The world map

The world map

How does the world map work and what can it tell me?

Pressing the F10 key will open the map and replace your ship view.

It possesses two separate zoom levels available on the top-right corner of the screen: Solarsystem and Star Map.

The Solarsystem zoom is particularly useful while trying to use the probe system or to have quick overview of all the interesting space objects in your close area.

The Star Map displays all the solar systems in the EVE galaxy. Of course, each of these contains a sun, multiple planets, moons, stations and asteroid belts. The Star Map has many useful features and can be used to scout, spy or navigate through the thousands of systems in EVE. It holds valuable information and you will use it often so it is important to know how best to use it.

NOTE: The Star Map is only updated ever hour, so it is never 100% reliable. Even though you see no players in space in the system you are jumping into, that does not mean that there is nobody there, only that the system was empty on the map's last update.

The map is in 3D and can be rotated if you hold down your right mouse button and move the mouse around. Holding down the left mouse button will shift the map in the direction you move your mouse. If you hold down both the left and the right buttons you will zoom in and out depending on how you move the ouse. The mouse wheel will also zoom in and out. The system where you are currently will be circled and makred with a "You are here".

If you left-click a system you will be able to zoom into that system. Right-clicking sets your destination, sets a waypoint or views information about the system.

THE WORLD MAP CONTROL PANEL

The Control Panel should be open by default. If it's not visible you can open it by right-clicking on an empty part of the map.

The Search tab

Here you can search for systems, set destinations and waypoints, center your map to that system or set a bookmark.

The Star map tab

This menu lists all options linked to the EVE galactic map. It contains four subcategories:

• Color stars by:
  Allows you to quickly sort solar systems by filters.
• Labels
  Configures name tickets and labels on the map
• Lines
  In this tab you can select if, and how, the lines connecting the solar systems are shown.
• Animation
  Changes the zoom speed transition from your ship view to the map.

The Solar systems tab

This window configures filters and hint notication on the solar system map.

The autopilot settings

Here you can select how your autopilot AI picks your route. Selecting a safe route will mean that you will most likely not run into any pirates but may also increase your travelling time considerably.

• Prefer Shorter
  Your autopilot will try to get you to your destination using as few jumps as possible. It will ignore the security status of the systems you're going through, so use caution when using this option is selected or you may find yourself in the middle of a pirate blockade.
• Prefer Safer
  Your autopilot will try to stay in 0.5 and above space whenever that is possible. This can turn a 3 jump trip into a 30 jump trip and is never 100% reliable as there may be no way for you to get to your destination without going through a few low security areas. It is highly recommended that you check your route carefully before you engage your autopilot.
• Prefer Less Secure
  Pirates will want to use this option when their security status gets so low that they can't go into high security space any more. This option will make your autopilot use 0.4 and lower space where possible, but check your route before you start your journey to make sure it is "safe".
• Try To Stay Out Of Pod Killing Zones
  If you have this selected, your autopilot will try to avoid systems that have 1 or more pod kills in the last 24 hours. Since EVE is a PvP (Player vs. Player) game and pod killing is very common in corporation warfare, this means that your autopilot will try to avoid a lot of popular systems and may not be able to find a route to where you want to go so you may end up with a destination a thousand jumps away. In that case you will have to skip this option.
• Security Penalty
  This decides how strictly the autopilot attempts to fulfil your demands. Slide it to the left to relax the demands, and to the right to adhere adamantly to them.
• Disable Autopilot At Each Waypoint
  If you have multiple waypoints and this option selected, your ship will stop when you reach every waypoint and give you a "Autopilot Disabled" voice message. Engaging your autopilot again will continue your journey.
• Continue Non-Stop To Final Waypoint
  With this selected your autopilot will not stop until you reach your final destination. If you have multiple waypoints selected you will go to them in the order you have selected but your ship will not stop and you will not get a message once a waypoint is reached. This is handy if you have to plot a manual course using many waypoints.
• Waypoints
  From here, you can plan your journey. If you have multiple waypoints you can edit the order you want to visit them in or even allow the computer to calculate the shortest trip that takes you through all of your selected destinations. Please note that the Optimize button may not work if you have many waypoints selected and it is recommended that you do not use it at all if you have over 7 destinations.

Complexes

Complexes

What are complexes and multi-level scenarios?

These are sometimes known as "dungeons". However , as they consist of many scenarios tied together, are not surrounded by walls and do not have undead space rats, we call them "complexes". They are multi-leveled with escalating difficulty, have more structured game play, ideal for new players and offer big rewards at the end. They also look pretty damn good.

They differ from single-level scenarios in that structures are destroyable, you need to go through a linear path, and the loot drop is more varied since you are shooting down battlestations along with ships - so expect mineral or ore drops, blueprints, various commodities and skills. They vary in difficulty, usually based 2 to 4 security levels below the security level they are residing in so that a complex in 0.7 space would have a difficulty rating of 0.3-0.5. New NPC types such as Commanders and Officers might show up in them, as they will in asteroid belts and other locations, but they are as rare as hair on a Gallente's back.

High Orbit Complexes

Found close to moons, planets and stars, these complexes are usually civilian or rogue in nature, handling planetary tasks, distributing commodities and serving as trade hubs for outer systems that don't have full fledged stations. These are also found just outside empire space where certain corporations are colonizing new territory to ensla-... incorporate new systems for their empires. They usually contain various goods and commodities needed for colonies to survive.

Industrial Complexes

Industrial Complexes can be found everywhere in EVE where ore is to be gathered. Outlaws and factions alike use these installations to quickly gather massive amounts of ore to be processed before being moved to manufacturing or selling. Accordingly, they contain high numbers of ore and some processed minerals.

Military Complexes

Like the old Minmatar saying, "A faction without a military complex is like a fish without a Tempest. A fish needs water but both need massive firepower in space to stay alive". What it really means, nobody knows, but a military complex only means one thing: A factions intent to dominate that space, with or without the help of the fish. So if you are looking for defensive or offensive capabilites to sharpen your teeth, this is the place to go.

Deep Space Complexes

If you manage to find these. you know you found something you weren't supposed to. Why? Well, the enormous firepower you encounter is a definite hint. (At this point we'd like to remind you to renew your insurance for your upcoming new ship.) And the enormous firepower is there for a reason. Only way to find out why, though, is to bring insane amounts of firpeower yourself. It should be worth it.

Basic moon mining guide

Basic moon mining guide

How do I set up a POS and start mining moon materials?

To set up a very basic POS you will need a few items. Those are:

• Control Tower
  Control Towers are the heart of a POS. They perform all administrative tasks and supply power and CPU to the rest of the structures. There are different types of Control Towers with varying attributes and fuel requirements.

• Moon Harvester
  The Moon Harvesters extract raw materials from a moon. For each Moon Harvester you can choose between the different materials the moon has. There is a restriction of one harvester per type.

• Silo
  A Silo stores the output from a Moon Harvester. You must have one Silo for each Moon Harvester.

Setting up the Control Tower With any or all of the above items in your cargohold, find a moon in low security space and warp to it.

• Right-click the Control Tower in your cargohold and select "launch for corp".

• Right-click the Control Tower in space and select "anchor structure".

• Using the silver arrows, drag the Control Tower to the desired location, then right-click one of the arrows and select "anchor here".

