I have picked up some small tips for budding FC’s, these are not so much relating to the technical, ship knowledge side of FCing, but generally just the best way to act around your fleet and things you should do while FCing.

(This does not mean I FC obviously)

1. Stay Calm. There is NEVER a need to RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE. Regardless of how bad a situation looks.  You want people to have confidence in you, to know you keep it together whatever is happening.

2. Be confident in yourself and the fleet with pick up on this.

3. Understand that ships will be lost, people WILL bitch about it, will blame you etc.  Go out on Ops with an idea that you’ll all die, so that when good stuff happens, you’ll have things to cheer about and keep the fleet motivated.  Dont treat losses as personal, dont let whiners get to you.

4. INTEL INTEL INTEL (No its not inside!). Know who/what you COULD face in a given area. Even if it means flying solo runs through an area a few days in advance. Get a feel for the best places to rest up and the nearest GTFO routes.

5. Never take time to make a decision. Make it snappy and sharpish, situations change too fast in EVE to do otherwise. If people cannot keep up with changes in plans etc then its down to THEM, not any percieved FC failure.

6. Understand the make up of your fleet and what it does well/poorly. Play to its strengths DONT worry about its weaknesses too much, that will rub off on your gang and it wont go well.  As long as you know what the weaknesses are, you can try and counter them when you come across their antithesis.

7. Don’t be afraid to take risks. People would often rather have a reasonably :goodfight: than sit docked/in a POS for four hours.  Even if you all die horribly, YOU (and hopefully they) will have learned something from the encounter you can carry forward to the next OP.

8. Solo PVP, Solo Roam. Just do stuff by yourself, get used to knowing your OWN strengths and weakness. :Learn: from  every loss and every victory. If someone fucks you over in a gang or solo, convo/mail them and if they are normal you may get some advice you can then use in a gang situation.  However you do it, get EXPERIENCE.

9. JUMP IS A STUPID WORD AND WILL CAUSE YOU TO MENTALLY RAAAAAAAAAAAAGE AT HOW RETARDED SOME PEOPLE CAN BE. Live with it. They’ll eventually learn the hardway.  1 misjump is forgiveable, 2 is asking to be popped by the camp on the other side while the fleet goes somewhere else.

10. Link this repeatedly in fleet (related to point 9):

For a much more in-depth view of the “soft” side of FCing take a look at this guest article over on the Altruist blog by Azual.