Looking to sink 80 hours minimum up to 700hours into a new game and this looks pretty good, especially if I join a pre-existing group of players with a high skill level. The only thing is though, last time I played ( about 4 years ago) even when getting a k/d of about 6 per game I was still progressing very slowly. I know “it’s f2p” and all those excuses, but seriously, can I genuinely enjoy this game without having to go out of my way to grind just to progress through to the top tier? I’ve had my fair share of games that force players not to enjoy themselves in an attempt to get money and that really just makes me hate the game. If I have to fork out a few $$$, that’s fine with me as long as it isn’t a temporary bonus or locking me into a single ship and the price is right.
There will be grind, no matter what. And it will take time to progress to the top tier. However through victories in pvp you can level up faster than in PVE so you shouldn’t have too much difficulty. It is possible to speed up you ship synergy gain (required to get to the next level) by using a premium licence, but as you say it is a temporary bonus, just like in any other free to play game.
If I were you I wouldn’t go into the game thinking about the levelling up. Go into it thinking that you want to fly around and shoot lasers at other people and have fun while being in a wonderful 3D space environment with beautiful ship models. If you join a corp (the game’s guilds) and get on voice comms to fly and have fun with other people, you won’t even notice the grind
If you have somewhat issues with the game on various terms, you can look it up in this guide to ease up the grind 
Come back about a year ago and yeah it’s great, but the game has gotten tough on newbies since then. If you want a challenge that takes time, this game is perfect. I’d love to see some new faces.
There are quite a few things to explore /find out in this game anyway. If you are good at space games already you may find rank 1-3 too easy, but they are meant to be training for new players, and you get to test out all ship roles there for cheap. Pick a few roles that you like as you have 3 ship battle slots to begin with, 4 once you reach rank 12. As with any game, don’t spend anything until you have a good idea of the game and know what you’re buying. That being said, DLC is 50% off so it may actually be worth buying a pack or higher rank ship to ease some of the grind. Don’t expect it to be super easy if you jump straight into a Mauler for example, but once you know how, it’s a great ship. The elite pack would give you GS and some ships, you could use the GS to get more ship if they are on sale in new year, the downside is you probably won’t be at high ranks to unlock high rank ships by new year. Exception is dlc ships since afaik you can use them straight away .
Stay on the forums and ask in game, plenty of 1-4k hour players here 
Thanks for the replies, probably the best I’ve ever received on a forum as a newbie. Nice to see a great community. ”) Could I just ask though, how come i’m in t4/t5 ships, going up against the new Destroyers(?) and higher class ships? Is that just the matchmaker trying to reduce waiting time? It’s not too bad going up against higher tier ships, but some ships like the destroyers and the ligher vessels with the tactical nukes seems to be neigh impossible to deal with  Maybe that could just be attributed to my ship’s class though.
Edit; sorry, I may be wrong when I said “dreadnoughts”, just ships with 30k+ health and forcefields 
5 minutes ago, Cameron23 said:
Thanks for the replies, probably the best I’ve ever received on a forum as a newbie. Nice to see a great community. ”) Could I just ask though, how come i’m in t4/t5 ships, going up against the new Destroyers(?) and higher class ships? Is that just the matchmaker trying to reduce waiting time? It’s not too bad going up against higher tier ships, but some ships like the destroyers and the ligher vessels with the tactical nukes seems to be neigh impossible to deal with  Maybe that could just be attributed to my ship’s class though.
For one,era clear up the difference between “t4/5” and “r4/5”. “T” means “tier” and encompasses a 3-rank range from 1-3,4-6,7-9,10-12,11-15. Ranks are the numbers you see on ships. Every rank can be matched against ships +- 3 ranks of that ship. Generally only your highest rank ship is considered in this. You may also only carry ships within 3 ranks of your highest rank ship. (That is equipped)
So because destroyers start at rank 8, your rank 5 can fight them.
Also, the devs are working out of “tiers” and they have now moved in to “easy” “medium” and “hard” matchmaking. Easy is ranks 1-4. Medium is ranks 5-9. Hard is ranks 10-15.
Ah okay, thanks for explaining this to me ”) Seems a bit unbalanced, but the short waiting times for getting into a match are pretty good, just a bit frustrating that I only have one t5 ship, so I’ve really got my work cut out 
14 minutes ago, Cameron23 said:
Ah okay, thanks for explaining this to me ”) Seems a bit unbalanced, but the short waiting times for getting into a match are pretty good, just a bit frustrating that I only have one t5 ship, so I’ve really got my work cut out 
R5*
and yeah at first it’s a bit confusing. Once you get the hang of battles you’ll begin to cruise on through. I highly suggest Jericho frigates, Federation fighters, and empire is kinda meh but they deal lots of damage and look cool.
8 hours ago, Cameron23 said:
Looking to sink 80 hours minimum up to 700hours in
well, I’ve put in over 3100 hours in the game, but… I’m a sucker for it and I’ll even empty my wallet into it if need be for one of their… specials…
Currently the system makes battles in ranks 1-4, 5-9 and 10-15. You do get bonus resistance and damage if you are lower than the max rank in your battle.
Re. Tactical nuke. They beep, run away if you hear it 
Sure its fuuuuntastic!