Make it so rank-up missions can't be the same type again.

[DemiserofD]

It does, I thought the same and take a mix, but making others do the same as me is not a good idea....nobody would be mining for a start

I don't see why not. If you can nerf mining so people do other things, you can definitely do the same for rank-up missions so they don't always pick courier missions.

 

[Snoiperman]

You are literally enrolling in the space military, the only reason you are getting access to military bases (permit locked systems) is because you are rising in rank. You should have to do combat, because you are in the space navy.

 

[Snoiperman]

Dude, you are literally joining space navy. You should expect to do space navy things like shoot enemies. This is not about not having a choice, this is taking that choice and doing a singular thing.

 

[varonica]

Dude, you are literally joining space navy. You should expect to do space navy things like shoot enemies. This is not about not having a choice, this is taking that choice and doing a singular thing.

No you aren't, it's a ceremonial rank only, you don't get to command navy ship and fleets when you are an Admiral, you don't get a uniform and people don't salute you. By dint of assisting the Empire with various tasks you get given ranks, it would be passing strange for the Empire to suddenly say "Yes I know we have plenty of courier missions but because you did one last time you can't do one this time." If the Empire wants help with missions telling a pilot with a ship designed for courier missions and a pilot skilled in that area to go and fight warships just wouldn't make sense. I am sure they have plenty of people willing to fight for them already.

 

[DemiserofD]

No you aren't, it's a ceremonial rank only, you don't get to command navy ship and fleets when you are an Admiral, you don't get a uniform and people don't salute you. By dint of assisting the Empire with various tasks you get given ranks, it would be passing strange for the Empire to suddenly say "Yes I know we have plenty of courier missions but because you did one last time you can't do one this time." If the Empire wants help with missions telling a pilot with a ship designed for courier missions and a pilot skilled in that area to go and fight warships just wouldn't make sense. I am sure they have plenty of people willing to fight for them already.

Kinda irrelevant really. The point is that the harder it is to get something, the more people appreciate it once they have it.

And none of these missions are so hard as to be impossible, even to someone who's terrible at fighting.

 

[varonica]

Kinda irrelevant really. The point is that the harder it is to get something, the more people appreciate it once they have it.

And none of these missions are so hard as to be impossible, even to someone who's terrible at fighting.

Some people don't combat at all, it's not whether they are good or bad, it's the principal, if the Empire want help they will take whatever is offered, not ask a miner or courier to go to war. You are basically just gating content away from a group of people, and that's always a bad idea.

 

[DemiserofD]

Some people don't combat at all, it's not whether they are good or bad, it's the principal, if the Empire want help they will take whatever is offered, not ask a miner or courier to go to war. You are basically just gating content away from a group of people, and that's always a bad idea.

So what? Some people don't like grinding either, does that mean you should be able to get the rank without grinding? Or if you don't like exploring, does that mean you should be able to unlock the engineers without traveling 5000ly?

You're not taking anything away from anyone; they have to do ONE mission they MIGHT dislike.

But I think it's far more likely that after trying it, they might find they enjoy it. I bet many, many players only do the easiest type of mission without even TRYING the other types. That's certainly what happened with mining vs other types of money making.

I think the change would, on the whole, be an overwhelmingly good thing with minimal downsides.

 

[Alone Wulff]

Here's a better idea - get rid of the rank-up missions altogether. Doing what we already have to do to rank up - a gazillion missions/bounties etc - should be enough. One final mission as a 'test' or whatever seems a bit pointless.

I don't think it makes sense to force players to have to partake in a mission type for which they have no interest - mining, wetwork, surface assault etc. FDev make a point that the game is about blazing our own trail, many players role-play, some are disabled and physically can't complete certain tasks requiring finesse or multiple button mashing. Similarly to those who board refresh to get the easy courier missions, players have the choice to board refresh for harder missions.

I agree this area needs changes, to make ranking up more attractive and actually meaningless, especially for those who aren't even interested in the Fed/Imp ships. I've been naturally ranking up and I didn't even know systems were locked behind permits. I've been playing for years. Where's the info/lore in-game?

 

[Jmanis]

Ranking just needs to be ditched and started again. It needs to function more like it did in FE2/FFE... exclusive service, so no double dipping in both camps, and actually have a whole separate board of missions focusing around a military career path. Trying to tweak the current ranking system, which is just a glorified ship and permit unlock system instead of a dedicated military path, is just proverbial in the river.

 

[DemiserofD]

Here's a better idea - get rid of the rank-up missions altogether. Doing what we already have to do to rank up - a gazillion missions/bounties etc - should be enough. One final mission as a 'test' or whatever seems a bit pointless.

I don't think it makes sense to force players to have to partake in a mission type for which they have no interest - mining, wetwork, surface assault etc. FDev make a point that the game is about blazing our own trail, many players role-play, some are disabled and physically can't complete certain tasks requiring finesse or multiple button mashing. Similarly to those who board refresh to get the easy courier missions, players have the choice to board refresh for harder missions.

