How to be a CEO

I've had the pleasure of being a CEO now, in one form or another, for the past 5 years. In that time I've run an industrial Corp, an anti-pirate Corp, a pirate Corp, and now a PVP and nullsec survival training Corp.

But I do know that I'm not an expert - there are others out there who are much better and more dedicated than I am at building highly successful Corps and alliances. All I've done is developed my own style, in line with my own interests, and achieved some success along the way.

But when someone asked me the other day if I had any advice for them on how to start their own Corp, I felt reasonably qualified to give them some tips and advice. As a result, I decided to put the results into a blog post, so that you readers might get some value from it too.

So let's get started...

1) As a CEO you're going to have to acknowledge to yourself that you can't do it alone, and you shouldn't even try. You need to get some dedicated people onboard with you that share your goals, so that you can work together on them. So you need to...

2) Develop a 'mission statement' for what you want to achieve in the game, and how you want to achieve it. This is going to define everything you do, and even how you do it. By making this public in some fashion you will attract people who want to be part of your vision or even support it, and it's the latter who may end up becoming your 'senior staff'. If your mission is simply to relax and have fun, then make sure you detail that, or you'll get people joining who might take it all too seriously.

3) Establish operational policies for all activity within the corp. The policies establish the rules for all members, so that they understand what they can and can't do, and what the penalties are for disobeying the rules. Make sure these policies are in line with your mission statement, and the image and reputation you want to create. Include policies for industrial activity and logistics, security and PVP operations, and even wartime operations when affected by wardecs. Common sense goes a long way.

4) Get dedicated department chiefs to manage each of the depts, eg. a PVP Chief, PVE Chief, Industrial Chief, etc. You won't have the time to manage the departments individually, nor are you likely to have the expertise, but you WILL have time to manage the Chiefs who'll each have their relevant expertise in those areas.

5) As soon as you can, form a group of 'senior officers' from members that are eager and willing to step up and give you advice about how things should be done. These people need to have experience to back up their advice and support. Make sure they are sensible and obviously promoting the best interests of the corp and your goals. Only trust those who want to support the growth of the corp, and don't lose sight of what your vision is. Anyone who tries to change your mind or lead you in a direction away from your vision, dump them immediately. You'll be better off without them.

6) Never give anyone Director status, and never give anyone access to the Corp wallet. However, if you really think you must, then make sure you protect your assets by doing the following:

- transfer most of the corp funds out of the master wallet and into your personal wallet where they can't touch it
- transfer needed Corp assets out of Corp hangars and into your personal hangars

The reason for all the above is because anyone can betray you at any point, and you want to minimize the temptations that might encourage them to betray you. If more money is needed, you can transfer it back into the Corp as needed. If assets are needed, you can hand them out one at a time as needed, and make sure you get them back when finished.

7) Transfer at least 51% of corp shares to your CEO. This will ensure that you maintain ownership of the corp and even if you do make people Directors and they try to vote you out of ownership, they can only succeed if they can get a majority vote against you, as voted by shareholders. If you own the majority, you can always ensure any votes you don't like will fail.

8) Always pay your bills. If you have offices, make sure you pay your monthly rental costs, or you'll lose it. If you have assets in Corp hangars, you don't want the hassle of having to go to that station and retrieve them from being Impounded.

9) Run your corp as a 'dictatorship', where the final decision is yours and yours alone. Running by committee will ensure that your decision-making process is tied up in committee discussions which never go where you want them to go. Let your senior staff and even Corp members provide advice and suggestions and feedback and input, but at the end of the day it's your decision as to how you want your corp to move forward. When people make suggestions that are in line with your vision, allow those suggestions to move forward as actions. But if the suggestions are in opposition to your vision, then smash those suggestions into the ground where they belong.

If people don't like it, they'll leave. Let them. You want people that support you and support your vision (make sure you publicise it to your members, as per rule #2 above).

10) Learn everything about the Corp Management tab, including corp wallet, setting up divisions, managing and monitoring members, accepting applications, and how titles and roles work. Understanding all of the Corp management options is essential.

11) Blog about your experiences. You'll be surprised at how many people you'll attract and recruit simply because you're writing about your corp, its' activities and your own activities. Be a public figure, as that helps with your notoriety. But...

12) If you want professional, fun, respectable members, make sure that you are being exactly what you want in your corp. If you're an idiot and smack talk others all the time, then that's the kind of recruit you'll attract. If you're mature and talk about the level of fun you have, then you'll get mature people looking for fun as well. Be the kind of person you want to attract. (Interestingly, this works in life too. :)

13) COMMUNICATE. It's very important that you establish and maintain effective communication between yourself, your senior staff and the corp members. Set up a forum to allow discussions between members - it's essential, regardless of what type of corp you run. Learn about how to administrate the forum, including various levels of permissions related to different sections of the forum. If you don't want to learn that, find someone who is skilled in forum administration who can do it for you.

