Last Updated on 2021-12-11 by Kshal Aideron
If you’re joining your first PVP fleet ever, there are going to be things you might not have heard before that FCs say. This will help you get a jump on feeling like you know what you’re doing!
What is a FC?
The FC is your Fleet Commander. Quite literally, they’re at the top of the fleet window and can invite people to the fleet, kick them, see the fleet composition, see who picks up loot, and warp people around to locations in a system.
However, the FC is also the leader of the fleet. They will instruct everyone on what ships to fly, what to do, and where to go. In other MMO terms, your FC is a “raid leader.”
Why Does the FC Sound Like a Broken Record?
Jump, jump, jump! When in a fleet, your FC will likely repeat every command several times. Why is this?
In a fleet (especially public fleets) you get people of all ability levels. They might be new and are getting information overload so they missed that first or second, “jump” or “align”. Or, maybe someone is watching youtube videos and only giving comms half attention (not that ANYONE would ever do this, right? RIGHT?!) so they catch the last command. Or maybe the FC has a thick foreign accent and this makes the instruction more likely to be understood.
Regardless of the “why” it’s a very typical Eve fleet commander thing to do and it (usually) works.
Things FCs Say…
XUP in… Ok, the FC isn’t the only one who says this but unless anyone is helping the FC invite, this is something FCs will say. Quite literally, in the in game channel you’d join for invites, you put an X to indicate you want to join the fleet. If after a few minutes and other people Xing you don’t get an invite, you can put another X. Don’t spam please.
Undock, undock, undock! If you guys are in a structure, your FC will tell you when to undock (and usually where to go, if necessary).
In/Out gate. When someone says in gate, they’re referring to the other side of the gate you’re sitting on. Out gate is the gate that you’ll be warping to. Most commonly you’ll hear a scout say, “Your in gate is clear.” Or “You have 5 thrashers on your out gate” signaling you’ll be warping to the gate that has 5 thrashers on it.
Jump, jump, jump! When the FC says jump, you jump the gate. Don’t jump the gate before and be what we like to call a lemming. Of course, accidents happen. Someone else might say the J word and you jump. If you get to the other side, give recon to the FC (tell them calmly, you have 60 seconds cloaked) what you see.
Jump and hold cloak… When your FC says this, you can go ahead and jump the gate you’re on but DO NOT UNCLOAK! You have 60 seconds of invisibility and the FC wants to use this to the fleet’s advantage.
Hold, hold on gate! When a FC warps you to a gate and gives the hold command, this means you SHOULD NOT jump. The FC wants to hold for some reason. This could be to let everyone catch up, to let the scouts do their thing (if local spikes, it’ll scare off a potential target), or there’s an enemy fleet on the other side and the FC doesn’t want you jumping into them and dying. IF you accidently hit the jump button, hit ctrl + space.
And if you do jump through (often called being a lemming) tell the FC how many is in local, if there’s any neutral ships on grid with you (and how many and what type… remember you have 1 full minute cloaked to look and pass the info).
Jump on Contact! This means you can press the jump button WHILE IN WARP so your ship will jump the second you land at the gate.
Align to, Align to… Most commonly you’ll be aligning to the next gate (align to your out gate or align to Perimeter while you’re somewhere in Jita). However, the FC may not always give you a gate to align to. They might tell you to align to the sun, or align to an anomaly, celestial or station. Regardless, you’ll want to get yourself aligned so you warp at the same time as the rest of the fleet.
Set your desto to… Warning, this is something that each FC may do different depending on their own style or the group/corp they fly with. When I set desto, I link it in fleet so everyone can right click and set desto. Other FCs will not set an end desto and will broadcast each gate. Just be aware it may not be the same across the board.
Scatter, scatter, scatter! Warp off to something in space NOW. This usually happens when there’s no way to win a fight and it will give the bulk of the fleet a chance to live. Unfortunately, some people may get caught as the fleet scatters to the 4 winds.
Burn back to the gate, burn back to the gate! After you’ve jumped, you’ll target the gate on your overview that you just came back through to align and burn back. Be sure to put your MWD (micro warp drive) or AB (after burner) on to get back faster. The reason we do this is we may need to jump back through, or we want to be ready for whatever jumps in after us.
Bubble up! There’s a special kind of ship that quite literally blows bubbles in space called Interdictors. The bubbles are temporary, but will stop someone from warping off. In MMO terms, it’s “crowd control” of sorts.
EWAR ONLY! EWAR ONLY! If a FC says, “EWAR ONLY!” on a target (usually ships without a lot of hit points or a pod), this means locking up the target and putting ANY TYPE OF MODULE THAT DOES NOT DO DAMAGE on the target. Webs, warp scrams, warp disrupt, target paint, neuts, damps, ecms, etc….. not guns or drones. IF you don’t have any ewar on your ship, you can always ask if you can ungroup 1 weapon. But ASK FIRST.
Anchor on me at 1,000… when the FC asks the fleet to anchor on them, you’ll right click your FC on your Watch List and choose “approach” and the range 1,000 meter. Make sure you turn your MWD on! Now you’ll follow the FC around the grid.
Clear comms, clear comms (or check, check)… when the FC says clear comms, this means “shut up”. Either the FC needs to communicate with their scouts or give instructions. Or, voice comms just got so chaotic that the FC needs some peace to think. You might also hear the FC say “check check.”
Spread tackle! Tackle is the scram, point (i.e. warp disrupt), and scram modules. When the FC says spread tackle, they want everyone to try to keep targets from warping away.
We’re going to yeet… When a (probably NPSI) FC says we’re going to yeet, they’re referring to using a noise or signal needlejack filament. When activated, it’ll drop the fleet of 25 pilots max somewhere in null sec.
Okay, here’s what we’re going to do… when the FCs say this, accept the fact that the next words out of their mouth 99.99% of the time contains a really bad idea. Like the FC warping fleet to a MANNED hostile KEEPSTAR.
