Naval Ranks

[Gabriel H]

I have been an Admiral and a King for nearly a decade.

I am yet to be given a parade or even a salute. I'm not sure what I want, but there should be something beyond a single ship unlock, surely?

With all the attention being placed on PP2.0, and the ranks being expanded to include a whole host of rewards not previously available to that power, should there be some attention paid to the naval ranks?

Obviously affecting the wider galaxy would be off the table, there is PP and BGS for that, but maybe specialized modules or SRVs or Fighters?

Or, going down the route of making the ranks exclusive, and the Alliance finally mounting their own military force, in return for something, whatever that may be.

Discuss. (Nicely)

 

[Jmanis]

I have been an Admiral and a King for nearly a decade.

I am yet to be given a parade or even a salute. I'm not sure what I want, but there should be something beyond a single ship unlock, surely?

With all the attention being placed on PP2.0, and the ranks being expanded to include a whole host of rewards not previously available to that power, should there be some attention paid to the naval ranks?

Obviously affecting the wider galaxy would be off the table, there is PP and BGS for that, but maybe specialized modules or SRVs or Fighters?

Or, going down the route of making the ranks exclusive, and the Alliance finally mounting their own military force, in return for something, whatever that may be.

Discuss. (Nicely)

It's an honorary rank, so it doesn't mean anything.

It's a bit like being a senior civil servant and expecting people to salute you because you're the civil rank-equivalent to a Brigadeer or something.

I preferred the FE2/FFE approach to military ranks. Higher rank == better paid and more interesting missions... personally, equipment/fighter access, while that ship has well and truly sailed, should be the (almost exclusive) remit of Tech Brokers, who are a missed opportunity as far as Tier 2 NPCs go. Best case...get rid of Tech Brokers, and pepper all the different tech around the on-foot contacts we have in the galaxy... with access contingent on the personal relationship you build by doing work for that contact.

Throw in a better system to better track those relations, where they are and what they offer... and it's the start of a pretty interesting system.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

The navy ranks are really more of a relic of the previous games carried over and were something to do when the game was new and not much else to do. In the present day, they are merely a hurdle to overcome to unlock a few ships.

 

[Gabriel H]

The navy ranks are really more of a relic of the previous games carried over and were something to do when the game was new and not much else to do. In the present day, they are merely a hurdle to overcome to unlock a few ships.

Hence why they need a re-look imo.

 

[metatheurgist]

Would've preferred a military mini-campaign for each superpower. And an actual military presence in the bubble to go with it. Certainly would've been better than yet another doofus PMF.

 

[Koma Pahu]

It’s always bugged me that they have no purpose other than to unlock ships.

It should always have been a choice between Feds, Imps and Alliance, much like pledging for a power. If you leave, you lose your rank and get a KOS order. But, unfortunately, we never got that.

So long as you don’t lose any existing ships it could still be reworked, and with the possible end of the Thargoid War it’s quite possible relations will cool again…

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

With the new powerplay and each power for themselves no matter if they belong to the same superpower it's probably safe to say that Federation and Empire are only story backdrops now.

 

[Koma Pahu]

It's an honorary rank, so it doesn't mean anything.

It's a bit like being a senior civil servant and expecting people to salute you because you're the civil rank-equivalent to a Brigadeer or something.

It’s more like being in the Royal Navy Reserves. If I was still taking the bounty, I wouldn’t expect any acknowledgement in the pub, but it would be expected that I was treated the same as a real officer if I was on ship.

Whether you personally get acknowledged by the port - which would have been a nice touch - or not, I’ve always found it strange that I turn up at an Imperial space port in my Federal Corvette with no comment at all.

 

[aRJay]

They are honorary ranks and have no more connection to the Federation Navy or Imperial Nobility than being a Colonel in the Confederate airforce does today in relation to serving or reserve officers in the USAF.

Now if we actually did some military service like missions where we earned nothing other than fuel and ammo costs and had no choice over what the missions were then I could see some justification for there being more to the ranks, but we didn’t.

 

[zimms]

It’s more like being in the Royal Navy Reserves. [...]

Not even that. It's more like expecting recognition because you are rank "Admirer" in the Justin Bieber fan club you and your friends started.

We CMDRs never were part of any navy in ED.

