Nice idea. The idea you proposed is essentially the same as mine :) I meant to clarify in the OP that the choice wouldn't be permanent - you could always back out of, say, choosing political missions and instead go with anti-pirate.

The problem: For a lot of LP store items, it is simply unprofitable (even, in some cases, virtually impossible) to acquire the tags required to purchase items

Sounds like a new spin on the "Oh noes, my precious standings" argument .. clever ploy to use tags as the basis for it, I'll grant you that.

---Warning: Product may contain elements of RP---
Remove ALL tags from high-sec missions, the idea that enemies are allowed to set up shop within the sovereign/policed borders of an Empire's space is ludicrous .. I mean just how bad is the military command structure if they outsource eradication of such cells to lowly station agents.

Tags in FW are plentiful, were they to become a major export item we'd have something to help keep afloat that the solo-bombers can't touch (mainly plexers and 'proper' mission runners who hoard tags).
Tags (ie. anti-faction missions) in LS in general makes heaps more sense as navy patrols are few so it is reasonable that an enemy could haul in umpteen megatons of gear to set up a forward base .. would create a market/product dependency between high- and other-sec much closer to what was originally intended in regards to ore, goo etc. ...

You could of course still have your button saying that you want to fight for the Empire in question, the mission would merely take place in nearby LS system and be concluded with agent suggesting you sign up for the militia proper! .. hahahahaha.

No, this has nothing to do with standings, and everything to do with the brokeness of the LP store requirements.

..Btw what you propose would make it worst since NONE in their right mind would run ANY faction missions.

I'm not seeing much of an issue with this. I would suggest putting another two buttons next to the "Request Mission" button for the agent and have them be "Request anti-pirate mission" and "Request anti-faction mission", which would actually help both the missioners that care about their standings (no more 4h waiting period) and the missioners who want tags to sell (no more pirate missions with no tags). And there would still be the "Request Mission" giving out completely random missions for people who just don't care.

With any luck, and enough people running anti-faction missions for the tags, this could help to drive down tag prices (which I would see as a very good thing). As long as all three options remain a choice at all times, and you don't lock yourself into a certain set when you first talk to the agent, it sounds fine to me.

I support this idea. I don't know how many times I've been grinding missions for fun and ISK, only to suddenly receive an anti-Amarr mission (funny enough, it's always anti-Amarr missions. Never the other Empire-factions) and have to stop running missions for another 4 hours. It's really annoying when you're already hated by the Amarr, and actually want to improve standings with them by working for their "allies", until you get access to better Amarr-missions...

As for the tag-market, I don't know how that looks. I generally only work for SOE or buy Faction Ammo from other factions, because it's just too bothersome getting those stupid tags for the marginally better faction-modules.

One thing they may want to consider is reducing or even eliminating the faction hits with these missions. They seem like a needless restriction and are the reason you can't find tags on the market. They would be fine if we had an economy that was spread even, but we don't. A Gallente mission runner needs Jita a lot more than a Caldari mission runner needs Dodixie.

If you want to run anti-faction missions and get tags, you can take them as they come in highsec, move to lowsec and do FW missions/plexes or L5s, or move to nullsec and do pirate missions. There's plenty of options for amassing as many tags as you could possibly want.

As a former mission runner, some of the tag requirements for certain items are ridiculous.

You'd find modules that require 400 tags of one type of tag, additional 200 of another, and finally another 100.

Making the cost of the modules astronomically higher than variants you can get from pirates that work just as well and are much cheaper.

There is a reason why you never see imperial navy medium energy neutralizers and some others on the contract. Its just ridiculous to get the amount of tags needed to get them.

Tags need to go.

Supported.

That's probably quite a big 'if', and might not fully solve the intrinsic problems with the LP store - tag drop relationship that exist at the moment. A lot of it, in my opinion, stems from the godawful distribution of anti-faction missions.