User:Hirmuolio Pine/sandbox4

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This article is a general description of various functions of the Overview. For step-by-step instructions for setting up EVE University's custom overview settings, see Installing the EVE University Overview.

The overview is one of the most essential components of EVE's user interface, and is the primary means of viewing items in space. It is a customizable list of interactive entries, and can assist players with virtually every activity performed in space. Though it can be time-consuming to configure, the flexibility and effectiveness of a properly-configured overview justify the time spent. The primary weakness of the overview is that it is not in any way intelligent, so it is unable to anticipate a player's informational needs, nor can it alter its own configuration without player input. Because of this, the consequences of not setting up your overview properly could range from not being able to see a war target and subsequently getting destroyed, to firing on an ally because they appeared as a hostile, to being destroyed by NPC pirates that didn’t show up on the overview. The overview can be configured with multiple tabs and presets to allow easy access to multiple views and configurations.

Newbie Tips

CTRL is the default keyboard shortcut to target a selected object. You can do this from the Overview by first selecting the object on your Overview and then simply press the CTRL key.

Freezing your Overview Hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard, and left click once with your mouse on an item in your overview to lock it. Holding down the control key will also freeze your overview in place, to prevent items from shuffling around based on the sorting order. This will help prevent you from locking the wrong targets by accident. When you are holding down the control key, all new items that appear on the overview will be added at the bottom of the list, and items that disappear from the grid will be shown in a faded text. Releasing the control key will re-sort your overview automatically.

Double click an item on your overview to approach it.


IMPORTANT Review your Overview set-up

Pilots should routinely review their overview set-up to ensure it's current, especially when Updates have been released. On occasion new entities get added to the game. Also, some updates and patches may bring other changes to how the Overview works.

We will do our best to keep this guide current in a timely fashion.


Organizing your screen layout

Screen Layout Sample

Before you even touch the overview itself, however, you should organize the rest of your interface. EVE is a game of communication and numbers - your screen layout should reflect this.

  1. Undock and find a safe place to sit. You will be sitting out in space for around half an hour. Immediately outside of a dockable station and away from the station exit is a good place to do this. (See Editing Overview Settings While Docked below, for instructions on editing your overview without leaving the station.) Alternatively, do this on an alternate character on the same account. The changes will carry across to all characters on that account on the same computer. This is strongly advised for characters in E-UNI during wartime.
  2. Click the lines at the top left of the NeoCom panel --> Social --> Fleet. Click the top left of the newly opened Fleet window and Form Fleet. You will see that you are now in a Fleet. You may need to reposition and resize the fleet window during fleet ops; sometimes you need it small and out of the way, other times you need to expand it to find pilots in the list.
  3. Make your overview nice and big - it is your main source of information. You could have it running from top to bottom on the right side of the screen, with Selected Item window just above it, and the Drone Bay window just below it.
  4. During a fleet, you’re going to need to have chat windows open. If the FC runs squad chats, then you'll want that and the fleet chat open at once. I like to keep them on the left side of the screen in separate windows.
  5. Another window you should have separated is Local chat. Local is very important in ascertaining who is in system with you. A lot of players like to have it narrowed to the smallest width. You may want to remove portraits from the local chat to make chatter easier to read. The local window is often positioned either running down the left side of the screen between the NeoCom and the chat channels, or just to the right of the chat channels. The more height your local window has, the easier it is to spot potential hostiles in a system.
  6. There is no six! (or is there..?)
  7. You should also leave space for your watch list, but you can only get that when you have other people in your fleet.
  8. Press escape and go to the General Settings tab. Under the Windows subheading, check Lock windows when pinned. This will ensure your overview and other windows don’t go anywhere.
  9. Pin your overview and any other windows of your choice. This will allow you to see through them.

Remember that your interface should be set up the way it is most convenient for you - feel free to change your windows around once you work out what you want.

Hint - You can move your ship and modules display to the left and right by holding shift and clicking on your capacitor and dragging. You can even move it to the top of your screen: Click the white arrow below the speedometer, then "Align Top" at the bottom of the menu which appears.

Another hint - You can move your targeted objects around your screen as well. Notice that near the upper-left or upper-right corner of your targeted items (you will have to target something to see these), there is a very faint cross-hair. Click and drag that cross-hair around to change the location of your targets.

Yet another hint - You can change the position of your ship view to move it out of the center of the screen. Hit ESC, and under Display and Graphics, adjust the camera center as desired.

Now go to right click the 4-lined box on your Fleet tab and select Leave fleet . Your screen should be mostly set up for the next fleet op. Next time you go on an op, don’t forget to separate your squad and fleet chat windows and to add important fleetmates to your Watch List.

Now that we’ve gotten that down, let’s get onto the overview itself.


The Overview Settings

Setting Up Your Overview

Main article: Installing the EVE University Overview

Assigning the Tabs and Brackets

You may have up to 8 active tabs to assign Overview presets to.


  1. Go to the Overview tabs tab .
  2. Under the Tab name column , enter the following minimum recommended five items:
    • PvP
    • PvP Travel
    • Situational, Missions, Mining or Wormhole (choose whichever one you use, and up three tabs used)
    • Fleet
    • Pod Saver
  3. Under the Overview profile column , assign each tab its respective overview profile, i.e. assign 2 - PvP Travel to the PvP Travel tab and so on.
  4. Under bracket profiles, do the same ( 2 - PvP Travel to PvP Travel tab and so on), unless you want to set your bracket profiles to something different . If you have set up bracket profiles as per the previous section, assign them here (eg. assign 6 - Wormhole B as a bracket profile for 6 - Wormhole ).
  5. Click Apply at the bottom of the window.