• Approach the Control Tower, right-click it and select Access Resources. This should open up a new cargo window.

• Insert the required fuel into this window. (The required fuel can be found through the tower info screen)

• Right click the Control Tower and select "online". This should start up the onlining process, which may take a while.

• Go in the "Force field" tab, enter a password and press the "apply" button. Without this step, your POS will not have any protective force field and will stay open to any kind of attack.

Getting on with moon mining

• Anchor the Moon Harvester and the silo as you did the Control Tower but do not put them online.

• Right-click the Control Tower and select manage, then select the "production" tab.

• Click the "Change type" button on the Moon Harvester and select one of the moon material types.

• Click the "Change type" button for the Silo and select the same type there.

• Drag the moon material icon on the right hand side of the Moon Harvester listing to the left hand side of the silo listing. Click "apply" and "reload".

• Put the Moon Harvester and the Silo online as you did the Control Tower.

• The POS should now be active. Note that it can take 2-3 cycles for it to start up before the moon materials start flowing into your Silo.

Don't forget to supplement your POS with defense structures so you can fend off would-be vandals.

POS material guide

POS material guide

How do I use a POS to produce intermediate materials and composite materials?

To produce intermediate materials you will need the following: (See bottom of article for info on composites)
The appropriate moon materials

Each reaction specifies what moon materials it takes in and what intermediates it outputs. You will need to have Moon Harvesters outputting the required moon materials or an online silo containing them.

A Reactor Array

This is the structure that "changes" moon materials into intermediates. Warning: on the contrary of all other structures, the reactor has to be onlined when setting the links up, otherwise they are going to be reset when pressing the "apply" then "reload" button.

An output silo

It is necessary to have a silo to store the output from the reaction along with every input material that you do not mine directly at the location. Silos must be offline when items are placed in them or taken from them.

A Simple Reaction

Simple Reactions enable the Reactor Arrays to change moon materials into intermediate materials.

A coupling array

A small silo that directs the material stream from Silo to Reactor. The usage of these is optional but if they are not used, the reaction will consume more raw materials then listed and so from now it will be assumed that coupling arrays are used for input from silos.

Getting on with the intermediates

• Make sure that you have supplies of the input moon materials.

• Anchor the reactor array but do not put it online.

• Approach the reactor, right-click the control tower and select "manage", and pick the "production" tab.

• Drag the reaction blueprint from your cargohold onto the question mark on the reactor listing.

• Locate your output Silo and click the "change type" button, selecting the type the reaction will output.

• Online the reactor and the silo(s).

• If only Moon Harvesters are used: Find the listings for the Moon Harvesters and drag the icons on the right-hand sides to the corresponding icons in the left-hand sides on the Reactor to create a link.

• If Silos are used as well: Drag the appropriate icons from the right-hand side of the Silo(s) to the left hand side of the Coupling Array(s) and then from the right-hand side of the Coupling Array(s) to the Reactor

• Drag the icon on the right-hand side of the Reactor to the left-hand side of the output Silo and click "Apply" and "Reload".

• The production should now be active but it might take 2-3 cycles until it starts outputting materials.

Composite Materials

Producing composites is done in almost exactly the same way as intermediates, though with the following difference:

• You need a complex reaction blueprint instead of a simple one.
  
• Intermediates are the input into the Reactor and composites the output.

Apart from this, composites are produced in exactly the same way as intermediate materials, as described above.

Creating a corporation

Creating a corporation

I want to create my own corporation. How do I do this?

The basic skill needed to create a corporation is "Corporation Management". You can find it on the market in most regions. Note that it also costs 1,599,800 ISK to create a corporation, and that the fee cannot be refunded.

Once you have the skill and the ISK needed, and have decided on a name, open the corporation menu in the NeoCom. There you will see an option named "Create New". Pick that option and enter the requested name and ticker. The ticker is the short name of your the corp and will be shown next to member names while in space. You must also supply your corp's description text, which will be displayed in your corporate description field in office lists and in space.

Please note you can't use a name already taken by another entity in game. Entity includes character, corporation and alliance names.

If you want to create a new corporation while you are a CEO of another, you must resign from that position first.

Sovereignty

Sovereignty

What is sovereignty and how can my alliance gain sovereignty over solar systems?

Player alliances can claim sovereignty over solar systems.

Benefits of Sovereignty

Holding sovereignty gives several important benefits to the alliance that does so. One is that the alliance is visually represented on the starmap as being the sovereign of the solar systems in question.

Sovereignty has several levels, and different advantages are provided with each level.

The levels and bonuses are as follows:

• Territory (Sovereignty 1)
  • Your alliance is visually represented on the starmap as being the sovereign of the solar system.
  • Your starbases get a 25% bonus to their fuel efficiency.
  • You can only deploy outposts in solarsystems where your alliance holds sovereignty.
  • Outposts and conquerable stations held by your alliance are invulnerable until you lose sovereignty.
  • Your alliance is able to anchor capital shipyard production facilities, thus enabling the construction of capital ships and super capital ships.
    
• Protectorate (Sovereignty 2)
  • Cynosural field generator arrays can be anchored within the system (Note: Only one may be anchored per system).
  • Scanner arrays can be anchored within the system (Note: Only one may be anchored per system).
    
• Province (Sovereignty 3)
  • Twinned jump bridge structures can be anchored (Note: Only two may be anchored per system).
  • Cynosural field jammer structures can be anchored (Note: Only one may be anchored per system).
    
• Constellation Capital (Sovereignty 4)
  • All starbase control towers are invulnerable and can not be locked.
  • Sovereignty of the system can not be contested, and is locked into place until the system is forced to a lower sovereignty level.

Sovereignty Requirements

There are a few important rules to keep in mind when attempting to claim sovereignty over a solar system.

• Only an alliance can claim sovereignty.
  

As explained above, sovereignty has several levels, and further requirements are needed for each level. Below are the requirements for each level:

• Territory (Sovereignty 1)
  A single control tower placed, set to claim sovereignty. This needs to be in place for seven days, and then sovereignty should be gained after the following downtime.
  
• Protectorate (Sovereignty 2)
  Territory level sovereignty undisrupted for fourteen days.
  
• Province (Sovereignty 3)
  Protectorate level sovereignty undisrupted for fourteen days.
  
• Constellation Capital (Sovereignty 4)
  Province level sovereignty undisrupted for thirty days.
  Constellation Sovereignty needs to be in effect for your alliance within the constellation.

If another alliance is already claiming sovereignty, then the following is required:

• If a large control tower is used to claim sovereignty, any sovereignty claims from any small or medium control towers are not counted.
• If a medium control tower is present, any claims from small control towers are also not counted.
• If using the same size control tower, then the same number of starbases after the seven day waiting period will result in sovereignty changing to a neutral status, more starbases than your opponent will result in your alliance taking sovereignty of the system.

Note: All starbases require seven days and then the following downtime before they count for sovereignty within a system, with the exception of when constellation sovereignty is in play.

Constellation Sovereignty

In order to acquire constellation sovereignty, the following is required:

• At least three outposts or conquerable stations within the constellation.
• At least one system with sovereignty level three, with the two following added requirements:
  • An outpost or conquerable station located in the system.
  • This outpost/conquerable station set to be the capital under the station management tab.
• Sovereignty held in at least 51% of the systems in that constellation.
• All of these conditions need to be met for 14 days.
  

