Learning to FC

Original text by Bamar

Becoming an FC is a slow, complicated, and non-linear process. Ultimately there's no secret to becoming a great FC. You need a combination of natural skill, tons of experience, and a good attitude. This article's objective is to provide some pointers for aspiring FCs to take their game up a notch. I've defined four general skill levels for FCs, simply read through the descriptions, pick out the one that best represents you (when in doubt round down), and then work through some of the suggested things to work on.

The Noob

Summary

The beginning, we've all been here. You don't really know anything about anything. You've tried to read up on things a bit, and you think you have a vague idea about how to FC from observing others. Really though you're not really sure what to expect, and you're pretty sure you'll make a huge mess of everything.

Symptoms

• Just running a fleet is overwhelming - Dealing with incoming intel reports feels like drinking from a fire hose, and the fire hose is winning. You regularly feel like there's too much information, too many choices, and not enough time.
• You don't have a very good grasp of fleet concepts - Sure, you might know generally about some different types of fleets, but when it comes down to actually fighting them you're not really sure how to go about it. You tend to default to charging right on in against most fleets.
• You get nervous taking out anything expensive - You probably feel self-conscious about your abilities and get nervous when someone brings out a shiny ship into one of your fleets. Given the choice you'd prefer just flying a T1 cruiser swarm all the time.

Things to Work On

• Run a gang - Stop right now, switch to another tab and post a planned gang, or better yet just take out an impromptu one right now, you can read this later. It's way too easy to get caught up in all sorts of advice and tactics around being an FC, and never actually FC a fleet. Doing is better than reading, so go out there and do. Take out a gang, give it a try, make some mistakes, and learn from them.
• Ask for constructive criticism - After each fleet you run ask some of the more experienced pilots for advice. Some advice will probably be better than others, and some might even be contradictory. There can often be more than one right answer to things, and the objective here isn't to take every single bit of advice as gospel. What you want is to be exposed to as many ideas and possible ways of thinking about things as possible.
• Screw up - It's inevitable, at some point you're going to do something monumentally stupid and get your fleet wiped out. Just accept this fact and move past it. This isn't to say you should just go out and suicide a fleet for no reason, but you can't be afraid of making mistakes. Do your best to put this off for as long as possible, but when it does happen suck it up and move on. Learn from your failures, don't dwell on them.
• Learn ship types - If you're an experienced player who's just starting to learn how to FC this probably won't be a huge issue, but if you're a newer player it probably will be. As an FC you basically need to know about every single ship in the game, what their abilities are, and how they work together. This is also one area where it's purely about knowledge, so you can actually study it. Play with EFT, look through battle reports, read up on fittings and strategies. If you're lucky you might even find someone to quiz you on them. Eventually your goal is to be able to see any ship in the game and be able to rattle off it's general abilities, it's weaknesses, how it's typically used in fleets, etc. This needs to become automatic, you shouldn't have to think about it.

The Gang Leader

Summary

Things are starting to make sense, you're no longer nervous taking out a gang, and you think you're on the right path. There's still plenty you don't know, but you at least have a good handle on what it is you don't know.

Symptoms

• You feel pretty comfortable flying a fleet around - Sometimes in the heat of a battle you still feel overwhelmed, but generally you don't have a problem navigating a fleet around and keeping track of your scouts and skirmishers.
• Fleet combat is starting to make sense - You're starting to understand some of the tactical decisions more advanced FCs make. You still might not be an expert on any particular tactic, but you're starting to see the differences between general fleet types, and starting to understand how to maneuver your fleet to take advantage of strengths and weaknesses of your opponents. You might still get surprised now and then, but generally you know how to react when you see your scanner fill up with drakes.
• You're starting to like having expensive ships in your fleet - Yes you might still feel bad when they get blown up, but you're starting to recognize how useful specialized T2 ships can be in a fleet. You're getting to the point where there are certain ships you'll ask for when forming up, and have some preference for how to arrange your fleet setup.

