[EVE] Leading Fleets

[Ronin Storm]

I said I wasn't going to repost stuff from Vagabond's Rest. I lied. Some of their posts are simply too useful not to repost.

This one is on how fleets work, specifically looking at how boosters are applied.

Groups in Eve are called Fleets. They used to be called Gangs, so you may see some references to gangs around. Fleets are heirarchies. Under the Fleet commander, there are wing commanders (Up to 5). Under the wing commanders, there are squadron commanders (up to 5 per wing). Under the squadron commanders there are squad members (up to 10 each). However, like most things in Eve, you need to train the right skills to be able to do this.

The Leadership skill allows you to be a squadron commander. For each rank, you can effectively lead 2 squad members. Beyond that are the Wing Command and Fleet Command skills, which allow you to add 1 subordinate unit per rank. I say effectively because you can put together a fleet without any skills, but you won't get any of the potential bonuses that are available by proper organization.

There are three special positions in a fleet. First, the leaders - they hold the Fleet, Wing, and Squadron command slots, and need to have the appropriate skills for those roles. Second, the Boss. This is the traditional group leader - the person who can reassign other people within the fleet or kick them out. By default, this is the person who first formed the fleet (who will also be the fleet commander by default). You can right click on any fleet member's name to reassign them (including making someone else the Boss). The third position is the Booster. This is the person providing passive buffs to the unit (there are boosters at the squad, wing, and fleet level). By default this will be the unit commander, but it can be reassigned to someone who has more appropriate buff skills for the mission (more on this below).

In order to receive the bonuses in a squadron, the following conditions must be met:
- The squad leader must have the appropriate skill level for the size of the squad.
- You must be in the same system as the squad leader (I'm pretty sure that inside a station doesn't count as in system for this purpose)
- You must be in the same system as the squad booster (if different from the leader)

To determine if you're receiving bonuses, there's an icon in the upper left corner of the fleet window. If it's a red X, one of the conditions is not being met. If it's a green chevron, then you are receiving the bonuses. The same rules apply at the wing and fleet levels (wing and fleet commanders will not receive the bonus from a subordinate unit, but their own boosts will cascade down to subordinate units).

(Source)

I'll find a way to make it up to them that I'm borrowing their content.

 

[VibroAxe]

So if i read that right, someone other than squad commander can be giving the squad boosters

 

[AcidK]

Yes, the Fleet Commanders and Wing Commanders can designate the squad boosters for the Squad Commanders if neccessary.

Fleet-mining is specifically good in this case as a decent mining foreman can increase mining by a +8% yeild as well as being able to direct mining to different asteroids, increasing overall mining yeild during this stage by +5% per level.

 

[Ronin Storm]

someone other than squad commander can be giving the squad boosters

Yes, that is correct but the unit commander (Squad, Wing or Fleet) must have sufficient Leadership/Wing Command/Fleet Command skills to actually be able to distribute the power of that booster to his subordinates.

Tychus posted an example that was focused around mining. I'll post an example shortly on how we could think of this for combat.

 

[Traxata]

I can give out that booster to individuals, i have no leadership skills...

 

[Ronin Storm]

You can assign the booster but does it have any effect?

 

[Ronin Storm]

To use Tychus' post as a base, here's how it works as far as I understand it... (corrections welcome!)

There are four roles and four powers in a fleet.

The roles are:

• Fleet Commander
• Wing Commander
• Squadron Commander
• Squadron Member

The powers are:

• Boss
• Fleet Booster
• Wing Booster
• Squadron Booster

These powers and roles are independent of each other but they have initial assignments such that the Fleet Commander is both Boss and Fleet Booster and the Wing and Squadron Commanders are boosters for their respective subordinates.

Fleets are all structured so that Squadron Members report to Squadron Commanders report to Wing Commanders report to the Fleet Commander. Each squad can have up to 10 members, each wing up to 5 squadrons, each fleet up to 5 wings.

Boosters only boost subordinates (and self, presumably?). The Boss can assign boosters around the fleet. Commanders can assign their booster (and their subordinate boosters?) within their subordinates.

Leadership and Command skills are only relevant to people in command roles in the fleet and, in effect, distribute booster power to their subordinates but only if they have sufficient skill to be commanding the numbers of people beneath them. If they are not able to command those beneath them, according to their skill, then the boosters in their unit do not provide any power.

