Since entering the game I've gravitated toward Exploring as my dominant activity. Not sure why, but just wandering through space building up hoards of galactic data then finally returning to civilization to sell pages and pages of data is just so satisfying. Slowly I'm creeping through the ranks of Explorer toward Elite.
Imagine my surprise (and frankly disgust) when I found out you can just shuttle convicts from Robigo to Sirius Atmospherics to "fast track" your exploration rank. Come on, passengers are just another type of cargo. Increasing your Trade rank sure, trade is all about the money however you go about making it is up to you. But exploration? What does operating a shuttle service have to do with exploration?
Given how sparsely explored the universe is, and given how hard it would be for the entire community to put an even small dent in the total explored space percentage, could we at least consider making explorer rank related to some metrics that are actually related to the act of exploration? Get rid of the lame take passengers from point a and bring them back missions (keep them for the traders just don't use money to increase explorer rank). An explorer should get progress toward Explorer rank from going to "new" places (even if only new to you the individual). Shuttling back and forth between two well known locals is not exploring. If you want Exploration flavored specific missions, just allow Universal Cartographics to have a mission board. Not only can you turn in data (with various bonuses to your rank for actaully exploring), but you can set missions to seek out new routes, new systems, new planets, scout potential locations for new sations. So many possibiliies. If these missions pay out some credits, great (ships don't repair themselves). But the credits go toward trade rank. Exploration rank comes from going to new places and finding new things (again even if only new to you).
Please consider a tweak to the Explorer rank progression to reward Explorer "purists". Traders gain rank by making money and have tons of Trade specific missions that move them along in thier chosen path. Fighters gain rank by fighting and they have tons of combat related missions to let them move through the ranks. Explorers gain rank based on the monetary value (hmm sounds like a trader metric) of what they find and the "exploration" missions (site seeing, salvage, etc.) don't even do anything to advance the state of the Universal Cartographics library of data. Heck you don't even go to Universal Cartographics to collect the advancement.
Love the game. Just would like to see the Explorer rank given the same thematic treatment as the other "elite" paths.
Imagine my surprise (and frankly disgust) when I found out you can just shuttle convicts from Robigo to Sirius Atmospherics to "fast track" your exploration rank. Come on, passengers are just another type of cargo. Increasing your Trade rank sure, trade is all about the money however you go about making it is up to you. But exploration? What does operating a shuttle service have to do with exploration?
Given how sparsely explored the universe is, and given how hard it would be for the entire community to put an even small dent in the total explored space percentage, could we at least consider making explorer rank related to some metrics that are actually related to the act of exploration? Get rid of the lame take passengers from point a and bring them back missions (keep them for the traders just don't use money to increase explorer rank). An explorer should get progress toward Explorer rank from going to "new" places (even if only new to you the individual). Shuttling back and forth between two well known locals is not exploring. If you want Exploration flavored specific missions, just allow Universal Cartographics to have a mission board. Not only can you turn in data (with various bonuses to your rank for actaully exploring), but you can set missions to seek out new routes, new systems, new planets, scout potential locations for new sations. So many possibiliies. If these missions pay out some credits, great (ships don't repair themselves). But the credits go toward trade rank. Exploration rank comes from going to new places and finding new things (again even if only new to you).
Please consider a tweak to the Explorer rank progression to reward Explorer "purists". Traders gain rank by making money and have tons of Trade specific missions that move them along in thier chosen path. Fighters gain rank by fighting and they have tons of combat related missions to let them move through the ranks. Explorers gain rank based on the monetary value (hmm sounds like a trader metric) of what they find and the "exploration" missions (site seeing, salvage, etc.) don't even do anything to advance the state of the Universal Cartographics library of data. Heck you don't even go to Universal Cartographics to collect the advancement.
Love the game. Just would like to see the Explorer rank given the same thematic treatment as the other "elite" paths.