Capital Fleets

Capital Fleets
Scout's Perspective





The Client
Can't See Can't Fight

It is absolutely imperative you setup your client properly before a capital battle. You may be using a NASA supercomputer in some basement in a government complex in Florida, but that still does not mean you are going to have the bandwidth to function in a capital engagement with hundreds and hundreds of ships on the grid at one time.

• Turn off ALL effects.
• Turn down ALL graphics.
• Zoom out!
• Close unnecessary channels.
• Do NOT play in windowed mode.

The Overview
Holy Brackets Batman

You can easily find yourself lagged out for thirty seconds if you so much as flip over to a new tab in your overview that has all brackets showing in space. In addition to that, without a proper overview setup, you'll play hell even finding the primary target regardless of whether it has been broadcast or not.

• Turn off ALL brackets on ALL tabs.
• ONLY reds and neutrals on your primary tab.
• Create the following overview settings*:
  
  
  
  • Planets, Stations, Sun, Control Towers, No Ships
  • Only carriers
  • Only dreadnoughts
  • Only battleships
  • Only interdictors and heavy interdictors
  • Only super capitals

*Note: It is assumed that you will have stargates, cynosural beacons, mobile disruptors, etc. on all overview settings listed above.

The Mechanics
Here's Your Memo

CVA and holders use a spider chain setup for their carrier fleets that is and should be required of all capital pilots in the future. I will post that setup here later tonight.

That being said, one of the most important things to know as a new capital pilot are the following:

• Flying a capital in a large fleet engagement is a lot like being a forward scout, you are going to be alive one minute and dead the next, so get used to it, and do NOT panic.
• As per the note above, pay attention to who the FCs are, and do exactly what they say, and nothing else. If they tell you to eject from your ship, you do it, no matter how crazy it sounds. Anything short of this can wipe an entire fleet. Never panic.
• Know your POS mechanics:
  
  
  
  • You must change your shield harmonic BEFORE initiating a warp sequence to a foreign POS bubble. Not during warp, not while aligning for warp, but BEFORE you click Warp To...
  • You must set your capital ship to KEEP AT RANGE of the control tower to stay within the bubble and avoid drifting or being bumped out.
  
  
• Do NOT activate needless modules before a cynosural jump as it takes a majority of your capacitor to initiate your jump drives.
• People are going to die, you may be next in line, so shake the nerves, and make sure you align, warp, fire, disengage, retarget, cycle your modules, move, stop, or whatever else the FC says the moment they say it lest you get trapped in a sling bubble and are relieved of your ship. Do not think, do. The FC does the thinking.
• Know your fleet window and how it works:
  
  
  
  • To change squads in a free move fleet right click your character portrait and navigate to the fleet drop down menu.
  • To jump to a cynosural field easily, watch the broadcast history for a new cynosural beacon, right click it in the broadcast window, and jump. You may also find all active cynosural beacons available to you through right clicking your character in any channel and using the menu.
  • Carry extra topes in your corporate hangar, you will not be able to jump to a cynosural field farther than your range, and may be forced to take more than one jump to reconnoiter with the fleet. This may or may not cost you extra fuel.
  
  
• Know your game mechanics. There are too many things to emphasize here, understanding that your ship will warp even at 0 cap, or that you cannot jump to a cynosural beacon while scrambled are some but certainly not all of the most important things to know. Without this basic knowledge, you are more liable to go down in a fiery ball of flames undocking from station or getting separated from the fleet, than going down in pitched battle in some epic engagement. We all wanna have fun together, not die alone and miserably.

The Lag
Syrup With Your Pancakes

Lag is the most important part of a capital engagement. Knowing how to operate your ship under these adverse conditions is the difference between idly sitting by as the rest of the fleet pelts hostiles, and watching your own guns light them up at the same time. The fleet commander of the engagement in D-GTMI could not stress this enough. If you know anything, know how to cycle your modules properly.

