| Pages: [1] 2 :: one page |
| Author |
Thread Statistics | Show CCP posts - 1 post(s) |
Ravenal
   |
Posted - 2003.08.14 13:53:00 -
[1]
Edited by: Ravenal on 14/08/2003 23:36:40
Edited by: Ravenal on 14/08/2003 19:03:35
How to become a success with the agents:
for starters...you have the tutorial agent, after you complete all missions your tutorial agent gives you he referres you to a lvl1 agent (remember "places" in the people&places to complete the pirate mission).
his lvl1 agent is going to be the agent your friend for the next few (20-30 missions) so treat him with care.
a few pointers: get your empathy skill and social skill up while performing agent missions, this is VERY important in order to be a success with the agents.
now, STICK to this first agent you get from the tutorial agent UNTIL you get a good lvl2 agent from him. DONT go running to the first lvl2 agent you get...get at least an average lvl2 agent. why? because you are going to spend the next 70 missions or so (depending on the agent quality, your charisma and your social skills for example).
now, you want to do as much of "insta" missions as you possibly can to quicken up that time it takes you to get a lvl3 agent.
EVERY time you get a mission do this:
- if its an "aquire this or that" mission...buy at least 4x the required items and ship them to the desired location. that way you can insta finish that particular mission the next few times you get it.
- if its a "here are a few goods i want you to get over there" follow the above instructions too.
- if its a "aquire minerals or ore"...do the same!
- if its a pirate hunting mission...have fun!
Please not that "insta" missions are not really possible with lvl 3 agents...they have a timer so they only offer a mission every 15 minutes or so (lvl 4 agents prolly have a longer timer...). But "insta" finishing lvl3 missions also means that you are maxing the outcome from your lvl3 agent.
so, the most important thing to be a success amongst agents is setting up those "insta" missions.
ADDITION:
for those missions you have to do the jumps
-get yourself a:
1. Fast ship (i use slasher with overdrives and afterburners)
2. A ship with a large cargo hold (to get those items to the stations required to make instamissions happen, also to move stuff from place to place after you get a new agent)
for those who dont have much money, many missions can be completed using a shuttle...they dont require attention (turning on aburners and stuff) and fly REALLY fast :)
ADDITION: agent quality (the first percentage in agent info...before standing) seems to reduce the time that has to pass between missions for lvl3 agents. A good reason to try and get an awesome lvl3 agent if you are good in instamissions.
have fun.
...new sig coming up
Ravenal - Fate is what you make of it. |
Dr Snarl
|
Posted - 2003.08.14 13:57:00 -
[2]
What advice is there for trying to get an Agent nearer your HQ?
________________________________________________
"One may smile, and smile, and be a villain" -- William Shakespeare
"Forgot it, just Snarl" -- Dr Snarl |
Ravenal
|
Posted - 2003.08.14 19:01:00 -
[3]
get social lvl5
that way, you will meet the requirements of more agents willing to accept you on docking at a station.
...new sig coming up
Ravenal - Fate is what you make of it. |
Luther Pendragon
|
Posted - 2003.08.14 22:32:00 -
[4]
'insta missions' sounds like an exploit, but I would put that problem on the side of the devs and not the players.
____________________________________
Taggart wants YOU. Join TTi!
*waves his hand in your face in the jedi way* |
Ravenal
|
Posted - 2003.08.14 22:37:00 -
[5]
sigh...insta mission is not an "exploit"
you just happen to have the minerals, ore or trade goods in stock.
simple as that. Besides...real instamissions can only be performed for lvl1 or lvl2 agents, where profit is next to nothing (unless you have a high negotiations skill and/or a very good agent).
naming some feature in a fashion that sounds like an exploit does not mean it is one.
...new sig coming up
Ravenal - Fate is what you make of it. |
Tanner Mirabel
|
Posted - 2003.08.14 22:51:00 -
[6]
yeah, the 'instamission' is not an exploit. The agent says I want X amount of Anti matter charge and you already happen to have some in your hanger, its hardly exploiting anything. I think the only thing it could represent is a limited variety in the missions.
|
Tanner Mirabel
|
Posted - 2003.08.14 22:56:00 -
[7]
Ravenal, do you have to use the first agent that your tutorial agent refers you to? I didnt really do any after the tutorial ones until recently and I have been working on one agent that had an 'awesome' rating. Ive pushed my charisma up a few levels as well as a couple of levels on social and Ive done well over 30 missions with that agent but still no level 2. Ive also now got a 2.0 rating with that agents corp which seems to be as far as it will go. Is there anything else I should do?
