I finally reached Elite!
29 Aug 2023Nogitsunegari
Despite my YEAR as Dangerous rank and my ability to take on Threat Level 8 missions solo, I finally reached Elite... in Trade?! I am not complaining at all, but I am astounded at the progression curves of the different categories.
3 of the 4 original rankings are just "keep doing that, but more", but noooooooo; Combat just had to be different.
I admit that I don't know the actual numbers and formulae and algorithms used to progress Combat ranks, but REALLY?
Here is how I understand it:
Every enemy (Wanted or Hostile or Lawless) ship that you take part in destroying dishes out Combat XP... but...
a) If the Combat rank of that enemy was the SAME or BELOW your rank, pretend it was 0 XP
b) If you have an AI Crew Member HIRED and they were with you when you destroyed said ship, pretend it was 0 XP
c) If the ship blew up but it had been x seconds since last you caused damage to it, pretend it was 0 XP
d) Any two or more of the above is like 0 x 0 which is even more zero
I have had SEVERAL AI Crew Members whom I Hired as Harmless and THEY ranked up to Elite within a few weeks, but fml I am still Dangerous (okay, actually I recently finally got to Deadly but it has been sitting at 0% for weeks).
But, hey, hooray for Elite (Trade) and the benefits that it brings:
2.5% Galactic Discount
System Permit to Shinrarta Dezhra
^ access to Lori Jameson
^ access to Jameson Memorial (only 10% discount?!)
(I have strategic bookmarks for shopping with the best discounts {15%~20%}, so really Jameson Memorial just saves me an extra 5% off of the three Alliance ships and that's it)
I am technically Elite IV rank in Trade, and the last several ranks were all thanks to participating in the Booze Cruise this last month.
Before the Booze Cruise, I was an Entrepreneur, so it took me through Tycoon and all of the Elites to Elite III (then recently I participated in Community Goals and got Elite IV).
So, yeah, hooray!
I need to redo my research on how to get to Elite Combat rank.