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Warfare & Tactics

 
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Fleet Ops - Big Battles
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Robert Sawyer
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#1 - 2014-08-19 11:01:05 UTC
Hey there.
I like PvP although I always lose at it. I sense that I suck, but at the same time I feel like I'm slowly getting better and better. My corp has awesome trainers, and thanks to them I'm learning the ropes.
Although solo / small gang PvP gets my heart racing, it just feels small and insignificant. It's like two flys buzzing around each other in the middle of a huge ocean.
I am a fan of huge battles, like the one at Asakai and B-R5RB. I love how enormous ships just blow up each other, lasers are flying everywhere, FCs barking orders, Carriers launching an army of drones etc. Everything in these battles makes you feel proud of yourself when you emerge victorious, or when you eat defeat but still take some enemies down with you. Now here are my questions:

1) How can players get involved in large-scale fleet battles?
2) I've heard that battles can go on for many hours. Is that true?
3) What strategies do FCs prefer when battling enemy fleets?
4) How exactly is it to just sit in the middle of the action and watch all those pretty ships get blown up?

"And when, at last, the moment is yours, that agony will become your greatest triumph."
Ka'Narlist
Dreddit
Test Alliance Please Ignore
#2 - 2014-08-19 11:09:27 UTC
Robert Sawyer wrote:

1) How can players get involved in large-scale fleet battles?

Being in the right corp/ally. Either one that is involved in the fight directly or one that joins in for the "fun". You could also just go there on your own and whore on some killmails but then you would have that feeling of an insignificant fly again ;)
Robert Sawyer wrote:

2) I've heard that battles can go on for many hours. Is that true?

Due to the need of TiDi this is unfortunatly true. Battles that would, if they could run without Tidi last an hour can last up the 10 hours or longer.
Robert Sawyer wrote:

3) What strategies do FCs prefer when battling enemy fleets?

Don't know what you expect here. That depends on the situation.
Robert Sawyer wrote:

4) How exactly is it to just sit in the middle of the action and watch all those pretty ships get blown up?

With heavy TiDi its very boring.
Danny John-Peter
Blue Canary
Watch This
#3 - 2014-08-19 11:21:15 UTC
Large scale battles are entertaining to watch for a little while but they aren't really "fun".

Usually its lots of hours in 90% TIDI watching guns cycle or reps land, not exactly the most entertaining thing, mid-small scale fleet combat is a little more intense IMO.
SFM Hobb3s
Perkone
Caldari State
#4 - 2014-08-19 15:16:24 UTC
Most people that actually care about having fun with PVP will agree with Danny's sentiment. I definitely enjoy smaller-scale pvp the best.
Bronson Hughes
The Knights of the Blessed Mother of Acceleration
#5 - 2014-08-19 16:10:02 UTC
I've done the gamut, from solo to massive nullsec fleet fights, and without a doubt 10-20 pilot frigate/cruiser roams have always been my favorite. You have enough DPS to handle a wide range of targets, you have enough hulls to serve a variety of roles (tackle, DPS, EWar, logi), you're mobile, and (if you aren't flying T2/faction cruisers) each fit is inexpensive enough to fly at higher risk further increasing the fun factor.

Solo PvP can be a lot of fun, but it's often boring since you typically have a much smaller selection of viable targets. It is, however, often most appealing to those with serious playtime constraints (like myself at the moment) because you can just log in and undock without worrying about getting into a fleet.

Big fleet fights are great to watch sped up on YouTube, but they're a pain to actually participate in once TiDi kicks in.

Relatively Notorious By Association

My Many Misadventures

I predicted FAUXs
Voyager Arran
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#6 - 2014-08-19 17:14:16 UTC
When I was a newbie, I flew a Scythe in Asakai (the battle that freed Capswarm from the terror of DBRB fleets). It's pretty cool to be able to say I was there, and I had reps on Boat's Titan as it went down, but after an hour or two of puttering around trying to get modules to turn on I was really just wishing someone would primary me so I could be done. That's pretty much how it goes for line members in a 2,000-man Tidi extravaganza.

Small gang is a lot more fun, though you can also sometimes get a bit of that "large fleet" feeling without Tidi when you have maybe 100 people to a side in heavier doctrines.


Getting involved in those enormous battles is simply a matter of joining a power in one of the major nullsec blocs and being active on campaigns. Sometimes a key strategic objective will be the trigger for a pretty big scuffle, but both Asakai and B-R were the result of happenstance so the best bet is just to have ships in your staging system and keep jabber running.
Rabe Raptor
The Conference Elite
The Conference
#7 - 2014-08-19 17:41:42 UTC
FW or freighter/orca ganking... depending on your tastes. I do both and they're both loads of fun :)

Together we can make Highsec a better place! www.lawofhighsec.com

Read it, share it, learn it, quote it, memorize it,  live it, breathe it!
Ka'Narlist
Dreddit
Test Alliance Please Ignore
#8 - 2014-08-20 10:12:30 UTC
I prefer big battles where something meaningfull happens, but not the massive full Tidi+Lag ones.

A couple of hundred ships on both sides and a reinforced node, so that the only Tidi that occurs is when people enter or leave the system.
stup idity
#9 - 2014-08-20 11:29:23 UTC
Rabe Raptor wrote:
FW or freighter/orca ganking... depending on your tastes. I do both and they're both loads of fun :)


It's not a 'fight' when one side has no weapons.

I am the Herald of all beings that are me.
Rezan Tepet
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#10 - 2014-08-20 13:46:14 UTC
Danny John-Peter wrote:
Large scale battles are entertaining to watch for a little while but they aren't really "fun".

Usually its lots of hours in 90% TIDI watching guns cycle or reps land, not exactly the most entertaining thing, mid-small scale fleet combat is a little more intense IMO.


+1

OP: You'll notice when you watch those post-edited PvP videos on the Tube d'You, 95% or more of them are sped up and given a music track. They don't do this to salt the stew, I'd wager. TiDi PvP is probably rather boring and tedious—a long, slow, stanky sweat rather than the adrenaline rush of small gang/solo encounters.

...Unless you're the FC, at which point I'd hope you have a counselor IRL to help you decompress afterwards from the herding of cats you just did. Or a way to grow back the hair you most certainly tore out/lost.

oaramos: |oh-WAR-uh-mohs| _n. — _Term given to early Caldarian wormhole explorers. From Rataani language; literally, "Wave-jumper."  _adj. — _[see: "moss" "mossy"] slang— crazy, insane
Tweek Etimua
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#11 - 2014-08-21 02:39:02 UTC
Danny John-Peter wrote:
Large scale battles are entertaining to watch for a little while but they aren't really "fun".

Usually its lots of hours in 90% TIDI watching guns cycle or reps land, not exactly the most entertaining thing, mid-small scale fleet combat is a little more intense IMO.

Exactly. Fun for FCs. Not fun for grunts.
Rabe Raptor
The Conference Elite
The Conference
#12 - 2014-08-21 07:21:19 UTC  |  Edited by: Rabe Raptor
stup idity wrote:
Rabe Raptor wrote:
FW or freighter/orca ganking... depending on your tastes. I do both and they're both loads of fun :)


It's not a 'fight' when one side has no weapons.



As -10s in heavily-trafficked systems, we deal with far more "real" fights than 90% of lowsec conflicts (gatecamps and hot drops... which we also do). Alternatively, the only other fair fights with big fleets are FW (which is fun if you just want a cheap good time) and null (which is a tidi drag).

Together we can make Highsec a better place! www.lawofhighsec.com

Read it, share it, learn it, quote it, memorize it,  live it, breathe it!