Once all of these conditions have been met, constellation sovereignty will be enabled for that constellation after the following downtime.

Benefits

There are several benefits to constellation sovereignty:

• A further fuel usage reduction, 30% instead of the usual 25% for all alliance owned control towers in the same constellation.
• All outposts within the constellation can receive further upgrades.
• Any systems within the constellation with no sovereignty claim can be claimed after only a single day by the alliance holding constellation sovereignty.
• The system set to be the capital of the constellation can, when the other requirements are met, become the Constellation Capital.

Constellation Sovereignty Warfare

If one of the following requirements are met, constellation sovereignty will change to a contested mode:

• The alliance holding constellation sovereignty loses sovereignty control of the majority of the systems in the constellation.
• The alliance holding constellation sovereignty loses control of the minimum of three outposts or conquerable stations in the constellation.
• The alliance holding constellation sovereignty loses control of the capital outpost or conquerable station.

When constellation sovereignty has been contested for a period of seven consecutive downtimes, constellation sovereignty will be broken and the attacking alliance can take over the former constellation capital.

Contraband

Contraband

What can happen to me if I travel with illegal items between systems?

Pilots carrying items that are considered contraband may be contacted by customs officers and asked to either comply with the terms of the customs officials or suffer dire consequences.
The message you receive informing you of your contraband trafficking wil look something like this:
"Amarr Empire has discovered the contraband which you are transporting. If you decline to hand it over or fail to respond, you will be punished for your transgressions. Do not be alarmed, while we are waiting for your response, one of our number will target, warp scramble and stasis web you - for your safety of course. The contraband discovered was: "

You will then have to accept their terms or face their unholy wrath and lose your ship. Do not jettison the items, since customs will interpret that as an act of defiance and open fire. If you want to give them up, press "Yes" in the message popup window.
Certain types of items (or even groups) can be registered as being illegal with certain factions. Furthermore, the illegality of the type can be ranked with 3 levels. There are no special limitations to illegal items, except that carrying them might result in hostile actions from faction controlled NPCs.

Players should be warned when jumping or undocking into a system if they are carrying goods that are deemed illegal in the target system (this dialogue can be switched off).

Further info on customs and contraband:

Contraband (Illegal Items)
NPC Customs Officers are scanning players in Empire space. Customs police may be found at stargates in empire space. They will scan a random selection of the passersby and if they discover contraband, depending on what the contraband is, they will react in a range of ways. Discovery of any contraband results in a fine and a faction standing penalty - where the amount of each is determined by how much is found, the more items and wider variety of types, the higher the fine. In addition, each illegal type has a confiscation security level and attack security level, where if the solar system you are found with it in has equal to or higher than that security level, they will engage you in the relevant action. If confiscation applies, the Customs officers will confiscate it. If attack applies, they will attack you.

Kill Rights

Kill Rights

What are they and how do they work.

The Kill Rights system allows you to get revenge from another player who has previously destroyed your ship in Empire space (0.1 to 1.0 security systems).

Note: no kill rights are given for being pod-killed.

If you are unlawfully destroyed in secure space, you are allowed to destroy everyone that took part in destroying your ship once. Those involved and which you have a active Kill Right for are listed in your character sheet under the Kill Rights section. The list displays the names of the players you can attack and the players that can attack you. It also lists the time remaining on each Kill Right. When the Kill Right is registered, you will have 30 days to find the player and destroy his ship. You are not allowed to destroy the player’s pod, the Kill Right only covers the ship. Once you have destroyed the player’s ship, your revenge has been made and the player that you destroyed will not be able to attack you back freely.

NOTE: Responding to an illegal kill attempt against your ship with any kind of force will void any kill rights you may have received otherwise.

An illegal kill is when the player attacking you in Empire Space is:

-Not at war with you.

-Not flagged from stealing from you or your corporation.

-Not flagged for aggression towards everyone, i.e. he did not just commit an unlawful act.

-Not an outlaw (with a security standing at -5.0 or lower)

-Not on your Kill Rights list, i.e. he does not have a Kill Right on you.

If all of the above applies and the player destroys your ship, you get a Kill Right for him.

If a player is a legal target in space, i.e. has recently performed an act of aggression or is an outlaw, with a security status of -5.0 or lower, no kill rights are given as he was already a legal target.

Your Kill Right target will show up as “blinking red” on your overview unless you have modified the overview to show legal targets in another way.

Security Zones & Security Status

Security Zones & Security Status

How does the security status and sector security status affect the gameplay?

Keeping up law and order within the empires is difficult as new solar systems are frequently being discovered and jump gates are being constructed, adding ever increasing numbers of solar systems that can be jumped to on the chart.

Sectors that the empire have found special interest in tend to have the rating of highly secure, with imperial patrols policing those sectors for known criminals and enemies of the state. Unfortunate individuals with low security standing who stumble upon any of those patrols will be attacked by the patrols without questions and without mercy. Imperial police craft also have low tolerance for any aggression within their sector, firing upon anyone who starts a fight. The right to defend oneself is considered absolute, so returning fire once fired upon by an aggressor will not result in the wrath of the police, nor reduce the security status. It must be emphasised that the individual who opens fire first is considered the aggressor. Bear in mind that self-defence only gives you the right to destroy the attacking players ship. Once that has been done he is no longer a threat and thus if you attack his pod, you are committing a crime yourself and will be punished. Attacking a member of a corporation/gang is regarded as an attack on the whole corporation/gang, meaning that gang members can assist each other if they come under attack, without the risk of losing security rating.

As a result of the increasing size and numbers of corporations and alliances the empires have decided to ignore tensions between corporations/alliances and as long war has been declared in an legal manner and the required time has passed for it to become active and no innocent bystanders are hurt during fights, then no action will be taken by the authority. The security rating of corporate/alliance members is unaffected as long as they fire only on players belonging to the enemy organisation.

Sectors have different security ratings. While those with high security rating are swarming with patrol crafts, those with zero security rating are extremely rarely visited by imperial authority. Sectors with low security include for example sectors that the empires have limited interest in, newly discovered sectors and sectors that are "no man's land" between empires. These sectors are often claimed by corporations who govern the sector as they see fit. Empire controlled sectors with low security rating will rely on sentry guns to uphold minimum law and order and these will destroy anyone who attacks other pilots or the sentry guns themselves.

Between those extremes of high and zero secure sectors are a large number of sectors with security standing somewhere between high and low or safe and unsafe as some people choose to call them. High secure sectors are usually a considerable distance from the zero rated ones and in between are sectors that gradually go from high to low security. Systems that are rated 0.5 secure are viewed as the borders between imperial space and lawless space. Once you go into 0.4 or below, you will not be protected by Concord, though sentry guns will still be active around stations and stargates.

Examples of criminal offenses:

• Destroying a law enforcement craft
• Pod Killing civilians
• Destroying civilian craft
• Attacking law enforcement craft
• Attacking civilian craft

It is worth mentioning that the above applies in all Empire space, certain 0.0 systems included. It is only in non-Empire 0.0 space that one can commit a crime and completely get away with it.