Communication is what keeps a corp together, and is what motivates it to work together. Keep everyone informed about changes, new developments, or items of interest. If the leader is silent, the members lose morale and move on. If there's very little for you to actually communicate, make sure your senior staff and dept chiefs are communicating about their departments instead. Always keep communication going, so everyone knows what's going on with whom.

I hope all the above helps to get you started. It's a lot of work to run a corp, and it's a lot MORE work to run a successful corp. But working out what you want to achieve from running your own corp will be very important to determining how it grows and operates.

Don't forget to keep it in alignment with your own personal values. If you're not passionate yourself about the corp and the goals you have for it, then it simply becomes a huge chore that will bore the hell out of you and make you want to quit playing. Keep that in mind.

This isn't enough! I need more...

If anyone wants more personal help, I'm willing to offer my time and knowledge on Corp management in exchange for ISK (which will be considered as donations to OUCH's funds). Also, I'm available to create an alliance for you if you can't do it yourself.

Contact me if you would like to discuss anything further.

The Adventures of the Cynabal

I joined in on a nullsec bubble camp with some corp mates the other day. I asked them about the neutrals in local, and they said they weren't sure about them, but they hadn't seen anything. I was hesitant to join in on the camp without adequate intel, but the corpmates were flying frigates and cruisers, so I figured it was ok.

So there I was, at a tactical bookmark a few hundred km from the gate and bubble, aligned so that I could quickly go to warp and arrive at the bubble to join in any attack against someone who might get stuck in it. Suddenly, 5 ships appeared (my fleet members don't show in the overview) and they were all within 20km of me while I was still 200+km from the gate and bubble.

Whoah! I said to myself. An ambush! They were all stealth bombers, and they all released their bombs. Explosions lit up the darkness, and I was happy I was aligned and moving, otherwise the damage would have been far more extensive than just 60% of my shields! I tried going to warp, but nothing happened, so I quickly activated my MWD and burned away from them at 2.7km per second. Their next volley of bombs was unable to catch up to me, and once I got out of their point range, I then activated my warp drive and got away.

Cursing to myself about my corp mates lack of intel, I told them what happened and said something like "Screw you guys, I'm going home!" But politely, of course. :) I wasn't going to sit on a bubble camp with my Cynabal and wait for more stealth bombers to sneak up on me.

So I was heading back home and jumped into a nullsec system, only 1 jump from my lowsec destination and discovered a small fleet of ships gathered around me on the gate. There was probably about 8 to 10 of them, including some interceptors, some battlecruisers, and some miscellaneous T2 ships.

Immediately my heart rate went up, and I was saying to myself "shitshitshitshit..." My brand new Cynabal hadn't even been blooded yed, and now here I was in the middle of a gate camp. I'm sure they were eagerly waiting for me to decloak from the gate, because you don't gatecamp in nullsec without having a scout on the other side. They knew what I was flying, and they wanted it on their killboard...

I took stock of the situation. No warp bubble - thank the Gods for small mercies. Every single one of them was within 12km of me. Hmmm... it was going to be hairy.

I aligned for the lowsec system and then quickly pressed F1 for the cloak, quickly followed by F2 for the Microwarp Drive. It did exactly as I hoped, and made the ship invulnerable while both modules were active, each of them struggling for dominance and preventing the surrounding ships from being able to get a lock on me.

All they could do was watch me cruise through their midst until the MWD completed its cycle and I quickly deactivated the cloak and then clicked on 'Warp to'. The Cynabal immediately went to warp and escaped the gate camp. I could imagine them all screaming at each other on their voice comms as I warped away from them. "He used the cloak+MWD trick - he's obviously gay! He's super gay! Why couldn't he have let us kill him! What a loser!"

I exited the system and docked up in lowsec... I can tell you that my hands were shaking from the adrenaline rush. I had to hold my hot cup of tea with both hands as I waited to calm down!

But then there was the next threat....

When I left highsec and entered lowsec earlier, on my way to the nullsec bubble camp, about 10 'reds' (known hostiles) saw me flying across the lowsec system. As I arrived at the gate to jump into the next lowsec system, 4 of their battleships arrived with me. As I jumped through, I could see maybe 5 more arriving at the gate. On the other side, once my screen cleared, I could see 4 or 5 of these 'reds' appearing in local, and I quickly activated my warp drive to flee the gate's proximity and make my way to the station where I docked and waited for them to leave.

They eventually left, and when they did I made my way into nullsec. But now I was back, and their scout obviously alerted them of my presence, because local began to spike with 4 of them jumping in. I suspected that they might have had a couple camping outside the station, with the rest of them waiting near the gate that went back towards highsec. That's what I would have done... There was no way I was undocking right now.

As it was, with a corp mate acting as a scout of my own, I determined that even though they eventually left the system (leaving behind a scout), and left the next system (leaving behind another scout), that it was probably a trap.

