Difference between revisions of "Faction warfare"

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{{hatnote|This page deals primarily with the mechanics of Factional Warfare. For tips on how best to take advantage of these mechanics, see [[Factional Warfare strategy and tactics]].}}
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{{related class | Factional Warfare 101}}
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'''Factional Warfare''' (sometimes also called '''Faction Warfare''') is a game mechanic whereby you can sign up to fight for one of the four empire factions (against its enemy faction) for control over certain areas of [[low-sec|low-sec space]]. It was first introduced in the [[Expansion#Empyrean Age|Empyrean Age expansion]] (2008) to offer players a stepping-stone into PvP (player-vs-player) gameplay.
|[[File:Caldari State.jpg]]
 
|[[File:Gallente Federation.jpg]]
 
|-
 
|[[File:Amarr Empire.jpg]]
 
|[[File:Minmatar Republic.jpg]]
 
|}
 
|}
 
Factional warfare was introduced in June 2008 as part of the Empyrean Age Expansion. The intent was to ease the step from the Player vs Environment (PvE) game play to Player vs Player (PvP) gameplay. It moves the EVE storyline into a factional war which had been alluded to during storyline missions and in-game news.
 
  
It introduced militias for the 4 main empire factions and created two wars and alliances: Caldari vs Gallente and Amarr vs Minamatar with Caldari and Amarr allied against Gallente and Minmatar. The sovereignty of certain Low Sec systems became contested and they can be captured by completing objectives called complexes (plexes) which provide victory points allowing a system’s occupancy to change. Completing Faction Agent Missions and capturing plexes provides capsuleers with increased faction standings, rank and loyalty points.  
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Factional Warfare is primarily centered around two [[#War zones|war zones]] (areas of low-sec contested by two empires): the Amarr-Minmatar war zone and the Caldari-Gallente war zone, which each are located on the border of the two respective empires. In these war zones, players who participate in Factional Warfare attempt to [[#Capturing systems|conquer star systems]] for their empire, and are rewarded with [[#Rewards|loyalty points]] and increased [[#Standings and ranks|faction standings]] for their efforts. Additionally, as players who participate in Factional Warfare are effectively at war with two of the four empire factions in the game, they can therefore attack (and be attacked by) players fighting for the enemy factions anywhere in New Eden, as well as fight the enemy NPC faction navies (who patrol the [[high-sec]] star systems belonging to their faction).
  
At a glance, Factional Warfare provides:
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== Joining Factional Warfare ==
* A stepping stone from PVE to PVP
 
* A militia community to participate in, fleet up with and meet new people / corps.
 
* Plexes of varying sizes to allow newer players to restrict opponent ship size. Want to fight only frigate vs frigate? Find a novice plex.
 
* Defensive plexes that provide very low skilled players with the opportunity to participate and earn Loyalty points.
 
* Faction mission agents that provide LP rewards along with a higher potential for PVP.
 
* A reason to enter low security space, take risks and get rewards.
 
* War targets in high sec due to the constant state of war-dec.
 
  
== Introduction ==
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There are two ways to join Factional Warfare (the game calls this "enlisting"): join as a solo player, or join as part of a player [[corporation]] or alliance.  
Factional warfare was introduced in the Empyrean Age Expansion (2008) to ease the step from PvE gameplay to PvP. Storyline-wise, it moves the game into the inter-factional war that had been hinted at in several storyline missions and in game news items.
 
  
FW puts the player into an "alliance" that is constantly war-dec'ed with two other "alliances" called militias. Each militia holds occupancy over certain low sec regions between the two empires. In these regions, players fight the opposing faction for control over certain star systems. The central mechanism around FW is gaining occupancy by conquering factional warfare dungeons commonly called plexes. These plexes focus factional warfare participants into mostly frigate and cruiser size ships due to their restrictions on their entry acceleration gate.
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{{note box|[[EVE University]] does not participate in Factional Warfare; members of the University have to leave the University to participate in Factional Warfare (or create an [[alt|alt character]] specifically for Factional Warfare). EVE University used to have affiliated corporations which participated in Factional Warfare, but this is no longer the case.}}
  
Since these militias are tied to the four high sec NPC empires, the opposing NPC empires will take measures if you enter their empire space, sending/spawning Navy NPCs to shoot opposing militia members in high security regions (ie: a Gallente militant will be attacked in Jita, a Caldari system) This divides high-sec into safer and less safe portions.
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=== Joining as a solo player ===
  
== Getting in ==
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[[File:FW-join.png|200px|right|thumb|Join Factional Warfare through the Militia Office window in a station belonging to the empire you wish to fight for (in this example, the Caldari).]]
[[File:Factional Warfare RoE.jpg|thumb|Rules of engagement tab in factional warfare window.]]
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Any player can join Factional Warfare provided that:
[[File:FW Warzone control window 10 Dec 2013.jpg|thumb|A view of the Caldari v Gallente Warzone Control Window, December 2013]]
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* They have a regular paid EVE account (trial accounts may not join), and
There are two ways to join factional warfare; you can either join the NPC militia corporations as a solo player or you can join a militia with your whole corporation. Corporations are moved into a FW faction after the next downtime. This occurs either instantaneously or if they're leaving a player alliance, after 24 hours.
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* Their standings towards the empire faction (e.g. the Gallente Federation or the Caldari State) they wish to fight for must be 0.0 or greater. Note that only raw, unmodified standings (i.e. without taking the effects of skills like {{sk|Social|icon=yes}} into account) count; you can check your standings on your character page.  
  
Default NPC Factional Warfare Militia Corporations:
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You can enlist at any station belonging to the empire faction you wish to fight for by opening the "Militia Office" window (from the [[NeoCom#Factional_Warfare|NeoCom]] or the Station Services window). Note that even through the Khanid Kingdom and the Ammatar Mandate are affiliated with the Amarr Empire, they do not count as being a part of it, and therefore you cannot join Factional Warfare from their stations.
  
* The 24th Imperial Crusade (Amarr)
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If you join as a solo player, you will leave your current corporation (be it a player-run or NPC corporation) and automatically join one of the four militia corporations (NPC-run corporations which are populated exclusively by other players enlisted in Factional Warfare for a given empire):
* The State Protectorate (Caldari)
 
* The Federal Defense Union (Gallente)
 
* The Tribal Liberation Force (Minmatar)
 
  
 +
* Amarr: 24th Imperial Crusade
 +
* Caldari: State Protectorate
 +
* Gallente: Federal Defence Union
 +
* Minmatar: Tribal Liberation Force
  
To join the militia of your choice, you need in both cases standing of 0.0 or higher with the empire of that faction (social skills are not taken into account). You can get this by doing regular missions for corporations of that empire. For corporations, the corporate standing needs to be above 0.0 for that appropriate empire; individual standings are not taken into account (at least not directly).
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Joining as a solo player happens immediately, unless you have roles in a player-run corporation (in which case it takes at least 24 hours to [[Leaving_EVE_University#The_process_for_leaving|relinquish your roles]] and leave your corporation). These militia corporations have NPC agents working for them, which offer [[#Factional Warfare missions|missions]] to pilots enlisted with their respective faction.  
  
Two main standings are used in Factional Warfare:
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=== Joining as a corporation ===
* Faction standings for joining requirements and NPC aggression.
 
* FW Militia standings for ranks (detailed later)
 
  
A detailed process is described at the eve online guide [http://www.eveonline.com/guide/en/g625.asp] .
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The CEO or Director of a [[corporation]] can enlist their entire corporation (i.e. all their members) in Factional Warfare to fight for one of the four empires. As with solo players, the corporation must have a standing of 0.0 of greater towards the empire they wish to fight for (corporation standings are an average of of its all the members' individual standings, see [[Corporation|corporation standings]] for more details). Enlisting a corporation takes effect after the next downtime.  
  
=== Factional Warfare requirements ===
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It's not possible for individuals in a player-run corporation to either join Factional Warfare on their own (they have to leave their corporation and join one of the NPC militia corporations, see above) or to opt out of Factional Warfare if their corporation joins (if the corporation joins, every member of that corporation automatically joins too).
Apart from the 0.0 standing with the appropriate faction, there are no further in game requirements, apart from not being on a trial account.
 
  
Skill-wise, you should be able to fly a frigate with a MWD, scram/disruptor, and web. This correlates with having the Tackling level I certificate and the Navigation level II certificate.
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== Factional alliances ==
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[[File:FW faction alliances.png|thumb|200px|right|The Amarr and the Caldari fight against the Minmatar and the Gallente.]]
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Factional Warfare revolves around two conflicts, one between the Amarr and the Minmatar, and the other between the Caldari and the Gallente. Additionally, the Amarr and the Caldari are allied (as are the Minmatar and the Gallente), which means that pilots fighting for (for instance) the Gallente can also help their Minmatar allies fight against the Amarr (with the exception of [[#Infrastructure Hub|infrastructure hubs]]), and attack (and be attacked by) pilots fighting for the Amarr as well as the Caldari. Additionally, that same pilot would be attacked by the NPC [[#Permanent war|faction navies]] of the Amarr and the Caldari should he enter their high-sec space.
  
* Understand the different overview settings
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== War zones ==
* A fleet movement class will be very useful
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The majority of the actions in Factional Warfare take place in two areas of [[low-sec|low-security space]], each of which is contested by two empires, known as "war zones".
* Understand how to operate the onboard scanner (Apocrypha changes not taken into account yet)
 
* Understanding how to use the star map is not a must, but can be an advantage
 
* Understand the directional scanner
 
  
Apart from that, I suggest being partially self sufficient ISK wise and being able to lose several frigates and cruisers including their fittings.
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The [http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Amarr_VS_Minmatar Amarr-Minmatar war zone] extends into parts of the Devoid, Bleak Lands, Heimatar and Metropolis regions, while the [http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Caldari_VS_Gallente Caldari-Gallente war zone] extends into parts of the Black Rise, Citadel, Essence, Verge Vendor, and Placid regions. The high-security systems on the borders of the war zones are often used as staging areas (as players fighting for the enemy militia cannot enter them without being attacked by friendly NPC [[#Permanent war|faction navy]] ships), although many player corporations also use systems inside the war zones themselves as home bases. The core Factional Warfare gameplay of [[#Capturing systems|capturing systems]] and [[#Factional Warfare missions|running missions]] takes place exclusively within the war zones. [http://evemaps.dotlan.net/factionwarfare Dotlan] and [http://www.ombeve.co.uk/ Ombeve] have very useful maps of the war zones.
  
=== What should I do before I join a militia? ===
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{{#css:
Before you join a militia, make sure you don't have assets you need that are too dangerous or too expensive to be moved through the opposing empire's faction space.  
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.fw-region {
 
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background-color:#222222;
Further, check your overview settings and adapt them. Personally, I have a separate tab with opposing militia members just as normal war dec's with a flashy background on overview. I also have neutrals on overview to identify “out of corp” spies in rookie ships.
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font-weight:normal;
 
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}
You will also want to prepare a few ships before hand to quickly jump into a new one if desired. For Minmatar FW Amamake is a common rally ground, so a base near or in this low-sec system can be handy. For other militias, I suggest looking at the FW Map pack from Ombey's Eve 2D Maps [http://www.ombeve.co.uk/].
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}}{| class=wikitable style="font-size:90%; border-style:none;"
 
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! style="border-style:none; background-color:#111111;" |
Having Teamspeak, Ventrilo and Eve Voice ready for usage will help as well. In the Minmatar militia, Eve Voice is commonly used by all corporations, though the corporations usually have an internal TS or Ventrilo server. From hearsay, I heard that the Amarr militia has been using a more or less Amarr militia public Ventrilo server to handle militia fleets.
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! style="background-color:#222222;text-align:left;padding:0.2em 0.5em" | Region
 
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! style="text-align:left; padding: 0.2em 0.5em" | Constellations
I personally prefer Eve Voice as it is available for everybody and you don't need to setup an additional program. Identifying who is talking is also a little easier.
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|-
 
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| rowspan=2 | {{icon|amarr|64px|Amarr Empire}}
== Consequences of being in a militia ==
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| class=fw-region style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em" | [http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Devoid#const Devoid]
The consequences of being in a militia:
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| style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em" | Semou and Jayai
* You are now in an empire war with all of its consequences.
 
