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Agent
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This article has been marked as needing cleanup. The article may need spell checking, formatting or reordering to meet a higher standard of quality. It may also link to a large number of inexistant pages (redlinks). Other articles needing cleanup |
Agents are non-player characters, (NPCs) that are responsible for managing the empire and faction generated missions. For example the Caldari Provisions, (CP) company doesn't run on magic and faery dust as do some other MMOs. It runs because, like any financially successful corporation, it outsources much of its grunt work. If CP needs 100,000 cubic meters of garbage disposed of, a contract goes out and any available agent will be able to assign this duty to any willing player character pilot. Not all missions are boring garbage runs. There are several types of missions available that cover topics like mining, trade, and simple combat.
Contents |
Overview
Why choose agents?
Agents offer several rewards for completing their missions. The tangible benefits include money and items, especially valuable Implants or rare skill books. The intangible benefit to running agent missions is the ability to increase standings. This basically is the the approval or disproval of the corporation you're working for. A high approval rating leads to better agents, i.e. better missions and rewards as well as less tax on using station services (like refining). With the deployment of Red Moon Rising, faction standing also dictates whether or not a pilot can use the corporation rebirth facilites ( 8.0 required) or anchor a starbase in empire space.
Why avoid agents?
Like any possible source of wealth in the game, there are several balances in place to make sure it (1) doesn't get exploited and (2) doesn't become the sole activity for all pilots due to its appeal. The tedium, slow advancement, and competitive pay work to even the scales. Mission running can be quite tedious no matter what kind of agent a pilot chooses. Also, if a player does not have high social skills trained or have a high charisma, the slow advancement through the ranks of agents might make a player consider another career path. Additionally, the pay for running missions is similar to what a player can make in other activities skillpoint for skillpoint. A low level player can make as much mining as they can doing low level agents. A high level player can make as much or more running Complexes or doing research and development.
How do I find agents?
Open the map ( F10 ) - Star map - Color Stars by - My Information - My Agents. Systems highlighted in green have agents that accept you and mouse over a system gives more info, complete missions to get to better agents.
How do I find better agents?
SHOW INFO one of the agents you have already worked for ... click his CORP logo and then the Agents tab. See where the agents are located and which will talk to you.
Types of Agents
Agents come in four fundamental flavors.
Agent by location
Agents can be found about anywhere your ship can travel. They have been spotted at planets, moons, Asteroid belts, outside and inside stations, and even inside Complexes.
Most agents, however, are located in their safe offices inside stations. Almost all agents, research agents and Storyline agents are located there, all you need to do to find them is to dock inside a station and look at the agents tab. You can use many online agent finder services to facilitate finding and comparing agents.
Few agents, known as COSMOS agents, are located in other places. Some of them can be located by scanning, some will be found at certain beacons, others will appear only to players doing certain missions. Agents in space are mysterious, and there is no known complete database of them. Most event agents are agents in space.
Agents by mission type
Event Agents
- Event agents can be found in various locations, and only rarely inside stations.
- You usually get a mission that can be performed only once per character. Exceptions are the Circle Agents and a few level 1 COSMOS agents.
- You get no loyalty points but get a faction and corporation standings boost plus some very interesting rewards, such as storyline modules. The repeatable Event Agents only give out the faction bonus the first use.
Mission Agents
- Probably the most common type of an agent, found in abundance on most stations.
- You get loyalty points for completing missions for mission agents.
- You can have as many mission agents as you want.
Research Agents
- You get research points on a daily basis for having research agents. You can also get a full days worth of research points by running missions for your agent that are offered once a day.
- You can only have a limited number of research agents (max 6). The number you can have is limited by the science skill 'research project management'.
A research agent is a little different from your regular mission agent.
To find one you first have to check what npc corporation that has an R&D division. But under Research Services you can see relevant skills, High energy physics and Plasma physics. This means you have to have, except for a good standing towards the corporation , one of these skills to be able to use this agent. If you don't have one of these skills train to level 1 (if you're going to do missions for a research agent you should train the skill required higher than just the needed skill level, why will be explain if you read further) you will not be able to do missions for this agent.
As you also can see you have predictable patents listed under each skill. This means that this is what you have a chance to get if you do missions for this agent.
Storyline Agents
- Storyline or Important agents are ones you get access to every 16 missions from a mission agent. Their missions are like Events in that you get a faction boost in standings and a major corporation boost in standings. They commonly reward you with implants, with level of the missions you've completed determined both the difficulty of the storyline mission and the level of the reward implant.
Agent Levels and Quality
Every agent has a level (1-5) and a base quality, ranging from -20 to +20, which is listed in its info.
When you've done a lot of missions for your agent and your standings towards both the agent and the npc corporation has grown you can move on to a higher level agent. When this is possible you just have to look at the next agents info, and check what standings it says you need to be able to use it and then check what standing you have right now towards the npc corporation your doing missions for.
