What's up with the faction reputations?

[OlFart]

I've made my way up to an Imperial Lord, so needless to say, I got a fair number of missions under my belt. At the same time I'm still only neutral to the empire as a whole. Local factions in my area love me though. In the meantime I have friends who have done nothing but trade, and they have managed to acquire friendly status with the federation - without doing a single mission for them.

What the deuce? How does trading make a faction show endless love for a pilot, while the factions seem to completely ignore the loyal pilots that are working their way up as a paramilitary freelancer? Can anyone shed some light on this? Is the system just broken, or is this working as intended (and in that case, what the heck is the intention behind this?)

I've also received missions that grant system permissions (Imperial Summons). Those missions mention that there is a mission waiting for me at that location, but when I get there, there's never anything special available. Again, what the deuce? Anyone got any information on this?

Lord OlFart

 

[Ben Ryder]

I guess you dont gain repuation by downing covert missions that nobody is meant to know about but you do gain rep by giving food and other goods openly

 

[OlFart]

Well, just because I finally gave up and posted on the topic - I finally got my friendly status with the empire after yet more missions. So yes, it's doable but it will take a rather long time.

Gotta say though, it feels like it takes way too long. Seems to me you should become friendly with the empire before you hit Lord in the navy, eh? And let's not go into how much rep you can lose from being caught just once with some illegal cargo in the hold.