There are two main reasons I don't run fleets in Eve Online. Firstly, I really don't like to. The reasons are long and varied and if you are interested, can be found in this old blog post Confessions of an FC'ing Hater. The other main reason is that I live in a GMT +4 timezone after emigrating from the UK two years ago. I'm still with the same corp, still getting plenty of kills, but the time difference means that as I'm thinking about going to bed on a weekday, my corpies are just gearing up for a fleet. I still get to fleet up on Thursday and Friday nights providing the Eve Widow doesn't force me to go out or something silly like that. However a 19:30 form up is 23:30 for me. Therefore by the time the fleet leaves at 20:30 and roams for three hours, it's 3:30am here and I'm well lubricated! This occasionally results in me waking up the next morning with a huge headache and docked in a strange station, 30 jumps from home in an expensive ship. Usually in these cases it is get a cyno alt down there and spend a fortune in isotopes, carrier jumping my ships home.
In about a month the Holy Month of Ramadan will start. Normally, working hours here are reduced as people fast during daylight hours, and with temperatures hitting 50 degrees Celcius, it's needed. Therefore I'll be getting an extra couple of hours in bed each morning. Which means I will, like most people here, stay up much later. It's amazing to see how people change their lifestyle patterns here. Suddenly there are traffic jams at midnight, the new rush hour, and shops and malls are packed at 11 at night.
But I'll not be shopping, I'll be FC'ing.
Each year during this time I do a month of FC'ing a weekly fleet. I call them "Drackarn's DIAF XXXdays" where XXXday is the day of the week when I run the fleet. I've not decided what day yet, traditionally I've done Mondays as that was a decent turn out. Tuesday's appear to be the favorite day this year so maybe they'll be "Drackarn's DIAF Tuesday's."
As I'm a pretty crap FC the most expensive fleet I'll run with will be battlecruisers. I don't want billions of ISK on the line when I derp. But, nearly a year since my last month of regular FC'ing, will things be different?
Ship Types
Yes I know target calling can be delegated, but the FC needs to know the ship names and types in order to make the call in the first place. My sticking point has always been Amarrian ships. Flying Caldari, Minmatar and Gallente, I know the strengths and weaknesses of most of their ships. Amarr was always an issue. However in the last year I've skilled up the Amarr ships and even flown some. I have a much better idea these days of what does what. I will not be primarying the Damnation and leaving the Oracles!
FC'ing Skills
We've got some great FC's in -FU-. Surely flying under thier command means some of that will rub off on me? Surely.......? I guess we'll see!
Navigation
Another year flying around Black Rise. Oh I'll still have my 2D map of the warzone but I know the local routes better now than a year ago.
So may be I'll do better this year. Or may be I'll just die in a fire! Also thinking about what fleets I'll run. In the past it's generally been "Jump in a BC and lets go for a roam. This year I'd like to try some different ship types. I've got a few specific fleets I'd like to try out.
P3ni5 Fleet O'Doom
The good old Thorax fleet. Why run a fleet of Thorax? Well obviously it's the only combat ship (Iterion doesn't count) that looks like a nob. Cheap Tech 1 cruiser, cheerful, puts out plenty of DPS and allows two hours of nob jokes during the fleet.
BOOM! You're Dead.
A fleet of Arty Thrashers. Massive alpha strike plus..... erm...... well they have a massive alpha strike! Should insta-pop most cruiser and down and dies horrible if anyone turns up with a smart-bombing battleship!
Sensual Assualt
I love Assualt Frigates. A fleet of AF's could be fun especially if we run into either a fleet of other small ships or a fleet of very big ships. Be interesting to to take on a BS gang in AF's.
Any Old BC.
A rag-tag fleet of BC's. Who knows what we'll get. Plenty of Hurricanes, probably. Some Drakes, likely. The odd Mrymadon, who knows! Undocking will be like Christmas! Ooooo I wonder what every ones brought me.
Honey Pot
Drone Swarm. Have a fleet of Vexors and some fast tackle. Camp a gate with the Vexors launching drones and setting them to assist the fast tackle. Stick some remote se-bo's on the fast tackle to make it into F'in fast tackle and sit back and watch our enemies torn apart by 100 angry drones. And if there is nobody to shoot, get the fast tackle to orbit the gate at speed and watch the swarm of drones chase him!
As you can see, my fleet Doctrines are not too serious. We've got uber-FC's in the alliance who do those sort of roams. These are supposed to be fun fleets and I hope in a few weeks time I'll be able to blog about how we had epic fights.... or how we all died in a fire..... horribly.... and got podded..... twice........ and our corpses taken..... and had things done to them......
But I'll not be shopping, I'll be FC'ing.
Each year during this time I do a month of FC'ing a weekly fleet. I call them "Drackarn's DIAF XXXdays" where XXXday is the day of the week when I run the fleet. I've not decided what day yet, traditionally I've done Mondays as that was a decent turn out. Tuesday's appear to be the favorite day this year so maybe they'll be "Drackarn's DIAF Tuesday's."
As I'm a pretty crap FC the most expensive fleet I'll run with will be battlecruisers. I don't want billions of ISK on the line when I derp. But, nearly a year since my last month of regular FC'ing, will things be different?
Yes I know target calling can be delegated, but the FC needs to know the ship names and types in order to make the call in the first place. My sticking point has always been Amarrian ships. Flying Caldari, Minmatar and Gallente, I know the strengths and weaknesses of most of their ships. Amarr was always an issue. However in the last year I've skilled up the Amarr ships and even flown some. I have a much better idea these days of what does what. I will not be primarying the Damnation and leaving the Oracles!
FC'ing Skills
We've got some great FC's in -FU-. Surely flying under thier command means some of that will rub off on me? Surely.......? I guess we'll see!
Navigation
Another year flying around Black Rise. Oh I'll still have my 2D map of the warzone but I know the local routes better now than a year ago.
So may be I'll do better this year. Or may be I'll just die in a fire! Also thinking about what fleets I'll run. In the past it's generally been "Jump in a BC and lets go for a roam. This year I'd like to try some different ship types. I've got a few specific fleets I'd like to try out.
P3ni5 Fleet O'Doom
The good old Thorax fleet. Why run a fleet of Thorax? Well obviously it's the only combat ship (Iterion doesn't count) that looks like a nob. Cheap Tech 1 cruiser, cheerful, puts out plenty of DPS and allows two hours of nob jokes during the fleet.
A fleet of Arty Thrashers. Massive alpha strike plus..... erm...... well they have a massive alpha strike! Should insta-pop most cruiser and down and dies horrible if anyone turns up with a smart-bombing battleship!
I love Assualt Frigates. A fleet of AF's could be fun especially if we run into either a fleet of other small ships or a fleet of very big ships. Be interesting to to take on a BS gang in AF's.
A rag-tag fleet of BC's. Who knows what we'll get. Plenty of Hurricanes, probably. Some Drakes, likely. The odd Mrymadon, who knows! Undocking will be like Christmas! Ooooo I wonder what every ones brought me.
Drone Swarm. Have a fleet of Vexors and some fast tackle. Camp a gate with the Vexors launching drones and setting them to assist the fast tackle. Stick some remote se-bo's on the fast tackle to make it into F'in fast tackle and sit back and watch our enemies torn apart by 100 angry drones. And if there is nobody to shoot, get the fast tackle to orbit the gate at speed and watch the swarm of drones chase him!
I would love to join any of those fleets. Too bad I'm not in your alliance. Need to apply fast.
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, love your blog, checking everyday for new posts, laughter guaranteed. Another 10min of work successfully wasted.