I agree with OP they could make some minor changes to at least improve the look and feel of it. I refuse to grind for rank. Tried grinding for about 2 hours and was done with that. I figure I will eventually get to Rear Admiral and I am at a Warrant Officer level with the feds. Figure I will make it to Rear Admiral in about 5 or 6 years.
Rank Grinding might be the worst part of Elite Dangerous imo, but it doesn't have to be if FDev just made a few changes
- Thread starter CoyoteXStarrk
- Start date
There's almost zero to do with the military. The Navy mission is it. Otherwise the military is a sidebar content for eye candy. I've never encountered the military fighting thargoids, for example. Maybe I haven't looked. You can pledge to political figures but not to a military power which is a bit odd. It almost funnels everyone into being a mercenary.
Thats not actually true. Technically since you can pledge yourself to
Everything coul be better, but it's not right now, but just get what you can dude
Ranks are fine to me. Its actually sad when you finally finish but yet your happy you can get that ship you wanted. Rank grinds gave me purpose and always looked forward to it. When I was done I felt I had nothing left to do lol. I never farmed rank in one system either I just jumped around so I could see different places from medium landing pads to large. Those were the good old days so enjoy the moment.
That's a bit of a stretch. There are people in the military IRL who don't support the POTUS. They pledge to the country, not the leader. Pledging to a leader isn't the same as joining the military. In my opinion, the game designers didn't commit to the military aspect of the game, and instead used the ranks to lock content behind grind walls. Once you get that rank, there's nothing military related that you are involved in.
Also, what emperor would allow anyone to be called king other than a king? What admiral would allow someone to be called admiral? Not a problem though, no one ever calls me that in the game. It basically doesn't even exist. I'm still commander.
Throwing my hat in the ring here. I agree with OP that the current system is a real drag. I got the Sol permit just by playing the game, but then in the next 200 ish hours I barely crawled up in rank by any significant amount. I then did the Sothis missions to rank up faster. I made a good bit of money on the deal, and it was a fun puzzle to stack the missions in the most efficient way.
With that said, the system could be really fun, but it is lacking in a lot of ways. I think that it would be neat to be able complete missions for rep, but cut the amount needed by 25-40%. It is really just fluff. What they could then do is introduce missions/series of like 3 missions to unlock the ships. The ship unlock missions would put you as part of a squad attacking or defending an installation or surface base (functioning similarly to dungeons). Have the get increasingly harder for each mission. It would even be neat to use a pre-fitted version of the ship you are supposed to unlock.
I also think that there should be more perks o the ranks. As in a ~5% military discount at stations controlled by your superpower of choice. In addition, factions allied with the superpower of choice should automatically be at friendly status with you. Things like these could make the rank feel worthwhile and meaningful.
With that said, the system could be really fun, but it is lacking in a lot of ways. I think that it would be neat to be able complete missions for rep, but cut the amount needed by 25-40%. It is really just fluff. What they could then do is introduce missions/series of like 3 missions to unlock the ships. The ship unlock missions would put you as part of a squad attacking or defending an installation or surface base (functioning similarly to dungeons). Have the get increasingly harder for each mission. It would even be neat to use a pre-fitted version of the ship you are supposed to unlock.
I also think that there should be more perks o the ranks. As in a ~5% military discount at stations controlled by your superpower of choice. In addition, factions allied with the superpower of choice should automatically be at friendly status with you. Things like these could make the rank feel worthwhile and meaningful.
I would definitely run more missions for the Empire if they started referring to me as "Serf" at their stations!I agree with you, though I'd like it if it were for all ranks. It would be a nice little bonus if Federal stations referred to you by your Fed rank and Empire station the same... heck, it might even push people to run more missions for the Federation just to stop being called 'cadet' all the time!
The tendency to arbitrarily have progress decay based on not playing is one of the worst aspects of power play and rank stuff.
