Making the call

So it was suggested to me to write the blog as a way to let me reflect upon events down the road and help others from those experiences, to that end this week I'm briefly going to discuss the issue of comms and how to get the most out of them and when you should be speaking.

As I write this I've been in E-Uni for 32 days, in that time I've done my best to take part in all of the Noobs on Patrol fleets I can as well as others that may pop up while I'm online and in all of them I've been a tackler. Now I don't mean a fleet interceptor which is something many new players get confused by, I certainly did in my first week and apologised accordingly; a fleet interceptor is a special Tech 2 variant vessel that's ridiculously fast both at warp and at sub-light speeds.

I and many other players however are plain old tacklers, in many instances basic Tech 1 frigates operating in a squad whose sole role is to stop the enemy running away and slow them down to make it easier for our damage dealing ships to hit them. One of the most important things a tackler can do however is to 'call' their points or scrams, this is done by the use of the fleet comms on Mumble and allows not the Fleet Commander to know the target isn't getting away but allows your fellow tacklers to avoid placing their point or scram on the same target.

While I won't go into the finer points of Warp Disruptors (points) or Scramblers (Scrams) I will say most tacklers will only carry one or the other and having multiple on a target generally isn't needed. There has been however a number of instances where multiple tacklers stayed on a target as they were either unaware if the target already had already been engaged by another person with the same device, point or scram.

So what are the possible reasons for this, looking back I know that in the first week I was still very nervous about making mistakes and would just stay on the primary or secondary until I was certain someone else had it covered before moving on, in short I didn't want to call a point while I was still learning how to fly my ship in the midst of a fleet combat in case I lost it and the target got away.

My next concern was about actually speaking on Mumble, it may sound odd but I didn't want to make an ass of myself so would pause as I made sure I was giving the correct information. As I thought about this could some people just not like speaking up at all, perhaps they get nervous or are shy, after all EVE like any other activity in life will generally have a cross section of people and this may be a reason.

Still on the subject of actually talking on Mumble is that of your environment, not everybody has a quite spot they can play away in for several hours and is something you need to be mindful of if you are talking on Mumble, not only for those who may be around you (perhaps sleeping, studying, watching TV etc.) but also your fellow fleet members, can they hear what you're trying to say, is there to much background noise, have you tested the sound quality (which can be done in Mumble via the echo channel) and lastly have you muted yourself, all are issues that I have encountered.

The final issue could be not having a microphone, I know I got a cheap one to start off with (as I'd just bought a computer) as I wanted to make my voice heard if needed, especially in the tackling role. I can't imagine trying to do the role without a mic and where people don't have one and can't get one in a short space of time then what are the alternatives.

A friend of mine who also recently started with E-Uni as well, and has a mic, chose to look at the other roles a new player can fill and he chose EWAR, whether that be sensor dampening or out-and-out ECM this is an area not often talked about, at least recently, which new players can get into just as quickly and cheaply with the added bonus of not needing a mic.

I don't want this to come across as 'you shouldn't do tackling without a mic and some self confidence' however I would encourage any new player to look at all the roles filled by Tech 1 frigates, with perhaps the exception of logistics, and take into account your own personal circumstances as much as what ship you want to fly both now and in the future.