Homefront operation/Homefront FC guide

EUNI Homefront FC Recruitment Advert

Our Homefront community is looking for Fleet Commanders to help create engaging content for our corporation members. You set the standard for our corp and are expected to uphold EVE University rules at all times. Step up and lead your own Homefront fleets today!

This guide will walk you through setting up your own Homefront fleets and recruiting pilots to fly alongside you. Not only will you be creating valuable content for our corporation, but you’ll also be earning plenty of ISK along the way—potentially enough to plex your account.

FC guidelines

As an E-UNI Homefront Fleet Commander, you are responsible for leading your fleet while ensuring that activities are both enjoyable and educational for all participants. To support you in this role, we’ve outlined the following guidelines.

EUNI FC Augoror - Docked

• Pre-flight check
  • Double-check ship fits when new players join to ensure nobody brings any dangerous ship fits that will end up potentionally destroyed. Use our homefront operation wiki to check on mission specific hostile EWAR, damage type, weaknesses.

• Assessing Player Experience
  • Ask if players have flown in fleets or homefronts before. This helps gauge how much detail you need to cover. Some may still need to learn very basic concepts like:
    • Navigating and using the overview correctly
    • Finding acceleration gates
    • Avoiding autopilot
    • Using watchlist

• Communication
  • Strongly encourage everyone to join comms (discord) — many ship losses happen due to poor communication.

• Role Guidance
  • First-time fleet members should generally fly non critical roles like a DPS.
  • For every homefront we try to find the minimally required ship so that people can be succesful in fleet. New pilots should do more training if they can not fly our entry level fits.

• Fleet hierarchy & MOTD
  • Use a clear MOTD to store staging / comms / fits so you can easily reload the MOTD to link to data into fleetchat or refer to it if people ask you about it.
  • Maintain a clear fleet hierarchy and manage squads effectively.
    • Track who is in which role
    • Track who is in the queue

• Setting Boundaries
  • Define limits for yourself: e.g., “I’ll run X amount of sites” or “I’ll run for 2 hours.”
  • Communicate this clearly to your fleet members.
  • If you’re ending soon, stop accepting people into the queue unless there’s another FC ready to take over.

• Fleet ettiquette
  • New players are encouraged to familiarize themselves with our homefront etiquette. Doing so not only prevents wasting others’ time—such as dropping a fleet without prior notice—but also enhances our corporation’s reputation with outsiders who encounter one of our homefront fleets.

EUNI FC Osprey Docked & Ready To Go

Homefront fleet ettiquette

Give notice if you plan to leave fleet soon—avoid dropping a cold “this will be my last site” mid-mission.
Stay actively involved while flying the homefront. If you lose focus or start slacking (e.g., haulers warp off), consider letting someone else replace you in the fleet..
Always check if comms are being used and join them. No microphone required, but being able to hear callouts is a huge help for the FC.
Unlist any faction warfare to reduce the risk of ship loss.
Set your safety to green to prevent accidental friendly fire.
When joining a fleet, link your fit in fleet chat for verification by Logi or FC. Be open to small adjustments—no fit is set in stone.

Fleet basics

Starting a fleet

• Begin by creating a fleet and selecting your preferred Fleet Setup template. The ‘Store Fleet Setup’ function lets you save your MOTD, wing and squad layout, free-move settings, and default squad.

Finding fleet window

Fleet Window - Form fleet, set template

Updating a template - Store Fleet Setup

Note:

You can copy existing fleet templates from other FC's, however nothing prevents you from making your own.

• One key benefit of a comprehensive MOTD is that you can direct pilots to it for more information. Note that not everybody is aware of the "reload MOTD" option in chat.

  

  Changing MOTD

Example MOTD - Raid: Deserters Hideout fleet

Fleet hierarchy

• Setting up the fleet hierarchy helps you keep track of who is flying which role. As FC, you can drag and drop pilots into squads. If your fleet has the ‘Free-Move’ option enabled, pilots can move themselves into the squad of their choice. Having a default squad (often called the Lobby) makes it easy to spot and organize new pilots who join through the fleet advertisement.

Example Fleet Hierarchy, moving pilots into squad roles

Queue management

• Know the optimal fleet size for your Homefront mission (3 or 5 pilots). You can set the fleet size by using the ... (vertical dots) button in the upper-right corner of the fleet window. You can allow for some extra room in your fleet to start a queue so you can swap people if somebody drops.

