Difference between revisions of "Scouting"

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[[Category:Guides]]
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{{related class|Scouting (Class)}}{{tocright}}
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[[Category:PvP]]
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== Notes on Covops Operations and Scouting ==
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'''Scouting''' in EVE involves gathering information around or ahead of the current location of a group of other players, to help the group succeed in their goals. Often a scout ship is also equipped to [[Tackling|tackle]] targets and start fights. Almost all PvP fleets and gangs in EVE have at least one scout, and some PvE fleets also use scouts.
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Scouting can be demanding and dangerous, but basic scouting requires minimal player experience or character skills, and can offer a lot of satisfaction in helping fellow players succeed. The role has a high ceiling for skilled play and good scouts are a welcome asset in many player corporations.
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The skills and knowledge developed in scouting cover many aspects of PvP, and therefore synergize extremely well with both solo PvP and fleet command.
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Since scouting is by its very nature a gang/fleet role, very new players should also consult the [[the Rookie's Guide to Fleet Ops]]. They should not, though, hold back from trying scouting out if they are curious! Scouting is one role where even a novice player can make a big difference, and some of the ships used have relatively low SP requirements.
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== Scout roles ==
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Some scouting is purely defensive: a group of players is doing something or travelling somewhere, and need one or more scouts to check how safe the space around the group is, and to warn of incoming threats.
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Some scouting is defensive ''and'' offensive: a fleet needs one or more scouts to warn of threats, but also to locate weaker or even opponents. In some cases, offensive scouting will also involve tackling a target ship to hold it down and start a fight.
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The ships and tactics used can vary a lot depending on which of these goals a scout has, and which kind of space they're flying in.
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=== Picket ===
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Picket scouts watch and wait in one location: one system, and often just one point in space, such as a gate or wormhole. Some example uses for picket scouts:
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* a group of players in high sec run [[missions]] during wartime in a pocket of systems, with a picket scout on a chokepoint gate leading to their location to spot incoming enemies
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* the residents of a [[wormhole]] system keep a cloaked ship on-grid with each wormhole in their home so that they can see any interlopers
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* a [[Jump Freighters|jump freighter]] pilot has friends watching movements in a low-sec transit system that is on their jump route, so that they can pick a safe moment to move their freighter through
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* a small nullsec alliance has a picket scout in their local rivals' home system, so they can tell when their rivals are running black ops fleets
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* the FC team of a major coalition keep cloaked alts in the staging systems of their opponents, so that they can track capital and supercapital movements
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Medium- or long-term picket scouting is often provided by alts. In high security space an alt in an NPC corporation can sit in a system or on a gate safely in a [[corvette]]; in other types of space, even a basic Tech 1 frigate with a prototype cloak works perfectly well, and requires minimal skill training investment. In nullsec, an [[interdictor]] with a prototype cloak makes a surprisingly good picket scout for a gate, as it can rapidly uncloak, warp to the gate, and drop a bubble to close the way.
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=== +1/-1 ===
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Travelling fleets are very often preceded by an advance scout moving one system ahead of the main fleet, commonly called a "+1" or "plus one".
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Jumping through a gate is one of the most vulnerable moments in a fleet's journey, as the jump mechanics scatter fleet members physically around their in-gate whenever they spawn into a new system. Having a +1 scout should at minimum guarantee that the fleet doesn't slam into a hostile gang without warning. In space with an automatically-populated Local Chat member list, a +1 also makes for a much less obvious presence than the whole fleet appearing in Local at once.
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For PvP fleets, a +1 also often needs to hunt, and a typical sequence of actions on system entry for a hunting PvP +1 scout might run as follows:
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# check that grid around the in-gate is clear
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# check numbers in Local and note any important players (e.g. war targets in high security space)
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# check the directional scanner at full 360 degrees and maximum range around the in-gate
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# report immediate status of the in-gate, Local, and first d-scan to the FC
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# warp to any other parts of the system not covered by the initial d-scan, while assessing the corps of the people present in Local
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# if nothing else is discovered, proceed to the out-gate, report out-gate status to FC, and move on
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A "-1" or "minus one" scout performs essentially the same role, but secures the system behind a fleet instead.
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Interceptors and covert ops frigates make excellent +1 ships, and interceptors in particular are ideal for the hunting +1 role. A Tech 1 tackling frigate can do quite well. Moreover, any ship can be pressed into service as a +1 scout in an emergency, and an FC who has lost all their scouts should pick an experienced pilot with a working mic in the fastest and most agile ship available.
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In wormhole space, which prioritises stealth and probing more than known space, covert ops frigates and covert-configuration strategic cruisers can offer advantages over other options.
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[[Interdictors]] can work well as -1 scouts, because this role synergizes well with their ability to slow down pursuers by bubbling gates.
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=== Roaming hunter ===
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A PvP fleet can field one or more roaming hunter scouts, who will move with more freedom of initiative through systems on or near the fleet's route, seeking incautious pilots in vulnerable PvE ships or hostile gangs.
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Although roaming scouts provide additional security and can warn of approaching threats, their actions tend to be more purely focused on finding and developing fights. The distance which they can roam away from their core fleet depends on the fleet's speed, travel direction, and purpose: some fleets will pause on a journey for incidental targets of opportunity but will not chase fights, while other fleets might be in space solely to find PvP.
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Roaming scouts typically report less detailed information to their FC, to keep comms clearer and avoid information overload. PvP threats and targets definitely deserve mention; that you are transiting an entirely empty system that doesn't lie on the fleet's route is probably not useful info. An FC and any roaming scouts must both work to make sure they understand how far the scouts might roam, to make sure they share a sense for what kinds of PvP opportunities the fleet will take, and to make sure that the FC has a working knowledge of roughly where the roaming scouts are.
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Interceptors are ideal ships for roaming scouts in known space, as their high warp speed and short align times let them cover a great deal of ground, while their high survivability compared to other frigates gives them a better chance of holding a target or keeping a hostile gang interested until allies can get to the scene. Strategic cruisers have more limited range, as they warp more slowly, but they can use stealth to their advantage, can probe, and can fit reasonable tanks, so they can also have their uses. In wormhole space, cloaking ships of all kinds see more use.
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=== Cyno hunter ===
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Almost all ships which can fit a covert ops cloak can also fit a covert cynosural field ("cyno") generator, which lets a [[Black Ops]] Tech 2 battleship bridge and teleport other stealthy ships into battle while circumventing the normal gate network. Force [[Recon Ships|recon]] ships and Black Ops battleships can fit a normal or "hard" cyno generator, which lets a Titan bridge ''any'' ships into battle. Some industrial ships can light an industrial cyno, and Black Ops battleships can bridge to these too. Specialized scouts can fly these ships not for a nearby fleet, but for a fleet "staged" and ready to bridge to a cyno.
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Scouting as a cyno ship uses many of the same skills as other "hunting" roles, but can often emphasize cunning and stealth over raw speed. Force recons and covert-configured strategic cruisers can fit reasonable tanks and can have special abilities which make them very powerful cyno hunters: the Minmatar [[Loki]] and [[Rapier]], for instance, can use very long-ranged webs to pin a target in place as their allies arrive. Other ships, such as the [[Venture]] and [[Prospect]], offer attractively cheap "throwaway" options which might look less threatening if opponents spot them at gate transitions. [[Stealth Bombers]] have the unique ability to begin target-locking immediately on uncloaking, though this must be weighed against their paper-thin tanks.
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== Typical ships ==
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=== T1 tackle frigates ===
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Each of the four main factions has one Tech 1 frigate with a high base speed and a role bonus which cuts the capacitor use of tackle modules by 80%. They all also have a higher base warp speed (8 AU/s) than other frigate hulls (normally 5 AU/s).
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* Amarr: [[Executioner]]
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* Caldari: [[Condor]]
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* Gallente: [[Atron]]
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* Minmatar: [[Slasher]]
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These ships lack the survivability of the true interceptors, but they are nevertheless very viable as basic scouting and tackling ships for newer characters, able to move swiftly through systems, point a target for crucial seconds, and move around fast on a combat grid to create warp-ins.
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=== Fleet interceptors ===
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[[Interceptors]] are Tech 2 versions of the Tech 1 tackle frigates. They keep the tackle capacitor consumption reduction and high warp speed from their Tech 1 base hulls, but are much faster and do not have their signature radii bloomed nearly as much by using a [[Propulsion equipment#Afterburners and microwarpdrives|microwarpdrive]]. ''Fleet'' interceptors get additional bonuses to the ''range'' of tackle modules, making them ideal tacklers.
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Fleet interceptors can also be fitted with an interdiction nullifier which can make them temporarily immune to [[Tackling#Warp disruption fields|bubbles]], at the cost of a permanent halving of their targeting range. This loss of targeting range is a significant trade-off, and many fleet interceptor fits do not use a nullifier so as to have better tackling abilities.
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The fleet interceptors are:
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* Amarr: [[Malediction]]
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* Caldari: [[Crow]]
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* Gallente: [[Ares]]
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* Minmatar: [[Stiletto]]
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Fleet interceptors are very popular as +1/-1 scouts and roaming hunters in known space.
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The other four interceptors, combat interceptors, are not as good as pure tacklers, but they get huge bonuses to the effects of [[overheating]] propulsion modules, which can make them handy for catching and killing other small ships, and for burning new bookmarks or warp-ins very quickly.
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=== Tactical destroyers ===
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Tech 3 [[Tactical Destroyers]] ("T3Ds") are small, fast, highly flexible ships which can align like an interceptor, and can fit an expanded probe launcher, tackle modules, and a meaningful tank all at once. These qualities make them popular tools for probing down and catching targets which are at safe spots or are in mission sites, because a T3D can probe like a covops frigate and then immediately warp to the target and go for tackle. A T3D can also punt (see below) very effectively, landing both itself and one or more other scouts on top of the target at once.
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However, T3Ds ''cannot'' fit a covert ops cloak like a covert ops ship, and nor can they warp as fast as an interceptor or tackle at extra-long ranges as an interceptor can, so they are less ideally suited as +1 scouts or general hunters. Often a T3D pilot will travel with the fleet core, only following a +1 or roaming interceptor into a system when it becomes clear that a target must be probed.
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The T3Ds are:
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* Amarr: [[Confessor]]
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* Caldari: [[Jackdaw]]
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* Gallente: [[Hecate]]
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* Minmatar: [[Svipul]]
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=== Covert ships ===
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A striking variety of ships in EVE can fit a covert ops [[Cloaking|cloak]] and warp while cloaked. This extremely powerful ability means they can be anywhere in a system watching while unseen, though the pilot will be present in Local chat's member list if they are in known space; they only have to break cloak and become visible on-grid and on the directional scanner when they enter a system and transition from post-jump gate cloak to covert ops cloak.
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Covert ships make excellent picket scouts. They are also extremely popular scouts in wormhole space, where the shifting geography, the lack of automatic Local chat memberlists, and the need to probe most places of interest down all emphasize stealth, cunning, and the ability to probe over the high-speed surprise tactics used by interceptor pilots.
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'''[[Covert Ops|Covert ops frigates]]''' ("covops") warp at 8 AU/s like interceptors and have strong probing bonuses, making them excellent for rapidly assessing systems, and for scanning down targets or wormholes. The [[Buzzard]] and [[Anathema]] have bonuses for precise probing, while the [[Cheetah]] and [[Helios]] have bonuses which let them move faster on-grid when cloaked, which is handy for getting good warp-ins. All covops frigates have very weak defenses and cannot fit strong tanks: they can function as tacklers if they absolutely must, but they will not survive long against a target with any kind of damage capacity.
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'''[[Stealth Bombers]]''' have the unique ability to lock up a target immediately after uncloaking, which gives them a niche role—besides their main purpose as grouped damage-dealers—as surprise tacklers. They, too, do not tank well and cannot be asked to survive long in direct combat. They are also slower to align and slower in warp than covops frigates.
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'''[[Strategic Cruisers]]''' ("T3Cs") can be configured to use a covert ops cloak and bonused scanner probes, while also having decent tanks and dealing meaningful damage on their own account. They therefore make powerful probing scouts, and can take initial tackle and stand a decent chance of surviving in combat until allies arrive, or even of defeating weaker targets solo. Since they are slower to align than frigates and warp at half the speed of interceptors and covops frigates, they are slower to get to target locations and have smaller functional roaming ranges. They are also more expensive and, being slower, more vulnerable to gatecamps.
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'''Force [[Recon Ships|Recons]]''' are the smallest and cheapest ships which can light a normal or "hard" cyno, to which a Titan can bridge any ship. As such, they are a popular option for hunting with a hard cyno. They can fit meaningful tanks, and most of them have powerful abilities which can help them survive: the [[Pilgrim]] has strong [[capacitor warfare]], the [[Arazu]] can tackle from long ranges, and the [[Rapier]] can hold a target still with very long-ranged webs. Compared to T3Cs, Recons have only limited DPS capacity, but this matters less for scouts anyway. Their main drawbacks are that they are relatively expensive, that they travel and lock more slowly than smaller ships, and that opponents may assume a hard cyno and pre-emptively escalate if they spot a force recon travelling or hunting.
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Some other ships can use covert ops cloaks and have niche uses as scouts: the [[Prospect]] can work well as a BLOPS cyno hunter, and it would be possible, if wasteful, to scout defensively in a [[Blockade Runners|blockade runner]].
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=== Other ships ===
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In some circumstances, other ships can be useful scouts, or can be used as scouts in the absence of anything better.
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As noted above, almost any ship equipped with just a prototype cloak can be an adequate picket ship for an expendable alt character. In warfare in high security space, where gathering intel while blending into busy systems can be useful, an out-of-corp alt in a PvE, mining, or trade ship typical of the local area can do good work. If a roaming PvP fleet loses all of its designated scouts, the smallest, fastest ships present can be pressed into service as +1 scouts.
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== Tools ==
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=== Local ===
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In high-sec, low-sec, and known null-sec space, the Local chat window lists everyone present in the system. Pilots still appear in Local even if they are docked up or cloaked. This makes Local a vital intelligence tool for making the most basic assessment of a system: "Is anyone else in here with me?"
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Make sure that your Local chat member list is visible at all times. Many players like to stretch it from the top to the bottom of one side of their screen.
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If you are flying as +1 you will typically report Local's status as one of the first pieces of information you send back to the FC. If a system is empty or only has blue-standings pilots in it, you will say something like "Oicx [or, better for clarity, ''Oscar India Charlie''] is empty / Oicx is blue / We own Oicx". If there are others present, give the number of members listed in Local chat, minus one for yourself: "Oicx, seven in Local, in-gate clear, initial d-scan clear".
  
