I seem to be easily promoted to 'Wildcatter' but currently have 306% of the necessary progress to prospector (see screenshot). Either this is bugged or there is an unstated additional requirement other than number of asteroids minded?
Wildcatter is the highest possible rank until the player can visit an IMU station. This means those without Corporate Command are stuck at Wildcatter, and those with it often jump straight from Wildcatter to maximum rank after the player strip mines a few systems in New Beyond then visits IMU in Ungoverned Territories much later.
Rank being gated by IMU is stupid and should be abolished.
Ah, I very rarely go mining in the late game, so I'd missed this.
I don't mind the idea in principle (at least it gives a reason to join the IMU) but it needs to be communicated clearly to the player and excess progress clearly shouldn't be carried over from Wildcatter to higher ranks.
At minimum it needs to be communicated.
In 1.9 Beta 4 I removed the requirement to join the IMU to progress. You can now progress to the top without joining.
I wanted to make the IMU more useful, but we should do it a different way.