Faction warefare update

One of the things that I have really enjoyed about faction warfare so far is the greater context in which the fights take place. Unlike a pirate, who simply fights for fun and profit - both excellent reasons for fighting, by the way - the faction warfare pilot is also fighting for his 'team', whatever that might mean for him.

From reading various forum posts, it seems the Amarr militia has always had a reputation for a strong sense of identity, with a fair amount of mild roleplay. As such, there are a large number of pilots who take the war fairly seriously. 'Amarr Victor', or more humourously, 'Amarr Ahkbar', are common warcries in militia chat, and nobody fusses about divided loyalty points when it comes to forcing plexes in a heavily contested system. Fleets run almost every night.

For those that don't know - and until recently that included me - the Amarr militia essentially dominated the warzone in the first half of 2016. This domination was so complete that apparently a number of our top corps got bored, and decided to move to null sec. Combined with the summer holidays, a number of Minmitar corps were able to roll back the entire warzone with aggressive plexing - the key to capturing systems.

By the end of September, though, Amarr players were back at their keyboards, and new FCs were learning the ropes, filling the void left by the loss of some of our strongest corps. The Amarr now hold a number of systems, and I have been involved in the recapture of Roushzar and Labapi.

The Minmitar have been fighting back, of course, so as we capture more systems we need to devote some time to defensive plexing, but we are still able to start pushing a number of systems in the Bleak Lands. Anka is particularly active for me, as I base out of Gammel, so it is my default plexing system.

Morale in the militia is high, and I'd thoroughly recommend faction warefare to anyone who has been on the fence. To a certain extent, it's much like being -10; I still need neutral alts to haul goods, and rarely leave low sec.

A word of caution - CCP has been very clear that they intend to end the Amarr-Caldari and Minmatar-Gallente alliance in favour of four-way war. So make sure you join the militia you actually want to fly for, rather than the one that you are told is (currently) the most profitable. I suspect that milita hopping is going to become much more difficult over the next six months.

Managing to not die (much)

When you are space poor (and refuse to do actual work, like mining, exploration, running missions, etc), not dying is a big part of your strategy for stretching the ISK.

Despite that, I've taken a lot of fights. Some - ewar Condor, Navy Slicer, Hurricane, etc - have not gone my way, so I've used the speed of my fits to disengage without loss. Others would have been kills but for the warp stabs that seem to be depressingly common in faction warfare.

Much of this is a result of my self imposed targeting restrictions. For sec status reasons, I'm limiting myself to actual FW targets, at least until my sec status is comfortably positive. And the FW meta, like any meta, is heavily influenced by it's environment. In this case, the (com)plex rules.

For any given plex size, you either want to be flying the bare minimum (this would be the warp stabbed plex farmers) to keep your isk efficiency high, or you want the strongest ship that can actually enter the plex (everyone else). So T2 ships are relatively rare, faction ships are very, very common.

That's not to say that T1 ships can't be effective, but they usually need some kind of niche or mechanic that they are trying to exploit. This could be kiting Condors with loads of ewar, or scram kiting Tormentors and Kestrels that try to use damage projection and range control to fly within a very narrow range band that allows their applied dps to exceed that of technically stronger ships. Or Tristans, which are just OP.

And you also find fits that are direct counters to another fit, and are brought out specifically for that fight, rather than as a general roaming fit.

But I see far more Daredevils, Dramiels, Garmurs, Navy Slicers, Navy Mali, Republic Firetails, etc, than I do T1 frigates that aren't plex farmers. When I'm less space poor, I shall have to try some of these myself.

My one lossmail is actually from PvE. A Clone Trainer rat is worth about 20 million ISK, but they have great tracking, a web, and a very powerful active tank. To take one out in a frigate is a bit of a job, and this one went a little wrong when my ship bounced off an asteroid with coded dimensions much larger than what was visually represented screen - the infamous 'invisible asteroid'. This is one of the perils of fighting in belts, and the loss of transversal speed allowed the rat to destroy my frigate before I could recover.

I reshipped and got him the second time, though, so I at least covered my losses.

I also joined some FW fleets, which were led with more enthusiasm than skill. While my skills may be very rusty, I still remember how the Tuskers ran frigate fleets and these fleets were very... different. It's the first time that I've flown in a group that I felt could accurately be described as a 'blob'.

As you would expect, the main achievement of this fleet was getting most of the members killed repeatedly. My survival without loss was actually quite challenging. It was good fun, though. And more importantly, it's starting to integrate me into the FW community, where paranoia about 'spais' is rampant.

A tale of two fits: Executioner v Condor

Small kiting ships are a very solid choice for flying solo, and for running FW plexes. Although the dps and tank are far lower than for brawling fits, the ability to evade bad matchups or roaming gangs is very useful. If you don't have support nearby, running, very fast, is often the correct decision.