* You now will be attacked by other NPC faction navy spawns if you enter the opposing factions space. These will have different strengths depending on the security rating of the system, and they will use neuts/nos, EW, and web. They will, however, not scram/disrupt you, so if no player intervenes, you will be able to run away.
 
* If you enter the NPC militia, you will have that NPC militia as corp channel and have access to a militia channel, resembling an alliance channel. The NPC corp channel is not used that much; the militia channel is usually full with people looking for fleets, advice, fleetmembers and/or intel which is semi reliable.
 
 
 
Just as in Eve Uni fleets, don't give out fleet locations in militia chat, but feel free to rely intel. Also, some FW corps have spies in the opposing militia channels and sometimes even in fleets.
 
 
 
You can find plexes in low sec and conquer these to gain victory points for your faction. You will also be able to fight for control of the control bunker which defines the occupancy of a system. Gaining victory points will also result in an increase of personal faction standings, and with increasing standing, you will gain ranks within the militia, which can be found in your decoration tab.
 
 
 
The LPs you gain with your militia will also allow you to buy unique items that are only offered through the militia LP shop. Militia factional ships are available at a discounted price to militia members vs. non-militia members.
 
 
 
=== Standing Impact ===
 
{{main|Factional Warfare Standings}}
 
Some pilots may be concerned that joining Factional Warfare will result in irreparable damage to some of their faction standings, leaving them excluded from some empire space for the rest of their eve career. This isn't necessarily the case, as pilots can participate in Factional Warfare without ruining their standings, if they don't want to.
 
 
 
In summary, you don't actually lose faction standing for killing other pvp pilots (you do lose standing with the enemy's faction militia corporation, but that has little impact on gameplay).
 
 
 
You'll only lose enemy faction standing for killing faction NPC's in plexes, or by getting 'promoted' by your own (npc) faction warfare corporation, which will happen as a result of completing plexes or missions. You don't have to complete plexes to get the pvp you desire (but you can still enter plexes to use their tactical benefits); you don't need to do missions to be successful at factional warfare.
 
 
 
*See [[Factional Warfare Standings]] for a more detailed view on standing impacts
 
*See [[Gaining faction standings fast]] for a look at repairing standings
 
*See [[Faction Standings]] for a more general look at the topic.
 
 
 
= Now I'm in! What can and should I do? =  
 
Once in a militia, you will gain access to two things: plexes and factional warfare missions. Both accumulate victory points, which at a certain point make the control bunker of a system vulnerable. When this occurs, the offensive faction can attack this bunker and turn the occupancy from the opposing ones into their owns.
 
 
 
Taken from the official guide:  
 
 
 
''There are different system states appearing in the "Occupancy" line on the top-left corner of the screen depending on the attacker/defender general strength status:
 
* ''Un-contested: natural state of a system occupancy and thus not directly shown. The system is currently not actively fought over by different factions.
 
* ''Contested: FW Dungeons have been claimed by the offenders. Defenders may take it down to "un-contested" by winning FW Dungeons back.
 
* ''Vulnerable: the attacking force won enough FW Dungeons to put the Control Bunker to vulnerable for attack.
 
* ''Lost: the system has been successfully captured by the attacking faction. As such, the Occupancy will switch to the new faction after the next Downtime. Existing FW Dungeons no longer affect the power scale and new ones won’t spawn until then.
 
''To change these states, each side has to gain victory points by either doing factional warfare complexes or by doing factional warfare missions.''
 
 
 
== Plexing ==
 
[[File:Small military Beacon.jpg|thumb|A small plex]]
 
Plexes are the major feature CCP introduced with factional warfare. These plexes spawn in the low-sec regions between the four major empires and divide the two wars into two war zones, one between the Amarr and Minmatar and one between the Gallente and the Caldari. These factional warfare low-sec parts are displayed on the Dotlan EveMaps (under Special Maps).
 
 
 
These plexes are anomalies that can be scanned down by militia members on both sides with the normal onboard scanner. If you warp to the plex,the acceleration gate beacon will become visible for everybody in the system (you can cancel the warp but it will still become visible to everybody); anyone can then enter the plex, assuming they are flying a ship that fits the ship restrictions.
 
Originally, there was a bug that would always drop you at 0 on the acceleration gate, no matter which distanced you selected, but this was later fixed by CCP.
 
 
 
Plexes come in four sizes, the larger the plex, the more victory points received:
 
{| class="wikitable"
 
|Type
 
|Countdown
 
|Radius
 
|Allowed ships
 
|NPC Spawn
 
 
|-
 
|-
|Novice
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| class=fw-region style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em" | [http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/The_Bleak_Lands#const The Bleak Lands]
|10 minutes
+
| style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em" | Sasen, Tandoiras, and Vaarma
|30km radius
 
|industrials, T1/Faction frigates (no Noobships)
 
|Frigate NPC
 
 
|-
 
|-
|Small
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| rowspan=2 | {{icon|minmatar|64px|Minmatar Republic}}
|15 min
+
| class=fw-region style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em"  | [http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Heimatar#const Heimatar]
|30km radius
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| style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em" | Hed and Huvilma
|All frigates and destroyers
 
|Destroyer NPC
 
 
|-
 
|-
|Medium
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| class=fw-region style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em"  | [http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Metropolis#const Metropolis]
|20 min
+
| style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em" | Essin, Tiat, Eugidi, Angils, and Aldodan
|30km radius
 
|all previous + cruisers and battlecruisers (no T3 cruisers)
 
|Cruiser NPC
 
 
|-
 
|-
|Large
+
| colspan=3 style="background-color:#333333" |
|20 min
+
|-
|30km radius
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| rowspan=2 | {{icon|caldari|64px|Caldari State}}
|Unrestricted
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| class=fw-region style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em" | [http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/The_Citadel#const The Citadel]
|Battlecruiser NPC
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| style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em" | Ieyama and Isoma
|}
 
 
 
All plexes are defended by NPC's of the faction that is currently holding the occupancy of the system. The difficulty ranges depend on the size and they respawn after a while.
 
 
 
===The Button===
 
[[File:Caldari small stronghold.jpg|thumb|The "button". A small Caldari stronghold which requires ships to be within 30km.]]
 
'''Each Plex has a so called "button", which will have a timer according to the size. ''If you are within the 30 km radius, the timer will count down. Once the counter reaches zero, you have captured that plex.'''''
 
 
 
===Locating a Plex===
 
[[File:Scanner Window showing plexes.jpg|thumb|Scanner Windows showing plexes.]]
 
 
 
Open up your scanner window and make sure you select to view cosmic anomalies. Plexes will show up as anomalies in the shipboard scanner. Plexes are not visible to players outside of the militias until a militia member attempts to warp to the beacon. At that point everyone in the system can see the beacon on their overview.
 
 
 
Rewards for offensive plexing:
 
 
 
{| class="wikitable"
 
|
 
|Tier 1
 
|Tier 2
 
|Tier 3
 
|Tier 4
 
|Tier 5
 
 
|-
 
|-
|Novice
+
| class=fw-region style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em"  | [http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Black_Rise#const Black Rise]
|5000 LP
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| style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em" | Inolari, Ishaga, Kurala and Okakuola
|10000 LP
 
|17500 LP
 
|25000 LP
 
|32500 LP
 
 
|-
 
|-
|Small
+
| rowspan=3 | {{icon|gallente|64px|Gallente Federation}}
|8750 LP
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| class=fw-region style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em"  | [http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Essence#const Essence]
|17500 LP
+
| style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em" | Jeon and Vieres
|30625 LP
 
|43750 LP
 
|56875 LP
 
 
|-
 
|-
|Medium
+
| class=fw-region style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em"  | [http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Verge_Vendor#const Verge Vendor]
|12500 LP
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| style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em" | Obray and Woenckee
|25000 LP
 
|43750 LP
 
|62500 LP
 
|81250 LP
 
 
|-
 
|-
|Large
+
| class=fw-region style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em"  | [http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Placid#const Placid]
|15000 LP
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| style="padding: 0.2em 0.5em" | Amevync, Pegeler, Serthoulde, Viriette, and Fislipesnes
|30000 LP
 
|52500 LP
 
|75000 LP
 
|97500 LP
 
 
|}
 
|}
  
Note: No rewards are gain for offensive plexing in vulnerable or lost systems.
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== Capturing systems ==
 +
[[File:FW-circle-of-death.png|thumb|200px|right|An illustration of how to capture (or defend) a star system in Factional Warfare (using a system contested by the Amarr and the Minmatar as an example).]]
 +
The core mechanics of Factional Warfare revolve around capturing and holding star systems in the [[#War zones|war zones]]. This occurs in two steps:
 +
* Attacking and completing [[#Complex information|complexes]] ("plexes") in a system to make the system vulnerable to capture.
 +
* Once the system is vulnerable, attack and destroy ("capture") the system's [[#Infrastructure Hub|infrastructure hub]] (also known as an "i-Hub") to capture the system.
  
Inferno 1.3.2 added loyalty points for defending plexes. LP rewards for defensive plexing are given at a reduced and variable rate:
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A system starts off as "stable" (or "uncontested"). The attacking faction (for instance, pilots flying for the Gallente attacking a Caldari-held system) must first attack and complete complexes in the system (this is known as "offensive plexing"); for each completed complex, the system becomes ever more "contested" (commonly quoted from 0% to 100%, sometimes also measured in [[#Victory points|victory points]]). Once a system has become 100% contested, it is listed as "vulnerable", and the attacking faction can then attack the system's infrastructure hub. Once the infrastructure hub is destroyed, the system is considered "lost" and will switch to the attacking faction's control after the next [[DT|downtime (DT)]].  
* LP Gain = Base value of plex * (Contested percentage of the system/100) * 0.75
 
This means that the higher the contested percentage of the system, the higher the LP reward given, up to a maximum of 75% of the base reward value.
 
  
=== Tactics for plexing ===
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During this time, the defending faction can also complete complexes in the system (this is known as "defensive plexing"); for each completed complex, the system becomes ever less "contested" (or, if it's currently "vulnerable", it will revert to being "contested"), all the way back to "stable".  
[[File:Caldari Infrastructure Hub.jpg|thumb|A Caldari Infrastructure Hub used to upgrade a system from one tier to the next.]]
 
[[File:FacWar Infra Hub upgrade dialog.jpg|thumb|The dialog for upgrading an Infrastructure Hub with LP. This hub is currently at Tier 3, nearing Tier 4.]]
 
As every FC runs his fleet differently I just go over a few common tactics and approaches to finish plexes offensively or defensively.
 
  
First, do not open the plex immediately, as plex beacons only visible in space for everybody after somebody warps to it. Some FC's want to control which and how many plexes are open to hide them and do them one by one.
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While a system is "vulnerable" or "lost", the attacking faction may still capture complexes, but they will not get any [[#Rewards|reward]] nor affect the system's capture. Additionally, once a system is "vulnerable", the defending faction needs only to capture a few complexes to revert the system to "contested" (and therefore render the infrastructure hub invulnerable again); the attacking faction only create a small "buffer" against this by capturing more complexes while the system is "vulnerable". Similarly, the once the defending faction has capture enough complexes to revert a system to "stable", the attacking faction only needs to capture one complex to put the system back to "contested".
In the past, people would “speed tank” plexes and not destroy the NPC guarding the plex. As of late 2013, the NPC's must be destroyed to offensively capture a plex.
 
