I've been playing ED and EDH for a bit now and I have to say I love the game, but there have been times that I've thought "there has to be a better way of doing this". The last time I thought this was on my journey to purchasing a Federal corvette and the grind of getting to Rear Admiral and after reading the forums I could see I was not alone.
Here's my suggestion for right or wrong. I think we should link the unlocking of ships to the Major Faction Reputation rather than Major Faction Rank. This will allow all players to get access to locked ships using the play style of their choose. If you think that would make it too easy for players to get access to locked ships then make the reputation gain slower. For me this makes more sense, as you gain more reputation/prestige you gain access to better ships and if you lose reputation/prestige then you lose your access to those ships.
As for military ranks I think these should give access to military grade weapons, shields, modules (maybe stealth modules) and SRVs which are only accessible from military instillations. With military missions being constantly available from military stations/outposts or systems aligned to a Mayor Faction which is at war. This would allow players who want to rank up, a places to go to rank up which actually makes sense. You don't even need to change the types of missions to make them military, you could still use smuggling, transport, courier or assassination missions just put a military theme to it.
Here's my suggestion for right or wrong. I think we should link the unlocking of ships to the Major Faction Reputation rather than Major Faction Rank. This will allow all players to get access to locked ships using the play style of their choose. If you think that would make it too easy for players to get access to locked ships then make the reputation gain slower. For me this makes more sense, as you gain more reputation/prestige you gain access to better ships and if you lose reputation/prestige then you lose your access to those ships.
As for military ranks I think these should give access to military grade weapons, shields, modules (maybe stealth modules) and SRVs which are only accessible from military instillations. With military missions being constantly available from military stations/outposts or systems aligned to a Mayor Faction which is at war. This would allow players who want to rank up, a places to go to rank up which actually makes sense. You don't even need to change the types of missions to make them military, you could still use smuggling, transport, courier or assassination missions just put a military theme to it.