Elite: Dangerous rank changes

Pyros

P
The recently released newsletter #22 brought us some change in the traditional Elite ranks ("Federation of Pilots ranks"):

2uf93tc.png


A few thoughts about the change:
  • One less rank (cpt obvious here:eek:)
  • Some "middle tier" ranks disappeared/Competent was quite demoted
  • New ranks, especially the "Master" seem to be a bit oddly placed

Now, I understand that the change in ranking should reflect the change from combat only to a more diverse activities based ranking, but, tbqh, I feel that the change is not all that successful, as there are ranks that are still very combat related (e.g. dangerous/deadly) and the order of the ranks is a bit strange: e.g. without looking at the table, would you consider Dangerous trader to be superior to Master trader?

If ranking are supposed to translate experience, I agree that the removal of the poor and below/above & average is a sound move.

But I'm left with two questions:

  • Should/will there be different ranks by core activity (combat, trade, exploration, mining(?)) and a composite one, or just a global one?
  • If there is more than one rank, should/will all the activity ranks share the same number of levels and descriptions?
 

Styggron

S
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 :)
 

Pyros

P
Styggron said:
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 :)
Click to expand...

Well, some miners lack of ability to deal with explosives/mining lasers may be even deadly :p
 

ste

S
You must have a point because that was exactly the first thought that crossed my mind when I saw them.

Explain again why it needs to be changed? Is it just a case of not wanting any of the ranks to be maybe sound demeaning.
 

Evilroco

Evilroco
I think the Master rank could be confusing to many who associate that term/rank with Martial Art's for example where it is used to describe Heads of Schools and such .

However the rank "Master" is used quite differently in Naval terms. The highest ranking Nco for example was once a the "Master" Warrant officer,
So I think the Rank name has been chosen along the Naval tradition lines ,which to me is a "good fit"
 

NoCarrier

NoCarrier
In all honestly, I don't care much for them either. I would've understood if FD had changed out the Dangerous and Deadly rankings for something more general for non-combat careers, such as those new Expert and Master rankings, but now it seems like they switched it up just because. Why did the three Average rankings have to go? Why where the two Harmless rankings good enough to keep?

The Harmless and Mostly Harmless rankings are quintessential Elite, I suppose, unlike those three Average ratings which may be a little too granular.

Looking at those rankings again, I still think there's a bit of a gap between the new Novice and Competent rankings. Maybe FD could add an "Intermediate" ranking and bring up the number of ranks back to 10. As for the rest, we will get used to the new ranking table eventually.
 

robo

robo
Personally, I like them. I know a place online, where you can upload an image & have a button badge made (£2 each, I already have the 3 factions done), I plan to have all 9 of the new rankings made as such. When I get to a new rank, I'll place it's badge on my personalised "Commander Robo" cap (which also holds my TrackIR clip), removing the old rank badge of course.

With the old rankings, Poor, Below Average, Average & Above Average, are not Federation of Pilots ranks that could be worn with pride, some even sound derogative.
 
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Thargon

Thargon
Personally, I don't like them - if it's not broken - don't fix it - the original rankings should be kept for nostalgia's sake anyway - why the need to change them?
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Pyros said:
  • One less rank (cpt obvious here:eek:)
Click to expand...
"Below Average" was added to the list in FE2, so back to the original Elite's count of ranks there, then.

The old ranks only really made sense with the Dark Wheel's implication that they were someone's qualitative assessment of your combat skill, of course. 64 ship kills just to get to "Average" has some rather strange implications
 

Lobstris

Lobstris
Can't quite figure out why F: D thought the change was necessary? Seems we now have upper tier ranks that make no sense (e.g. why is 'Master' below 'Dangerous'?)

Having said that 'average' was never actually the literal 'average' I suppose? :)
 

Calico Jack

C
Did I miss something? I'd assumed careers had their own rank like the separate military ranks in FFE.

Something like:

Dangerous - Scallywag - Baron

for an Imperial, letter of marque style pirate..

Competent - Drill chief
Mostly Harmless - Tycoon

etc
 

Evilroco

Evilroco
Calico Jack said:
Did I miss something? I'd assumed careers had their own rank like the separate military ranks in FFE.

Something like:

Dangerous - Scallywag - Baron

for an Imperial, letter of marque style pirate..

Competent - Drill chief
Mostly Harmless - Tycoon

etc
Click to expand...

I think these ranks are for the Pilot's Federation only ,I would hope that you would have a rank's/reputation within each faction as well as those from the "Federation"

I'm probably wrong as always though :)
 

Daeron

Daeron
Maybe abstract thinking went out of fashion. Or maybe it is just about dumbing things down for the sake of going online. Sorry to appear a bit harsh, but you're messing with my childhood here.

Edit: Yes, these are for the organization all "human" pilots are automatically part of. I also hope we can get ranks within the factions. Err.. Power Blocs. Power Blocs!
 
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JohnStabler

JohnStabler
I think I prefer the new ranks. I never liked the word average. Also, competent seems to be better placed lower in the order. You would hope that more pilots were at least competent.
 
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