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This page gives some information for scouts and budding scouts. It is a distillation of lessons learnt by a fleet scout while in the Uni.
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If Local has other people in it but only a few then, while moving around a system checking for targets or threats, you can also be assessing who those people are, by double-clicking on them in Local's member list and checking their corporations, alliances, and employment histories. If there are five other people in local, three combat ships on scan, and three of the five people in Local are in the same alliance, this is obviously significant information to pass on!
  
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=== What does/doesn't this cover ===
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If the rest of the fleet is not immediately busy in combat, you can ask to have someone run one or more characters from Local through [https://zkillboard.com/ zKill] and report back on whether they are primarily PvE or PvP pilots, what types of ships they regularly fly, and even details of recent ship fits. Drag the character name from Local into the fleet chat window to create a link your fleetmates can use, then add the request on comms ("Can someone run zKill on this guy, please?"). An organized hunting fleet sometimes designates a player for this purpose, and in a large fleet the scouts and FC might use a separate intel text channel to deal with this.
  
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This page concentrates on covops scouting - that is, covops ships (tech 2 frigates) with proper tech 2 covops cloaks, or to a lesser extent stealth bombers with tech 2 covops cloaks.  Those wanting to get a feel for scouting may start in frigates with tech 1 cloaks - these allow for sitting still cloaked and are OK for picketing gates (ie. sitting still watching a gate) but little beyond that, and this page does not really cover their use.  Anything larger (recon ships, black ops, etc) is out of scope of this document.
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Potential threats or targets will probably, of course, ''also'' be watching Local, and are likely to spot ''you'', which is one good reason to be as fast and efficient in checking a system as possible.
  
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This page also covers high-sec scouting only - points in here may or may not apply to 0.0 or Wormhole space. Bubbles, lack of a "local" comms channel, and other things will change how you scout in 0.0 or Wormhole space, but we assume that you've had some experience in high and low sec before venturing into them.
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In [[Pochven]] and [[wormhole]] space, Local only lists members when they say something in Local that you see. Naturally, people do not normally say anything in Local in these systems, and so Local will not normally have anyone in it and can be ignored. On the plus side, this means that people won't necessarily know that you are in-system, either.
  
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Finally, this page focuses on fleet scouting, and doesn't cover general intel, except in as much as intel crosses over with scouting.
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=== D-scan ===
  
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== Fittings ==
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{{main|Directional scanning}}
  
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Fittings for covops frigates are generally fairly straight-forward. The highlights are:
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The basic mechanics of d-scan are covered well in this wiki's [[directional scanning]] article. EVE University also runs d-scan classes, and YouTube hosts numerous useful videos showing helpful techniques.
  
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* Covops cloak - a tech 2 cloak so you can warp while cloaked.
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Once you have grasped the basics of how d-scan works, the key to getting better is simply lots and lots and lots of practice.
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* Microwarpdrive - this is used for "bursting" - getting some speed up before cloaking.
 
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* Probes - part of a scout's job is sometimes probing down the enemy, and these ships get bonuses to probing, so best to equip for it in case you need it.
 
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* No guns.  Covops ships don't fight - the first rule of scouting in a covops is "if you're not cloaked, you're doing it wrong". Note, there are some exceptions to this rule (as to any) and there are some tackling covops fits out there, specifically for gang action - but again, it is assumed that by the time you're flying something like that, you know what you're doing. ( '''Tackling Covops fits are only allowed in the uni during wartime if you have clearance from the intel department''' )
 
  
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Beyond that, the fit will be somewhat determined by your ship.  For example fits, see (these are just the best from battleclinic for each ship at point of writing):
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=== Maps ===
  
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Cheetah:  http://eve.battleclinic.com/loadout/6978-Cheetah-Deep-Space-Scout.html
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Having a map open, on a second screen if possible, hugely enhances your ability to do basic navigation.
  
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Helios:  http://eve.battleclinic.com/loadout/8481-Helios-Paranoid-Scout.html
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In known space and Pochven, this is likely to be [https://evemaps.dotlan.net/ Dotlan] or another third-party mapping site. Use your map to spot chokepoints, pockets, and pipes which might present opportunities or dangers for your fleet. Your FC will be making similar judgments and in a small- or mid-sized fleet you can confer with them and with any other scouts about potential places to hunt or check. Dotlan can present various types of data, of which the most important a lot of the time are:
  
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Buzzard: http://eve.battleclinic.com/loadout/4583-Buzzard-Spyship-EVE-v4-10-45943.html
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* NPC delta, the change in the number of NPC kills recently: this helps you spot areas where potential targets might be doing PvE.
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* Ship/pod kills: this lets you see where combat has recently been happening.
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* Jumps: this lets you quickly see where people are travelling, and it helps to highlight well-travelled chokepoints.
  
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Anathema:  http://eve.battleclinic.com/loadout/3650-Anathema-Tonto-s-Exploration-CovOps-IV.html
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Refresh Dotlan to make sure you catch data updates. The in-game map is less clear, and will take up part or all of your main screen, but does have more up-to-date data, so it is also worth checking intermittently.
  
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The common thread here is fast moving, fast cap recharge, and probing if you can fit it.
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In wormhole space, you will likely be flying with your group's chosen wormhole mapping tool. The EVE University [[Wormhole Community]] uses Pathfinder; other groups might be using other tools, such as Tripwire. Whatever tool you're using, pay close attention to any information recorded such as:
  
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== I'm cloaked!: ==
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* Hole size: this has implications for what kinds of threats and backup can get to you.
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* Hole age
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* Hole status: holes disrupted by traffic indicate, obviously, that there has been traffic.
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* System bonuses/penalties
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* Recent kills in a system
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* Any information recorded about structures and residents
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* K-space connections: for example, high-sec holes near Jita often have high traffic and attract j-space campers.
  
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Congratulations!  First thing to note - undocking is dangerous to everyone, and especially dangerous when there's war targets in local. So the easy answer is never undock. If you're in a covops ship and intend to fly it repeatedly, consider logging out in space while cloaked.
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=== Bookmarks ===
  
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When you do this you get warped off to a semi-random place in the system. When you log back in you'll be de-cloaked, but will immediately warp back to where you were. During this warp you have time to re-engage your cloak.
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{{main|Bookmarks}}
  
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Suggested places to logout are (in order): mid-way through a warp to a safe spot, or at a safe spot. Don't do this near anything as you run the risk of fumbling and appearing uncloaked near someone who can see you.  
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Bookmarks are an extremely powerful tool. If you spend any significant amount of time scouting in an area, you will want to make yourself some bookmarks in the local systems. If you are roaming in unfamiliar territory, you might want to bookmark as you go, whenever opportunities come up.
  