So I undocked in my pod and made my way back to highsec safely, where I got myself another cup of tea and relaxed, thinking about my day's adventure.

I've come to understand that the Cynabal is a shit magnet, and it attracts all manner of shit wherever it goes. People go to great lengths to try and kill a Cynabal, so to say that I was happy to have survived my day's adventure is probably an understatement. I was ecstatic!

See you in space.

Damn those couriers!

I'd just had victory snatched from the barrels of my railguns when my orbit exceeded the range of my warp disruptor, and the Rifter pilot was able to warp out of the belt with only a few points of damage to his shield from my strafing run as I zoomed past him. So then I was at a planet, aligned and keeping an eye on the belts, when someone else warped in with their cruiser. They were 103km away, but started moving towards me, so I activated the warp drive and immediately warped to the belt I was aligned with.

Following protocol, I immediately warped out from the belt to a safe spot, waving goodbye to the pilot as he entered the belt as well. Nice try, but no cigar.

So I was sitting there in my safe spot, trying to ignore the chatter in local from all the antipirate guys that had just entered, when suddenly someone's knocking on the pod door.

What the... I'm alone, in an interceptor. Who the frak is knocking on my door??

Systems check - there's a courier hooked up to my airlock door, demanding attention! How the hell did he find me out here? I guess those postal couriers always find their 'targets'...

If there's one thing I've always been banging into people's heads, it's to never think you're safe at a safe spot. And never leave your keyboard while you're at a safe spot - dock in a station instead.

So I set the ship to dock at the station (including the small courier ship attached to my airlock), and then left the pod to go find out what the courier was. It's a small ship, so it was only a couple seconds down the empty corridor to the airlock door. I let him in, quickly pressurising the airlock and opening the door into the ship.

"Package for you sir," he said, handing me a package and a pad for my signature.

"Why the hell couldn't this just be put in my post box back at the station?" I angrily asked him.

"It needed your signature," he replied. Just as he took the pad back, the interceptor was rocked by explosions.

What the hell? Was my safe spot discovered? The courier jumped back into the airlock, but was just in time to see his ship disintegrating on the other side of the outer airlock door. He turned to look in fear at me, but I closed the airlock door on him. For pressurisation reasons, you see...

Running back to my pod, I got in it just as the interceptor disintegrated around it. I saw the quickly freezing body of the courier fly past a window. Serves him right, I thought, distracting me like that.

I quickly took stock of the situation - the pod was outside the station, right in the centre of the interceptor wreckage. Was I attacked by the antipirates at the station? Then a flashing light on my console drew my attention, and I was reminded of my global criminal countdown timer, with 4 minutes remaining.

...

I'll need to get the pod replaced, of course, as it has lots of dents and damaged equipment on the inside, from all the kicking I was doing.

Never think you're safe at a safe spot.

But never try to dock a small ship while your criminal timer is still counting down.

End of lesson.

The hunters and the hunted

Jalif talks about hunting and being hunted over on his post, Hunted. It made me think about how I hunt, and am hunted in return. This post is for the solo hunter.

The hunters

Things are pretty slow in Molden Heath at the moment, with so many pilots staying out of lowsec. Those that are in lowsec are usually on missions. To find them, use a scan probing ship to find out where they are, and then you can gatecrash them if you think you can handle them.

Scanning them down

A good way of doing this is to scan them down, then enter their mission location while cloaked so that you can check out which ships they're using, and then bookmark the location for you to come back to. (Click on People & Places, click on the Places tab, then click on Add Bookmark.)

If they're using ships bigger than you can handle, you might at least be able to come back when they've left, and scour through the wreckage they leave behind, as they don't always clean up after themselves.

If you can't use scan probes, then mission runners are out of bounds to you. The next best thing is to check out the asteroid belts and planets in a system for those pilots ratting or, occasionally, even mining.

When you enter a system, check the scanner, to see if there's anything showing up. It will be within 14 AU of you. If something does show up, move to a safe spot or a nearby planet if you don't have a safe spot - you don't want to be stuck on the gate.

As you go to the nearby planet, quickly drop a bookmark and then come back to it. (Name it after the gate it's nearby, eg. 'Heild gate safe', so that you can identify bookmark locations.) Now you have a temporary safe spot, making you harder to find while you're about do what comes next.

Important note: no safe spot is safe. It's a temporary illusion of safety, as anyone with scan probes can scan you down. But at least it provides you with a bit extra safety than sitting on the gate. However, if there are 3 other people in system, and you are scanning 3 ships and not one of them is a covert ops or recon ship, then you can sit there a bit longer, because at least you know they are unlikely to pinpoint your location.

From this location, assuming the ships are still on your 360 degree scanner, move the scanner angle down to about 30 degrees, and then circle your view around your ship, positioning your ship over distant objects. Click on scan when you are over each group of objects (like belts and planets).

The reason it's only 30 degrees at this point is because you don't need to worry about further refining it until you get close to your target.

