Archive:Operation: Fortress
History
In a reaction to less-than-satisfactory performance in a series of wars against the University, Director Emeritus Korr’Tanas proposed a solution. On September 4th 2012, he created a general discussion thread titled Operation: Fortress and encouraged Ivy League members to read and participate in the discussion. Korr’Tanas’ original post included his reasons for proposing the operation, and suggestions on how to create a continuous corporation-wide fleet for everyone in the University Headquarters of Aldrat, as well as the surrounding systems. The interest of members was strong with both supporters and detractors joining in on the discussion.
The Operation: Fortress fleet was soon created in game, and over the course of only a couple of days had various encounters with War Targets - some successful others less so. On September 6th 2012, Director Emeritus Korr’Tanas created a secondary thread explaining the nuts and bolts of the Operation: Fortress fleet as not everyone would necessarily have fleet formation experience.
Purpose of the operation
Korr'Tanas' stated goal was to get everyone around Aldrat (not just the Aptetter constellation, but anything within reach) into one fleet to be able to react to War Target attacks as quickly as possible and provide fewer easy targets for roaming hostiles.
His hope was that the Operation: Fortress fleet would be running around the clock, each day.
How to create the Operation Fortress fleet
Each day during scheduled maintenance any existing fleet is automatically disbanded. If you log in and search for fleets but are unable to find the Operation: Fortress in fleet finder, feel free to create one. Please ensure that there is only one Operation: Fortress fleet running at any given time.
The actual formation of the fleet is straightforward. Right click on your name in any chat window and select “Form fleet with . . .”. When the fleet window opens, proceed to set up additional squads and wings, at least 2 wings with 5 squads each, although it doesn't hurt to just set up 5 wings with 5 squads each. This way there will always be enough individual squads for the separate groups. Make sure to activate free move so people can set up their own squads as desired.
The next step is to create a fleet finder advert. In the Fleet window, go to the tabs labeled “Fleet Finder > My Advert” and click the bottom button labeled “Create Advert”. Change the fleet name to “Operation Fortress” so that it can easily be found your fellow Unistas. In the description include at minimum a link to http://forum.eveuniversity.org/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=58485&start=0 and http://forum.eveuniversity.org/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=58427, the two threads created by Director Emeritus Korr’Tanas. In the “Open Fleet to” section make sure to only allow corporation and alliance members and check “Hide details”. If you need help with any of this please ask in Chat.E-Uni or Q&A.E-uni.
You do not need any ingame skills for any of this. The Leadership skill is solely used for the passing of fleet buffs to squad members, not the actual formation of the fleet.
How to join
Assuming a fleet has already been created correctly you will be able to find it in the Fleet Finder. Click on the fleet button (Neocom > Eve menu > Social > Fleet) and look for the Operation: Fortress fleet. The leader should be a University pilot and the name should be 'Operation: Fortress' or something similar. Alternatively this fleet might be advertised in Alliance channel (and possibly some other channels as well) with a link you can just click on to join the fleet.
After that please join the mumble channel for this operation (as of this writing standard fleet channels are used, a dedicated one for the operation is planned).
What to do once you are in
Do what you want, within reason. Joining the Operation: Fortress fleet does not in any way supersede or invalidate the Wartime Standard Operating Procedures. Fly smart.
Pay attention to War Target reports in fleet and LiveIntel.ILN and if any War Targets head over to Aldrat (or wherever you are) be smart: don't hang around in your mining ship, instead get out of harms way and dock up and maybe switch to a combat ship (keep in mind certain T1 ships can be reimbursed by the University if lost in certain activities, war being one of them). Be ready to join the rest of the combat pilots if they try to attack the War Targets. Do so in an organized manner only, either following the direction of a brave leader, or stepping up yourself!
Assuming there is no immediate hostile threat you can conduct business as usual. And of course you can ask in fleet if someone wants to join you in whatever you are doing. For example you could fly with a few people and run missions together, possibly higher level mission than you could do on your own. Or you could set up some miners with some fleet boosts and mine together. Free move should be activated for this fleet, so your group can move into it’s own squad or wing and set up your fleet/wing/squad boosters as desired. Or at least have someone in such a position so that they can warp the entire group off when needed. You can use a separate mumble channel for your group and set up a separate chat channel ingame as well.
If you get attacked by War Targets ask for help in the fleet channel (Mumble would be best, but at least put something in the fleet chat channel). Let people know where you are and who is attacking you (especially how many and what ships). Any combat group of the fleet can then react and hopefully destroy the hostiles or at least chase them off so you can get out.