  
You can use the size restrictions of the gate to your advantage. You can either wait inside (drop a can at your warp-in point from the acceleration gate) or gank people who warp to the beacon. Further, sitting at the acceleration gate, you can see which ship types and how many of each type are in the plex by using the d-scan.
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Obviously, in addition to the mechanics above, pilots can (and should!) attack the other faction's pilots to stop them from completing their objectives!
 +
<span id="Complex information"></span>
 +
=== Complexes ===
 +
[[File:FW plex layout.png|thumb|200px|left|The layout of a complex. To enter a complex, you must first activate the complex' acceleration gate, which will warp you into the complex at its beacon. In order to capture the complex, you must stay within 30&nbsp;km of the capture point.]]
 +
[[File:Scanner_Window_showing_plexes.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Complexes can be found via the [[Scanning & Probing|system scanner]].]]
 +
[[File:FW overview.png|thumb|200px|right|An [[overview]] showing typical Factional Warfare objects.<br><ul><li>Red: [[#Infrastructure Hub|Infrastructure hub]]</li><li>Light blue: [[#Complex information|Complexes]] (one medium and one small) which have already been visited</li><li>Orange: Enemy [[#Factional Warfare missions|Mission]] beacons</li></ul>]]
 +
Factional Warfare Complexes (commonly known as "Plexes", not to be confused with [[Plex|PLEX]]) are small areas of [[deadspace]] in war zone star systems. They are a type of [[Cosmic Anomaly]], which means that they show up on the system scanner (but do not need [[Scanning & Probing|scan probes]] to find), although once someone has warped to a complex, they will also show up on the [[Overview]] (even if someone initiated a warp to them, but cancelled it immediately).  
  
Defensive plexing can be done against higher number of opponents if you stay close to the beacon and hide between your faction navy NPCs.
+
Like most other [[Deadspace Complex]]es, you cannot warp directly into them, but must first use an [[acceleration gate]], after which you will land at the complex' beacon (large complexes (see below) do not have an acceleration gate, but you will still land at the complex' beacon when you warp in); you cannot light a [[cyno|cynosural field]] inside a complex. At the center of each complex, a few kilometers away from the beacon, is the capture point (sometimes called a "button"). An NPC ship belonging to the faction controlling the star system defends the complex.  
  
The internal plex spawning mechanism keeps track of the total plexes within a constellation (see also the FW maps), and due to a down time (DT) mechanism, the likelihood of plexes spawn after DT is a bit higher. Enforcing focus to a certain constellation will thus result in a slightly higher efficiency in accumulation enough victory points to make a control bunker vulnerable.
+
==== Capturing complexes ====
 +
In order to capture a complex, you must first clear the area (radius: 30&nbsp;km) around the capture point of enemy ships. If you're the attacking faction, this includes killing the defending NPC; if you're the defending faction, the NPC will obviously not fire on you, and you therefore you shouldn't destroy it (even if it appears as "hostile" on your [[overview]])!. Then you must stay inside the capture radius (within 30&nbsp;km of the capture point) until the complex' timer has counted down to 0 (you can see how much time is left by selecting the capture point), at which point you will have captured the complex!
  
== Factional warfare missions ==
+
[[File:FW capturing plex.jpg|thumb|200px|right|An Amarr pilot capturing an Amarr complex ("defensive plexing"). The timer on the capture point shows how much time is left before the complex is captured.]]
Factional warfare missions take you deep into enemy low-sec territory (6-12 jumps) where you must complete a regular mission. The difficulty of the missions are about one level easier than normal empire missions. For example, a factional warfare L3 mission is similar to one of the harder L2 missions given by normal empire agents.
+
Additional ships from your faction will not make the timer count down faster; if you leave the complex, the timer will pause (but will not reset). If an enemy ship enters the complex, the timer will also pause until ships from only one faction are present in the complex, and then it will resume counting down. Note that the timers for both factions are additive - so if a Caldari pilot has spent three minutes capturing a complex, and is then destroyed by an incoming Gallente pilot, the Gallente pilot would have to spend an ''extra'' three minutes in the complex in order to capture it (in order to "undo the capturing" previously done by the Caldari pilot, so to speak).  
  
All missions are encounter missions and you kill either NPCs' ship(s) or a certain structure. There are no storyline missions after 16 missions have been completed. Just as in factional warfare deadspace plexes, MWDs can be used in the mission pockets.  
+
No ship can [[cloaking|cloak]] within the capture radius of a complex<ref name="patch notes kronos 1.0">[http://community.eveonline.com/news/patch-notes/patch-notes-for-kronos Kronos 1.0 patch notes]</ref>. Neutral pilots (i.e. pilots who are not enlisted in a militia) can enter a complex, but cannot capture it (their presence doesn't affect the complex' timer). Pilots in a militia can capture complexes in their ally's warzone, but only on their ally's behalf (so, for example, a pilot fighting for the Minmatar could go to the Caldari-Gallente warzone and capture a complex on behalf of their ally (the Gallente)).  
  
The major difference between normal and factional warfare missions is that the beacon you fly to will be visible to everyone in the overview, just like plex beacons. Anyone in the system, including neutrals, can see where somebody is doing a factional warfare mission and can warp to you. Due to the decreased difficulty of the factional warfare missions (as the main purpose is to fight other players and not NPC's) the pay out of factional warfare missions in terms of ISK is slightly lower than normal missions. There are no bounties for the NPCs since they are faction Navy ships. The loot they drop is mainly Navy tags, although the occasional module might be there as well.  
+
Once a complex has been captured, it disappears from the scanner/overview and despawns after a few minutes. A new complex of the same size will spawn about 30 minutes after the previous one was captured. On average, there will be one or two complexes of each [[#Complex types|size]] in a system. However, if many players have been active in a system recently, it may be the case that, for a brief time, there are no complexes available to capture.
  
The original point of these missions is more or less putting a big sign on your location, telling everyone: please gank me; I'm doing a mission, thus encouraging PvP. This provides an incentive to roam around in low sec and surprise missioners in mid-mission.
+
{{expansion past|Before the [[Expansion#Kronos|Kronos expansion]], ships could cloak within the capture radius of complexes. This not only led plex farmers to fit cloaking devices to their ships (allowing them to cloak and escape at the first sign of danger), but also encouraged players to sit in a cloaked [[Stealth Bomber]] inside a complex (to ambush incoming ships).}}
  
CCP overhauled the Factional warfare missions as well as the loyalty points shop. The overhaul included a higher reward in Loyalty points per factional warfare mission as well as some unique items only obtainable from the militia corp loyalty point shop. These items include new faction navy items as well a few unique new faction ships. In addition to adding these new rewards, all stuff bought from a militia comes with a LP discount. This discount goes up to 60% resulting in paying only 250k LP's for a faction navy battleship rather than 650k LP's.
+
==== Complex types ====
 +
Complexes come in four types, often called "sizes" (which is a bit of a misnomer, as the physical dimensions of the complex are always the same)<ref name=patch notes retribution 1.0">[http://community.eveonline.com/news/patch-notes/patch-notes-for-retribution-1 Retribution 1.0 patch notes]</ref>. They vary in what ship classes are allowed to enter, what NPC defends them, and how long it takes to capture them. While each type of complex contributes the same amount to capturing a system (measured in [[#Victory points|victory points]]), capturing larger complexes result in higher [[#Rewards|rewards]]. Additionally, capturing complexes in enemy-held systems gives higher rewards than capturing complexes in friendly-held systems.  
  
Just as with plexes, the factional warfare missions are gated with acceleration gates, limiting the ship size passing through it. The ship restrictions are just the same as for plexes.
+
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%"
 +
! style="background-color:#222222;padding:0.3em;" | Type
 +
! style="background-color:#222222;padding:0.3em 1em;" | Capture time
 +
! style="background-color:#222222;padding:0.3em;" | Allowed ships
 +
! style="background-color:#222222;padding:0.3em 1em" | NPC defender
 +
|-
 +
| style="background-color:#333333;padding:0.3em;" | Novice
 +
| style="text-align:center;"| 10 min
 +
| style="padding:0.3em;" | T1 and Faction frigates<br>Industrials<br>(no rookie ships)
 +
| style="text-align:center;" | Frigate
 +
|-
 +
| style="background-color:#333333;padding:0.3em;" | Small
 +
| style="text-align:center;"| 15 min
 +
| style="padding:0.3em;" | Frigates<br>Destroyers
 +
| style="text-align:center;" | Destroyer
 +
|-
 +
| style="background-color:#333333;padding:0.3em;" | Medium
 +
| style="text-align:center;"| 20 min
 +
| style="padding:0.3em;" | Frigates and Destroyers<br>Cruisers<br>(no Strategic (T3) Cruisers)
 +
| style="text-align:center;" | Cruiser
 +
|-
 +
| style="background-color:#333333;padding:0.3em;" | Large
 +
| style="text-align:center;"| 20 min
 +
| style="padding:0.3em;" | Unrestricted
 +
| style="text-align:center;" | Battlecruiser
 +
|}
  
With all missions being kill missions, a lot of these are partially blitzable, depending on the incoming damage and your tank. The structures and NPC mission targets though are setup in a way to provide a challenge but are not overly dangerous as their incentive is to keep you for a certain time in low-sec to provide a chance for a PvP encounter.
+
Complexes are defended by a single NPC (in rare cases, two); it's designed to be killed without too much trouble by a player ship of similar size. Once killed, the NPC defender will respawn after between 90 and 180 seconds (for novice and small complexes; in medium and large complexes, the NPC respawns after between 90 and 300 seconds).<ref>[https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=343137 Eve forums: Kronos Factional Warfare Complex Improvements]</ref>
  
In general, all missions can be completed solo, but it will take a lot more time and effort than a normal empire faction with the increased risk of a PvP encounter. All missions up to lvl3 can be done solo and are generally worth doing for the LP reward and the opportunity to buy unique faction navy items, compared to empire missions. From a risk vs. reward perspective, Level 4 missions take much more time, increasing the risk of PvP and make it a close draw to an empire level 4 missions.
+
=== Infrastructure Hub ===
 +
[[File:Minmatar Infrastructure Hub.jpg|200px|thumb|left|An infrastructure hub ("i-Hub") in space.]]
 +
The Infrastructure Hub (or "i-Hub") is a structure in space which the attacking faction needs to destroy in order to capture a system. The i-Hub can be found (and be warped to) from the Overview, but can only be damaged if the star system is in a [[#Capturing systems|"vulnerable" state]], and then only by pilots of the attacking faction (pilots of the defending faction, pilots in an allied militia, or neutral pilots cannot damage the i-Hub).  
  
The mission NPC's, though, still use the "old" AI, thus only aggroing the first ship close to them, allowing a fleet to speed tank the NPCs while the rest of the gang kills the objective. Another important difference to empire missions is that you can decline factional warfare missions from your agent as often as you want (since [http://www.eveonline.com/updates/patchnotes.asp?patchlogID=191 Apocrypha 1.5, released 20 August 2009]). This allows you to skip missions till you get a few in one area.
+
The i-Hub has 25 million hitpoints (HP), with 7.5M HP each in shield and armor, and 10M HP in structure<ref>[http://games.chruker.dk/eve_online/item.php?type_id=29303 Chruker.dk item database]</ref>. This means that a medium-sized fleet is needed to destroy an i-Hub in a reasonable period of time (keeping in mind that its peak shield recharge rate is around 1700&nbsp;HP/s, which is the absolute minimum amount of DPS needed to break through its shields). Once the i-Hub is destroyed (technically, once it reaches 1% structure), the system will be "lost" and will switch to being occupied by the attacking faction after the next [[downtime]].  
  
The average LP payout for FW mission is:
+
As [[#Capturing systems|explained above]], if a system is "vulnerable", and if the defending faction can capture enough complexes, the system will revert back to "contested". The i-Hub will then become invulnerable again, and any damage which the attacking faction has so far managed to do to it is reset. Therefore, while attacking the i-Hub, the attacking faction must also prevent the defending faction from capturing complexes.
  
