EVE-Online

[byteblock]

Dam it! All this talk of Eve has put it back in my head and I may have to resubscribe.

In the past I've tried on several occasions to get into Eve, even running two accounts for a while. But about 4-6 months into each attempt I've lost all interest. A big part of me really wants it to work out but I just don't seem to keep my interest in it long enough. Maybe it's too much solo mining that does it.

I must check out and see if I can remember my passwords for my accounts and give it another blast.

[Agent]

I'm feeling a bit lost now.
Ive been working for this Agent for ages now, and I just keep getting the same two types of mission which are:

1) Pick this up, take it here
2) Blow this up

Its getting a bit annoying now. Under my faction info, she is the only agent that's available to me.
Thinking of taking the long warp down to you Dak, I want to do some group stuff now. Single player is getting a bit boring.

[chuckskull]

Yeah it can seem like an age before you get the next level agent's, but even then it's just more of the same only bigger. Definitely try out some PVP and gang stuff that's where the game shines.

[Agent]

Any clues where a noob can go and not have their ass handed to them?
I mean surely as soon as I enter 0.0 someone is going to uncloak and beat the hell outa me?

[Agent]

And whats agent quality for?
I just ended up at another station (after doing another delivery ) and it shows one that was available there. They didn't show under my available agents though, how come?

Anyway, the quality was at -4 or something silly. Whats this all about?

[Allen]

NPC Corps and Factions are different things Agent. You do work for an NPC Corp (for example Federation Navy) and you'll get a standings increase with them and the Faction (for example Gallente Federation).

Now, each NCP Corp has a few agents in it, this is probably what you're looking at to find who's available. Depending on the NCP Corp will depend which Faction it belongs to, but underneath their name on the info page will be a link to the Faction. Click on that link and you will be able to see how many other NPC Corps are part of that Faction. All those NPC Corps will have different agents exclusive to them and you may find many more who you can work for.

If you're stuck trying to find a decent agent near you, trying using EVE Agents - EVE-Online Agent finder. Put in your Region, the Faction that you've been working for so far (not NPC Corp) and choose level 1, this will list all the agents in your Region linked to the Faction you've been working for so far. To find one you can use, look at the Required standing, most NPC Corps you will have a standing of 0.0 with them if you haven't worked for them before, killed their agents for other Factions and have no skills affecting standings, so find one close by and go work for him/her. Their quality generally relates to the rewards and standing increase you get for completing their missions, so the higher the better.

[Agent]

Makes a bit more sense. Thanks

[Gerrard]

Right, I'll try to build on what Allen said without confusing you.

The important thing with agents is your Standings under your Personal Info page. You'll notice in the "Liked By" tab a list of factions and corps with numbers by them. Your standings with a corp (and indeed faction if that's higher) will determine which level and quality of agents you can work for.
Quality effects how much money and LP you get when doing missions. It might also effect how much your standing goes up, not sure on that though. It does not effect the difficulty of the mission itself.
The higher the level and quality of the agent, the higher the standing you need. There is a formula, but it's just easier to demonstrate with actual numbers: -
Lvl1, Q-20 = -1.0
Lvl1, Q0 = 0.0
Lvl1, Q10 = 0.5
Lvl1, Q20 = 1.0
Lvl2, Q-20 = 1.0
Lvl2, Q0 = 2.0
Lvl2, Q20 = 3.0
Lvl3, Q-20 = 3.0
and so on upto lvl5 missions, which are for groups.
A higher level, but lower quality agent is always better. Ie, at 1.0 you are better doing low lvl2's than high lvl1s.
Finally, after every 16 missions you do for an agent you get a storyline mission from a different agent. It's very important you do these. Kill missions will normally be harder, but the reward is higher than the normal missions. Courier missions will normally have an attribute implant as a bonus, kill missions a combat implant. Most importantly though, completing it gives a massive boost to your standings with the corp and is the only type of missions that affects faction standing as well.
You can look for agents in the starmap. Can't remember the exact menu it's under, but I think it's under "My Information"/"My Agents". When you select it, you should get lots of green dots. The bigger the the dot, the higher the level of agent available to you. Hovering over the system gives you a list as of the agents and stations as well.

[Agent]

Superb
Will be back with more questions soon I'm sure

[Gerrard]

Thinking of taking the long warp down to you Dak, I want to do some group stuff now. Single player is getting a bit boring.

Come on down!
There's a few people in our corp that want to run missions for Fed Navy to get Jump Clones (you need 8.0 standing for them) which I'm sure you can go with. We (or at least I certainly do!) have a problem with going from hi-sec to low-sec as it's normally camped and it's only by going straight after DT that I've managed to get my BS in there. It's not too bad when you're there, but have to keep an eye out for who's local and for probes. I got suspicious when the system I was hunting in went from 2 bad guys to 6 and then saw a probe. I decided to run away and they chased me into a station where I am still logged now!

As for PvP, you can try a 0.4 system that is surrounded by >0.5 systems or isn't a route into into 0.0, as they won't normally be camped and are the usual grounds for the casual PvPer (was for me at least). Alternatively you can try the Red vs Blue corps that were posted earlier. I've heard good things about them and a lot of people just take bog standard frigates with them as a casual distraction from their normal corps.

[Allen]

Ahh crap, we're at war!!

Some little pirate corp has declared war on our Alliance, there's only 9 of them and they're hardly ever online... however, we think they have links to larger PvP corps and will be working with them in the attacks.

Haven't suffered any losses yet I don't think, but last night a few were camping out home territory.

Hate this, I'm scared to undock, I can't run missions, and we can only mine if we get a massive group together, even then, since we don't know who their scouts are we could easily lose a whole fleet if caught out...

[Agent]

Any reason they've done that, or just because its Eve?

[kalniel]

It's eve

I'm pissed off with it at the moment now - just as I hit my stride and I'm making several mil a day, Eve goes and drops the connection.

My ping to the server is 30ms, my internet connection has never been faster.. but eve just refuses to send data to me, so it's barely possible to log in, let alone play

[Agent]

How to you find your ping btw? I know FPS is ctrl+F

[Allen]

Ping 87.237.38.200.

And the reason they've done it is because they are griefers and get a buzz of killing people. Simple as that. I've never understood the mentality of people who are considered griefers, they're in all games but I could never be like that myself. But then saying that, Eve would be boring if there were no pirates or PvP. But on the other hand it's boring right now as there's no way we can put up a fight if they are working with a larger PvP corp so we can't do much...

[kalniel]

Yeah most games have griefers.. Eve at least legitimises it and makes it part of the game so no-one is under any illusions. It is a dog eat dog world.

Looks like it's time for your Alliance to start making some big friends Allen :/ Maybe try and find out who the enemies of your enemies are..