i know i'm playing it on the easiest setting but somehow one of my pilots got to elite on his seventh mission and then to ace on his 11th,, and there's 24 missions in total, but now he can't progress his rank/specialisations any further. i remember when i used to play it i was lucky if i got 2 pilots to ace like a couple of missions before the last one, but now i think i'm going to get a bunch of them there a lot sooner.
look at this. this was after the facility assault - hijack mission. we've got 13 more missions left and he's already reached full level in gunnery and piloting. he's got 13 more kills than the next highest pilot (meat, elite). also despite being such a high rank, he still doesn't have the medal for destroying 7 or more mechs in a mission, which is annoying me, especially since he's keeps getting 5 or 6.