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One other point on this - when you logout, close anything non-essential. In particular do not leave a market window open, or any other window that takes a while to refresh. This is because you'll have a moment of frozen client while these refresh as you login and that's frankly terrifying
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==== Off-grid bookmarks ====
  
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'''Note, however, the above is not actually allowed unless you're in the Intel dept - if you're not, then you must dock unless you're in a fleet.'''
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Your FC may ask you to quickly create a [[Safe spots|safe]] at which a fleet can gather after fleeing a combat grid. It is good if such a rapid safe is at least not on an obvious gate-to-gate route, but in a hot system an imperfect mid-safe which exists ''now'' can be much more valuable than a "true" safe spot not on a line between any two celestials which exists in two minutes' time.
  
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== I've been decloaked, what happened?!: ==
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Your FC might want to have a [[Safe spots#Rolling safe spots|rolling safe]] in which you keep burning at high speed in one direction and the fleet warps to you whenever you travel more than 150km away. This makes it significantly harder to get a good warp-in on the fleet by probing it down. Your role in a rolling safe is very simple: just burn at top speed in a consistent direction. Check with the FC whether they would like that direction to be aligned towards anything in particular.
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There are a number of ways you can be forcefully decloaked. First of all, if you get within 2Km of anything you'll lose your cloak. This means don't get too close to other ships and don't hang around at a warp-in point (one of my most terrifying moments was sitting on a 100Km warp-in on a gate and having a larger ship warp in exactly 3Km ahead of me).  
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Finally, bookmarks can play a role in short-term trickery. If you are hunting PvE ships, for example, and one gives you the slip<sup>[unclear what "giving the slip" means]</sup>, you might find it useful to bookmark where the target ''was'', which might mean bookmarking an [[Mobile structures#Mobile Tractor Unit|MTU]] or an asteroid. If you return to the system after a short pause (5 or 10 minutes), you can try warping straight to this bookmark; sometimes unwary targets let themselves get caught this way.
  
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Stations have a range around them that's nominally 2Km, but can be deceptive due to "pointy bits", so be very careful near stations.
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==== On-grid bookmarks ====
  
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Cargo cans will decloak you and are sometimes easily missed. Gate guns are extremely dangerous - they're very small, usually not in your overview, and scattered around the gates. Very easy to run into by accident - be aware of them. There are some notes on overview settings below.  
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In nullsec, wormholes, and Pochven, where [[Tackling#Warp_disruption_fields|bubbles]] can be used to suck people out of warp near their destination, "ping" bookmarks come in very handy. These are bookmarks on grid with key travel points such as gates, but far enough away that it's safe to warp to them, avoiding any catch or drag bubbles set up at the location. If roaming in an area where the group doesn't have these set up, you might be asked to create new ones using your high speed on grid. These are particularly important near any gate or other point of interest (e.g. a wormhole) which has nothing else within d-scan range, as without pings or off-grid scanning bookmarks it's impossible to get close to such a place and check whether it is dangerous.
  
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Passing ships appear able to decloak you if they're coming out of warp near you. I'm not 100% certain on this one because I've seen cases when it hasn't happened, but for safety's sake (and for general sneakiness) any time you warp in you want to move either up or down off the plane of movement, to be well out of the way of traffic.  
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In any area where you spend any significant amount of time, having at least a few "tactical" on-grid bookmarks near everything of interest—gates, stations, hostile structures and friendly structures—makes a huge difference.
  
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Your own probes - if you're launching probes, keep a close eye on your cloak, as your probes can decloak you while you're moving them around - very easy mistake to make, and very easy to be looking at the map view reorganising your probes and not realise it.  
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For picket scouts, non-aligned bookmarks on grid with but at a nice long distance from whatever you want to picket are very helpful.  
  
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Remember, re: bookmarks around gates, that people spawn about 15 km around a gate, measured from the edge of the gate rather than its centre, and that some gate models are themselves quite large. If a tactical is too close to the gate from the point of view of someone who spawns on the relevant side, it might not be much use.
  
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== Bookmarks: ==
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In combat, the fleet might need you to burn new bookmarks rapidly on the battle grid. This topic crosses over with that of warp-ins, and is covered further below.
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Bookmarks are a significant part of what scouting and covops is about - at least in areas where you can bookmark. You'll slowly collect a large number of bookmarks around any system you frequent and they are your lifeblood - the difference between scouting a system with no bookmarks and scouting one you know your way around is immense, and will change how you operate.
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=== Ship and weapon recognition ===
  
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So, what to bookmark? There's a handful you'll want:  
+
You do ''not'' need a strong grasp of the current combat meta to begin scouting, so don't let that hold you back. Your piloting and your grasp of what intel to prioritize will, though, improve as your knowledge of typical PvP ships and their typical fits improves. There is no easy shortcut to this knowledge, but some things which can help are:
  
−
* Bookmarks warp distance off gates. You want a few bookmarks that are more than 150Km and less than grid size off each gate in each system you go through. You want to be further than 150Km because you want to be able to warp in and that's the minimum distance. Further away is better so long as you can still see ships coming through the gate. You'll spend a lot of your life at these bookmarks watching gate traffic.
+
* reading ship entries on the wiki
 +
* watching (up-to-date) PvP videos on YouTube
 +
* asking questions and talking to more experienced pilots
  
−
There's two ways to get these. The first is to warp to 100Km off a gate then turn in a random away-from-the-gate direction and move (while cloaked) until you're out far enough. This is a great thing to do if you're doing other things, like watching traffic through the gate, or talking with FC.  
+
Experience is the greatest teacher, and getting out there and involved in PvP fleets will do the most to teach you. With time, you will be able to guess how many PvP gangs are likely to fight on-grid as soon as you see their ship composition on d-scan.
  
−
Alternately, warp to 100, bookmark that, then warp to something else at 100 and bookmark that. Then warp back to your first bookmark _at 100_. Presto, you have a spot close to 200Km off the gate. If you do this still move a bit to be off the plane, and don't do your two warp-ins in-line with each other.  
+
''Weapon'' recognition presents a more rarefied challenge. The different weapons in EVE have different models. When you are on-grid with an enemy ship, it is possible to right-click on it, select "look at", and zoom in to see the models. Very experienced PvPers are sometimes able to recognise what kind of weapon a ship has fitted by doing this, and this is of course very helpful tactical info which can help you and the FC assess whether your fleet can take a given fight, and what kind of flying will be needed to snatch victory.
  
−
Incidentally, note that when you come through a gate you come out at 15Km away from the gate - 150Km is your minimum warp distance, so your bookmarks should ideally be more than 165Km away, 170Km+ to be safe.  
+
Again, new players need not feel a pressure to develop weapon recognition skills immediately. If you enjoy scouting, though, it might be something to study in the medium term.
  
−
Try to move off the plane once you have your spot - that's directly up or down - as that'll make you less likely to be found.
+
=== Paste services ===
  
−
*Note, bookmarks are dropped when you hit the final "OK" after naming, not when you first hit the "bookmark" button.
+
Tools such as [https://dscan.info/ dscan.info] and [https://localthreat.xyz/ localthreat] can process the contents of parts of your EVE client when copied from your computer's clipboard.
  
−
Note also, if you can, try and make sure that multiple bookmarks around a gate are far enough away from each other that you can warp between them - that makes hunting down an enemy for a warp-in point much faster (more on that below).  
+
dscan.info will add up and summarize the ships and classes found in a d-scan return. This can save you a lot of time recalling and reporting ships. localthreat will sum up the affiliations and PvP records of every member of Local chat.
  
−
* Bookmarked warp distances off stations. Same rationale as the gate bookmarks.  
+
Both services provide outputs which you can then link in in-game chat.
  
−
* Bookmarked safe spots. You want these to be as non-obvious and non-easy-to-find as possible. Between objects (ie. inline from gate to station) is bad but better than nothing (and can have some uses as they're deceptive to an enemy watching you warp out, assuming you're not moving cloaked). Out at scanned down locations - cosmic anomalies and the like - can be good once they're empty. Use safe spots to generate new safe spots by dropping bookmarks mid-warp between them. Keep creating new safe spots - if you or any of your fleet members turn up in them uncloaked you may burn them and have to throw them away.
+
== Techniques ==
  
−
Note, if you're closer than ship scanner range to other celestial objects you may be spotted (if uncloaked) by any ship using their shipboard scanner. This can happen very quickly so don't assume that just because the fleet stopped in your safe spot for only 60 seconds it hasn't been scanned down. Ship scanners have a range of 14.4AU, so that far from the nearest celestial would be great.
+
=== Warp-ins ===
  
−
* Bookmarks off-grid. These are like the warp-ins for gates and stations, but just off-grid. Off-grid means far enough away from the location in question to not be able to see ships on the overview (typically near the 500Km mark from your location). These are useful for a couple of things - they're great hiding places and they're very close, so if you want to (for instance) setup an ambush, you can bring a fleet to the off-grid position then move yourself closer to watch the gate or station, get a warp-in point, and bring the fleet in quickly. See below for more info on getting warp-in points on targets.  
+
Scouts are often used as warp-in points, as members of the fleet can warp to you.
  
−
To get these, you can either warp and drop a bookmark while warping (this can get you out 1AU or so if you can time it right) or you can simply point away from the station and travel - if you do this at a gate, switch brackets on and watch the gate guns - when they disappear, you're off-grid for ships (which means you can't see ships and they can't see you, but you can still see the larger structures). A little further will take you off-grid for the gate itself.  
+
In its simplest form, this happens when you're close to a target and people warp at 0 to you.
  
−
Quick note on warping in - some bookmarks, particularly safe spots, you may want to warp to at 100 or 70 or similar every so often just so you're not always coming in at the same place. Some bookmarks this can be dangerous for - if you have a bookmark at 160Km on a station and you warp to it at 100Km from the other side of the station, you place yourself at 60Km from the station, which if it's camped may not be what you wanted. Always think about where the bookmarks are in the system - use the map (F10) to get a feel for this.  
+
You can do subtler things by keeping at roughly the right range from a target with the target on a straight line between you and the fleet's location, and calling for the fleet to warp to you at that range.  
  
−
Some more notes on bookmarks: http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Safe_Spot_Bookmarking
+
It is extremely important that you communicate clearly about what range the fleet should warp at. There is a big difference between being at 0 from an enemy and being 70 km from them.
  
−
There's an excellent article on bookmarking on the Agony site (assuming it stays accessible) http://www.agony-unleashed.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.17
+
You can give a fleet warp-ins within the same grid, if they're more than 150 km away from you.
  