Assuming you've found a ship showing up in your 30 degree scan, check out that distant group of objects. It will likely consist of a planet and a bunch of asteroid belts, maybe even a station or stargate. Select the planet in that group, and warp to it at 100km. (You don't want to warp in at 0km, because your target might be at that point. You don't want to be surprised and have to defend yourself, you want to be the hunter who chooses his battles.)

Now that you've arrived at the planet, clicking on that scan button during travel to make sure they're still there (and to see if any other ships come within scan range), you can bring the scan angle down to 5 degrees (assuming there's no one else right there, of course. If there is, you might want to warp out and then come back at 0km if you can defeat them, or run and hide if you can't.

Click on your ship so that a square appears. This is your 5 degree angle. Now circle your view and position that square on the belts that are around that planet.

When you find your target at a belt and believe that you can take them, warp in at 30km. Most ratters will warp into a belt at a distance, and then close the gap between them and the rats. You want to be far enough away that you can allow yourself time to get the hell out of there if their friends arrive while you were in mid warp, but close enough that you can scramble their attempts to warp out, and then close the gap yourself so you can engage them. 30 km is a good point to give yourself breathing room. Make sure you use a Warp Disruptor II for up to 24km of disruptive goodness. Preventing them from warping out while you approach is your first objective. Close the distance, activate your webifier to slow them down, then engage and destroy them as you see fit.

Congratulations, you've just hunted down your prey! All of this, from entering the system and setting up a safe spot, to arriving at the planet and scanning them down at a belt, should take no longer than 2 - 3 minutes. It's very fast when you know what you're doing.

Back to the combat... If they're faster than you and are keeping their distance from your webifier, then check what object is behind them, and take note of what their approximate distance from centre of the belt is. Eg. if you came in at 30km, and they're 30km out from you, then they're about 60km from centre of belt.

Warp out towards the object behind them (at 100km), and then come back to the belt at 60km. By going to the planet behind them, you are modifying your angle of approach so that it will be on the same plane as them and the centre of the belt, and if they're still there (hey, it's possible!), then you should be almost right on top of them and can engage the warp disruptor and webifier. Destroy them!

If they've gone, of course, then return to the planet and see if you can scan them down again. They might have moved on to another belt. Follow the same process.

If they've moved on to another system, or you have a bunch of potential hostiles enter system (eg. more people enter the system and warships start showing up on your 360 degree scanner), then you might want to consider docking or moving on as well.

Remember: if you have attacked a target that is NOT flashy red to you, then you will be flashy red to everyone else for the next 15 minutes. This also means that if you approach stations or gates in lowsec, the sentry guns WILL fire upon you. (If you're flashy red all the time because of your negative sec status, then you're going to be used to this!) Do not attempt to enter highsec when you have a red aggression countdown timer, or CONCORD will be introducing you to the emptiness of space.

Lying in wait

The next part of this 'being the hunter' section involves waiting for your prey to show up when a known ratting system is empty.

Most ratters will start at the first belt in the list when they enter the system, and move on from there. So find the planet that the first belt orbits, and warp to it at 100km (always avoid the standard 0km, so that if someone is there when you arrive, or arrives after you get there, you have time to engage or warp away if you want to). Search around you for the belt that you're focusing on at this stage.

Once you've found it, click on it so that it's selected in your overview. Click on Align To at the top of your overview. You will now start moving to that belt at your maximum normal speed.

This serves two advantages. 1) It moves you away from the warp-in point at the planet, so that even if someone warps in at 100km, you won't be there. 2) You're aligned for the belt so that when a target arrives you can click on 'warp to' at the top of the overview and arrive there in just a couple seconds.

Click on your ship to create that 5 degree square, and position it over the belt. Change your scanning angle down to 5 degrees and repeatedly scan when someone enters the system. As soon as they arrive at the belt, they'll show up on your scan.

Always keep an eye on your overview to see if they arrive at your planet (see The hunted below). You're now monitoring both the belt and your planet this way, allowing you to see either a target or someone arriving at the planet to potentially hunt you.

Don't forget to change the scanner angle from 5 degrees to 360 degrees and back to 5 again. Every time you change the angle, it'll automatically perform another scan, allowing you to keep an eye on both the area around you, and the belt you're monitoring.

When a potential target arrives at the belt, they will need about 30 seconds to get agro from the rats. Keep monitoring them during this time. If they're still there after 30 seconds, warp! (You don't want to warp in too soon and get the agro from the rats onto you!)

Remember to note your angle of approach, and note that you will be coming in at 0km. Take note of their location and any objects behind them, and warp out and come back as necessary (as already explained above).

Good luck with your hunting!

