Warfare & Tactics

I'm thinking about joining FW but being a casual player I don't have the time to invest in EvE, and therefore a player FW corp and all the hassle that comes with it..
I've beefed up my wallet and intend to get more experienced in non-blob pvp in the war.

Is it viable to join the NPC FW corp? With al the tears about plexing alts going around am I going to be intensely distrusted by fellow FW members? Is the regular FW channel ~any~ good? Fleets and gangs being organised there for example?
Or am I condemned to forever looking for fights by myself and PvE'ing if I join the NPC FW corp?
What're your experiences, if any?

Also, since the FW data in the evelopedia seems horribly outdated, a few more questions:

- Will shooting a member of the opposing faction aggro the gate guns?
*EDIT* Will shooting a neutral in my faction's space aggro the gate guns?

- What's all the fuss about the FW dungeons being plexed by 2 day alts? From what I can tell, you can capture the dungeon by staying alive in it and near a beacon for a set time.. Does that mean I can just orbit the beacon in a fast ship and eventually capture the dungeon? Do I need to kill the NPC's guarding the dungeon? Do they web and scramble? Respawn?
Why are the dungeons considered easy?

- Can a pilot not enlisted with any faction dock in a faction station? Or do you need to belong to that faction? If neutrals can dock, isn't FW space a pirate infested craphole..?

- There seems to be a distinction between FW missions and FW dungeons.. are the missions any good? Are they FW themed equivalents of regular missions? Do-able in pvp ships?

- Is FW really as completely broken as some of the threads in the warfare and tactics section seem to suggest? (short answers please )

Thanks in advance for all hopefully helpfull info..

All of the answers depend on what you are looking for. Isk farming, or pvp.

You can find LOTS of pvp in FW even solo. So the NPC corp will be fine. But if you want to regularly join gangs, finding a regular corp is better. People are worried about spies (which I think is silly frankly - unless you are dumb enough to give all new people access to your expensive hangers, the worst a spy can do is get you a fight - which is what we are looking for anyway). The General a militia channel for GalMil at least is helpful with advice no matter what corp you are in. If you just want to farm isk, NPC corp is the perfect place to hide.

Other questions:
You can shoot enemy militia anywhere with no problems. Shooting neutrals will get you sec loss and GCC status. You also will no longer be able to go into your enemy high-sec space because their police will shoot you (though there are skullduggerous ways around this).

The PvE portion of FW plexing is broken. Most can be completed in a gunless T1 frigate. It's bullshit frankly.

Neutrals can dock. Having pirates around is good. More targets.

FW missions give about 30k LP per level 4. If you count travel time, and pick up 5-10 at a time, they take about 15 mins each to complete. But they require player interaction. Why do this when you can afk farm plexes? Or, if you are looking for pvp, it's easier to find it in plexes. If you want to just make lots of LP, I think missions are still the way to go fastest.

FW PVE is broken because of the current ability to do plex in gunless frigs. But You can make obscene amounts of isk if that is your thing. FW PVP is ******* kick ass awesome because of the plexing mechanic and the free war dec. ALL ships are useful in FW. It all depends on what you are looking for.

Like you, I have limited play time, and FW is as close to 'instant action' that you can find in EvE. You can easily find a fight within 10 mins of logging on if you go looking. Personally, I am looking for pvp, and there isn't a better place in the game to learn it/find it. RvB may be close, but I hear many of those fights are arranged. FW teaches you how to to hunt and evade in addition to fighting. I've learned more about pvp in the last 6 months than I had in the entire 3 years I played before that, and I lived in Null sec almost the whole time before.

Bottom line - if you want to learn how to fight or learn how to make loads of isk, FW is your place. Join a corp if you can though. Most don't have draconian activity requirements.

The markets are generally pretty high and have limited supplies out there. I have an alt that just sits in Jita and does my shopping for me and then ships supplies out in bulk via one of the freight corps. Much more efficient that way.

Buying in bulk and having it moved sounds good, and I've thought about it but isn't it risky stashing too much stuff in stations that can become unaccesable? From the sounds of it systems switch hands pretty often..

Or do you fly in from a non FW system that borders the combatzones?

Once you join a militia you can ask them about good places to base out of, and how safe they are. If they give you bad advice and you lose access to your ships, you can have PushX or Black Frog move them again, or you can drop militia for a while to move them, or again someone in your militia may be able to help.

Well like I said before, I have limited playtime and from my experience in 0.0, belonging to a player corp means having to keep tabs on tons of teamspeak/ventrillo/whatever channels with assorted accounts and passwords, checking forums, keeping up with alot of changes in corp direction and logistics, tons of security checks and regular API verifications,etc, etc.
It's one of the (many) things that drove me out of nullsec since I don't have time for that..

That being said, like someone said before, not all corps might require you to quit your RL job to participate so.. any suggestions for an Amarr FW corp? They seem to need the help the most from what I gather around here..



Good point, I forgot that neutrals can dock for a moment. Another 0.0 mental scar..

Play time isn't really a factor with many corporations, as long you're around fairly often. Most people in Faction War understand that people have lives outside of EVE. For your average FW Corp, you'll probably only need one Teamspeak and forums and even then you could probably go without checking the forums much.