−
== Bookmark Organisation: ==
+
If a fleet warps to you at 100 and you are 155 km away from them, they will only warp 55 km. Sometimes this trick can be used to surprise enemies with very short on-grid warps. For example, if there are enemies sitting 80 km off a gate, and you get to a position about 180 or 190 km off the gate and behind the enemy in turn, your gang or fleet can come through the gate, warp to you at 100, and stand a decent chance of landing near the enemy.
−
 
−
As you build up your bookmarks, organisation of them will become important. You can leave them all in the main folder, but that folder will take longer and longer to load - and a delay on getting to your bookmarks may be an issue.
 
  
−
A better approach is to create the following folders:  stargates, stations, celestial objects, POSes, safe spots, people - that's six folders.  Then, as you bookmark, move the bookmark into the relevant folder (I use the "people" folder for bookmarks near other people's warp-in points or supposed safe spots).  That way, your right-click drop-down of bookmarks has a nice organisation and is easy to quickly get what you want - it will only ever present you bookmarks in your system anyway.  This scheme also means that bookmarks you want to treat as temporary, you can just leave unfoldered and clean up later.
+
Remember that it is not possible to warp to fleet members in [[deadspace]], either from outside the deadspace area or from within it.
  
−
Note, however, that while bookmarks are stored server-side, the folders are stored client-side.  At some point during your career, you are very likely to lose your folders - at which point everything reverts to one big mess.  So, in your naming scheme, include a marker for each type of bookmark - SS for safespot, SG for stargate, etc.  That way, if/when you do lose your folders, you can re-create them.
+
=== Probing ===
  
−
Incidentally, a folder per system looks appealing initially, but it suffers similar problems to not foldering at all - there's too many systems out there, your main folder ends up cluttered.  Because the right-click drop-down menu already filters for you on system, it's also a bit redundant.
+
{{main|Probe scanning}}
  
−
Come up with a naming convention that suits you - something that makes it clear where the bookmark is and what it's for. Ideally also include some info about how far the bookmark is from other objects of interest.  Keep your bookmark names to within 24 characters, for readability.
+
When a target is at a safespot, in a mission, or at a place which would need to be probed down (e.g., a wormhole, an exploration site), it is necessary to probe down their location. Probes can also be used to set up on-grid warp-ins.
  
−
== Moving around: ==
+
The basic mechanics of combat-scanning for targets as a scout are very similar to scanning for sites in exploration. However, time presses much more acutely, as a target might see the probes on their own directional scan and then flee.
  
−
Obviously, your goal is always to stay cloaked, but to position yourself where you can see what's going on with your potential enemies or "neutrals". To that end, it's worth understanding how grids and on and off-grid positioning work - there's a nice write-up that goes through the more in-depth mechanics of "grid fu" at http://will.neoprimitive.net/grids/gridfumanual2.pdf - very useful to understand when you find yourself 100Km off a station but unable to see anyone.  
+
You can work something about the right area of the system in which to probe by using your own directional scanner. If you're in a cloaked ship and the target is not yet likely to have been spooked by, for example, your ally in an interceptor appearing on scan, you can warp to different locations and triangulate. If the system is large enough, you can then
  
−
Moving through gates rates a mention - if you are fitted with MWD's, there's a sequence of "double click a direction, hit the MWD, hit the cloak" that gives you a short burst of speed while still cloaking. This can be useful for putting some space between you and the gate or any watchful eyes.  If you use this, it's best to also change direction once you've triggered the cloak, just to be sure the prying eyes aren't able to work out where you've gone.
+
# warp to a location out of d-scan range of the target
 +
# uncloak and drop your probes there, where they can't see you on d-scan
 +
# (optionally: cloak and head back towards something nearer the target, so as to be near for the warp on top of them)
 +
# run a probe scan centred on the target's location
  
−
== Warp-in Points: ==
+
With good luck and precise judgment of the target's location, you can pull off a single-cycle scan. A soon as you have the signature resolved, pull your probes, so as to give only the minimum time for the target to spot them on d-scan.
−
 
  
−
You'll sometimes be asked by your FC to try and get a warp-in point on a target. This basically means staying cloaked, and maneuvering into a position that's a warp-in distance away from the target (ie. a number that appears on the "warp to at..." drop-down) and also in-line with somewhere the fleet can be. In other words, you ideally want something like this:
+
If you're working with another scout who entered the system before you, ask them to convey what they can work out from their own d-scan about the target's place in space. You can then work from that information to try to single-cycle the target. If you and another scout are at different places and have the target on d-scan, you can communicate triangulation with them. If you have allies in system, beware of the risk of probing them down too. Stay alert to their likely locations and remember their ship types.
  
−
Fleet ------- Target -- You  
+
If your FC asks for an on-grid probed warp-in on an enemy gang which is over 150km away, drop probes, click the button which centres them on your location, and run a cycle at minimum range. This should resolve 100% signatures on the enemy ships. You can use ship type to be sure that you have the right target.
  
−
Where the fleet is some distance away, out of sight, and you're about 50-100Km away on the other side of the target. Distance from enemy is at your discretion, you ideally want it to match up with the warp-in distances so the fleet can drop directly on top of the enemy (or at appropriate range - that bit's up to the FC to organise  ). You don't want the fleet to have to warp through the target, is the only note here, as that gives the target time to see them and run.
+
=== Punting ===
  
−
This is one of the trickier things to do, mainly because the target will often keep moving. One tip, if the target's warping in and out: Note the distance to the target, note your move speed, and double-click right near them to move toward them. If they warp out, keep moving - time yourself to try and position roughly where you want to be (remembering it's better to be too far away, than right on top of their warp-in point, otherwise they may decloak you). Drop lots of bookmarks while doing this, you can always go clean them up later, and they mean you can warp out and back and resume where you left off.  
+
A pilot in a command position in a fleet can initiate warp for every pilot who is below them in the fleet hierarchy, A common use for this ability is to have a scout who has probed down a target warp themselves ''and'' other fleet members onto the target. This is "punting".
  
−
If you do find an enemies' safe spot, or a warp-in point for a popular location for an enemy, make sure you've bookmarked it - they're valuable so long as the enemy doesn't realise you've got it.  
+
To punt, you must be above the pilots you wish to send into warp in the fleet hierarchy. A typical solution to this problem is to make a fleet's probing scout the nominal fleet commander in the in-game fleet hierarchy, so that they can warp anyone around if they wish to.
  
−
One other small note on this: If you're scouting for a sniper-heavy fleet, you may actually sit between the target and the fleet - the idea is if you're 30Km from the target toward the fleet, the fleet can then warp to you at 50Km and they're perfect sniping distance away. Depends a lot on the situation though, and not likely to be done in a Uni fleet.
+
==== Punt checklist ====
  
 +
# Punter is above punted pilots in fleet hierarchy
 +
# Punter is on grid with punted pilots
 +
# Punter and punted pilots are both more than 150 km away from warp target
 +
# Pilots to be punted are not invulnerable from, e.g., gate cloak, post-warp or post-undock invulnerability, or [[Tethering|tether]]
  
−
== Overview: ==
+
==== Punting advice ====
−
 
  
−
The overview requirements for a scout are different than for normal fliers. Your job is to see as much as possible, rather than only the enemies. First of all, switch brackets on - that gives you a clearer view of things like gate guns that are otherwise tricky to see. Include neutrals and war targets - neutral may be out of corp repairers or alt scouts. Take your corpmates out, but everything else should show.
+
Make sure that the other pilots you wish to punt are on grid with you. Call for them to warp to you (at range, if you are cloaked) if they aren't. While finishing the probe scan, give the members to be punted the best instructions you can about where in the system they should be aligned to. If in doubt about whether the FC wants you to punt immediately on probe completion, speak up and clarify ''while'' the probes are running, not when they finish.
  
−
Create a second tab that just shows war targets also, so you can quickly and easily identify all war targets and get that information out to your FC, in case a fleet is travelling past you.
+
If you are punting in a cloaked covert ops frigate, you probably don't want to arrive at 0 on the target yourself. Make sure you're ''not'' aligned towards the target signature, initiate the punt warp, and then press {{button|ctrl}} - {{button|space}} to cancel your own warp. You can then warp to the signature at range if you want to. If you are punting in a scouting T3D, you probably ''do'' want to arrive at 0 on the target ship, to tackle it. You can roughly align, initiate the punt warp and go along for the ride.
  
−
http://www.eve-ivy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Varius_Arcturus%27_Overview_Guide has more information on general overview settings and how to set things up as per above
+
Sometimes an FC will ask you to punt just other scouts and tacklers. You want to send them to the target at 0. If you are punting the whole fleet, you might be asked to initiate two punts, starting with an "at-zero" punt for tackle and any close-range damage ships, and following it up with an "at-range" punt for [[EWAR]] ships, [[logistics]], and ranged damage-dealers. Your fellow pilots will have to stay alert and cancel the first warp if they want to arrive at range. The desired range for an at-range punt varies, though 50 is common.
  
−
== Fleet Ops - X'ing up ==
+
Whatever type of punt you are engaged in, clear communication with both the FC and the pilots you are going to punt is essential. Don't be afraid to repeat questions and seek clear confirmation for key details.
−
 
  
−
Uni policy is that scouts do not X up with the rest of the fleet. If you see a fleet forming, directly convo the FC and ask if they want a scout, Nine times out of ten, they will, and they'll drop you into a separate wing so you don't get ninja warped around with everyone else . Likewise, scouts don't get listed on AAR's. Secrecy is important to being a good scout - if people know your name, they'll notice you in local easily.
+
== Communication ==
  
−
If you're in a covops ship and a fleet is around, or you've logged in after fleet has formed, don't be afraid to convo the FC and ask if they'd like another scout - scouts are about the only type of pilots that can usefully join a fleet mid-op depending on where the fleet is and where you are. I figure it's better to offer and be turned down than not.
+
=== What to say ===
  
−
== Scouting: ==
+
==== During fleet movement ====
  
−
Most Uni fleets will look for a forward scout and a rear scout, and any number of floating scouts. Forward and floating should be covops ships, rear can be a prototype cloak ship in a pinch, but covops preferred. You may also see or hear reference to "+1" and "+2" scouts, and sometimes "-1" - these are just another way to refer to forward scouts (staying 1 or 2 jumps ahead of the fleet), or rear scouts (one jump behind).
+
As a +1 scout, the FC should at minimum be hearing from you about the status of the next system's Local, d-scan evidence, and in-gate / out-gate grids.
  
