But that's PS1. PS2 battlerank seems to only hinder the amount of skill you can train within trees, basically ensuring you're at least playing a little.
And reading Malorn's last few comments: our bickering was a misunderstanding?
That's mostly what I've been arguing for this whole time. No straight up personal increases. No dump 5 points here, get 15% more damage back. I've always supported "you can have this active, but you can't have this active as well." I mean, that's what I mean by weapon and armor mods!
I'm not for simply gain this, lose that though. Everyone starts at 0. Within a week, they should be able to get to 1 easy, and everything should be balanced around that. A player could upgrade to 2 or 3, but those too would be balanced around 1, they just would offer more extreme benefits at the cost of drawbacks:
0= Nothing.
1= +1 damage.
2= +2 damage -1 accuracy.
3= +3 damage -1 accuracy -1 RoF.
Just random ass-pull examples.
4 and 5 should be squad lead and outfit influenced, and are balanced around 1 as well, but together with personal benefits, up it to 2. Get in a squad and find a like minded outfit to match up.
But I prefer soloing 
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