Missions & Complexes

Greetings . Some of you folk may know me but most probably do not . I am 1/3 of ISN's management . I crunch the numbers for our pilots and assist with the fleet compositions and setups to balance the fleet out and maximize its performance .

As of late I have done Assaults more often then before and noticed that there is quite a difference in pilot behavior in larger fleets . I would guess that the same goes for HQ's . Many VG fleets , once set up , run for 2-3 hours without any changes . Nobody leaves and people chat a few if they wish to . Apart from the odd bio brake a VG fleet can run without any issues for quite a long time , granted a good FC and pilots . However all of the Assault fleets and HQ fleets that I have taken part of tend to lose pilots ever 30-40 minutes all the time . So I wodered :

What sites Do you , Pilots , prefer to do and for what reasons ? Pre and post Inferno .

Personally I like compact fleets . If I had to FC an assault fleet I would ( granted the necessary number of pilots to run it optimaly ) but I would not enjoy it . For me , the smaller the fleet , the closer I feel to the pilots that fly with me . That is what I like in VG fleets .

Regards
Lauris

back in 2006, i used to lead 40man raids in WoW. it was a nightmare.

Guess that would explain the lack of pilots in general as well . All the pilots that did not want to fly in Ass/HQ's simply went someplace else .

Thank you for sharing your preferences .

For when I'm chilled out and just on autopilot, or grinding to make enough isk to make plex I hit up Vanguard sites.

When I am more active and actually want to do something, I'll form up or join an Assault fleet. If things are going well and there's enough people X'ing up in channels then it will double up to HQ's.

Only done Headquarters a few times... But I really enjoy them, especially TCRC's they really keep you on your toes (when you're pulling or dumping the M-tac's) you need to keep an eye on a stopwatch for depositing. If you're off by a few seconds you can deplete your supply of M-tac's faster than they are spawned, too slow and the tower repairs all of its shields in a matter of seconds, putting your fleet right back at square one. While at the same time you are following targets and providing DPS as well as keeping an eye on your tank, calling for reps as soon as red-boxed.

TCRC's are mentally exhausting, but can be one of the quicker HQ sites to complete.

lol, I don't do Assaults and Headquarters to prove anything to anyone. I find them more challenging and entertaining. I don't enjoy grinding Vanguards over and over for isk. It just becomes mind numbingly boring.

And in a competitive environment where it's blitzing and stealing sites from one another in Vanguards, who isn't trying to prove themselves?

I believe ISN put out a video showing "OMG look how we can still blitz OTA's post patch... BOOYAH!"

So yeah... Vanguards are totally not about proving anything to anyone. Unless you are part of one of these super elite communities that will actively follow people in Vanguard systems and hound them until they are harassed out of doing sites in that system and sometimes constellation.

Because that doesn't sound like a second job

and, I'm terribly sorry for pointing out that elite fleets like SSN and ISN will actually hound and harass lesser fleets. That they will land on a gate just after someone else has just went inside and then follow to prove that they can take whatever sites they want. And have members that will smack talk in local and fist pump over how awesome they are.

I guess as management for ISN, you could do be in a position to introduce policy about these activities.

Only because there is a drop in numbers of active fleets.

I have no doubt that once the number of active incursion runners starts to climb again that the elite fleets will start being more aggressive in competing and "stealing" sites away from lesser fleets as a way to get completion times down and back towards their previous "post patch" isk/hour rates.

I have no problem with contesting... I used to contest against elite fleets with a fleet of mixed ships and win. I preferred to out think than out spend to win. The difference can be the FC

It stops being competition and starts to be harassment when you begin following a fleet into every pocket they do. I've seen some "Elite" fleets be complete dicks about winning as well. As far as I'm concerned anything that isn't "gg" or "gf" or "gc".. or anything to that effect. Is just being rude.

As for your other point I don't think ISN do bigger sites. So asking Kodavor about forming up Assaults and Headquarters wouldn't make sense to me. [Edited typo]

My personal experience is that it didn't take any time to form for Assaults... once you have a Vanguard fleet active you keep recruiting to the "wait/Assault" list. Bringing in the snipers needed. Once you have 6 Logi's 7 sniper and 7 closerange (Pre patch... possibly 9 sniper and 5 closerange now) You broadcast the Assault system and start

It's all hit or miss... I've seen really slow days where getting a VG fleet together can take over an hour. Others where we've formed an Assault fleet in half that... and by the time we've finished the first site we've recruited enough people to start the Headquarters.

The thing that sinks most fleets on Assaults and Headquarters is replacing people leaving. Because they aren't as popular as VG's not as many people X up for them. At least if someone does say they are leaving after another site or so, that you have plenty of time to recruit someone. But if say 4-5 people say they are going at once, often a fleet will disband or take a decent sized bio break to give them to recruit others.

Let me widen this out a little: How do you find a good FC and a good squad? It's pretty random IMHO if you're just X'ing up in any old fleet.