The Ploy: Difference between revisions

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* Potential to re-roll missions from agents with hit to standings to get favorite mission

* Significant downside - you won't be able to run Storyline missions after this plan is finished

* Significant downside - you won't be able to run Storyline missions after this plan is finished, as they will lower your total standings

Be aware that finishing this goal is a long term activity - you need to run a lot of missions to complete it

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* If you want to speed up this process - blitzable missions are your friends. If you approach this as a long term goal - you can run any missions you like. Keep in mind that the requirement to run a lot of storylines makes it long term activity anyway

* Circle agents are not worth your time - it's not necessary to do them

* SoE epic arc gives 7% of standings - it's +0.75 if your standings are at 0, but only 0.375 if your standings are at 5.0 - run SoE arc as last fix before you start The Ploy

* SoE epic arc gives 7% of standings - it's +0.75 if your standings are at 0, but only 0.375 if your standings are at 5.0 - run SoE arc as last fix before you start The Ploy, and as a last Arc to get final Empire to 5.0

* Invite other players to run missions with you, especially L4s if they are alpha or they do not have standings to pull them * you will share rewards, but you will also complete missions faster = faster storylines

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"The Ploy" is detailed plan how to get to 5.0 standings. This is the fastest way I've found - and has specific requirements:

* Total standings (unmodified) for all 4 faction is higher than 10.1

* Total standings (unmodified) for all 4 faction is higher than 8.1 (if your main faction is Gallente or Minmatar) or 7.6 (for Caldari or Amarr)

* Social and Connection skills are trained to V - Social has to be done before starting, Connections can be trained later

* Social and Connection skills are trained to V - Social has to be done before starting, Connections can be trained later - it's needed for 2 first Epic arcs, so it's recommended to train it to V before starting

* At least 2 Career agents from each faction are available to run

* At least 2 Career agents from each faction are available to run - if that's not possible, other means can be used, but with significant drawbacks

* Capability to run empire Epic Arcs - in terms of ship/skills

* Main faction chosen - faction for which you have the best standings (or the worst standings for it's enemy)

===Step 1. Adjusting standings===

To be able to start this plan, you need standings set in following way:

~~Chosen~~ faction - 3.70

* If your main faction is Gallente:

~~Friendly faction~~ - 3.70

Gallente - 3.20

~~Major enemy~~ - 1.90

Caldari - 1.20

~~Minor enemy~~ - 0.80

Minmatar - 3.20

Amarr - 0.50

This is minimum required to follow. It's way easier to grind standings now, than to try fix it later. If you're stuck in place where on faction is too low, you can run COSMOS missions or datacenters or more storylines to make it up. If you start with standings below these, you will not be able to finish it - keep that in mind before starting. Since the whole process is long, you might want to run SoE epic arc to fix last faction to required level. Keep in mind that SoE will give you around 0.7 gain if run for ~~Major Enemy~~ - so grind it to 1.2 to get required 1.9

* If your main faction is Minmatar:

Gallente - 3.20

Caldari - 0.00

Minmatar - 3.20

Amarr - 1.70

* If your main faction is Amarr:

Gallente - 0.80

Caldari - 3.50

Minmatar - -0.50

Amarr - 3.80

* If your main faction is Caldari:

Gallente - -0.50

Caldari - 3.50

Minmatar - 0.80

Amarr - 3.80

This is minimum required to follow. Differences between main faction and required standings are result of asymmetrical standings gains modifiers between Amarr and Caldari. It's way easier to grind standings now, than to try fix it later. If you're stuck in place where on faction is too low, you can run COSMOS missions or datacenters or more storylines to make it up. If you start with standings below these, you will not be able to finish it - keep that in mind before starting. Since the whole process is long, you might want to run SoE epic arc to fix last faction to required level. Keep in mind that SoE will give you around 0.7 gain if run for enemy faction - so grind it to 1.2 to get required 1.9

If you have required total standings, but they need to be balanced, you can run Storyline/COSMOS/Datacenter missions for faction with lowest standings. COSMOS and Datacenter missions are one-time only - keep in mind that you won't be able to repeat them.