Fleet window > Set Max Fleet Size

Using watchlist

Using the watchlist is essential for both FC and Logi roles. Make it a habit to remind players to set up their watchlist, and take a moment to explain how if someone hasn’t done it before. (Right click a name in the fleet window > add to watchlist) When a new pilot joins the fleet, or if somebody drops, remind everyone to “update their watchlists” to help prevent unnecessary ship losses.

Using fleet warp

This step is optional, but worth considering. After shooting 3 haulers on the raid mission, our friendly Badger pilot needs to turn in loot to the NPC freighter. This is an ideal moment to link in fleetchat the next destination and have everyobody align pre-aligning to the “exit” gate to prepare for initiating the fleet warp. Doing this can help prevent premature warp-outs.

Initializing Fleetwarp

Folding a fleet

Lead your fleet back to the staging area and thank everyone for flying with you. If anyone has questions about Homefronts or struggled with anything during the fleet, this is a good time for a brief Q&A. Also, remind pilots that they can set up jump clones, which helps them participate in future Homefront fleets more easily.

Recruiting pilots

Fleet advertisement

• Creating a fleet advertisement is the first step in recruiting members from your corporation.

  

  Fleet Window > Create Advert

  • When creating your fleet advert, pay close attention to the settings: Fleet Name, Description, Corp / Alliance visibility, Application Requires Approval, and Auto-Update Advert on Boss Change.

    

    Create Advert > Settings

  • Open the Agency window and go to the Fleet Up! tab to find your advert. From there, you can also share the advert link directly in corp chat.

    

    Agency window > Fleet up! > Find your fleet advertisement

Inviting Pilots Directly

You can directly invite pilots to your fleet who may not be able to access it via the fleet finder, you can do this by performing the following:

• Find a link to the pilot, the easiest way to do this is to type the pilots name into the search box in the upper left of the screen near the neocom
• Drag the pilot (from any direct link, be this the search window, contact window or the list of pilots in a channel) into your fleet window
• You will be prompted if you wish to invite this pilot, press yes

Corporation callouts

• Write a recruitment message with enough information to minimize common questions like ‘Where do I go? What do I train? What do I fly?’ A clear message draws people to your fleet advert, allowing them to join directly without you needing to send manual invites — a big time-saver.

  

  Corp chat recruitment example

Contact list management

• Adding pilots to your contact or buddy list helps you keep track of them and can be useful for future fleet recruitment.

Contact list

• When meeting new players in your fleet, add them to your contacts to keep track of who you fly with. You can add a message as well to welcome them into the community.

Adding contacts 1

Adding contact 2

• Keeping notes helps you track where you’ve met pilots, what ships they can fly, and their timezones.

Adding notes on contacts

EUNI Discord #PvE Pings

Ping channel for PvE fleet in EUNI Discord

Using the ping method in EUNI discord can be a handy tool for ad-hoc homefront fleets, a shot message that's to the point can help you with in-corp recruitment.

Example: @here Homefronts - Raid: fleet forming up in Rens VI - Moon 8 - Brutor Tribe Treasury. Look for our fleet advertisement. Bring your nova missiles and let's shoot some haulers!

Alternate homefront channels

• If you’re struggling to find enough pilots for your fleet, you can try advertising in other channels to attract extra members. Keep in mind that some may take longer to reach your staging area, might not use comms, or could exhibit ‘bitter vet’ behavior.

Alternate Homefront recruitment channels

Ad-hoc vs scheduled fleets

Ad-hoc homefront fleet: Fly when you want without prior advertisment.

• Spontaneous, “fly when you want” style.
• No need to advertise or plan ahead.
• Good for casual players who just want to log in and join without commitment.
• Works best for local/homefront content where everyone’s already nearby.
• Downsides: limited turnout, people may not have the right ships ready, risk of low efficiency.

Scheduled (Discord calendar event) fleets: allows for people to prepare in advance, traveling, getting a ship.

• 
  EUNI discord calendar setup example
• 
  Don't forget to start & stop your events in discord

• Announced in advance with time, date, and doctrine.
• Lets pilots plan around real life, travel to staging, and acquire the right hull.
• Usually results in higher attendance, better fleet comp, and more consistent results.
• Downsides: requires coordination, less flexibility, and may feel too “structured” for casuals.

Note:

Be aware that discord events need to be manually "started" & "stopped".

Useful tools

• Track isk per hour and the amount of sites completed: https://iskph.pages.dev/