Factional Warfare

Factional Warfare

This is what factional warfare is all about:

Victory Points and the Command Bunker

What are Victory Points and what does the Command Bunker do?

Victory Points:

Victory Points are awarded for each Factional Warfare Dungeon an attacking Faction claims in a specific system. Do note that while characters can claim Factional Warfare Dungeons belonging to all opposing Factions, they can only be conquered by the defending/offending Faction fighting over that system.

Example: A character signed up for the Gallente Militia can claim a Factional Warfare Dungeon in a system occupied by the Amarr Faction, but the Victory Points for conquering the dungeon will be awarded to the Minmatar Militia effort to conquer the system.

The defending Factions can hinder the progress of the attacking Factions by successfully defending Factional Warfare Dungeons in systems they occupy. When a dungeon is successfully defended from the attackers, Victory Points are removed from the attacking side and they will need to step up their war effort in order to have a chance at occupying the system.

When enough Victory Points have been accumulated by the attacking Faction in a specific system, the Control Bunker in that system will become vulnerable to attack.

Control Bunker:

The Faction which controls the Control Bunker in a specific system, is considered the conqueror and occupant of that system. While the Control Bunker is normally invulnerable and not targetable by anyone, it will become vulnerable to the attacking Faction should they accumulate enough Victory Points in the system to be able to contest the occupancy over the system.

Note: The Control Bunker can only be targeted and attacked by characters signed up for the Faction which is actively attacking that system. This means that only players fighting for the Amarr militia can target and attack Minmatar Control Bunkers, and only characters fighting for the Gallente militia can target and attack Caldari Control Bunkers. Pilots not signed up for Factional Warfare can of course not target the bunkers, and neither can characters belonging to the defending Faction.

If the attacking Faction manages to bring a Control Bunker in a hostile system down to approx. 1% of its structure hitpoints, the system will be conquered and occupancy will be moved over to the attacking Faction following the next downtime. When this happens, all Factional Warfare Dungeons in the system will cease giving out Victory Points, and no more dungeons will spawn until after the next downtime.

Note: It is however possible to score Victory Points while the Control Bunker is vulnerable, so if the defending Faction manages to claim a dungeon in the system and nullify enough Victory Points from the opposition, the Control Bunker will be made invulnerable until the attacking side claims more dungeons to gain enough Victory Points in order to attack the Bunker again.

Ship restrictions in Militia missions

What ships are allowed into which Factional Warfare missions?

Much like many normal missions, the acceleration gates of the missions given out the by the faction militias will only allow certain sizes and ship classes to enter the mission area. Those restrictions are;

Level 1 missions

• Tech 1 frigates
• Tech 1 destroyer
• Tech 1 Industrial

Level 2 missions

• Tech 1 frigate
• Tech 2 frigate
• Tech 1 destroyer
• Tech 1 cruisers
• Tech 1 industrial

Level 3 missions

• Tech 1 frigate
• Tech 2 frigate
• Tech 1 destroyer
• Tech 2 destroyer
• Tech 1 cruiser
• Tech 2 cruiser
• Tech 1 battle cruiser
• Tech 1 Industrial
• Tech 2 Industrial

Level 4 missions

• Tech 1 frigate
• Tech 2 frigate
• Tech 1 destroyer
• Tech 2 destroyer
• Tech 1 cruiser
• Tech 2 cruiser
• Tech 1 battle cruiser
• Tech 2 battle cruiser
• Tech 1 Battleship
• Tech 2 Battleship
• Tech 1 Industrial
• Tech 2 Industrial

Factional Warfare Combat Zones

What are combat zones and where are they located?

Combat zones are the main battlefields introduced with Factional Warfare. They are located in low security systems (0.4 and below) of the following Constellations/Regions:

Amarr Space

Devoid Region:

Semou and Jayai Constellations

The Bleak Lands Region:

Sasen, Tandoiras and Vaarma Constellations

Caldari Space

The Citadel Region:

Ieyama and Isoma Constellations

Black Rise Region:

Inolari, Ishaga, Kurala and Okakuola Constellations

Gallente Space

Essence Region:

Jeon and Vieres Constellations

Verge Vendor Region:

Obray and Woenckee Constellations

Placid Region:

Amevync, Pegeler, Serthoulde, Viriette and Fislipesnes Constellations

Minmatar Space

Heimatar Region:

Hed and Huvilma Constellations

Metropolis Region:

Essin, Tiat, Eugidi, Angils and Aldodan Constellations

Factional Warfare dungeons will spawn in these systems and those can be fought over for occupancy of each system. Factional Warfare missions will also bring players into these systems a lot as the agents working for the faction militia always require players to get through hostile territory to complete their missions.

Factional Warfare dungeons can only be found through scanning the system and are listed as "cosmic anomalies" on the scanning menu. A multispectral probe can be very useful in locating a dungeon but the ship's on-board scanner can also scan them out due to their low sensor strength. Once the site has been warped into, it shows up on the system overview and can be warped into by anyone in that system.

Please note: there is one new region being introduced in Factional Warfare; Black Rise.

Ranks

Detailing militia ranks

Ranks are honorary titles and awards that are bestowed upon enlisted factional warfare pilots to reward their accomplishments on the battlefield.

Ranks are directly tied into your faction militia standings – The higher your standings, the higher your rank is. To acquire ranks and standings, you must complete factional warfare objectives, such as capturing control points, and finishing missions on your militia’s behalf.

The factional corporation militias are:

Amarr: 24^th Imperial Crusade.

Caldari: State Protectorate.

Gallente: Federate Defence Union.

Minmatar: Tribal Liberation Force.

Note: social skills are NOT counted to determined your militia corporation standings and thus ranks.

Effect on standings upon ranks:

If your rank will rise with higher militia standings, it will also drop if it goes down for a particular reason. As such, always remain careful about your actions, as you will be demoted should you lose sufficient standings. Leaving Factional Warfare (either the faction or the militia) will make your character retire from it and as such lose his/her rank. He/she will however recover them if joining up later on, as long as his militia standings did not drop.

Your ranks are shown in the “Decoration” tab of your character sheet.

Battlefield Intelligence page and other Factional Warfare statistics

What is the Battlefield Intelligence page and what does it tell me?

Battlefield Intelligence window:

After your character or the corporation which your character belongs to has enlisted to fight for one of the four Empire Factions, the signup page will change into the Battlefield Intelligence page. This page displays various information and statistics regarding the ongoing war, as well as some relevant News articles.

It is possible to display the statistics on three different scales by selecting one of the three different tabs on the page; the Personal, Corporation and Militia tabs. The personal tab contains information relating to only your character, and how your charater has performed in the war so far. The corporation tab displays statistics regarding the corporation you belong to, and the militia tab displays large scale statistics regarding all four factional militias. The statistics range from the number of enlisted pilots and ship destructions made, to victory points accumulated and systems controlled.

The bottom half of the Battlefield Intelligence page displays information regarding recently conquered systems, systems where fighting is currently ongoing and it also lists nearby systems which count as conquerable territory.

A character can withdraw from Factional Warfare by clicking the retirement button on the lower right half of the window. The CEO or a director in a corporation can also withdraw his whole corporation from the war by clicking the same option, but please note that a corporation will not be formally withdrawn until after the next downtime, so plan accordingly!