• Turn off Auto Repeat on ALL modules.
• Remove all weapon groups.
• Engage targeted weaponry and logistics in the following fashion:
  
  
  
  • Target ship; once a lock is acquired, a target box appears on your display.
  • Activate weapons or support modules
  • Double click all module icons next to the target box to deactivate the cycle.
  • Verify you did not double click space and have begun to drift.
  • Rinse and repeat.
  
  
• Engage self modules at will, bearing in mind that they will deactivate after one cycle and you will have to continually repeat each cycle manually.
• Be patient. Just because you cannot see anything happening, does not mean it is, or that it will not start shortly.
• Add your squadmates to your watch list.
• Watch your broadcast window for who needs what. It will be too confusing to watch some channel for squadmate X to announce he needs shields, a message which he may or may not be able to even send with lag.

Wrapping Up
Yes, You Have A Dirty Mind

I had never flown a capital into an engagement prior to D-GTMI nor would I say I jumped into the system knowing what the french toast I was supposed to even be doing half the time. However, knowing basic game mechanics, listening attentively, not talking out of line or spamming fleet chat with frivolous questions, and being patient, calm, and collected, pretty much allowed me to catch up with the veterans the entire time and run with the best of them. Do not be nervous or apprehensive, your fleet commanders are seasoned veterans who will and can explain all the subtle nuances of the engagement to you before you actually cyno into the fight.

It is not the most complicated thing in the world, nor is it really much different in some sense than any other encounter. Just remain calm, listen carefully, and do not over analyze things during battle, just do what you're told and do it right. Most of what you will be asked to do is no different than piloting a rookie ship. It is just on a grand scale. If you ignore the price tag on your ship, and resign yourself to losing it, as it is just pixels on a screen after all, you will be a boon to the fleet, not a burden. I cannot say the same for the few dozen pilots who cyno'd out on our fleet without orders when things got sketchy at the POS in D-GTMI. If I were their FC I would woop some serious ... for how selfish they were. The capitals were being reimbursed by CVA, and those pilots needed to grow some.

Judge, Jury, And Executioner

Judge, Jury, And Executioner
Sometimes Your Choices Are Made For You

We have been cast off, expelled as it were, from the proverbial pool that spawned the corporation we are today, no longer a member of the Apotheosis of Virtue, but still pursuing that long term goal, finding a place to live, be it by the flag over our corporate banner and the people that it entails, or the physical space we reside in, that every member of this corporation can thrive in. Because this corporation was founded on the platform that every person gets their shot at all things EVE, and we do not restrict ourselves to solely PvP, PvE, or Industry endeavors, it makes it rather tricky for us to achieve this lofty goal without an alliance of brethren to make it happen.

For us AOV no longer supported this goal if in practice not if in principle. Content to chase hostiles in small roaming fleets night after night, declare war on neutrals in Empire with some history of hostilities against Providence residents, and play it safe politically, while dreaming of greater glory, the alliance executor offered us every opportunity to rise to our own occasion, wholeheartedly, but unfortunately little incentive to do so in the end. What with half a dozen burgeoning capital pilots, members aching for frequent fleet activities involving more people than you count on both hands, and for strength in numbers, it become more and more of a burden for us personally to support long term goals that we so often felt were all on our shoulders alone , whether this was merely our perception or a reality, which in some sense is one and the same. Our alliance numbers dwindled over the course of a full fiscal year while our goals remained the same. The formula was simply not working.

Four weeks ago when we met with the alliance leadership to discuss plans to move North because the AU-F was struggling under its own weight and it looked like were going to lose a good enough portion of the members that make this corporation what it is that I simply had no choice but to take action, at which time we were told by the leadership a lot of "You cannot do this. You cannot do that." insofar as it concerns gaining ground with the powers that be up in the North. It was not that this was right or wrong, it was the principle of it. Here the AU-F was gasping for breath living in an environment, the alliance, where we were struggling to find reasons to even log on at night, and I was being told we should not do what is best for our corporation, and should instead consider moving everyone in one fell swoop out to NPC 0.0 and make a stand. The ubiquitous chest pumping campaign, as it were. It confused me to be honest. Our corporation, burned out and frayed around the edges, was gasping for relief, to be able to enjoy the content of the game again and be a part of a larger whole not the larger part of a whole as far as activity levels are concerned, and we were being asked to pick up all our stuff, jump into the gaping maw of hell, and fight to the death. We needed relief not fire and brimstone.