The hunted

If someone turns up at your planet while you're lying in wait and you don't want to engage them, luckily you're already aligned to the belt you're monitoring and can warp to the belt immediately. They won't be aligned, and will take a few seconds to follow you. While you're en route to the belt select an object in your overview, like a stargate. As soon as you hit the belt, immediately click on Warp To, and you'll immediately re-align and take off to the stargate. You'll be warping out of the belt as your hunter arrives, waving them goodbye and laughing as you escaped another hunter doing the same thing you were.

It's always important to expect that you will be hunted by others, just as much as you are hunting others. It's absolutely necessary to always be preparing yourself for running away. Always have an object selected in your overview, and where possible, always be aligned to it and traveling to it at your maximum speed - even at safe spots.

This guarantees that if you are surprised by someone, that you can immediately warp away and avoid them, thus ensuring your continued survival.

When being hunted, do not sit in one place for longer than 30 seconds unless it's a safe spot and those hunting you are not in covert orps or recon ships. (Covert ops ships will be trying to scan you down for their friends to come in and warp to you, or to bookmark your location, dock, and then come back and kill you in their battleship...)

When more people in local start arriving, and they're of the same corp as your hunter or the same alliance, you might want to leave the system or dock. It's safer to dock, because their friends might be waiting for you on the other side of the gate.

Never leave your keyboard when out in space. Always dock first. Let me tell you a story of what happened to me this morning, and let this be a lesson to you to never leave your keyboard.

I was out hunting with a bluemate (you don't ALWAYS have to be solo, as it can work very well in pairs too), and he pinpointed a Hoarder at a station. Arriving at the station, he found that they were about 100km away from the station and slowly moving away from it - the pilot must have gone AFK when he undocked.

My bluemate advised of the target's angle in relation to a nearby object, and distance from station (about 100km). I warped to the object, and then warped back to the station at 100km, only to find the Hoarder was in a different location and about 90km away.

Beyond him was another planet. I advised my bluemate of the planet and the distance the Hoarder was from me. He warped to the planet, and I alerted him the distance had changed because I was moving to him (it was now about 70km). My bluemate warped to me at 70km, and came out right on top of him.

Bang! One destroyed Hoarder, and my bluemate podkilled the pilot as well. He wasn't carrying anything and only dropped a cargo expander, but so be it. You can just imagine the reaction when the pilot comes back to his computer, seeing himself back in his station.

Never think you're safe when AFK, and always keep in mind angles of approach and use your environment to help you and hinder the hunters.

Stay safe, and good luck.

Skill training for PVP

In order to engage in combat against other pilots, you need to work on a few skills. I've already mentioned the basics needed to start venturing into piracy, but if you really want to become specialised, you need to work on the skills detailed below.

Please understand this is part of a long-term plan! Don't be discouraged that you need all these skills at all these levels in order to get into PVP. You don't. These are just to give you an idea of what you need to work on over time.

With thanks to Cal Nereus.

Fitting Skills

These are all the skills you need to fit all your desired modules onto your ship without running out of powergrid or CPU.

Engineering: 5% Bonus to ship's powergrid output per skill level.
Electronics: 5% Bonus to ship CPU output per skill level.
Energy Grid Upgrades: to fit Power Diagnostic Systems, which increase powergrid.
Electronics Upgrades: 5% reduction of sensor upgrade CPU needs per skill level, and to fit Co-Processors.
Shield Upgrades: 5% reduction in shield upgrade powergrid needs.
Weapon Upgrades: 5% reduction per skill level in the CPU needs of weapon turrets and launchers.
Advanced Weapon Upgrades: 2% reduction in powergrid needs of weapon turrets and launchers.

I believe the most common benchmark for PvP Fitting Skills is to have Engineering, Electronics and Weapon Upgrades all up to level 5, and Advanced Weapon Upgrades up to 3. The others can be at the level of your choice.

Basic Capacitor Skills

These are all the skills you need to optimize the size, recharge rate and efficiency of your capacitor. As many Eve players will attest to, cap is life in Eve. If you don't have it, you're dead.

Energy Management: 5% bonus to capacitor capacity per skill level.
Energy Systems Operation: 5% reduction in capacitor recharge time per skill level, and to fit Capacitor Boosters.
Energy Grid Upgrades: to fit Cap Rechargers (I already mentioned this skill as a fitting skill earlier).
Energy Emission Systems: 5% reduced capacitor need of energy emission weapons per skill level, and to fit Nosferatu.

You'll want Energy Systems Operation at level 5 and Energy Management to level 4 at least. Cap Rechargers or Cap Boosters are prevalent in most PvP fittings, so you'll want to be able to fit the best.

Navigation Skills

Anyone planning on using frigates or microwarpdrives in PvP (in other words, just about everyone) will need to consider training most of the Navigation skills.

Navigation: 5% bonus to sub-warp ship velocity per skill level.
Acceleration Control: 5% Bonus to Afterburner and MicroWarpdrive speed boost per skill level.
High Speed Maneuvering: 5% reduction in MicroWarpdrive capacitor usage per skill level.
Evasive Maneuvering: 5% improved ship agility for all ships per skill level.