===Step 2. Last check===

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* Friendly faction

~~You should have following~~ standings ~~after finishing: ~~

Alternatively, you can copy this sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XqJqgMUvu9oWGj5YkK03x2AR0VQ5LQ0AaLevpzAWfzg/edit?usp=sharing , leave only your faction path, and put your standings - and then follow plan described there.

~~Chosen faction - 3~~.~~81 ~~

The main point if this part of The Ploy is to get both friendly empires to 4.0 standing (to be able to run Epic Arcs) and keep both enemy factions at correct level, which will be required later. If your total standings are above 11.2 and both friendly faction are at 4.01, you can skip some Career agents - keep in mind that you should be sure that you have all standings above required minimum for next step.

~~Friendly faction - 3~~.~~81 ~~

~~Major enemy -~~ 2.~~10 ~~

~~Minor enemy~~ - 1.~~31 ~~

===Step 4. Epic Arcs===

With 3.81 you have 2 Epic arcs unlocked - run them both, picking standings reward (Minmatar!)

With 3.81 you have 2 Epic arcs unlocked - run them both, picking standings reward (Minmatar!). This will push friendly empires to 4.75 - which allows us to lower them to 3.80 in next step, while gaining standings for 2 enemy factions.

===Step 5. Rebalancing===

This is the tedious step. Right now storyline missions give ~~almost zero~~ net standings gains, they only shift them around. What you need to achieve are following standings:

This is the tedious step. Right now storyline missions give very small net standings gains, they only shift them around. What you need to achieve are following standings:

Chosen faction - 3.81

Friendly faction - 3.81

Major enemy - 2.92

Major enemy - 3.00

Minor enemy - 2.22

Minor enemy - 2.30

To get to that point, you need to run 7 Storyline missions with 1% reward - this translates to XXX L2 distro storylines, which are the fastest to farm. Simply run L2 distro missions for Major and Minor enemy factions, either swapping them every couple of missions, or start with Major enemy and run it until Chosen faction drops to 3.96. If you choose corps required for Step 6 - it will shorten whole process

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* Major enemy - run faction Epic Arc

* Minor enemy - run faction Epic Arc, then SoE Epic Arc - the order is important if you started with minimum standings!

===Step 7. Deviations from The Ploy===

If needed, whole plan can be adjusted to suit your needs. Two possible adjustments:

* Step 3 - If your initial standings are higher that minimum required

You can skip some Career agents (they are very useful for Step 5 if available) - but keep in mind that you still need to achieve desired results after Step 3, which are available in https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XqJqgMUvu9oWGj5YkK03x2AR0VQ5LQ0AaLevpzAWfzg/edit?usp=sharing . Due to asymmetrical standings modifiers these requirements are different depending on Friendly/Enemy faction chosen. Having wrong requirements after Step 3 might delay whole process by 90-180 days, needed for next run of Epic Arcs. In provided sheet all milestones are marked with green color - if you reached milestone early, you can move to next section of plan.

* Step 5 - If your standings are higher, or other means of standings gain are available

You can skip some Storyline missions and replace them with Career agents, COSMOS or Datacenters - again, important thing is to achieve desired results. For all starting factions it's 3.81 with two friendly factions and 2.3 and 3.0 with enemy factions. With initially high standings it's also possbile to achieve 3.0 with both enemy factions, which skips one SoE Epic arc. If 3.0 and 3.2 is achieved with enemy factions, one faction Epic Arc can be changed to SoE Epic Arc, which is significantly easier, but offers less rewards.

==Proof of concept==

In this section I will describe my run, together with skips I did, and time needed to finish complete Ploy. Keep in mind that my starting point might be higher than yours - this has the most impact on difficulty/time needed to complete it.

===Starting situation===

My initial standings were... [TBC]

FIN?

