Warfare & Tactics

Where are you flying? Roaming? Sitting in a system waiting for people to come to you?


I will admit that the past few weeks that EU evenings have seemed pretty quiet in terms of the fights I've been getting. When I look at the KB seems lots of the action happens in the USTZ.

But yeah, there does seem to be a bit of a lull at the moment.

Best suggestion: Recruit, recruit, recruit.

Bringing more people into the warzone on all fronts will definitely improve this. We need to clear any negative air in regards to FW and start getting more players into the fray.

:)

Come to Hasmijala, I dare say your comrades could use some help. There are plenty of fights to be had, its been the most violent system in eve for a good 3 days so far.

The EU TZ is extremely docile and more occupied with doing anything BUT PvP (plex running, missions, ship spinning, etc) unless it is at a predetermined time.

I am guilty of it too. Not a lot of time lately so I'd rather log in and grab some cash to burn for when I get more time to play the game than engage in random encounters against Worms and Garmurs.

T1 ships are not expensive. But they are downright irrelevant except a select few. Excluding navy frigs like Comets and Slicers which should just be T2 anyway.

I would say the Derp Merlin is one of the most relevant fits around.

As for the difficulty in finding 1v1 fights, I truly can not comment as I don't 1v1 much. I know there are certain pilots that, if they are alone in system are unlikely to be blob bait or looking to swarm over me. This also applies to some corps and alliances. Realistically the best thing you can do is fly whatever you're comfortable with and warp into people/hold your ground against whoever comes at you. From this you will eventually figure out which names in local will blob and swarm you and which ones just want some fun.

Location matters too! If you're in an area that sees a lot of roams pass through it then you're likely to get blobbed. Same goes for if you're lurking near or in a staging system.

Finally, you can't avoid a whole alliance because some of their pilots are nerds who swarm either. You'll have to judge on a pilot by pilot basis. You will die a lot as you learn who is and isn't a good idea to fight.

Im roaming mostly right now since i got back in to it , didint rly sat still to plex .

Black rise , Innia - Martoh - Eha and the surrounding systems . Right now been roaming mostly on the EU tz but if EU is crap i rly don't wanna see the AUS tz next week how it is ...

i feel a great sadness ..


Might aswell try and go further see what else is " out there " lol

It's always been up and down on the solo front.

Well ofc im not saying people should just give away free killmails , i don't fight when i know for certain i have absolute no chance either , but the majority of folks out there run even when they could have a chance .


The funny bit is , last night when i was roaming , i entered a couple of plexes to try and catch the dudes but found out they where allies / purple yet in that split second of seeing the color in overview they just dissapeared .. so even blues run away from pretty much anything ..


Talk about a lack of warriors within my own miltia if guys warp out the plex so fast at the sight of another ship on scan even tough no wt's where in system ...

I tend to break up the current war zone pilots as follows:

Gank-Bear: Always flies with implants and booster alt. Will not engage unless at least 3:1 advantage in numbers.

Farmer-Bear: Will run away when ANYTHING appears on dscan.

Deplex-Bear: Like farmer bear, but their main(s) will appear within a few minutes for a fight

Fleet-Bear: An actual PVPer, they just don't know how to solo. If they decide to engage, they will do so with their entire fleet. Unless you have a comparable fleet size/comp, somebody is going to get blobbed.

Link-Bear: An "elite" solo PVPer who always flies with implants and links. You can get a fight from them at will, but its usually not a fight you want to take unless you are also a Link-Bear.

Solo-Bear/Multi-Boxer-Bear: This is an actual, honest to God, solo (or solo human) PVPer. You can get a fight from them at will. However, after they get murdered constantly by Link-Bear, they will start training for links themselves to also become a Link-Bear.

There are a lot less farmer-bears than there used to be, but they are still out there. Deplex-Bear is really only found in home systems. Fleet-Bears and Link-Bears are everywhere. Solo-Bear's are a needle in a haystack, but they are out there. It sounds like you are a solo-bear and are looking only for other solo-bears. They are out there, but its hard.

I will just throw in my point of view for you to ridicule at your leisure but it may help shed light on the state of solo play in FW, this is my only character ever in EVE and it is about a years worth of play considering breaks etc. and I have discussed this with other newish pilots.

When you actually successfully engage in solo pvp one or more of the following happens:

1) The enemy pilot is genuinely interested in solo PVP but is one ship class more powerful than yours meaning the odds are against you.

2) The enemy pilot is baiting you and you get ganked after you engage.

3) The enemy pilot looks like they are soloing but they have links in system giving them a subtle edge and is not really soloing.

4) the enemy pilot is soloing but has hundreds of millions - billions of ISK invested in implants giving them an edge.

5) The pilot is genuinely looking for roughly fair soloing but is more skilled at flying than you (fair enough)

6) The pilot is looking for roughly fair solo PVP but is an old character and probably has most support skills at level 5

7) Pilot is roughly the same skill as a player and your character skills are roughly equal.

8) Pilot is either, less skilled, in a worse ship, has less support skills etc than you and is nit bait for a gank; this being the only scenario where you start with an advantage.

Most new players are not going to see scenario 8 very often and every time they lose to one of the other options they feel bad and see the benefit of group PVP. Mix into this that they have not figured out how to make enough ISK to support constant losses then their wallet cannot take 10 mil (to have a semi decent fitted T1 Frig/Dessie) losses at a rapid pace. Additionally if they don't have ISK but keep it up anyway they may be relying on corp ships - in which case if they die they feel even worse because they are now loosing corp assets (whether their corp minds or not doesn't matter).

Finally if they are in a corp that cares about its reputation then they will start to get comments (or think that their corp mates are thinking) from their corp mates about how they are making the corp look like an easy target. Which again makes them feel bad!

Myself I still have yet to get my first solo kill and I try to mitigate the pressure of conceding kills and ISK on solo adventures to a limited number of solo deaths in a time period. If that limit has expired then sorry I will not engage unless it is group PVP.

In short solo PVP in FW is not noob friendly at all, you don't have the skills (as a player), the skills in character, the ISK, the link alt, the implants or the morale to compete. Unfortunately the only way to get these is to soldier on regardless which can be draining.

Anyway if you want solo PVP in FW then the community has to consciously reverse the arms race that puts new pilots at a disadvantage and encourages them towards fleet PVP.

As I say just my point of view, fortunately for me my corp are pretty laid back and are happy for me to die in a redo culprits fashion as long as I learn something. How many corps and FC's are not so tolerant?

Ridicule away :)

all fair arguments.

I'd just like to point out regarding n. 1, that a ship one class superior doesn't necessarily mean an advantage.

A guy that moderately knows what he's doing knowing the ins and out of his ship and his target, and the right fit for the job, can kill any navy frig in a normal t1, even some pirate ones, not to mention certain match ups against dessies AFs and inties that are just easy as pie, some cruisers too tbh.

Also, while i agre solo pvp in FW is not noob friendly at all, i categorically refuse the statement that you can't compete in solo pvp, being it 1v1 or 1vx, unless you have implants and links and super pimp ships accompanied with perfect skills. That is just not true.

I've been doing it since my first day in pvp, in fact it's the great part of what i've been doing since my first day in pvp , and i'm by no means a bitter vet or some super expert guy that can go around teaching how to be leet, i'm a guy with less than 12 months of active training that has been blapped a lot since going out with 1 mil SP (and some of them in exploration xD ) in meta fit frigs, and slowly but surely got to the point where i explode more stuff than what i lose, by means of a cold assesment of what went wrong, and distinct lack of self preservation, pretty much going leeroy on anything's ass