* Lvl1: about 200 LP
+
The i-Hub is also the place where pilots of the defending faction can [[#System upgrades|donate loyalty points to upgrade the system]].
* Lvl2: up to 800 LP
 
* Lvl3: up to 1100 LP
 
* Lvl4: close to 9000 LP
 
  
=== Tactics ===  
+
=== Victory points ===
 +
[[File:FW_DUST_influence.jpg|200px|thumb|right|A system information display, showing the influence of DUST players.]]
 +
Formally, how "contested" a system is is measured in how many victory points have been accumulated by the attacking faction for that system. If the attacking faction has not yet accumulated any victory points for that system, then the system is [[#Capturing systems|"stable"]], and if they then capture a complex (regardless of its size) they are rewarded with 20 victory points<ref name="GamerChick42">[http://www.gamerchick.net/2013/01/the-beginners-guide-to-faction-war.html GamerChick42: The Beginner's Guide to Faction War Plexing] (2013)</ref> (conversely, if the defending faction captures a complex, 20 victory points are subtracted). In order to bring a system to "vulnerable", the attacking faction must accumulate 3000 victory points (i.e. capture 150 complexes more than the defending faction). Once a system is vulnerable, the attacking faction can continue capturing complexes until they have a "buffer" of 100 victory points<ref name="patch notes inferno 1.3">[http://community.eveonline.com/news/patch-notes/patch-notes-for-inferno-1.3 Inferno 1.3 patch notes]</ref>; this is to give themselves some breathing room while they attack the [[#Infrastructure Hub|i-Hub]]. 
  
As mentioned before, in a group of players, one can speed tank the NPC's while the others go for the main objective. Also, skipping through missions allows the whole group to collect several missions into one or two systems in the close proximity. Depending on the fleet composition, it's also worth doing all missions from all agents as Level 1 missions can be done by the smaller ships, while the bigger ships can go for the higher level missions.  
+
If a star system has one or more [[Planet#Temperate|temperate planets]], then players in [[DUST 514]] can make a system easier or harder to capture. The more planetary districts on those planets are controlled by DUST 514 players fighting for the attacking faction, the lower the number of victory points needed to capture a system (and, conversely, the more districts are controlled by the defending faction, the higher the number). This mechanic can modify the number of victory points needed to capture a system by up to 12.5% per temperate planet<ref>[https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/EVE-DUST_514_Link_FAQ EVE Wiki: EVE-DUST link FAQ]</ref> (for example, a system with two temperate planets where the attacking faction militia controls all the districts will require <span style='white-space:nowrap;'>3000 - (12.5% * 2) = 2250</span> victory points). Star systems without temperate planets always require 3000 victory points to capture.
  
Local is your intel! With each mission pocket being gated and size restricted, you can estimate what ships you might encounter and watch for them as they approach on short ranged d-scan. Your mission beacon is visible system wide, so they will know where you will be. If you are looking for PvP you can use this to your advantage as well.  
+
== System upgrades and warzone tier ==
 +
=== System upgrades ===
 +
[[File:FacWar Infra Hub upgrade dialog.jpg|200px|thumb|right|A system can be upgraded by donating loyalty points (LP) at the system's infrastructure hub. This system is currently at Level 3, nearing Level 4.]]
 +
Players participating in Factional Warfare can donate the [[LP|loyalty points (LP)]] they [[#Rewards|earned with their militia corporation]] to "upgrade" the star systems which their faction currently controls. To do this, they must fly to the system's [[#Infrastructure Hub|infrastructure hub]], right-click on it, select the "open system upgrade panel" option, and select how much LP they would like to donate. This window also lists the benefits of upgrading a system<ref name="patch notes inferno 1.0">[http://community.eveonline.com/news/patch-notes/patch-notes-for-inferno Inferno 1.0 patch notes]</ref>:
 +
* lower broker fees for contracts and market orders (-10% per system upgrade level)
 +
* lower medical clone costs (-10% per system upgrade level)
 +
* more industry slots (+1 per upgrade level)
 +
When you donate LP, a part is lost as a "maintenance tax" (for example, if you donate 1000 LP, and the maintenance tax is 5%, then only 950 LP are actually counted towards upgrading the system). The maintenance tax starts at 0% and increases the higher their [[#Faction tier|faction's tier]] is, up to about 75%<ref name="patch notes inferno 1.3" /><ref>[https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=3630457 EVE Forums: maintenance tax]</ref>. The LP you donate is put into a pool with the LP donated by other players from your faction in that system, and the size of that pool determines the system's upgrade level. A system can be upgraded up to level 5.  
 +
{{example|In the screenshot on the right, Caldari militia members have donated a total of 129,360 LP in that system, which equates to an upgrade level of 3. In order to each level 4, they would have to donate an additional 10,640 LP to bring the total to at least 140,000 LP.}}
  
Watch out for neutrals as they can enter these mission just like opposing militia members.
+
The total amount of LP required to upgrade a system is<ref name="patch notes inferno 1.3" />:
 +
* Level 1: 40,000 LP
 +
* Level 2: 60,000 LP
 +
* Level 3: 90,000 LP
 +
* Level 4: 140,000 LP
 +
* Level 5: 200,000 LP
 +
* Buffer: 300,000 LP
  
Repeating missions in one system or constellation allows the militia to gather victory points and make the system "contested" and later vulnerable.
+
[[File:FW system information.jpg|200px|thumb|left|The system information display.]]
 +
You can check the current upgrade level of a system (along with the associated benefits) through the system information display at the top-left of the screen. Here you can see who currently controls the system, the [[#Capturing systems|system state]] (stable / contested / vulnerable / lost) and its upgrade level, as well as the [[#Victory points|influence of DUST 514 players]] on the system.  
  
The deeper you fly into enemy systems can be "safer" depending on how the different militias operate. A militia being strong in the offensive might roam your militias systems more often then their own, reducing the likelihood of an engagement when operating deep behind enemy lines. This is naturally good if you want to focus on mission objectives, though less good if you are looking for PvP.
+
Beyond providing benefits for the system itself, upgrading star systems also contributes to the overall [[#Faction tier|tier]] of the war zone, which can bring additional benefits.  
  
== DUST 514 connectivity - Orbital Strike ==
+
The amount of LP in a system's pool is reduced every time a player from the enemy faction captures a complex in that system; 10% of the LP [[#Rewards|reward]] they receive is subtracted from the system's LP pool<ref name="dev blog fast forward" />.
 +
{{example|A Gallente pilot captures a novice complex in a Caldari-held system. The Gallente pilot is rewarded (say) 10,000 LP for her efforts, and hence, the Caldari LP pool for that system is reduced by 10% of that (1,000 LP in this case).}}
 +
If the amount of LP in the pool drops below the threshold required for the current system level, then the system's upgrade level will drop accordingly. The defending faction can counteract this by donating more LP to the pool; even if the system is at level 5, they can continue donating LP into a so-called "buffer" (i.e. more LP than is needed to reach level 5) to stop the system dropping to level 4 as soon as one enemy pilot captures a complex.
  
{{main|Dust 514: Orbital Bombardment}}
+
If a system is captured by the attacking faction, then all the upgrades are lost and the system reverts to its base (i.e. "un-upgraded") state.
In December 2013, CCP announced changes to Orbital Strike that impacted Factional Warfare. DUST players no longer earn orbital strikes through accumulating war points. EVE capsuleers control the strikes. Pilots fit their ship with one of the orbital strike weapon charges, Orbital Laser S, Orbital Hybrid S or Orbital EMP S. (Blueprints are still named Tactical XXX S Blueprint, at least for now) They warp to planetary districts where DUST fights are occurring, then wait 3 minutes near the beacon while their ship obtains a lock on the ground target. During this time, the district satellite beacon appears on everyone's overview providing another opportunity for PvP to occur. Battles can occur at a temperate planet within the FW combat zones. In DUST, the battle locations are dynamically generated based on where the most FW complexes are being completed by EVE pilots.  
 
  
Since there is now more risk in performing an orbital strike, CCP added a variable LP reward starting at 3,000 LP at tier 1 and increasing based on tier. The reward is divided amongst up to 10 fellow militia members connected to the district during the strike. A killmail is also generated for the capsuleer's efforts if there are ground casualties.
+
=== Faction tier ===
 +
[[File:FW Warzone control window 10 Dec 2013.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The state of the Caldari-Gallente war zone in December 2013, as seen from a Caldari station. This window shows the number of systems controlled by the Caldari, their upgrade levels, and the resulting tier.]]
 +
The more systems in a [[#War zones|war zone]] a faction controls and the more those systems are [[#System upgrades|upgraded]], the higher the [[#Rewards|rewards]] the pilots who fight for that faction receive. This is represented by the "faction tier" mechanic: each faction receives a point for each system they control in their war zone, plus an additional point for every system level upgrade (so an un-upgraded system is worth 1 point, a system upgraded to level 1 is worth 2 points, a system upgraded to level 2 is worth 3 points, a system upgraded to level 3 is worth 4 points, and so forth).  
  
Communications are set to improve and allow better comms between EVE and Dust players. When an EVE pilot connects to a district, they are added to the DUST team text chat for their militia and can join in voice comms as well.
+
The number of points a faction has is then compared to the total number of available points in a war zone (which is equal to the number of systems in the war zone multiplied by 6 (as a system can be upgraded up to level 5, and a level 5 system is worth 6 points)).  
 +
* Amarr-Minmatar war zone: 70 systems (420 points available)
 +
* Caldari-Gallente war zone: 101 systems (606 points available)
  
*See [http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/orbital-strike-changes-coming-december-10th/ Devblog - Orbital Strike changes coming December 10th] for more information.
+
Hence, the number of points a faction has determines its tier<ref name="patch notes inferno 1.0" />:
 +
* 0-20% of the total number of available points: Tier 1
 +
* 21-40% of the total number of available points: Tier 2
 +
* 41-60% of the total number of available points: Tier 3
 +
* 61-80% of the total number of available points: Tier 4
 +
* 81-100% of the total number of available points: Tier 5
  
== More stuff? ==
+
The main effect of faction tier is that it affects how many [[LP|loyalty points]] you receive for various activities you do in Factional Warfare; the higher your faction's tier, the higher your [[#Rewards|rewards]]<ref name="patch notes inferno 1.3" />.
=== Warzone control window ===
+
* Tier 1: -50% LP rewards
[[File:FW Warzone control window 10 Dec 2013.jpg|thumb|A view of the Caldari v Gallente Warzone Control Window, December 2013]]
+
* Tier 2: (no effect)
The battlefield intelligence page was been split into 3 tabs, Warzone Control, Statistics and Rules of Engagement.
+
* Tier 3: +75% LP rewards
 +
* Tier 4: +150% LP rewards
 +
* Tier 5: +225% LP rewards
  
The Warzone Control tab shows various items of information about the current warzone. It has a table showing system control information, systems, level, jumps and capture status and allows sorting by any of the 4 columns. There is also a star map showing the warzone for the militia you are in, ie. Caldari vs. Gallente. It also shows the tier levels for the two militias and victory point totals for your militia.
+
For example, the base reward for capturing a novice complex in an enemy-held system is 10,000 LP. If your faction is at Tier 1, then you will only receive 5000 LP, while if your faction was at Tier 4, you would receive 25,000 LP for capturing that same complex! This bonus affects all activities which reward Factional Warfare LP, notably [[#Capturing complexes|capturing complexes]] and [[#Factional Warfare missions|running missions]].  
  
The Statistics tab lists a few statistics about your militia, your corporation and your character. The items it lists are the number of pilots in each militia, including people in corporations, kills during the last day, week and total – no idea what total this is though. It also lists for the same timeframe victory points and last but not least currently occupied systems.
+
If you open the [[#Joining Factional Warfare|militia window]] in a station then you can see the tier of that faction's war zone (so the militia office at a Minmatar station would show the tiers in the Amarr-Minmatar war zone), as well as the number of systems (and their upgrade levels) currently controlled by that faction. [http://evemaps.dotlan.net/factionwarfare Dotlan] also shows the system occupancy and the [[#Capturing systems|system state]] (stable/contested/vulnerable), but not the system upgrade level or the faction tier.  
  
 
+
== Factional Warfare missions ==
=== The Star Map ===  
+
{{main|Factional Warfare missions}}
For factional warfare the star map has a few additional statistics, showing
+
Each of the four Factional Warfare NPC corporations ("militias") have a number of agents which offer missions to pilots enlisted with their militia (and their allied militia). These missions are similar to the [[Missions#Encounter_Missions|encounter missions]] offered by agents of [[Empire]] corporations, but they are run exclusively in the war zones (although they do not contribute to capturing or defending star systems in those war zones). You are rewarded with ISK and loyalty points (LP) for completing these missions.  
* defensive systems: where a militia holds occupancy, but the opposing faction has contested the system
 
* offensive systems: where a militia has contested the current occupancy of the opposing faction
 
* occupancy: which systems belong to which militia
 
* kill statistics FW ships of the last 24hours and the last hour
 
For the first three options you can either choose “My Militia” or directly one of the four militias. “My militia” naturally is the same as choosing your militia directly from the four.
 