 

[Koma Pahu]

Not even that. It's more like expecting recognition because you are rank "Admirer" in the Justin Bieber fan club you and your friends started.

We CMDRs never were part of any navy in ED.

I’ve never been part of the Royal Navy either.

I just noted when I saw warships and took a bounty. So, yeah, it’s a lot like the RNR.

 

[Doctor Dread]

Upon reaching Admiral / King, a simple "welcome, Sir" would be appropriate when docking with Feds/Imps.

 

[yianniv]

Upon reaching Admiral / King, a simple "welcome, Sir" would be appropriate when docking with Feds/Imps.

My vanity is satisfied by using EDDI, which salutes me appropriately upon entering an Imperial/Fed/Independent system, and, also, replaces the useless bunch of FC personnel in greeting their Commanding Officer.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

My vanity is satisfied by using EDDI, which salutes me appropriately upon entering an Imperial/Fed/Independent system, and, also, replaces the useless bunch of FC personnel in greeting their Commanding Officer.

It has never been your fleet carrier, Brewer let you use it for a weekly fee and a security deposit of 5 billion plus extra per activated service. Neither does the FC crew work for you. That's why those lazy bums don't even transfer Tritium from the cargo hold into the FC's tank.

 

[yianniv]

It has never been your fleet carrier, Brewer let you use it for a weekly fee and a security deposit of 5 billion plus extra per activated service. Neither does the FC crew work for you. That's why those lazy bums don't even transfer Tritium from the cargo hold into the FC's tank.

Unfortunately, you're describing the "improved" version of personal ownership of the 34th century, that started from the greedy soulless corporations of the 20th/21st century. Good thing I've got EDDI to remedy this.

 

[oblivionmanman 2476]

 

[Vedmo]

It has never been your fleet carrier, Brewer let you use it for a weekly fee and a security deposit of 5 billion plus extra per activated service. Neither does the FC crew work for you. That's why those lazy bums don't even transfer Tritium from the cargo hold into the FC's tank.

Sounds like an if you ever want to know what you truly own, stop paying taxes kind of thing.

 

[aRJay]

Upon reaching Admiral / King, a simple "welcome, Sir" would be appropriate when docking with Feds/Imps.

But as almost every commander in the Pilots Federation has the same rank or will have it should have a very strained/forced note to it.

 

[mtfatboy3006]

It's an honorary rank, so it doesn't mean anything.

It's a bit like being a senior civil servant and expecting people to salute you because you're the civil rank-equivalent to a Brigadeer or something.

I preferred the FE2/FFE approach to military ranks. Higher rank == better paid and more interesting missions... personally, equipment/fighter access, while that ship has well and truly sailed, should be the (almost exclusive) remit of Tech Brokers, who are a missed opportunity as far as Tier 2 NPCs go. Best case...get rid of Tech Brokers, and pepper all the different tech around the on-foot contacts we have in the galaxy... with access contingent on the personal relationship you build by doing work for that contact.

Throw in a better system to better track those relations, where they are and what they offer... and it's the start of a pretty interesting system.

An honorary rank is a social status and means that you deserve to be addressed with an appropriate honorific and conferred social honors within established protocols. The OP should be addressed appropriately when he docks at Imperial and Federal stations. His cutter/corvette should be queued first on takeoff request at those stations. He should get an insignificant, token Veteran's discount at their markets. An honorary rank that isn't honored isn't an honorary rank. But FDEV has no honor. They left the game unpolished, declined to sew its disparate elements together with any grace, glued more minigames to the framework periodically and made it seem like a continuum, but its glaring lack of internal continuity is a constant irritation. They're working to decompartmentalize a little now, generally by throwing buffs at problems accessible from other game loops. This is great. They should throw some polish buffs at these forgotten segments while they're at it. The game keeps awarding "rank" after the ships are unlocked, which means the developers deliberately programmed purposeless nonsense into the game. That should be fixed.

Ranks could confer scaled buffs to reputation with station-controlling factions aligned with that major power, for instance. I know FDEV isn't going to go in and record new station traffic control lines for every federal and imperial starport, but they could buff initial reputation based on rank. They could create rank-unlocked modules. They could award decals. Or paints. They could create a small, token link between major power rank and powerplay. There are a million ways they could give what they did an appearance of purpose. It's not about function. It's about polish. It's about honor.