Guide / Tutorial Yokai's guide to rank progression (reputation) and working around the seeming bugs

Issmir · Jan 22, 2015

Perjoss said:
How can you affiliate yourself with people that have no respect for human life. I can't guarantee your safety should our paths ever cross in the cold dark.

I'm English.

What was the question again?

Thisdale · Jan 22, 2015

Awesome Reply Yokai, thank you for clarifying!
I had another Ranking mission yesterday, but still no cigars. System must be lagged.

And yes, Limp Bizkit... oh lord... now i feel old and will have that song stuck in my head all day.

lucasdigital · Jan 22, 2015

A concise and cogent run-though. I'll stop shaking my fist in the air at some imagined bug. All this time I've been overly focused on a couple of systems. Tonight I'll spread the love to more Federation systems.

Goilveig · Jan 24, 2015

Yokai said:
A) Perhaps once your internal "score" for a major faction passes a certain threshold (somewhere in the "Friendly" band), you appear to the system authority of every system that is aligned with that major faction as "green", and the local system authories appear green and so do any stations whose minor faction is aligned with that major faction. In other words, there's a "bloom" effect from your major faction reputation that affects ONLY the behavior of the local system authories and of the station guns.

B) And/or perhaps your underlying score with the major faction associated with a system applies a small "weight" to your interactions with that local system. This weight is just enough to kick over the local system authorities and station guns to "green" (Authority ships are less likely to scan/interdict you, and even if they do scan you--station guns seem to ALWAYS scan you regardless--both authority ships and station guns are less likely to shoot at you or fine you for carrying illegal goods. Or at least certain types of illegal goods. I have trucked _many_ shiploads of illegal "Slaves" into larger stations where I was allied with the local faction. I haven't tested (nor want to) scooped cargo cannisters.

I think it's just a simple addition - your major faction rep is added to your minor faction rep when it calculates on the right-hand pane (the effective reputation). As soon as you hit Friendly with a major faction, every minor faction with whom your reputation is not negative then goes green to you.

I've noticed that for the first minor faction I worked, I was very deep into "Friendly" (on mission screens) when my effective rep hit "Allied" on the rep panel. Each successive minor faction has hit "Allied" on the reputation pane quicker and quicker, although I have not yet reached allied with the major faction. Most recently I hit an effective reputation of Allied when I was just exactly at the threshold for Friendly on the mission screen.

tough boy · Jan 24, 2015

So I'm trying to build my Empire rank in order to buy a Clipper; I get that assassination missions are not a great idea for this, since I either upset the target faction or the faction that gave me the mission, which can be bot affiliated to the Empire? .-.

Yokai · Jan 25, 2015

tough boy said:
So I'm trying to build my Empire rank in order to buy a Clipper; I get that assassination missions are not a great idea for this, since I either upset the target faction or the faction that gave me the mission, which can be bot affiliated to the Empire? .-.

Yup, gotta be careful. The charity missions are best (give food, bring 2 slaves, etc. The ones that have no money reward but instead say "gives reputation". Failing that, the "retrieve certain commodities" missions are also good (and safe).

Kerenn · Jan 25, 2015

Have some rep, CMDR ! 07

Roadblock · Jan 25, 2015

My couple of questions:

1) Any idea how big a hit you take when you accidentally ping a 'clean' ship (or the police) when bounty hunting, assuming you don't blow anything up and pay off the bounty immediately?

2) When handing in bounties, does that count towards only the major faction, or does it have any (potential) effect on a minor faction... perhaps whoever owns the station when you turned in the bounty vouchers?

Thanks, and big thanks to Yokai and others for the great content in this thread!

Vampyre111 · Jan 25, 2015

I made my first 'friends' rating about 100LY from Sol. Then I decided to try a rare run wich got me withing 5 LY of Sol. It seemed no matter where I went, There were more and more green contacts.

Then a couple of days ago, I decided to try some rank progresssion missions and was very surprised to get an invite to Sol. Of course nothing really happened once I got there.

I'm still in the area, mostly working out at Barnard's Star and I'm still getting rank missions. The ranking doesn't make much sense to me, a Navy vet but oh well progress is progress. I made CPO last night after killing of 5 weak pirates.

I also try doing the rep missions as much as I can. Finding food for starving tribbles just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside..oh wait that's the tribble I had for breakfast.

