TRS - A Newbie Guide to FC Commands

Like I said, I am currently engaged in Faction Warfare, and because of the relatively easy access to that playstyle really new pilots are regularly coming in. For them and newbies everywhere else I decided to write this short guide, so you don't have to ask embarrassing questions in the middle of a fleet op, or - even worse - get yourself killed or screw up a fleet operation because you did the wrong thing. In here, you'll find commonly used commands that are pretty universal all over the game. I will also explain for each command on how you properly follow it and which keyboard shortcuts you can use.

You can also use this as an aspiring fleet commander to know how to issue commands to people in a way that is generally understood in EVE.

EVE Uni also have a nice guide on the subject but it is in many ways rather specific to their way of doing things. I would still recommend reading it.

A few things in general:

Once you are on fleet coms during forming up the fleet, be sure to identify the voice of the FC. If you are not sure who it is, then ask. That is the person you keep listening to for instructions, and nobody else. Always pay attention to every word the FC says.

If the FC issues an order and you didn't understand it, ask the FC to repeat it, but don't start a long explanation like "Sorry, I'm new here so I didn't quite get that last thing you said. Could you be so kind to tell me again what I am supposed to do." just keep it short and clear like "FC repeat last order." or "FC repeat destination."

If you are just a normal fleet member with no special role, then you wont have to say much yourself during an operation, so don't. Often enough you will end up in fleets where lots of people seem to talk about random stuff. Don't let yourself get dragged into this. Those people are either experienced enough to judge the situation and know when it's OK to relax, or they are just idiots who mess up coms. If you belong to the intended audience for this post, then you are most likely not experienced enough yet, and you certainly don't want to be one of the idiots either. 

Ok, with that out of the way let's get to the things you will hear the FC say and what they mean:

Moving Around:  

• Warp (to) ... This command is followed by a destination. That can be a gate, a station, a planet or anything else in system. It means that you warp to zero distance. Click on the destination on your overview (BTW most of the actions that follow here require you to click on your destination on the overview, so I wont repeat that for each command) Now hit the "Warp to" button on your selected object panel (or S on your keyboard). Most importnatly, if your destination is a gate do not jump through.
• Jump on contact This is the exception to the last sentence above. If you hear an FC say that after issuing a warp to gate order, you are supposed to jump. You can warp and jump on contact by hitting the D button on your keyboard after you selected a gate.
• Jump You will hear this order if you have been sitting at a gate and are now supposed to jump through. Do it immediately. Again, you can hit D for that. Just make sure you have the gate selected if you do.
• Hold/Gate is Red This command is usually issued after you have already been ordered to jump but things have changed due to new information. So you do not jump through the next gate. If you are already in warp, you hit Ctrl+Space to cancel the jump command that would follow your warp. Also FCs often use this command to emphasize that people should not jump, even if they were not ordered to and should actually stop at the gate anyway. Once you are free to jump the FC will declare the gate Green.
• Warp at range/Warp to optimal Here the FC will give you a destination and either tell you to which range you should warp, or assume that you just warp to the range that is best for you. If you are in a frigate with guns that can fire up to 5km optimal range, then you warp to 5km. If you are in an electronic attack frigate like a Griffin that jams targets from 30km optimal, then use that range as your reference point.You do that by right clicking on the destination and selecting the proper distance to warp to.
• Align ... This will also be followed by a destination. Your selected object panel has a button for that too, and hitting A is the keyboard shortcut for it. Some FCs will use the term Soft Align. That means you align, and once your ship has turned into that direction, you stop it's engines to hold position.
• Set Destination This command will be accompanied by a link in fleet chat. If it is not, request it. You can click on that link and set destination. It is important that you use the same autopilot settings as everyone else. If in doubt, ask. "Prefer Shorter" is usually the default. The autopilot settings can be found by clicking on the A next to the route that usually appears at the left top of your screen as a series of blocks.
• Best Speed/Free Burn ... Again, this command will be followed by a solar system destination. Like above, someone will link that system in fleet chat so you can click on it and set the destination. You are then supposed to just warp to and jump through all the stargates on the way there without detours or delays.
• Anchor on ... This command will be followed by the name of a fleet member. You can either orbit that fleet member at reasonably close range, or use the "Keep at range" function. Don't get so close that you can bump off eachother. Something like 5-10km is usually fine.
• Tac/Ping on ... This is the FC asking for someone to either warp to a previously existing tactical bookmark or otherwise create one at a destination gate or station. A tactical bookmark is one that is far enough from a gate or a station to be at minimum warp distance (+150km). If you have such a bookmark or want to create one (best done in a fast ship) then you can respond by announcing that.
• Go plus one This one will come with a qualifier that tells you whether the command is meant for you or not. Something like "Scout go plus one" or "Fast Tackle go plus one" If the role description fits your ship and role, you jump through the next gate on the way to the destination solar system. When everyone else is ordered to just warp to a gate, it means you jump through it. If everyone is jumping through, it means you go to the next system on the path to the destination.
• Hold Cloak This will be issued after a jump order. It means that you jump through a gate and do not move. Do not click anywhere in space. Just do nothing and take a few deep breaths because usually that command is given when you jump into an enemy gatecamp and things are going to turn exciting very soon. Also take a second to sort your overview by name. You will see in the next section why.