Things to Work On

• Pick a tactic - Running T1 and kitchen sink gangs is good and all, but if you want to evolve as an FC you have to start running specialized fleets. Pick one that suits your natural style and start running it all the time. If you're slower and more methodical then something heavier like armor BS is probably good, if you like making quick snappy decisions then pick something like nano roams. Either way though get to know the tactic inside and out. Know what ships you need, how you use them, what gangs will kick your ass, when you need to run away, etc etc.
• Get to know your pilots - Being a great FC is pretty useless if you have a crappy rapport with your fleet members. Get to know your scouts well, and get to know their habits. The less chatter you need on comms the better, and when you fly with the same people on a regular basis you'll get good at anticipating their actions, and they'll get good at anticipating yours. Talk with people after fleets and work together to make things better next time. Be a leader, not just someone who tells everyone what to do.
• Think farther ahead - If you have a good handle on basic fleet mechanics then start getting fancy. Work on more elaborate traps, get used to breaking your fleet up and coordinating more than one group at a time. Get used to warping around on grid, luring enemies into the right spots, etc. Always keep an eye out for new tricks, either from friendly FCs, or from moves enemies use on you. Actively work on expanding your play book, mastering things you already know, and learning things you don't.

The FC

Summary

You're one of the go-to guys in your corp/alliance. You might not be perfect, but you tend to know what you're doing, and know what needs to be done. You've taken out large, expensive, and complicated gangs, and have probably coordinated with groups outside your own. You probably have a particular type of fleet as a specialty, but you don't have much trouble switching contexts.

Symptoms

• You don't get overwhelmed - Navigating a fleet around in second nature, and even in an intense battle you can keep your wits about you. You might not always make the best decision, but you never freeze up.
• You understand fleet tactics - You probably have a particular fleet style you enjoy the most, and you know it pretty damn well. You're good at getting fights on your terms, and you don't tend to fall for traps.
• You bring the rights ships for the job - When you see a T2 ship you don't see the price tag, you see the role it will serve in your fleet. When forming up you know what you need, and you know how you'll use it.

Things to Work On

• Mentor - Sometimes the best way to crystallize things in your own mind is to explain them to someone else. Offer advice to newer FCs, teach tactics that you know well, and just generally help people who know less than you. You probably know all sorts of stuff, but might not quite see how it all fits together. Having to teach it to someone else is a great way to pull everything together.
• Experiment - At this point you've probably got very deep knowledge in some areas, but are probably missing breadth in others. Try fleet types different than what you've flown before. If you've mostly flown kiting gangs then try a close-range fleet. If you're used to fast roaming gangs then try a big heavy one. Figure out your weak areas and specifically work on them.
• Metagame - No, I don't mean make a bunch of spy alts, I mean think about the metagame. It's easy as an FC to focus in on each individual fight and to ignore the greater context. Chances are you fight the same fairly small group of people on a regular basis. Think about your history with these opponents, how they view you, and how you view them. Maybe they've beat you pretty badly a few times recently and they're getting cocky, can you use that against them to spring a trap? Maybe you tend to beat them and they're skittish, how can you lure them out and make them think they have the advantage. Get to know your opponents and think at a larger scale than just each individual fight.
• Think bigger - Start to think about working capitals into your fleets, hitting things like POS, etc. Obviously this varies a lot depending on your group, but start to scheme and plot beyond just taking out roaming gangs. Figure out who your enemies are and how you can hurt them.

The Expert

Summary

You're "that guy" in your corp/alliance. You've been running fleets for longer than many of your fleetmates have been playing the game. You might not know everything, but you can usually figure it out pretty fast. It's rare that you see something new when running a fleet, and while you may still screw up from time to time usually it's because you knew better but did something dumb anyway.

Symptoms

• You run on instinct - Processing intel should just happen naturally as reports come in. You can easily keep a picture of everything happening around you in your head. When you see a fleet on your overview you immediately know who you want to call primary first.
• You really understand fleet tactics - While you might have a favorite tactic, you can switch between different styles of fleets without too much trouble, and maybe even come up with some of your own strategies. You find that you're rarely surprised, and most decisions are a matter of a calculated risk rather than a leap of faith. Given a particular enemy gang you can quickly decide how to counter it and get people formed up in the right composition.
• You think outside the box - You know what ships are right for what, but you can also be creative. Whether it be tweaking fittings or tweaking fleet composition, you experiment and come up with ideas outside of typical fleet doctrines. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but you generally come up with good ideas.

Things to Work On

• Teach! - You have a ton of great experience, share it with your corpmates and alliancemates. Fly along with others' fleets and offer pointers (assuming they want them, and after the fleet's over of course). Write an article, guest lecture at EVE-Uni, do something to help other FCs improve their skills.
• Don't be complacent - This is a far too easy trap to fall into. Just because you know all about FCing doesn't mean you can stop learning. EVE is a constantly changing game and you need to change right along with it. Always be looking to pick up new tricks, new tactics, etc. Don't get arrogant and don't get lazy otherwise it will come back to bite you.
• Have fun - It's also far too easy to get jaded. When you feel like you've seen it all before it's not nearly as exciting to take a gang out. Challenge yourself by trying new fleet tactics, inventing new ones, taking on tough odds, etc. If you've always run big sov ops then try an interceptor roam, if you always fly in low sec then try a wormhole gang. Mix things up for yourself and keep finding parts of the game that are new to you.