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 * Potential to re-roll missions from agents with hit to standings to get favorite mission
-* Significant downside - you won't be able to run Storyline missions after this plan is finished
+* Significant downside - you won't be able to run Storyline missions after this plan is finished, as they will lower your total standings
 Be aware that finishing this goal is a long term activity - you need to run a lot of missions to complete it
@@ Line 81: / Line 81: @@
 * If you want to speed up this process - blitzable missions are your friends. If you approach this as a long term goal - you can run any missions you like. Keep in mind that the requirement to run a lot of storylines makes it long term activity anyway
 * Circle agents are not worth your time - it's not necessary to do them
-* SoE epic arc gives 7% of standings - it's +0.75 if your standings are at 0, but only 0.375 if your standings are at 5.0 - run SoE arc as last fix before you start The Ploy
+* SoE epic arc gives 7% of standings - it's +0.75 if your standings are at 0, but only 0.375 if your standings are at 5.0 - run SoE arc as last fix before you start The Ploy, and as a last Arc to get final Empire to 5.0
 * Invite other players to run missions with you, especially L4s if they are alpha or they do not have standings to pull them * you will share rewards, but you will also complete missions faster = faster storylines
@@ Line 90: / Line 90: @@
 "The Ploy" is detailed plan how to get to 5.0 standings. This is the fastest way I've found - and has specific requirements:
-* Total standings (unmodified) for all 4 faction is higher than 10.1
+* Total standings (unmodified) for all 4 faction is higher than 8.1 (if your main faction is Gallente or Minmatar) or 7.6 (for Caldari or Amarr)
-* Social and Connection skills are trained to V - Social has to be done before starting, Connections can be trained later
+* Social and Connection skills are trained to V - Social has to be done before starting, Connections can be trained later - it's needed for 2 first Epic arcs, so it's recommended to train it to V before starting
-* At least 2 Career agents from each faction are available to run
+* At least 2 Career agents from each faction are available to run - if that's not possible, other means can be used, but with significant drawbacks
 * Capability to run empire Epic Arcs - in terms of ship/skills
+* Main faction chosen - faction for which you have the best standings (or the worst standings for it's enemy)
 ===Step 1. Adjusting standings===
 To be able to start this plan, you need standings set in following way:<br><br>
-Chosen faction - 3.70<br>
+* If your main faction is Gallente:<br>
-Friendly faction - 3.70<br>
+Gallente - 3.20<br>
-Major enemy - 1.90<br>
+Caldari - 1.20<br>
-Minor enemy - 0.80<br>
+Minmatar - 3.20<br>
+Amarr - 0.50<br>
-This is minimum required to follow. It's way easier to grind standings now, than to try fix it later. If you're stuck in place where on faction is too low, you can run COSMOS missions or datacenters or more storylines to make it up. If you start with standings below these, you will not be able to finish it - keep that in mind before starting. Since the whole process is long, you might want to run SoE epic arc to fix last faction to required level. Keep in mind that SoE will give you around 0.7 gain if run for Major Enemy - so grind it to 1.2 to get required 1.9
+* If your main faction is Minmatar:<br>
+Gallente - 3.20<br>
+Caldari - 0.00<br>
+Minmatar - 3.20<br>
+Amarr - 1.70<br>
+* If your main faction is Amarr:<br>
+Gallente - 0.80<br>
+Caldari - 3.50<br>
+Minmatar - -0.50<br>
+Amarr - 3.80<br>
+* If your main faction is Caldari:<br>
+Gallente - -0.50<br>
+Caldari - 3.50<br>
+Minmatar - 0.80<br>
+Amarr - 3.80<br>
+This is minimum required to follow. Differences between main faction and required standings are result of asymmetrical standings gains modifiers between Amarr and Caldari. It's way easier to grind standings now, than to try fix it later. If you're stuck in place where on faction is too low, you can run COSMOS missions or datacenters or more storylines to make it up. If you start with standings below these, you will not be able to finish it - keep that in mind before starting. Since the whole process is long, you might want to run SoE epic arc to fix last faction to required level. Keep in mind that SoE will give you around 0.7 gain if run for enemy faction - so grind it to 1.2 to get required 1.9