 
 
=== Pirating while in Factional Warfare ===
 
Pirating in factional warfare is a very controversy topic, ranging from “I don't care”, till “I'll shoot pirates even when they are in my fleet”.
 
 
 
The Drama-Lama is strong in this topic and militia corporations even had internal war-dec's against each other with the related forum wars e.g. on the Minmatar militia forum.
 
 
 
The current more or less Minmatar militia standing is against pirating, as it is counter-productive as it drains resources from plexing and most FW corporations have a semi-ingame goal focusing on holding and gaining occupancy.
 
 
 
They are not “anti pirate” on the other hand either, so commonly nobody will shoot a flash/low security standing militia member, though some flashy's in fleet had their occasional accident due to overeager fleet members not knowing the difference.
 
  
 
== Rewards ==
 
== Rewards ==
=== Loyalty Points ===
+
While the primary reason for Factional Warfare is to encourage PvP in low-sec, players are also rewarded directly for participating in the Factional Warfare mechanics.
In July 2009, with the concept that [http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/war-is-a-full-time-job/ War is a full time job], CCP introduced the factional warfare LP shop. Members of the militia have a fixed discount on the faction ships in the LP store. CCP also offered additional faction navy items, which are only attainable from the factional warfare LP shop.  
+
=== Complexes and i-Hubs ===
 +
If you capture a [[#Complex information|complex]] you are rewarded with [[LP|loyalty points]] (for your faction's militia corporation, so a pilot flying for the Gallente would receive LP for the Federal Defence Union). The LP rewards for capturing a complex in an enemy-held system ("offensive plexing") depend on the size of the complex and on your faction's [[#Faction tier|tier]]. You have to be within the complex' capture radius at the moment it's completed (i.e. when the timer runs out) to receive a reward; if there are multiple pilots within the complex at the moment it's completed, the LP reward is split evenly between them (irrespective of how long they have been there). You get no rewards for partially completing a complex!
  
CCP also started providing LP rewards for destroying enemy ships. Originally the rewards were based on the rank and type of ship the enemy was flying. This formula changed in May 2012 in a [http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/28659 Factional Warfare overhaul] to:
+
[[File:Defensive-plex-reward.png|thumb|right|200px|The LP rewards for capturing a complex in a friendly-held system. This example is based on a novice complex at tier 2 (base reward: 10,000 LP).]]
 +
{| class=wikitable style="font-size:90%;text-align:center"
 +
! style="background-color:#333333;" | Complex size
 +
! style="background-color:#222222; padding:0.1em 1em" | Tier 1<br><span style="font-weight:normal; font-size:95%">(-50% LP)</span>
 +
! style="background-color:#222222; padding:0.1em 1em" | Tier 2<br><span style="font-weight:normal; font-size:95%">(base)</span>
 +
! style="background-color:#222222; padding:0.1em 1em" | Tier 3<br><span style="font-weight:normal; font-size:95%">(+75% LP)</span>
 +
! style="background-color:#222222; padding:0.1em 1em" | Tier 4<br><span style="font-weight:normal; font-size:95%">(+150% LP)</span>
 +
! style="background-color:#222222; padding:0.1em 1em" | Tier 5<br><span style="font-weight:normal; font-size:95%">(+225% LP)</span>
 +
|-
 +
| style="background-color:#333333; text-align:left" | Novice
 +
|5000 LP
 +
|10,000 LP
 +
|17,500 LP
 +
|25,000 LP
 +
|32,500 LP
 +
|-
 +
| style="background-color:#333333; text-align:left;" | Small
 +
|8750 LP
 +
|17,500 LP
 +
|30,625 LP
 +
|43,750 LP
 +
|56,875 LP
 +
|-
 +
| style="background-color:#333333; text-align:left;" | Medium
 +
|12,500 LP
 +
|25,000 LP
 +
|43,750 LP
 +
|62,500 LP
 +
|81,250 LP
 +
|-
 +
| style="background-color:#333333; text-align:left;" | Large
 +
| style="padding:0.1em 1em" | 15,000 LP
 +
| style="padding:0.1em 1em" | 30,000 LP
 +
| style="padding:0.1em 1em" | 52,500 LP
 +
| style="padding:0.1em 1em" | 75,000 LP
 +
| style="padding:0.1em 1em" | 97,500 LP
 +
|}
  
[Given LP] = ([Market value of target ship] - [Max. Insurance market value] + [Fitted mods, rigs and subsystem market value] + [Transported items market value]) / 10000
+
If you capture a complex in a friendly-held system ("defensive plexing"), you receive a reduced reward based on [[#Capturing systems|how contested the system is]]. The formula for this is<ref name="dev blog fast forward">[http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/73491 Dev blog: Fast Forward] (2012)</ref>:
  
''The LP value will be evenly divided for each gang member in grid range of the kill, no matter which ship they may be flying. Also, LPs will only be given for killing your militia direct opponents, not allies to them (as a Federation pilot, you will not receive LPs for destroying an Amarr pilot ship for example).''
+
:{{co|wheat|2=LP reward = Base reward of complex * (Contested percentage of the system/100) * 0.75}}
  
*For more details please see the dev-blog [http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/war-is-a-full-time-job].
+
This means capturing a complex in a friendly-held system will pay out, at most, 75% as much as capturing an equivalent complex in an enemy-held system, and the closer the system is to "stable", the lower the reward.
  
With the [http://www.eveonline.com/dominion/ Dominion] expansion CCP is [http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1172933 overhauled the existing faction navy ships and added tier one navy ships], again only attainable from the factional warfare LP shops.
+
The base reward for destroying an [[#Infrastructure Hub|infrastructure hub ("i-Hub")]] is 40,000 LP, split between all the pilots who damaged the i-Hub.  
  
However, plexing was never intended to be lucrative, so there are no bounties for NPCs and apart from militia tags, no salvage. FW Missions do reward with LP and ISK, but compared to normal mission, the payout is much smaller and the risk of having to operate in low-sec is much higher.
+
{| class=wikitable style="font-size:90%;text-align:center; border-style:none"
 +
! style="background-color:#111111; border-style:none;" |
 +
! style="background-color:#222222; padding:0.1em 1em" | Tier 1<br><span style="font-weight:normal; font-size:95%">(-50% LP)</span>
 +
! style="background-color:#222222; padding:0.1em 1em" | Tier 2<br><span style="font-weight:normal; font-size:95%">(base)</span>
 +
! style="background-color:#222222; padding:0.1em 1em" | Tier 3<br><span style="font-weight:normal; font-size:95%">(+75% LP)</span>
 +
! style="background-color:#222222; padding:0.1em 1em" | Tier 4<br><span style="font-weight:normal; font-size:95%">(+150% LP)</span>
 +
! style="background-color:#222222; padding:0.1em 1em" | Tier 5<br><span style="font-weight:normal; font-size:95%">(+225% LP)</span>
 +
|-
 +
| style="background-color:#333333; text-align:left" | Infrastructure hub
 +
| style="padding:0.1em 1em" | 20,000 LP
 +
| style="padding:0.1em 1em" | 40,000 LP
 +
| style="padding:0.1em 1em" | 70,000 LP
 +
| style="padding:0.1em 1em" | 100,000 LP
 +
| style="padding:0.1em 1em" | 130,000 LP
 +
|-
 +
|}
  
Looting Navy Tags can be semi-lucrative as the tags tend to float around the value of an NPC bounties. Higher tier tags can be quite valuable.
+
=== Missions ===
 +
[[#Factional Warfare missions|Missions]] in Factional Warfare, just like missions anywhere else in Eve, pay in both ISK and loyalty points (LP). The rewards from these missions depend on both the mission level (i.e. their difficulty) and the [[Security Rating|security rating]] of the system where the agent is located (the lower the security rating, the higher the rewards). Any levels of the {{sk|Negotiation|icon=yes}} and {{sk|Security Connections|icon=yes}} skills you have trained increase the ISK and LP rewards, respectively. In addition (just like with capturing complexes), the LP rewards are also affected by your [[#Faction tier|faction's tier]] (so if a mission normally pays, say 1000 LP, but your faction is at tier 3, you would receive 1000 + 75% = 1750 LP). Since these different bonuses stack, the LP rewards from high-level missions (when combined with a high faction tier and a few levels of the Security Connections skill) can be very high indeed.  
  
=== Ranks ===
+
Note that, unlike missions in Empire space, the NPC enemies you kill in Factional Warfare missions do not have bounties on them and drop very little loot (other than Navy tags, which can be sold or used to buy items in the LP store).
Ranks are the only visible reward you receive for participating in FW and are tied to your standing with the FW militia. Sadly, they are little more than window dressing and don't impact game play substantially.
 
  
== Leaving factional warfare ==
+
=== Destroying enemy player's ships ===
Willingly leaving factional warfare from the NPC militia corps, is done just like leaving a normal corporation. If you leave a factional warfare your gained ranks will not be visible any more from the character page. You will not lose your ranks, so when you return you will start with your old rank, unless damaged your FW militia standing by joining the opposing militia.
+
In addition to any loot you may recover from the wreck of any enemy player's ships you destroy, you will also receive loyalty points based on the value of the ship<ref>[http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/28659 Dev blog: Factional Warfare overhaul] (2012)</ref> you killed (including modules and the contents of their cargo bay): 
 +
:{{co|wheat|2=LP reward = (value of ship hull - value of ship insurance + value of modules/rigs/subsystem/cargo) / 10000}}
  
You can also be forced to leave factional warfare, when you joined the NPC militia, when due your actions your standing drops with the appropriate faction below the required minimum.
+
As with capturing complexes, if several pilots are involved in killing a ship, the reward is shared equally between them<ref>[http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/war-is-a-full-time-job Dev Blog: "War is a full-time job"] (2009)</ref>. The LP reward scales with faction tier, but is capped at 50,000 LP per kill.
  
From the official guide:
+
=== Factional Warfare LP store ===
*''Player:
 
**''Willingly:
 
***''If part of a FW militia, a player has to click the “retire” button in the sign-up FW page to leave it. The process happens instantly.
 
***''If part of an enlisted player FW corporation, the individual will have to leave the corporation though normal means to retire. If you have roles, the process will take 24 hours, otherwise it will be instant.
 
**''Automatically:
 
***''If an individual’s raw faction standings drops below 0.0, the player receives a notification mail to raise them back at the next downtime. If they are not recovered during the downtime after that (thus, two downtimes after the standing drop), the player will be instantly kicked out of the FW militia.
 
***''If part of an enlisted player corporation, individual faction standings do not apply for the check. Corporation faction standings are used instead, see below.
 
*''Corporation:
 
**''Willingly:
 
***''The CEO/Director has to press the “retire corporation” button from the FW page. The change is done during the next downtime. Before then, any Director or CEO can cancel this action by pressing the “cancel retirement” option.
 
**''Automatically:
 
***''If a corporation’s raw faction standings drops below 0.0, mail notification is sent to the corporation mailbox at the next downtime. If the standings are not recovered after the second downtime (two downtimes after the standing drop), the corporation is instantly expelled.
 
  
== Player Experiences ==
+
As with all corporations which reward loyalty points (LP), the four faction militia corporations each have a [[Skillbooks_from_Loyalty_Point_Stores|LP store]] where you can buy implants, modules, ships, blueprints and skillbooks with the LP you have earned. These stores stock a similar range of items to their respective faction navies' LP stores, but at a discount (for example, the [[Apocalypse Navy Issue]] costs 600,000 LP from the [http://www.ellatha.com/eve/lp/Amarr-Navy Amarr Navy] LP store, but only 250,000 LP from the [http://www.ellatha.com/eve/lp/24th-Imperial-Crusade 24th Imperial Crusade] LP store).
  