However, there are huge differences between kiting ships, and understanding the mechanics that govern how you fight the ship is very important. Take these two fits as an example:

[Executioner, Executioner - solo beam]
Heat Sink II
Heat Sink II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor II
Small F-S9 Regolith Compact Shield Extender

Small Focused Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Standard S
Small Focused Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Standard S
Small Focused Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Standard S
[empty high slot]

Small Energy Locus Coordinator I
Small Processor Overclocking Unit I
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

[Condor, Condor - nano]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Ballistic Control System II

5MN Microwarpdrive II
Warp Disruptor II
Stasis Webifier II
Small Shield Extender II

Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Light Missile
[empty high slot]

Small Bay Loading Accelerator I
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I

On paper, these fits are very similar. The Executioner does 120 dps, and 3903 m/s, with 2702 ehp. The Condor does 90 dps, and 4002 m/s, with 2582 ehp. Both are cap stable, and can hit out to point range. Both are shield tanked, with the EM resistance hole closed (lasers are one of the main weapon systems that can reach out to a kiting frigate, and Amarr drones are the most likely to catch them and kill them). While the dps seems a little different, that's largely an artifact of the two different weapon systems.

However, actually killing your opponent in these ships requires you to fly very differently. Especially if, like me, you are not a master of the often referenced and rarely explained 'manual piloting' that the best pvpers use.

Suppose you hit 'orbit' at 17 km, with your mwd on, so that your opponent - let's assume an afterburner frigate - can't easily catch or hit you. This throws you into an actual orbit of roughly 19 km.

The Condor will hit easily under these conditions, while the Executioner will probably miss with every shot. Tracking is a two way street, so flying in a way that wrecks your opponent's tracking also wrecks your own tracking. If your tracking is much better than your opponent's, such as when using blasters against a laser ship, you may not care, but in this case we care very much.

Of course, the Condor won't do full damage, because moving targets take less damage from missiles, and irrespective of how you fly, your opponent is unlikely stop moving. But some damage is better than none, and unless you run out of ammunition, you'll win eventually.

So the Condor can protect itself with range and tracking, and hitting 'orbit' is a solid choice (subject, always, to responding to your opponent - you can't just hit the button and call it 'done').

Let's suppose instead, though, that we hit 'keep at range'. This is dangerous, because we have very little transversal (and a massive signature, thanks to the mwd), so anything that can hit us will do so for significant damage.

As long as our opponent can't do that, though, the Executioner is actually in a very good place. It will hit for full damage with nearly every volley, because as long as the range and tracking are fine, we don't really care what our opponent does. In fact, we are probably more difficult to slingshot using 'keep at range' because our momentum is lower.

The Condor, however, gains nothing from 'keep at range', as changing the way we fly does nothing for our dps, and our defensive web already helps us prevent people from catching us with a slingshot.

Let's imagine our opponent has drones, though. Perhaps he's in a Tormentor. Dangerous drones, but not immediately lethal. Now, 'keep at range' is suicide. Forcing the drones to chase us is our only chance.

Both of these fits can deal with drones. The Condor can web and destroy them (probably using 'precision' missiles), while the Executioner can switch to Gleam, and shoot them down as they trail behind in a neat little row. The difference is that the Executioner has to deal with the drones first because flying to survive the drones probably means being unable to hit the frigate, while the Condor may well be able to simply outrun the drones permanently while still landing solid hits (this is especially likely if the other pilot has chosen to launch Gallente drones).

The Executioner has one more trick, though. 'Keep at range' is not the only way of improving your tracking without manual flying. Because angular velocity = transversal velocity / distance, you can reduce your angular velocity by flying in a wider orbit.

So, if we set 'orbit' to 21 km, rather than 17 km, putting us in an actual orbit of roughly 23 km, we may well find that we can start landing hits without slowing down. The danger, of course, is that we are only 1 km away from losing point on our target, and with an overheated afterburner, a good pilot might be able to do that. But in exchange for that risk we put more distance between ourselves and danger, while keeping our speed nice and high, and probably improving our applied dps.

Meanwhile, the Condor gains very little from this wider orbit. This, in turn, leads us back to the fitting room, where the Warp Disrupter II has lower value to the Condor than it does to the Executioner.

By downgrading the Condor's midslots to meta items, and dropping the damage rig, we can replace the Nanofiber II with a Ballistic Control System II. This pushes us up to nearly 100 dps - a 10% boost - while dropping our speed to 'only' 3,824 m/s.

Is it worth it? That depends. But recognizing how you will actually have to fly a ship helps make fitting room decisions easier.

24th Imperial Crusade

I've spent the last week away, and that has meant that I couldn't play Eve. That has not meant that I couldn't spend time thinking about Eve. And I did a lot of that.

Faction warfare is something I've never really done, outside of accidentally signing up as a noob. But with the Purity of the Throne event, followed by the Coronation of Empress Cadiz I, I decided it was time to do my patriotic duty and fight for the Ammarian people.

All right, the idea of trying something new, and being able to shoot at people without lowering my sec status, might have had a certain appeal. I also recognize that a game like Eve is much better when played as part of a community. Perhaps I will find some of that community in the militia.

So I am now based in Gammel. I would have liked to have based in low sec, but after the summer blitz, Amarr does not have any secure low sec staging areas. Gammel is good because it has two stations in system, making the stations harder to camp, and two low sec entrances, making the gates harder to camp. Both systems are fairly quiet, which suits me as I learn the ropes.

It's a little bit out of the way, being nine jumps or so from Amarr, but that is the price I pay for a quieter system. Being able to pronounce the system name is just a bonus.