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Noobe question on combat
noblot
Member Posts: 287
Well I just download Eve, something I've been meaning to do for years, since it gets top rating on this site.
Now I mashed my way through the tutorials; sort of got the basic for skill training and ship configuration; however combat has so far defeated me. I have just spent about six hours (at work) reading Wiki etc but I'm none the wiser. While I can orbit targets and blow them, then loot 'em, I can't seem to assign key to these actions. My typical MMO set up is to target nearest, then fire off my dps sequence (perferable without the use of mouse). I have various keyboards, gamespads, and keypads to assist me in this macro driven RSI avoidence quest 
Anyway, would some kind EVEplayer point me the direction of a little PvE/ PvP guide? I wouldn't like to spent a month skilling up and questing to get a reasonable ship, only to find out that combat is about exciting as a game of chess
Comments
I would say PVP is indeed like chess in EVE.
While piloting skills are important, the combat is more tactical than anything else.
So when you ask about the gamepad and such, I think you don't really understand how combat works.
You get reasonable ship in 3 weeks - T1 frigate.
this games combat system in general is somewhat simple, however, doesnt mean it isnt great. In eve when you lose a ship its gone and you have to spend more isk to get another one, hence an element of risk with PVE or pvp. This game is all about pvp imo, yes you can carebear and you will compete with people ingame even if you arent directly blowing them up.
If you want to see a number of pvp fights from my times in eve, please check out my youtube channel ragemaster9999 it will give ya a good idea.
THese videos in particular have vent recordings in them to give you a real feel of what its like to be in the pvp fights, and notice the intensity in peoples voices, you can almost hear their adreneline,
www.youtube.com/watch - pvp corporation war in highsec, gang vs gang small scale fight, mostly battleship aka heavy fights. great fight no losses,
www.youtube.com/watch - this is a pirate corp vs an anti pirate corp, classic good vs evil clash in low sec space, we ended up beating those damn anti pirates but took heavy losses. very fun fight.
these two videos give you a good idea of how pvp tactics work in eve, make sure you turn ur volume up to hear the voices.
Just to give a general overview of how any (sucessful) pvp gang operates in eve
PRE ENGAGEMENT - or 'the buildup'
Your fleet may have an objective in mind, such as convening on a certain system where you have intel that an enemy mining operation is occuring. you may also be just a roaming pvp force looking to pewpew, or perhaps you are defending your system against an invasion by a neighboring alliance
Whatever the reason or objective, the best fleets work like this:
1 person is in command of the fleet or gang, they decide what to do, everyone else STFU and listens, this is the FC or fleet commander, it is almost like a real world military unit or squad, One person leads, every one else follows.
the fleet will follow the orders of the FC and the FC is expected to make dicisions in the best interest of the fleet, if you, the FC, come across an opposing force it is up to YOU whether to engage or not, you must take into account things such as ship composition, numbers, electronic warfare, and many other variables to determine if a fight is indeed worth taking. Remember, in eve, there is no respawn button. Losing ships equates to losing isk in the game, and isk takes time to farm. Organization is key to any pre fight. Also, there is no "fair number" balance. If you see 10 battleships and you have 5, chanches are its not a fight worth taking, unless you have some card up your sleeve, perhaps a carrier class capital ship ready to cyno aka hotdrop in. This leads to ambushes and gurriela warfare being a successful viable tactic in PVP.
Like real world combat situations, you can go for a length of time in eve (sometimes even hours) of stand off, build up, or sheer nothing and then suddenly BAM all hell breaks loose and your in an epic battle. Fights in eve can range from small 1 or 2 minute ordeals to long drawn out fleet battles in 0.0 involving hundreds of players and many many destroyed ships.
