EVE New Citizens Q&A

El NOOBatron here!

So I click a target.

Lock on target.

Tell it to orbit it.

Click fire button.

And just sit there until someone blows up.

That's it? No way to control your ship trajectory? No turn and burn? No way to out maneuver or out fly your opponent?

Just the proverbial roll of the dice?

Looks pretty thou!

On the surface, combat in EVE looks pretty simple. But as with most things the devil is in the details.

(NOTE: the following is a fast and dirty rundown and off the top of my head. Some information here may not be entirely correct)


Damage Types

There are 4 damage types in the game: EM, Thermal, Kinetic, and Explosive.

Nearly all ships in the game are geared towards using certain types of weapons... which in turn deal between 1 to 3 types of damage at any given time.

For example:
The Atron, a Gallente Frigate, is bonused towards using Hybrid weapons... which deal Thermal and Kinetic type damage.
The Punisher, an Amarr Frigate, is bonused towards using Laser weapons... which deal EM and Thermal type damage.

In PvE things are pretty simple; most NPCs are inherently weak against certain kinds of damage (the same damage they deal coincidentally enough).

In PvP things are... complicated.
PvP ships try to omni-tank (see: they try to get all their resistances as high and even as possible)... because you never know what ships/weapons a target/opponent will use.
However, certain "high-end" ships have VERY high innate resistances... making certain weapons (which deal certain damage types) fairly ineffective.


Damage Application

There are 3 main weapon systems in EVE; missiles, turrets, and drones.

Missiles are the easiest to grasp.
- they have an optimal range (missile flight time x missile speed) and will almost always hit anything within that range.
- their damage application is based on the Sig Radius (see: Sensor Footprint) and Speed (measured in Explosion Velocity) of the target.
- they will not deal extra damage if the target is bigger than the missile class.

Turrets are the most common weapon system in the game.
- their range in measured in optimal range (where full damage application is possible) + falloff range (where accuracy is artificially reduced the further out you go).
- tracking is how fast the turret can keep up with a target. The easiest way to describe it is this; if you and the target's trajectories are parallel with each other, the turret will have an easier time tracking a target. If your trajectories are perpendicular, the turret will have a harder time tracking.
- turrets factor Sig Radius (see: Sensor Footprint) into BOTH tracking and potential damage.
- turrets can randomly deal Wrecking Hits where they deal extra damage.

Drones are used by nearly all ships cruiser class and up.
- they are basically semi-autonomous mobile Mini-Turrets (and use the same mechanics)
- Sentry drones give up all mobility in exchange for slightly more damage and MUCH more range (compared to Heavy Drones)


What this means is...

missiles...
- will always hit a target unless it is is flying faster than the missile OR is both too far away and heading away from you
- will generally deal reduced damage if a target is MUCH smaller or MUCH faster than the missile class's

turrets...
- will have problems applying damage in VERY tight orbits unless the target is MUCH bigger and/or slower
- will have less issues tracking a target the more distance there is between you and it (unless you are outside falloff range)
- depend greatly on how you move your ship... meaning you need to factor range, trajectory, and speed to actually hit a target

drones...
- need to be micromanaged because they can be killed... or left behind... or will just do as they please


Propulsion and Electronic Warfare

Propulsion falls into 3 catagories:
- Afterburners (AB): they give a modest speed increase at the cost of some capacitor power and adding mass (to make turning harder)
- Microwarpdrives (MWD): they give a massive speed increase (500%+) at the cost of a lot of capacitor power, reduction in your ships total capacitor power, a large increase in mass, and a sig radius (sensor footprint) BLOOM when active
- Microjumpdrives (MJD): limited to battlecruiser and battleship classes, they spool up over 15 seconds and teleport the ship 100km in the direction it is facing

Things to know about prop mods:
- ABs are often too slow to escape or dictate range in PvP. However, ABs are less susceptible to Electronic Warfare (more on that later) and cause less negative effects on the host ship
- MWDs make the host ship easier to hit (due to the increased sensor footprint) and increase the difficulty of controlling the ship... but dat speed increase is often worth it
- MJDs are a little gimmicky in that they have some niche uses... but not much else


