Changes to Agents in Patch 1.2?

[Ramdat]

That rank 10 seems too low to actually spawn M7. I am pretty sure that M7 only started spawning for me when i was combat rank 20 while flying an M3+ for very hard defense missions that awarded agents.
Rank 10 sounds more like spawning M8 bombers in my experience.

I'm using rank 1 as the highest ranking, starting from the top. Are you starting from the bottom? If that is the case, rank 20 would be Militant, which I would consider to be rank 12 in my ordering system.

In my current game I am Assassin rank (10 in my ordering), and they spawn an M7 for a very hard station defense agent mission.

[chip56]

I am starting at 0 so that it ends at 30 which would mean its 20 Warrior (i consider counting from lower to higher to make more sense since the regular ranks are ranked like that too). But okay if you start counting from the top that means we are actually talking about similar ranks.
Generally i prefer numeric ranks since its pretty clear if rank 10 or 11 is higher. But without looking it up:
Warlord or Crusader or Battlemaster: what is the order?
Economist or Industrialist? Which one is higher?

[Ramdat]

Yeah, but FL does not have standard numerical ranks for combat/trade, and they even removed the numerical ranks for notoriety. We are indeed talking about similar ranks.

I have no idea what the rank names are off the top of my head, so that's why I also listed my own numerical ranks and gave "XTREME" rank 1 as a reference point for others. In my ranking order the lowest number is the highest rank, which might be confusing. But, it's like how 1st place in something like the Olympics is the best position.

[X2-Illuminatus]

We didn't remove anything in rank display. Trade/combat rank display is the same in X3FL as in all 'old' X-series games: Just the rank name and the progression percentage towards the next rank. For race/faction notoriety we added the notoriety change indicator, the bar display and the police licence icon.

Lists of the names and reputation values for each of the race, faction, combat and trade ranks can be found in our FAQ.

[Cycrow]

There has been no changes to the agent missions in 1.1 or 1.2
the mission quotas have also not been changed

[Ramdat]

We didn't remove anything in rank display. Trade/combat rank display is the same in X3FL as in all 'old' X-series games: Just the rank name and the progression percentage towards the next rank. For race/faction notoriety we added the notoriety change indicator, the bar display and the police licence icon.

I thought in AP it displayed the numerical ranking for faction notoriety. Perhaps I'm thinking about Litcube/Mayhem. My mistake.

Ideally it would display the numerical ranking too though, as it makes it easier to know which rank you are, as well as make it easier to discuss the ranking system with other players.

[Novvak]

On a slightly different note, does anyone know if the mission type "Acquire Special Ships" actually does anything?
I have sent one of my agents to the Split shipyard in Rhy's Crusade, and he is working on "Negotiating Access 4/4" for almost 14 hours already.
His mission has consumed over 2.5k influence already. At this point I'm not sure if I should stop him to prevent the loss of more influence, or just give him few more hours of overtime

The screenshot can be found here: https://ibb.co/NFf93v8

[Deianeira]

On a slightly different note, does anyone know if the mission type "Acquire Special Ships" actually does anything?
I have sent one of my agents to the Split shipyard in Rhy's Crusade, and he is working on "Negotiating Access 4/4" for almost 14 hours already.
His mission has consumed over 2.5k influence already. At this point I'm not sure if I should stop him to prevent the loss of more influence, or just give him few more hours of overtime

The screenshot can be found here: https://ibb.co/NFf93v8

Hehe, it allows you to buy special ships at that particular shipyard. At 4/4 after about 1h 40m you have access to all four special ships, everything after was just wasted influence (200 per hour)...

And yes, you just get buying rights. The special ships are easily spotted by their yellow font and (*) mark at the end.