|
Ravenal
|
Posted - 2003.08.14 23:34:00 -
[8]
up your social skill...
and just keep your fingers crossed ;)
every time you do a mission there are chances you will get a mission that referres you to another agent (agent missions, like mining missions...).
the odds of getting an agent mission are calculated by several factors. Like your charisma and social skill (i think...), your standing towards your agent, agents corp and agents faction.
the higher rating you have, the greater chance.
until you reach the top. i did that with my lvl2 agent. I had had 1 referral from him before i reached the "top". the top mission for a lvl2 agent is an 80k mission which referres you to a lvl3 agent (both i and a friend of mine have had that mission...i got a 17% agent and my friend got a 16% agent)
there are of course many "unknown" factors with agent functionality and behaviour...but you get a "feel" for it after some time ;)
...new sig coming up
Ravenal - Fate is what you make of it. |
Luther Pendragon
|
Posted - 2003.08.15 11:40:00 -
[9]
Edited by: Luther Pendragon on 15/08/2003 11:45:19
Depends on what kind of mission the 'insta' mission is. For most cases, no, its not an exploit.
But if he wants you to move some secret documents there, and it so happens you already stocked up on 'reports' (or tourists?) there so you instantly complete the mission without having to actually move these specific secret documents, that sounds like an exploit as the requirement is to physically move specific documents and not any 'ol documents.
Otherwise its still poor design that missions are so repetitive and predictable that they can completed in this fashion anyways.
____________________________________
Taggart wants YOU. Join TTi!
*waves his hand in your face in the jedi way* |
Papa Smurf
|
Posted - 2003.08.15 13:25:00 -
[10]
At the moment, I consider this more a case of good organization on a player's behalf rather than an exploit. The player is predicting demand from an agent and thus is already prepared for the mission when the agent asks next time. He's generally not making a whole lot of money anyhow.
As the game balances out and more worthwhile and interesting missions start popping up, I'll be more inclined to reduce the frequency of this type of "instamission" however.
|
Papa Smurf
|
Posted - 2003.08.15 13:30:00 -
[11]
but yes... if you're supposed to bring specific reports from A to B and you just bring any old reports you buy from the market, that's something of an exploit.
The missions are however configured not to care about this in spite of the capabilities being there to prevent it, and in spite of the issue being raised often enough, so it's hard to call a player an exploiter for this. If the mission designers wanted, they could easily prevent this in most cases. Eventually they probably will.
|
Ravenal
|
Posted - 2003.08.15 18:22:00 -
[12]
 Quote:
but yes... if you're supposed to bring specific reports from A to B and you just bring any old reports you buy from the market, that's something of an exploit.
ever heard of the "internet"? - just scan the documents and send them with a secure transmittion to the destination, then inform the agent.
i also do this with the "holoreel"...i simply download it and send the copy (they are in some cases even better in quality than the original) to the premier ;)
and that thing about the tourists...have you ever tried to buy marines, tourists or any of the "passenger" type...not much supply im afraid (or im blind!)
and as i and papa smurf pointed out...with lvl1 and lvl2 agent missions, you are not really making money (at least compared to other areas of the game) and when you reach lvl3 agents (and the same supposedly applies for lvl4 and lvl5) you have the "3 missions per hour" (modified by agent quality"...so while there is a considerable increase in income when comparing lvl2 and lvl3 agents, a well organized agent runner can accually make more money running errands for a lvl2 agent (specially now with the added time bonus - thanks a BUNCH for that one papa)
i also guess lvl4 agents will give out perhaps 2 missions per hour and lvl5 like 1...or something.
so, i would not worry about this supposed "exploit"...cause it isnt one!
...new sig coming up
Ravenal - Fate is what you make of it. |
Luther Pendragon
|
Posted - 2003.08.15 20:09:00 -
[13]
As Papa Smurf says, it depends on the intentions of the designer 
____________________________________
Taggart wants YOU. Join TTi!
*waves his hand in your face in the jedi way* |
Sevanna
|
Posted - 2003.08.16 13:34:00 -
[14]
Good article Ravenal 
but I must say that this question of "insta-missions" is more like getting a good drop rather than anything else.
If you prepare yourself for missions, and know what your employer wants, then you are able to do your work better, faster and off course gain more out it.