Soft Skills

I think a lot of times we talk a lot about tactics and procedures around FCing without really talking about the "soft" skills around it. How do you deal with people while FCing, how to phrase things, etc. This post is an attempt to lay out some of the things that I do and work for me. Keep in mind that everyone is different, and my way of doing things isn't necessarily the only way. This should be a reference point, not a bible.

Confidence - You might not always do the right thing, but you always know the right thing to do. Being an FC is all about making calculated risks based off of incomplete information. Whenever you make a mistake it's probably because of one of the below. The one uniting theme though is that they're all mistakes. They're all things that you can recognize and fix. Don't get down on yourself over mistakes, just fix them and make yourself better.

• You made the right move, it just didn't work out - In any reasonably close fight there's some chance that you'll lose. If you go into a fight knowing that there's a chance you'll lose, and you lose in the way you expected then that's just part of the game. These explanations tend to be the most comforting but the least satisfying. Even if you FC perfectly there's still a chance you'll lose, and if there isn't then you're not taking close enough fights. Sometimes you gamble, sometimes you lose.
• You didn't know as much as you should have - For new FCs you're going to have incomplete knowledge for a while, sometimes that missing knowledge will bite you in the ass. Didn't know that the Eris is an interdictor? Whoops, so much for that fleet. Mistakes coming from ignorance tend to be the most aggravating, but are also the easiest to fix. Read up on the area that you're weak on and make sure you don't make the same mistake again.
• You didn't think far enough ahead - Another common one for newer FCs. As an FC you always need to be thinking ahead. Sometimes it's one step ahead, sometimes it's six, but either way you need to be able to predict your opponents and respond accordingly. Sometimes your opponent does something you don't expect and you pay for it. Maybe you fall for bait, maybe they come in at range when you expected them to come short. Either way you need to look at why you thought what you did, why you were wrong, and think about how you'll identify it in the future. This is where the big nebulous "experience" comes in. A lot of these decisions just become ingrained habit/instinct after you deal with the same situation dozens of times. You won't entirely know why you think someone will do what they do, you just know that they will.
• You made a mistake - You're just human, sometimes you goof up and do something stupid. Sometimes you'll realize how stupid your instruction was before it even leaves your lips, but you still say it anyway. As long as you know how dumb you were there's not much to do but kick yourself and vow never to do it again.
• You didn't do anything - The absolute worst mistake an FC can make is doing nothing. Any action is better than no action. If the only thing you can think to do is monumentally stupid then be monumentally stupid, it's better than being silent. Mistakes tend to kill ships, silence kills entire fleets. These are the most demoralizing losses too. These are fights were you kill nothing and lose 20. NEVER STOP TALKING. If you go down or warp off grid then call on your backup FC, otherwise you should always be giving orders. If what you're doing isn't working then try something else, but never stop. This seems to be another common one with newer FCs, you freeze up because you're afraid of making the wrong decision and end up making the worst of all. This is also the only error that will actually keep you from being an FC. You can be an inexperienced FC, you can be a reckless FC, you can even be an unknowledgeable FC, but you can NOT be an FC who freezes or goes silent.

Take responsibility - If you mess up then admit you messed up. You don't need to go on and on about it, but sometimes a simple "whoops, that didn't go quite how I expected it to" will lead to far less bitching down the line. When you mess up as an FC you'll know it, and everyone else in the fleet will know it. Trying to pretend like it wasn't your fault will only lower others' opinions of you. They'll either think that you're incompetent and don't realize that you skrewed up, or you'll think that you're too proud to admit it. In the end if you make a mistake, acknowledge it, learn from it, then move on. At first this might seem directly opposed to the prior point, but in reality it's a balancing act. If you have full confidence in your abilities then admiting a mistake isn't a big deal. You were doing the right thing, but you didn't have the right information, or something totally random happened, or whatever. Ultimately your decision-making process is always valid, it just might have had the wrong inputs (either lack of scouting, lack of experience, whatever). While you might make mistakes you are always in control, and it's important to not undermine yourself with self-effacing humor, which can be tempting especially as a newer FC. Saying something like "I'll probably get bored and suicide us" is way better than saying something like "We'll probably get wiped out." As an FC you should always be in control of things, and it's important to portray that in the way you talk about yourself. You might do stupid or wrong things from time to time, but it's always a conscious decision, not something that happened to you.

