EVE New Citizens Q&A

Just realized this week marks three years of playing this weird and wonderful game.

I've built and lost towers, jumped capitals deep into hostile space, led fleets to varying degrees of "success"...I still feel very much a newbie.

I've not been playing much lately - real life is too interesting and too busy.

When I do play, I tend to try and focus on doing what I enjoy - flying with a group of fellow players looking for stuff to shoot at in nullsec and lowsec. Perhaps the biggest thing I learned was not to be afraid of losing stuff in the game. After all, it isn't real stuff - just space pixels - and having fun is the only real reason to play.

I've also learned that if you are waiting around hoping somebody else makes things happen, you might be doing it wrong. That's why I frequently volunteer as an FC and take small-ish fleets (on rare occasions big ones too) out. I learn something new every time, we usually die in glorious explosions and the folks flying (even the ones we try to shoot) are hopefully having fun.

If you are waiting around for somebody else to announce a fleet op or roam - stop waiting and step up and FC one yourself. The best way to learn is by doing. You will mess up, you will get yourself (and your fleet) zorched, you will learn and you will be actually doing something

If you are wondering how to do something, try it. Again, the best way to learn is by doing.

If you think you are an expert at something, try teaching others and helping them learn. Hell, do that even if you are terrible at it.

It's the other players you interact with and how you interact with them that make this game special. It isn't a solo game, so get out there and make yourself part of something more. There is a niche for pretty much anything you like doing in the game - building, selling, stealing, warring, teaching, leading - and a group of folks like you somewhere doing it for fun who would welcome your contribution. It's up to you to find them and get stuck in.

o7 fellow newbies. Good hunting!

For me, learning the FC trade is an exercise in constant education. Any good FC is going to be as much a student as a practitioner.

To all newbies, I would say the path to becoming an FC is neither as daunting nor as perilous as many would suggest. My own path looked something like this:

1. I observed closely and asked questions of the consistently good and successful FC's I was flying with.

2. I took note of things they did like clear and consistent communications, go/no-go decision making criteria, etc. Tactics are actually a very individual and highly subjective aspect of the role!

3. I started volunteering to take fleets out and tried to adapt and apply those lessons learned.

As I note, the best way to learn is do it, fail, learn, repeat. There are no real consequences - it's a video game.

So, to my fellow newbies, just remember - the most difficult step on the road to doing something like Fleet Commander is putting your hand up and saying "I will do it." If you do your best, learn from your mistakes and failures and keep it fun for the folks following you, it will all work out in the end

It isn't all about the big fights.

Personally I like the unscripted, unplanned fight where you and a dozen friends move fast through hostile territory searching for targets, often while other groups are doing the same.

The largest fleet I've FC'd so far was doing a shift with one of our regular CAS Combat Day NPSI roams. Just over 100 pilots in fleet, most in small ships, many having their first experience of null and/or PVP. Literally teaching people the basics of fleet comms, tactics, commands, etc. while "doing it for real."

That, to me, has been one of the most rewarding experiences in this game.

Well, it's something of a mental picture. You're correct, if you have more than 3 ships under your command it's a fleet. However, in EVE when people hear/read FC they imagine the bigger stuff, myself included. I've often seen the smaller groups as more of a wing or squadron command concept.

So, if we just count more than one person under command as FC, then yes, even I've done that. My corpmate and I routinely go on roams where I'm in the Fleet Commander spot because I can give bonuses, he can't yet. It's more of a cooperative effort with just two or three people but yeah, I agree it's an FC slot.

My comments were more toward the larger groups so I'm not sure what to call that now.

local spikes are like blood in your poo, ignore at your peril