Missions & Complexes

I don't know if the specifics of how the storyline agent is chosen are known and predictable, but what I would do in that situation is use Agent Finder to find a storyline agent of the appropriate corporation and level, and from there find the nearest regular agent.

A few years ago when I ran alot of missions for jump clones it was the case that the nearest storyline agent was the one that you were sent to. So you could, by carefully selecting an agent, control who you got storylines with.

This is no longer the case, there is some element of randomness in it.

I'm a careful reader of dev blogs and I have never seen any mention of a change here.

One thing I'm reasonably certain of from getting some standings for my trade alt(s) is that if you have a storyline agent in the station you have the normal agent in, you should get a storyline there.

just read your reply. Leaving the mission open could be interesting, hopefully it will increase the chance of getting a storyline from your preferred agent.

There is no downside, except for time wasted, as you can let storyline offers expire without penalty.

The game still sends you to the Storyline Agent nearest to your 16th Agent.

The mechanic is like the Market, it only looks at the Region you're currently in.



DMC


All it's gonna do is make another Storyline Agent within the same Region offer you a mission. That Agent will probably be even further away than the Six Kin Storyline Agent.


DMC

I don't always run missions for Minmatar faction standings, but when I do, I use the L4 Sebiestor Tribe agent in Eram. More than once I've run a mission from that agent that's #16 in the sequence to get a Storyline mission, and I have always gotten that Storyline mission from the Six Kin agent in Vullat.

Vullat is 1 jump from Eram and in a different region (Heimatar vs Metropolis). I think a lot of what's written above is wrong. Storyline missions come from the nearest faction Storyline agent regardless of what region they're in. The only exception is when you already have an outstanding Storyline mission from an agent, in which case the next nearest Storyline agent (for that same faction) will offer you the mission.

Disclaimer: I haven't run any Storyline missions for anyone since March so it's possible the mechanic has changed. I highly doubt that, however.

Well, it happened and I have some pictures It was almost 2 years ago and I was running Level 3 missions for Ewlang Eode, a Sebiestor security agent in Eram (Metropolis region). 16 missions for him on 3 August 2011 over 6 and a half hours. I did the old copypasta from my transaction histories into a spreadsheet. Here you can see my standings gains with him and Sebiestor Tribe tracking along with them: Agent and NPC Corp Transaction Log

I completed the 16th mission at 09:26 and received a Storyline mission from Aekelm Ontbald who works for Six Kin in Vullat (Heimatar region). It was the 10-part Storyline mission called "Guristas Strike". I started Part 1 and finished it at 09:44. I toook my time with it and finished Part 10 two days later on 5 August at 04:39. Here you can see my standings with the Storyline agent increasing for each part, my Six Kin standings increasing along with them, and my Minmatar faction standings boost at the end: Storyline, Six Kin and Minmatar faction standings Notice there were no other Minmatar faction standings increases (that can only come from Storyline missions) in between.

You can choose whether or not to believe me, but I distinctly remember those missions because it was the first time I tried to get a Storyline mission from a specific agent and it didn't work the way I expected. In this case I wanted to get the Storyline mission from Iddur Gulako in Arlek 2 jumps from Eram (Core Complexion). I was surprised when it came from an agent in a different region, but that's what happened. Vullat is 1 jump away from Eram in a different region and that's where the Storyline mission came from, not Arlek which is in the same region but 2 jumps away. I remember being ticked off because standings with Six Kin aren't something I was looking for, but the big gain with the Minmatar at the end of the 10-parter more than made up for it

I can confirm that the game does not rule out storyline agents in other regions. Did at some point level 4 mission for CPF in Inaro in the Citadel and had storylines for Spacelane Patrol a few jumps into the Forge region. Unpas system, three jumps away.

Nice to see people contradict themselves in an effort to prove me wrong.

I especially like how everyone keeps saying you get the storyline offer from the nearest storyline agent in the Faction, regardless of Region location.

Yet they still fail to explain why the OP is getting sent to storyline agent 4 jumps away instead of the storyline agent 1 jump away.

If they do try to explain it, they say it's random.


OK so which is it? Nearest Storyline Agent of the Faction or just RNG.

Wow, didn't expect to start a major discussion on this topic :).

I appreciate all the replies and when I do figure out how they give the storyline missions (I am going to leave the one from Six Kin open and not complete it to see) I will post here and hopefully give everyone some answers so we can all be happy and fly safely (And get the missions we want!).

Again thanks to all who have replied.

My guess is the OP is running missions in Aldik, which is one jump from Eurgrana. Since Eurgrana is low sec, the OP probably has the autopilot set to avoid low sec, and the storyline mission uses that to avoid the low sec storyline agent.