What is your current exploration rank

[JYD75]

I don't sleep much and play when everyone else is tucked up with their teddy bears. Sleep maybe 2-3 hours a day if at all...and that's after a day of working on the house to get the wiring and plumbing dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. That and I'm a single parent so I got nobody to share chores with, or shout at me that I play too much.

I'm one of those hateful greedy scanners...everything right down to that last ball of ice gets scanned. If yer gonna do a job then gotta do it right or it's not worth doing.

The best part? This isn't the only game I play

Have some REP, just for being awesome

I have 2 Kids and a very tolerant Wife, seriously - hats off to you!

 

[verminstar]

Have some REP, just for being awesome

I have 2 Kids and a very tolerant Wife, seriously - hats off to you!

It is what it is...not a case of being a martyr, I'm in this position because I don't have a choice and because I've been married twice, I know exactly what I'm missing...hence I stay single cos it's way more fun ^^

As fer making 160m in 7 weeks? I made about 55m last time after being out 11 days...that trip was cut short after I lost my SRV so yeah...160m in 7 weeks is certainly doable ^^

 

[BeanpotBeanie]

I'd love prestige-type ranks (like in Call of Duty) that let you unlock something meaningless but cool. At some 600M exploration credits (some of that before the doubling too), I'd be coming up for hitting Elite for the 4th time...

About halfway from Pioneer to Elite myself and I could get behind this idea. Kinda like stars for a general, your still a general but you get to show off how much of a general you are. Only here it'd be one star elite, two star elite, etc. No other perks gained past Elite other than bragging rights.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

It is what it is...not a case of being a martyr, I'm in this position because I don't have a choice and because I've been married twice, I know exactly what I'm missing...hence I stay single cos it's way more fun ^^

As fer making 160m in 7 weeks? I made about 55m last time after being out 11 days...that trip was cut short after I lost my SRV so yeah...160m in 7 weeks is certainly doable ^^

its doable no question there, you can also get to beagle point in 27 hours

time is relative

 

[Colonia Jesus]

its doable no question there, you can also get to beagle point in 27 hours

time is relative

27 hours holy crap makes my 8 months look like i was going the wrong way lol. but yeah it is all relative.

 

[verminstar]

its doable no question there, you can also get to beagle point in 27 hours

time is relative

At the rate I'm making distance, I'd be lucky to make it by xmas ^^

 

[Jackie Silver]

The Pilot's Federation can stuff their Elite ranking system where the stars don't shine. It's a silly thing. It's as silly as ships having hit points, and all that other numbers-based nonsense we're still saddled with from the dark ages of pen-and-paper gaming. We could do better.

/high horse

 

[iain666]

27 hours holy crap makes my 8 months look like i was going the wrong way lol. but yeah it is all relative.

A few people got very close to, or possibly even slightly under 24h before Engineers. It's probably possible in considerably less than that now.

 

[disorganise]

Worst thread ever!
I thought being 45% or so Ranger meant a good chance to be elite when I get back.....so long as my data isn't actually gonesky.
But.......
Pioneer....oh no

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Elite, voted it's too low.

Reasoning - With LYR bonus you now only need 52mil of data (or thereabouts) to hit Elite which really isn't much.
If LYR bonus didn't count to rank I'd change my opinion to that it's "ok"
I would however like to see an increase to all scanned planets/stars except NS/BH, without changing the honking value. A re-baseline of the Elite rank may also be required at that point.

 

[JYD75]

--deleted--

 

[Colonia Jesus]

Elite, voted it's too low.

Reasoning - With LYR bonus you now only need 52mil of data (or thereabouts) to hit Elite which really isn't much.
If LYR bonus didn't count to rank I'd change my opinion to that it's "ok"
I would however like to see an increase to all scanned planets/stars except NS/BH, without changing the honking value. A re-baseline of the Elite rank may also be required at that point.

what is LYR bonus??

