Fleet Operations Basics

So you're in Dreddit. You've got your basic newbie Rifter fitted and ready to get blown up. The only issue? You have absolutely no idea what to do. Here's the next step between being in Dreddit to playing with Dreddit.

Before you even think about joining a fleet:

• Make sure you have read the New Member Guide and have Mumble setup properly. When in doubt, ask in DeeDeeReddit
• Operational Security (also known as OpSec) has essential information on how not to get your fleet blown up.
• Stayin' Alive is a good reference of tips and tricks.
• Lag has information on how to reduce lag, especially importan for large fleets.

Or: What is a fleet? How is it setup? What does it do?

A fleet, at its most basic, is a group of players doing something together. Pretty obvious, right? Now, that “something” could be any number of things. There are mining ops, PVP ops, PVE mission ops etc. For the purpose of this guide we will be discussing PVP fleet ops. Within PVP fleets, there are a lot of different things that can happen. You might be camping a stargate to defend a system, attacking an enemy system, or just roaming around the Universe looking for something to shoot. Although they are different, and varying tactics are used, the general ideas on this page should apply to any PVP fleet you find yourself in.

Fleets can be formed with any number of people, from a small, agile gang to a thousand-man POS destruction capital ship fleet.

Before you can join a fleet, it helps to first know where fleets are, and which one to join. You can find all active fleets that you can join by simply going to the “fleets” window in eve. The fleets window in located under the social section of the main NeoCom menu (that's the bar on the left hand side of your screen). For conveinence, it is recommended that you drag and pin this icon to the bar for easier access. Once you have this window open, hit “Find Fleets” under the fleet finder tab. This should display available fleets and allow you to join them.

So, you may ask yourself, “I see a whole bunch of fleets here! Which one do I join?”. That varies from fleet to fleet, but for a vast majority of fleets, they will be broadcasted on jabber.

A typical fleet broadcast looks something like this:

This tells us a few things. First, we now know that the fleet name to look for in-game is “assholes anonymous”, and the fleet will be led by durrhurrdurr. The next few parts tell us what voice comms to join, and what channel in those voice comms. After that it shows what ships we are expected to bring, prioritizing in the order shown. We then have the location and time the fleet will start, as well as how long the fleet is expected to be (note that the time is always in GMT, or “eve time”). Last, we have whether the fleet is reimburseable or not, and why the fleet is happening.

Having successfully read the broadcast, we now have all the information we need to join a fleet!

There are a number of people in fleets that are given special roles, and will be referred to by them:

• Fleet Commander
  • This is the guy in charge. Occasionally, for larger fleets, there may be more than one commander. Generally, anyone in the “command” channel in mumble (the channel named Command #, where # is the fleet channel you are in), is part of the fleet command team, and should be listened to. It should be noted, that this has little connection to the “fleet command” position on the in-game fleet window.
• Scout
  • Scouts fly either ahead or behind the fleet to see what is going on before the main force jumps in, and to make sure no enemies are sneaking up from behind the fleet. Scouts are generally in either fast or cloaked ships, such as covops, stealth bombers, or in a pinch, cheap frigates or interceptors. Check out the Scouting guide for more info.
• Tacklers
  • If you are new, this is probably you. Tacklers are generally in frigates or cruisers, and their goal is to quickly get to the enemy when the FC says so and use a variety of different tools to keep the enemy from escaping. In nullsec space, interdictors and heavy interdictors are used in a similar role, as they can put up bubbles that stop any ship from within it to warp away. Check out the tackling guide for more info.
• DPS
  • These are the guys in the bigger ships, they put the hurt on. Their role is to damage the enemy as much as possible; DPS stands for “damage per second”. They are generally in battlecruisers, heavy assault cruisers, and battleships.
• Logistics
  • The “Space Priests,” these dudes are responsible for keeping you alive in a fight. They have substantial bonuses to remote repair range and amount, and as such are the only prayer you have when the enemy fleet decides you are primary. Learn where the Broadcast Shield/Armor key is and how to press it early, but only once. We will see you. Check out the Fleet Logistics guide for more info.
• ECM
  • ECM stands for Electronic Counter Measure, and they can ruin the enemies' day. They can make it so the enemy can't lock anything, and thus unable to shoot anything. In a fleet battle, they will be the first ones to get shot at (primaried) by the enemy. Check out the Electronic Counter Measures guide for more info.

These are the basic roles, but within each one there is a huge variation on what ships and tactics are used. If you are a newbie, just listen to the FC on comms (Mumble), and ask questions in the fleet chat. Things will start making sense after some fleet experience; don't worry about making stupid mistakes, the whole corporation is still making stupid mistakes! The important thing to remember is that it's ok to ask if you're not sure.

Like any MMO, Eve has a lot of different words/terms used to describe things that might not be immediately obvious. It is a very good idea to read through some of the more important ones here.