Which leads me to point 2, or the actual fight, which i call, the CLIMAX
THE FIGHT aka climax
Generally once an engagement is iniated, the FC or designated person will call targets - all the DPS of your fleet will focus fire on said target, this is refered to as the primary, the secondary target will be called and everyone will start shooting the secondary as soon as the primary is destroyed. This focus fire effect will generally continue until all enemy ships are neutrlized. Sometimes an all out everyone fire at will might occure if the enemy is clearly routing and trying to warp or get out. This is where spreading warp disruptor or points out on the enemy forces can keep them on field and prevent them from getting out. While there are many many variables in any givin fight in eve, this is how almost all eve fights go down, with the exception of ECM or specialty support ships, such as electronic warfare ships, logistic ships, and fast tacklers such as interceptors and interdictors, that may have speciality roles assign such as going for escape pods, locking down the enemies support ships, ect
THE AFTERMATH
After the fight is over the winning side is generally whoever holds the field, but it is possible to win a fight and have it be a lackluster victory, such as taking obsene losses and holding the field. I personally consider the victor of a engagement whoever holds the field at the end, but for some, stats and overall isk effeinciecy may mean more.
Eve is a full LOOT game, when players ship is destroyed, it drops some of what they were carrying or had outfited or equipped, as well as cargohold. Some of the items are lost in the explosion of the ship, and its random what drops and what is destroyed. But in any case, to the victors go the spoils of war. This phase is the loot up and get off field aka GTFO phase, as you never know your enemy may have reinforcements en route or a 3rd party may sense blood in the water and come in to attack while your still licking your wounds so to speak
THE STATS or epeen effect AKA KILLBOARD
Every player kill in eve is recorded, both parties, the victim and the victor, as well as corporations involved, are givin a mail of who got destroyed, where when and involved parties.
These mails can be posted to killboards, killboards are like stat boards for eve online pvp. eventually, kill mails build up and will give your corporation stats and a combat record of your corporation or alliance will be formed. While there are steps you can take to make your killboard password protected, almost all kills eventually wind up on battle clinic, or the master killboard. It is there your combat record will be forever stamped in stone, and people can view and see your personal, corporation or alliance kill/loss record, ect.
Thanks for reading my long drawn out but informative post on eve online pvp , I hope you enjoyed it.
Any questions feel free to reply i will watch this thread (OR TRY TO atleast =p)
and check out my videos, to give you an idea of how pvp and combat in eve works.
o/
Ragemaster aka FOGG ingame
The best way to learn to fight is to fight. I recommend joining Red vs Blue and losing a couple dozen cheap frigates. If nothing else you will learn that there is more to EvE PvP than "set orbit, push butan, receive loots".
AFAIK there is no way to hotkey the functions you mention. The fact that you mention RSI leads me to suspect that you're actually talking about killing NPCs. In EvE, this is not called "combat", since it's retardedly simple, and is basically nothing more than mining rocks that shoot back a litle. Sadly, EvE mostly has terrible PvE.
Give me liberty or give me lasers
Still you will never get something like target closest. That's not how the game works.
"Memories are meant to fade. They're designed that way for a reason."
Can't really agree with that.
I can control my broadcasts, drones and all modules with my keyboard. I can even overload specific racks with shortcuts, open and close windows etc.
Eve can be very well played with one hand on the keyboard for all module activations and one hand on your mouse for navigation, clicking on targets to lock (ctrl pressed) and for looking around.
There are even some things that you can't activate without shortcuts..the Capital Navigation Window is a good example..
Just join a good corp that will help you. You won't get far in Eve solo anyways.
Can't really agree with that.
imo he talk about default hotkeys
BestSigEver :P
Thanks for the replies, much appreciated, particulary Ragemaster, that took some time to type
I'll check out those videos, undoubtably the best way to get a feel. I managed a few more missions and I can see the attraction of a system where "death" has a real sting. One of the cricticism of WAR's scenarios is that there is only a most a 30sec penalty ot dying.
I did find the ctrl+click quite good for targetting, but I'm always keen to keep mouse holding down to a minimum (as I get the odd boute of RSI). Obviously, it is the work of seconds to programme up my games pads for F1 and alt-F1 which does help. However I'm finding it very hard without my WASD keys working lol.
Rage, nice videos!
You guys make it look easy, lol
No I am talking about user set ones for stuff like: Approach, warp to, dock, orbit, lock (locking the currently selected target without having to click the mouse again), select next locked target etc.
"Memories are meant to fade. They're designed that way for a reason."
A great place for new players is EVE University, www.eve-ivy.com/ If I hadn't joined this Corporation I would not still be playing EVE.