Access to Agents
Access to Agents is determined based on your Effective Standing by this formula: required standing = (agent level - 1) * 2 + quality level / 20
| Agent Level | Agent Quality | Standing Required |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | -20 | -1.0 |
| 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 | 20 | 1 |
| 2 | -20 | 1 |
| 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 | 20 | 3 |
| 3 | -20 | 3 |
| 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 3 | 20 | 5 |
| 4 | -20 | 5 |
| 4 | 0 | 6 |
| 4 | 20 | 7 |
| 5 | -20 | 7 |
| 5 | 0 | 8 |
| 5 | 20 | 9 |
Rewards
Rewards are affected by: 1) agent level 2) agent location (security level of the system) 3) effective quality
Of course, rewards are affected by missions you get, too :)
Effective quality
Effective quality is very important. It is calculated as follows:
Effective Quality = Base Quality + (5 * Level of Negotiation) + Effective Standing
Effective quality (EQ) determines from what end of the mission pool the agent will select missions. The high the EQ, the shorter the trips will be for couriers and the closer the kill targets will be. Also, it seems to improve the chances of the agent offering the harder and more rewarding missions. This actually means that a higher quality agent may offer you harder, instead of easier, missions. The better rewarding missions are often the harder ones.
Effective quality also directly affects the reward and your standing gain with the agent and their corporation, for every mission.
Agent level and system security
In any case, a low quality Agent II is much better than a high quality Agent I for rewards and standing gains, although the missions are proporationately more difficult.
A difference of 0.1 in system security translates to a 10% increase in rewards. A 1 point difference in agent quality is roughly a 1% difference in rewards. Thus it would be more beneficial to use a lower sec, lower quality agent, than a higher sec, higher quality agent unless the difference is extremely staggering.
| Agent Quality | System Security | Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| -20 | 0.1 | 114 |
| -10 | 0.1 | 133 |
| 0 | 0.1 | 152 |
| 10 | 0.1 | 171 |
| 20 | 0.1 | 190 |
| -20 | 0.5 | 90 |
| -10 | 0.5 | 105 |
| 0 | 0.5 | 120 |
| 10 | 0.5 | 135 |
| 20 | 0.5 | 150 |
| -20 | 1.0 | 60 |
| -10 | 1.0 | 70 |
| 0 | 1.0 | 80 |
| 10 | 1.0 | 90 |
| 20 | 1.0 | 100 |
Level 5 agents
They exist as of Revelations 2 patch. About 10 agents per (empire) faction have been added.
Finding Agents
In a Particular Location
- Go to map -> my agents
Affiliated with a Particular Corporation
So let's say we want to do mission for Federal.
- In your menu, click on People and Places.
- In Search type change to corporation
- In Search string type in the name of the corporation you want to do missions for, in this case Federal. (You can of course type in the whole name if you know it, that would give you an more accurate search hit.)
- Click search.
You will now get a list of corporations; some of the ones listed in the picture above aren't npc corporations. In this picture above I've high lighted Federal Intelligence Office, right click and show info.
When you get the information window for Federal Intelligence Office click on the tab Agents. You can now see there are different divisions of which you can chose from. It will now list the agents that are available to you and those that aren't available to you. In this case you can see most agents under Administration are available, this must mean that the character who is looking at this have done missions for Federal before and there for have a good standing towards them and can pick more agents.
If your just starting to do missions you might just have a few to chose from, maybe none at all, if so you have to try another division and see if you can work your way up to reach the standing you need against Federal to get the agent you want.
Loyalty Points and Rewards
- Accrue Loyalty points and trade them (like tickets at the arcade)
Your agent will pay you for doing missions for it, and also most of the time gives you a reward. The reward can be anything from more money to Modules to an Implant.
Choosing the NPC corporation
Ok so you want to start doing agent missions, well first of you need to find yourself an agent.
So where to look?
First off, you need to choose an NPC corporation you want to do missions for, and there are a lot of them out there so it isn't easy to pick. But here are some pointers (there is also a list of NPC corporations at the end of this guide).
It's always useful to do missions which benefit your own Corporation, this can help you and the corporation get a better standing towards that npc corporation and will let you get more out of your refining at stations that are owned by that npc corporation.
So let's say we want to do mission for Federal.
- In your menu, click on People and Places.
- Change Search Type to corporation
- In Search String type in the name of the corporation you want to do missions for, in this case Federal. (You can of course type in the whole name if you know it, that would give you an more accurate search hit.)
- Click search.
You will now get a list of corporations. Some of the them listed may not be npc corporations. Right click on the Federal Intelligence Office corporation and show info.
When you get the information window for Federal Intelligence Office click on the tab Agents. You can now see there are different divisions of which you can chose from. They all give out similar missions, but it varies some. For example, Administration will probably give you more transport missions, get goods and so forth. And doing missions for Intelligence will probably give you more fight missions, as in go and destroy this spy.
In this case I chose to do missions for Administration, so click on that one.
It will now list the agents that are available to you and those that aren't available to you. In this case you can see most agents under Administration are available, this must mean that the character who is looking at this has done missions for Federal before and therefor has a good standing towards them and can pick more agents.
If you're just starting to do missions you might just have a few to chose from, maybe none at all. If so, you have to try another division and see if you can work your way up to reach the standing you need against Federal to get the agent you want.