Thankfully, we came to an agreement, given that everyone just wanted what was best for the alliance, which in turn meant best for the AU-F as well, that we would continue to pursue a campaign in the North because AOV was not nearly large enough to make any further progress in Providence under its current platform and approach, and too small to entertain and sustain itself and moreso its lofty goals in the ever more bustling and packed Providence systems.

Due to factors well beyond our control, the Northern campaign had to be scrapped merely three weeks after it began, and we started trickling back to Providence. Now, I had told the officers, there would only be two reasons why I would return to Providence and ask them to come with me.

1. The format or environment of the alliance drastically changed in a way that I felt was conducive to the growth we needed to survive as a corporation while maintaining residency in greater Providence.
   
2. The environment of Providence vastly changed so that it became apparent a corporation or alliance of our size and with our particular goals could begin to flourish once more OR would be better off by comparison to NBSI 0.0 space.

Well, we never got a chance to meet with the alliance leadership to discuss the first point, and the second point as you all well know, has come to fruition even if merely by the fact that NBSI 0.0 itself has now deteriorated to the point that I believe our best opportunity to participate in the grand scheme of things and throw our lot in with good people, is now in Providence ever more so, and in some sense, specifically because we are now a free agent corporation, which vastly changes the potential we have to join an alliance that has the numbers, environment, and goals we have so dreamed of ourselves for six months or more. An alliance comprised of corporations like our own; a family environment where everyone knows your name.

Aside from this, because it is all behind us now, and while we wish our former alliance brethren the best of luck in their own endeavors, we have ourselves potentially been given the golden opportunity to join an alliance that is on the verge of everything we have dreamed of, has a wonderful power structure, and a leadership that strives for everything we have in the past six months. Meaning, all things EVE, and all things Providence. It was only when I felt like our alliance could never achieve these things with its present approach in Providence that I had to consider getting out, and finding NBSI, which would be more appropriate for an alliance of AOV's size and activity levels. However, Providence is more than amazing for this potential alliance of more than six hundred members, and by joining them we add to the whole, both bettering them, and being bettered ourselves in return. We will make our own difference, be it small or large, but that difference will not weigh heavily on our shoulders alone, it will be a shared burden.

Though I have interacted directly with the leader of this alliance only a few times in the past, I can tell you right now, if you have ever extended your trust to me as a friend and not just a CEO, you should extend it to him as well. This I can assure you, by my word.

To Fatal Ascension and to Raven Shadows, executor of Fatal Ascension, the AU-F extends its utmost offer and pledge of unity, camaraderie, and resources to better support, defend, and expand upon the interests, principles, and faculties of the greater Providence region, its holders, and its residents.

We who are about to die, salute you.


Disclaimer: Do not toss in the victory towel or start partying and getting excited about a wealth of opportunities opening up to us just yet as I will be formally applying for our membership in the Fatal Ascension alliance this afternoon at 23:00 EVE time pending we are granted final approval of the move. Nothing is as of yet written in figurative stone.

Veteran's Curse

Veteran's Curse
It Can Happen To You

So, I have been milling about since my vacation in October, desperately grasping at straws to figure out, as I say to myself often upon logging on, "After more than twelve months in this game, what the hell am I supposed to do now?"

