Factional Warfare

Summary

Factional Warfare (FW) brings war to New Eden by launching open conflict between the four main empires of EVE. Players are now able to enlist and fight for their empire to earn ranks, obtain unique faction ships and compare their performance with other pilots. The main points of Factional Warfare are:

• Sign-up Page
• Sign-up Process
• Battlefield Intelligence Page
• Effects of Joining Factional Warfare
• Player Aggression in Factional Warfare
• Empire Navy Forces
• Leaving Factional Warfare
• Combat Zones
• FW Missions
• FW Dungeons
• Control Bunker
• Occupancy and Territory Control
• Standing Mechanics
• Ranks

Sign-up Page

Before participating in the new expansion content, the first steps for an entity (player or corporation) is to pick a side by choosing a faction to fight with. This is done via the Sign-up page.

At the time being, Factional Warfare allows players to join one of the four main empire forces and fight against their natural opponents. The four empires are divided into equal opposing forces and as such, a character will become a target for all opposing factions when signing up.

Amarr Empire and Caldari State are at war against the Gallente Federation and the Minmatar Republic.

Two major points of Factional Warfare to remember:

• Factional Warfare is strictly optional and will not affect a character or corporation until the sign-up process is completed. Neutral corporation activities will not be affected by this release.
• Player alliances cannot join Factional Warfare. Corporations must leave their alliance to be eligible for the new content.

The Sign-up page displays miscellaneous information related to the selected faction and, more importantly, useful warnings on what is going to happen after joining.

It is possible to either join up as an individual pilot or as a corporation (after several conditions are met, see below) by either pressing the "Enlist Me" or "Enlist my corporation" buttons.

Sign-up Process

As a player

• Pilot must not be a trial account.
• Pilot must not be enlisted on another faction.
• If the pilot is joining from a player corporation, instantaneous transfer to a Factional Warfare militia will only occur if the pilot has no roles or grantable roles. Otherwise, a 24-hour waiting period will be enacted.
• Players joining up individually are moved into the FW militia of the selected faction.
• Players joining up individually must not have left a FW Militia in the past 24 hours.

The FW militias are NPC corporations with special rules (please refer to the "Player Aggression in Factional Warfare" chapter).

• Amarr: 24th Imperial Crusade
• Caldari: State Protectorate
• Gallente: Federal Defense Union
• Minmatar: Tribal liberation Force

As a corporation

• The pilot signing up a corporation has to be either its CEO or Director.
• The corporation must not be a member of a player alliance or currently applying for a player alliance membership.
• Corporations joining up are moved into the faction they selected (consider it as an alliance).
• Corporations are moved into a FW faction after the next downtime, either instantaneously or, if they're leaving a player alliance, after 24 hours.

Common to both of them

• The entity must have 0.5 or higher base faction standings with the side it joins (social skills are not taken into account).

Battlefield Intelligence Page

Once a character or corporation joins a faction, the sign-up page turns into the battlefield intelligence page, which displays various empire statistics. The numbers may be filtered on a militia, corporation or personal level.

Effects of Joining Factional Warfare

Each entity - either a player member of a FW Militia or an enlisted player corporation - receives particular abilities and attributes. They last until the entity retires or is removed from Factional Warfare.

Effects:

• Players in FW corporations can shoot any other player belonging to an enemy FW entity, no matter if it is a Militia or player-made corporation.
• Example: player A belonging to an enlisted FW player corporation in the Gallente Federation can shoot any other player enlisted with Amarr or Caldari. Player A cannot shoot at a player enlisted in the Minmatar Republic.
• On top of the regular agent missions, players in FW corporations can take missions from agents in their assigned faction's Militia Corp, as long as standings requirements are met.
• Example: player A belonging to the Gallente Federation can receive missions from its FW Militia (Federal Defense Union).
• Players in FW-flagged corps contribute toward player counts for dungeon objectives and, if enlisted with the attacking faction, can lock the Control Bunker (please refer to the Control Bunker section for more information).
• Example: player A belonging to the Gallente Federation will be able to capture FW dungeons for both Gallente and Minmatar (depending on the combat zone location) but will only be able to lock vulnerable Control Bunkers belonging to the Caldari State.
• Players in FW corporations may receive role-playing and military mails sent from their faction entity.
• Players in FW corporations are attacked by enemy Navy NPCs when entering high-security space belonging to either of their enemy factions.
• Example: a player A belonging to the Caldari State entering Gallente Federation or Minmatar Republic high-security space (0.5 and above) will be engaged by faction navies.
• Players in FW corporations have access to their faction's "FW Alliance channel".
• Players in FW-flagged corps receive their faction's "alliance" EVEmail.