Here are just a few stories from other player(s) about Factional Warfare.
+
{{expansion past | Before the [[Expansion#Inferno|Inferno expansion]], the faction tier directly reduced prices in each militia's LP store (so an item would be cheaper the higher the faction tier)<ref name="patch notes inferno 1.3" />. This led to a massive see-saw as the factions earned their LP at lower tiers, then made a massive push to tier 5, cashed out all their LP into items (promptly crashing the markets for those items), before letting their tier drop again.}}
  
'''From Juan Rayo, Gallente Militia Member via a player corporation(2009):'''
+
=== Standings and ranks ===
<blockquote>I log in at any time and take a look at militia chat. People are X'ing up for something. Intel channel says the Caldari are moving a fleet down the pipe, 30 strong, lots of Battleships and some EW boats, so I could go join the fight. In another channel, plexers are trying to decontest a system that the Caldari have been fighting bitterly for, slowly driving us out. .
+
{{main|Factional Warfare Standings}}
They are more organized plexers than most of us, and have been slowly, but surely, conquering Gallente territory. Plexing would raise my standings, and help us defend the systems, so I could head that way. Corp chat is already heating up with people calling for support or looking to go kill, explore a WH or do a mission. A quick look at my wallet tells me I could also use some missioning to pad it a bit, faction warfare is an ISK sink after all.
+
Participating in Factional Warfare can impact your [[standings]] towards, notably, the militia corporations and the empire factions. High standings towards your faction militia corporation not only grants you access to higher-level [[#Factional Warfare missions|mission agents]], but also awards you "ranks" (which are visible on the "decorations" tab in your character sheet). You are promoted to a higher rank every time your standings reach an integer number (i.e. 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 etc); when you are promoted, you also receive a one-off bonus to your standings with your faction. Otherwise, your rank is purely cosmetic.  
The great thing about it is, ALL this options are open to me the very moment I log in. Faction warfare offers a lot of things to do, and unless your corp is fairly strict, a great amount of liberty to do those things.</blockquote>
 
 
 
= FAQ =
 
 
 
=== Do you need to run complexes? ===
 
 
 
Complexes can be useful tactically, as the acceleration gates restrict certain class ships entering them. This can enable you to get some slightly fairer PvP action.
 
 
 
You don't need to complete the complex to achieve this. If others in your group wanted to complete the complex you could warp out just before it captured to avoid gaining standing.
 
 
 
=== Do you need to shoot NPCs in complexes? ===
 
 
 
In defensive complexes, the NPCs are your own faction - don't shoot them!!!
 
 
 
In offensive complexes, the NPCs are from your opposition factions. With the recent changes, you need to shoot them in order to complete the plex, so be prepared to do so.
 
 
 
=== Do you need to run missions? ===
 
 
 
No, not at all.
 
 
 
=== So I could take part in FW without hurting my faction standings in any way?===
 
 
 
Yes. As long as you never complete complexes, shoot faction NPCs or do FW missions. You don't actually lose faction standing for killing other pvp pilots, you only lose enemy faction ''war'' corporation standing.
 
 
 
You'll only lose enemy faction standing for killing faction NPC's in plexes, or by getting 'promoted' by your own (npc) faction warfare corporation, which will happen as a result of completing plexes or missions. You don't have to complete plexes to get the pvp you desire (but can still go in them to use their tactical benefits). You don't need to do missions.
 
 
 
=== Can I run missions for the opposing faction to offset any standings losses I do make? ===
 
 
 
Of course, but agents might not be in your area. For example, there are no Amarr level 4 "kill" agents in Metropolis or Heimatar, although there are level 4 agents working for other divisions, and you could mission in other areas.
 
 
 
=== Can I still do normal missions in empire or go mining? ===
 
Yes, you can do still missions in empire, but keep in mind that if you do missions in the opposing factions empire the faction NPC navy will also spawn and attack you.
 
 
 
Your access to other corporations even from the opposing faction is thus limited due to the movement restrictions due to these NPC Navy spawns. If you can keep up your standing with the other factions corporations you could join the Minmatar militia and still do missions for the Caldari empire, provided these agents are in Minmatar or Gallente space.  
 
 
 
Suicide ganks into the opposing faction have been popular and happen from time to time, also the lone wanderer or fast interceptor is looking for unaware militia members afk-ing in their own space, but I haven't heard from somebody bothering to bring a neutral scanner just to find militia members in high sec.
 
 
 
Mining in common asteroid belts can be dangerous with the imminent danger that a suicide fleet shows up and there have been the occasional kills during the first few weeks of afk miners in high sec so you might want to refrain from doing that. On the other hand – and don't tell the Amarr – I do mine from time to time in Heimatar in a Hulk and so far have been only tagged once by a crow, who couldn't get passed by my shields and ran away when I unleashed my drones.
 
  
=== Risk assessment: with all those people, who do I trust? ===
+
== Permanent war ==
Being thrown into an NPC militia , you end up with a whole bunch of people, and this still being Eve the questions arises can I trust these people?
+
Being enlisted in a Factional Warfare militia (be it as a solo player or as a corporation) means that you are constantly at war with:
 +
* the players enlisted in the two enemy militias, and
 +
* the [[#Factional alliances|two enemy NPC factions]].
  
The answer as in all of EvE is no, trust nobody. Although the spying, backstabbing in the Minmatar-Amarr war is fairly low and the numbers of really bad or even traitorous FC is very low, each war is different. You could even say depending on what time you play the war within on conflict is fought differently as RL player TZ come and go.  
+
The first of these is similar to being a member of a player-run [[corporation]] which is [[War Declaration|at war with another player-run corporation]]. You can attack pilots who are enlisted in the enemy militia anywhere in New Eden ([[CONCORD Details|CONCORD]] or sentry guns will not interfere) without impacting your [[Security Status Details|security status]] (and, of course, they can also attack you!). This effect is most felt in high-sec, where you now have to be on the lookout for enemy players.  
  
A  personal experience from the Gallente-Caldari war from our well known intelligence officer, Patric Reigns:
+
The second of these restricts your movement through high-sec systems controlled by the two enemy factions. If you enter one of these systems, you will get a text warning on your screen; if you don't leave the system promptly, you will be attacked by NPC faction navy ships. These ships are more powerful the higher the [[Security Rating|security rating]] of the system you are in, and will use [[EWAR Guide|electronic warfare]] against you (such as [[Capacitor Warfare Guide|neuts/nos]] and [[web]]s). However, unlike [[CONCORD]], they will not [[point|scram or warp disrupt]] you, so you can run away from them (therefore, also unlike CONCORD, it's certainly feasible to survive encounters with them - but they make travel through enemy-held high-sec a hassle at the least). The in-game star map (or a third-party site like [http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map Dotlan]) can help you to plan safe routes.
<blockquote>
 
As a member of the the Caldari militia it became apparent that many of the pirate groups were allied/supporting the Gallente militia in Black Rise. The risks of initiating combat against pirate targets who in many cases kept their sec status neutral, with the subsequent sec status hit and engagement of gate guns, kept the militia on the back foot. Corporations operating from high-sec would also declare war on individual corps in a militia. This would allow them to isolate and engage individual members of your fleet who belonged to those corporations without being flagged to the rest of the fleet. Intervening would also incur a sec-status penalty; Almost complete absence of command & control structures in militias.  
 
</blockquote>
 
  
Within the Amarr-Minmatar war the CVA have been a long time supporter of the Amarr NPC militia as well of some of the player corporations. Since alliances can't join militias their support was mostly more logistically and I personally encountered them almost never in the factional warfare zones fighting. Though they recently retracted their official support (ingame news), this doesn't mean that there are no out-of-militia supporters in the Amarr-Minmatar war. Personally I already encountered an NPC noob scout in an noob ship as FC following my gang everywhere dragging an Amarr militia gang with him.
+
Additionally, you cannot dock in stations controlled by the enemy NPC factions in the [[#War zones|war zones]] (but you can dock at enemy NPC stations in all other parts of space). This means that if you have items or ships in a station which is now held by the enemy faction you cannot access them until your faction takes the system back (although, in a pinch, you can create a [[contract]] to a neutral player, alt, or hauling service to get your items out).  
  
There also have been some known spies in the Minmatar militia, who have been identified, which you will notice and learn from just watching the militia chat and being active. Keeping good and bad militia members and FC in your personal address book can help keeping track of these people.  
+
== Leaving Factional Warfare ==
 +
You can leave Factional Warfare at any time through the Militia window if you joined as a solo player (or, for an entire corporation, the CEO or Director can do this). You will keep any loyalty points you have earned, but will no longer be able to participate in the formal Factional Warfare mechanics (capturing complexes and systems, or running missions). Additionally, you can re-enlist at any time (provided you [[#Joining Factional Warfare|meet the criteria]]).
  
As Patric also stated there is no functional command structure within these militias - although some corporation have gathered around some regulations - there is no ingame way to enforce any of these regulations, e.g. killboard loss posting is requested but can not be enforced, there is no shared standing or derived standing and individual player corporations within a militia can be war dec'ed by player corporations within their own militia as well as from corporations outside the militia, resulting in no way to support allied player corporations in the militia from within the alliance apart from re'deccing the aggressing player corporation with your own corporation.
+
If at any point your (unmodified, i.e. without taking [[Skills:Social|skills]] into account) standings towards your faction drop below 0.0, you will receive a warning mail to raise them back up at the next [[DT|downtime]]. If you have not recovered your standings until the downtime after that (i.e. two downtimes after the standing drop), you will be instantly kicked out of the FW militia. The same rules apply for corporation who join FW, except that in that case it's the corporation's faction standings which counts.  
  
=See also=
+
== References ==
*[[Factional Warfare Standings]]
+
<span style="font-size:90%">{{reflist}}</span>
  
==Links==
+
== External links ==
*Credits to the [https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Factional_Warfare official factional warfare guide]
+
* [https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Factional_Warfare Eve Wiki: Factional Warfare]
** and the [http://www.Minmatar-militia.org Minmatar militia academy forum], a dead link as of Dec 2013.
+
* [http://www.gamerchick.net/2013/01/the-beginners-guide-to-faction-war.html GamerChick42: Beginner's guide to Factional War] (2013)
*[http://www.gamerchick.net/2013/01/the-beginners-guide-to-faction-war.html GamerChick's January 2013 Guide to Factional Warfare]
+
* [http://forum.eveuniversity.org/viewtopic.php?f=105&t=12193 Factional Warfare: What is it, what is there in for me?] (2009)
  
[[Category:PvP]]
 
 
[[Category:Factional Warfare]]
 
[[Category:Factional Warfare]]
[[Category:Guides]]
 

Revision as of 11:14, 25 June 2014

This page deals primarily with the mechanics of Factional Warfare. For tips on how best to take advantage of these mechanics, see Factional Warfare strategy and tactics.
E-UNI Emblem.png EVE University offers
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Factional Warfare (sometimes also called Faction Warfare) is a game mechanic whereby you can sign up to fight for one of the four empire factions (against its enemy faction) for control over certain areas of low-sec space. It was first introduced in the Empyrean Age expansion (2008) to offer players a stepping-stone into PvP (player-vs-player) gameplay.

Factional Warfare is primarily centered around two war zones (areas of low-sec contested by two empires): the Amarr-Minmatar war zone and the Caldari-Gallente war zone, which each are located on the border of the two respective empires. In these war zones, players who participate in Factional Warfare attempt to conquer star systems for their empire, and are rewarded with loyalty points and increased faction standings for their efforts. Additionally, as players who participate in Factional Warfare are effectively at war with two of the four empire factions in the game, they can therefore attack (and be attacked by) players fighting for the enemy factions anywhere in New Eden, as well as fight the enemy NPC faction navies (who patrol the high-sec star systems belonging to their faction).

Joining Factional Warfare

There are two ways to join Factional Warfare (the game calls this "enlisting"): join as a solo player, or join as part of a player corporation or alliance.

EVE University does not participate in Factional Warfare; members of the University have to leave the University to participate in Factional Warfare (or create an alt character specifically for Factional Warfare). EVE University used to have affiliated corporations which participated in Factional Warfare, but this is no longer the case.

Joining as a solo player

Join Factional Warfare through the Militia Office window in a station belonging to the empire you wish to fight for (in this example, the Caldari).