Fleets are important, they are a great break from the somewhat boring life of shooting at NPC pirates or mining asteroids. Unfortunately, they can also be confusing for a brand new player who wants to participate, but is worried that they might piss off the Fleet Commander (FC). Fear not! There are some simple things you can do to not suck in fleets:

• Get on Mumble. Even if you don't have a microphone you will still be able to hear the FC. If you are deaf or hard of hearing make sure that you inform the FC prior to departure so that someone can relay instructions to you through the fleet chat channel.
• Always pay attention to the FC. Especially in large fleets your abilities to follow their directions is far more important than your skill as a pilot and PvPer.
• Communications discipline is important. One of the advantages of being in TEST is we don't take the game too seriously, unlike Some Other Alliances. Feel free (unless told otherwise by the FC) to talk on Mumble and to post in the fleet channel. Just make sure when the fleet begins to approach the enemy you clear the comms so the FC can actually be heard. Likewise when moving through hostile systems keep it down so the scout can report back to the FC. Remember there are some people who might not be on voice so it wouldn't hurt to keep fleet chat fairly clear as well – spam in local or corp/alliance. This also only applies to TEST Alliance run operations. Some other members of The Clusterfuck Coalition take EVE and comms discipline very seriously.
• Broadcast for repairs when you need them. If you are in large fleet, flying a small ship like a T1 frigate, you should only broadcast for reps after the fight has concluded. Logistics will be bombarded with requests for repairs, requesting repairs in your T1 frigate will only clutter their request list; your ship is easier to replace then a T2 battleship and has a lower DPS. If you die or are dying, unless you are in an operation essential ship, don't broadcast it over voice or in fleet. Everyone else has far more important things to pay attention to. If you don't know what type of ship is essential to the operation you're not in one.

There are a few things you should do above, and there are also a few things you should NOT do:

• Do not interrupt the FC. If the FC is in the middle of saying stuff, wait until he finishes his/her sentence before chiming in.
• Do not mash the broadcast button for reps. Hit the broadcast button, once. Do not spam it. It will only piss off the logistics guys who might ignore your broadcasts out of spite.
• Do not inform people that you are “dying” or “dead” over comms unless you are a scout. Saying “OH GOD, IM BEIGN SHOT” on voice chat merely annoys the entire fleet, and doesn't get you repped because the logistics guys have no idea who is talking. Hit your rep broadcast button once. If you die, don't inform the fleet, either escape with your pod, or reship if you got podded.

Some of the fleets you end up joining could very well be large fleets. Everyone has a very different opinion of what a large fleet is but if you see more than a hundred people that is a pretty good hint that you will need to apply some lessons from the following section:

• In large fleet operations we are likely to be paired up with our allies. Remember these are our friends so be respectful to them. Save the venom in local for the enemy. Don't shit up comms – it can get quite noisy even in a 40 man fleet, much more so in a 400 man one - so if you really want to chat join a knitting group. Many times, even when you cannot hear people talking, FCs will be coordinating with other fleets, and you spamming comms makes their life more difficult. TL;DR if you want to shoot the shit, hang out in the Bacon Bar. Fleet comms are for PvP.
• Read the article on Lag and understand it.
• Make sure you follow the FC's directions, even more so than in small fleet operations. Try to understand their vision and make it a reality. In the military an essential part of orders is a section called the commander's intent which states what both your boss and his boss hope to achieve as an end goal. Knowing this can help make sense of what may otherwise seem to be bizarre instructions. Don't help perpetuate the perception that TEST Alliance is terrible by being terrible.
• If we are in a huge fleet chances are we are looking to fight another huge fleet. Most large alliances have Stealth Bomber wings and know how to use them (We have one too!). Expect every time you're in a large fleet to run into many of them.
• Micro Warp Drives (MWD) increase your ship's signature radius. If you fly frigates in fleet memorize the names of the four stealth bombers and if one of them appears on grid ensure your MWD is turned off. If it is turned on you will either end up in armour, structure, or your pod. Don't worry about trying to tackle them – any large fleet should have a number of insta-target hurricanes to deal with stealth bombers and you can't help anyone if you're dead before you even come across the main enemy fleet.
• If you have drones out and they bomb you, your drones will die. Unless you're going to be static at a gate for more than a couple minutes, or instructed by your FC, keep your drones in.
• Large fleet fights can sometimes cause issues to occur with your overview. The background colours may end up borked. If the fight is over and you still see reds on grid but no one is shooting at them take a couple seconds to check their corp/alliance. Chances are they're actually blue to you and for some reason your overview is in error.
• If you get asked to scout use simple descriptions: 5 hostiles in Local: three Apocalypses, two Claws on XX-XX0 gate. The FC doesn't need your life's story. If there are any hostiles within a couple jumps and you're not the scout or the FC, you should maintain comms silence to allow them to communicate effectively.

Now you're a total badass. You are absolutely ready to join a fleet. Click your fleet finder, click “Join Fleet”, and sort by “Corporation”. You may be able to join some fleets quickly but many will require the Fleet Commander's (FC) approval for security's sake.