Why haven't I reached Elite?

[Jaiotu]

The good: Exploration payouts just increased to make exploration a viable career option!

The Meh: Thresholds for exploration rank increased to account for the increased credit payouts.

The Bad: All the exploration that you did prior to the 2.3 update will be redeemed at the pre-2.3 payout levels. This was communicated several times by Frontier Developments and it means that the pre-2.2 scanned data won't move you along in rank as much as the post 2.3 data will.

The Moral of the Story: If you spent the last few weeks "grinding for rank" then you should have redeemed your exploration data before the update dropped.

 

[Mira Calques]

I guess that means it didn't even out. Or you miscalculated to begin with. Do first scan bonuses formulate into the ranking? Did you make sure you weren't scanning already tagged neutron stars? Apparently it's a thing. Maybe others beat you to it.

I'm pretty sure my calculations were correct to begin with. I took an average of the range of neutron payouts (towards the low end, for safety's sake as well) and worked out how many I'd need for either first discovery or already discovered. They were pretty much all first discoveries - I think only about 10 -15 out of 1000+ neutron systems that I visited were already tagged (and that's not including the many BH, Earth-likes and water worlds I also picked up en route). Of course, it's possible someone else had scanned some of them just before me and managed to turn their data in first, but unlikely to have been a significant amount of them. Even conservatively estimating, I should have been well over the 156 million CR profit needed pre 2.3

The Bad: All the exploration that you did prior to the 2.3 update will be redeemed at the pre-2.3 payout levels. This was communicated several times by Frontier Developments and it means that the pre-2.2 scanned data won't move you along in rank as much as the post 2.3 data will.

See, I never saw this, and I couldn't find any info about rank requirements having increased after 2.3. It certainly wasn't mentioned in the patch notes. Maybe I didn't google well enough, I dunno, but it still felt like someone had move the goalposts right in front of me.

 

[Drazkul]

I guess that means it didn't even out. Or you miscalculated to begin with. Do first scan bonuses formulate into the ranking? Did you make sure you weren't scanning already tagged neutron stars? Since apparently neutron star farming is a thing. Maybe others beat you to it.

The way I've understood it is that:

Any scans pre 2.3 have their old credit value (this was mentioned in the patch notes, presumably it isn't possible to increase already scanned values).

Any data handed in post 2.3 means that it will be awarded at the rate of 1% rank increase (at pioneer) per 2m worth of credits (or around that mark)

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

Forget passengers - I'm nobody's bus driver! Still yet to do a single one, I hate the feature personally but each to their own Anyway I thought ranking up through passenger missions was stopped?

Easier, well maybe, but to me isn't quite the point. Difficulty in getting Elite should be as close to the way it was. Otherwise you'll get the 'it was harder to get Elite in my day' brigade.

Passenger missions still contribute just at a lower rate but 90m for a passenger to saga is still 90m (or 45m worth of exploration rank) and you can scan on the way so it's time efficient 9/10 passenger missions will take you to a high value system too, and you can stack them if your into that board flipping nonsense

So people have options it's just changed, we're not playing the same elite from 6months ago let alone 2 yrs ago so sure some things are gonna be easier or in fact harder (combat rank being one of them if you missed the exploit) personally if someone says you didn't get elite the iron way or something to that effect it makes me cringe, it's like saying your playing mine craft wrong because you build an underwater house... it's a sandbox... it's still a house...

 

[Jaiotu]

See, I never saw this, and I couldn't find any info about rank requirements having increased after 2.3. It certainly wasn't mentioned in the patch notes. Maybe I didn't google well enough, I dunno, but it still felt like someone had move the goalposts right in front of me.

They did a great job of communicating the change in exploration payouts ... they didn't do a good job explaining how that would effect exploration rank thresholds though. There were only two possibilities though:

1. The threshold remains at the same level meaning a whole lot of people are going to reach Elite in exploration a whole lot faster than they otherwise would have or
2. The threshold would increase along with the payout values so that, while you might get paid more, it would still require the same amount of "work" to acquire each level of exploration rank.

 

[Henkka77]

So, you didnt make it Elite yet, now get back out there and grind some more neutrons if thats your thing. I had my Elite rank with that proper exploration stuff but hey, what ever makes you tick.

 

[Wedgetail]

or ignore neutrons now that they aren't the moneymakers

go for those boring old HMC-ridden trash heaps that you wouldn't have looked twice at previously. The MRBs and especially TFCs bring in more than those old boring neutron stars now (let alone WWs and ELWs)

 

[marx]

See, I never saw this, and I couldn't find any info about rank requirements having increased after 2.3. It certainly wasn't mentioned in the patch notes. Maybe I didn't google well enough, I dunno, but it still felt like someone had move the goalposts right in front of me.