Map Statistics:

The Star Map can also be used to obtain some statistics about the ongoing war. By opening up the Star Map (F11) and selecting the "Color Stars By" tab under the "Star Map" tab, it is possible to select the "Occupancy" option in order to color stars on your Star Map according to which Faction controls specific systems. It is also possible to color only systems belonging to a specific Faction.

Gaining occupancy of systems in Factional Warfare

How does a faction gain and hold occupancy over systems?

Gaining and holding occupancy

To gain occupancy over a system, the offensive faction must capture factional warfare dungeons from the defending side in order to render the Control Bunker in that system vulnerable to attack. Once this happens, the Control Bunker must be attacked and it's structure reduced to about one percent. The occupancy in that system will then change over to the new faction in the following server downtime. From the time the Control Bunker is lost and until the server goes down, new factional warfare dungeons will not spawn in that system and existing dungeons will not produce victory points.

Warning I: The Control Bunker is always visible on the pilot's overview and while the Control Bunker is being attacked, it is possible for the defending side to gain victory points to bring the Control Bunker out of its vulnerable state.

Warning II: Whilst vulnerable, the system's Control Bunker can only be locked by the attacking faction itself. Any other factions (including the defenders and possible allies on each side) will NOT be able to do so.

Example: If a system Control Bunker is vulnerable in Caldari space, all pilots enlisted in the Gallente Federation Militia will be able to lock and shoot it. Caldari, Amarr and Minmatar players will however NOT be able to do so.

Warning III: Friendly factions can take part in fighting over occupancy but they can never gain occupancy for themselves or attack the Control Bunker of their friend's enemies.

Example II: A Gallente pilot can assist his Minmatar friends in capturing factional warfare dungeons which will be claimed as belonging to the Minmatar Republic. However, since the Gallente player is not able to lock the system Control Bunker, the system occupancy can only switch from Amarr to Minmatar and back, never to the Gallente Federation.

Holding occupancy simply means defending the system in question from the opposing forces gaining control over them. Regaining occupancy for the sovereign faction (for example) is achieved by gaining control over factional warfare dungeons in the system that has previously been lost and then reducing the Control Bunker’s structure hit points in that system to roughly one percent. The system occupancy will change back during the following server downtime.

System occupancy states

There are four "occupancy" states a system can have:

Un-contested

This is the neutral state of the system, no occupancy (un-contested) status is visible under system information in this state as occupancy is not being fought over in the system.

Contested

The attacking faction is gaining victory points and the system occupancy status is shown as contested.

Vulnerable

The attacking faction has scored enough victory points to render the Control Bunker vulnerable to attack.

Lost

The Control Bunker has been taken down and this state indicates the system's occupancy changing over to the opposing faction during the next server downtime.

Please note: Sovereignty will never be modified or affected by factional warfare occupancy. A system's sovereignty was determined by the faction that originally settled in the system and claimed it as its own and the sovereignty will never change due to that fact. A system's occupancy is determined by the Factional Militia holding it.

Joining or Leaving Factional Warfare

How do I enlist for Factional Warfare and how do I retire from it?

How do I enlist for factional warfare?
There are two ways you can enlist for factional warfare. You can enlist either as an individual or as a member of a corporation that enlists as a whole for their faction of choice. Factional warfare is strictly optional and no pilot will have to participate in it against their own free will.

There are a few stipulations that all pilots considering to enlist need to keep in mind before signing up.

1. You will be at war with your chosen faction’s enemy faction militia. Pilots enlisted into the enemy faction will be able to open fire on you without CONCORD interference.
   
2. Entering the high security systems (0.5+) of the opposing faction will cause the navies of that faction to attack you.
   
3. Any entity, pilot or corporation, is required to have and maintain a standing of 0.5 or higher with the faction they intend to enlist for and to remain enlisted. Note that social skills are not taken into account for this requirement, only the raw unmodified standing counts.

Where do I enlist?
You can enlist at any station belonging to your chosen faction that is located within their sovereign space. Note that any system listed as sovereign to the Khanid Kingdom or the Ammatar Mandate are not directly under the control of the Amarr Empire and you can not enlist for their militia corporation there.

Enlisting as an individual.
Only pilots on a regular paying account can enlist, pilots still on trial account will be unable to do so. The pilot must also not be enlisted with another militia. If the pilot joining from a player corporation, then the pilot may not have any roles or grantable roles in order to be able to leave his or her former corporation instantly. It will otherwise take 24 hours until the pilot becomes enlisted as roles are removed from the pilot.
Pilots enlisting individually will be removed from their current corporations into the militia corporation of the faction they are enlisting for.

The available militia corporations are:

• Amarr: 24th Imperial Crusade
• Caldari: State Protectorate
• Gallente: Federal Defense Union
• Minmatar: Tribal Liberation Force

Enlisting a corporation.
Only the CEO or director a corporation can enlist it for factional warfare for their faction of choice. The corporation itself may not be a member of an alliance or have an active application to any alliance at the time when it is being enlisted. The corporation will be moved into the faction they are enlisting for the next downtime after it was enlisted, if it was a member of an alliance it will take extra 24 hours before the corporation will be considered enlisted.

How do I leave the faction militia forces?
You can either retire willingly from service or you can end up being discharged from service against your will. This applies to both individuals and corporations.

Retiring as an individual.
To willingly retire from service, the pilot will need to press the retire button available to him or her through the same interface you enlisted through. This will happen instantly. If the pilot is a member of an enlisted corporation then he or she will have to leave the corporation normally to retire from service. This means that if the pilot has roles or grantable roles in the corporation it will take him or her at least 24 hours to retire.

If a pilot’s standings with the faction he or she have enlisted with drop below 0.5 for any reason he or she will receive an EVE mail notification to raise their standings during the next downtime. If the pilot’s standings are not up to par again the downtime after receiving this message they will be immediately expelled from their militia.

Retiring a corporation.
The CEO or a director of an enlisted corporation can retire the entire corporation by pressing the retire corporation button available to them through the same interface they enlisted through. The change in the corporation’s status will go through the downtime following this action. Before the downtime, the CEO or any director can cancel the command to retire to remain enlisted by pressing the cancel retirement button.

If a corporation’s faction standings with the faction they have enlisted with drop below 0.5 for any reason a warning mail will be sent to the corporation mailbox during the next downtime. If the corporation standings with the faction does not improve above the minimum before the next downtime after this message the corporation will be instantly expelled from enlisted status.

Factional Warfare Agent Missions

What are factional warfare agent missions?

Factional warfare agent missions are special missions available to pilots enlisted for factional warfare for a faction and their allies.

They differ from normal agent mission on several points.

• Pilots will always be required to fly into enemy controlled space to achieve the objectives of the mission.
  
• Warping to the mission location will broadcast the pilot’s location in space. This allows any pilot in that system to quickly locate and warp to the pilot’s area. This allows members of militias hostile to the pilot to defend their faction and allies.
  
• These missions are never courier, mining or other acquisition type missions. It will always have a military objective. A pilot will not get issued a storyline mission after doing a number of factional warfare missions as you get when doing normal missions.
  
• Factional warfare missions are only available to pilots enlisted to factional warfare from their own militia corporation or the militia corporation from their allied faction.
  