−
The forward scout's role is to check each gate before the fleet warps to it. As a forward scout, you want to be able to warp to a gate bookmark, check that the gate is clear and give the go-ahead, then warp to zero on the gate and jump through to check the other side. If you don't have bookmarks, this process gets tougher - you're reduced to either travelling uncloaked (bad), travelling cloaked to the gate (slow), or bouncing off a remote celestial to do a warp to zero when you want to go through the gate. So bookmarks are valuable here.  
+
As a roaming scout, personal judgements need to be made about what you're watching when, and what you pass on up to the FC.
  
−
Rear scouts watch the back of the fleet, to make sure no-one's following. They'll typically stay one jump behind the fleet, and need to watch for neutrals or suspicious behaviour. This is arguably tougher than forward scout, as you'll need to be watching not only for obvious war targets, but also for neutrals who "happen" to be following or showing up often.
+
However, two things are key:
  
−
Floating scouts have a slightly freer job - depending on your FC, they'll either be carefully positioned by FC instruction to watch different gates and/or neighbouring systems, or they'll be free to move around and look for WT's. Floating and forward is pretty much interchangable depending on FC decisions.  
+
# if the FC tells you to be somewhere, '''get there'''; and
 +
# if you see something that needs investigating and move off your last instruction, clearly '''inform the FC'''.
  
−
Reporting war target sightings - do this as calmly as possible, and as clearly as possible. Good reporting would be "command, darius, I have one cerberus on the korsiki gate in osmon, jumping through to you now". Bad reporting would be "hey guys, there's a war target coming at you!". TS discipline in the uni at least is always lead with the channel name (that's "command" in the above example) and your name so the FC knows who's talking where, then provide the ship type and location, optionally war target name and any other details you might have.
+
The FC cannot make good decisions on faulty intel. Make sure they understand the environment around them as best you can. That includes making sure they're not assuming you're somewhere you're not.
  
−
A note on TeamSpeak operation - as scout, you are perfectly within your rights to overtalk someone if something urgent comes up - typically you do that by saying "check check" in the command channel, people should then stop and listen. Obviously you would only use this for really urgent information, like a war target incoming to a fleet position.
+
==== When tackling ====
  
−
== Use of Local ==
+
When going in for [[Tackling|tackle]] on a target, call "point" as soon as you have the target pointed, or "scram" if you are using a warp scrambler. You should be on everyone's watchlist, but it doesn't hurt to type "www" in fleet chat so people know who to warp to.
  
−
While you're scouting, you're looking for certain things. First of all, valid targets or threats - during war that's any of our War Targets, outside of war it's anyone who's "red flashy" (sec status below -5). You're also looking for high concentrations of a single corp (particularly if you're hunting pirates and see a bunch of one pirate corp in channel), and/or anyone that appears to be an out-of-corp alt for a target or potential target (that's neutral pilots following you or hanging around on gates looking suspicious).
+
If the fleet will have to take one or more acceleration gates to get to you, say so on comms. If the fleet will be coming in from a system next-door, it is useful to let the FC and fleet know roughly what length of warp they must do to get to you ("20 AU warp"). If the fleet is going to have to travel from several systems away, it can be helpful to drag the system name from the top left of your screen into fleet chat, so members can right-click on it and set it as destination.
  
−
Your best tool is the local channel.  Squash it width-wise, and extend it out length-wise on your screen - you usually don't care about what's said in local as much as you care about the list of people in there.
+
If the target presents a threat to you then, while waiting for the fleet to arrive, communicate with your FC and any other scouts about whether they want to cling on and if necessary sacrifice your ship, or whether they want you to get out if you are in serious danger. This depends on many factors, including the fleet's travel time to you, the value of the target, and how easy it will be for you to re-ship. If the target is hurting you, ask fleet members to indicate when they have secondary tackle ("Please call secondaries when you land"), which will let you know when you no longer have to keep the target tackled.
  
−
Be aware that the symbols (red minuses etc) will sometimes not show up in the local list.  Ideally, you need to be checking info on pilots in local as you travel.  A quick hint:  Don't use the right-click drop-down for "show info", as the "start conversation" option is right next door.  Instead, double-click people in local - it goes to info by default and is less risky.
+
==== In combat ====
  
−
Often you'll be asked to jump into a system and check what's there.  Typically this will be jump in, move and cloak, and work your way through the people in local noting down any who are potential targets.  Then report back the number of targets and whether you can actually see any or not (ie. are they all on the gate you just came through waiting ;)  Typically, if there's anything of interest you'll then be asked to try and track them down - get eyes on them.  That's a mix of jumping around the stations, and probing - covered elsewhere in this doc.
+
If you decide on your own initiative to go in for a scram pass<sup>[unclear what "scram pass" means]</sup>, announce the fact; if you hear the FC call for a scram pass, attempt it, and call if it succeeds.
  
−
== Scanning down the opponent: ==
+
In a mobile gang-versus-gang fight, you might find yourself flying a "screening" role between the two gangs. If so, communicate clearly when you see something coming in ("ramming") towards your own gang, and call if or when you scram it to hold it off and, potentially, to hold it down while your allies kill it.
−
 
  
−
If you can fit an extended probe launcher, then it's well worth getting some practice at using probes. The Apocrypha scanning system makes one particular type of probing well worthwhile. It goes something like this:
+
In a gang-versus-gang brawl, the FC might ask pilots to spread tackle. With the mobility of a scouting ship, and potentially the very long tackle range of an interceptor, if you're flying an interceptor, you might find it useful to stay in the fight and consistently point one type of target in the target-calling sequence ("FC, Stiletto will be pointing secondary targets as you call them").
  
−
* Warp to a safe spot, decloak, and launch 4 probes. Cloak up again.  
+
You might decide to, or be asked to, burn new tactical warp positions on the grid. If so, communicate clearly when you are at a desired tactical warp position. You can, again, put "www" in fleet chat.
  
−
* warp back to where you want to keep some eyes on. Be sure you're still cloaked - I've had issues with being decloaked as I warp off after launching probes, still not sure why (may be the probes themselves decloaking me).  
+
You might also decide to, or be asked to, return to the intel-gathering part of scouting. If so, move out of the fight or even totally off-grid, and return to using d-scan and Local to monitor the surrounding space. Combat comms can be busy, so triage the information you pass on to the FC: a new gang spiking Local is significant and must be reported; a single newly-arriving damage-dealing ship at or below the size class of the existing enemies might not be crucial if the FC is busy communicating a tactical move; a single potential hard cyno definitely requires a call-out ("FC, hostile Pilgrim just jumped in from Agoze").
  
−
* Hit F10, switch all your probes down to 0.5AU, and move them to a nice neat small circle around whatever you're monitoring - typically a gate or station.
+
==== After combat ====
  
−
The goal here is to provide enough scan strength in 0.5AU around the location to find any ships that have warped off-grid nearby. With half-decent skills, you should get a fix on anything cruiser and up pretty much straight away. So, you just keep hitting the scan button every so often. If you get a hit on something just away from your location, bookmark it, and warp to it at 100. You can then scope out the area, see if it's a worthwhile target, maybe get a warp-in point - all hopefully without your enemy knowing.  
+
The moments after a fight, whether victorious, disastrous, or somewhere in between, are often some of the most dangerous in a fleet's life. Stay calm, look at d-scan, Local, and the map, and communicate with the FC about your next steps, whether those are hunting, extraction, or something else.
  
−
Note, this also works for bookmarking people's insta-undocks, and their safe spots around gates. That also means that if you're helping an uncloaked fleet around, be aware that even just off-grid they may be visible to enemy scouts now. Also, be aware that your probes show up on people's ship scanners, so if they suspect you're out there, they may pop their ship scanner, see your probes, and run.
+
=== How to say it ===
  
−
There's an excellent guide to scanning generally at http://www.eve-ivy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15856
+
In almost all fleets, scouts have a near-total license to speak up and talk over people when they have intel to report: this is one of the privileges of the role. You are the eyes of the fleet: feel able to cut in if necessary. If cutting in, say "break-break" or "check-check" at the start of your report to get everyone else to shut up.
−
There's also a wiki page on [[Scanning & Probing]]
 
  
−
Be aware that if you're doing this, anyone clever (anyone using their ship scanners) will notice the probes and high-tail it out quickly. But if you can catch their warp-in or warp-out points, it may help you track them down next time they warp through the area.  
+
Voices on voice comms do not always come with labels: different programs have different overlay options, and inevitably some people can't get their overlay to work. If there is any chance of ambiguity about who you are, refer to yourself in the third person.
  
−
Probing like this may also be a distraction - I've had fleet commanders that specifically ask for the scout to probe down targets for them, and I've had fleet commanders that would rather keep you on the move, so it will depend on the type of fleet, purpose of fleet, and whim of the FC as to whether this is a serious part of your duties. It's worth getting some practice in on, imnsho, as it does get asked for, and some FC's will assume you are capable of doing this.
+
Corporations and alliances in EVE often have members with very different accents; some people will be communicating in a second language, and variation among first-language speakers can also be a problem (differences between British and US accents, for instance, can be quite confusing!). You can use the [[Voice procedure#Phonetics|NATO phonetic alphabet]] to spell out any crucial information which might otherwise be hard to grasp. System names, for instance, can be stated naturally and then phonetically: "Local spike in ''emm aitch see'', seven new neuts in ''Mike Hotel Charlie''."
  
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Quick small note - if you're looking for a POS, remember that POSes must be on-grid with moons, so if you stay cloaked and warp from moon to moon, you may find POSes faster than if you try and scan for them (they'll show up in overview when you warp in) - assuming there's not too many moons in system. Beware of warping into the POS, though.
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Stay alert to easily-confused words. The [[Ares]] and the [[Eris]], for instance, sound very similar in many accents: an FC needs to know about both ships, but they present different tactical problems. It helps to say "An Ares, interceptor" or "An Eris, bubbler".
  
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== Freedom and Rules: ==
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In larger fleets, in EVE Uni or elsewhere, there will probably be multiple nested voice channels, so be careful about your use of whisper/shout keys. In larger fleets with many moving parts and multiple scouts, a private conversation channel shared between scouts, or shared between scouts and FC, can be an excellent halfway house space, where info which is valuable but not immediately pressing can be linked or typed.
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In such fleets communication must become more formalised.
  
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There is some personal style that comes in here, as scouting can be a freer role than some others in fleet - personal judgements need to be made about what you're watching when. However, two things are important: If the FC tells you to be somewhere, get there, and if you see something that needs investigating and move off your last instruction, clearly inform the FC you're about to do that. The FC cannot make good decisions on faulty intel, make sure they understand the environment around them as best you can - that includes making sure they're not assuming you're somewhere you're not.  
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Different groups have different protocols but one formalised way to report information on comms is to name the sub-channel to which you're talking, then name yourself, then deliver your information: "Command [=name of sub-channel], Uryence [=name of speaker], Uniform-Mike-Tac thirty-six in local, Caracal gang with logi sitting on Mike-Hotel-Charlie gate, d-scan linked in intel chat [=information]."
  
