Standing Fleet is a specific fleet which, barring disconnects, is active at all times in Brave space. Standing Fleet is akin to a lobby but also acts as a defense force and an area to "stand" ready to fight or to interact with fellow Brave members. Standing Fleet is the first place any new member should visit both on comms and in-game in order to ask questions and be helped to access the various starter programs that Brave offers. Whenever you are online and doing things around our staging systems (mining, ratting, gate camps) you should join the standing fleet to have company and potential help. If there is currently no Standing Fleet, please recreate it.

A fleet advert for Standing Fleet should always be up, if you are having issues finding the advert please ask in the Alliance or Corp channels in game or on the Standing Fleet comms channel.

To find the advert open your fleet finder, this can be found under the "E" menu in the top left of your game window and then under the Social heading. With the fleet finder open you should see an advert with the words Brave Standing Fleet. If you can't see the advert please ask in the relevant channels for help, the advert may be down. There are also standing fleets for areas that Brave holds minor territory in, and should be named appropriately for the region.

Standing fleet is, as mentioned, an in-game lobby of sorts where Brave members meet to chat and discuss both in-game and out of game topics. Standing Fleet is also an EVE "Fleet" this means it has some mechanics aimed at helping you fight, explore or make money with the help of others. The first and arguably most important function of Standing Fleet is system/area defense. EVE is a dangerous game and Brave space is no different, marauding gangs will often come through or to our space looking for good fights or to pick off isolated Brave members who may be ratting, mining etc… Standing Fleet acts as both a deterrent and an active force to stop and remove these gangs. Standing fleet also acts as a rally point for other fleets. Standing comms is often the first place that an FC announces their fleet and so it is a good place to stay in the loop about upcoming events and to ask what ships the FC would like etc.. Standing Fleet is the place to find out about PVP and engage in it. As mentioned before, Standing serves a protective role, this means that if you are Ratting, Mining or in Brave space at all you should always be in Standing Fleet unless you are in another fleet. This provides protection for you and also lets you hear of any fun fleets or events that are taking place. This isn't a requirement of Brave but is a strong recommendation in order to get the most out of Eve.

Standing Fleet is not your personal security guard and it is not invincible. There will be times when Standing Fleet refuses to come help you because of the huge amount of enemies present. Unfortunately math is universal, even in EVE one hundred is bigger than ten. You must also remember that every capsuleer in Standing Fleet is there for their own enjoyment or may be AFK, watching another screen and so on… They aren't waiting in station for you to call for help, you must take some responsibility for your own ships.

Finally Standing Fleet is not your personal fleet to command. Standing Fleet does not have an official FC to give orders. Often a tagged FC or experienced player will assume command of Standing to rally it for defense but please do not ask Standing Fleet to roam the Eve Universe or expect them to follow your every order. Standing is a special place, if you are interesting in FCing we recommend you approach a tagged member of Brave (FC/Dojo etc..), experience player or indeed put a fleet up in your own name.

X's in fleet are used when you have tackle on someone. That means you have used either a Warp Disruptor or a Warp Scrambler on the enemy. Calling out what exactly you have tackled is very important.

W's in fleet are used when you are tackled yourself but *do not* have tackle on them. That's very important info, please use it. Again, calling out what has engaged you is very important.

R's are useful when you have NPC rats on you that you cannot kill (if you are in a Procurer, use your drones to kill them yourself).

$'s in fleet is signals for newbros to come warp in and salvage the ratting wrecks on your site. Salvaging is good money for newbros, so after you have cleared a site, before you warp off, take time to enter these into fleet chat. Newbros will very much appreciate it.

Standing fleet usually has a decent amount of people in it, and so we have some basic practices which help things go smoothly throughout the day.

Thanks to the mechanics of Fleets in Eve it is possible for the entire fleet to warp straight to any other person in the fleet, this means if you get into trouble the entire force of Standing is able to warp directly to your local but if and only if, you are actually in the fleet. To ask for help you should be on comms relaying intel to the rest of the fleet such as how many enemies you see and what ships they are in, you then need to give your own name (not "I" or "me") and type xxx in fleet. Assuming that Standing Fleet is able to deal with the attackers your next task is to stay alive long enough to be saved.