Frigate specialists need to seriously consider training all of these skills to level 5. Personally, I'm a Battleship pilot, and even I have Navigation trained up to 5. If you plan on piloting Interceptors or Interdictors, you will need Evasive Maneuvering up to level 5 just to sit in your ship.

Tackling Skills

Almost all PvPers (actually, pretty much all of them) need to train up their tackling skills. These are the skills you need to prevent your target from escaping.

Propulsion Jamming: 5% Reduction to warp scrambler and stasis web capacitor need per skill level, and to fit warp scramblers/disruptors and stasis webifiers.
Energy Emission Systems: To fit energy neutralizers to kill the target's cap (this skill was also mentioned earlier as a basic capacitor skill).
Anchoring: Used to deploy and anchor various items, including mobile warp disruptors.

All PvPers will want to train Propulsion Jamming, preferably up to level 4 at least. Specialists in the field of tackling will want it trained to level 5. Anchoring is largely optional, but in 0.0 I've seen it used a lot to anchor bubbles.

Armor Tanking Skills

Armor tanking is without a doubt the most common form of tanking in PvP, which is great for the Gallente and Minmatar races, but makes things difficult for the Caldari ships. Amarr prefer armor tanking their own ships, but hate when their enemies do it.

Mechanic: to fit Armor Repairers.
Hull Upgrades: Grants a 5% bonus to armor hit points per skill level, and to fit Active Armor Hardeners and Plates.
Repair Systems: 5% reduction in repair systems duration per skill level, and to fit Armor Repairers.
EM Armor Compensation, Explosive Armor Compensation, Kinetic Armor Compensation, Thermic Armor Compensation: To improve passive/inactive armor resists.

Most PvPers seem to believe Mechanic and Hull Upgrades should be trained up to level 5, and Repair Systems up to level 4 to fit all the modules you will need. The compensation skills should also be trained up to level 4, or at least 3 if you don't have the patience for 4.

Electronic Warfare Skills

Electronic Warfare is a major part of fleet PvP, and useful in gang PvP. With the right combination of E-War you can practically turn off an opponent's ship. Combined tackling and E-Warfare can render even the sturdiest tank and most ominous firepower absolutely useless.

Electronic Warfare: 5% less capacitor need for ECM and ECM burst systems per skill level.
Sensor Linking: 5% less capacitor need for sensor link per skill level, and to fit sensor dampeners.
Long Distance Jamming: 10% bonus to optimal range of ECM, Remote Sensor Dampers, Tracking Disruptors and Target Painters per skill level.
Signal Dispersion: 5% bonus to strength of all ECM jammers per skill level.
Frequency Modulation: 10% bonus to falloff for ECM, Remote Sensor Dampeners, Tracking Disruptors and Target Painters per skill level.

Train Electronic Warfare to level 4 at least, but it's up to you how far you want to take all of the other skills. The aforementioned skills only touch upon the most common forms of E-Warfare: ECM and Dampening, and I believe it's possible to specialize much further in this category of PvP.

Up until now I haven't even mentioned the relevant gunnery, missile and drone skills you need for PvP to actually deal damage to your target(s). To be honest, there are simply way too many such skills to mention, and the ones you use are entirely up to you. Most PvPers prefer guns, specially hybrid turrets and projectile turrets. Some skills that can apply to all guns are Motion Prediction, Rapid Firing, Sharpshooter, Surgical Strike and Trajectory Analysis. Seriously consider training each of those to level 4 or 5.

All of this information is from 2007, and while I think it's all still relevant today, if anyone can show anything here is incorrect, please leave a comment and I'll update it.

Good luck with your PVP!

Capture ships instead of destroying them

One of the strategies that is suggested in chapter 2 of my Art of War series is:

Where possible, force the ejecting of enemy pilots in order to take their ships whole. Enemy pilots who eject should be allowed to live, to provide incentive to eject again in future.

How often does this happen? I've never heard of it happening at all, unless it's an accident, where the 'noob' accidentally ejects from their ship in a panic.

There's a lot of pilots with very expensive implants that they really don't want to lose, and would rather not get podkilled. So once you've locked them down and damaged their ship into structure, stop firing and offer to let them go in exchange for their ship (if you have the time and safety to do this, of course).

They might be hesitant because they'll lose the insurance, but if you really want the ship then offer to pay them for it. Make it worth their while, of course. Maybe just less than the cost of the ship, not including fittings. If they have implants they want to keep, they'll likely jump at the opportunity.

Of course, it would only work if you can fly their ship, or you have someone nearby that can fly it for you. You would also need to have someone there to protect the ship from anyone else wandering by...

You could warp to a safe spot or dock, eject from your ship, and go back and board the new ship you've just claimed, taking it to a station and docking.

This would be better than looting a wreck... you get the whole ship and all its fittings to add to your war or combat efforts. And the victim gets to keep their implants.