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I've personally found a combination of both command channel on TS and a text chat channel in game provides a good balance - if your FC + WCs + other scouts are in a text chat channel, low priority notes can go there without interrupting voice chat. I've also had a few fleets where the scouts have setup a channel amongst themselves only, to discuss where they are and what's happening - that can also be useful, think of it as squad chat for scouts.
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== Further reading ==
  
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One more note:  As at time of writing, covops scouts are under the same restrictions as other pilots - that is, they are not allowed to move around unless they are attached to a fleet or have direct allowance from an Intel co-ordinator.  So you cannot unfortunately stay undocked unless you're a member of intel.
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* [[The Rookie's Guide to Fleet Ops]]
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* [[Tackling]]
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* [[Directional scanning]]
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* [[Bookmarks]]
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* [[Safe spots]]
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* [[Probe scanning]]
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* [[Cloaking]]
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* [[Manual piloting]] and [[Advanced piloting techniques]]
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* [[Wormhole Community Scouting Guide]]
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* [[Jump drives]]
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* [[Topology]]
  
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Well, that's pretty much it for now. I'm sure I've missed things, and bear in mind I'm only a new scout, so I'm looking for feedback from more experienced scouts. Best thing to do is get out there in your scout ship and practice, set up bookmarks around gates and stations in your common hunting areas, and don't be afraid to volunteer to scout for fleets as they setup - everyone loves an extra scout
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[[Category:Fleets]]
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[[Category:PvP]]
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[[Category:Guides]]

Latest revision as of 08:22, 29 November 2023

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Scouting in EVE involves gathering information around or ahead of the current location of a group of other players, to help the group succeed in their goals. Often a scout ship is also equipped to tackle targets and start fights. Almost all PvP fleets and gangs in EVE have at least one scout, and some PvE fleets also use scouts.

Scouting can be demanding and dangerous, but basic scouting requires minimal player experience or character skills, and can offer a lot of satisfaction in helping fellow players succeed. The role has a high ceiling for skilled play and good scouts are a welcome asset in many player corporations.

The skills and knowledge developed in scouting cover many aspects of PvP, and therefore synergize extremely well with both solo PvP and fleet command.

Since scouting is by its very nature a gang/fleet role, very new players should also consult the the Rookie's Guide to Fleet Ops. They should not, though, hold back from trying scouting out if they are curious! Scouting is one role where even a novice player can make a big difference, and some of the ships used have relatively low SP requirements.

Scout roles

Some scouting is purely defensive: a group of players is doing something or travelling somewhere, and need one or more scouts to check how safe the space around the group is, and to warn of incoming threats.

Some scouting is defensive and offensive: a fleet needs one or more scouts to warn of threats, but also to locate weaker or even opponents. In some cases, offensive scouting will also involve tackling a target ship to hold it down and start a fight.

The ships and tactics used can vary a lot depending on which of these goals a scout has, and which kind of space they're flying in.

Picket

Picket scouts watch and wait in one location: one system, and often just one point in space, such as a gate or wormhole. Some example uses for picket scouts:

  • a group of players in high sec run missions during wartime in a pocket of systems, with a picket scout on a chokepoint gate leading to their location to spot incoming enemies
  • the residents of a wormhole system keep a cloaked ship on-grid with each wormhole in their home so that they can see any interlopers
  • a jump freighter pilot has friends watching movements in a low-sec transit system that is on their jump route, so that they can pick a safe moment to move their freighter through
  • a small nullsec alliance has a picket scout in their local rivals' home system, so they can tell when their rivals are running black ops fleets
  • the FC team of a major coalition keep cloaked alts in the staging systems of their opponents, so that they can track capital and supercapital movements

Medium- or long-term picket scouting is often provided by alts. In high security space an alt in an NPC corporation can sit in a system or on a gate safely in a corvette; in other types of space, even a basic Tech 1 frigate with a prototype cloak works perfectly well, and requires minimal skill training investment. In nullsec, an interdictor with a prototype cloak makes a surprisingly good picket scout for a gate, as it can rapidly uncloak, warp to the gate, and drop a bubble to close the way.

+1/-1

Travelling fleets are very often preceded by an advance scout moving one system ahead of the main fleet, commonly called a "+1" or "plus one".

Jumping through a gate is one of the most vulnerable moments in a fleet's journey, as the jump mechanics scatter fleet members physically around their in-gate whenever they spawn into a new system. Having a +1 scout should at minimum guarantee that the fleet doesn't slam into a hostile gang without warning. In space with an automatically-populated Local Chat member list, a +1 also makes for a much less obvious presence than the whole fleet appearing in Local at once.

For PvP fleets, a +1 also often needs to hunt, and a typical sequence of actions on system entry for a hunting PvP +1 scout might run as follows:

  1. check that grid around the in-gate is clear
  2. check numbers in Local and note any important players (e.g. war targets in high security space)
  3. check the directional scanner at full 360 degrees and maximum range around the in-gate
  4. report immediate status of the in-gate, Local, and first d-scan to the FC
  5. warp to any other parts of the system not covered by the initial d-scan, while assessing the corps of the people present in Local
  6. if nothing else is discovered, proceed to the out-gate, report out-gate status to FC, and move on

A "-1" or "minus one" scout performs essentially the same role, but secures the system behind a fleet instead.

Interceptors and covert ops frigates make excellent +1 ships, and interceptors in particular are ideal for the hunting +1 role. A Tech 1 tackling frigate can do quite well. Moreover, any ship can be pressed into service as a +1 scout in an emergency, and an FC who has lost all their scouts should pick an experienced pilot with a working mic in the fastest and most agile ship available.

In wormhole space, which prioritises stealth and probing more than known space, covert ops frigates and covert-configuration strategic cruisers can offer advantages over other options.

Interdictors can work well as -1 scouts, because this role synergizes well with their ability to slow down pursuers by bubbling gates.

Roaming hunter

A PvP fleet can field one or more roaming hunter scouts, who will move with more freedom of initiative through systems on or near the fleet's route, seeking incautious pilots in vulnerable PvE ships or hostile gangs.

Although roaming scouts provide additional security and can warn of approaching threats, their actions tend to be more purely focused on finding and developing fights. The distance which they can roam away from their core fleet depends on the fleet's speed, travel direction, and purpose: some fleets will pause on a journey for incidental targets of opportunity but will not chase fights, while other fleets might be in space solely to find PvP.

Roaming scouts typically report less detailed information to their FC, to keep comms clearer and avoid information overload. PvP threats and targets definitely deserve mention; that you are transiting an entirely empty system that doesn't lie on the fleet's route is probably not useful info. An FC and any roaming scouts must both work to make sure they understand how far the scouts might roam, to make sure they share a sense for what kinds of PvP opportunities the fleet will take, and to make sure that the FC has a working knowledge of roughly where the roaming scouts are.

Interceptors are ideal ships for roaming scouts in known space, as their high warp speed and short align times let them cover a great deal of ground, while their high survivability compared to other frigates gives them a better chance of holding a target or keeping a hostile gang interested until allies can get to the scene. Strategic cruisers have more limited range, as they warp more slowly, but they can use stealth to their advantage, can probe, and can fit reasonable tanks, so they can also have their uses. In wormhole space, cloaking ships of all kinds see more use.

Cyno hunter

Almost all ships which can fit a covert ops cloak can also fit a covert cynosural field ("cyno") generator, which lets a Black Ops Tech 2 battleship bridge and teleport other stealthy ships into battle while circumventing the normal gate network. Force recon ships and Black Ops battleships can fit a normal or "hard" cyno generator, which lets a Titan bridge any ships into battle. Some industrial ships can light an industrial cyno, and Black Ops battleships can bridge to these too. Specialized scouts can fly these ships not for a nearby fleet, but for a fleet "staged" and ready to bridge to a cyno.

Scouting as a cyno ship uses many of the same skills as other "hunting" roles, but can often emphasize cunning and stealth over raw speed. Force recons and covert-configured strategic cruisers can fit reasonable tanks and can have special abilities which make them very powerful cyno hunters: the Minmatar Loki and Rapier, for instance, can use very long-ranged webs to pin a target in place as their allies arrive. Other ships, such as the Venture and Prospect, offer attractively cheap "throwaway" options which might look less threatening if opponents spot them at gate transitions. Stealth Bombers have the unique ability to begin target-locking immediately on uncloaking, though this must be weighed against their paper-thin tanks.

Typical ships

T1 tackle frigates

Each of the four main factions has one Tech 1 frigate with a high base speed and a role bonus which cuts the capacitor use of tackle modules by 80%. They all also have a higher base warp speed (8 AU/s) than other frigate hulls (normally 5 AU/s).

These ships lack the survivability of the true interceptors, but they are nevertheless very viable as basic scouting and tackling ships for newer characters, able to move swiftly through systems, point a target for crucial seconds, and move around fast on a combat grid to create warp-ins.

Fleet interceptors

Interceptors are Tech 2 versions of the Tech 1 tackle frigates. They keep the tackle capacitor consumption reduction and high warp speed from their Tech 1 base hulls, but are much faster and do not have their signature radii bloomed nearly as much by using a microwarpdrive. Fleet interceptors get additional bonuses to the range of tackle modules, making them ideal tacklers.

Fleet interceptors can also be fitted with an interdiction nullifier which can make them temporarily immune to bubbles, at the cost of a permanent halving of their targeting range. This loss of targeting range is a significant trade-off, and many fleet interceptor fits do not use a nullifier so as to have better tackling abilities.

The fleet interceptors are:

Fleet interceptors are very popular as +1/-1 scouts and roaming hunters in known space.

The other four interceptors, combat interceptors, are not as good as pure tacklers, but they get huge bonuses to the effects of overheating propulsion modules, which can make them handy for catching and killing other small ships, and for burning new bookmarks or warp-ins very quickly.

Tactical destroyers

Tech 3 Tactical Destroyers ("T3Ds") are small, fast, highly flexible ships which can align like an interceptor, and can fit an expanded probe launcher, tackle modules, and a meaningful tank all at once. These qualities make them popular tools for probing down and catching targets which are at safe spots or are in mission sites, because a T3D can probe like a covops frigate and then immediately warp to the target and go for tackle. A T3D can also punt (see below) very effectively, landing both itself and one or more other scouts on top of the target at once.