Player Aggression in Factional Warfare

Since all corporations in a particular empire faction are permanently at war with their enemies, FW players may be attacked anywhere by their faction opponents . The exact difference between player corporations and FW Militias are explained below.

Warning: the permanent struggle between the four empires does not count in any way for the price calculation of player-declared wars.

Details:

FW Militias:

• FW Militias may not enter war with player corporations or alliances.
• Shooting your own FW militia member/container/wreck will result in a security status hit, CONCORD aggression-flagging in high-security space, and a standing hit with your own faction.
• Corporation settings may not be changed and are set to default.
• Having container contents stolen triggers a flag to its sole owner for 15 minutes only.

Enlisted player corporations:

• Can participate in player alliance/corporation wars, whether it is declared by a corporation in the same, allied or opposing faction.
• Shooting your own corporation member will result in no penalties.
• Having container contents stolen triggers a flag to the whole corporation for 15 minutes.

Warning: shooting a FW pilot part of another player corporation not located in your own faction does not make you lose faction or FW militia standings (though it remains an act of aggression and will activate the Global Criminal Flag, resulting in CONCORD in high-security space, sentry guns shooting and security status loss). However, shooting a FW pilot part of a NPC corporation Militia will result in standing losses.

Example: if player A, located in the Federal Defense Union shoots player B in the Tribal Liberation Force, player A is not going to lose any standings toward the Gallente Federation or his own corporation. However, player A is going to be engaged by CONCORD in high-security space while being shot by the sentry guns.

Empire Navy Forces

As a reminder, there are four different types of NPC security forces in high-security space, triggered by different conditions:

• CONCORD, arriving when a character commits a criminal aggression as part of a Global Criminal Flag, by engaging another player or player assets without having rights to do so.
• Empire police, intervening when a player with too low security status jumps into high-security space. The exact numbers are:
  • 2 and lower: police attacks the player in 1.0 systems.
  • 2.5 and lower: police attacks the player in 0.9 systems.
  • 3 and lower: police attacks the player in 0.8 systems.
  • 3.5 and lower: police attacks the player in 0.7 systems.
  • 4 and lower: police attacks the player in 0.6 systems.
  • 4.5 and lower: police attacks the player everywhere in high-security space.
• Empire customs, taking action when contraband is found in a player's cargo hold.
• Empire navies/militaries, reacting if a player with the FW flag or -5 and less faction standings jumps into an enemy high-security system.

Empire Navies and police have been made considerably more challenging with the FW expansion: they can easily destroy any unprepared player ship venturing into their area of jurisdiction.

As such, players are strongly advised to remain extremely vigilant to their plotted route when being part of a Factional Warfare corporation. Even if the destination may not be located in an opposing faction space, always be sure to check the route itself does not pass through enemy territory.

Leaving Factional Warfare

Player:

Willingly:

• If part of a FW militia, a player has to click the “retire” button in the sign-up FW page to leave it. The process happens instantly.
• If part of an enlisted player FW corporation, the individual will have to leave the corporation though normal means to retire. If you have roles, the process will take 24 hours, otherwise it will be instant.

Automatically:

• If an individual’s raw faction standings drops below 0.5, the player receives a notification mail to raise them back at the next downtime. If they are not recovered during the downtime after that (thus, two downtimes after the standing drop), the player will be instantly kicked out of the FW militia.
• If part of an enlisted player corporation, individual faction standings do not apply for the check. Corporation faction standings are used instead, see below.

Corporation:

Willingly:

• The CEO/Director has to press the “retire corporation” button from the FW page. The change is done during the next downtime. Before then, any Director or CEO can cancel this action by pressing the “cancel retirement” option.

Automatically:

• If a corporation’s raw faction standings drops below 0.5, mail notification is sent to the corporation mailbox at the next downtime. If the standings are not recovered after the second downtime (two downtimes after the standing drop), the corporation is instantly expelled.

Combat Zones

With the war raging, various battle fronts are opening between the opposing empires. These areas, all located in low-security constellations between major empire space, are named combat zones. The main point of Factional Warfare is to bring players in your enemy combat zone to either complete missions or achieve territory control (implying FW Dungeons and Control Bunkers), both with a heavy focus on PvP.

