Warfare & Tactics

I think the most important point to remember here is that the Ewoks didn't have to blow up the death star to earn their place in history, in the end. They just did a damn good job of making the Empire fumble a bit and look inept. It was the shame of having the AT-ST trip over some logs that hurt them far more than the isk it took to replace the walker.

I can't believe you seriously defended station games as showing prowess. Especially when TEST could and did afk dreads in the system and the only people who did anything about it were BL (missed our two chances) and Init.

Wasn't seriously defending anything, really. I was just making a joke about Ewoks.

I should have made my silly tone more evident! It's getting late here in this TZ.

My experiences in FW have been pretty good so far; I joined two weeks ago or so, figuring it might be a good way to get some pew pew with my limited play time. FW has delivered for the most part. I fly frigate class ships in the minor complexes so I don't have to worry about BCs on the field, for example. I've also found it fairly easy to get some "street cred" with some of the guys in the militia. Here's how I did it; if anyone else is in the general militia and wants some Brownie Points with others, give this a try.

Find a system where your militia is plexing. Grab a frigate or whatever and, instead of shooting at the NPCs, sit near the warp-in. Point anything hostile that comes through and give the others time to shoot it down.

The cool thing is you don't need to be on comms with them to be useful to their fleet and you have the opportunity to serve up kills to the other guys. After you do this for a while they WILL remember you, and they will remember that you're serious about helping out.

I did this for about six hours over the weekend and had some interesting experiences, and was noticed by some well known people in the militia. I had another friendly FW corp asking me about my Super Secret Merlin Fit, since it performed really well in one of the fights.

If you put yourself out there, put in the effort, and show your face, you'll make friends.

Another few years of this and they might even realize that I'm not a spai (har har).

I have read quite a bit about spies here...

However, there are some really half baked ideas regarding ALL KINDS OF THEORIES which are just basically wrong.

If you check the industry forums you find many people asking why the hulk shouldn't get a buff so it has more tank - so they don't get ganked in highsec so easily by cormorants lol.

These are the GREAT MINDS behind much of eve gameplay.

So tell me this very simply.

If I start FW today as a solo pilot, and I ask for access just to the intel channels that are run by these "in groups" in FW.

And of course intel channels shouldn't have blue intel and should only have RED intel.

What benefit is there for enemies knowing what our red intel is?

Now don't get me wrong, there are a few reasons I can think of - perhaps we don't want THEM to know WE know that they're there - sure but let's face it that's once in every 100 years of eve play with all the metagaming.

Come on seriously given the number of answers in this thread that said "oh we take for granted there are spies in our intel channels anyhow", then why wasn't I just "allowed to join" straight away ?

What is the point of disallowing me access ?!?!

Seriously, you're just sending FW pilots that might fly for you away. I wasn't asking for fleets I was just asking for intel so I could at least find a fight - but not so big a fight to just get blapped straight away.

It just seems to me the fear has taken all reason out of the entire process. I would ask CCP to help - without any idea how they might do that, but I'd suggest people FAR better versed than I on the subject could put away their "spy fear" and think about it.
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Please keep in mind, this isn't a personal attack on anyone. Not am I saying those people having fun in FW or who had/have good experiences joining FW are wrong. I'm just saying this was my experience, and given that CCP kind of advertised FW as the place to go for some PEW if you're in between corps or just out on your own... I didn't get any. Seemed a lot of paranoia instead.

Just think about it.

Forum troll ate my post :(

Edit:

Anyway all i was going to say is Intel isn't the be all and end all of FW fun. If you ask for access to private channels on day one not only will ppl think you're a possible spy but they may also think you expect to be spoon fed information rather than actively finding your own.

There are ways to avoid gate camps and blobs, doesn't always work but if you learn for yourself and show some initiative it will stand you in better stead for your future endeavours.

I am probably going to be rather unhelpful with this post, but there's nothing I can do about that. I'm a newb, I'll admit it.

I was wondering if anybody could give me a rundown on the whole FW thing? Assume I'm a total idiot who's only ever run with a cruiser in L1s and has a day-job hauling minerals in a Badger. What are the pros? What are the cons? What is it all about? Where can I find advice for it? What would be the best way to get into it? How do people starting FW support themselves financially if they're just getting blown up all the time?