 Fighting

• Primary is ... This command is followed by an enemy pilot's name. Hold Ctrl and click on the pilot's name on the overview to achieve a target lock, and then hit them with everything you have. If you are too far away from the primary, then fly closer until you can engage them. If you now have your overview sorted by name, then you will find your target much easier.
• Secondary is ... Again followed by an enemy pilot's name. You lock that pilot too, but you do not hit them yet. The exception is, if your position is such that you happen to be out of range with the primary, but right next to the secondary, and if the primary target is a ship that will go down really quickly anyway. If the primary is a battleship and you are a small gang, your DPS will definitely be needed. If the primary is a cruiser, shooting the secondary is acceptable. Some FCs will call tertiary targets ... the same applies to them.
• Spread Points ... If you have a warp disruptor or warp scrambler (and you probably should have in a PVP fleet), lock up the first hostile you see on your overview that is close enough to be affected and activate the module. A good way to select a target is to take someone whose name starts with the same letter as yours, or the next closest one. Once you have one pointed call "Point on [Pilot Name]. If someone already has called point on the one you were targeting, target and point someone else.
• Weapons free Just attack and shoot whatever you like that's in range. Usually, when you hear this, you can start feeling good about things. An FC will normally only issue this command when success is a certainty.
• Deaggress Means you stop shooting, locking, pointing, everything that you are doing to people from the hostile fleet. Also, if you have drones out, do not forget to recall them. Usually this command is issued with the intention to escape through a gate or dock at a station when your aggression timer has run out, so approach the closest gate or station until you are in jump- or dock range but do not stop moving. Best orbit the gate or orbit a fellow pilot close enough for jumping or docking.
• Overheat You need to have the Thermodynamics skill for that. In it's general form it means to overheat your weapons for maximum damage. Hold Shift and click on your weapon icon to do so. If you want to stop overheating, do the Shift+Click thing again. Sometimes you will be ordered to overheat your propulsion or something else. The Same Shift+Click action works for that too.
• [Role/Name] Down This is not something the FC tells you, but something you tell the FC. You inform the FC that the fleet has lost a ship with a special role if you get killed and you were assigned a special function that the fleet has in limited supply. If you fly in a fleet of thirty blaster fit Thoraxes, you don't call out "Thorax Down" when you get blown up, but if you were one of two jamming ships or a logistics cruiser that the fleet is depending on, it makes sense to announce your loss. If you are sure that the FC knows what you personally are flying, then you can also use your name.
• Scatter/Warp Out/Run When you hear that, it's all about saving yourself. The battle is lost and all you can do is to try and get out alive. Warp to the first faraway thing that you can find on your overview. Ideally a planet. If you can not warp, align your ship in the direction of an object away from the enemy and overheat your propulsion module if you can. You might be able to shake people tackling you or get out of a bubble and still make it, but be prepared to warp your pod instead.