FW Missions

The expansion introduces a new type of factional warfare agent who only gives kill missions to signed-up FW players. They differ from the regular agent missions in several ways:

• Players are always required to fly through the enemy combat zone in order to achieve the objectives.
• The mission difficulty remains far easier than their regular counterparts.
• Once warped to, the mission beacon is broadcast in space and on the overview, allowing any player to enter the mission area.
• The missions are only “kill” types. No storylines are given after 16 missions completed.
• FW missions may only be given by a FW militia corporation to enlisted players. Characters not part of such a corporation will not be able to receive a FW mission regardless of his/her standings.
• Microwarpdrives are allowed in FW Missions, but cynosural fields are not.
• Apart from the above, FW missions work in the same way than their normal counterparts: players receive standing increase, LPs and ISK for completing them.

Example: a character belonging to a player corporation enlisted with the Amarr Empire will be able to receive missions from the 24th Imperial Crusade (the Amarr FW Militia) on top of the regular non-FW missions from standard agents. He will also be only granted ranks for his own faction.

FW Dungeons

Each solar system located inside a combat zone will spawn a certain number of FW Dungeons that may be found using scan probes (the scan difficult is quite low). Depending on the system location and which faction a player is part of, pilots may either attack or defend the complex.

The FW Dungeons are classified as "Cosmic Anomaly" in the scanning menu (CTRL+F11). A multispectral probe may be launched first to verify if any of them may be found, then appropriately ranged quest probes should be deployed to pinpoint it.

Note: the ship on-board scanner may also be used with good results due to the high signal radius of FW Dungeons.

If your ship matches the acceleration gate restriction filter, it is then possible to warp inside the complex itself to either attack or defend the site, depending on character faction.

Warning: The site is guarded by NPC spawns whose strength varies based on the importance of the FW Dungeon.

Claiming such a dungeon for your faction is done by:

• Staying inside the beacon activation range until the countdown timer expires. This varies depending on the FW Dungeon size.
  • Small: 10 minute timer, 10km Range
  • Medium: 15 minute timer, 20km Range
  • Large: 20 minute timer, 30km Range

• Players may conquer FW Dungeons belonging to any opposing faction, but they will only conquer it for the defending/attacking factions in this system
  • Example: A Minmatar player may claim a Caldari FW Dungeon, but the points will be awarded to the Gallente faction for that system.

• Flying a proper ship, not a pod or shuttle.
• Not being cloaked.

FW Dungeon limitations:

• Microwarpdrives are allowed in all FW Dungeons.
• If the FW Dungeon is closed (meaning, if it possesses an acceleration gate at its entrance), then no cynosural fields are allowed.

The countdown timer:

When capturing a FW Dungeondungeon, pilots have to pay attention to the countdown timer that may show the following:

• [Faction name] capturing [time]: a faction is currently conquering the site as at least one player is close enough to the beacon. It will be captured in the amount of time specified.
• Contested: two or more players belonging to opposing factions are close enough to the beacon. One of the two opposing factions will have to be eliminated for the capturing process to resume (the timer is not restarted when switching from "capturing" to "contested"). This flag is also shown when no faction is currently capturing the beacon.

Warning: the capturing countdown does not function in an absolute fashion. If a first faction has been capturing the site for a certain amount of time before being crushed by an opposing force, the victors will first have to undo the capturing time before starting to claim it for their own.

Example: a Minmatar Republic strike team seizes and starts capturing a FW Dungeon belonging to one of the Amarr Empire systems. Timer displays 7 minutes out of 15 elapsed when an Amarr fleet destroys the Minmatar and conquers the site. The Amarrians will have to wait 7+15 = 22 minutes before capturing it.

Goal:

The main objective to capture FW Dungeons remains to make the system Control Bunker vulnerable to open attack, which will then switch the Occupancy occupancy to the attacking faction.

Control Bunker

The Control Bunker is the key to unlock the system occupancy and switch it to your faction. In its natural state it remains completely invulnerable to attack and cannot be locked by anyone. However, if an attacking faction manages to capture enough FW Dungeonsdungeons, the Control Bunker will enter a vulnerable state where it may be locked by any character belonging to the attacking FW faction.

Warning: please remember that pilots not part of a FW faction or not belonging to the attacking FW faction will not be able to lock it.

Example: in a vulnerable state, a Gallente Control Bunker may only be locked by Caldari State FW players. Any other pilot (including the Gallente Federation enlisted pilots) will not be able to do so.

The screenshot on the right refers to the Control Bunker icon in the Overview. Unlike FW Dungeons, Control Bunkers are not in exploration complexes but are static structures.

When vulnerable, the Control Bunker may be attacked and conquered when its hull receives structural damage. If that happens, the attacking faction will gain control of the Occupancy occupancy during the next downtime, while all remaining FW Dungeons will grant no progress toward capture and no more FW Dungeons will spawn until the system Occupancy occupancy switches.

