I made a billion doing delivery missions, travelling to Hutton Orbital back and forth (0.22ly in SC) and my trade rank hardly moved. To do the passenger missions and get good payouts, I needed a slightly better trade rank, so I bought a T9 and spent a couple of hours getting myself up to Broker level.
Then I did economy passenger missions to Smeaton Orbital (1.8million ls) - like I said, only about half a dozen of these.
Granted, each one made me around 150 million per trip in a Python. But it would whack 25% off the Tycoon progress bar each time! When I became Trade Elite on my main, I traded for hours on end to watch that rank creep up 1% at a time.
I bought another Commander during the Christmas sale, because I like the starting game of Elite, and didn't fancy a reset.
Figured it would keep me busy for a while, since my main is Elite in both Trading and Exploration (my two main interests in the game).
With this Commander, I've gone all-out for credits from the start. I made my first billion doing Sol->Hutton runs in a Cobra MK3 (my only ship at the time). Bored with that, I decided to do the LTT 9360 passenger missions. So I did half a dozen or so. It's only money - it only enables me to do what I actually want to do in the game... means to an end and all that...
Now, suddenly, I'm ELITE????? I've made 35million in trading - how in the name of all holy chestnuts am I an "Elite" trader just by doing passenger missions? I'm baffled, and slightly annoyed... because that whole avenue of the game (trading... as in buying and selling goods for a profit) is now redundant without a reset.
Very strange game design FD... :S
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd....947/0989B8B85FB12B2C454808E3BBC6A66B705E507D/
Elite trade is 1 billion in profits, and those missions count. And it is redundant, because you are now a billionaire. The only thing that needs changing is the stupid amount of income-'inflation'. "I grabbed a billion in my cobra and then grabbed another in six missions' is absolute silly. But it is what people want, so congrats: you are elite again.![]()
We actually have now the same situation as in the Exploring rank in the beginning of last year, I don't remember the version, where passenger missions counted 1:1 towards the exploration rank. Fdev nerfed it after some time. Now the passenger mission count 1:1 towards the trade rank. IMO, Smeaton Orbital is not the problem. The problem is that the passenger missions count toward the trade rank.
Is that the x56 or x52 Pro HOTAS you're using there? Looks similar to the one I've got in my ship....