• Factional warfare missions do otherwise function as normal missions. Pilots will receive standings increase, loyalty points and ISK for completing them.
  
  Example: A character belongs to a player run corporation that has enlisted with the Amarr Empire. The character will be able to receive missions from agents working for the 24th Imperial Crusade (Amarr Empire militia corporation) and from agents working for the State Protectorate (Caldari militia corporation). He will, however, only be awarded with ranks for missions run for his own faction and not the State Protectorate. A neutral character not enlisted with anyone will not be able to get any missions from any militia at all regardless of his standings.
  

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Starbase Defense Management

Starbase Defense Management

How do I set up and manage my starbase's defenses?

Setting up and maintaining a starbase is a serious responsibility and knowing how to defend a starbase from attacks is a very valuable asset. Starbases form the backbone of alliance claims on solar systems and offer many lucrative options for production and research for anyone willing to invest the time and ISK necessary. A poorly managed and defended starbase is a serious liability to an alliance's defense grid and can mean hours of time and hundreds of millions of wasted ISK.

Basic Concepts
All defensive structures at a control tower are either passive or active.

Passive structures only affect the starbase itself and do not make any direct impact on pilots that may be attacking the starbase. This includes but is not limited to Shield Hardening Arrays, Tracking Arrays and other similar structures. Passive structures can not be controlled by a pilot and will continue giving their bonus until they are disabled. Passive structures are anchored inside the control tower force field.

Active structures can affect attacking forces in some direct way and many of them can be directly controlled by a pilot with the prerequisite skills. Active structures must be anchored outside of the control tower force field. If not under direct control of a pilot, active structures will revert back to the defensive parameters set on the control tower they are anchored at. This includes but is not limited to all weapon batteries, all electronic warfare batteries, cynosural field jammers, energy neutralizer arrays and other similar structures that can have a direct impact on other pilots.

Configuring The Control Tower's Force Field Parameters
When you first set up your control tower you must configure the force field settings of the tower. Once you have configured the force field settings to your satisfaction you must click on the Apply button in the lower right corner of the window to activate the force field. Not doing so may leave your starbase force field wide open to hostiles, thieves, squatters and worse. Once the settings have been applied the status should change to "This Force Field Is Active".

When active, the force field is a safe haven for anyone within its boundaries. If you are within a starbase force field you can not be targetted and hostile area of effect weapons can not affect you. Note that this includes the tower itself, in effect the tower can not attack someone within its own force field even if the pilot fulfills any of the tower's defensive parameters.
(Note that the field will only protect your ships from damage and keep hostiles from entering. It will not protect against anyone that can enter the field normally that might have long fingers and take a fancy to your ship.)

You access the options for the force field configuration by right clicking on the control tower and selecting the Manage option. In the control tower window you need to open up the Force Field tab. The following options and information is available in the Force Field tab.

• Status
  This line will tell if the control tower's force field is active or inactive.
• Password
  You can set a password to the force field by typing into the fields. This can be helpful when use of the starbase should be restricted to only a few members of a corporation or if people from other corporations need to be given access to the starbase. Note that the passwords are case sensitive.
• Restriction Masks
  Options checked here can allow or restrict access to the force field to whole groups. Currently you can allow or restrict access to the entire corp that owns the control tower or the entire alliance the corporation is a member of.

Configuring The Control Tower's Defensive Parameters
You can configure how your control tower will react to pilots that may appear near it. All active and automated defenses of the tower will follow these instructions to the absolute letter. These parameters do not apply to active structures that are under the direct control of a pilot. The structure will have to be anchored and online in order to be able to react to hostiles.

NOTE: If a pilot in range of the tower fulfills ANY of the criteria for the tower to attack the tower will open fire regardless of other parameters. In effect the tower is constantly looking for any excuse to open fire on you, keep this in mind when configuring it.

You access the options for the defense parameters of the tower by right clicking on the tower and then selecting the Manage option. In the control tower window you need to open up the Defense tab. The following options and information is available in the Defense tab.

• Attack If Standing Lower Than
  If this option is enabled, the control tower's defense algorithm will consider anyone, with standings lower than the value entered to the tower's owners, a hostile. This option is not available to starbases in high security space (0.5+). This is counted from the corporation owning the Control Tower to the highest corporation or alliance standings of the foreign entity warping near the tower. Please note that personal standings from the corporation to an individual pilot do not count for this purpose.
• Attack If Security Status Below
  If this option is enabled, the control tower's defense algorithm will consider anyone, with a security status lower than the value entered, a hostile. This option is not available to starbases in high security space (0.5+)
• Attack If Our Standing Is Dropping
  If this option is enabled, the control tower's defense algorithm will consider anyone, whose standing with the tower's owner is currently dropping, a hostile. Note that this will only work directly from corporation to a pilot. Not from corporation to corporation. This is counted from the corporation owning the Control Tower to the highest personal/corporation/alliance standings of the foreign entity warping near the tower.
• Attack If Other Security Status Is Dropping
  If this option is enabled, the control tower's defense algorithm will consider anyone whose, security status is currently dropping, a hostile. Warning: this does not mean the security status itself has to be negative. As long as there is a decrease, you will be a valid target for the batteries.
• Attack If Aggression
  If this option is enabled, the control tower's defense algorithm will consider anyone who has performed any act of aggression within the last 15 minutes a hostile. Warning: this includes all form of aggression, from NPC attacks or engaging corporation members. This is thus a very dangerous setting.
• Attack If At War
  If this option is enabled, the control tower's defense algorithm will consider anyone who has an active war with the owners of the control tower a hostile.

Further Note!
Remember that the tower's defenses can not target and attack anything that is within the starbase force field. As an example, you could have it set to open fire on anyone with aggression. Then you would engage in combat somewhere in the system. If you warp to the tower and land inside the force field you will be alright, if you warp to the tower and land outside the force field the tower will consider you a hostile and open fire as per its defensive protocol. This means a tower can and will attack its own owners if its settings are configured to and they are outside of the force field. You have been warned.

Taking Control: Operating Active Defenses
To be able to take direct control over starbase defenses you need the skill Starbase Defense Management at level 1 minimum. Each level of this skill will let you take control of one additional structure to a maximum of five structures. You will need to be within 15000 meters of the control tower in order to be able to utilize this option.

• How do I take control of a structure?
  To take control of a defensive structure you can right click on the structure in question and select take control. You can also take control of a structure by selecting it in the Control tab in the control tower management window and then clicking on the Assume Control button. It is accessible by right clicking on the control tower and then selecting the Manage option. In the control tower window you need to open up the Structures tab and then you can select the Control tab.
• How do I stop controlling a structure?
  To relinquish control of a defensive structure you can right click on the structure icon at the bottom of your screen, then go to the source menu and from there select the Relinquish Control option. You can also do this by clicking on the structure in the Control tab in the control tower window and then click on the Relinquish Control button.
• What will happen to my ship while I am in control of a structure?
  Note that once you take control of a structure your ship will no longer be able to move until you have relinquished control of all structures. Your ship's modules, shield, armor and structure status will also be unavailable to you and replaced by information regarding the structures you are controlling.
• How do I start directing the structures to do their job once I am in control?
  Once you have taken control of a structure you can start using it against ships outside of the starbase force field. In order to be able to activate a structure on a target you will need to command the structure to lock the target first. To do so you left click on the structure at the bottom of your screen, which should give you a targeting recticle. Then you simply have to left click on any target outside of the starbase force field and the structure will start locking the target. Note that you can use your overview to do this.
  