However, T3Ds cannot fit a covert ops cloak like a covert ops ship, and nor can they warp as fast as an interceptor or tackle at extra-long ranges as an interceptor can, so they are less ideally suited as +1 scouts or general hunters. Often a T3D pilot will travel with the fleet core, only following a +1 or roaming interceptor into a system when it becomes clear that a target must be probed.

The T3Ds are:

Covert ships

A striking variety of ships in EVE can fit a covert ops cloak and warp while cloaked. This extremely powerful ability means they can be anywhere in a system watching while unseen, though the pilot will be present in Local chat's member list if they are in known space; they only have to break cloak and become visible on-grid and on the directional scanner when they enter a system and transition from post-jump gate cloak to covert ops cloak.

Covert ships make excellent picket scouts. They are also extremely popular scouts in wormhole space, where the shifting geography, the lack of automatic Local chat memberlists, and the need to probe most places of interest down all emphasize stealth, cunning, and the ability to probe over the high-speed surprise tactics used by interceptor pilots.

Covert ops frigates ("covops") warp at 8 AU/s like interceptors and have strong probing bonuses, making them excellent for rapidly assessing systems, and for scanning down targets or wormholes. The Buzzard and Anathema have bonuses for precise probing, while the Cheetah and Helios have bonuses which let them move faster on-grid when cloaked, which is handy for getting good warp-ins. All covops frigates have very weak defenses and cannot fit strong tanks: they can function as tacklers if they absolutely must, but they will not survive long against a target with any kind of damage capacity.

Stealth Bombers have the unique ability to lock up a target immediately after uncloaking, which gives them a niche role—besides their main purpose as grouped damage-dealers—as surprise tacklers. They, too, do not tank well and cannot be asked to survive long in direct combat. They are also slower to align and slower in warp than covops frigates.

Strategic Cruisers ("T3Cs") can be configured to use a covert ops cloak and bonused scanner probes, while also having decent tanks and dealing meaningful damage on their own account. They therefore make powerful probing scouts, and can take initial tackle and stand a decent chance of surviving in combat until allies arrive, or even of defeating weaker targets solo. Since they are slower to align than frigates and warp at half the speed of interceptors and covops frigates, they are slower to get to target locations and have smaller functional roaming ranges. They are also more expensive and, being slower, more vulnerable to gatecamps.

Force Recons are the smallest and cheapest ships which can light a normal or "hard" cyno, to which a Titan can bridge any ship. As such, they are a popular option for hunting with a hard cyno. They can fit meaningful tanks, and most of them have powerful abilities which can help them survive: the Pilgrim has strong capacitor warfare, the Arazu can tackle from long ranges, and the Rapier can hold a target still with very long-ranged webs. Compared to T3Cs, Recons have only limited DPS capacity, but this matters less for scouts anyway. Their main drawbacks are that they are relatively expensive, that they travel and lock more slowly than smaller ships, and that opponents may assume a hard cyno and pre-emptively escalate if they spot a force recon travelling or hunting.

Some other ships can use covert ops cloaks and have niche uses as scouts: the Prospect can work well as a BLOPS cyno hunter, and it would be possible, if wasteful, to scout defensively in a blockade runner.

Other ships

In some circumstances, other ships can be useful scouts, or can be used as scouts in the absence of anything better.

As noted above, almost any ship equipped with just a prototype cloak can be an adequate picket ship for an expendable alt character. In warfare in high security space, where gathering intel while blending into busy systems can be useful, an out-of-corp alt in a PvE, mining, or trade ship typical of the local area can do good work. If a roaming PvP fleet loses all of its designated scouts, the smallest, fastest ships present can be pressed into service as +1 scouts.

Tools

Local

In high-sec, low-sec, and known null-sec space, the Local chat window lists everyone present in the system. Pilots still appear in Local even if they are docked up or cloaked. This makes Local a vital intelligence tool for making the most basic assessment of a system: "Is anyone else in here with me?"

Make sure that your Local chat member list is visible at all times. Many players like to stretch it from the top to the bottom of one side of their screen.

If you are flying as +1 you will typically report Local's status as one of the first pieces of information you send back to the FC. If a system is empty or only has blue-standings pilots in it, you will say something like "Oicx [or, better for clarity, Oscar India Charlie] is empty / Oicx is blue / We own Oicx". If there are others present, give the number of members listed in Local chat, minus one for yourself: "Oicx, seven in Local, in-gate clear, initial d-scan clear".

If Local has other people in it but only a few then, while moving around a system checking for targets or threats, you can also be assessing who those people are, by double-clicking on them in Local's member list and checking their corporations, alliances, and employment histories. If there are five other people in local, three combat ships on scan, and three of the five people in Local are in the same alliance, this is obviously significant information to pass on!

If the rest of the fleet is not immediately busy in combat, you can ask to have someone run one or more characters from Local through zKill and report back on whether they are primarily PvE or PvP pilots, what types of ships they regularly fly, and even details of recent ship fits. Drag the character name from Local into the fleet chat window to create a link your fleetmates can use, then add the request on comms ("Can someone run zKill on this guy, please?"). An organized hunting fleet sometimes designates a player for this purpose, and in a large fleet the scouts and FC might use a separate intel text channel to deal with this.

Potential threats or targets will probably, of course, also be watching Local, and are likely to spot you, which is one good reason to be as fast and efficient in checking a system as possible.

In Pochven and wormhole space, Local only lists members when they say something in Local that you see. Naturally, people do not normally say anything in Local in these systems, and so Local will not normally have anyone in it and can be ignored. On the plus side, this means that people won't necessarily know that you are in-system, either.

D-scan

Main article: Directional scanning

The basic mechanics of d-scan are covered well in this wiki's directional scanning article. EVE University also runs d-scan classes, and YouTube hosts numerous useful videos showing helpful techniques.

Once you have grasped the basics of how d-scan works, the key to getting better is simply lots and lots and lots of practice.

Maps

Having a map open, on a second screen if possible, hugely enhances your ability to do basic navigation.

In known space and Pochven, this is likely to be Dotlan or another third-party mapping site. Use your map to spot chokepoints, pockets, and pipes which might present opportunities or dangers for your fleet. Your FC will be making similar judgments and in a small- or mid-sized fleet you can confer with them and with any other scouts about potential places to hunt or check. Dotlan can present various types of data, of which the most important a lot of the time are:

  • NPC delta, the change in the number of NPC kills recently: this helps you spot areas where potential targets might be doing PvE.
  • Ship/pod kills: this lets you see where combat has recently been happening.
  • Jumps: this lets you quickly see where people are travelling, and it helps to highlight well-travelled chokepoints.

Refresh Dotlan to make sure you catch data updates. The in-game map is less clear, and will take up part or all of your main screen, but does have more up-to-date data, so it is also worth checking intermittently.

In wormhole space, you will likely be flying with your group's chosen wormhole mapping tool. The EVE University Wormhole Community uses Pathfinder; other groups might be using other tools, such as Tripwire. Whatever tool you're using, pay close attention to any information recorded such as:

  • Hole size: this has implications for what kinds of threats and backup can get to you.
  • Hole age
  • Hole status: holes disrupted by traffic indicate, obviously, that there has been traffic.
  • System bonuses/penalties
  • Recent kills in a system
  • Any information recorded about structures and residents
  • K-space connections: for example, high-sec holes near Jita often have high traffic and attract j-space campers.

Bookmarks

Main article: Bookmarks

Bookmarks are an extremely powerful tool. If you spend any significant amount of time scouting in an area, you will want to make yourself some bookmarks in the local systems. If you are roaming in unfamiliar territory, you might want to bookmark as you go, whenever opportunities come up.

Off-grid bookmarks

Your FC may ask you to quickly create a safe at which a fleet can gather after fleeing a combat grid. It is good if such a rapid safe is at least not on an obvious gate-to-gate route, but in a hot system an imperfect mid-safe which exists now can be much more valuable than a "true" safe spot not on a line between any two celestials which exists in two minutes' time.

Your FC might want to have a rolling safe in which you keep burning at high speed in one direction and the fleet warps to you whenever you travel more than 150km away. This makes it significantly harder to get a good warp-in on the fleet by probing it down. Your role in a rolling safe is very simple: just burn at top speed in a consistent direction. Check with the FC whether they would like that direction to be aligned towards anything in particular.

Finally, bookmarks can play a role in short-term trickery. If you are hunting PvE ships, for example, and one gives you the slip[unclear what "giving the slip" means], you might find it useful to bookmark where the target was, which might mean bookmarking an MTU or an asteroid. If you return to the system after a short pause (5 or 10 minutes), you can try warping straight to this bookmark; sometimes unwary targets let themselves get caught this way.

On-grid bookmarks

In nullsec, wormholes, and Pochven, where bubbles can be used to suck people out of warp near their destination, "ping" bookmarks come in very handy. These are bookmarks on grid with key travel points such as gates, but far enough away that it's safe to warp to them, avoiding any catch or drag bubbles set up at the location. If roaming in an area where the group doesn't have these set up, you might be asked to create new ones using your high speed on grid. These are particularly important near any gate or other point of interest (e.g. a wormhole) which has nothing else within d-scan range, as without pings or off-grid scanning bookmarks it's impossible to get close to such a place and check whether it is dangerous.

In any area where you spend any significant amount of time, having at least a few "tactical" on-grid bookmarks near everything of interest—gates, stations, hostile structures and friendly structures—makes a huge difference.

For picket scouts, non-aligned bookmarks on grid with but at a nice long distance from whatever you want to picket are very helpful.

Remember, re: bookmarks around gates, that people spawn about 15 km around a gate, measured from the edge of the gate rather than its centre, and that some gate models are themselves quite large. If a tactical is too close to the gate from the point of view of someone who spawns on the relevant side, it might not be much use.

In combat, the fleet might need you to burn new bookmarks rapidly on the battle grid. This topic crosses over with that of warp-ins, and is covered further below.

Ship and weapon recognition

You do not need a strong grasp of the current combat meta to begin scouting, so don't let that hold you back. Your piloting and your grasp of what intel to prioritize will, though, improve as your knowledge of typical PvP ships and their typical fits improves. There is no easy shortcut to this knowledge, but some things which can help are:

  • reading ship entries on the wiki
  • watching (up-to-date) PvP videos on YouTube
  • asking questions and talking to more experienced pilots

Experience is the greatest teacher, and getting out there and involved in PvP fleets will do the most to teach you. With time, you will be able to guess how many PvP gangs are likely to fight on-grid as soon as you see their ship composition on d-scan.

