I only want to use the game to select ships and take screenshots of them with different backgrounds. So even if I have not completed locations or missions can I jump to every location in the game to give new backgrounds to my screenshots?
Also, if I am Tier 3, can I select lower tier ships to use or can I only select the ships in the tier that I am in.
Go anywhere: no, many / most mission locations only exist while you are playing the story episode there is no other way to reach them. You can get back to old episodes by re-playing them.
Buying ships: for your free ships at level up, you get a token for that tier level only -- you can't use a tier 4 token to buy a tier 2 ship.
Flying ships: your level just sets the highest tier of ship you can use, except that most (all?) Tier 6 ships are now "scaling" ships that you can fly as soon as you finish the tutorial missions for your faction. If your rank is enough to fly a tier 3 ship you can still fly tier 1-2 ships, you just can't fly tier 4-5 ships yet. (but again you can fly tier 6, because they scale down to your level.)
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Buying ships: for your free ships at level up, you get a token for that tier level only -- you can't use a tier 4 token to buy a tier 2 ship.
Flying ships: your level just sets the highest tier of ship you can use, except that most (all?) Tier 6 ships are now "scaling" ships that you can fly as soon as you finish the tutorial missions for your faction. If your rank is enough to fly a tier 3 ship you can still fly tier 1-2 ships, you just can't fly tier 4-5 ships yet. (but again you can fly tier 6, because they scale down to your level.)