Any player can join Factional Warfare provided that:

  • They have a regular paid EVE account (trial accounts may not join), and
  • Their standings towards the empire faction (e.g. the Gallente Federation or the Caldari State) they wish to fight for must be 0.0 or greater. Note that only raw, unmodified standings (i.e. without taking the effects of skills like Icon skillbook2.png Social into account) count; you can check your standings on your character page.

You can enlist at any station belonging to the empire faction you wish to fight for by opening the "Militia Office" window (from the NeoCom or the Station Services window). Note that even through the Khanid Kingdom and the Ammatar Mandate are affiliated with the Amarr Empire, they do not count as being a part of it, and therefore you cannot join Factional Warfare from their stations.

If you join as a solo player, you will leave your current corporation (be it a player-run or NPC corporation) and automatically join one of the four militia corporations (NPC-run corporations which are populated exclusively by other players enlisted in Factional Warfare for a given empire):

  • Amarr: 24th Imperial Crusade
  • Caldari: State Protectorate
  • Gallente: Federal Defence Union
  • Minmatar: Tribal Liberation Force

Joining as a solo player happens immediately, unless you have roles in a player-run corporation (in which case it takes at least 24 hours to relinquish your roles and leave your corporation). These militia corporations have NPC agents working for them, which offer missions to pilots enlisted with their respective faction.

Joining as a corporation

The CEO or Director of a corporation can enlist their entire corporation (i.e. all their members) in Factional Warfare to fight for one of the four empires. As with solo players, the corporation must have a standing of 0.0 of greater towards the empire they wish to fight for (corporation standings are an average of of its all the members' individual standings, see corporation standings for more details). Enlisting a corporation takes effect after the next downtime.

It's not possible for individuals in a player-run corporation to either join Factional Warfare on their own (they have to leave their corporation and join one of the NPC militia corporations, see above) or to opt out of Factional Warfare if their corporation joins (if the corporation joins, every member of that corporation automatically joins too).

Factional alliances

The Amarr and the Caldari fight against the Minmatar and the Gallente.

Factional Warfare revolves around two conflicts, one between the Amarr and the Minmatar, and the other between the Caldari and the Gallente. Additionally, the Amarr and the Caldari are allied (as are the Minmatar and the Gallente), which means that pilots fighting for (for instance) the Gallente can also help their Minmatar allies fight against the Amarr (with the exception of infrastructure hubs), and attack (and be attacked by) pilots fighting for the Amarr as well as the Caldari. Additionally, that same pilot would be attacked by the NPC faction navies of the Amarr and the Caldari should he enter their high-sec space.

War zones

The majority of the actions in Factional Warfare take place in two areas of low-security space, each of which is contested by two empires, known as "war zones".

The Amarr-Minmatar war zone extends into parts of the Devoid, Bleak Lands, Heimatar and Metropolis regions, while the Caldari-Gallente war zone extends into parts of the Black Rise, Citadel, Essence, Verge Vendor, and Placid regions. The high-security systems on the borders of the war zones are often used as staging areas (as players fighting for the enemy militia cannot enter them without being attacked by friendly NPC faction navy ships), although many player corporations also use systems inside the war zones themselves as home bases. The core Factional Warfare gameplay of capturing systems and running missions takes place exclusively within the war zones. Dotlan and Ombeve have very useful maps of the war zones.

Region Constellations
Amarr Empire Devoid Semou and Jayai
The Bleak Lands Sasen, Tandoiras, and Vaarma
Minmatar Republic Heimatar Hed and Huvilma
Metropolis Essin, Tiat, Eugidi, Angils, and Aldodan
Caldari State The Citadel Ieyama and Isoma
Black Rise Inolari, Ishaga, Kurala and Okakuola
Gallente Federation Essence Jeon and Vieres
Verge Vendor Obray and Woenckee
Placid Amevync, Pegeler, Serthoulde, Viriette, and Fislipesnes

Capturing systems

An illustration of how to capture (or defend) a star system in Factional Warfare (using a system contested by the Amarr and the Minmatar as an example).

The core mechanics of Factional Warfare revolve around capturing and holding star systems in the war zones. This occurs in two steps:

  • Attacking and completing complexes ("plexes") in a system to make the system vulnerable to capture.
  • Once the system is vulnerable, attack and destroy ("capture") the system's infrastructure hub (also known as an "i-Hub") to capture the system.

A system starts off as "stable" (or "uncontested"). The attacking faction (for instance, pilots flying for the Gallente attacking a Caldari-held system) must first attack and complete complexes in the system (this is known as "offensive plexing"); for each completed complex, the system becomes ever more "contested" (commonly quoted from 0% to 100%, sometimes also measured in victory points). Once a system has become 100% contested, it is listed as "vulnerable", and the attacking faction can then attack the system's infrastructure hub. Once the infrastructure hub is destroyed, the system is considered "lost" and will switch to the attacking faction's control after the next downtime (DT).

During this time, the defending faction can also complete complexes in the system (this is known as "defensive plexing"); for each completed complex, the system becomes ever less "contested" (or, if it's currently "vulnerable", it will revert to being "contested"), all the way back to "stable".

While a system is "vulnerable" or "lost", the attacking faction may still capture complexes, but they will not get any reward nor affect the system's capture. Additionally, once a system is "vulnerable", the defending faction needs only to capture a few complexes to revert the system to "contested" (and therefore render the infrastructure hub invulnerable again); the attacking faction only create a small "buffer" against this by capturing more complexes while the system is "vulnerable". Similarly, the once the defending faction has capture enough complexes to revert a system to "stable", the attacking faction only needs to capture one complex to put the system back to "contested".

Obviously, in addition to the mechanics above, pilots can (and should!) attack the other faction's pilots to stop them from completing their objectives!

Complexes

The layout of a complex. To enter a complex, you must first activate the complex' acceleration gate, which will warp you into the complex at its beacon. In order to capture the complex, you must stay within 30 km of the capture point.
Complexes can be found via the system scanner.
An overview showing typical Factional Warfare objects.

Factional Warfare Complexes (commonly known as "Plexes", not to be confused with PLEX) are small areas of deadspace in war zone star systems. They are a type of Cosmic Anomaly, which means that they show up on the system scanner (but do not need scan probes to find), although once someone has warped to a complex, they will also show up on the Overview (even if someone initiated a warp to them, but cancelled it immediately).

Like most other Deadspace Complexes, you cannot warp directly into them, but must first use an acceleration gate, after which you will land at the complex' beacon (large complexes (see below) do not have an acceleration gate, but you will still land at the complex' beacon when you warp in); you cannot light a cynosural field inside a complex. At the center of each complex, a few kilometers away from the beacon, is the capture point (sometimes called a "button"). An NPC ship belonging to the faction controlling the star system defends the complex.

Capturing complexes

In order to capture a complex, you must first clear the area (radius: 30 km) around the capture point of enemy ships. If you're the attacking faction, this includes killing the defending NPC; if you're the defending faction, the NPC will obviously not fire on you, and you therefore you shouldn't destroy it (even if it appears as "hostile" on your overview)!. Then you must stay inside the capture radius (within 30 km of the capture point) until the complex' timer has counted down to 0 (you can see how much time is left by selecting the capture point), at which point you will have captured the complex!

An Amarr pilot capturing an Amarr complex ("defensive plexing"). The timer on the capture point shows how much time is left before the complex is captured.

Additional ships from your faction will not make the timer count down faster; if you leave the complex, the timer will pause (but will not reset). If an enemy ship enters the complex, the timer will also pause until ships from only one faction are present in the complex, and then it will resume counting down. Note that the timers for both factions are additive - so if a Caldari pilot has spent three minutes capturing a complex, and is then destroyed by an incoming Gallente pilot, the Gallente pilot would have to spend an extra three minutes in the complex in order to capture it (in order to "undo the capturing" previously done by the Caldari pilot, so to speak).

No ship can cloak within the capture radius of a complex[1]. Neutral pilots (i.e. pilots who are not enlisted in a militia) can enter a complex, but cannot capture it (their presence doesn't affect the complex' timer). Pilots in a militia can capture complexes in their ally's warzone, but only on their ally's behalf (so, for example, a pilot fighting for the Minmatar could go to the Caldari-Gallente warzone and capture a complex on behalf of their ally (the Gallente)).

Once a complex has been captured, it disappears from the scanner/overview and despawns after a few minutes. A new complex of the same size will spawn about 30 minutes after the previous one was captured. On average, there will be one or two complexes of each size in a system. However, if many players have been active in a system recently, it may be the case that, for a brief time, there are no complexes available to capture.

Complex types

Complexes come in four types, often called "sizes" (which is a bit of a misnomer, as the physical dimensions of the complex are always the same)Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; invalid names, e.g. too many. They vary in what ship classes are allowed to enter, what NPC defends them, and how long it takes to capture them. While each type of complex contributes the same amount to capturing a system (measured in victory points), capturing larger complexes result in higher rewards. Additionally, capturing complexes in enemy-held systems gives higher rewards than capturing complexes in friendly-held systems.

Type Capture time Allowed ships NPC defender
Novice 10 min T1 and Faction frigates
Industrials
(no rookie ships)
Frigate
Small 15 min Frigates
Destroyers
Destroyer
Medium 20 min Frigates and Destroyers
Cruisers
(no Strategic (T3) Cruisers)
Cruiser
Large 20 min Unrestricted Battlecruiser

Complexes are defended by a single NPC (in rare cases, two); it's designed to be killed without too much trouble by a player ship of similar size. Once killed, the NPC defender will respawn after between 90 and 180 seconds (for novice and small complexes; in medium and large complexes, the NPC respawns after between 90 and 300 seconds).[2]

Infrastructure Hub

An infrastructure hub ("i-Hub") in space.

The Infrastructure Hub (or "i-Hub") is a structure in space which the attacking faction needs to destroy in order to capture a system. The i-Hub can be found (and be warped to) from the Overview, but can only be damaged if the star system is in a "vulnerable" state, and then only by pilots of the attacking faction (pilots of the defending faction, pilots in an allied militia, or neutral pilots cannot damage the i-Hub).

The i-Hub has 25 million hitpoints (HP), with 7.5M HP each in shield and armor, and 10M HP in structure[3]. This means that a medium-sized fleet is needed to destroy an i-Hub in a reasonable period of time (keeping in mind that its peak shield recharge rate is around 1700 HP/s, which is the absolute minimum amount of DPS needed to break through its shields). Once the i-Hub is destroyed (technically, once it reaches 1% structure), the system will be "lost" and will switch to being occupied by the attacking faction after the next downtime.

As explained above, if a system is "vulnerable", and if the defending faction can capture enough complexes, the system will revert back to "contested". The i-Hub will then become invulnerable again, and any damage which the attacking faction has so far managed to do to it is reset. Therefore, while attacking the i-Hub, the attacking faction must also prevent the defending faction from capturing complexes.

The i-Hub is also the place where pilots of the defending faction can donate loyalty points to upgrade the system.

Victory points

File:FW DUST influence.jpg
A system information display, showing the influence of DUST players.

Formally, how "contested" a system is is measured in how many victory points have been accumulated by the attacking faction for that system. If the attacking faction has not yet accumulated any victory points for that system, then the system is "stable", and if they then capture a complex (regardless of its size) they are rewarded with 20 victory points[4] (conversely, if the defending faction captures a complex, 20 victory points are subtracted). In order to bring a system to "vulnerable", the attacking faction must accumulate 3000 victory points (i.e. capture 150 complexes more than the defending faction). Once a system is vulnerable, the attacking faction can continue capturing complexes until they have a "buffer" of 100 victory points[5]; this is to give themselves some breathing room while they attack the i-Hub.

If a star system has one or more temperate planets, then players in DUST 514 can make a system easier or harder to capture. The more planetary districts on those planets are controlled by DUST 514 players fighting for the attacking faction, the lower the number of victory points needed to capture a system (and, conversely, the more districts are controlled by the defending faction, the higher the number). This mechanic can modify the number of victory points needed to capture a system by up to 12.5% per temperate planet[6] (for example, a system with two temperate planets where the attacking faction militia controls all the districts will require 3000 - (12.5% * 2) = 2250 victory points). Star systems without temperate planets always require 3000 victory points to capture.

