Warfare & Tactics

I have nothing to add here but wanted to emphasize parts of your post.

The main problem for FW FCs is that FW pilots in general seem to have some kind of aversion to fitting their ships a specific way as part of a fleet doctrine. It is the #1 factor when it comes to cooperation between militia groups and general militia as a whole. If you put a fleet of 20 people together that was designed against a fleet of 20 people who grab a random ship from their hangar that they think might work for what the FC wants to do, that first fleet is going to win 95% of the time. The kind of kitchen sink culture that prevails among many lowsec (including FW) pilots is simply inefficient. Ultimately, an FC is only going to be as good as the resources available to him allow him to be.

Risk aversion does play a part. But I found most FW PVP corps lack solid management and organizational structure needed to groom their pilots. I'm willing to bet most FW corps don't even have a library of corp fittings to share to their players. My corp has nearly 150 corp fittings for both armor and shield doctrines from the cruiser to Battleship level.

In fact, I'm more than happy to share fittings to any Galmil corp FC/CEO if they email me. Happy to help the younger corps and pilots grow beyond the kitchen sink mentality. Perhaps one day we can even take on those nasty Koreans in Hallanen

FW is not really about big fleets roaming around.

Our corp has usually fleet or two running daily, but we do not advertise those much, we do not want randoms to join

Agony did the same thing over in Amarr/Min a while ago. :P

So, as I was saying, they really need to nerf the bantam.

Opening fleets to Militia definitely adds a bit of time to the task, but it is also a good way to integrate new FW pilots and tell them to join a player corp (and perhaps even get them to listen). If you are worrying about spais in a genpop fleet you might be doing it wrong. I think it would be fun to listen to some more bittervets run T1 cruiser gangs that are open to militia...there is nothing quite like listening to a FC flip out.

But at least they'll know where they need to move their ships if they want to be in fleets. That's the first step.

A valid point, but ultimately most of the time pointless as those who tend to look for a PUG Fleet ... more often than not will simply base themselves out of a suitcase within High-Sec, running to Jita whenever they need something new.

While sure it is a noble goal to try to organise these people, really each time you do a fleet of that nature you tend to more have to roll with what you get - simply because as was said several times before, the problem isn't a lack of FCs but a sheer lack of pilots willing to actually do something.

Often these pilots tend to be the exact same who cry "Why are there no fleets?!" ... which frankly is a special kind of stupid.

Still then there are other fairly monumental tasks to overcome with these pilots, and often I would say the Greener you are the better in this respect - but honestly those pilots actually WANT to learn, unlike those who come in after doing some PvP from like Null Sec or such believing they are bad-ass to the point where their favourite ship of choice (usually some Recon they have no idea how to use) is good for every fleet.

While all this madness is going on, you also then have to coral them on to voice comms, to the chides of:
"But I don't have a Microphone!"
"I don't want to use Voice App X because I like Voice App Y"
"Can't we just use in-game chat?"

Seriously I've heard some truly remarkably stupid reasons as to why people won't get on Comms before, in-fact I think the thing that used to give me a headache was I'd place all of the Fleet details in the MOTD; seems sensible that it says the Rally Point, Fleet Comp, Departure Time, Voice Comm Details .... right?

Yeah except no one seems to bloody read them, again often the same people who don't understand why a Fleet even needs voice communication.

-|-

So by now you've got yourself something roughly resembling a Fleet, had the obligatory shots of whiskey so you can deal with the more difficult 'special snowflakes' and actually got to move out (usually an entire hour after you originally planned to)

Now what happens next tends to depend on what you intended the fleet to do, so you give a quick pep talk, some basics (often with pictures cause yeah) and you're ready to move out!

I'd say often by the 4th or 5th jump, someone is lost.
Your route was say Ichoriya to OICX, ya know a fairly straight route ... somehow one of your pilots ended up in Kedama and doesn't know how to get out. I'm fairly sure I'll never understand how the hell this happens, only that it is guaranteed.

You leave them to die, the fleet thinks you're a ****; you go back for them and everyone complains that we're going in circles. Just one of those things you can never bloody win with, and once again another few shots of Whiskey to numb the pain.

Once you're a few jumps in, looking for a bit of a rumble or some systems to Complex run; this is when it begins... yup that's right the Back Seat FC. This is again why I honestly prefer Greenhorns in PUG Fleets; cause they might get things wrong, but again they're willing to learn and tend to listen for the most part - but no you get the "Backseat FC" who doesn't want to run his own fleet (and it is ALWAYS a Guy who is just stupid and annoying) but is happy to sit there and counterpoint everything you say often confusing the hell out of those who don't realise he is frankly talking out of his arse. This is where the Whiskey tends to come out again, but now the bottle is sat on your desk knowing a shot or so isn't gonna cut it anymore.

In lieu of all of this you continue on, hoping that things will get interesting.
Now often the chance of this rag-tag group going up against a relatively 'fair fight' is well you tend to have better odds finding a good Uwe Bole film.

That on the whole isn't that big of deal mind, what I think actually tends to be more problematic is the smack talk after such a fight ... I mean it's a PUG Fleet, not likely to really do amazingly well regardless of the FC's abilities still that attitude of superiority through unjust means just leaves a bad taste in everyones mouth.

I know, I know ... this is EVE and Smack talk is just another aspect, but I always thought we would have a healthier environment within FW if it wasn't so caustic especially to new players. Some semblance of Sports man like behaviour, you know.

See the thing is internal Alliance Fleets or such, while sure they are more structures after a Win or Lose; everyone is still on Comms basically either stroking their enormous e-peens after a win or jointly bitching about the other side and how much they really suck, etc... with a PUG Fleet you don't get that, people simply get angry, disappointed or upset after a loss regardless if you just beat a slew of people before hand - a single loss = most people giving up wanting to try again.

I mean you don't know these people, they don't know the dynamics of the war as told by that sides very skewed perspective.

This actually often leads to the situation being even worse, because one side ends up perceived as the "Winning" side; and more often than not people who tend to prefer PUG Fleets, are those who have no real allegiance or vest interested in a given side they just want to win.

Ran out of characters to put one