Give it a try, you might just find yourself stocking your hangars with new ships and fittings that you can use or sell. You'll still get enough kills from those that refuse to eject.

The Art of War - Waging War

Chapter 1: Laying Plans

Welcome to the second chapter (below) in my Art of War series. This chapter looks at the strategies of actually waging war...


Chapter 2: Waging War

In order to commit forces to battle, the corporation or alliance must have the money and resources to replace losses. You should commit only what you can afford to lose.

When you engage in fighting, if victory is long in coming, weapons will run out of ammunition or charges, and enthusiasm will disappear. If you lay siege to a station, you will exhaust your strength.

If the campaign is long-lasting, the resources of the corporation will not be equal to the strain. When your weapons are exhausted, and your willingness to fight is gone, you will be at the mercy of those who have waited, and they will strike when you are at your weakest.

Cleverness has never been associated with long delays.

It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable ways of engaging in war.

Bring war materials from your base, but forage on the enemy. Thus the fleet will be able to compensate for any losses.

In order to kill the enemy, your men must be roused to anger; there must be rewards to defeating the enemy, and that’s where the foraging on the enemy’s wrecks and cargo containers helps.

Where possible, force the ejecting of enemy pilots in order to take their ships whole. Enemy pilots who eject should be allowed to live, to provide incentive to eject again in future.

In war, let the object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.

Next chapter coming soon: Attack by Strategem

23 tips for surviving lowsec

I know there's a few non-combat oriented pilots that read this blog. They've never flown a ship in combat against another pilot, or if they have, they've lost because they didn't know what they're doing. Well, for those that are curious about combat in lowsec (low security space, between 0.1 and 0.4), here's a few tips (ok, a whole bunch of tips!) on how to survive out there.

If they save just one life, my job here is done. :)

1. Dont play the game while away from the keyboard (AFK). You should never consider yourself safe while being away from your computer. If you have to quickly do something else, then dock at a station.
   
   
2. Enter space with security status 0.4 and below at your own risk. You can never expect to be safe in unsecure space, regardless of how safe you think you might be.
   
   
3. Insure all ships you are using, especially the expensive ones. Make sure you buy the most expensive "platinum" type of insurance.
   
   
4. Don't rely on sentry guns to keep you safe. Especially not when travelling in lowsec space. There are several ways to avoid sentry gun fire that are not considered to be an exploit, like sniping outside of sentry gun range. There are a lot of ships that can also 'tank' the incoming fire from sentry guns.
   
   
5. Use map filters such as "ships destroyed in the last hour" to spot possible player pirate camps and other dangerous areas. Also check 'pilots in space in last 30 minutes' to give you an idea of how many people are flying around in the system you want to go to. If there's 10 in space in the last half hour and 4 ships destroyed, you can be guaranteed it's not safe.
   
   
6. Use the local chat channel to see what's happening within the system when you have just jumped in. Checking 'show info' on each of the pilots in the local chat channel (if there aren't too many people in local) can show you if there's any 'nasties' in the system. They're the ones with negative security status.
   
   
7. If you're intent on avoiding combat, use Warp Core Stabilizers (WCS or 'stabs') to help avoid being warp jammed, allowing you to warp away if they try to scramble you.
   
   
8. Different types of ammo have different ranges. Right-click your gun and check it's attributes to see the optimal range. Fit some ammo to it and re-check the range. By choosing long-range ammo, you can mostly stay clear of enemy fire (especially when up against rats). Try to stay at your optimal range.
   
   
9. Make sure you always have a clone available for when you need it, and always buy a clone (from a station with a medical facility) that is going to handle your skill points. Upgrade when your skill points get close to the limit of the clone. You never want a clone that is less than your character's skill points, as that wastes all the time that you spent training.
   
   If you wake up in a new clone, buy a new one immediately! If you die again without upgrading, you will lose a percentage of skill points from your highest skill. Your screams will be heard even in space.
   
   More information on this and the percentages can be found here.
   
   
10. If you're in an asteroid belt killing rats and someone jumps in, keep an eye on them. If they're a pirate (you can tell from their red colour in your overview settings) then disengage from the battle and immediately leave. You don't want to have rats hammering at you at the same time as the pirates are. In fact, it's always better to be safe than sorry - just leave as soon as another pilot enters your belt. Do it. Do it now!
    
    If they're not actually a pirate, they won't attack you or try to follow you. But never take that chance.
    
    
11. When you're flying anywhere and someone target locks you, do not fire first. If they fire at you first, then they're the ones that take the security hit, and they're the ones that take the sentry gun fire if it's near a gate or station, and they're the ones that get attacked by CONCORD if it's in high security space. Never start combat if someone target locks you first.
    
    Ignore this rule if you don't care.
    
    
12. If someone invites you to join their fleet and you don't know them, decline the invitation. It's likely that they're a pirate. As soon as you accept a fleet invite, they can warp straight to your location and attack you.
    