Spoiler

Show

Here's a link to all special ships: https://ibb.co/RpZ53SK

[Novvak]

On a slightly different note, does anyone know if the mission type "Acquire Special Ships" actually does anything?
I have sent one of my agents to the Split shipyard in Rhy's Crusade, and he is working on "Negotiating Access 4/4" for almost 14 hours already.
His mission has consumed over 2.5k influence already. At this point I'm not sure if I should stop him to prevent the loss of more influence, or just give him few more hours of overtime

The screenshot can be found here: https://ibb.co/NFf93v8

Hehe, it allows you to buy special ships at that particular shipyard. At 4/4 after about 1h 40m you have access to all four special ships, everything after was just wasted influence (200 per hour)...

And yes, you just get buying rights. The special ships are easily spotted by their yellow font and (*) mark at the end.

Spoiler

Show

Here's a link to all special ships: https://ibb.co/RpZ53SK

Wow that is fantastic, thank you so much!
And here I was thinking that something was wrong when I couldn't see Asp Prototype in the Strongarm Shipyard...

[Cycrow]

The Asp Prototype is not buyable, it a special ship for the strong arms gun runner start

[Deianeira]

Wow that is fantastic, thank you so much!
And here I was thinking that something was wrong when I couldn't see Asp Prototype in the Strongarm Shipyard...

All the "races" have special ships, but not the "corporations". Except the pirates also don't have anything special on offer, apart from the new Pirate Ship TS.

For the Asp Prototype you have to forcefully negotiate with any Strong Arms weapons dealer escort

[Novvak]

The Asp Prototype is not buyable, it a special ship for the strong arms gun runner start

That's a bummer, it seemed like an ideal M4 for large battle groups. Maybe when I'm done getting achievements I will add a blueprint for it to my HQ and make Asps myself.

Wow that is fantastic, thank you so much!
And here I was thinking that something was wrong when I couldn't see Asp Prototype in the Strongarm Shipyard...

All the "races" have special ships, but not the "corporations". Except the pirates also don't have anything special on offer, apart from the new Pirate Ship TS.

For the Asp Prototype you have to forcefully negotiate with any Strong Arms weapons dealer escort

All right that is good to know too. Maybe I will try to make them bail. Alternatively, is it possible to board small ships? Or do they have to be at least M6 to be boardable?

[Snafu_X3]

On a slightly different note, does anyone know if the mission type "Acquire Special Ships" actually does anything?

IIRC the way this is meant to work is that the task only gives access to special ships /while the agent is on site/. Keeping them there after you've bought the ship(s) you require simply eats your influence for no further benefit

[Novvak]

On a slightly different note, does anyone know if the mission type "Acquire Special Ships" actually does anything?

IIRC the way this is meant to work is that the task only gives access to special ships /while the agent is on site/. Keeping them there after you've bought the ship(s) you require simply eats your influence for no further benefit

Yes, initially I thought this mission is meant to get blueprints for ships, rather than access to purchasing them.
It works nicely with another agent sent to negotiate discount - the maximum seems to be 10%, which for buying Fregates or Heavy Corvettes may save you quite a lot of money.

[Ramdat]

Yes, initially I thought this mission is meant to get blueprints for ships, rather than access to purchasing them.

The interface for the agent actions could use some work to better explain it. When I first used the negotiate discount action, I thought it was stuck at 10% progress, instead of complete and applying a 10% discount. Since every other agent action displays a percentage as its progress, it was initially a bit confusing.

It works nicely with another agent sent to negotiate discount - the maximum seems to be 10%, which for buying Fregates or Heavy Corvettes may save you quite a lot of money.

It's also nice for buying stations. It is a bit annoying that the action takes so long to finish though.

[Novvak]

It does take a while, but it's certainly worth considering when you've got a large order of stations to make, mostly the XL upgrade kits which can get very expensive in large quantities, and you will be applying a lot of them.
10% doesn't seem like much unless you need to buy 70 upgrade kits for 17mil each

[Ramdat]

Yeah, I mostly use it for buying stations and/or their upgrade kits in large batches. The influence and time requirements for lesser purchases makes it a bit of a waste, but it's great for megaplexes.