+If you have required total standings, but they need to be balanced, you can run Storyline/COSMOS/Datacenter missions for faction with lowest standings. COSMOS and Datacenter missions are one-time only - keep in mind that you won't be able to repeat them.
 ===Step 2. Last check===
@@ Line 118: / Line 140: @@
 * Friendly faction<br>
 <br>
-You should have following standings after finishing:<br><br>
+Alternatively, you can copy this sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XqJqgMUvu9oWGj5YkK03x2AR0VQ5LQ0AaLevpzAWfzg/edit?usp=sharing , leave only your faction path, and put your standings - and then follow plan described there.
 <br>
-Chosen faction - 3.81<br>
+The main point if this part of The Ploy is to get both friendly empires to 4.0 standing (to be able to run Epic Arcs) and keep both enemy factions at correct level, which will be required later. If your total standings are above 11.2 and both friendly faction are at 4.01, you can skip some Career agents - keep in mind that you should be sure that you have all standings above required minimum for next step.
-Friendly faction - 3.81<br>
-Major enemy - 2.10<br>
-Minor enemy - 1.31<br>
 ===Step 4. Epic Arcs===
-With 3.81 you have 2 Epic arcs unlocked - run them both, picking standings reward (Minmatar!)
+With 3.81 you have 2 Epic arcs unlocked - run them both, picking standings reward (Minmatar!). This will push friendly empires to 4.75 - which allows us to lower them to 3.80 in next step, while gaining standings for 2 enemy factions.
 ===Step 5. Rebalancing===
-This is the tedious step. Right now storyline missions give almost zero net standings gains, they only shift them around. What you need to achieve are following standings:<br><br>
+This is the tedious step. Right now storyline missions give very small net standings gains, they only shift them around. What you need to achieve are following standings:<br><br>
 Chosen faction - 3.81<br>
 Friendly faction - 3.81<br>
-Major enemy - 2.92<br>
+Major enemy - 3.00<br>
-Minor enemy - 2.22<br>
+Minor enemy - 2.30<br>
 <br>
 To get to that point, you need to run 7 Storyline missions with 1% reward - this translates to XXX L2 distro storylines, which are the fastest to farm. Simply run L2 distro missions for Major and Minor enemy factions, either swapping them every couple of missions, or start with Major enemy and run it until Chosen faction drops to 3.96. If you choose corps required for Step 6 - it will shorten whole process<br><br>
@@ Line 143: / Line 162: @@
 * Major enemy - run faction Epic Arc
 * Minor enemy - run faction Epic Arc, then SoE Epic Arc - the order is important if you started with minimum standings!
+===Step 7. Deviations from The Ploy===
+If needed, whole plan can be adjusted to suit your needs. Two possible adjustments:
+* Step 3 - If your initial standings are higher that minimum required
+You can skip some Career agents (they are very useful for Step 5 if available) - but keep in mind that you still need to achieve desired results after Step 3, which are available in https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XqJqgMUvu9oWGj5YkK03x2AR0VQ5LQ0AaLevpzAWfzg/edit?usp=sharing . Due to asymmetrical standings modifiers these requirements are different depending on Friendly/Enemy faction chosen. Having wrong requirements after Step 3 might delay whole process by 90-180 days, needed for next run of Epic Arcs. In provided sheet all milestones are marked with green color - if you reached milestone early, you can move to next section of plan.
+* Step 5 - If your standings are higher, or other means of standings gain are available
+You can skip some Storyline missions and replace them with Career agents, COSMOS or Datacenters - again, important thing is to achieve desired results. For all starting factions it's 3.81 with two friendly factions and 2.3 and 3.0 with enemy factions. With initially high standings it's also possbile to achieve 3.0 with both enemy factions, which skips one SoE Epic arc. If 3.0 and 3.2 is achieved with enemy factions, one faction Epic Arc can be changed to SoE Epic Arc, which is significantly easier, but offers less rewards.
+==Proof of concept==
+In this section I will describe my run, together with skips I did, and time needed to finish complete Ploy. Keep in mind that my starting point might be higher than yours - this has the most impact on difficulty/time needed to complete it.
+===Starting situation===
+My initial standings were... [TBC]
 FIN?