Weapon recognition presents a more rarefied challenge. The different weapons in EVE have different models. When you are on-grid with an enemy ship, it is possible to right-click on it, select "look at", and zoom in to see the models. Very experienced PvPers are sometimes able to recognise what kind of weapon a ship has fitted by doing this, and this is of course very helpful tactical info which can help you and the FC assess whether your fleet can take a given fight, and what kind of flying will be needed to snatch victory.

Again, new players need not feel a pressure to develop weapon recognition skills immediately. If you enjoy scouting, though, it might be something to study in the medium term.

Paste services

Tools such as dscan.info and localthreat can process the contents of parts of your EVE client when copied from your computer's clipboard.

dscan.info will add up and summarize the ships and classes found in a d-scan return. This can save you a lot of time recalling and reporting ships. localthreat will sum up the affiliations and PvP records of every member of Local chat.

Both services provide outputs which you can then link in in-game chat.

Techniques

Warp-ins

Scouts are often used as warp-in points, as members of the fleet can warp to you.

In its simplest form, this happens when you're close to a target and people warp at 0 to you.

You can do subtler things by keeping at roughly the right range from a target with the target on a straight line between you and the fleet's location, and calling for the fleet to warp to you at that range.

It is extremely important that you communicate clearly about what range the fleet should warp at. There is a big difference between being at 0 from an enemy and being 70 km from them.

You can give a fleet warp-ins within the same grid, if they're more than 150 km away from you.

If a fleet warps to you at 100 and you are 155 km away from them, they will only warp 55 km. Sometimes this trick can be used to surprise enemies with very short on-grid warps. For example, if there are enemies sitting 80 km off a gate, and you get to a position about 180 or 190 km off the gate and behind the enemy in turn, your gang or fleet can come through the gate, warp to you at 100, and stand a decent chance of landing near the enemy.

Remember that it is not possible to warp to fleet members in deadspace, either from outside the deadspace area or from within it.

Probing

Main article: Probe scanning

When a target is at a safespot, in a mission, or at a place which would need to be probed down (e.g., a wormhole, an exploration site), it is necessary to probe down their location. Probes can also be used to set up on-grid warp-ins.

The basic mechanics of combat-scanning for targets as a scout are very similar to scanning for sites in exploration. However, time presses much more acutely, as a target might see the probes on their own directional scan and then flee.

You can work something about the right area of the system in which to probe by using your own directional scanner. If you're in a cloaked ship and the target is not yet likely to have been spooked by, for example, your ally in an interceptor appearing on scan, you can warp to different locations and triangulate. If the system is large enough, you can then

  1. warp to a location out of d-scan range of the target
  2. uncloak and drop your probes there, where they can't see you on d-scan
  3. (optionally: cloak and head back towards something nearer the target, so as to be near for the warp on top of them)
  4. run a probe scan centred on the target's location

With good luck and precise judgment of the target's location, you can pull off a single-cycle scan. A soon as you have the signature resolved, pull your probes, so as to give only the minimum time for the target to spot them on d-scan.

If you're working with another scout who entered the system before you, ask them to convey what they can work out from their own d-scan about the target's place in space. You can then work from that information to try to single-cycle the target. If you and another scout are at different places and have the target on d-scan, you can communicate triangulation with them. If you have allies in system, beware of the risk of probing them down too. Stay alert to their likely locations and remember their ship types.

If your FC asks for an on-grid probed warp-in on an enemy gang which is over 150km away, drop probes, click the button which centres them on your location, and run a cycle at minimum range. This should resolve 100% signatures on the enemy ships. You can use ship type to be sure that you have the right target.

Punting

A pilot in a command position in a fleet can initiate warp for every pilot who is below them in the fleet hierarchy, A common use for this ability is to have a scout who has probed down a target warp themselves and other fleet members onto the target. This is "punting".

To punt, you must be above the pilots you wish to send into warp in the fleet hierarchy. A typical solution to this problem is to make a fleet's probing scout the nominal fleet commander in the in-game fleet hierarchy, so that they can warp anyone around if they wish to.

Punt checklist

  1. Punter is above punted pilots in fleet hierarchy
  2. Punter is on grid with punted pilots
  3. Punter and punted pilots are both more than 150 km away from warp target
  4. Pilots to be punted are not invulnerable from, e.g., gate cloak, post-warp or post-undock invulnerability, or tether

Punting advice

Make sure that the other pilots you wish to punt are on grid with you. Call for them to warp to you (at range, if you are cloaked) if they aren't. While finishing the probe scan, give the members to be punted the best instructions you can about where in the system they should be aligned to. If in doubt about whether the FC wants you to punt immediately on probe completion, speak up and clarify while the probes are running, not when they finish.

If you are punting in a cloaked covert ops frigate, you probably don't want to arrive at 0 on the target yourself. Make sure you're not aligned towards the target signature, initiate the punt warp, and then press ctrl - space to cancel your own warp. You can then warp to the signature at range if you want to. If you are punting in a scouting T3D, you probably do want to arrive at 0 on the target ship, to tackle it. You can roughly align, initiate the punt warp and go along for the ride.

Sometimes an FC will ask you to punt just other scouts and tacklers. You want to send them to the target at 0. If you are punting the whole fleet, you might be asked to initiate two punts, starting with an "at-zero" punt for tackle and any close-range damage ships, and following it up with an "at-range" punt for EWAR ships, logistics, and ranged damage-dealers. Your fellow pilots will have to stay alert and cancel the first warp if they want to arrive at range. The desired range for an at-range punt varies, though 50 is common.

Whatever type of punt you are engaged in, clear communication with both the FC and the pilots you are going to punt is essential. Don't be afraid to repeat questions and seek clear confirmation for key details.

Communication

What to say

During fleet movement

As a +1 scout, the FC should at minimum be hearing from you about the status of the next system's Local, d-scan evidence, and in-gate / out-gate grids.

As a roaming scout, personal judgements need to be made about what you're watching when, and what you pass on up to the FC.

However, two things are key:

  1. if the FC tells you to be somewhere, get there; and
  2. if you see something that needs investigating and move off your last instruction, clearly inform the FC.

The FC cannot make good decisions on faulty intel. Make sure they understand the environment around them as best you can. That includes making sure they're not assuming you're somewhere you're not.

When tackling

When going in for tackle on a target, call "point" as soon as you have the target pointed, or "scram" if you are using a warp scrambler. You should be on everyone's watchlist, but it doesn't hurt to type "www" in fleet chat so people know who to warp to.

If the fleet will have to take one or more acceleration gates to get to you, say so on comms. If the fleet will be coming in from a system next-door, it is useful to let the FC and fleet know roughly what length of warp they must do to get to you ("20 AU warp"). If the fleet is going to have to travel from several systems away, it can be helpful to drag the system name from the top left of your screen into fleet chat, so members can right-click on it and set it as destination.

If the target presents a threat to you then, while waiting for the fleet to arrive, communicate with your FC and any other scouts about whether they want to cling on and if necessary sacrifice your ship, or whether they want you to get out if you are in serious danger. This depends on many factors, including the fleet's travel time to you, the value of the target, and how easy it will be for you to re-ship. If the target is hurting you, ask fleet members to indicate when they have secondary tackle ("Please call secondaries when you land"), which will let you know when you no longer have to keep the target tackled.

In combat

If you decide on your own initiative to go in for a scram pass[unclear what "scram pass" means], announce the fact; if you hear the FC call for a scram pass, attempt it, and call if it succeeds.

In a mobile gang-versus-gang fight, you might find yourself flying a "screening" role between the two gangs. If so, communicate clearly when you see something coming in ("ramming") towards your own gang, and call if or when you scram it to hold it off and, potentially, to hold it down while your allies kill it.

In a gang-versus-gang brawl, the FC might ask pilots to spread tackle. With the mobility of a scouting ship, and potentially the very long tackle range of an interceptor, if you're flying an interceptor, you might find it useful to stay in the fight and consistently point one type of target in the target-calling sequence ("FC, Stiletto will be pointing secondary targets as you call them").

You might decide to, or be asked to, burn new tactical warp positions on the grid. If so, communicate clearly when you are at a desired tactical warp position. You can, again, put "www" in fleet chat.

You might also decide to, or be asked to, return to the intel-gathering part of scouting. If so, move out of the fight or even totally off-grid, and return to using d-scan and Local to monitor the surrounding space. Combat comms can be busy, so triage the information you pass on to the FC: a new gang spiking Local is significant and must be reported; a single newly-arriving damage-dealing ship at or below the size class of the existing enemies might not be crucial if the FC is busy communicating a tactical move; a single potential hard cyno definitely requires a call-out ("FC, hostile Pilgrim just jumped in from Agoze").

After combat

The moments after a fight, whether victorious, disastrous, or somewhere in between, are often some of the most dangerous in a fleet's life. Stay calm, look at d-scan, Local, and the map, and communicate with the FC about your next steps, whether those are hunting, extraction, or something else.

How to say it

In almost all fleets, scouts have a near-total license to speak up and talk over people when they have intel to report: this is one of the privileges of the role. You are the eyes of the fleet: feel able to cut in if necessary. If cutting in, say "break-break" or "check-check" at the start of your report to get everyone else to shut up.

Voices on voice comms do not always come with labels: different programs have different overlay options, and inevitably some people can't get their overlay to work. If there is any chance of ambiguity about who you are, refer to yourself in the third person.

Corporations and alliances in EVE often have members with very different accents; some people will be communicating in a second language, and variation among first-language speakers can also be a problem (differences between British and US accents, for instance, can be quite confusing!). You can use the NATO phonetic alphabet to spell out any crucial information which might otherwise be hard to grasp. System names, for instance, can be stated naturally and then phonetically: "Local spike in emm aitch see, seven new neuts in Mike Hotel Charlie."

Stay alert to easily-confused words. The Ares and the Eris, for instance, sound very similar in many accents: an FC needs to know about both ships, but they present different tactical problems. It helps to say "An Ares, interceptor" or "An Eris, bubbler".

In larger fleets, in EVE Uni or elsewhere, there will probably be multiple nested voice channels, so be careful about your use of whisper/shout keys. In larger fleets with many moving parts and multiple scouts, a private conversation channel shared between scouts, or shared between scouts and FC, can be an excellent halfway house space, where info which is valuable but not immediately pressing can be linked or typed. In such fleets communication must become more formalised.

Different groups have different protocols but one formalised way to report information on comms is to name the sub-channel to which you're talking, then name yourself, then deliver your information: "Command [=name of sub-channel], Uryence [=name of speaker], Uniform-Mike-Tac thirty-six in local, Caracal gang with logi sitting on Mike-Hotel-Charlie gate, d-scan linked in intel chat [=information]."

Further reading

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