Think of a booster as a battery and the command roles as the conduit down which the battery's power flows. As a Commander can make anyone with appropriate skills, in your unit, the booster but whether the booster works or not is entirely down to whether you are able to command your unit.

As an example, focusing on combat, with made-up skills for people we know.

A fleet of five people.

• Ronin
  • Leadership 1
  • Siege Warfare 4
  • Skirmish Warfare 1
• Trax
  • Leadership 1
  • Armored Warfare 4
• Nanor
  • Leadership 1
  • Skirmish Warfare 4
• Bambi
  • Leadership 5
  • Wing Command 1
  • Siege Warfare 1
  • Armored Warfare 1
  • Skirmish Warfare 3
• Pia
  • Leadership 3
  • Information Warfare 2

The real question then is "how should we structure our fleet?"

Each level of Leadership allows you to command 2 Squad Members as a Squadron Leader. Each level of Wing Command allows you to command 1 Squadron Leader as a Wing Commander. Each level of Fleet Command allows you to command 1 Wing Commander as a Fleet Commander.

The Warfare skills are all boosters. Additionally, Leadership is a booster but that isn't (as far as I can tell) actually assigned - it seems to only propagate from the highest leadership in your hierarchy.

With 5 people, we're looking at making a Squadron and we need a Squadron Leader with Leadership 2 or more (1 leader, 4 members). That means only Pia and Bambi qualify. However, Bambi can also lead a Wing as he has Wing Command 1 and that would then give us access to the Wing booster as well as the Squadron booster.

So, that would tend to imply:

• Wing 1 Command - Bambi [wing booster]
  • Squadron 1 Command - Pia [squadron booster]
    • Squadron 1 Member - Ronin
    • Squadron 1 Member - Nanor
    • Squadron 1 Member - Trax

By default, the boosters are such that Bambi would propagate Siege Warfare 1, Armored Warfare 1 and Skirmish Warfare 3 down to the Wing and Pia would give Information Warfare 2 down to the Squadron.

Thus, in that configuration, the effective booster distribution would look like:

• Wing 1 Command - Bambi [+5 Leadership, +1 Siege, +3 Skirmish, +1 Armour]
  • Squadron 1 Command - Pia [+5 Leadership, +1 Siege, +3 Skirmish, +1 Armour, +2 Information]
    • Squadron 1 Member - Ronin [+5 Leadership, +1 Siege, +3 Skirmish, +1 Armour, +2 Information]
    • Squadron 1 Member - Nanor [+5 Leadership, +1 Siege, +3 Skirmish, +1 Armour, +2 Information]
    • Squadron 1 Member - Trax [+5 Leadership, +1 Siege, +3 Skirmish, +1 Armour, +2 Information]

However, individually Ronin, Nanor and Trax have better overall booster skills. As Caldari, we'd probably want to focus on shields so Ronin's Siege Warfare 4 would be excellent. Bambi would assign Ronin as the Wing booster. Also, Trax's Armored Warfare 4 is probably worthwhile so Pia would assign the Squadron booster to Trax.

• Wing 1 Command - Bambi
  • Squadron 1 Command - Pia
    • Squadron 1 Member - Ronin [wing booster]
    • Squadron 1 Member - Nanor
    • Squadron 1 Member - Trax [squadron booster]

In that configuration, the effective booster distribution would look like:

• Wing 1 Command - Bambi [+5 Leadership, +4 Siege, +1 Skirmish]
  • Squadron 1 Command - Pia [+5 Leadership, +4 Siege, +1 Skirmish, +4 Armour]
    • Squadron 1 Member - Ronin [+5 Leadership, +4 Siege, +1 Skirmish, +4 Armour]
    • Squadron 1 Member - Nanor [+5 Leadership, +4 Siege, +1 Skirmish, +4 Armour]
    • Squadron 1 Member - Trax [+5 Leadership, +4 Siege, +1 Skirmish, +4 Armour]

So, in that you can see that we've lost all our Information Warfare boost and reduced our Skirmish Warfare boost but received improved armour and shields instead.

At least that's how I think it works.

 

[Traxata]

You can assign the booster but does it have any effect?

giving syrai the squad booster, with myself in squad command, we received the boost

 

[Ronin Storm]

giving syrai the squad booster, with myself in squad command, we received the boost

Hmm, makes me wonder if the boosters are also wrapping up leadership/command abilities. We'd have to get a bunch of us together to experiment.