I agree this area needs changes, to make ranking up more attractive and actually meaningless, especially for those who aren't even interested in the Fed/Imp ships. I've been naturally ranking up and I didn't even know systems were locked behind permits. I've been playing for years. Where's the info/lore in-game?

The point is to distinguish the ranks. This gives a meaningful sense of progression. If it just happened automatically, then most people probably wouldn't even notice.

My ideal world is one where there is an actual story line players can complete, involving large-scale battles between the two super powers, but that would take a lot of effort, whereas this would be relatively effortless, and would fulfill the function even better than before, making each rank distinctive and memorable.

 

[metatheurgist]

You're not enrolling in the space military. The ranks are honorary civilian rewards. btw, there used to a fixed list of missions that everyone had to do and the 4/5 and one other was always a combat mission. So it was already the way you wanted and they changed it, so FD obviously didn't like it either.

 

[Jmanis]

You're not enrolling in the space military. The ranks are honorary civilian rewards. btw, there used to a fixed list of missions that everyone had to do and the 4/5 and one other was always a combat mission. So it was already the way you wanted and they changed it, so FD obviously didn't like it either.

Of course, but that was also the case in FE2/FFE, which had dedicated mission pools and mechanics around them.

 

[skananote]

You are literally enrolling in the space military, the only reason you are getting access to military bases (permit locked systems) is because you are rising in rank. You should have to do combat, because you are in the space navy.

Ever heard about none combat personnel in military?? Wondering if you ever seen military barracks from inside...

 

[Coldshot]

I like, at the very least, the thought of replacing some mindless grinding with something more meaningful. There's at least the beginning of a good idea here.

But if I were the one making the call on this, I'm not sure it'd even be worth the salt it would generate. Not anytime soon at least.

 

[Snoiperman]

No you aren't, it's a ceremonial rank only, you don't get to command navy ship and fleets when you are an Admiral, you don't get a uniform and people don't salute you. By dint of assisting the Empire with various tasks you get given ranks, it would be passing strange for the Empire to suddenly say "Yes I know we have plenty of courier missions but because you did one last time you can't do one this time." If the Empire wants help with missions telling a pilot with a ship designed for courier missions and a pilot skilled in that area to go and fight warships just wouldn't make sense. I am sure they have plenty of people willing to fight for them already.

You are doing this for the Imperial Cutter and the Federal Corvette, along with other MILITARY ships. You are doing this for access to MILITARY Bases and Systems, you are only kissing up to the Feds and Imps because you joined their navy. No non-combat personnel is promoted to a rear admiral and granted a COMBAT ship, that just doesn't make sense.

 

[Chrystoph]

Before the addition of the Epic players, the last number I heard bandied about was roughly 3 Million licenses. You request would add another twenty (thirty if the Alliance ever gets ranking) data requirements per player, adding a 60 million element requirement to the game for something that, thus far, the majority seems not to want.

 

[Coldshot]

... you joined their navy. No non-combat personnel is promoted to a rear admiral and granted a COMBAT ship, that just doesn't make sense.

My understanding is, according to lore, that the honorary ranks are given to you for service in the Naval Auxiliary. You are still just a civilian. You are being recognized and rewarded for giving assistance to the military. Access to military ships is consistent with this premise. It's a reasonable path for non-combatants who want these ships for non-combative purposes (or whatever they choose). It's not necessary to force combat on anyone to justify honorary naval ranks or access to military (by design) ships. That could have been how it was implemented, but it wasn't.

 

[DemiserofD]

Before the addition of the Epic players, the last number I heard bandied about was roughly 3 Million licenses. You request would add another twenty (thirty if the Alliance ever gets ranking) data requirements per player, adding a 60 million element requirement to the game for something that, thus far, the majority seems not to want.

Why is the total number of players relevant?

And who cares if they don't want it? People don't WANT to do a lot of things. Sometimes I feel like what people WANT is to log in, set their credits to one trillion, and be done with the game instantly.

The point of difficulty is to make the eventual reward feel more meaningful because it was more difficult to acquire, and that's exactly what this would do.

With the side benefit of maybe showing them content they've never seen before.

 

[Maymo]

Honestly, if all we’re going to continue to get is that lousy email notification upon ranking up then I’d abolish the rank up missions completely in favour of just auto-ranking.

Only FD could make working for a galactic superpower so unbelievably dull!! I pushed suggestion after suggestion on how it could be improved when I first started playing.

Each rank should provide some meaningful benefit to the player. This is a game, it’s meant to suck you in and inspire you to keep playing.

Like @Jmanis said, it needs knocking down and rebuilding from the ground up.

 

[DemiserofD]

Honestly, if all we’re going to continue to get is that lousy email notification upon ranking up then I’d abolish the rank up missions completely in favour of just auto-ranking.

Only FD could make working for a galactic superpower so unbelievably dull!! I pushed suggestion after suggestion on how it could be improved when I first started playing.

Each rank should provide some meaningful benefit to the player. This is a game, it’s meant to suck you in and inspire you to keep playing.

Like Jmanis said, it needs knocking down and rebuilding from the ground up.

It's only boring because the process of getting it is boring. Make that more interesting and it makes getting more interesting as well.

Which this suggestion would achieve.