Returning player here and am keen to get back into the (limited) amount of PvP that I did before.
Can someone please explain to me how Faction Warefare is working right now?
My queries are mostly around standings and criminal status.
If I ‘join’ a side (is it one or two sides I can join?) do I effectively get a ‘letter or marque’ against the opposiing faction that allows me to kill them?
If I’m on one side (or two) and destroy the other ships what, if any, standings take a hit?
Essentially I’m looking for the most PvP coupled with the least standing/sec hits.
There are two sides in faction warfare with two faction militias on each side. Gallente/Minmatar vs Amarr/Caldari. You must have positive standings with a faction before you can join their militia.
Joining a militia will allow you to shoot members of opposing militias anytime and anywhere. No concord, no standing loss.
However, entering the hi-sec territories of enemy empires (i.e. minmatar militia in caldari space) will attract the attention of local faction police NPC’s (FacPo). They are not very quick or powerful but have unlimited reinforcements. This means you can generally travel through enemy hisec in something fast without trouble (It’s even possible to get kills on unsuspecting enemy militia at gates or stations).
You will suffer standing loss for shooting enemy NPC’s which is necessary for capturing sites in enemy systems (or running faction warfare missions).
You can still enter such sites in an attempt to get pvp and just ignore the NPC’s (very weak dps in capture sites). But this will make them impossible to capture. Or you can stick to defensive plexing which will allow you to capture sites without shooting any NPC’s.
Thanks for the reply. I’m out and about but will read the EvEUni later so thanks for the link.
My interest lay entirely with PvPing in Lowsec.
Assuming I stick to this and only this:
Will I take standing hits with opposite Faction if I PvP kill ONLY in Low?
Based on the above answer can I expect problems with Hi-sec travel if I do this a lot?
I’m trying to work out how, and which, Character to use. My main is the better Pilot but I like some Hi-Sec missions and want to be able to travel freely. My 2nd is a great combat pilot (not as good as No.1) but does not do Hi-sec missions BUT does transport stuff for my main.
Thus… logistically, I’m working out who is best placed to do this for me.
Would an alternative be just to PvP everyone?
Will FW allow me to avoid sec status loss (concord) and only take Faction hits?
To be honest I know so little I don’t even know what questions to ask.
You don’t take standing loss for shooting other players.
Enemy militia are legal targets anywhere and there will be no sec status hits for shooting them. You will encounter neutrals in low sec however and all the normal rules apply (you only lose sec status if you shoot first AND they are NOT wartarget/suspect/criminal/outlaw/limited Engagement)
Joining faction warfare allows you to travel in friendly faction space as normal, but you are a WARTARGET to members of enemy militia which means they can come after you and shoot you even when you stay in friendly space.
So if you are a member of caldari militia you can still be killed in caldari hi-sec by gallente militia. This includes when running a hi-sec mission.
For this reason using slow non-pvp ships, even in hi-sec, is somewhat risky. Typically FW players will not do much transportation unless it’s in fast/cloaky haulers and they will rarely run missions in hi-sec.
With regard to your characters, if you still want to run hi-sec missions and/or have free access to all of hisec with your main you should not enter that character into FW. Which means he may need to learn to haul for himself if you move large items.
TBH theres so little pvp to be had in faction warfare now-days that limiting your engagements to those that dont lose you sec, or drop your standings, would just leave you with no fights to be had.
If you’re looking for PvP then forget faction warfare and its dumb mechanics and just go to lowsec and shoot ■■■■. You can always buy tags if your sec status gets too low.
Nah you never lose standings for shooting players (unless of course the players themselves set you red).
And you will never lose sec status for shooting legal targets (which enemy militia are). And you can also engage such targets at gates/stations without sentry guns attacking you.
You only lose standings with your own militia if you shoot your own militia. You can lose enough standing this way to be forcefully evicted from militia (standing <0)
As a side note, for some reason you don’t lose standing for shooting allied militia (e.g. gallente shooting minmatar) and some AWOXing happens this way. So be careful when your ‘allies’ are around.
I’m pretty sure you lose standings with the enemy militia NPC corporation (and maybe even the entire enemy faction) when you pod their members. That’s what made me leave FW a long time ago.