Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Add mission agents as a services available at citadels - have it so that a citadel owner can pick amongst npc corporations that are available in his area to install at the citadel - with the level and type of the agents being upgradeable (consistent with any restrictions on agent type/level in that area - thus you could not create something like a lvl 5 caldari navy agent in amarr high sec space since lvl 5 agents are restricted to lowsec). As a reward for housing the agent the citadel owner gets a percentage of the bounties/mission reward that is earned by the players that perform the mission as their reward/tax for housing the agent.

To make this system feasible - I would also impose a similar tax on mission agents at npc stations with the npc corporations that house the agents in their stations getting a piece of the action that the players earn from completing the mission.

Finally, I would make mission agents in npc stations dynamic - from time to time have them relocate from the station they are in to another station within their control. I would make it so that agents move as a general rule from areas where there is high player activity to areas where there is lower activity. The effect of this is that players who use agents will move around more following their preferred agents which may result in conflict - or they will reside at player citadels where agents are static.

For lore reasons I would say that whatever restrictions exist now would continue to exist in the proposed system - thus you cant have amarr in caldari space and vice versa, but you could have soe pretty much everywhere agents are allowed. As for Null/wh - agents are not allowed in either except for null npc space so I would imagine that those restrictions would be kept. As for the pirate agents - since they are limited now to lowsec/npc null (i think) then i would leave them limited to those areas in the new system.

There are a few groups that like to play the game because they enjoy it. Not everyone logs in to exploit and abuse game mechanics. (not pointing fingers or judging anyone - just pointing out that there are different approaches to the game)

Pointless is a point of view.

If it doesn't allow you to put agents in places where there are not already agents of that corporation/level, then it is kind of redundant, is it not?

That would break the monopoly of lvl5 system hubs, provided that everyone could access the agent. Otherwise its very selective. As for the small percentage fee, well no, thats way too easy money. Citadel owners would benefit from tax on the market, buying and selling stuff out of their mission citadel.

Agents in high / low sec work fine as is. What would be interesting to see is mission agents in 0.0 through citadels. That way all bears will be happy making iskies. Also it would be nice to see citadel owners crafting new missions, provided they are hard enough for system's sec status. Maybe CCP can create a mission crafting thread and receive mission designs, so that they can be tested / approved/ thrown away.

Implementation needs a lot of work, but it could have a bright future, That would give back life to poor regions without many stations (GW springs to mind)

Well no, not really, but since npc space offers missions, maybe you can open up options.

As for moving around to different regions of eve, the carrier enabled that with its 13ly jump range once upon a time, but got nerfed and became a local asset ( a side effect of power projection nerf). Also people dont move around once they get settled in lvl5 systems. They actually do everything in their power to farm 5s for themselves.

Exploring all the options you can get out of citadels isn't really counterproductive. Obviously it needs to be well thought out before implementation. But it is an option

Farming the hell out of havens is already happening. Nobody said anything about lps, its an obvious expectation out of missions but lp stores revolve around npc corps. Citadel Mission agents could have double isk rewards or some other incentive that wouldn't negate the value of lps. So agents wouldn't provide missions per se, for now lets dub it a new set of escalations or beacons.

Big Blocks already farm the hell out of lvl5s, implants have lost their value, tags and faction modules / ammo are also into a downwards slope due to vast availability. Citadel Agents is just another isk generating option, you will have to forge alliances as it stands with low sec and npc 0.0. Otherwise you are stuck with lvl4s mission wise. Citadel agents will have the added bonus of 0 standings requirement. You could add some flexibility as to whether you want combat missions or R&D. Now you have more options for datacores within your own locality. You build your world and your options.

Overally, its not a bad idea, you just have to approach it carefully. Lest we forget FW. They literally destroyed the implants and hardwiring market with lps, but also took care of the lvl5 monopoly. So for Citadel agents, you need a robust design from the very beginning.

Well in the system I propose - agents couldnt be placed where none are allowed now - so you couldnt place an agent in sov null sec for the large alliances to farm. But even if you could, so what? Sov alliances are allowed to greatly upgrade their systems so that they can farm havens and the like all day so I dont see how this would be different except that it would give more variety to player activities - different things to do rather then just killing the same rats over and over again.

As for the lp store - yes I envision that this will have an impact, but it will be a player/market driven impact. For instance, if players all start installing soe agents such that they become more accessible, I expect that more players will run them which will drive the price for their lp items down, which will in turn drive citadel owners to install other agent types - creating an endless market driven cycle.

I would say why not just make the local mission agents available to be used from the citadel instead of having to dock up at the station they are at. Allow you to accept and complete missions from the citadel. For instance, you like to run missions in X system, you set up a citadel there, and dock and have access to the mission agent you are using. make it still a fitting like a "mission comms" or something like that. this way we are not adding mission agents.

-1 is my response to this and for the same reasons that I give a -1 to the request to put mission agents in citadels in a worm hole.
My primary reason is that all four areas of space have certain positive and negative aspects to life there and this idea serves to remove some of those negative aspects.

Nul sec and worm holes are about controlling your own destiny free of the controls, limitations etc of the NPC corps. With this as the lore background to life in these areas what is the justification for allowing you to have NPC agents? Why would the NPC even want to have an agent in a region of space they have no control over? With no vested interest in your area of space why would they even care what went on there?

In the end my biggest complaint against this idea is the double standard that it represents. When the high sec players want something they do not have they are told to go to the areas of space where that activity is available. Yet here you are asking for CCP to add something to your area of space, something that does not exist simply because you want it. That folks is a double standard, some call it hypocrisy, so I say to you exactly what you all say to those high sec players if you want something you do not have pack up your kit bags and move to where it is available. If you do not want to move then you do not get access to that activity because in this aspect of the game fair is fair.