As with documents etc, this is kinda dubious.
at our age (real life that is.) we are able to use the internet to send most of our "paper work" and I'd think that eve has advanced a bit more than that.
So if you do prepare yourself, documents or buy extra goods to be able to have them in the station you alreaddy know you will probably need to go again, well it's all good and well, since you are still doing your work and taking the risk of buying extra goods that you cant then get rid of since you didnt get the mission again. 
And as said before, you really cant do instant mission exept with lvl 1 and 2 agents, where you'r really not getting that much money anyway.
Personally I thank Papa Smurf for making missions like this, where you can finish missions instantly.. since you have to do allot of missions before you manage to get a new agent. (doing long runs all the time is really tiresome, and I doubt anyone would bother doing missions if they would gain so little and doo so much...)
This is just one of many things in this game that makes it so great, since you have so many options how you want to play... agent can be really usefull when you have established good connections
One thing though.
Papa Smurf: "I would really like to see more events for the Rumor Services"
:: rebell against opression ::
|
drunkenmaster
|
Posted - 2003.08.17 23:17:00 -
[15]
I've been doing agent missions all day. It got to the point where I was getting repeats.
What I liked though, was that early on, I got another lvl 3 agent from my 'regular' lvl 2 agent (190+ missions).
A few of my lvl 2's missions took me directly to this new agents station, so I was doing a job for him each time, and going back to ms. lvl 2 for some drudge, and people being buried in their cars, etc. But I found the linking of two agents to be rather cool, as I wouldn't have done jack for mr. lvl 3 otherwise (horrible delay (-16)), so reducing the delay to 5-10 minutes would be a nice touch.
Some of the prizes are disproportionate to the rewards (10 units of ectoplasm, 15 hops, all for just a basic mining drone//45k for 1000 tritanium) but, as it goes both way, I guess it's not too much of an issue atm.
I had the thing where you don't accept a mission and it fails once, in about 20-25 missions. And my godly faction ratings are still godly. Which is a relief. Wouldn't want anyone to think I was dishonest, would I? 
.
|
Supe
|
Posted - 2003.08.18 05:53:00 -
[16]
Sounds like some really cool stuff hopefully they fix faction system soon so us victums of there screw ups can get agents again. Cuz not many corps offer me agents with -x.x faction ratings all over the board including pirate corps.
|
Lardarz B'stard
|
Posted - 2003.08.25 06:03:00 -
[17]
cool name BTW Tanner Mirabel - I have read that book too.
E.T. Radio - designed to enhance your flying experience....
http://radio.evesound.net:8000/evetrance.ogg.m3u |
Morthvargr
|
Posted - 2003.08.25 19:08:00 -
[18]
re: insta-success of a mission being an 'exploit':
well, i would consider this a valid point if missions were implemented the way they 'ought' to be... that is, not completely random and oftentimes boring instead of engaging.
as your character type has no impact on the type of missions you get, and you can not yet select the type of agent you want to give you missions, well...
i consider insta-success to be a pleasant loophole that prevents me from having to wade through every silly mission that i did not even want to take in the first place.
why do i do missions at all?
what can i say, i love the combat missions. i run through countless dry courier missions just to get them. i don't WANT to have to do this, papa smurf himself has said that this totally random, non interactive system was NOT how agents were meant to be implemented...
i think of insta success as a user side hack that lets me play the game more how i imagine it should be played.
-----------------------------------------
And trotting scatheless through the gorse,
And bristling in the fell,
Lord it is Death, upon that horse!
And they're the hounds of hell |
Bigby
|
Posted - 2003.08.27 14:00:00 -
[19]
Quote:
but yes... if you're supposed to bring specific reports from A to B and you just bring any old reports you buy from the market, that's something of an exploit.
Couldn't this be solved with a "briefcase" item? by this i mean something like a very small secure can (capacity 10m3 or something)which has the reports in, and also a specific random tag in the new user defineable field which is supposed to be introduced in the next patch.
Just a thought, don't know how easy that would be to implement or whether the new field is readable by internal functions.
|
Caline
|
Posted - 2003.08.28 12:10:00 -
[20]
Maybe someone can answer me :
I have the tutorial agent and at the sixth (or near)mission (the viral agent to bring back), i failed because of the agent refusing bug. now i heard the bug is solved but the agent doesn't give me new mission, he says always "no work, come back later..."
