How to Find an Agent in EVE Online… Quickly and Easily!

I have mentioned in the past that the all-time second most popular post on this blog is:

How to Find an Agent in EVE Online

I wrote that post almost four years ago and it consistently brings people to the site via search engines.

And the sad thing was that nothing had really changed since I wrote that.  It was still a useful overview of how to find an agent that will give you missions using only in-game resources.

It was an annoying process, but one that people used to accept with the usual reference to the legendary learning curve of EVE Online.  It is difficult because it is meant to be so.  Go read the old process.  March or die.

But fret no more, as CCP has finally gotten around to making finding an agent easy.  Unlike the captain’s quarters, this is a new feature I am totally behind because it does exactly what it is supposed to, the way it should do it, with about the least amount of controls possible.  I give you the new agent finder!

Finding Agents for the Imperial Chancellor Corp

You pick the faction, you pick the agent level,  and, optionally, the corporation, agent type, solar system, or security status of the agent’s solar system, and it displays the agents which meet the criteria in descending order of proximity to you.

Basically, it answers the quest I used to ask a lot, where is the nearest level n agent for corp x, quickly.

So, as you can see in the above screen shot, level 4 agents for the Amarr corporation Imperial Chancellor are pretty darn close to my current location. (Can you name the system I am in?)

Meanwhile, level 3 agents of the Caldari corporation Wiyrkomi Peace Corps (which seems to have an awful lot of security (read “combat”) agents for an organization with the word “peace” in its name) are a bit more distant from my location.

Agents of peace... but not at any price

I know if I want to work with them I am going to have to pick up and move.  The have odd looking stations out in the unpronounceable sections of Caldari space, many jumps from where I am currently.

So far, this looks pretty good.  I almost wish I was still looking for agents, but I’ve built up my Amarr and Caldari faction pretty well to this point.

The only minor gripe I have is getting to the agent finder.

It does have a prominent place on your coffee table in your captain’s quarters.

Agent Finder and Daily Specials

It is hard to miss there.

But, if the novelty of the captain’s quarters has worn off already and you’ve gone to the static “station door” background, the location of the agent finder is a bit less obvious.

Instead you find a button for it in the People and Places window, which seems logical enough, though that isn’t where you would start off under the old process if you were searching for a new agent.

People, Places, and How To Find Them

I haven’t played with it enough to be sure there isn’t some hole in it or something missing.  But so far, for Incarna features, I have to give this one a thumbs up.  It almost makes me forget CCPs desire to go Viking and pillage our wallets to the maximum extent possible.

The only real question for me is why it took CCP so long to do this.

Now I have to go update my old post to point here with something cute like, “Looking for an Agent? There’s an App for That!”

What do you think of the new Agent Finder?