Standings

Required Standing

All agents have up to six standings relationships with a capsuleer, which can be viewed by getting "info" on the agent in game, and going to the standings tab. The agent, their corporation and faction have derived standings with the pilot and his corporation. All level 1 agents (except for storyline agents) should be available to every pilot. All level 2 through level 5 agents require a minimum standing, which is taken as the highest of the "Standings With You" on the agent's Standings Tab, as long as none of those are -2 or lower.

Standing gains and losses toward NPCs

The only way to increase a characters standing towards an agent or a corporation is to successfully complete missions for that agent/corp. To increase standings towards a faction a character needs to successfully complete storyline missions for that faction or one friendly to it.

Characters can lose standings towards an agent or corporation by failing a mission, or by declining two missions from the same agent in a 4-hour period. Similarly, they lose standing towards a faction if they fail storyline missions of that faction or a friendly faction, but also if they successfully complete a storyline mission for an enemy faction or destroy ships or structures belonging to that enemy faction.

The Math

Standing gains are derived as a percentage change of the difference between current standing (unmodified by skills) and 10. The formula ensures diminishing returns on standing gains the higher you get to the maximum of 10. Standing gains can be calculated with the following formula:

ns=((10-s)*i)+s

where:
ns=New standing
s=Standing
i=Increase percentage in decimal form

A 3% increase would work out the following way in each situation:
-10 standing: 10-(-10)=20. 20*0.03=0.6. -10+0.6= -9.4
0 standing: 10-0=10. 10*0.03=0.3. 0+0.3= 0.3
5 standing: 10-5=5. 5*0.03=0.15. 5+0.15= 5.15

A standing loss works the same way, just using -10 as the target point.

ns=((-10-s)*d)+s

where:
ns=New standing
s=Standing
d=Decrease percentage in decimal form

For instance a 3% decrease would work out the following way in each situation:
10 standing: -20*0.03 + 10 = 9.4
5 standing: -15*0.03 + 5 = 4.55
0 standing: -10*0.03 + 0 = -0.3
-5 standing: -5*0.03 + -5 = -5.15

It should be noted that the percentage-changes are not listed in game. The standings transaction history shows only the actual, total changes between each entry.

Skills

Several skills will affect your standings and standing gains:

• The Social skill directly increases all standing gain percentages.
• The Diplomacy skill adds a permanent bonus to all standing values from NPC entities towards you that are below 0.0 (negative standings)
• The Connections skill adds a permanent bonus to all standing values from non-pirate NPC Entities towards you that are above 0.0. Non-Pirate NPC Entities are all members of NPC Factions that CONCORD holds at neutral or positive standings.
• The Criminal Connections skill adds a permanent bonus to all standing values from pirate NPC Entities towards you that are above 0.0. Pirate NPC Entities are all members of NPC Factions that CONCORD holds at a negative standing.

The Diplomacy, Connections and Criminal Connections skills simply add a permanent standing gain of up to 20% to the respective standing values. If Diplomacy has been trained higher than Connections or Criminal Connections, it may come to a standing drop if the standing value before the application of the skills crosses 0.0, meaning that Diplomacy no longer applies, and Connections or Criminal Connections take over with a smaller bonus.

Derived Standings

Completing a storyline mission will have an impact on all faction standings for the character. They will appear as "derived standings" within the standing transaction history, which is available by right clicking any standing entries in the character sheet and selecting "Show Transactions". Those derived standings reflect how other factions perceive the faction for which the important missions were completed.

Changes due to derived standing gains or losses can not increase (or decrease) a standing beyond the standing value of the entity deriving their standing to the entity with the original standing change.

Example: The Minmatar Republic holds the Caldari State at a standing of -2, which means that a pilot's standing gain with the Caldari State will cause a derived standing loss with the Minmatar Republic, until the pilot's standing with the Minmatar Republic is at or below -2. Similarly, the Amarr Empire holds the Caldari State at a standing of +5, meaning that the same gain with the Caldari State will also increase the pilot's standings with the Amarr Empire, up to, but not beyond, +5. 

Important Standing Milestones

The table below shows a few important milestones for standings with NPC entities as well as the effects that it will have:

Standings between player entities

Player characters, corporations and alliances can also have standings set towards each other, which can be adjusted by the players directly through the respective contact lists. Standings between Player Entities are mainly used to allow for easy identification of friends or foes but can also control various aspects of player owned structures, such as the tax level on Customs Offices or when a control tower opens fire.