Suggestion: Rank Based Benefits

[PhoenicianSon]

It's really just a simple suggestion, and I fell upon it actually a minute ago when noticing another commander pilot at a lower rank in combat. I am thinking to myself, NPCs are more difficult the higher their combat ranking, and the more resilient their ships seem to become as well. Well, Commanders spend a great deal of time ranking up in the various ranks, i.e. Combat, Trading, Exploration. I feel like they should be rewarded, even if it were ever so slightly as to not garner too great a benefit to negatively impact the balance of the game. So, I thought of the following... and, I am not sure if anyone ever suggested this before, if so, I apologize in advance for my redundancy:

Exploration: Each rank increase grants a marginal increase in Supercruise speed and redemption rewards for turning in scans, since their skills become more refined from spending time in Supercruise exploring, scanning and negotiating the sale of planetary scan information.
Trade: Each rank increase grants a marginal increase in the sale and marginal reduction in the purchase of goods since they become more refined in their ability to negotiate sales and trades.
Combat: Each rank increase grants a marginal increase in the shields charge and weapon damage since they become more refined in their skills as combat pilots.

Bear in mind, I say marginal increase, not huge. However, I think the idea, although rudimentary in application, has merit. Perhaps that cap is not more than a 5% increase, or 1% per rank. Maybe that is too little for trade or exploration, and they require a greater bump, and maybe that is too high for weapon or shields. The point is that there is some type of increase, small at best, to also represent the player's more refined skills based upon their respective ranking.

Yes, no?

 

[metatheurgist]

Definitely not. It's not an RPG where your character gains "skillz", all the skill comes from the player. NPCs ships are tougher because they're equipped better at higher ranks, just like a players.

 

[PhoenicianSon]

Definitely not. It's not an RPG where your character gains "skillz", all the skill comes from the player. NPCs ships are tougher because they're equipped better at higher ranks, just like a players.

Players do not need to be higher ranked to better equip their ships, so no to that one. I agree with you that the engineers increase the various attributes of your ship and or modules. However, what I suggested is not strictly for the benefit of combat. RNG does not increase the sale of your trades or better the prices when you purchase. They do not help you garner better payouts on Exploration data. As to whether they increase your speed in Supercruise, I cannot speak to that, but again, Engineers modifications benefit your ship. My suggestion is not limited to any benefit for the ship.

I still think that it would make for an incentive to rank up in each category, and such an incentive as suggested would not disrupt the balance of the game or game play. Regardless, you are of course free to express your own opinion, and perhaps other agree with you, maybe they don't... who knows, as I doubt every person who plays is going to respond.

 

[Konnivar]

I like the idea of an increased value of exploration data and better market prices, but both of those could act as "XP" boosters. Progression through the Exploration and Trade ranks are based on currency for trading it tracks the currency earned through trading/trading missions and the same goes for Exploration. So, increasing the payouts of each as your rank increases has the unintended consequence of allowing faster rank progression.

Not that there's anything explicitly wrong with that but it may cause some problems with the community, just as passenger missions rewarding huge explorer rank boosts did.

As for extra speed in SC, extra shield recharge, and weapon damage: No, just no. It doesn't matter how small the benefit is it will create an imbalance between the ranks, and even something as small as a 1% increase in weapon DPS can create a significant advantage; the same applies to the shield recharge. The SC thing isn't as bad in terms of balance but would still potentially cause problems.

As it stands your ranks show how proficient of a pilot you are in a specific role. Unless some cheese method is used a pilot who is Elite should be more efficient in combat because they have that much more experience than someone who is competent (with the notable exception of reset accounts). It's a bit harder to track increased experience with Exploration and Trade which is why better prices doesn't seem like a bad idea. It makes sense that a CMDR would gain notoriety as they increase in rank and that would cause people to view said CMDR differently based on their rank.

That's a solid NO from me on anything that effects any ship/flying characteristics or stats, and a Yes on increased rewards assuming it doesn't cause problems or too much griping.