• Logon
• Undock
• Shoot Stuff
• Drink Beer
• Make Merry
• Share Stories
• Entertain Friends

It sounds simple, right? Well, I had been told previously by a number of old timers, that there would be this wall I would hit, with the scope of the game suddenly laid out before me, and having experienced enough of it, I would then wonder, is there anything left, and why do I keep logging on anymore. This sounds ludicrous right? EVE is a huge sand box, there is no endgame? But at a personal level, there is. We all set long term goals for ourselves in EVE once we have had enough experience under our belts to know how to plan ahead six months or more, and when we finally reach that place we had hoped to be, and are then faced with even more planning, we start to wonder, is enough enough? Now, amazing friends to keep me entertained nightly and vice versa aside, I had always assumed this would not happen to me. There's a wealth of wonderful content to experience in this game, so surely I would not run out of steam right?

I did.

So I decided, I guess it was around the middle of November, or so, that the corporation as a whole should just take a huge load off, as we had been going hot and heavy for almost ten months straight at that point, trying to conquer the world, as it were. This was right about the time BEOR, GRIEV, and friends came on board to the AU-F. Unfortunate for them, though I could not really explain at the time, that half the officers were feeling and acting burned out and needed a nice long break from it all. So we lost them. Okay, shit happens. I can live with that, sad as it may be.

Then Dominion drops, and everyone comes back bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to take on the world, and toss their lot into the grand scheme of things. Oh woe is the pilot and group of players who discovers all that glitters is not gold, quickly, and drastically. Dominion brought change alright, but not the kind of change we can believe in, to be cliche.

However, after mucking around in Dominion for almost two months, and having launched our immense Northern Campaign and seen a rejuvenation of corporate incentives, energy, and motivation, I personally feel as refreshed and ready to take on the game as ever before. Maybe it helps that I just purchased, fit, and dazzled at my very first capital ship in the game, my Thanatos, named Simulacrum, because I still have a hard time believing I can now pilot one, let alone that it is physically sitting in a station with my character on board, even though I have been training towards it since September of last year. Maybe it was seeing everyone rush forth to pursue the campaign up in the far reaches of space more than well enough across the entire universe from where we have lived, breathed, and died for a year or so now.

So, I am back, and I am hungry for all things EVE, but here is the catch...

You are sitting down, right? You did not have a big lunch and you do not have a mouth full of milk at the moment with which to conveniently spew out of your nose?

The Northern Coalition is evidently going to turtle their primary assets, RAZOR and Morsus Mihi space, and retreat from Geminate, in order keep at bay the hounds of Triumvirate.

Our Northern Campaign? Poof.

I already shit my pants, don't worry about me.

So what now? I really do not know, I do know that I am continuing with my own project, the empire project, which I am now calling, the Gremlin Campaign, as I am just enamored with that term militarily, merrily dreaming of a some amazing ship model ingame named the Gremlin. This campaign will base out of Caldari high security space so no one needs to throw up their hands and pick up all their PvE or mining ships and mingle back to Domain or anything. And Varian's VERSA project, being a glorious success in my opinion, will continue as planned, but the scenery may change, though I am not certain on the details as it is all being hashed out still.

So what is the bottom line? More change is on the horizon but no one should panic and pick up all their stuff and retreat en masse back to Providence. However, it is in all likelihood that we will have to regroup there, and figure out what to do next, as far as a corporation goes, esp. since we will have to consider the alliance as a whole in the grand scheme of things too. I will be meeting with the heads of the alliance this weekend hopefully, to discuss options, etc.

The next post, hopefully later tonight, or tomorrow, will detail the various competing factors we may or may not have going for or against us, as it concerns gaining access to NBSI space, or taking what we can get and being happy with it. It will help me solidify my sense of the patterns laid out before me, and with any luck, ease the concerns of anyone who is thinking:

What the french toast? We just spent four weeks on a huge campaign only to have it disappear before our very eyes! Mendolus, your untimely death shall be by my hand! Have at thee!

Hopefully to ease those concerns with calming talk such as:

Well, the campaign was only meant to last 6-8 weeks anyways, succeed or fail, so we simply had to cut it short, due to factors beyond our control.

In the end it seems Dominion has opened some doors to us demographically but closed just as many if not more.