Other stuff

• Clear Coms A family friendly way for an FC to say "Shut the fuck up you bunch of retards!"
• Break/Check Usually called by people other than the FC. Most of the time by a scout. This is meant to get everyone to stop talking and start listening because something important is going to come up. It could even be you who calls a Break because you might have noticed something nobody else did. Like for example if you are the last to jump through a gate and a whole fleet of hostiles landed behind you just before you jumped.
• Chill (or something to that effect) This is the FC telling you that you can drop your guard. Now you can talk about random stuff until you either hear a Break or a Clear Coms.
• X "tack" Y This is not so much a command but a jargon thing. You will hear that in nullsec space when an FC gives destination. Nullsec systems have alphanumeric names like F-YH5B. The hyphen in those names will generally be spoken as "tack" like eff-tack-why-age-five-bee in the given example.

This sums up all generally used FC commands that I can think of. Some corps and alliances might have special codes or commands that I did not list here, but the above should get you through almost any fleet operation without seeming completely clueless.


I wish you good luck out there, and good fights.

TRS - An Introduction

The strict mistress of this here blog tells me I should find some sort of prefix for my posts because she wants them to be set apart from her own. What can I say, I'm a guest here.

The prefix I chose is an acronym for "The Reformed Spy" because that's what I am when it comes to EVE.

Let me introduce myself by starting my story with my life as an EVE noob. All you young folks out there in highsec, listen up, this is a story about someone just like you. I guess the old bittervets will also find it funny for nostalgic reasons.

By now it is almost six years ago that I started playing this game. I have not had any prior MMO experience, but I really liked the Homeworld series of computer games. I guess that was why modern adware somehow flagged me as someone who likes games with spaceships because I kept posting on Homeworld related forums about how to beat some level or other. Eventually I saw an ad for EVE online and it looked nice. I clicked it and ended up subscribing shortly after reading some stuff about the game.

My life in EVE began like that of many others. I did the tutorials, fitted my ships in horrible ways, mined and ran missions and ended up with some newbie carebear corp. One day that carebear corp got wardecced by griefers and that was when my EVE life took a turn that I would never even have considered possible.

Like all other poor noobs in highsec who are wardecced, we died and we cried and then died some more. Eventually the corp broke apart. Some people ragequit, others decided to strike out on their own. The CEO disbanded the corp. I was alone again, and since I had nowhere else to turn, I started a convo with one of the griefer guys when I saw him in system again a week or so after it had all ended. To my surprise, he seemed pretty decent and offered me to make other people cry rather than being a victim.  I ended up joining with those guys and suddenly I was on the other side, killing people like my ex corpmates.

So began my time as an asshole in EVE. They taught me the basics on how to fit ships for ganking and PVP. We had fun and we harvested tears until one fateful day I had another lifechanging conversation. This time with a carebear target. As I had learned to, I delivered the line that we will leave them alone if they paid us 100mill ISK. I thought that was a decent amount back then in 2008, and we weren't going to let off anyway, even if they paid. Unexpectedly, that guy replied with something to the effect of  "I'll triple that if you sell out your corpmates and deliver them on a platter to those mercenaries I'm going to hire to kill them instead."

I still remember that day like yesterday. While I was sitting there looking at the letters on my screen, something slowly dawned on me: I can make more money selling out my corpmates than I can by extracting carebear tears. I ended up saying yes.

What followed was some rather bumbling back and forth scheming that ended up with me leading that merry band of assholes into a trap with none the wiser. (TBH those griefers were not the sharpest knives in the drawer) I ended up getting my ISK, collected the loot from a few wrecks of my corpmates and "misplacing it" and - most interestingly - saw another form of tears flow: This time it was the griefers crying.