How can i find new mission or agent lvl 1 ?
|
Da'Tol
|
Posted - 2003.08.28 22:08:00 -
[21]
You should read a bit higher in the post, get social skill and fly from station to station..
|
Papa Smurf
|
Posted - 2003.08.29 09:20:00 -
[22]
Hmmm... the DB proc that fixed the bug in question didn't make it to Tranquility... I thought it had gotten there a long time ago.
I've sent a note about that to our DB guy, so I'd expect that it would be updated during next downtime.
Once the proc is in place, the agent should reoffer the mission.
|
Basilisk Huntress
|
Posted - 2003.08.29 11:51:00 -
[23]
Another question from me, which should be interesting to other newbies to Agents (I have spent no attention to them up to this point.)
I have founded a corp and want that corp to have a good standing towards some specific NPC Corps. Is this possible in general? The idea behind it is, that if the story of eve unfolds into a (f.e.) War between Empires or NPC Corps, i will be offered some mission like "Hey, fly to the Gallente System xxx and kill those Gallente Military Forces". ItŠs a sort of getting a mission which can be fulfilled by my corp and not only by myself personally.
I think that would be interesting to know, if there are plans about this.
|
Papa Smurf
|
Posted - 2003.09.01 11:38:00 -
[24]
Corp standing can be manipulated like that, and corp missions like you mention are planned.
Characters/Agents, Player Corps/NPC Corps, and NPC Factions are all classified as "owners" in EVE. All owners can have standings set towards all other owners.
When you perform an act that would change how an NPC 'owner' thinks of you, that NPC should modify his standing towards you. F.ex. an agent likes you more because you did a mission for him/her, thus the agent->char standing involved is increased.
As a side effect, alot of other standings should be modified. The agent should be happier with your corp, and the agent's corp and his faction should be happier with you and your corp and your faction.
This is partially in place at the moment, but poorly synchronized between various parts of EVE. Agent missions do certainly modify all the relevant standings, although perhaps in an unbalanced manner, thus the more missions you do, the more the agent's corp likes your player corp.
And when it comes down to the "corp missions", which will hopefully become major players in driving the storyline, your corp's standings are going to have significant impact.
|
Basilisk Huntress
|
Posted - 2003.09.02 06:24:00 -
[25]
Wonderful. I will do missions right away and canŠt wait to lead the attack, when the storyline unfolds.
|
Karon Wodens
|
Posted - 2003.09.03 13:55:00 -
[26]
Quote:
Another question from me, which should be interesting to other newbies to Agents (I have spent no attention to them up to this point.)
Well.... havent you gotten that mission "We're planning an invasion on..... oh, you arent classified to know that... :) ? Corps do have military prep missions. It's only a matter of time.
Caldari Prime: Think of that moment, remember what they did...
|
Hematic
|
Posted - 2003.09.03 20:15:00 -
[27]
Just so you know the kill-task missions can be completed insta fashion as well.
For lvl 1 it was usually the datasheets, if you have them in stock it works.
For lvl 2 it's the VIP I believe.
Either way you can pretty much insta any of the missions.
|
Barbarossa
|
Posted - 2003.09.06 14:37:00 -
[28]
For me not all combat missions worked as instant-missons.
The "scout spotted" mission works without leaving station, but not the "stop the thief" one.
-------------
I made about 60 missions for my 2nd lvl 2 agent and tried to stock some goods. But the missions are overall not very repetitive.
I expect to get a new agent doing another 20 missions.
Consider the time to get 480 units of wheat or cap charges to a station with an untuned bantam.
So I donŠt think stocking is worth it, except for very long runs, the standard mining missions or if you want to do more than 100 missions for an agent.
|
Ravenal
|
Posted - 2003.09.11 21:55:00 -
[29]
also, ive noticed that you dont always have to be in agent or mission station to complete a mission...sometimes (havent tested this thoroughly) you can complete missions when docked in a station where you have another agent...such as when you are supposed to bring some stuff back to your agent...you can deliver at a different stations where you also have an agent...
as i said...havent thoroughly tested this, but i have come across this "bug".
...new sig coming up
Ravenal - Fate is what you make of it. |
James Hawkings
|
Posted - 2003.09.12 06:02:00 -
[30]
how badly are agent missions still bugged? because i started some with an alt and several of the missions have been failed because reports or something else did not drop off pirates i killed. it kinda hurts to lose standing ratings which go down quick and take a long time to get back.
~Built Hauler Tough~
~Dazed and Confused Currently~ |
| |
|
| Pages: [1] 2 :: one page |
| First page | Previous page | Next page | Last page |