I agree to some extent - but that would just mean that someone could just rank up to rank 4 or 5 in PP, ice the game and log in once a week to collect 50m for free - for doing nothing!
2.3b over the year to be earned while waiting for the next Exp to come. And we all know how FDev feels about easy money for players.
As for the thread itself: Agree. The permits are pretty much useless/pointless (I doubt I've been to any of them). The ships locked away behind the grind wall are well worth it though.
People are talking about grind to unlock ships, but what was worse for me was going from Duke to King. Obviously no grind here as there's nothing to unlock, but this just happened with no real input from me aside from doing missions for imperial factions, which I was doing anyway because of where I happened to be.
So now I've shifted my final biowaste delivery for the Imperial navy, my service is now complete and no longer required. No spec ops missions to defend the Empire, just a pat on the head and a fancy badge (well, some text saying I'm a King). At least the grind made me feel like I was doing something for the navy.
So now I've shifted my final biowaste delivery for the Imperial navy, my service is now complete and no longer required. No spec ops missions to defend the Empire, just a pat on the head and a fancy badge (well, some text saying I'm a King). At least the grind made me feel like I was doing something for the navy.
You are a king without a kingdom. A king without a kingdom is homeless. That makes you a hobo. Welcome to the mean streets of Elite. Have a seat under the bridge with the rest of us hobos.
Can you explain how to actually reach such a station. I found one on the map but I can't select it to plot a routeFirst, ditch Sothis/Ceos and head to a suitable (Empire/Fed) burning Station in a large PAX Evac Ship.
You'll fast-forward Ranks on those ~5Mm Travels between Station and Rescue MegaShip like you've never experienced before
But other than that.... yes, plenty of stuff that's still the old Alpha-level placeholder it already was at V1.0.
So in short, as usual it works mechanically and gains you access to Ships - but lacks everything in the Gameplay department. The old FDev problem.
- the only benefit is unlocking Ships, meaning it not only feels but is a classic unlock-grind with nothing inbetween
- the attained System Permits are entirely useless outside of hardcore RP
- the Naval Progression Missions are still 100% RNG generic Missions picked from the conventional Mission board
- carrying the Ranks holds no other benefit, they're not even displayed nor visible after any type of scan to other Players
PS.
Who knows, maybe those V1.0 rank progression mechanics get some love in one of the upcoming minor mini-updates. Or 2020. Or not. Impossible to tell.
Military ranks do two things. They open up locked ships and also provide permits to locked systems. Other than that they are an accomplishment in the game just like triple Elite if that is a player's goal. We all have goals which change often. Maybe sometime in the future being King and Admiral might be part of the requirements to purchase a dreadnought ship costing billions that we can store all our other ships. One of my goals was making 10 billion credits which I completed last week just in case.
But every accomplishment in ED takes time, experience and commitment. There are no easy paths without becoming an experienced ED player using many learned talents to put them together for the next goal. Once learned the game seems to be too easy.
A lot of the info the OP desires is already in the codex as well as many after market support sites and YouTube videos. The Frontier Devs decided a long time ago to use 3rd parties to support the game in a lot more detail. Use them or not to your advantage.
Regards
But every accomplishment in ED takes time, experience and commitment. There are no easy paths without becoming an experienced ED player using many learned talents to put them together for the next goal. Once learned the game seems to be too easy.
A lot of the info the OP desires is already in the codex as well as many after market support sites and YouTube videos. The Frontier Devs decided a long time ago to use 3rd parties to support the game in a lot more detail. Use them or not to your advantage.
Regards
I don't think I would mind a frequent reset of goals to achieve to unlock rewards. Like having "rounds" or "seasons" - I detest the decay during the 4 weeks - it is utterly demotivating.
Critique first, constructive input later.
Honestly - aside from RP flavor text - I don 't care about it as it does exactly nothing. Ding - rank gained. Obligatory congrats letter with fun fact attached. Great deeds of CMDRs who held that rank? Why should I even care - I'm focused on MY achievements, not some random NPC i don't even know or heard of.