Since Standing is a relaxed fleet you are not expected to wait around for enemies to appear, having said that if you are in Standing Fleet and nearby it really helps if you do respond, even in a frigate. Once the intel has been given and you see the xxx in fleet you should undock and warp to the person who "dropped the X's". If in doubt please ask on comms and someone will help you get in the right ship and get to the right place. During the fight and even the warp-in you should closely monitor the Local chat channel. If the player count rises significantly ("spikes") then you should abort the rescue mission. Chances are that the enemy has a large fleet waiting to drop on Standing Fleet in which case it's much better to leave one miner to die than to lose 20.

This is a previously unwritten etiquette of standing fleet.

Standing fleet is often space lobby. It can be noisy, chaotic, funny, exciting, entertaining, intimidating, or annoying. Sometimes we all need to remember to shut the fuck up. This means giving others space to ask for help, or ask for questions. Strive to explain if you don't know the answer, who may (for instance #dojo in slack) or if you can't try to help someone because they're too far away, let them know that too.

If the main channel is too noisy, there are a number of connected channels including the combat and social channels. If you're looking for just pvp and Intel, feel free to drop down to the combat channel, which you can 'shout' intels to all connected channels.

And if you need to debate how tacos are the best food for any meal or other random topic for an extended period, please drop down to the social channel. You can 'shout' to other channels from here as well.

For those who need a quieter experience, the quiet channel is linked for shouting Intel only and with no local chatter.

The ideal ships for Standing Fleet are either non-committal (ie giving you the ability to quickly disengage) or relatively cheap. For this reason you should not take anything larger than a Tech 1 cruiser when warping to X's unless you are absolutely sure of the situation you are about to jump in to. Fast frigates and high damage destroyers are excellent ships to use for newer players.

We have several doctrine ships which work really well in a standing fleet environment:

• The Omen is a tech 1 cruiser with good tank, good damage, good range, and 2 utility midslots. This is super versatile ship and can be used in a wide variety of circumstances when combined with its Standing Fleet Package.
• Tripod Caracals are a tackle ship's worst nightmare. They have good tank, a high speed, good DPS, a decent range, and will apply well to literally anything.
• T1 Logi Frigates and Cruisers completely change the game in standing fleet. They turn a bunch of random ships into a force able to contend with gangs and even small fleets.
• Talwars are Tech 1 Destroyers; great for new players with good range and speed. They die quickly if hostiles get too close however.
• Longbows are similar to talwars but trade a bit of their damage for instant-application. As with the talwar you want to stay far away from hostile ships.
• Tech 1 Tackle ships are great for holding down hostile targets. They don't tank very well, but they're cheap and a skilled pilot can be surprisingly effective with them.

Mine together. Get in standing and find out where in the system everyone is mining. You will get boosts there, you will get defense there. 1 Procurer or Venture by itself in a belt is going to be picked off pretty fast. 5 procs with 50 support ventures, well, thats a tough nut to crack ;)

Ratting in with the same fleet as the standing fleet is the safest place to do it. Having a tough ship means you can perhaps get help in time before they kill your VNI. There are plenty of newbro frigates now that can apply Ewar to save you.

If everyone understands the above, then PVP can get more organized and useful. Calling what you XXX, what you WWW, goes a long way towards getting a better response. Newbros, if you want fighting experience, then Standing Fleet is a great way to do it. Lock down those gates, and call out enemies that enter and leave the system. Tackle. Ewar. Holy hell, you make a huge difference in a fight. Don't ever feel you don't. Don't have any ships? Ask Dojo or in standing comms. Someone is always willing to help.

I hope this gives you a better understanding of how Standing works and helps you survive long enough to learn.

NEVER EVER NOT ASK FOR HELP

Helping you is why Brave exists. But until you say something, we may not know you need it. See you in fleet!