Let's say we want to do missions for Ormalon Gien.
- click on the info button or right click and chose show info.
- In the agent info window click on the tab Agent Info.
You can now see the agent's information, that it's a level 3 agent, and where it's located. In this case we would have to go to the system Aufay, and then to the station Federal Intelligence Office Testing Facilities.
- Once there and docked at the station where the agent is, look at the Stations menu (right side of the screen). You will see a tab called Agents. Click it.
- Now right click the agent, and chose communicate, talk to agent.
- The agent will now ask you what you want, in this case we want to do a mission.
- The agent will then give you a mission briefing, explain what the mission is and what you need to do to complete it.
If you get uncertain at any time of your missions run, you can check your Journal in the left side menu. There you have two tabs to choose from:
- Offered is for an agent briefing of the missions you just have been offered but not accepted.
- Active tab is for when you have accepted the mission. The mission briefing in Active window will stay until you have either finished the mission or the mission expires.
Not completing a mission will set your standings against the npc corporation back a little. But it's usually repaired within 2-3 missions.
There are so far five levels of agents in EVE.
As a starter of agent missions you will most likely have to start with a level 1 agent and work your way up.
The higher the level the harder the missions get. You will be fine doing missions for a level 1 agent in a Frigate, you might even be well off doing missions for a level 2 agent in a frigate. But for level 3 missions, when it comes to fighting missions you might need a Cruiser to be able to take out the enemy. For doing Level 4 missions you usually need a Battleship and sometimes some friends with you.
Your agent will pay you for doing missions for it, and also most of the time gives you a reward for completing the mission quickly. The reward can be anything from more money to Modules to an Implant.
When you've done a lot of missions for your agent and your standings towards both the agent and the npc corporation has grown you can move on to a higher level agent. When this is possible you just have to look at the next agent's info, and check what standings it says you need to be able to use it and then check what standing you have right now towards the npc corporation you're doing missions for.
Agent Missions
A list of missions agents will offer you: Missions
Mission Distributions
Agents of different divisions give a different mix of missions to run:
| division | Courier | Kill | Trade | Mining |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accounting: | 100% | -- | -- | -- |
| Administration: | 50% | 50% | -- | -- |
| Advisory: | 66% | 34% | -- | -- |
| Archives: | 100% | -- | -- | -- |
| Astrosurveying: | 30% | 40% | 5% | 25% |
| Command: | 3% | 97% | -- | -- |
| Distribution: | 95% | 5% | -- | -- |
| Intelligence: | 15% | 85% | -- | -- |
| Internal Security: | 5% | 95% | -- | -- |
| Legal: | 50% | 50% | -- | -- |
| Manufacturing: | 100% | -- | -- | -- |
| Marketing: | 95% | 5% | -- | -- |
| Mining: | 85% | 5% | -- | 10% (II) |
| Personnel: | 36% | 64% | -- | -- |
| Production: | 95% | 5% | -- | -- |
| Public Relations: | 66% | 34% | -- | -- |
| R&D: | 50% (S) | -- | 50% | -- |
| Security: | 5% | 90% | 5% | -- |
| Storage: | 95% (L) | 5% | -- | -- |
| Surveillance: | 5% | 95% | -- | -- |
Skills for Agent Runners
If you know you're going to do a lot of agent missions you might want to take time to invest in a few skills also.
- Social - Skill at social interaction, 5% bonus to npc standing increase.
- Connections - Skill at interacting with friendly npc's, 4% bonus to effective standing.
- Negotiation - Skill at agent negotiation, 5% additional pay for agent missions.
If you're also looking to raise your personal security standings you might want to train the skill:
- Diplomacy - This skill can also be useful in the longer term, as the more Event or Storyline missions you complete, the more adjustments occur to the Faction standings. Some of these can be negative, for example, working exclusively for Caldari State will reduce standing with the Gallente Federation. When your effective standing reaches -5.0 or less, Gallente Navy ships will begin attacking you on sight, regardless of your overall Security Status with CONCORD. Eventually, work must be done for the Gallente to balance these effects out, but the Diplomacy skill can buy you more time. Alternatively, you can simply not go to Gallente space.
It can also be used to get access to level 2 missions quickly. If a character starts with level 5 Diplomacy and then breaks one Event Mission with a faction their faction standing instantly raises to +2.0 and any corporations with that faction get a +2.0 boost giving the player access to level 2 missions with that corporation.
Note: These Faction standings should not be confused with Corporation standings. Only Event and Storyline missions alter Faction standings. Normal missions will only affect Corporation standing.
To what level should you train these skills then?
Well that's up to you, consider how much time you want to spend on those skills, how much mission running will you do?
Location Services
Some agents can help you locate players in the world of EVE. These agents have 'Location Services' listed in the Agent Info along with the time it will take and the price of locating the player. The better the agent, the less time it takes the agent to find the player you're looking for, and in this case time can be of the essence, as pilots move around all the time. If you want to use the location service you need to be in the same station as your agent and then tell him/her who you are looking for. The cost will then be withdrawn from your account and you will receive an EVEmail with the player's last known location when your agent has located him/her.
See Also
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