How important is ED ranking to you?

[Steyla]

With the latest update and the irrelevance of the Explorer rank now, I wonder how important are those ranks to anyone.

Until yesterday it was important to me. That is how I was used to in those kind of games like the X series and ED. And I was proud to reach the rank of Pioneer. Since yesterday I liked passenger missions. Well, I will not do them anymore. But this is just me. How about you?

 

[Arry]

I understand that there is some issue with passenger mission, boosting the explorer ranking system. So those that have had to 'honk' a million times, to get where they are today; feel betrayed, correct?

OK, I get that bit. Sort of 'it was harder in my day', or 'kids today have it so easy'! However; if these missions and the bonuses were there from the start of the game, would not mean the 'genuine' hard working explorers would boycott them, just to 'keep the grind real'. They would have been taking advantage of them, without complaint. Just like everything we sell, goods wise, adds up to the trade rank. Just because we can collect stuff from space and smuggle it into station and sell on the black market, does not make it wrong, because it gives us a 100% profit.

Agreed, it is a bit disheartening to see the 'new guys' having more and easier ways to rank up, but such is life.

Now my forum rank on the other hand, what is going on with that? Over 1000 rep points and over 5000 posts; why am I now Elite? This game is just one grind after an other.

 

[Allitnil]

I opted for "not at all important". It's got nothing to do with the passenger missions or anything else that's changed to make them easier, harder or whatever. It's just that (a) they measure persistence rather than skill and (b) they top out rather quickly. Explore for long enough and you'll become Elite. There's no need to learn new skills, become better through practice, or anything. Just keep doing what you started doing and you will end up as Elite. And then if you keep on exploring and you'll still be Elite, even if you do then learn new stuff or become an expert at what you were doing.

I'm someone who does like rankings. But the ED ones aren't rankings, they are just achievement badges.

 

[iain666]

Wot Allitnil said ^^^

 

[thehairymob]

It was until I got to elite as an explorer but then I was left wondering why I'd been so worked up about getting the top rank. Now I just enjoy not chasing after rank while racing through the stars

 

[EUS]

I voted not at all important, but that's not quite true, as I value being able to go to jameson.

 

[lokvette]

Although I was a bit peed with the whole passenger mission thing, Its not really that important as the ranks. the elite ones nor Fed or Imp mean that much. Ok they open a system whoopie do, and let you fly a few ships again whoopee do, till they have some actual meaning not sure how or in what sense, but as I'm not in a rush I will get there when I get there.

 

[SpaceMonkeyz]

Not at all bothered by it. Made elite without it and do not feel even a little betrayed.

Don't sweat the small stuff, good words to live by.

 

[EUS]

Wasn't there a big increase to exploration payouts in the first year?
I do not recall reading any hard feelings over it.

 

[Hegario]

As someone who is a 98% ranger, no they are not important. And in a way passenger missions have always given exploration rating. I did a 40000 LY roundtrip to the neutron nebula and made 15 million in data. I would've rather scanned more than just honking but maybe I can do that now that time limit has increased by a week.

 

[Allitnil]

Wasn't there a big increase to exploration payouts in the first year?
I do not recall reading any hard feelings over it.

There have been a few increases that I can recall.

The first one was when they introduced the 50% first discovered by bonus. Pretty much everyone was in favour of that since they wanted the tags and hardly anyone had gotten to Elite at the time anyway (IIRC, it was pretty much only Zulu Romeo and a few individuals who had chased the prize on offer for getting the first to triple Elite).

The big one you are probably thinking of was when they then doubled all the payouts. But they also doubled the number of credits needed to get to Elite so no difference for new explorers. There were complaints but that was because the way they initially were going to implement it would have screwed anyone who was already close to Elite - someone who had needed another 5m credits would have suddenly needed another 85m! That issue was resolved and the increased payouts were warmly welcomed.

Last year they made a smallish increase of around 10%. Don't think they adjusted the Elite requirement that time and it seemed to pass without any comment at all.

 

[Jackie Silver]

I've voted for "Very Important" - not because I care about the specific implementation of the ranks in this version of the game, but because being Elite - like, really being Elite, in the sense of an Elite CMDR - is very important to me.

