Joining the alliance military.

warhawk · Post by **warhawk** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:53 pm

Firstly. Congratulations Vice on another superb game.
Can anyone offer any tips on how I get into the action with the Alliance military please?

Cheers.

Tim

Post by **Vice** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:56 pm

Thanks, glad you enjoy it. To get started with the military fly to one of the warzones (Talison or Cerulean), land on the carrier or dock with the station, military missions will be available. Your combat record determines your rank, so the more you fight for the Alliance in those missions and the more you succeed, the higher your rank will get. Higher rank earns you access to more capable military spacecraft (although you can fly military missions in civilian ships as well).

warhawk · Post by **warhawk** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 9:02 pm

Thanks Vice. A really superb game. Exellent in every respect. I have asked my wife to get it for me for valentines day. What a gall! I neeeeeed it now but good things come to he who waits.

The very best regards and respect to you Vice.

Tim

BraveHart · Post by **BraveHart** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 9:03 pm

The Alliance will also be there helping you on Vonari hostile contracts...watch your friendly fire on the smaller Alliance craft as they tend to get upset and turn red....the larger Alliance battle ships ignore small weapons fire but turn red when hit by a stray missile you fire...if for some reason you have all friendlies mad at you just jump out of the war zone and back in to turn them Green again....They are pretty forgiving

warhawk · Post by **warhawk** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 9:10 pm

Thanks BraveHart for the advice. I am looking forward to really getting into combat with this game. I love Arvoch but this seems to offer so many other possibilities. I am not good at flying around, exploring and trading but who knows. As long as I get plenty to shoot at every now and then I will expand and enjoy my space adventure. This is why I know I will love this game.

Blackthorne · Post by **Blackthorne** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 2:47 am

I was wondering...

There is a base in the cerulean warzone. Do missions accepted from there count toward your military rank, too, or do they have to be obtained from a carrier ship?

(Docking on a carrier is a bitch, since my navigator reliably fails to get me into a decent docking position...the station is much easier to dock at when you're in a hurry and your ship is smoking.)

-Blackthorne

Post by **Vice** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 4:18 am

Yes, any missions you take in a war zone are Alliance specific and give you credit for your military service record.

Blackthorne · Post by **Blackthorne** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 5:45 pm

Originally posted by Vice
Yes, any missions you take in a war zone are Alliance specific and give you credit for your military service record.

Hm...I just flew 108 sorties in the Cerulean War Zone (mostly of the "find and inspect" kind), and am still stuck at Ensign (which I reached after ~10 "find and inspect" missions from the carrier in the erato system).

Am I missing something important here or is the alliance mighty stingy when it comes to handing out promotions?

-Blackthorne

49rTbird · Post by **49rTbird** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 5:47 pm

rank comes slow at times.

Blackthorne · Post by **Blackthorne** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 5:55 pm

Originally posted by thetiebers
rank comes slow at times.

In that case, some kind of progress bar would be nice. Like the ones in the system reputation overview. I don't mind tracing misplaced packages and frying vonari ships, but after tonight I've got a disheartening lack of any sense of progress.

-Blackthorne.

Post by **Vice** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 6:09 pm

108 should have earned you a lot of credit. Did you save your progress? Did you die at any point without having saved? Did you stay in the war zone for those missions?

Blackthorne · Post by **Blackthorne** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 6:22 pm

Yeah, I must've gained around 4-5 Mcr; I stayed in the warzone the whole time, and did save on a regular basis. I did, however, get greased once or twice and had to reload the last savegame (=last successful mission). So it's 108 successful sorties total, give or take 2-4 civilian missions I did back in Sapphire that might muddle up the total.

I'll gun for the multi-waypoint patrols this time and see if I can finally get the promotion needed for the wraith, so I can ditch my civilian ship (I have an excalibur pack I'd hate to lose and as such need something with 8 hardpoints).

As they say...no rest for the wicked. I assume the vonari will tell their whelplings stories about me to scare them back into bed after I'm done there...

-Blackthorne

Blackthorne · Post by **Blackthorne** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 2:40 am

Either I'm too dumb to shoot Vonari, or something is fishy here...

I've been stuck at Ensign for more than 150(!) consecutive missions for the navy, at least 50 of them being combat missions, all in the thrice blasted cerulean warzone.

There are six ranks. I've spent 2 days straight doing nothin than military missions. I'm stuck at rank 2 and dread the thought of what it'd take to actually reach rank 5 this way.

How the frakk is rank actually determined? What's the algorithm behind it?

-Blackthorne

[Edited on 7-2-2009 by Blackthorne]

Post by **Vice** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 2:48 am

A simple successful military mission count (your rank is simply the result of that). Perhaps some, maybe even most, of the 150+ 'contracts' you've completed have been from civilian sources as your civilian rating is pretty high (or maybe some of the progress you've done has been split between multiple profiles?). If you send me your profile, I can analyze your military track record and determine how many in war zone missions you've completed successfully for rank credit. I've checked it, but I'll check it again tonight to verify rank credit builds like it should.