Electronic Warfare can be explained easily now that you have all the above info

- Warp Disruptor: disable a target ship's ability to warp at long range (20km)
- Warp Scrambler: disable a target ship's ability to warp at short range (8km) AND can completely disable MWDs and MJDs
- Stasis Webifier: reduce a target ship's max speed by 50% or more
- Remote Sensor Dampener: reduce a target ship's targeting range and speed (you can load a "script" in to increase the effect of one or the other, at the expense of the other)
- Tracking Disruptor: reduce a target ship's turret range and tracking (you can load a "script" in to increase the effect of one or the other, at the expense of the other)
- Target Painter: increase a target ship's sensor footprint
- ECM: "jams" a target ship, negating its ability to lock any target... based on random number generation (see: dice throw)
- Energy Neutralizers/Nosferatu: "destroys" or "siphons" part of the target ship's capacitor reserve.

---

Ship fitting and tactics would require more walls of text... but the long and short of it is this:

- tank, gank, speed, utility/Ewar
Choose 2.5 when fitting your ship

- specialization and "synergizing" your ship fit according to your chosen tactic and/or weapon system is necessary to be truly effective

- how you fly makes your fit and weapons more or less effective

There's tad more to it than that :)

So, in chess, you just move a bunch of pawns forward, and when they encounter the opponent's pawns, they can take them or be taken? That's it?

EVE is a strategy game, really, it's just you don't control more than your ship, so you achieve tactics and strategy by grouping with others and having a plan. Part of it is configuring your ships properly, part of it is knowing what the enemy is doing or can possibly do, and a big part of it is getting in a fleet and having the fleet act smart with tactics etc. And an even bigger part of it is establishing relationships with other players and groups in the game, forming alliances or going to war, etc.

That is not how I PVE. You can look at the ship you want to hit (right click -> look at). You can then click in space in the direction that ship is flying to set a parallel trajectory. This will bring down angular velocity, and drastically increase your chances of a hit. If still not scoring penetrates with every shot, you can adjust your ship's speed to further reduce angular velocity, further increasing your chances of a wrecking shot.

Then, as that enemy ship is about to pop, select the next target, and begin altering your course to match it.

There does not have to be, but can be, a lot more to PVE than just orbit at optimal and turn on guns.

(Note: if you're using missiles, then the strategy is somewhat reversed. You're missiles are not effected by angular velocity, but their shots back at you are, so you want to keep your ship at the center of the view and follow with tracking camera, then keep your ship moving at right angles to the direction the ship is from you and to the direction they are traveling. Moving directly toward or away from the enemy, or on a parallel course to it, makes them hit you better, while not helping you hit them.)

I also do a lot of sqitching of tracking computer scripts to alter the optimal range/falloff and tracking to match what I need given the distance to the target.

Then there is managing your tank and cap to incoming damage, keeping your drones on the best target, etc.

I loves me some lock, orbit, F1 pvpers. They are the best ones to absolutely demolish and then teach.

In my opinion, 99% of PvP is done before the actual fight starts. It involves either stalking your opponent and catching them with their pants down, or tricking them into thinking this is a fight they can win... and then turning the tables on them. This is the part of PvP I personally enjoy most.

I get the OP's response from a lot of other people that come from button mashing MMOs to this one. If you think Eve combat is very simple it's only because you don't know what you are doing. Watch any of the solo PvP twitch streamers and you will see those players are very very busy.

There is so much going on in Eve combat no one could do it all so it becomes about prioritizing and delegation. Also keep in mind in eve there are no fair fights. If you are looking for some queueable 2 v 2 or 3 v 3 or 40 v 40 of level capped characters with the same item level you will not find it here. Eve is a game where you see someone that appears weaker than you and you jump him only to find out that he was gank bait and have half a dozen of his friends materialize around you and blow you up.

I like to use the WoW analogy since that is where most new players that I introduce to this game come from. So let's say you've never played an MMO before and I sit you down in front of a computer with a level 100 mage fulled deced out in the best PvP gear and put you in a Battleground and tell you to target someone and just click icelance again and again until either they are dead or you are dead.

In that situation the person would say "well this game is pretty dumb I just sit here and hit one button until I die?". To which I would say "well yes if you don't have a clue what is going on or how to play the game or how to use 99% of the mechanics then yes it's simple and dumb". However once you learn more about the game and understand what is going on it becomes one of those "the more that you know the more that you realize how little you know" situations.

True


A fight has already been lost or won, before you even undock...