  Important note: Structures take time to lock a target depending on their Scan Resolution value, just like normal ships do. A small weapon battery might lock a battleship in a few seconds while a large weapon battery might require a couple of minutes to do the same thing. You can view the structure's Scan Resolution value in the attributes tab in their information windows.
  
  When the structure has locked the target you will see the target's hit points and distance from the structure right above the structure's information at the bottom of your screen. To activate the structure simply left click on the structure at the bottom of your screen.
  

Surviving The Siege: Reinforced Mode!
Starbases that are taking massive amounts of damage have the ability to shut down all but the most important features of the control tower and surrounding structures to massively reinforce its shields.

• What happens during reinforced mode?
  The starbase force field becomes invulnerable to all damage but will no longer recharge itself to repair damage done to it.
  The starbase control tower starts to burn fuel, strontium clathrates.
  All structures requiring CPU will go offline and they can not be brought back online until the force field integrity is 50% or above again.
• How does a starbase enter reinforced mode?
  If the force field drops down to 25% shield integrity it will automatically enter reinforced mode if there are enough strontium clathrates in the control tower for at least 1 hour of reinforced mode.
• What can we do during reinforced mode?
  Structures that require no CPU to operate will still function. Additionally you can still target and remote repair defensive structures that are not inside the force field of the control tower and attempt to bring them online. Additionally, you may anchor structures at the control tower during reinforced mode.
• What happens when the starbase comes out or reinforced mode?
  The control tower will go online again. Any structures that went offline will have to be onlined again manually once the force field integrity is back at 50% or higher. The tower can be targetted normally and shields will start to recharge again.

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The Alliance System

The Alliance System

How does the Alliance system work?

An Alliance is effectively a corporation composed of a number of member corporations. While a player may act on behalf of an Alliance, this action is always only within the boundaries of what he is entitled to do in his own corporation.

The Alliance Agreement

Every CEO who possesses the Empire Control skill at level 5 can form an Alliance. This is carried out through the Corporations interface. Once the Alliance has been formed, the founding corporation and its CEO will be listed as the 'executor'. The executor of an alliance has control over the alliance's administrative functions and also receives the fees and pays the bills upon them being issued. Other corporations not currently affiliated with an alliance can apply for membership. Forming an Alliance costs 1,000,000,000 isk. Maintenance costs are 2,000,000 isk per month for every corporation in the alliance. So for example an alliance with 10 member corporations would cost 20,000,000 isk per month in maintenance fees.

Note: If Alliance maintenance fees are not paid on time, the Alliance is automatically disbanded. It is the responsibility of the Executor to maintain an overview of the times and amounts owed and ensure that the required payments are available.

An Alliance currently consists of the following:

• A list of member corporations
• A list of corporations with whom the alliance has formed a Non-Aggression Pact (NAP)
• A list of corporations with friendly standings towards the alliance
• A list of competitor corporations
• A list of enemies

Alliance Executor

Every Alliance executor has predefined roles. The executor corporation is not necessarily the leading corporation within the alliance, but it remains the only part of the Alliance that can execute changes to the Alliance structure. The most important changes are:

• Modifying the member list by reviewing, accepting and/or rejecting applications for membership
• Modifying the NAP list of the Alliance
• Modifying the list of allies
• Modifying the list of competitors
• Modifying the list of enemies.

The executor of an Alliance is given the authority to act on behalf of the Alliance in all matters. This authority is subject to review by the Alliance council. The limitation to a single executor simplifies the operation of the Alliance system, however it also places a great deal of responsibility on the member corporations to oversee the actions of the executor. At present there is no formal alliance-wide voting system on Alliance actions and policies in place, and while this is in development the use of a single executor corporation offers a suitable workaround when combined with the Declaration of Executor Support.

It is up to individual members of the alliance to make informed decisions regarding actions and empower the executor to carry out the consensus. The amount of responsibility vested in the executor should also mean that executor corporations or individuals who act against the wishes of the alliance should be replaced as quickly as possible to ensure continued operation of the Alliance (see Declaration of Support below).

The most important role of the executor corporation is to review and approve applications for membership as well as to handle expulsions and wartime administration.

Alliance Membership Administration

Any corporation which is not a member of an alliance or a member of a Militia for one of the four Empire factions can apply to join an Alliance. Acceptance or refusal of these applications is at the executor's discretion.

An application can be in four different states:

• New: All applications go through this state before they are looked at and either approved or denied.
• Approved: If the executor has accepted the application it will move to this state, whereupon the applicant must accept the offer.
• In Progress: Applications that have been in a state of approval for more than 48 hours can be moved into this category by the executor. Applicants that are still in a state of war cannot be moved to this stage.
• Denied: The executor can deny applications that have not yet been accepted at any time.

The 48-hour waiting period is in place to minimise the potential for internal conflict within an alliance. All alliance applications of a corporation are recorded permanently in that corporation's employment records and are able to be retrieved at any time by any EVE player. The executor is able to remove a corporation from the alliance at any time.

Alliances and Wars

The corporations which make up an Alliance can not declare a war on their own initiative. Only the executor corporation can declare war on behalf of the entire Alliance. When an Alliance is at war it means that all member corporations are at war.

Alliance members are not able to shoot at each other indiscriminately in Empire Space. Shooting an Alliance member who is not in your corporation will ellicit a CONCORD response.

Declaration of Executor Support

All corporations in an Alliance can declare their support for another corporation to fill the executor role. If the present executor does not have the support of more than 50% of the member corporations, he cannot act on behalf of the Alliance. The corporation and its CEO will still be listed as the executor, but all administrative functions will be disabled (this is indicated by an error message that is displayed whenever usage of such a function is attempted by the executor). This means that the Alliance is effectively powerless until such time as the support of the executor is restored or a new executor is declared through gaining more than 50% of the support of the member corporations. The system will attempt to activate an executor once every 24 hours. Only when the established executor regains support or a new one is put in place will access to the administrative functions be restored.

As the executor of an Alliance is in a position of power, he must be replaced in cases where he does not possess more than 50% of the support of the member alliances, has stopped playing the game or is otherwise unreachable. Note that changing the CEO of the executor corporation automatically entails that the new CEO is listed as executor. The procedure through which executors are changed is based on the Declaration of Executor Support, which is a simplified form of voting. Every corporation in an Alliance can modify their support for the executor at any time. The default setting is to support the current executor. A declaration of support is only valid if a corporation has been a member of the Alliance for seven consecutive days. The declaration of support is confidential and is only available to the CEO and Directors of the corporation.

The Alliance system constantly checks whether an executor has 50% or more of the support of the member corporations. If support drops below 50%, the executor will be informed of this through the display of an error message when attempting to use administrative functions.

Fighter drones

How do I use the fighter drones?

Fighter drones are an enhanced form of combat drones. In addition to the basic behaviour this gives them, they can also operate independently of their owner’s ship with several new abilities. In order for these abilities to be effective, fighter drones have the ability to warp so that they can follow any arbitrary object they need to be close to.

