Agents interaction improvments

Have you ever had this kind of interaction with an Agent?

You: Hello Agent_X, I am in need of isks, and I was told that you have a job that needs to be done.
Agent_X: Come to my station, this channel is not secure to discuss the sensitive matter that I need resolved.
You: Sure, I just need to travel 5-10 systems so I’ll be here in a few minutes.
[A few minutes later…]
You: Hello again Agent_X, I am here for this job you are offering.
[Receive an email describing the job]
You: Hum, you asked me to come over, and you just send me the job description by email?
I mean I spent hours sculpting my body, combing my hair, picking my finest clothes and accessories just to receive and not meet you?
And your sensitive matter is delivering crates of garbage?
Agent_X: You want the isks or not?
[You go on delivering 2 crates of garbage to a station 5 systems away]

The Agent window has been as it is for as long as I can remember (which means from Beta time because I have been playing for that long…)

It is just a text window that is the same for every agent, no matter the faction, agent category or level.

So I have a few suggestions to refresh this age-old interaction, so here there are in no specific order, and some are cumulative:

  • The agent background (behind their body) should reflect the category of the agent.
    ex: A security agent could have an armory behind them, a distribution agent could have a warehouse behind them.
  • The level of the Agent should show in the background.
    ex: a level 1 distribution agent would have a dingy/dirty warehouse behind them. A level 4 agent would sit at a clean desk with a window overlooking a clean warehouse behind them.
  • Make the mission more like an actual dialog between the player and the agent.
    ex: Bubble dialog, or like an actual chat (left side for the agent and right side for the player)
  • Show the Agent and the player in front of the background (as described above) facing each others with the dialog/mission description between them. It would make our own avatar a bit more relevant than something that we design when we start playing and then forget forever.
  • Make the background faction dependent (Amarr with religion decoration, Caldari more clean and functional…)

Pretty much every other parts of the game has changed except this one.

We even have animation or missile launchers.
Do you actually take time to look at your missile launchers deploying and firing?
I know I don’t because I am more focused on killing and surviving.

So for something that is more visible than missile launchers, I think it is time CCP gives the Mission window and overhaul.
Especially considering that EVE Online can be daunting to new players, and that our beloved game is more compared to an Excel-game that an actually MMO.
So let’s get away from the Email-game too, and be a bit more interactive.

And for those who fear that it would slowdown their click-click-click-drag-drop-undock cycle, I am not talking about slowing down the pace, just make it a bit more pretty, and make our avatars a bit more visible.
No need to go full Ambulation on it.

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Meanwhile, I didn’t even leave the pod.

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How much time did you spend designing your avatar, choosing the pose, angling the head, moving the light, finding the best background ?

As I said, I am not talking about Ambulation.
I do not propose that we get out of the capsule like we can go walk around the small apartment with those awkward movement controls.

Just change the Mission window to be a bit more ‘alive’ and a bit less ‘email’.

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And…? is not that just a drop in the bucket when I consider how much time I spent talking with agents and doing missions?
Not that I’m opposed to your proposal. But the large amount of time you spend talking to agents seems like a better argument for than the time you spend with dressing up.

My argument is that we have a part of the game (the avatar) which is basically useless.
Not the time I am spending dressing up.
At it is the same with the NPC, all we see are their portrait.

For a feature that has been work on so hard, I believe it deserve a bit more light.
And the mission panel could be one place where our avatar and the NPC shine.

That will not prevent you (or slow you down) from the click-click-click-drag-drop-undock.
Just make it a bit more pretty and friendly.

So I agree with you.
Maybe my argument was presented wrong.
I just tried to make it a bit funny.

Oh, no. That was just a small difficulty from my part to get it.

On the other hand my jest is to say that after the agent ask you to go “meet him in person” he is perfectly fine if you talk to him from inside your ship. Agent “logic”, goes figure.

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