You should now have five to eight different tabs with different overview presets, that you can switch-out as needed. During war, you can switch the Missions/ Mining tab to the PvP Travel without neutrals configuration. This tab can be used if you need to fight in a trade hub that has a lot of neutrals cluttering the overview. However, be warned that you cannot see neutral remote reppers if you use this tab, so it is often preferable to fight with the pvp travel tab and sort by alliance name with the arrow pointing down (or corp name if the war targets are not in an alliance).


Using All Brackets

EVE isn’t a very system-intensive game, and some people have computers that can easily handle the game on max settings. If your system can handle it, you can select show all brackets in the overview options for each tab. This will let you see friendly and hostile ship brackets on the field as well as neutrals and drones. Having all brackets turned on can help you identify an on-grid fleetmate to use as a warp-in. Many players fly with all brackets turned on, and it is recommended to do so if your system can handle it. Zooming out the camera with all brackets turned on will give you a good view of what's happening on the battlefield.

You can press Option + Z (for Mac) or ALT + Z (for PC) turn on all brackets.

In very large fleet fights, it is inadvisable to have brackets turned on, as this will cause server-side lag when there are hundreds of players shooting at each other in the same system. Most nullsec corps will have instructions for their members on how to minimize lag during large encounters.


Using the Tag Column

The Tag feature allows you to assign a number or letter to individual ships or objects in space which will be visible in the Tag column of the overview. The tag will remain assigned to the object until it is destroyed, you dock in a station, or enter a jump gate. This is useful for marking trigger ships during missions, marking trigger ships and kill order in wormhole sleeper sites, prioritizing PvP targets, marking NPC convoy ships for attack (see EVE Wiki Attacking Convoys Guide for more details), or any other activity for which you may need to quickly identify specific objects for a fleet. Only a fleet member in a command position can mark tags.


Tagging Process

The Tag option is only available while you are a member of a fleet, and in a command role (i.e. FC, WC, or SC). If you are alone, you may simply form a fleet with yourself (your default role with be FC).

To tag an object, simply right-click, select "Tag" from the context menu, and you will be given a choice of numbers or letters. Pick the number or letter you wish to use and you are done.


Advanced Tips

Variant Presets

PvP Travel + Blues

You can make a variant of the PvP Travel preset that also shows pilots in good standing to the Uni. Check Pilot is in your corporation, Pilot is in your alliance, Pilot has excellent standing, Pilot has good standing.

This can be helpful to see what kind of friendlies are flying around. This will not show fleetmates. Fleetmates that disconnect from the game will appear on your overview while they warp off, which makes noticing them easier.

Adding blues to your overview will show criminally flagged blues, like pirates we have a non-aggression pact (NAP) with. If you show blues, you must be very careful to check icons of outlaws so that you do not shoot blue pirates.


PvP Travel + Planets

Having the planets on overview can sometimes be useful. This can let you see which planets are in d-scan range (approx 14.35 AU). Sometimes used by lowsec PvP fleets to see where the ships on d-scan could be located.


PvP Travel + POS

Its sometimes good to know if there are control towers in a system, especially in wormholes, and in lowsec when trying to find enemy ships. Control Tower can be found in the Filter > Types tab in the Structures category. Control Towers are more commonly known as POS, or Starbase.


Overview Packs

Before you proceed : It is highly recommended that you follow the guide to build your own overview pack because it will help you understand how the Overview settings, which space object falls into what category and how the Overview in whole works.

With the "Hyperion" release .yaml has replaced .xml as the format for exported Overview files. Please note that .xml imports will be supported for a limited time as per CCP

Any Overview pack that you choose to download then upload to your client should undergo extensive double-checking and possible re-working of your Overview. There are known issues with uploading to a different client or computer. See above.

Overview packs are pre-built set of overview profiles and on most cases, include their own set of settings, such as bracket display and labeling. This allow players to quickly import several overview profiles at once. There are also many other features which can be included on overview packs in comparison to your basic overview, depending on each of the overview packs currently available in public, two of the most common features most overview packs promoted are :

  • Customizing how the overview brackets are displayed
  • Customizing how the overview tabs are displayed

Bear in mind that overview packs are not official products made by CCP, they are custom-built, third-party release.

There are also several other advantages of using or releasing overview packs. One worth mentioning is that some overview packs were designed with a lot of careful considerations and many standards applied. This is especially important in some corporations, big alliances or coallitions. For instance, many of the overview packs may release set X profiles which is used on important scenarios and in turn used by many members of certain organizations; there are also the case of standardization across these profiles, while building your own overview can be good or better on some cases, using the same overview pack across many players at once enables you to follow and issue commands or intel with the knowledge that the other person who listen or giving those intel actually have the same overview setup as yours.

Commonly Known & Used Overview Packs

Below are some of the widely known overview packs available. (Note: These Overview Packs are not to the EVE UNI standards and are for experienced players only)

An all round Modular Overview Pack focused on all aspects of EVE's gameplay, allowing the use of generalized new-player friendly and/or very specific profile presets for tactical advantage.
Available in-game in "Z-S Overview" Channel and Mailing List.
A PvP-focused overview pack, fundamentally an update and expansion on Sarah's Overview Pack.
Available in-game in "SaraShawa-Overview" Channel.
It contains a massive list of pre-set overview settings that you can load on the fly, allowing for great versatility.
A PvP oriented overview pack with many pre-built overview profiles included built around the quick-switch design.
An all round overview pack.
A fairly small and compact overview pack.
A PvP oriented overview pack.
An all round overview pack, with many profiles included.

Please note that most of these are outdated and any upload you do to your game client may require extensive double-checking and re-working of your Overview.