All in all, I'm not making money hand over fist, but I'm having a good time.

Non Grata · Jan 25, 2015

Yokai said:
B) It's not enough to become "Allied" with just two or three MINOR factions. At some point, your MAJOR faction growth will stall out unless you increase reputation with _more_ different MINOR factions.

That may be true, but it is possible to become allied with a major faction by only working for one minor faction (did it myself - incidentally, by handing in bounties alone).

Roadblock · Jan 26, 2015

Roadblock said:
My couple of questions:

1) Any idea how big a hit you take when you accidentally ping a 'clean' ship (or the police) when bounty hunting, assuming you don't blow anything up and pay off the bounty immediately?

2) When handing in bounties, does that count towards only the major faction, or does it have any (potential) effect on a minor faction... perhaps whoever owns the station when you turned in the bounty vouchers?

Thanks, and big thanks to Yokai and others for the great content in this thread!

Bump, to see if someone can take a crack at answering my questions.

streki · Jan 26, 2015

Yokai said:
once your minor faction's visible "band" hits ALLIED, either it completely stops contributing to the major faction's reputation gain or at the very least tapers off to a much flatter slope of improvement. The bottom line is simple: STOP ranking up a minor faction after you hit ALLIED, and go find _other_ minor factions that you haven't ranked up yet.

I've spent two days grinding mission for an "Allied" faction, and was starting to suspect that I was wasting my time.

The game needs to give us more feedback about what we're achieving along the way. The rank up, or neutral -> friendly changes are so far apart.

Thanks for this guide.

EDIT: I've just noticed I've got my third forum pip though - yay!

Philip Coutts · Jan 26, 2015

I had stalled badly on the military ranks, then a warzone sprung up in my area. I joined in and earned a few combat bonds and hey presto missions reappeared.

streki · Jan 26, 2015

Philip Coutts said:
I had stalled badly on the military ranks, then a warzone sprung up in my area. I joined in and earned a few combat bonds and hey presto missions reappeared.

Did you pick up any warzone associated missions at a nearby station, or did you just choose a faction and get stuck in ?

rockelino · Jan 26, 2015

Do I have a minor faction rep BUG???

streki said:
I've spent two days grinding mission for an "Allied" faction, and was starting to suspect that I was wasting my time.

The game needs to give us more feedback about what we're achieving along the way. The rank up, or neutral -> friendly changes are so far apart.

Thanks for this guide.

Ok, so I have an ALLIED rep with the Federation (major faction). However, for some reason in the status display, where I see my major and minor faction rep, EVERY MINOR FACTION ASSOCIATED WITH THE FEDERATION SHOWS "ALLIED." This happens even in systems 200LY away, where I've never been before. I found a workaround to find out my "REAL" rep with minor factions, but I wanted to post here and ask if this is normal or if it only happens in my game.

Concrete example: I spent much time doing missions for minor Federation factions around KOKOJINA system. The status screen shows me "ALLIED" with the minor group "JET FEDERAL LIMITED," which is a Federation associated minor faction. Everytime I successfully complete a mission for this minor faction, the "mission results page" shows a blue up arrow under this minor faction and the status of ALLIED next to it.

OK, fine. I want to become ALLIED with more Federation minor factions, so I travel to a different system.

Now, I go to a new system - PANOI. First of all, in the SYSTEM MAP page, where all the minor factions are listed - all the Federation minor factions have an "ALLIED" label next too them, even though I've never done any missions for them. This ALLIED status with them is also shown on the status display window (where you can see FEDERATION/EMPIRE/ALLIANCE and local factions rep). OK, fine, sounds great, right? But then, when I complete missions for a local minor federal faction in PANOI (in this case "PANOI HOLDINGS"), I see the mission results page, it has a blue arrow, but says "NEUTRAL" and not ALLIED. It makes sense, because it's the first time I worked for PANOI HOLDINGS. Back to the main status page (and system map) - no neutral, it still shows ALLIED under PANOI HOLDINGS. I've been doing more missions for this faction - now the mission results page shows "FRIENDLY" next to the blue up arrow. Great, there's progress there, but why is my system map and main status page reps bugged and still show ALLIED with ANY federal minor faction???

