No rank! Possible? Explorer or Smuggler?

[gchewie]

First off, great game! I'm totally addicted! Now, on to the meat of the matter, is it possible to play without ever taking rank!? I'm trying to play an Explorer/Trader that is doing a relatively good job of finding Electronics, Weapons, and Artifacts. The problem is that in the Exchange, these items are not always allowed. I need to get trading permits, I'm assuming, in order to do so. Even then, and perhaps my memory is bad, I sometimes can't trade with the faction I have permits in. Am I playing the wrong class for what I want to do? Should I be a smuggler with Explorer skills?

[slayernz]

Yes and no ... it is definitely possible to play the game without ever getting a military rank. You can buy a trade permit if your Reputation is anything north of about 4 in that particular faction. From there, you are able to buy/sell restricted items. Once you get friendly with multiple factions, you are able to trade amongst them easily

Trade permits allow you to ignore pirate ships from that particular nation - pirates generally do not attack you if you are licensed. Having trade permits in only one or two factions means that there is a chance you will run into a faction ship that you don't have permits for. You either retreat/ignore (and suffer Reputation loss), attack (suffer reputation loss) or surrender (lose your restricted goods AND get reputation loss). Spot the common trend here

So back on topic again - military rank. Sure as outlined above, you can trade successfully without rank. However, getting a military rank opens up soooo much more that could help you in non-combative ways.
More ship upgrades are made available to you, including better weapons, shuttles and stealth arrays.
Military repairs are made available to you (although they are available at most independent planets). That includes armor, guns, and torps.
Faction rank ships are made available to you. These ships are pretty good quality ships sold at very good price points.
Finally, I believe you get some reduction in medical costs when you go see the Doctor in the Spice hall. The lowest medical costs I have seen is $1000, which is muuuuuch better than if you are an unknown person in that factions' eyes.

Smugglers are a great character to start with, but as with almost all character classes, don't just focus on one or two attributes - make sure that you develop other attributes at the same time. I, as an example, try and get my pilot and stealth levels up as well as negotiation. I used to develop explorer, but have put that on the back burner recently as my characters were getting constantly torn to pieces during encounters.

Good luck

[oldalchemist]

The best part of Rank is the tin badge that you get that lets you wave off military vessels that would otherwise search you for illegal goods.

You're the guy in Catch 22 that sells eggs...

"But I make a profit of three and a quarter cents an egg by selling them for four and a quarter cents an egg to the people in Malta I buy them from for seven cents an egg. Of course, I don't make the profit. The syndicate makes the profit. And everybody has a share."

Milo Minderbinder, p. 231
This time Milo had gone too far. Bombing his own men and planes was more than even the most phlegmatic observer could stomach, and it looked like the end for him. … Milo was all washed up until he opened his books to the public and disclosed the tremendous profit he had made.

P. 259

[slayernz]

Oh yeah, forgot about those idiots with their hoity toity warships, wanting to poke their noses in my cargo hold. It's a shame that when you finally get to rank 18, you don't have the power to demote those military captains down to ensign for even appearing in your airspace.

[that1guy]

Hahaha how sweet would that be. Or to be able to order ships to attack certain targets or even search them now. Fly up to the ship that searched you in the past and be like "attention captain, we have reason to suspect smuggling on board this ship. As a superior officer I am ordering your men to stand down while we search this vessel.

[oldalchemist]

I think that Blockading and Patrolling are supposed to simulate that sort of action.

[slayernz]

Yeah, but in random encounters, It'd be good to be able to "enforce the law" and have people running and screaming away from you. The running and screaming could be particularly satisfying.

Also, I've found that even without rank, I haven't had military ships try and board me if I have a trade permit and am carrying restricted goods.

I haven't done the ole carrying goods/people contract thing to test if having rank makes them ignore you here though. I don't know if Cory has coded a difference between restricted goods checks and smuggled people/data stuff.

[oldalchemist]

The thing about rank, I think, is that if you hose up your rep trading and lose a permit, but not your rank, you still get rank protection. I accidentally whizzed upwind of Steel Song in the Exchange and ended up with a big negative rep, but held onto my rank. It makes fixing that relationship a lot easier when they're not shooting at you.

[slayernz]

Funny, I've had negative RP and still kept my Trade Permit. Admittedly it was beating up an errant pirate, and the negative equated to less than the number of fingers that I have. No, I didn't have any eaten off by my last alien encounter. Yes, I have only got two hands. Well I have two hands here and 3 in the cloning vat ...

[Cory Trese]

You can keep Rank, Permits and Edict between 0 and -10 Reputation with various tricks, good negotiation and intimidation. Stick to grey area moves (enslave, take some cargo -- but don't "Loot All", "Rearm" or "Destroy") etc. There are some tricks to it, but it is very much on purpose in the game's design.

This Captain is shifty -- he had reputation once (to earn permits, Rank) but now he's fallen from grace. It will not take long for his reputation to erode, but he has some loyalty for his work.