 

[Traveller_GG]

what is LYR bonus??

Li Yong-Rui

You get a bonus to exploration data if aligned with them.

 

[JYD75]

To be exact - if you reach Rank 5 with him you get a 200% Bonus on the data you sell (had to look it up )

 

[Pete]

To be exact - if you reach Rank 5 with him you get a 200% Bonus on the data you sell (had to look it up )

But if I understand correctly you need to be doing a lot of powerplay stuff to get the rank, and if you go off on a long exploration you lose the rank, right?

This is why I never got involved in PP, the benefits were made meaningless by the grind that was needed to get them for explorers.

-- Pete.

 

[JYD75]

But if I understand correctly you need to be doing a lot of powerplay stuff to get the rank, and if you go off on a long exploration you lose the rank, right?

This is why I never got involved in PP, the benefits were made meaningless by the grind that was needed to get them for explorers.

-- Pete.

Jep, you understand it correctly - which is also why it isn't a viable option for me. I get the feeling in the time it will realistically take for me to grind rank 5 I'd have scanned extra systems to get fairly close to what I could cash in with Rank 5.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

You can always fly at risk.

1) Do the exploration trip unpledged.
2) Return to bubble and swap to a heavy combat ship
3) Do powerplay to rank 5
4) Sell Data
5) Profit

I did that on my 8 month trip for bragging rights and got 500mil extra bonus on my 250mil of data for a 750mil total profits. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/281395-8-months-559-000Ly-and-a-monster-of-a-thread

Bear in mind by doing the cargo transfer route (safer than combat route) to get ranked up in powerplay I spent 100mil credits, I get 55.5mil of that back from the powerplay salary in the following weeks but its still money you need to have before starting.
So overall I spent 44.5mil to get the 500mil bonus.
This up-front cost to rank up basically means the more data you have the more profitable it is.

Anyway, in the combat conda I flew for powerplay bit: https://coriolis.io/outfit/anaconda...f050504040403030324.AwRj4yuqg===.EwBj4yuyEYg=
Over the 25 trips (2 jumps out, 1 jump returning) each time carrying 400T of cargo I got a grand total of 5 interdiction attempts. 4 of the I avoided in supercruise before the tether was established. The final one followed me into the station and got turned to flying scrap by the police and station guns. I had expected it to be much more treacherous but it was quite mundane actually.

If anyone wants more details and/or guidance ask away or fire me a PM an I'll walk them through what/how I did it. It should be fairly obvious from this post though...

 

[glojo]

i think the progression is fine as it is. elite should be difficult to achieve.

I agree with you regarding it being 'difficult' to achieve the rank of Elite but how do we define difficult? Does difficult equate to the skill-set of playing the game or is it the ability to grind away for the required amount of money?

With the CEOS run then an active player should easily make Elite trade within 14 days. Putting the same amount of time into exploration, you would not be anywhere near that rank. A hearty well done to all Elite ranked explorers.

 

[Galactic Fork]

I agree with you regarding it being 'difficult' to achieve the rank of Elite but how do we define difficult? Does difficult equate to the skill-set of playing the game or is it the ability to grind away for the required amount of money?

With the CEOS run then an active player should easily make Elite trade within 14 days. Putting the same amount of time into exploration, you would not be anywhere near that rank. A hearty well done to all Elite ranked explorers.

Well, the fact that you call it a "grind" is telling. I'm approaching Elite (currently Pioneer), and never felt it was grindy (Actually at the moment kinda, because I'm not actually exploring, I'm bouncing out about 200 ly from Jaques Station and back ing on systems until 2.2.) For me it's mainly about the RP journey, the rank and money kinda just happens when you return go back to a station. Actually going back towards civilization is the worst part for me because I'm scared I'll get destroyed or forget how to land on a station.

But to answer your question, difficulty doesn't exclusively mean skill, it can also mean the time\effort needed. Exploration is the low risk - heavy time requirement occupation in the game.