Now for input
Current grind is just a grind only to unlock ships (I don't count systems as they are meaningless - besides maybe Sol). For me rank grind to be interesting it had to be like this.
You decide to start ranking. You visit given military HQ and accept general quest/mission. You are given a rundown of how many ranks are there (I had to wiki it) and how to progress through them. Simply put - run missions for faction, show your dedication. Since we have lots of ways and jobs - each completed mission for PP main faction awards a "merit" (token, proof, call it as you want). You need X amount to reach higher rank. higher ranks require bit more merits.
Upon reaching required quota you get a prompt - head to HQ, visit military contract and bam. In recognition of your effotr you are granted a rank up and a reward. Be it credits, system permissions, ship unlocks, purchase discounts, paint jobs, ship kits... Yeah, you could get in-game shop things via this system.
Run enough missions, and it doesn't matter if it's hauling missions, assassination, passenger or what not, and you get to max rank. Some missions would grant 1 merit (easy ones like data/cargo runs), other more. Depending on difficulty, like killing serious pirate threat or Thagroid. Want fast rank run - do high risk high reward stuff. Want easy way - do easy stuff but it may take a while.
Honestly - aside from RP flavor text - I don 't care about it as it does exactly nothing. Ding - rank gained. Obligatory congrats letter with fun fact attached. Great deeds of CMDRs who held that rank? Why should I even care - I'm focused on MY achievements, not some random NPC i don't even know or heard of.
As above butfrom the pther side - why Space Princess should send me anything while I was gaining Imperial ranks? Why the sudden interest? Maybe when gaining King status - word of acknowledgement. Beyond that I don't see a rason any PP should observe my progress.
Slight problem - rank grinding is one time only event. One time reward would not cover your engineering needs rendering said blueprint unavailabvle once your reward runs out.
Now for input
Current grind is just a grind only to unlock ships (I don't count systems as they are meaningless - besides maybe Sol). For me rank grind to be interesting it had to be like this.
You decide to start ranking. You visit given military HQ and accept general quest/mission. You are given a rundown of how many ranks are there (I had to wiki it) and how to progress through them. Simply put - run missions for faction, show your dedication. Since we have lots of ways and jobs - each completed mission for PP main faction awards a "merit" (token, proof, call it as you want). You need X amount to reach higher rank. higher ranks require bit more merits.
Upon reaching required quota you get a prompt - head to HQ, visit military contract and bam. In recognition of your effotr you are granted a rank up and a reward. Be it credits, system permissions, ship unlocks, purchase discounts, paint jobs, ship kits... Yeah, you could get in-game shop things via this system.
Run enough missions, and it doesn't matter if it's hauling missions, assassination, passenger or what not, and you get to max rank. Some missions would grant 1 merit (easy ones like data/cargo runs), other more. Depending on difficulty, like killing serious pirate threat or Thagroid. Want fast rank run - do high risk high reward stuff. Want easy way - do easy stuff but it may take a while.
Didn’t use to be like that. Before the nerf, the goals were so distant you had to learn the hard way to not focus on the goals and actually haul the data.
Always generated a wince when a gameplay kid would get bloodied up doing the old rep grind focusing only on the goal and actually hurt themselves by the end.
That was part of the freedom I thought, though long removed for safety reasons I guess.
Always generated a wince when a gameplay kid would get bloodied up doing the old rep grind focusing only on the goal and actually hurt themselves by the end.
That was part of the freedom I thought, though long removed for safety reasons I guess.
Deleted member 38366
D
Hm, I've found a few cases where my default GalMap Filter inside the Bubble (Allegiance - all except "none") was also hiding them.
Solution : temporarily disable any GaMap Filter or add "None" if currently deselected, that should fix it.
(also maybe check if you once had set a Population Filter and forgot to disable it again, that can easily hide plenty of Systems)