I want to ask, is it worth it to keep putting my energy into missions to keep ranking up? I realised that if I keep doing so other players of the same rank have more advanced technology than me because they didn't rank up as fast as I did and they keep disabling me. I'm afraid my combat reputation will drop to something like passive or weak. Does it affect my gameplay in any way? Just concerned (and maybe a little worried)

Off topic: Exactly what is an NPC?

Off topic #2: Is taking a Gas planet that's Very massive but Average research worth it? Of all my planets scanned, that's the best *unoccupied* research planet I could find. I desperately need some good research planets but the wretched scan chance rating won't get me anywhere past "Fair" and then it just drops down to "Poor"...

Spending your energy on missions ranks you at a medium rate; keep putting your research into either; a. Weapons if you wish to become more offensive or b. Defenses if you wish to continue with missions and get disabled less. Regardless, you should still be researching hull modules as well to make you harder to kill. Combat reputation does not directly affect your game-play, however people are more likely to try and disable you if you have a lower combat reputation; this is especially true at lower ranks where people think it makes a difference.

An NPC is a non-player character (Literal 'translation') but refers to non-player enemies. These are the targets at the top of the Battle tab; they are not other players, they are computer generated enemies which you can attack as you please.

I wouldn't take a Gas planet that shoddy; a good rule is never take a planet smaller than 'Large' and never take a planet which doesn't have at least one resource 'Rich' or higher. Scanning will go down fairly quickly; in artifact pulls (From the trade tab) you can get things called Star Chart Purgers. Use these to remove planets from your planets tab and scan new ones in their place; it's best to purge the crappiest planets you can find as you'll likely never need them. Anything below 'Average' size and resource is a good bet that they're crap.

guidelines for planets and resources. these are all minimums

for mining. take NOTHING except Very large rich toxics, or already enhanced planets.

for research.
gas massive rich
metallic very massive... should be atleast very rich research, and they will usually come with decent mining as well. rich or thereabouts

for artifacts.
open to debate.
anything avg in size and x3
large x2
very large mega rich
massive rich.
very massive rich.
if you ever see anything bigger with arti production, and i dont mean a gas with sparse, STEAL IT! size is king with planets.


in regards to your combat rep, it means NOTHING. being laughable (the worst) means only 1 of 2 things to most.
1. you have halc traps set and wont be able to be disabled (unless its already been set off)
2. you dont give a rats behind about PvP, and will be an easy badge.
either way, it wont affect your gameplay. and in all honesty, i wish i could get back to something other then insane.. its quite a deterrent from having ANYONE hit me that isnt significantly higher in rank... and even then, its quite rare. (currently rank 895)