SLF Impeding combat rank progress?

[DarkMere]

I was under the impression that combat with an SLF did not in any way affect your kill awards, and this may still be the case as my observation is not very scientific.

Twice within the last 24 hours I have been in the Haz-Rez with my conda and an SLF until I ran out of ammunition (about 40 minutes), and also once in my Python and once in my FDL, again each for about 40 minutes until running out of ammunition. In both cases with the Python and the FDL I gained twice as many combat percentages than I did in the conda with the SLF.

Like I said not very scientific. For a start on both occasions in the Python and FDL, my combat percentage rating at the start of the session might have been .9 of a percent, and on starting the session with the conda it might have been at 0.1. I suppose also I should try a session in my conda without my SLF. However like I said at first glance for me, my ranking speed seems to be twice as fast without my SLF, which as far as I know is not the way FD has supposedly designed it. Has anyone else any experience of this?

[Cometborne]

Yes, if the SLF does most of the kill and you do not get the killing shot in yourself, the experience is awarded to the SLF pilot rather than you. After each kill, a combat progress message is sent to FDev's servers and recorded in the netlog (not the journal!), listing the current progress for you and the SLF pilot. I have not done a full bore scientific analysis of the figures, but I was able to confirm that I only got experience for the kills where I did most of the work, and that an Elite Sidewinder gives as much progress as an Elite Anaconda.

One thing you can try is to recall the SLF via "hold formation" when you current target is almost dead, then finish it off yourself, and then check the netlog if you have received the experience. Or stop using the SLF if you are primarily interested in the rank grind - but in that case, you should be using a CNB rather than a HazRes anyway.

[DarkMere]

Thanks Cometborne, I have always done at least as much if not more damage to targets than my SLF, but fair to say that the SLF gets the final shot in most times. I agree with you regarding the CNB, but the last 24 hours I have been following oom orders by bounty hunt in Exioce, however when I am just shooting targets for myself, I do go to a CNB.

[Roger Wilco Jr]

Having a SLF pilot slow my rank progression is one of the major positives of using an SLF pilot to me, along with taking some of my credits, watching my back, and just the overall fun of it.

I should say "in the future", as I haven't really used an SLF pilot yet other than beta ...