When the Occupancy occupancy has changed, FW Dungeons belonging to the new faction occupying the system will spawn and the whole process starts again.

Warning: nothing prevents FW Dungeons from being captured while Control Bunker is attacked. As such, it is perfectly possible for the bunker to go back into an invulnerable mode if the defending faction manages to claim several FW Dungeons.

Example: after the Minmatar Republic captures enough FW Dungeons, the Control Bunker, sitting quietly in a static dungeon, switches from being invulnerable to being vulnerable to attack. The Minmatar Republic blobs it, but when it is at 10 % shield the Amarr Empire manages to win another dungeon, returning the system Control Bunker to an invulnerable state.

Occupancy and Territory Control

The main objective for a particular faction remains to conquer enemy systems while defending its own. To meet this goal, a new variable, Occupancy, is used to determine which faction currently military owns a particular system.

Warning: Occupancy has nothing to do with Sovereigntysovereignty. Sovereignty specifies which faction originally settled in a particular system, while Occupancy occupancy displays which faction armed forces are currently occupying it. As such, Sovereignty will never change from FW victories.

Changing Occupancy implies:

1. Capturing enough FW dungeons until the bunker becomes vulnerable.
2. Once vulnerable, capturing the Control Bunker located in the system.

Attacking/Defending factions:

Each system located in a combat zone is fought over by two opposing factions. The faction owning Occupancy occupancy is named defender, while the one trying to gain it offender. "Allied" factions cannot claim the system by themselves but may help the attacking/defending faction in their task.

Example: Old Man Star is a combat zone system disputed between the Gallente Federation and the Caldari State. The Gallente Federation, owning Occupancy, will be the defenders and the Caldari State attackers. Amarr and Minmatar may conquer FW Dungeons, but they will help their allied faction instead of claiming it for their own.

Warning: "Allied" factions or the defender itself cannot lock a vulnerable Control Bunker, only the attacking faction may do so.

Note: the "allied" term is only used to refer to a friendly faction as the game mechanics do not make a difference between it and a neutral entity. Even if Minmatar players may be able to help Gallente pilots claiming a FW Dungeon, they won’t be able to shoot each other without facing a Global Criminal Flag.

System Occupancy states:

There are different system states appearing in the "Occupancy" line on the top-left corner of the screen depending on the attacker/defender general strength status:

• Un-contested: natural state of a system occupancy and thus not directly shown. The system is currently not actively fought over by different factions.
• Contested: FW Dungeons have been claimed by the offenders. Defenders may take it down to "un-contested" by winning FW Dungeons back.
• Vulnerable: the attacking force won enough FW Dungeons to put the Control Bunker to vulnerable for attack.
• Lost: the system has been successfully captured by the attacking faction. As such, the Occupancy will switch to the new faction after the next Downtime. Existing FW Dungeons no longer affect the power scale and new ones won’t spawn until then.

Standing Mechanics

Two main standings are used in Factional Warfare:

• Faction standings for joining requirements and NPC Agression.
• FW Militia standings for ranks.

Faction standings:

This standings type determines a character's or corporation's eligibility to join a particular faction. It must be kept above 0.5 for the entity to join and stay enlisted toward the faction.

Faction standings are also used when verifying NPC aggression, as a character with positive standings will not be harmed by that faction's NPCs unless they are aggressed first. The exact standing value may vary depending on the FW Dungeon or mission.

Characters with -5.0 or less faction standings toward an empire will be shot when entering its space. Finally, high faction standings may determine the kind of mission a player can accept from a FW militia, as long as he is enlisted with its linked faction.

Warning: social skills are not taken into account with faction standings for the sign-up requirements.

Example: player A has 8.0 standings with the Gallente Federation. That means he will be able to individually join the Federal Defense Union corporation which is the FW Militia of the Gallente Federation as he has more than 0.5 faction standings with it. NPCs belonging to the Gallente Federation will not shoot at the player and once enlisted to FW, the player may start doing all mission levels from the Federal Defense Union as the agents requirements are met.

FW Militia standings:

FW Militia standings indirectly reflect a player’s rank as long as he remains enlisted to the same faction. Each player starts with 0.0 Militia standings when joining FW to prevent any advantage for mission runners.

Leaving Factional Warfare will make a player retire and lose his rank, but he will retain and get the rank when/if joining later as long as the FW Militia standings are not modified.

Ranks

Players enlisted in Factional Warfare may receive ranks depending on the empire they are working for. For a full list of available ranks, please refer to the following Dev Blog.