Short version:
I can’t accept or complete faction assignments because the game doesn’t recognize that I have ships of at least rank 1. I have 10 ships, most of them are federation, and some of them are above rank 5.
Context:
I recently just started to play this game again, after a long hiatus since early in the game’s release. I was struggling to remember how the complex menus functioned, as well as trying to understand how new mechanics worked. I ended up switching my main frigate with a kinetic weapon and a shield-based special module. I switched the frigate out for one that had defensive drones, and played with it a little; leveled it up, but quickly grew tired of the beam cannons. However, I was unable to equip kinetic weapons to this ship, with no idea why. After a lot of online reading (I’ve been doing a LOT of reading- I just want to fly, shoot some ships and customize my gear!), I came under the impression that if I switched my faction to Jericho, I would have an easier time with the problem. So I did, regretting to lose all my progress, but think I would have the ability to customize a frigate better to my liking. After one fight on Jericho faction (in which, my equipped starter tier/rank/level 1 Jericho fighter was said to be ‘unavailable’ to me once the battle started?) I realized that I had misunderstood. So I bit the bullet and went back to the Federation faction. That’s when I realized that I couldn’t start accepting contracts/assignments. I tried again after a couple matches, but still no luck.
Conclusion:
So I my main frigate now has what is apparently the only special module available for pairing with kinetic weaponry in the Federation, and I’ve lost all my progress in my faction. Fine- that’s my own ignorance of the perplexing labyrinth of menus and tiers, ranks, weapons, vaguely described specialties, factions and more. However, I can no longer progress for my faction progress and start back on that long road to Rank 12 (or whatever 12 I have to be) at to have a fourth ship slot. What am I doing wrong? Will this ever be less complicated? I don’t normally do this- but I LOVE the ship flying aspect of this game, and the ‘metagame’ is ruining the experience for me right now.
You’ve got a lot of wrong impressions about the game – which is kind of understandable, since there’s not really any mention in the actual game.
First off, the game does recognize that you have ship of rank 1. It also doesn’t allow you to fly ships that are more than 3 ranks under your highest rank ship in hangar currently.
Also, weapons are locked based on two things: Class and rank. If your ship can only equip beam cannons, that’s because it’s of a very low rank. The higher your rank, the more weapons you unlock. However, even if YOU have ships of rank 5, that does not mean you can put a rank 5 weapon on a rank 1 ship. That’s just not how it works in Star Conflict.
Third, it sounds like you’ve hit the rank wall for acquiring new ships. If you look at the menu where you’re trying to buy new ships, it’ll tell you that you need to get at least n ships before being able to buy one of a higher rank, where n is an arbitrary number that the game decides. In case you’re wondering where you can find said ships, frigates are not the only ships that one can fly in Star Conflict. I believe tacklers (those are the fighters that can go invisible) are some of the strongest ships in lower ranks.
Also, I recommend you try flying other faction ships before trying to rush through any one faction. While (opinion alert! opinion alert!) Federation is clearly the best, it’s a good idea to fly other factions in order to get familiar with how they work, and see if you like them any. Stick with them through rank 6, at least – at least you’ll get bonus synergy if you max them out, even if you never use them again.
I have the feeling that when you are refering to “progress” you mean the contracts. Contracts are renewed at maximum 24 hours after completion, they are reset to 0 if you switch hangars, require you to fly ships of the proper rank to complete them (be aware you will be able to do like 3 missions for R3 and below, 3 for R6 and below, 3 for R9 and below, etc. Not considering corporation contracts that give iridium to your corp, not you). Although, contracts can be completed no matter the faction of the ship you are flying: you can complete jericho contracts in empire ships and receive jerich loyalty vouchers. Also, switching hangars/factions wont make you loose any progress. The thing that you werent able to use your R1 command happened because of what statueoflibroty posted above: game recognizes the highest rank ship loaded in your hangar bay and places you in a game according to that ship; ships that are many ranks below wont be able to use them, and its good that way, otherwise flying them would be a great disadvantage against much stronger ships. When going into PVP try to fit ships of the same rank or with 1 rank difference, that way you will have fair games no matter the ship you pick to fly in terms of ship capabilities. For PVE you have a wider range of ranks to choose: first step will allow you to fly ships in ranks 1-5, 2nd will allow you to fly 6-10 and 3rd will allow you to fly 11-15. If you carry 3 R2 ships and only 1 R6, all the R2 ships wont be available to fly because of the highest rank ship.
In a relatively recent update they added an awful new levelling restriction that slows everyone’s progress down considerably. You are probably facing this restriction. You must simply buy every single ship that you possibly can, then some. Make sure to never sell ships and always try to level them up to maximum synergy. This will allow you to buy more ships and thus progress further.