If Yokai or anyone else can tell me what's going on it'll be great. Thanks folks!!! Stay frosty, and always - CHECK SIX!

Non Grata · Jan 26, 2015

rockelino said:
but why is my system map and main status page reps bugged and still show ALLIED with ANY federal minor faction???

I don't think it's a bug - if enough minor-factions trust you it makes sense for other minor factions to trust you too.

sfajardo · Jan 26, 2015

taotoo said:
I don't think it's a bug - if enough minor-factions trust you it makes sense for other minor factions to trust you too.

then, the guide is wrong ?

rockelino · Jan 26, 2015

taotoo said:
I don't think it's a bug - if enough minor-factions trust you it makes sense for other minor factions to trust you too.

But again, mentioning my example above - PANOI HOLDINGS (which is fed) shows ALLIED in the system map and status display screen, however, when I finish a mission for them - it only shows FRIENDLY in the mission results page (up from NEUTRAL 10-15 missions ago...).

hookandsling · Jan 26, 2015

This is great and all, but my goodness a popup with a quick summary of what just happened when you rank up is surely easier?

Congratulations!
You just achieved the rank of X with Y faction.
You will now enjoy the benefits of:
- Better missions
- Increased parts availability
- etc.

I'm all for not being spoon-fed but it's bordering on obfuscation right now.

pwnieb0y · Jan 27, 2015

rockelino said:
Ok, so I have an ALLIED rep with the Federation (major faction). However, for some reason in the status display, where I see my major and minor faction rep, EVERY MINOR FACTION ASSOCIATED WITH THE FEDERATION SHOWS "ALLIED." This happens even in systems 200LY away, where I've never been before. I found a workaround to find out my "REAL" rep with minor factions, but I wanted to post here and ask if this is normal or if it only happens in my game.

Concrete example: I spent much time doing missions for minor Federation factions around KOKOJINA system. The status screen shows me "ALLIED" with the minor group "JET FEDERAL LIMITED," which is a Federation associated minor faction. Everytime I successfully complete a mission for this minor faction, the "mission results page" shows a blue up arrow under this minor faction and the status of ALLIED next to it.

OK, fine. I want to become ALLIED with more Federation minor factions, so I travel to a different system.

Now, I go to a new system - PANOI. First of all, in the SYSTEM MAP page, where all the minor factions are listed - all the Federation minor factions have an "ALLIED" label next too them, even though I've never done any missions for them. This ALLIED status with them is also shown on the status display window (where you can see FEDERATION/EMPIRE/ALLIANCE and local factions rep). OK, fine, sounds great, right? But then, when I complete missions for a local minor federal faction in PANOI (in this case "PANOI HOLDINGS"), I see the mission results page, it has a blue arrow, but says "NEUTRAL" and not ALLIED. It makes sense, because it's the first time I worked for PANOI HOLDINGS. Back to the main status page (and system map) - no neutral, it still shows ALLIED under PANOI HOLDINGS. I've been doing more missions for this faction - now the mission results page shows "FRIENDLY" next to the blue up arrow. Great, there's progress there, but why is my system map and main status page reps bugged and still show ALLIED with ANY federal minor faction???

If Yokai or anyone else can tell me what's going on it'll be great. Thanks folks!!! Stay frosty, and always - CHECK SIX!

I am currently stuck at Friendly with the Empire. I am maxed out at the rank of Earl though. When I turned friendly with the Empire all Empire minor factions turned green as well. Even though it says Neutral on the Minor Factions missions screens. When I level a Minor up to Friendly (in the mission screen) it goes to Allied in all of my other info screens.

As I see it, there are 5 levels of Rep with any given faction. Hostile, unFriendly, Neutral, Friendly, and Allied. Whatever your standing with a Major Faction is seems to move you up or down 1 rung on the ladder in all of your info screens. But, when taking missions, Minor factions do not seem to take into account your standing with the Major faction. Example: Due to me being Friendly with the Empire I am Friendly in all of Empire space and Allied in a few systems as well (because I ranked up once with the local Minor). But many missions are unavailable to me because "This faction does not trust you". This I believe is due to the fact that I am getting a Neutral rating on the mission screen.

TL,DR: Even though everything turns green and it says your friendly in the info panel when you hit Friendly with a Major Faction, I believe you still need to increase rep with Minor Factions.