I currently play as a Caldari so was thinking to go into FW using a very annoying close-range laser ship, so would that be Amarr or Minimatar? I'd probably branch into stealth operations after so can you give any hints there as well?

Again, I apologise profusely for my very annoying questions, and will be very grateful for anything you could share.

EDIT: My personal bias would lean towards Minimatar as their ships look so damn terrifying.

So essentially propping up my poor-arse blow-all-my-money FW player with my poor-arse-got-no-money main?

Sounds like a plan.


What if I just wanted to run in frigates? Will I be blown to smithereens or are there genuine tactics behind frigates? I'd quite like to be a "small but mighty" threat rather than a "my ship is bigger than the country you live in".

The tl;dr of Faction Warfare:

The four major empires in Eve are at war (Amarr and Caldari vs. Minmatar and Gallente). There's several regions of low-security space in which those empires fight for sovereignty by conquering (lots of) complexes and finally a system bunker. When you join FW, you are automatically at war with the opposing factions and will be shot on sight by the faction police or somesuch when in enemy highsec space. You can ignore the whole complex / sovereignty mechanic if you want and just go shoot people, it's just there to encourage fights.

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The pros: It's a large wardec, lots of war targets, and (for me) the best part is the complex system. The minors only allow destroyers and below, the medums only allow T1 cruisers / T2 frigates and below. So this allows you to scale down your PvP involvement in certain ways if you so choose.

Apparently, the LP stores have cheap stuff, but I have yet to do it myself.

The cons: After a while of running complexes and capturing them and shooting the NPCs inside, the opposite factions will HATE you, and even after you leave FW your standings will be terrible enough that you'll be shut out of their space. If you don't do the complex stuff or the missions, and you just shoot war targets, then your standings don't change (I think, there's probably a nuance or two in there that I'm missing).

Read all the PvP guides you can find, then grab some frigates and hit the minor complexes. Don't be afraid to die, because you will learn a LOT by dying. More than winning. Read the forums too.

Once you have a basic idea of how to kill someone (Target someone, activate guns + tackle, try not to die), go out and do it! When you die, consider sending a mail or a conversation to the person who killed you and see if they'll tell you how they beat you. In my experience, MOST people will be happy to give you a few pointers. Basically, just go out there and do it.

You don't need expensive ships, super high skill points, or full T2 fits to get fights, be useful to a fleet, or even win. All that stuff helps but it isn't a necessity. A long time ago, during the SoE Full Metal Jacket competition, I killed an old player in a T2 fit Punisher with a 2 week old character in a cheap T1 Rifter. You can too.

If you have questions, ASK. For the Amarr, the militia chat is pretty quiet, but if someone asks a question it is usually answered without too much BS. If you can't get your satisfaction there, use the forums or your Eve Friends (you DO have some, right?).

As far as supporting yourself, a lot of FW people run L4 missions in stealth bombers, use the LP to buy faction ships and whatnot, and sell it on the market.

If that isn't your bag or you can't fly bombers or whatever, FW doesn't kill your security status (as long as you're shooting war targets), so if you want to run missions in highsec you still can. Just watch local, because sometimes the enemy will fly up into high sec space looking for kills.

Or you can do all kinds of other typical Eve things for money. Exploration, production, trading, scamming, extortion, whatever. You have 3 character slots on your account; use them. Spending a week training up trade skills can serve you very well over time.

There's no penalty for leaving Faction Warfare. If you create your own corporation you could, for example, join FW for a few weeks and when your wallet is dry, leave. Then spend time making money however you please. When your wallet is fat, rejoin. You might even join a different empire to spice things up a bit!

If you want lasers, go Amarr. Since you're Caldari you probably have some missile skills, and Amarr has some dedicated missile boats anyway.

Minmatar has nice ships too, and some of them work very well shield tank so that leverages your existing Caldari shield skills. But, it doesn't matter what empire's ships you fly, really. Everyone has good options. But I must warn you that the Minmatar ships, while they look fierce, often have this terrible odor that you just can't get rid of... : >

somebody's in love