User:Evon R'al/Draft 2
- extracting agent part from missions and overhaul
Agents are NPCs that offer missions to players and in some cases can help to locate another player.
Level
All agents have a level, ranging form 1 till 5. The level determines if the agent will interact with you, and the level -with the exception of the storyline agents- of the missions offered to you. Agents -with the exception of the storyline agents- will offer missions of the same level as the agent. the availability of the different level agents is determined by the standings of the agent, the agents corporation or the agents faction.
Standings
- Main article: NPC standings
Standings are a measure of how much one entity in EVE likes or dislikes another. These feelings are measured on a scale from -10 to +10 where negative is hatred and positive is love. Completing missions increases your standing with the agent, the agent's corporation and, in some cases the agent's faction. You will also lose standings with a faction for killing ships of that faction.
An agent will offer you missions only when your standings reach a certain amount, depending on the agent's level:
| Level | General | COSMOS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Any standing | |
| 2 | 1.00 or higher | 2.00 or higher |
| 3 | 3.00 or higher | 4.00 or higher |
| 4 | 5.00 or higher | 6.00 or higher |
| 5 | 7.00 or higher |
You must meet this requirement for either the agent's personal standing -not for COSMOS agents- towards you, their corporation's standing towards you, or their faction's standing towards you; any one of the three will suffice. All three standings need to also be above -2.00 to receive missions higher than level 1.
As you have initially no standings with an entity you have not interacted with you need to get either corporation or faction standing at or above the required level before you can interact with an agent of that level. Sufficient corporation standing will give you access to all agents of a level within that corporation. Faction standing does the same for all agents of that corporation.
Because of this, there is an advantage to running your missions with agents from the same corporation. Each completed mission will raise your standing with that agent and the agent's corporation and move you more quickly towards the next level. In addition, because loyalty point stores are run by corporations, you will be able to buy more items faster if you stick with one corporation.
When you complete a regular mission for an agent, you get increased standings with the agent and the corporation, but not the faction. It is worth noting that if the mission involves destroying ships or structures of a different faction, your standings with the target faction will go down due to a "Combat - Ship Kill" malus. Those who wish to be able to fly in all of High Security space are advised to decline all anti-Empire missions (that is, anti-Amarr, anti-Ammatar, anti-Caldari, anti-Gallente, anti-Minmatar and anti-CONCORD). Some exceptions or workarounds exist; for example, a Minmatar agent might give you the mission Friendly Spies, where if you destroy the mission objective but none of the hostile ships you won't lose Gallente Federation standings. In other cases, the standing losses due to "Combat - Ship Kill" are almost insignificant, such as Amarrian Tyrants (Level 3). However, some missions will incur -2.4% standing losses for ship kills and might require one or more completed storyline missions for the opposing side to repair the standings losses.
To see a history of how your standings have changed, you can go to Neocom > Character Sheet > Interactions > Standings, scroll through the list of NPC entities and select the entity you are interested in to see how much your standings went up or down for what actions and by how much.
Division
All agents belong to a division (the primary divisions are Distribution, Mining and Security). The division controls the primary mission type offered and which of the "Division" Connection skills is applicable.
The primary divisions are:
- Distribution division > courier missions
- Mining division > mining missions
- Security division > encounter missions
There is a fourth division
- R&D > Only 2 missions, a trade and a courier
The "Division" Connections skills are:
- Distribution Connections - Improves loyalty point gain by 10% per level when working for agents in the Distribution corporation division.
- Mining Connections - Improves loyalty point gain by 10% per level when working for agents in the Mining corporation division.
- Security Connections - Improves loyalty point gain by 10% per level when working for agents in the Security corporation division.
- There is no R&D connections skill. But as regular missions for the R&D divisions do not give loyalty points that makes sense.
Category
Basic agents
Basic agents are, if standing requirements have been met, always available for all capsuleers. The give out the basic missions, where the mission type is mostly determined by the agents division. Basic agents give out missions of the types: courier, mining and encounter
Storyline agents
A Storyline agents is only available when the requirements for a Storyline mission, successful completion of 16 missions of the same level for the same faction, is met. Storyline agents will inform you of there availability by sending you a message. All storyline agents are level 1. Storyline agents offer missions of the types: courier, trade and encounter. Storyline agents of all divisions give out all mission types [Note 1].
Career agents
- Main article: Career Agents
The Career Agents are a part of EVE Online's new player training. Following on from the tutorial, the career agents offer missions that showcase and explain some of the main PvE activities in EVE Online, as well as expand on the topics covered in the tutorial.
It is highly recommended that you complete all the missions given by the five career agents, even if you already know what you'd like to do in EVE. The missions give a good overview of some of the mechanics of the game, and good financial rewards for a new capsuleer.
Epic Arc agents
- See also: Epic arcs
Epic arc agents are only available when the arc they are part of is available to you. Additionally as epic arcs are a fixed series of missions only one agent of an arc at a time is available to you. Epic arc agents offer missions of the types: encounter, courier, talk to agent and agent interaction. Epic arc agents of all divisions give out all mission types [1].
Circle agents
- See also: Circle Missions
Each empire faction has one group of circle agents. These agents are part of a series of agents where each agent will refer you to the next agent in the circle eventually returning to the agent where you started. Originally these circles where repeatable but this no longer appear to be the case. Circle agents offer missions of the types; courier and encounter. Circle agents of all divisions give out all mission types.
COSMOS agents
- See also: COSMOS
COSMOS agents require faction standing of sufficient level to be available to you, corporation standing does not count. Be aware some COSMOS agents require an extra high standing to be available to you. COSMOS agents, with a few exceptions, offer special COSMOS missions only once. Failing or letting expire the mission makes that mission and all after it permanently unavailable to you. Do not even talk to the agent unless you are going to run the mission, as soon as you talk to the agent you get a mission offer that expires in seven days. COSMOS agents offer missions of the types: courier, encounter and trade.
Paragon agents
- See also: EverMark
Paragon agents, well actually there is only one, IRIS Paragon's executive officer, customer liaison, and chief representative. IRIS is Paragon's cybernetic liaison. IRIS can be contacted from all Paragon stations and offers to exchange a specific ship hull for EverMarks once a day (There is a cool-down of 23 hours after completing an exchange).
R&D agents
- See also: Research missions
Research agents are mostly working for you. Quietly producing research points which can be used to buy datacores which in turn can be sold on the market creating an almost passive source of ISK. Every once in a while a research agent will offer you a mission which nets you an extra day of research points. These missions do not give ISK or loyalty points but they do give standing and count for the Storyline mission tally.
Factional Warfare agents
TBD
Locator agents
- Main article: Locator Agents
Locator Agents, for a fee, can find the location of another player character. Locator agents are not a set of separate agents. Being a locator agent is a side job for a number of the agents. In their role as locator agent you are not working for them but they are working for you. Wile agents are largely PvE the role of locator agents is a PvP function.
Finding
Most mission agents are located at NPC stations. They can be searched by using The Agency either using "Agent & Missions" > "Mission Agents" or "Agent & Missions" > Agent Finder.
Notes
- ^ I have logged a number of Storyline mission offers. The log and an analysis are available on my user space registration page. -- Evon R'al
References
- ^ Based on the observation of the SoE epic arc The Blood-Stained Stars