Rank requirements haven't changed, but how much exploration scans and passenger missions contribute were changed, and this was included in the patch notes... but the beta patch notes only. For whatever reason, the scan profit contribution was left out from the release changelog.

Think of it as follows. To reach exploration Elite, you had to have ~150 million exp: exploration points. Before 2.3, 1 Cr scan payout was worth 1 exp. After 2.3, this was halved, so 2 Cr scan payout is worth 1 exp. The rank thresholds haven't changed, you still need 150 million exp to reach Elite: but to get that, you need 300 million Cr in scan payouts now.
Not sure how much it is in passenger missions, but they were hit much harder. Which is good, because it was laughably easy to get to Elite with those.

However, since payouts were increased roughly 8x for the rare bodies, in practice it became much quicker to get to Elite. With how much you have left, I think that you could do it on a 10k ly trip if you just fly along the route planner and scan any rares you come across. No need to fly off far; maybe visit a few of the new asteroid bases?

Oh, and I'd recommend looking at everything inside the habitable zones, since terraforming candidates are all worth more now - not just water worlds, but also HMCPs and rocky worlds.


@ Asp Explorer: Yup, pretty much. The thing about stars is that we know where they are, so finding them - even rare ones - can be done from anywhere, by using the galaxy map. Well, except secondary stars that orbit primaries, because those are hidden from view until you actually get to the system. But if you've found a star on the galaxy map, you can be certain that it's there.

 

[BDelacroix]

They moved the finish line when the course was easier. However, there must have been some sort of compensation because I was at 98% to elite when 2.3 dropped and I didn't suddenly drop. I made elite a bit later, but under the amount that was required by this forum to really count as a "real" explorer. I'm elite, but not holding 600million credits of exploration value. So, I don't have the total answer.

 

[shivarussell]

Just got back two days ago from Sag A and became elite.... attached piccie shows what i had to earn.... hope it helps

 

[mpfj]

Think of it as follows. To reach exploration Elite, you had to have ~150 million exp: exploration points. Before 2.3, 1 Cr scan payout was worth 1 exp. After 2.3, this was halved, so 2 Cr scan payout is worth 1 exp. The rank thresholds haven't changed, you still need 150 million exp to reach Elite: but to get that, you need 300 million Cr in scan payouts now.

Perfect explanation!!

Can't rep you any more, so virtual +1 [yesnod]

 

[CMDR MERANGO]

Just got back two days ago from Sag A and became elite.... attached piccie shows what i had to earn.... hope it helps

View attachment 119094

I am currently at 47% Ranger.

Systems visited: 9,900
Profits from exploration: 61,417,243
Level 2 scans: 892
Level 3 scans: 3,603
Highest payout: 628,809
Total Hyperspace distance: 420,055
Total Hyperspace jumps: 20,771
Max distance from start: 65,222

I have more than you in every aspect and yet you are Elite Explorer.

It seems B.S. to me.

I am now on my way back from Beagle Point, it will be very interesting to see what I end up with.

Farming anything is NOT exploring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CMIV

 

[Cliff Dobbs]

Profits from exploration: 61,417,243

^ There is your answer, my friend. Shivarussell had over 316 Million Cr.

It's all about the cold hard credits.

C

 

[Kharadrass]

I just got back from several weeks out in the neutron fields, making a concerted push to get myself finally up to Elite Explorer ranking. According to everything I can find online, Elite ranking should be around 156 million CR exploration profit. As you can see from the attached screenshot, I have over 200 million CR exploration profit, yet my rank is apparently only 89% Pioneer. Anyone have any idea what's going on here?View attachment 119020

I guess this is a bit too late as a month has gone by since you first posted this, but if by some slim reason you are still attaining the elite goal in exploration I found this article on the forums, being in a similar situation needing only a few percent to clear pioneer and enter the realms of Elite explorer I decided I will do the mini version of the following...

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/279544-The-Great-Earth-Like-World-Tour

Hope it helps, if not, then any other explorers trying to tie over that final tiny push and not wanting to venture too far from civilisation. It can be done quickly and you are close enough to the bubble to take time out in between. Also if you have a 55ly range DBX its one or two jumps between the systems on the list. If you scan planets that are suitable for terraforming in the goldilocks zones in systems on your route you can increase your gains quicker.