice - or the system permits need to have juicy benefits. The whole rank grind has a decent payoff in ships but it could be fleshed out more.
 
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