Optimism - Always look on the brighter side. It's easy to get down on yourself as an FC, it happens to all of us. Sometimes a brutal fight just gets you down, and that's fine, but when talking to your fleet you need to be the eternal optimist. Sure you just got wiped out, but you learned something from it. Sure you lost a bunch of ships, but hey, look at that crazy-expensive Dramiel we killed. Sure you might have flown a frig blob into smartbomb destruction, but damn if it wasn't freaking hilarious. There is ALWAYS a bright side, and it's your job to focus on it. It's fine if you're pissed off that they just dropped 5:1 odds on you, but your job as FC is to brush it off and laugh at it. Sure you shouldn't just make stuff up to cover up for a horrible fight, but you can fix what went wrong and then focus on the future. Constructive criticism and optimism are always valuable, moping and whining never are. Remind your fleet members what's awsome about EVE and they'll keep coming back. Dwell in what you hate about EVE and you'll make them all bittervets.

Yelling- Quite simply don't. I can count the number of times I've yelled at someone in a fleet over the past 5 years on one hand, and none of them were Agony members. Rather than freaking out at someone for making a mistake think about why they made that mistake. 99% of the time it's for one of the following reasons.

• They just don't know - Luckily the easiest to fix, just explain to them what they did wrong, why it was wrong, and what to do differently. Even experienced players can have surprising gaps in their knowledge, and even if you're telling them what they already know it can be helpful to newer people in the fleet to understand what went wrong and why. It's almost always best to try to educate on the first mistake.
• They weren't paying close enough attention - Another very common one. People sometimes have things going on in the background, they got distracted during a quiet moment, or whatever. Even the best PvPers sometimes get distracted and do stupid things. If someone in a key position seems to be distracted either shift other people to compensate or simply ask them if they'd like to stop doing such a central role (or remind them to wake up).
• They simply screwed up - Sometimes people just make silly mistakes. Whether it's bombing themselves or losing a ratting Nightmare/Thanatos (ahem...), sometimes people just do things that they know are stupid and have no excuse for. With experienced players they'll almost always feel dumb enough on their own and really don't need you harping on them about it. If they're less experienced then this will likely fall under #1 or #2 and be an opportunity for learning.
• They just don't care - This should never be the case for an Agony member (and if it is then you should bring it up with their mentor/director), but it can come up when dealing with allies or students. As long as they're not being disruptive it's usually best to just ignore them. Ultimately if they don't care there's not much you can do to make them care. Just put them in a role where they won't cause any damage and let them go on not caring.
• They're an asshole - Sometimes people are just assholes. In my experience this is actually a surprisingly small group. Most people will respond well as long as you find the right way to approach them. Sometimes though things just don't work out and it's time to deal with them the hard way. Generally I find that an icy threat works much better than animated ranting. The important thing is the never lose control. Keep it so that you're the voice of reason trying to watch out for the fleet, and they're the douche who's keeping that from happening. An annoyed "X, please try to keep comms clear, we're trying to PvP here" will likely work better than "Goddamnit X, shut the hell up, god you're such an idiot." When you get to this point the person in question is a lost-cause, your main objective is to keep everyone else in the fleet on your side, so keep your cool. In the end you always have the "my way or the highway" card. If all else fails just boot them from the fleet and keep things moving.

In the end the old adage "Speak softly but carry a big stick" applies. First try to educate, then remind, and finally punish if you need to, but yelling doesn't fit in anywhere in the process. The only times I've yelled as FC has been to clear comms because I couldn't find someone to mute them quickly. It might feel good to yell at some people, but in the end it doesn't help anything.

The not-really-a-question question - When you actually sit down and look at it the vast majority of your time spent as an FC isn't giving orders, it's asking questions. Really the only direct orders you should be giving are fleet movement and target calling, everything else is questions of some sort or another. The trick is that there are a lot of things kind of in the middle that could be phrased as orders or questions. "Bamar, check EC-P8R" for example could also be phrased as "Bamar, could you check out EC-P8R for us?" The second phrasing accomplishes everything that the first does, but has two side benefits.

• It requires a response. Granted, most experienced PvPers will acknowledge the first one and the second one equally, but by asking the question you remove any uncertainty. If they hear you they'll respond, and if they don't then they won't.
• It strikes a better tone. Giving people the (illusion of) choice tends to make them happier to follow. Especially as a new FC flying with experienced members a lot of times tone can be tricky. How do you give orders to people you know know far more about PvP than you? By asking them to do things rather than telling them you come across as more collaberative and less of a know it all. It's not a huge deal in the end, but it can help a lot with some people.