    
13. If someone attacks you and you actually destroy their ship, podding them in 0.1 space or higher will give you a huge security hit, and make you a target for sentry guns. You can only pod kill in 0.0 space without any loss of security status.
    
    
14. Don't buy that shiny new ship until you can afford the ship, the fittings, and the insurance without having to sell anything you currently own. That way, if you lose the ship, you've still got enough money or assets to afford a replacement (after the insurance payout, of course).
    
    Ideally, if you can afford to buy the ship and fittings and insurance 5 times over, then you can afford to buy one. Don't do it with less.
    
    This is because you WILL lose it if you take it into lowsec. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But you will lose it eventually. Don't fly what you can't afford to lose.
    
    
15. If you're mining in lowsec space, stay as far as you can from the asteroids, in case you need to warp away quickly. If you're too close to an asteroid, you'll crawl away from it before you can warp away.
    
    
16. If you're in 0.0 space, EVERYONE can be a pirate, even if they have positive security status. There are no security hits in 0.0 space. Do not trust anyone.
    
    
17. Do not take stuff from someone else's cargo can, as you then become a 'can thief' and they can attack you without penalty, even in Empire space. If they're offering stuff from their can for free, they're probably setting you up. If they really want to give you something for free, then they can trade it with you while docked in a station.
    
    Never take from someone's can unless they're in your corp or fleet and you trust them.
    
    
18. If you want to be attacked in Empire space then you can jettison something from your cargo hold that they can then take, which allows you to attack them without taking a security hit or being attacked by CONCORD. This is good if you know you have a good chance of defeating them in combat. Otherwise don't do it, as you're likely to be destroyed.
    
    
19. When you jump into a low security system, DO NOT MOVE. Disengage the autopilot AS you jump, so that it's inactive when you get to the other side of the jump gate. This is so that you don't move when you get there.
    
    Why can't you move? Because when you come out of a jump, you are cloaked and no one can see you. You will remain cloaked for 30 seconds or until you move, or until someone comes within 2 km of you. Being cloaked is good for you, as it gives you a bit of time to see who's in local, and if there's any bad pirates, you can either jump back where you came from, or do something else.
    
    
20. If you find you're in the middle of a gate camp, as soon as you move and decloak they're going to try and lock you and attack. Since they'll be using a warp scrambler, you won't be able to warp away. Your best chance is to try and crawl back to the gate to jump back out, and hope that any shield or armour tank you have holds them off long enough for you to jump.
    
    Of course, if you think your ship is fast enough to go to warp before they get a lock on you, then good luck to you. See tip #21.
    
    
21. If you are leaving a station and you need to get away FAST, then look straight ahead of your ship. Select a destination (asteroid belt, planet or jump gate) that is right in front of you and warp to it. You will go into warp a lot faster than if you had to to realign for a different direction. This is because you're already moving at your maximum speed as you leave the station.
    
    If you're at a jump gate though, and at a dead stop, there's no difference between the time it takes to reach warp going straight ahead or turning to align.
    
    
22. Make a safe spot. This is a bookmark that you drop in the middle of nowhere, while you're warping from one point to another. While warping, open People & Places and drop a bookmark. Click OK so that it has the default name, which you can change later so that you know it's a 'safe spot'. The advantage of this bookmark is that it's literally in the middle of nowhere, allowing you to warp to it from anywhere in the system, when you need to escape from pirates and you don't want them finding you.
    
    To make it harder for them to find you though, you need to warp from your safe spot to another location in the system, and drop another bookmark along the way. You need to try and drop this bookmark more than 5,000 km from any other object in the system, if you can, so studying your system map is essential.
    
    The first safe spot is along an established flight path and easy for probe scanners to find, but the second safe spot will be out of range of any scan probes that could find you.
    
    However, still do NOT think you're safe. If they drop a scan probe at their own safe spot that's within range of yours, they will find you. Try to bounce around between your safe spots if you can't leave the system or you can't dock, so that it's harder for them to actually detect you in one location.
    
    When you're at a safe spot, remember - you're still not safe.
    
    
23. Whenever you're sitting somewhere (like at a safe spot) and not actually traveling anywhere or doing anything, always align yourself with a distant object, like a jump gate or station. Preferably an object you can select in your overview. The reason for this is that aligning yourself to something has you traveling at your maximum normal speed towards it.
    
    In order to go to warp, you have to be at 75% of this speed, so if you're already traveling at that speed, you'll go into warp much faster than if you were standing still.
    
    So with the object selected in your overview, and you're aligned to it, you can sit there with the knowledge that if someone turns up with your death on their mind, all you have to do is quickly press the 'warp to' button at the top of the overview and you will go to warp almost immediately, avoiding their attack.
    
    If you don't do this, you will die as you try to align for the destination and gather speed.
    

I hope these tips help you find safety within EVE. Please add your own tips if you think they will be of value to others.