System upgrades and warzone tier

System upgrades

A system can be upgraded by donating loyalty points (LP) at the system's infrastructure hub. This system is currently at Level 3, nearing Level 4.

Players participating in Factional Warfare can donate the loyalty points (LP) they earned with their militia corporation to "upgrade" the star systems which their faction currently controls. To do this, they must fly to the system's infrastructure hub, right-click on it, select the "open system upgrade panel" option, and select how much LP they would like to donate. This window also lists the benefits of upgrading a system[7]:

  • lower broker fees for contracts and market orders (-10% per system upgrade level)
  • lower medical clone costs (-10% per system upgrade level)
  • more industry slots (+1 per upgrade level)

When you donate LP, a part is lost as a "maintenance tax" (for example, if you donate 1000 LP, and the maintenance tax is 5%, then only 950 LP are actually counted towards upgrading the system). The maintenance tax starts at 0% and increases the higher their faction's tier is, up to about 75%[5][8]. The LP you donate is put into a pool with the LP donated by other players from your faction in that system, and the size of that pool determines the system's upgrade level. A system can be upgraded up to level 5.

In the screenshot on the right, Caldari militia members have donated a total of 129,360 LP in that system, which equates to an upgrade level of 3. In order to each level 4, they would have to donate an additional 10,640 LP to bring the total to at least 140,000 LP.

The total amount of LP required to upgrade a system is[5]:

  • Level 1: 40,000 LP
  • Level 2: 60,000 LP
  • Level 3: 90,000 LP
  • Level 4: 140,000 LP
  • Level 5: 200,000 LP
  • Buffer: 300,000 LP
The system information display.

You can check the current upgrade level of a system (along with the associated benefits) through the system information display at the top-left of the screen. Here you can see who currently controls the system, the system state (stable / contested / vulnerable / lost) and its upgrade level, as well as the influence of DUST 514 players on the system.

Beyond providing benefits for the system itself, upgrading star systems also contributes to the overall tier of the war zone, which can bring additional benefits.

The amount of LP in a system's pool is reduced every time a player from the enemy faction captures a complex in that system; 10% of the LP reward they receive is subtracted from the system's LP pool[9].

A Gallente pilot captures a novice complex in a Caldari-held system. The Gallente pilot is rewarded (say) 10,000 LP for her efforts, and hence, the Caldari LP pool for that system is reduced by 10% of that (1,000 LP in this case).

If the amount of LP in the pool drops below the threshold required for the current system level, then the system's upgrade level will drop accordingly. The defending faction can counteract this by donating more LP to the pool; even if the system is at level 5, they can continue donating LP into a so-called "buffer" (i.e. more LP than is needed to reach level 5) to stop the system dropping to level 4 as soon as one enemy pilot captures a complex.

If a system is captured by the attacking faction, then all the upgrades are lost and the system reverts to its base (i.e. "un-upgraded") state.

Faction tier

The state of the Caldari-Gallente war zone in December 2013, as seen from a Caldari station. This window shows the number of systems controlled by the Caldari, their upgrade levels, and the resulting tier.

The more systems in a war zone a faction controls and the more those systems are upgraded, the higher the rewards the pilots who fight for that faction receive. This is represented by the "faction tier" mechanic: each faction receives a point for each system they control in their war zone, plus an additional point for every system level upgrade (so an un-upgraded system is worth 1 point, a system upgraded to level 1 is worth 2 points, a system upgraded to level 2 is worth 3 points, a system upgraded to level 3 is worth 4 points, and so forth).

The number of points a faction has is then compared to the total number of available points in a war zone (which is equal to the number of systems in the war zone multiplied by 6 (as a system can be upgraded up to level 5, and a level 5 system is worth 6 points)).

  • Amarr-Minmatar war zone: 70 systems (420 points available)
  • Caldari-Gallente war zone: 101 systems (606 points available)

Hence, the number of points a faction has determines its tier[7]:

  • 0-20% of the total number of available points: Tier 1
  • 21-40% of the total number of available points: Tier 2
  • 41-60% of the total number of available points: Tier 3
  • 61-80% of the total number of available points: Tier 4
  • 81-100% of the total number of available points: Tier 5

The main effect of faction tier is that it affects how many loyalty points you receive for various activities you do in Factional Warfare; the higher your faction's tier, the higher your rewards[5].

  • Tier 1: -50% LP rewards
  • Tier 2: (no effect)
  • Tier 3: +75% LP rewards
  • Tier 4: +150% LP rewards
  • Tier 5: +225% LP rewards

For example, the base reward for capturing a novice complex in an enemy-held system is 10,000 LP. If your faction is at Tier 1, then you will only receive 5000 LP, while if your faction was at Tier 4, you would receive 25,000 LP for capturing that same complex! This bonus affects all activities which reward Factional Warfare LP, notably capturing complexes and running missions.

If you open the militia window in a station then you can see the tier of that faction's war zone (so the militia office at a Minmatar station would show the tiers in the Amarr-Minmatar war zone), as well as the number of systems (and their upgrade levels) currently controlled by that faction. Dotlan also shows the system occupancy and the system state (stable/contested/vulnerable), but not the system upgrade level or the faction tier.

Factional Warfare missions

Main article: Factional Warfare missions

Each of the four Factional Warfare NPC corporations ("militias") have a number of agents which offer missions to pilots enlisted with their militia (and their allied militia). These missions are similar to the encounter missions offered by agents of Empire corporations, but they are run exclusively in the war zones (although they do not contribute to capturing or defending star systems in those war zones). You are rewarded with ISK and loyalty points (LP) for completing these missions.

Rewards

While the primary reason for Factional Warfare is to encourage PvP in low-sec, players are also rewarded directly for participating in the Factional Warfare mechanics.

Complexes and i-Hubs

If you capture a complex you are rewarded with loyalty points (for your faction's militia corporation, so a pilot flying for the Gallente would receive LP for the Federal Defence Union). The LP rewards for capturing a complex in an enemy-held system ("offensive plexing") depend on the size of the complex and on your faction's tier. You have to be within the complex' capture radius at the moment it's completed (i.e. when the timer runs out) to receive a reward; if there are multiple pilots within the complex at the moment it's completed, the LP reward is split evenly between them (irrespective of how long they have been there). You get no rewards for partially completing a complex!

The LP rewards for capturing a complex in a friendly-held system. This example is based on a novice complex at tier 2 (base reward: 10,000 LP).
Complex size Tier 1
(-50% LP)
Tier 2
(base)
Tier 3
(+75% LP)
Tier 4
(+150% LP)
Tier 5
(+225% LP)
Novice 5000 LP 10,000 LP 17,500 LP 25,000 LP 32,500 LP
Small 8750 LP 17,500 LP 30,625 LP 43,750 LP 56,875 LP
Medium 12,500 LP 25,000 LP 43,750 LP 62,500 LP 81,250 LP
Large 15,000 LP 30,000 LP 52,500 LP 75,000 LP 97,500 LP

If you capture a complex in a friendly-held system ("defensive plexing"), you receive a reduced reward based on how contested the system is. The formula for this is[9]:

LP reward = Base reward of complex * (Contested percentage of the system/100) * 0.75

This means capturing a complex in a friendly-held system will pay out, at most, 75% as much as capturing an equivalent complex in an enemy-held system, and the closer the system is to "stable", the lower the reward.

The base reward for destroying an infrastructure hub ("i-Hub") is 40,000 LP, split between all the pilots who damaged the i-Hub.

Tier 1
(-50% LP)
Tier 2
(base)
Tier 3
(+75% LP)
Tier 4
(+150% LP)
Tier 5
(+225% LP)
Infrastructure hub 20,000 LP 40,000 LP 70,000 LP 100,000 LP 130,000 LP

Missions

Missions in Factional Warfare, just like missions anywhere else in Eve, pay in both ISK and loyalty points (LP). The rewards from these missions depend on both the mission level (i.e. their difficulty) and the security rating of the system where the agent is located (the lower the security rating, the higher the rewards). Any levels of the Icon skillbook2.png Negotiation and Icon skillbook2.png Security Connections skills you have trained increase the ISK and LP rewards, respectively. In addition (just like with capturing complexes), the LP rewards are also affected by your faction's tier (so if a mission normally pays, say 1000 LP, but your faction is at tier 3, you would receive 1000 + 75% = 1750 LP). Since these different bonuses stack, the LP rewards from high-level missions (when combined with a high faction tier and a few levels of the Security Connections skill) can be very high indeed.

Note that, unlike missions in Empire space, the NPC enemies you kill in Factional Warfare missions do not have bounties on them and drop very little loot (other than Navy tags, which can be sold or used to buy items in the LP store).

Destroying enemy player's ships

In addition to any loot you may recover from the wreck of any enemy player's ships you destroy, you will also receive loyalty points based on the value of the ship[10] you killed (including modules and the contents of their cargo bay):

LP reward = (value of ship hull - value of ship insurance + value of modules/rigs/subsystem/cargo) / 10000

As with capturing complexes, if several pilots are involved in killing a ship, the reward is shared equally between them[11]. The LP reward scales with faction tier, but is capped at 50,000 LP per kill.

Factional Warfare LP store

As with all corporations which reward loyalty points (LP), the four faction militia corporations each have a LP store where you can buy implants, modules, ships, blueprints and skillbooks with the LP you have earned. These stores stock a similar range of items to their respective faction navies' LP stores, but at a discount (for example, the Apocalypse Navy Issue costs 600,000 LP from the Amarr Navy LP store, but only 250,000 LP from the 24th Imperial Crusade LP store).

Standings and ranks

Main article: Factional Warfare Standings

Participating in Factional Warfare can impact your standings towards, notably, the militia corporations and the empire factions. High standings towards your faction militia corporation not only grants you access to higher-level mission agents, but also awards you "ranks" (which are visible on the "decorations" tab in your character sheet). You are promoted to a higher rank every time your standings reach an integer number (i.e. 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 etc); when you are promoted, you also receive a one-off bonus to your standings with your faction. Otherwise, your rank is purely cosmetic.

Permanent war

Being enlisted in a Factional Warfare militia (be it as a solo player or as a corporation) means that you are constantly at war with:

The first of these is similar to being a member of a player-run corporation which is at war with another player-run corporation. You can attack pilots who are enlisted in the enemy militia anywhere in New Eden (CONCORD or sentry guns will not interfere) without impacting your security status (and, of course, they can also attack you!). This effect is most felt in high-sec, where you now have to be on the lookout for enemy players.

The second of these restricts your movement through high-sec systems controlled by the two enemy factions. If you enter one of these systems, you will get a text warning on your screen; if you don't leave the system promptly, you will be attacked by NPC faction navy ships. These ships are more powerful the higher the security rating of the system you are in, and will use electronic warfare against you (such as neuts/nos and webs). However, unlike CONCORD, they will not scram or warp disrupt you, so you can run away from them (therefore, also unlike CONCORD, it's certainly feasible to survive encounters with them - but they make travel through enemy-held high-sec a hassle at the least). The in-game star map (or a third-party site like Dotlan) can help you to plan safe routes.

Additionally, you cannot dock in stations controlled by the enemy NPC factions in the war zones (but you can dock at enemy NPC stations in all other parts of space). This means that if you have items or ships in a station which is now held by the enemy faction you cannot access them until your faction takes the system back (although, in a pinch, you can create a contract to a neutral player, alt, or hauling service to get your items out).

Leaving Factional Warfare

You can leave Factional Warfare at any time through the Militia window if you joined as a solo player (or, for an entire corporation, the CEO or Director can do this). You will keep any loyalty points you have earned, but will no longer be able to participate in the formal Factional Warfare mechanics (capturing complexes and systems, or running missions). Additionally, you can re-enlist at any time (provided you meet the criteria).

If at any point your (unmodified, i.e. without taking skills into account) standings towards your faction drop below 0.0, you will receive a warning mail to raise them back up at the next downtime. If you have not recovered your standings until the downtime after that (i.e. two downtimes after the standing drop), you will be instantly kicked out of the FW militia. The same rules apply for corporation who join FW, except that in that case it's the corporation's faction standings which counts.

References

External links