The hurry-the-hell-up question - Similar to the not-really-a-question question, this one is about setting the right tone. Inevitably while running a fleet you'll hit a spot where one of your scouts or skirmishers is hunting someone down. They're probably all caught up in directional scanner and probes and god knows what else, and probably aren't paying a lot of attention to the clock. It's your job as FC to keep them to a reasonable time frame. It's probably not worthwhile to keep a 50 man gang waiting for a cov-ops to probe down a Kestrel, and it's up to you to make this judgement call. When you're starting to hit the point where you think it's time to move on it's time to ask probably one of my most common questions, "So... how's it coming?" This question is important for a few different reasons.

• It's non-accusatory - Asking something like "have you found him yet?" can come off as assigning blame to the scout for not finding him yet. In reality they're almost always doing the best they can (see section on yelling), and giving them the impression that you're blaming them is only going to piss them off or distract them.
• It gives you an update - While working scouts tend to be tight-lipped. They're busy and the last thing on their mind is continually giving updates to the FC. Asking how it's going every once in a while gives you a better idea of how long it will likely take, and lets you adjust accordingly. Maybe you go roam a couple jumps while they're probing, maybe you tell them to just forget about it, but either way you have more information to make your decision.
• It gives them a little kick in the ass - By no means the chief reason to ask (and if you overuse it it will bite you in the ass), but sometimes scouts just need a little reminder of "hey, you've got a couple dozen guys waiting for you." This tends to work best when you're waiting on a warp-in because it will turn a "I'll spend another 60 seconds getting the perfect spot" into "I'm close enough, just warp to me now." A lot of cov-ops pilots are perfectionists, and left to their own devices will spend more time to get a more perfect spot. In reality you don't need a perfect spot, you just need a good enough spot, and giving them a little reminder of the time constraints will help you get what you want in a more timely fashion. Again though, if you overuse it in this way you will piss people off, so think of it as a useful side-effect, not a purpose in itself.

Aggression - How much aggression is good for an FC? How aggressive should a new FC be? There isn't any single right answer to this question, so I'll give three.

• Aggression is good - You don't really learn anything from a fight you don't take. If you're not sure it's probably better to take the fight, let it go sideways, then learn from it. Obviously this doesn't mean you should just suicide in, but if you could go either way on the fight then take it. For one thing people tend to underestimate their capabilities more than overestimate, so chances are if you think it's a dead-even fight you probably have a slight advantage. Additionally even if it is iffy then that's the sort of fight that will actually test you and provide you with a challenge which will make you better. Finally if it is a charlie-foxtrot then at least you'll know it was, be able to look at why you thought it was an even fight and learn from it. In the end the worst-case is that you learned something and will be a better FC in the future. By never taking iffy fights you're freezing yourself at a certain level of competency, and keeping yourself from advancing beyond that.
• Aggression is personal - Different FCs FC differently. Some people like to plan out every detail of a fight before they ever engage in it. By definition they'll be less aggressive because they don't like engaging in fights that they don't fully understand. Personally I tend to prefer to just jump right into a fight then rely on my ability to adapt better than my opponent in the heat of the battle. Neither approach is inherently better than the other, it's about what fits your personality best. The more cautious approach tends to work best for heavier gangs, and especially for capital warfare, while the second is more suited to hit and run tactics where you can engage and disengage at will.
• Aggression is bad - Sometimes aggression can be used as a crutch to keep from actually thinking things through. It's usually not a good idea to suicide a T1 fleet just to suicide it. You don't really learn anything in the process and it's just an empty fight. Sure, sometimes you're just freaking bored and don't care, but as an FC you should always be purely rational. Once you have a lot of experience you can go off of instinct a lot more but at no point should you not really be thinking/caring about what will happen. Your aggression should always be calculated, never reckless. It should be the last step in your decision-making process, not a replacement for it.

Notice that none of these issues relate to fear. Fear should never enter into the equation. A fight is either a good fight or a bad fight, and you should act accordingly. You shouldn't be nervous about getting people killed, because they're certainly going to be killed. Your job isn't to keep everyone from getting blown up, your job is to get into good fights and win. Good fights never occur without any losses on your side (ok, sometimes they do, but it's rare), and it's very hard to win if you're afraid of losing ships. Again, FCing should be purely rational, fear of losing ships shouldn't enter into the equation. Sometimes the best play is to lose a few ships, while it sucks it's just reality, and trying to avoid this reality is only going to cause more pain in the long-run.