Remote assistance

Remote assistance modules are modules that benefit someone else, as opposed to local modules that only affects your ship. They tend to be stronger than their local counterpoints (but not always) and allows support ships to give other ships bonuses, augmenting their performance, or simply repair them with remote logistics modules.

There are also Command Bursts and Phenomena Generators that affect whole fleets, that are very similar to remote assistance modules, but function slightly different as they are not directly targeted.

Remote assistance

There are several modules that doesn't give you any bonuses, but instead is activated on a friendly ship to give them a boost. Below is a list of common assistance modules.

Remote assistance module	Description
Remote hull repairers	Repairs hull hit points of the targeted ship.
Remote armor repairers	Repairs armour hit points of the targeted ship.
Remote shield boosters	Repairs shield hit points of the targeted ship.
Remote capacitor transmitters	Transfers capacitor energy to the targeted ship.
Remote tracking computers	Increases the tracking speed and range of the targeted ship's turrets.
Remote sensor boosters	Increases the scan resolution and locking range of the targeted ship.

Absent from that list are Command Burst and Phenomena Generator modules. They too are very similar to remote assistance modules but they function slightly different and are not directly targeted, thus will not have the same kind of interaction with legality and timers.

Remote assistance and combat timers

Whenever you remotely assist someone you will automatically inherit all the combat timers of the one you're assisting, which includes Non-Capsuleer Log-Off Timer, Capsuleer Log-Off Timer and Weapons Timer. The time left will be whatever the recipient of your assistance has left, so if someone has 22 seconds left of their weapon timer when you assist them, your inherited weapon timer will also have 22 seconds left, assuming you don't have a weapon timer of your own with more than 22 seconds left on it.

Apart from inheriting timers, naturally legality puts itself on top of that, regulating what actions are allowed based on your safety settings and if not blocked by those settings cause you to get a Suspect or Criminal timer.

Remote assistance and legality

As remote assistance can turn the tide of battle, certain actions are legal and some are not. In general aiding a suspect or an outlaw is usually a Suspect offence and assisting criminals or interfering in a fight between two parties in high security space (war or limited engagement) is a Criminal offence. Interfering in a fight between two parties (war or limited engagement) in low security space is merely a Suspect offence.

All actions that affect legality will respect your safety settings however.

• Enable safety (green safety) will stop any action that is a Suspect or Criminal offence. This makes it impossible to both accidentally or intentionally become a suspect or criminal.
• Partial safety (yellow safety) will allow actions making you a Suspect but will stop any action that is a Criminal offence.
• Disable safety (red safeties) will allow any action, regardless of legality, even those who turn you into a suspect or a criminal.

While at war

When your corporation or alliance is at war, the capsuleer log-off timer can become an issue if you ever fly with people who aren't in your corporation or alliance. Because in order to assist someone with a capsuleer log-off timer who is at war will require anyone that isn't in the same alliance or corporation to turn your safety to disable safety (red) and go Criminal in high security space, or disable safety (yellow) in low security space and go Suspect. Similarly for people involved with Faction Warfare, you will be able to assist people on the same side as you are (unless they are in a normal war or in a limited engagement), but otherwise suffer the same limitations as with normal wars.

During peace

Even when you're at peace there is a chance that timers might come into play. If someone enters a limited engagement, like if you make or suffer an unprovoked attack by someone in low and high security space, then any assistance to the person involved (with a limited engagement) would require logistics to turn their safety to disable safety (yellow) and go suspect. Once someone goes suspect it would force the other logi and everyone else who wants to lend assistance to go suspect as well. While being a suspect is fairly trivial in low security space, it presents a number of issues if you then travel back into high security space while the timer is still active.

Command Bursts

Even Command Bursts are affected by legality in high security space. Only members of the same corporation of alliance (or on the same side in faction warfare) will receive boosts if they have a Capsuleer Log-Off Timer while being at war or in a limited engagement. This is only in high security space however. In low and null security space, as well as wormhole space, boosts are unaffected by legality.

Workarounds

If you manage to get matching Limited Engagement Timers with the friend you're going to assist, you will not be forced to go suspect to assist your friend. For example, you and your friend find a suspect that you engage. As long as you aggress the same people as your friend, you'll have matching Limited Engagement Timers (you both have limited engagement timers for the same amount of people) and can freely assist each other. This is obviously harder and harder to do the more people you engage, but if you have time, this can easily allow you to engage and assist people playing suspect games in high or low security space without turning suspect yourself.

Limiting the risk

Since combat-timers such as the Capsuleer Log-Off Timer are spread through any remote assistance, they often spread quickly through the ranks of any logistics or remote assisting fleet members. As such, it's important to avoid accidentally shooting corporation members in mixed fleets, since that can be a legal action in and by itself if the corporation has friendly fire enabled (which most corporations have). The best way to avoid accidentally shooting corporation members is to never target them without a very good reason, especially if you are flying an offensive role. Most necessary fleet actions, like keep at range and orbit, can be accomplished without first targeting the other person by just putting them on the watch list and right-click them.