Blackthorne · Post by **Blackthorne** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 2:54 am

I'm mailing you the savegame, along with some information. I've got an idea what went wrong, but I need some verification from official sources.

-Blackthorne

Post by **Vice** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 3:09 am

I think I may also know what happened (certain subsystem getting stuck in 'civilian' mode cycles for contracts based on docking). If this is it, I can actually resolve it in the game for the next update and I can update your profile to apply mission credit. Then to keep building on your rank until the next update, take contracts from Alliance carriers exclusively. If I get your profile in the next hour or two, I can update it and send it back to you quickly.

Blackthorne · Post by **Blackthorne** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 3:11 am

Profile has been sent, along with my thoughts on the matter.

Thanks for the quick help. One of the reasons why I like indie games, you can actually reach the developers in case of trouble.

-Blackthorne

Post by **Vice** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 3:20 am

Got it and updated the profiles. You should now see full mission credit when you load them into the game.

Blackthorne · Post by **Blackthorne** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 4:13 am

Indeed.

Man, those fighter crafts are a bit impractical (I do miss my navigator and the weapons officer), but handling and speed are absolutely sweet.

Thanks. I assume that the issues that lead to this will be fixed in the next update?

(And for all you aspiring young space cadets out there: get your sorties from the carrier ships. It'll save you an ulcer and lots of uncontrolled screaming.

)

Post by **Vice** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 4:24 am

Yes, the next update will have the fix.

Storm · Post by **Storm** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 1:19 pm

I for one will be eager for that fix/update...

... in the meantime, would it be possible to get a "Rough Idea" list/chart/explanation for when Military Promotions occur?

Or maybe even a somewhat specific one, if that isn't considered "too spoilish";

example,

Approx points per type of mission (does the number of Vonari that the player himself destroyed in a given mission count?)

Find Object / Visual Inspection = 1 (?) point
2 Waypoint combat = Xx points
3 Waypoint .... (etc)

Ensign = 10 points (?)
...
Captain = Xxxx points
...
Admiral of the Universe = 16777215 points, and a Big Bribe to the Emperor of All The Factions (just being facetious).

I take it from something said already... that military promotions are similar to the way that Global (System) Reputations work... if you are at a certain rank, do some missions, but leave the war zone BEFORE the next promotion, then that work is lost (similar to system faction rep).

[Edited on 2-8-2009 by Storm]

BraveHart · Post by **BraveHart** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 4:41 pm

Best Guess is every 50-100 missions.....I know I made Captain in around 300 missions. Of course I had quite a few civilian contracts also. I really enjoyed the military missions as it gave me a lot of time learning how best to fly the military ships....It's even better doing them with another pilot online in MP.

Post by **Vice** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 4:47 pm

I take it from something said already... that military promotions are similar to the way that Global (System) Reputations work... if you are at a certain rank, do some missions, but leave the war zone BEFORE the next promotion, then that work is lost (similar to system faction rep).

No ranks are not based on location changing like reputations are, they retain their value. Here's a breakdown on the tiers:

0-5 Trainee
6-24 Ensign
25-49 Lt. JG
50-99 Lt.
100-149 Lt. Commander
150-249 Commander
250+ Captain

[Edited on 2-8-2009 by Vice]

Wasp89 · Post by **Wasp89** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:46 am

Hey Vice,

I have now flown probably 100+ missions, and am still stuck on ensign. I would guess that 20 of those were accepted from a station, and I have heard that missions accepted from a station do not count towards the rank because of a bug. That said, I still have flown probably close to 80 missions, and am still on ensign.

A few questions:
1) Do coop missions count towards your rank if you accept the mission?
2) Do coop missions count towards your rank if someone else accepts them?

Since most of my accepted missions have been coop, if the answer to the above questions is "no," then that is likely the problem. Beyond this, however, I cannot figure out why it is that I have not yet been promoted in the game. I also assume that flying in a civilian craft is perfectly fine for completing missions as well.

Let me know if you want me to send you my profile.

Thanks for all your help,

-Wasp

Edit: When coming up with the above figures, I already subtracted out the <20 civilian contracts I have completed.

[Edited on 2-9-2009 by Wasp89]

[Edited on 2-10-2009 by Wasp89]

verbosity · Post by **verbosity** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 9:40 am

Originally posted by Wasp89
A few questions:
1) Do coop missions count towards your rank if you accept the mission?
2) Do coop missions count towards your rank if someone else accepts them?

1.yes
2.yes

There has been a bug discovered that in some cases 'traps' a pilot at a low rank when they should be higher, email vice with your pilot profile and he'll probably check it out.