Making Combat/Trade/Exploration ranks mean something!

[Colin The Grey]

Apart from the Founders World access for Elite - there doesn't seem to be any point to the ranks - I think there should be - so I came up with this list - opinions please

Combat

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HARMLESS: --- You still haven't found the trigger for firing your weapons - No Bonus.
MOSTLY HARMLESS: --- Success!!! You found the trigger - 0.5% Bonus to all damage types.
NOVICE: --- You've worked out that shields help you live longer. +1% Shield Strength
COMPETENT: --- You've managed to tweak things so that your shields recharge faster - +1% Shield Recharge Rate
EXPERT: --- Now you're getting the hang of things - 1% Bonus to all damage types.
MASTER: --- Pirates and Evildoers tremble at your approach - as do most Traders if you're in a bad mood - +5% Weapon Range
DANGEROUS: --- You've worked out that ships blow up when certain systems are targeted - +2.5% Subsystem Damage
DEADLY: --- You're a Master of weapon configuration - can fit weapons on that really shouldn't fit - -5% Power Req to all weapons.
ELITE: --- Shields!!!! Bah who needs shields - errr I do!!! 10% Faster shield recharge


Trade
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PENNILESS: --- Still got the same amount of Creds you started with.
MOSTLY PENNILESS: --- Buying loads of Donuts just to eat them doesn't count as trading - 0.5% Discount on all commodities.
PEDDLER: --- Really!!! Selling old boxes as ancient artifacts - 0.5% Profit on all sales.
DEALER: --- It fell off the back of a T9 - Honest!!! +0.5% When selling at Black Markets
MERCHANT: --- You've finally heard about Rare goods - +1 Allocation per Rare
BROKER: --- Yup it does fly like a Brick - but what did you expect? a Robin Reliant? +5% to max thrust speed in T6,7 & 9 Only.
ENTREPRENEUR: --- You'll sell anything for a profit - 2.5% Profit on all sales.
TYCOON: --- You've finally bought your own small moon - 2.5% Discount on all commodites.
ELITE: --- With an understanding of Space Time compression you can really pack stuff in!! +5% to max cargo space.


Explorer
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AIMLESS: --- You only know where the sun is because of the bright light
MOSTLY AIMLESS: --- You've worked out that Stars can have planets!! 5% Quicker Surface scans.
SCOUT: --- You've finally left the starter system!!!! +1% Jump Range
SURVEYOR: --- Yep that's how the Fuel Scoop works!!! +5% Fuel Scoop speed
TRAILBLAZER: --- Leaving the door open on the small fridge really does cool things down faster!! 5% Faster Cooldown when overheating
PATHFINDER: --- Black Holes!! Event Horizons!! You've seen a few - +2.5% Bonus to Exploration Data Sold
RANGER: --- Still no sign of Thargoids - Or anyone else for that matter - +5% to Scan Range
PIONEER: --- Yup, you are the first to find that planet!! Just need to make it home alive! +5% Jump Range
ELITE: --- You've seen it all, well most of it anyway - +10% jump Range

[StaticRadion]

Taking into consideration that it is mostly know that multipliers are involved or responsible for most combat number I would say you are on to something. On the other hand, playing devils advocate, I see the trade and explorer perks as being implemented in the wrong order.

Take into consideration that when trading 400t for a reasonable round trip profit of 1600 credits that it breaks down to a 6% increase at Tycoon yielding an additional 38.4k over the standard 640k. That comes out to 19.2k profit each way equating to twelve additional tons of cargo at the standard rate. Some would say a boost in profit is always welcome, but I think that Frontier is probably happy with trade profits scaling to ship size. If they did do anything like that I would say it would probably be implemented in a fashion to provide profit boosts at the lower levels to help newer players to advance into the early trade ships like the Type-6 from say the Adder more quickly. After all you don't need to give the top 10% a boost in profits. On that note the later bonuses would be more utilitarian like jump range or maybe even a built in auto autopilot. In that regard I would like to see some cross class rank stacking bonuses so those with double or triple elite are rewarded most of all for their time and dedication i.e. jump range in both trade and explorer bonuses.

[Feldspar]

I don't think we'll be seeing anything like that, I believe FD are against static bonuses like that, but with 1.3 around the corner they have hinted that you will receive missions based on your ranks to help keep them more relevant.

[Ozzy81]

I like the idea, but you should probably rethink the Elite combat bonus. All shields have a fixed 1 MJ/s recharge rate (regardless of pips in sys) so basically what you'd see with Elite bonus is 1.1 MJ/s. Not much of a bonus for someone who has an Anaconda with 1200 + MJ shields.