So I wish that the in-game ranks would represent that somehow, but they really don't.

 

[Julio Montega]

It has stayed the same unimportant word for me,
that said i play since Premium Beta,
it never mattered then, and surely doesn't now.

 

[Ginger chris]

I opted for "not at all important". It's got nothing to do with the passenger missions or anything else that's changed to make them easier, harder or whatever. It's just that (a) they measure persistence rather than skill and (b) they top out rather quickly. Explore for long enough and you'll become Elite. There's no need to learn new skills, become better through practice, or anything. Just keep doing what you started doing and you will end up as Elite. And then if you keep on exploring and you'll still be Elite, even if you do then learn new stuff or become an expert at what you were doing.

I'm someone who does like rankings. But the ED ones aren't rankings, they are just achievement badges.

Wot Allitnil said ^^^

You two don't care because you're never in the bubble to let anyone notice!

Ranking is not important enough to have me grinding in the same way I would have to (and am) grind imperial rank so I can buy an Imperial Cutter and subsequently bask in its glory. It's a nice achievement but ultimately it means very little other than bragging rights and access to that shinrata place where everything is on sale.

I may change my tune when I get closer than 36% Pioneer however........

 

[Aereon Theed]

I tend to like the ranking system. I think that the developers of this game are pretty well rounded and will eventually fix, augment, or change the rank to reflect the passenger missions, etc. They seem to be pretty on point when it comes to keeping players engaged and I would like to believe that this isn't any different when it comes to exploration. I would speculate that you might see them develop a rank specific for deep space or something.

Elite Dangerous is a lot better then some of the other games out there, like EVE, where the developers do not care about issues concerning the minority groups of players and there specializations.

 

[iain666]

You two don't care because you're never in the bubble to let anyone notice

I'll be in the bubble later this year. I quite fancy getting one of those snazzy imperial ships myself so I might even stay for a bit.

Need to check out the engineers too, but I think I need to learn how to land on a planet first, not tried that yet.

 

[Ginger chris]

I'll be in the bubble later this year. I quite fancy getting one of those snazzy imperial ships myself so I might even stay for a bit.

Need to check out the engineers too, but I think I need to learn how to land on a planet first, not tried that yet.

Remember, the ship flies THROUGH the slot in the side of the station, and you need to have little legs with wheels sticking out from the bottom of your ship between your ship and the landing pad. These are called UNDERCARRIAGE. Yours may have atrophied from misuse, but if you find the key on your keyboard with the most dust on it, this is likely to be the button that still operates it.

All joking aside, I would love to be there when you do decide to grant civilisation with the pleasure of your company!

 

[Sapyx]

I voted for the middle option. I just made Elite in Exploration a couple weeks ago when I arrived in Colonia with two months worth of explo data to sell. I still had plenty of data in the bank after reaching Elite, too.

I "cared about" getting Elite only because I have yet to visit Founder's World. I shall be visiting there once I return from this voyage. But apart from that, it's just bragging rights. And slightly more hazardous NPCs, don't forget that, too.

 

[disorganise]

I voted fairly important.
Being 69% pioneer I been thinking of looking for a passenger flight to Sag or something (this before the latest patch dropped). Not so much for the credits (although nice), but for the extra interest in diversions (just going off the you tubes when passenger missions were announced, haven't actually done one yet). I suspect (hope) that'll get me elite without handing in the mission. that the rank is based on credits is disappointing, and by the sounds of it the new way will be easy to get more credits. Doesn't really bother me per se, I'm happy with what I've done - but I do look forward to getting founders world access, but I think it'll cheapen it for new players.
I appreciated it taking me a year to scrape up an Asp - there's a sense of achievement with it. I'm actually glad the multi-million credit missions didn't exist. Had they existed from day 1, I probably would have had most ships in a couple a of months......and got bored and moved back another game.

 

[mp4x]

Most of my ranking I attained before I even started paying attention to them. It was a guest in a live stream of mine that said "Oh, you're Master at combat and still in a Cobra? That's pretty good..." then went on to explain to me that many CMDRs are in Anacondas, etc, still on novice.

That's when I started paying attention to ranks, more out of curiosity than anything. It hasn't changed what I do in ED

The ranks increase as I play, but I don't play to increase rank.