[F]Ranking system imballence

Not only has the amount of rep between ranks gone up, the rep you gain from contracts has gone down to just about the same amount as wining a single mission. This is no way for a game to be played. Now I will literally have to grind for a week or two of nonstop gameplay (this means all 24 hours of the day, not including eating, shitting, and bedtime) to get to rank 3 (because you start near rank 2 for your faction).

Also, I can no longer preform contracts for the other faction of the same race. How on Earth does that work? (read: it doesn’t) I can understand not being able to sign contracts for other races, but not the same one.

As for the other races, I don’t get that either. Why can’t I do missions for them? Aren’t the Vanguards supposed to do under-cover work and stuff?

ADDENDUM: Speaking of factions, because the rep boundaries increased, my TI RF-Plascannon Mk3 got trashed because I wasn’t high enough rank (and I was before). This means it is completely gone from my inventory, and I got zero compensation.

EDIT: It’s sitting in my warehouse it just didn’t show up on the inventory when you’re outfitting the ships, as I had the “Hide items not studied” filter on.

Just continue to ignore my misinformed rambling.