Like a good opportunist, I started talking to those mercs to ask them to take me in when the griefer corp blew up under the sustained fire of some real PVPers.. The mercs said, that they wouldn't take someone who was a spy and traitor. I hadn't even really thought about it in those serious terms, but when they put it like that I thought to myself  "Maybe I can be a spy in this game?"

It was the time of the Red Swarm Federation's war against BoB, and I had read about spying. I always took it to be more of a metaphor, but I realized then, that there was actual spying going on. Taking hold of that thought, I replied to the mercs that I could be their spy, and to my surprise they actually accepted.

From then on, I started an illustrious career in EVE that lead me to nullsec and into the shadow war that went on behind the scenes of some of the major conflicts throughout the following four years. I ended up insinuating myself into corps, collecting and relaying intel and eventually becoming a member of a professional spy network.

It all ended during the last days of the war between Test Alliance and the CFC versus Against All Authorities and their southern allies. Without wanting to go into details, a few things happened then that made me realize what kind of twisted mindset I not only helped support, but had also developed myself. I realized that it really done my head in spending years with professionally lying to people.

At that point I decided that I want to put an end to it all. I extracted myself, made sure I had my ass covered and ended up stopping with EVE for some time.

At around that time yet another twist in my long story happened. There was that RL friend of mine - the woman who started this blog - whom I had convinced to start playing EVE. Other than me, she not only was a total straight arrow, but she also recognized long before me how fucked up things were in my EVE life. I had many interesting conversations with her about the subject. While I had once convinced her to start playing EVE, thinking that she may become an in-game ally, she ended up doing things very differently than I.
At the end of it all, she convinced me to return into the game and try to do things more her way this time.

I guess that, and the fact that she cajoled me to write on her blog, says something either about her strength of will or my inability to say no to her.

So now I have started playing EVE again with a clean slate, and it feels good.

For my future contribution here, I will tell you about my second life in EVE which involves very different things than what I have ever done before: Small-gang PVP, Faction Warfare and being a newbie again as far as skills are concerned.

The mistress will make sure I keep you entertained.

OOC Entry 103 - The long neglect

Hello dear readers who are still out there and have not lost faith in me.

I can tell you with no little sense of relief that nothing horrible has happened to me this time.

I just drifted out of touch and have neglected my precious story blog that is so incredibly popular that by now hundreds of fans have committed suicide in desperation because my story did not continue.

I guess that brings me back down to an actual readership of three.

It was fun imagining having lots and lots of angsty fans for a moment there though. Then again, I reckon most EVE players would be more likely to throw themselves off a building if CCP nerfs their favourite ship rather than when some random fanfic writer goes AWOL :D

Anyway, here I am, back on the job and finally finishing the Metamorphosis story arc.

So by the end of that episode you will know how Sandrielle became who she is and what her connection with Rasenzoku (Or as they would call themselves: The Rasen Zoku) actually is.

At the end of this story, things will go back to the present day and there is a hint of things to come.

Now that I have recommitted to writing, I promptly proceeded to write myself into a corner where I have to come up with something really ingenious.

Well, let's see what I can come up with.

Also, at this late hour where insomnia and nervousness about my first day at work after nine months keep me awake, I have made a decision: I want to invite a friend to write blogposts about in-game stuff here while I keep writing fiction.

Since I am not playing EVE anymore, I feel a bit weird writing about the in-game experience. Since I am not as amazing as The Mittani and do not have hundreds of young men to do my bidding in-game while I never log in, I wont have that much to write about.

Then again, if I had that many young men at my command, I would have them massage my shoulders and shave my legs while I am reclining in a massive bathtub that they built for me, rather than force them to kill spacepixels.

I guess that's another difference between me and The Mittani.

Anyway, I have a poor bastard in mind who will be forced to fill this blog with non-fictional content while I shave my legs myself.

I hope I can convince him. If it works out, you should seen an introductory post by him soon.

Happy New Year!