Considerations: an enjoyable fleet experience
- Pre-flight check & assistance
- Double-check fits when new players join to ensure nobody brings the wrong setup. Use our homefront operation wiki to doublecheck on EWAR, damage types & weaknesses.
- Encourage experienced pilots to assist the FC (e.g., finding new HF sites). Ask openly if anyone wants to support with navigation.
- Assessing Player Experience
- Ask if players have flown Homefronts or Raids before. This helps gauge how much detail you need to cover. Some may still need to learn very basic concepts like:
- Navigating and using the overview correctly
- Finding acceleration gates
- Avoiding autopilot
- Ask if players have flown Homefronts or Raids before. This helps gauge how much detail you need to cover. Some may still need to learn very basic concepts like:
- Communication
- Strongly encourage everyone to join comms — many ship losses happen due to poor communication.
- Ship & Role Guidance
- First-time fleet members should generally fly easy roles like the DPS Caracals for raid fleets.
- Maintain a clear fleet hierarchy and manage squads effectively.
- Track who is in which role
- Track who is in the queue
- Fleet Management & MOTD
- Use a clear MOTD to save time and reduce repeat questions.
- Setting Boundaries
- Define limits for yourself: e.g., “I’ll run X amount of sites” or “I’ll run for 2 hours.”
- Communicate this clearly to your fleet members.
- If you’re ending soon, stop accepting people into the queue unless there’s another FC ready to take over.
- Fleet ettiquette
- New players are encouraged to familiarize themselves with our homefront etiquette. Doing so not only prevents wasting others’ time—such as dropping a fleet without prior notice—but also enhances our corporation’s reputation with outsiders who encounter one of our homefront fleets.
Example - Raid: Deserters Hideout
Starting a fleet
- Begin by creating a fleet and selecting your preferred Fleet Setup template. The ‘Store Fleet Setup’ function lets you save your MOTD, wing and squad layout, free-move settings, and default squad.
- One key benefit of a comprehensive MOTD is that you can direct pilots to it for more information. This is especially valuable for newer players, as it saves you from having to repeat explanations every time.
Fleet hierarchy setup:
- Setting up the fleet hierarchy helps you keep track of who is flying which role. As FC, you can drag and drop pilots into squads. If your fleet has the ‘Free-Move’ option enabled, pilots can move themselves into the squad of their choice. Having a default squad (often called the Lobby) makes it easy to spot and organize new pilots who join through the fleet advertisement.
- Queue management:
- Know the optimal fleet size for your Homefront. Limit the queue to only 3 pilots or so. You can set the fleet sizeby using the ‘…’ (three vertical dots) menu in the upper-right corner of the fleet window.
Recruiting for fleet
Fleet advertisement
- Creating a fleet advertisement is the first step in recruiting members from your corporation.
Start a fleet advertisment 1 - When creating your fleet advert, pay close attention to the settings: Fleet Name, Description, Corp/Alliance visibility, Application Requires Approval, and Auto-Update Advert on Boss Change.
Start a fleet advertisment 2 - Open the Agency window and go to the Fleet Up! tab to find your advert. From there, you can also share the advert link directly in corp chat.
Find your fleet advertisement
- When creating your fleet advert, pay close attention to the settings: Fleet Name, Description, Corp/Alliance visibility, Application Requires Approval, and Auto-Update Advert on Boss Change.
Corporation callouts
- Write a recruitment message with enough information to minimize common questions like ‘Where do I go? What do I train? What do I fly?’ A clear message draws people to your fleet advert, allowing them to join directly without you needing to send manual invites — a big time-saver.
corp chat recruitment example
Contact list management
- Adding pilots to your contact or buddy list helps you keep track of them and can be useful for future fleet recruitment.
- When meeting new players in your fleet, add them to your contacts to keep track of who you fly with. You can add a message as well to welcome them into the community.
- Keeping notes helps you track where you’ve met pilots, what ships they can fly, and their timezones.
Alternate homefront channels
- If you’re struggling to find enough pilots for your fleet, you can try advertising in other channels to attract extra members. Keep in mind that some may take longer to reach your staging area, might not use comms, or could exhibit ‘bitter vet’ behavior.
Folding a fleet
Lead your fleet back to the staging area and thank everyone for flying with you. If anyone has questions about Homefronts or struggled with anything during the fleet, this is a good time for a brief Q&A. Also, remind pilots that they can set up jump clones, which helps them participate in future Homefront fleets more easily.