Since fighters are evolved drones, they possess all the basic commands and particularities linked to them.

Control of fighter drones can be delegated to a fellow gang member.

This gang member cannot scoop them to their drone bay or delegate control of them to another player, but they can do pretty much anything else. They do not own the drones and are not responsible for the actions of the drones. Keep in mind that aggression rules are based on ownership, so if an object aggresses or assists another, the aggression is registered to the owner of that object. This means that delegation of drone control should be done with acknowledgement that the owner of the drones is making themselves liable for possibly unwelcome repercussions.

They will warp after the gang member and follow them around the solar system in this manner if they have been configured to in the drone overview. Left-click the little white arrow in the drone overview and tick the following:

• Fighter: follow in warp (no by default)

Fighter drones pursue a target they have been commanded to engage until it is lost or destroyed.

Standard combat drones are an all-purpose tool that serve as a local defence and need to be controlled locally by their source. Fighter drones, however, can be commanded to engage a target in the same way as combat drones (the target has to be local and targeted at the time) and will then follow it through warp until they have destroyed the target or the target has lost them. Of course, the drones do not have a magical ability to follow their target through warp: It needs to be present when they warp in, and only when they can observe its departure can they hunt it down.

Terms of endearment

The terms used to describe ships involved in the usage of these drones are:

• Source
  The ship belonging to their owner.
  
• Controller
  The ship that currently has control of them. If control has been delegated to the ship of a fellow gang member, then it will be that ship. Otherwise it will be the ship belonging to their owner.

Events that invalidate drone control

As with other forms of drones, if the drone source is no longer valid, the drones will be incapacitated where they are currently located; this applies even if the drone controller is not the source. If the drone controller is no longer valid, fighters will be left floating in space most of the time. Below you can see the different possible reasons for your control over your fighters becoming invalid:

• Module-based cloaking
  Normal drones cannot be controlled when their source is cloaked, and fighter drones are no different. If the source cloaks, whether they are the controller or not, the drone should incapacitate. Otherwise, if the controller cloaks, the drone should stay floating in space at their current location.
• Removal of the ship from space
  Normal drones require their source to be present in the same solar system and within a limited distance (within sight / one or two hundred kilometres distance) or they incapacitate. Fighter drones also require the presence of their source in the same solar system, but they do not require proximity. If docking, the fighters will be left in space. If logging off, they should return in the dronebay.
• Ejecting from the ship
  Drones are directly linked to the ship they are launched from (their source). If the ship's pilot ejects, then drone control is lost. If the ship ejected from is their source, they stay floating in space.
• Removal from the gang
  This has no bearing on their source. But given the requirement that a delegated controller be a gang member, this means that when they leave the gang, control is forcibly removed from them. They should return to the source when this happens.
• Passing through a force field
  When the source is passing through a force field, the control over drones/fighters will be lost. They will be left floating in space.

User Interface

The user interface for drones has been enhanced in order to adequately show the state of fighter drones. Previously the user interface was only capable of showing drones that were visible, local in space to the player. But fighter drones belonging to a source may be located somewhere else in the solar system depending on whether they have a delegated controller other than the source or are still engaging a target there. This means that both the drone controller and the drone source should at all times be able to see the active (non-incapacitated) drones that they either own or have control of in their user interface.

As incapacitated drones can no longer be tracked, they will disappear from the user interface. While the information used by the user interface reflects a knowledge that the drones are in the same solar system, the source and the controller do not know exactly where they are and cannot warp to them.

The interface allows a controller to command the drones to engage a target on behalf of the source. Unless the controller is the source, he should not have the option to scoop them, or to have them return to their drone bay. If the controller is not the source, the source should be able to see who has control of the drones and recall them with any drone command (especially ‘return to drone bay’ or ‘return and orbit’). Also if the controller is not the source, the controller should be able to see whose drones he has control of.

Drones

Drones

How do I control drones?

Here are some tips on how to use and command drones.


Equipping drones

You equip your ship with drones by putting them in your drone bay. To open the bay, right click the ship while docked in a station and select "open drone bay", then drag your drones into it.

Launching drones

To launch your drones you need to right click on the desired drones within the 'Drones in Bay' section of the overview and select 'Launch Drones'. Warning: you cannot launch more drones than your ship bandwidth allows you to. To know your ship's bandwidth, right-click on it, click the "show info" button and select the "attributes" tab.

A small sized drone requires 5 bandwidth to be launched, while medium needs 10 and heavy 25.

Note that your Drones skill level also dictates the maximum amount of drones you can have out at any time, you can deploy one drone per skill level you have trained in this skill.

Creating Groups

To create groups of drones within 'Drones in Bay' you simply select a drone and chose 'move'. From there you can create a group or move to an existing group.

Commanding drones

When you launch your drones, you'll see on your overview that they are now considered 'Drones in Space'. If you expand that folder you can monitor your drones' health.

To command one drone you select it and right click to get the command menu. If you want to command multiple drones at the same time, right click the 'Drones in Space' folder and select the command.

The commands available are:

• Scoop to Cargo
  With this command you will scoop the drone to your cargo hold. Be careful, though, as you will not be able to launch the drone from there. Use this if your drone bay is full and you want to salvage a drone.
  
• Scoop to Drone Bay
  Choose this command when you want your drones to re-dock in your drone bay (You can re-launch them at any time). Before you can command them to dock, however, you need to have them close to your ship. This is achieved with the "Return and orbit" command.
  
• Return to Drone Bay
  This has the same effect as Scoop to Drone Bay, with the added feature that the drones will automatically return to your ship if too far away to be scooped.
  
• Return and Orbit
  This command will tell the drones to stop doing what they are doing and return to your ship, where they will orbit.
  
• Mine (mining drones only).
  This command is used if you want the drones to mine one load of ore.
  
• Mine repeatedly
  If you command your drones to mine repeatedly, they will mine ore and bring it to your ship continuously until you stop them or the asteroid is depleted.
  
• Attack - scout and heavy drones only
  This command tells the drones to attack the currently selected target.
  
• Abandon
  Drones can sometimes become stuck and unable to return to their controller drone bay. In such cases, abandoning them to be able to launch a new wave could be a wise decision. Warning: Drones are automatically incapacitated and abandoned if the controller is passing through a POS force field.
  
• Assist
  This command allows you to assign your drones to one of your gang members. The drones will then engage automatically any object the gang member attacks. The gang member can't control them directly. Warning: if the gang member commits an aggression in high-security space triggering CONCORD to intervene, your ship will be targeted and destroyed as the drone owner is responsible for their behavior.
  
• Guard
  When guarding a gang member, drones will automatically retaliate on any threat attacking that person. Note that the gang member in question can't control them directly.
  

Configuring drone behavior

The default drone behavior may be modified to match your needs. Left-click the little white arrow in the drone overview to configure their attacking mode.

• Passive (by default)
  When set to passive, drones won't automatically attack back if launched when their owner is being aggressed by another entity. They will continue to orbit and idle until told otherwise.
  
• Aggressive
  In this mode, drones will attack anyone engaging their controller in combat. Notice they have to be launched before the attack occurs for this setting to apply.