Rework Career Rank Grind

[sandkid]

I'm currently Elite in Trading, Pioneer in Exploring, and Expert in Combat...the expert came from many a pirate dying to my...Beluga? Anyways, been thinking on the ranks and did some research on combat since it's not my cup of tea (My poor corvette gathers dust a lot since building my AX Challenger). Particularly for combat, the rank grind is just that...grindy! It doesn't make a lot of sense. SO...here's the ideas, by rank:

COMBAT CAREER
-Each Rank requires several stipulations to achieve (you must meet ALL requirements)
-For Combat, these are: Profits made (Bonds, Bounties, Missions related to Combat), Ships Destroyed at Same Rank or Higher, Successful Interdictions
-An Example: Harmless to Most Harmless, 50,000 Credits Profit / 5 Ships Destroyed at Harmless or Higher / 1 Interdiction Successful
-By combining metrics, the total number of ship kills could be greatly reduced and offset with more natural gameplay


TRADE CAREER
-Each Rank requires several stipulations to achieve (you must meet ALL requirements)
-For trade, these are: Profits made (including mission gains related to Trade), Markets Visited (Including Black Markets), and Interdictions Avoided
-An Example: Penniless to Mostly Penniless, 50,000 Credits Profit / 5 Markets Visited / 1 Interdiction Avoided
-By combining several metrics, the total profit number could be whittled down a little, and instead actual gameplay fills into these ranks more naturally.


EXPLORER CAREER
-Each Rank requires several stipulations to achieve (you must meet ALL requirements)
-For Explorer, these are: Profits made (Explore Data and Missions related to Exploration), New Codex Entries (Tourist Beacons and Stellar Data), Distance from Sol
-An Example: Aimless to Mostly Aimless, 50,000 Credits Profit / 5 New Codex Entries / 100ly from Sol
-By combining metrics, Exploring ceases to just be about credit farming and more about actual exploring with new entries and escaping the bubble


I agree with many that careers should also have more impact on gameplay as a whole - not just the discount for Elite ranks. That said, I'm not addressing that in this post. I just wanted to air some ideas about changing up how the ranks are obtained in a such a way they are less grindy but still require effort and natural gameplay. As an example on the other end of the spectrum:

Elite Combat: 500,000,000 Profit / 250 Ships Destroyed at Elite / 100 Successful Interdictions

Elite Trade: 500,000,000 Profit / 250 Markets Visited / 100 Interdiction Evasions

Elite Explore: 500,000,000 Profit / 150 New Codex Entries / 20,000ly from Sol


Thoughts on reducing the grind without reducing the achievement?

 

[Chaparral]

I do agree that progression in Elite needs a deeper approach than "acquired X number of scaled points for target kills", "earned X credits in trade", "earned x credits in exploration".

Usually achievement titles are linked to things like boss fights, puzzle unlocks, or unlocked/viewed destinations. I think it wouldn't take too long to develop a list of mission/targets within each category that would need to be ticked off to achieve rank progression.

The problem would be in coding it. This game is a bit old for that kind of rework I'm afraid.

 

[Misty_Dark]

Elite Combat: 500,000,000 Profit / 250 Ships Destroyed at Elite / 100 Successful Interdictions

Elite Trade: 500,000,000 Profit / 250 Markets Visited / 100 Interdiction Evasions

Elite Explore: 500,000,000 Profit / 150 New Codex Entries / 20,000ly from Sol


Thoughts on reducing the grind without reducing the achievement?

Reduce grinding without reducing achievements, I know these are a mock-ups, but they should somewhat have a bearing on what it is required today.

Exploration, 500 million, currently it is somewhere around 320 million...
Trade, is less credits, as this one is ~1 billion
Combat, has no profit at all, it is all about ships destroyed. and ships destroyed is less than current optimum ships, only killing Elite = ~400 ships, if killing same ranked ships we are talking about ~800 ships.



I do agree that it would be great if these ranks was based on more diverse stats, and not a "single" stat. But how would you manage those existing Elite ranked players that now does not meet the criteria? And some stats are not displayed, like interdictions.

 

[EWanderer]

problem is, while I see how you might reduce mindless grind in combat, explorations gets more expensive and grindy. you can hardly take away current ranks from people without backlash and changing the rank system could create a gate for new players. So yeah not really an option unfortunately I would say.

 

[xxThe_Dice_manxx]

Here's my thoughts.

Combat:
Leave it as it is.
Exploration:
10 billion profit exclusively from handing in exploration data.
Trade:
10 billion exclusively from profit from buying items.
*Mining:
10 billion exclusively from profit from mining.

It needs to be made harder to achieve to make the Elite moniker actually have meaning.

*maybe someday.

 

[Factabulous]

I would rather have cross platform achievements if we wanted to do this, but this idea is kinda "tell people how to play", which is against the games ethos. I think...

 

[sandkid]

I would rather have cross platform achievements if we wanted to do this, but this idea is kinda "tell people how to play", which is against the games ethos. I think...

That's a fair point, sorta...the existing system technically tells you how to play, too. Earn credits / kill ships, as opposed to just futzing about.

As for retroactive, overhauling the system wouldn't 'remove' anyone's existing ranks. This is a non-issue covered in many other games that update their ranking systems over the years.

All said, it's not an easy problem (and some would say it isn't a problem, which is a fair opinion) to solve. In a nutshell, how do you create a rank system that imbues the user with a sense of achievement, growth, and actual skill / competence as they progress...while not being grindy.