Hello EVE Online Team,
I would like to suggest a fleet communication feature that I believe could significantly improve small- and medium-scale PvP: visible movement pings in space and on the tactical overlay.
This suggestion is mainly aimed at engagements such as ESS fights, Entosis attacks and defenses, and other small- to medium-scale skirmishes rather than large-scale fleet battles.
These fights tend to be highly dynamic and unpredictable. The situation on grid can change very quickly, and players who are not yet experienced with this type of combat can easily become overwhelmed or panic.
When this happens, they may make poor movement decisions, burn in the wrong direction, or sometimes lose awareness of where their own ship is actually moving relative to the rest of the fleet.
At the moment, an FC primarily has to communicate movement through voice comms and broadcasts. These tools work well for giving primary targets or issuing simple commands, but small-scale skirmishing often requires much more individual movement and decision-making from each fleet member.
For example, an FC may say:
“Burn this way.”
“Approach from this side.”
“Pull back in this direction.”
“Spread toward this area.”
However, because EVE combat takes place in three-dimensional space and every player may have their camera positioned differently, describing a direction through voice alone can sometimes be ambiguous.
I therefore think it would be useful to introduce a movement ping system, similar in concept to ping systems used in many modern multiplayer or battle royale games.
An FC, Wing Commander, or Squad Commander could place a temporary point in space, which would appear as a clearly visible marker to relevant fleet members.
For example:
- Movement ping — “Burn/approach toward this point.”
- Retreat ping — “Pull back toward this direction.”
- Position ping — “Hold or spread around this area.”
The ping could appear both directly in space and as a visible point on the Tactical Overlay.
EVE already has a very intuitive way of selecting a destination in three-dimensional space through the Q movement command. When using Q to manually approach a point in space, the game visually represents the selected position. A fleet movement ping could potentially use a similar visual concept, making the system feel consistent with controls that already exist in the game.
The important point is that this would not automate movement.
Players would still need to manually pilot their ships, manage range, transversal, speed, tackle, and decide how to react to the situation. The ping would simply give them a common spatial reference.
In fact, I believe this could encourage individual decision-making rather than reduce it. Instead of an FC having to micromanage every pilot through voice comms, the FC could communicate the intended direction or position visually, while each pilot decides how to reach that position appropriately.
This would be especially useful for newer or less experienced PvP players, but I believe experienced small-gang and skirmish fleets would also benefit from being able to communicate three-dimensional positioning more precisely and quickly.
To avoid clutter or abuse, the system could have restrictions such as:
- Only Fleet/Wing/Squad Commanders can place certain pings.
- Only a small number of pings can exist at the same time.
- Pings automatically disappear after several seconds.
- Different ping types use simple and clearly distinguishable icons.
- Players can optionally reduce or disable ping visibility.
EVE already has extremely deep combat mechanics. I think giving FCs a simple visual tool to communicate where the fleet should move, in addition to what the fleet should target, could make small-scale engagements easier to understand without simplifying the combat itself.
Thank you for considering the idea.
Best regards,
An EVE Online player
For context, I’m not suggesting this purely from a UI or new-player perspective. I actively participate in small- and medium-scale PvP, and this is a problem I’ve encountered repeatedly during actual skirmishes.
There are many situations where everyone hears the FC’s call correctly, but different camera angles and grid awareness mean that “burn this way” does not necessarily mean the same direction to every pilot.