Advanced fighting and defence tactics

Formation combat

Even if there have been no major wars for decades in the world of EVE there is no lack of skirmishes and minor encounters. Some are based around political struggle, such as the one between the Minmatar Republic and the Ammatars, but most involve law enforcers versus bandits of one sort or another. One of the main consequences is the combat experience that most major factions are slowly gaining, by constantly fighting one or more of their perceived foes. Furthermore, as bandits can be encountered anywhere where empire presence is weak, has led to miners, explorers and traders plying their trade on the fringes of empire space to augment their defenses and other combat abilities simply to stay alive.

Naturally, all this combat experience has improved the way people fight in many fundamental ways. Weapons are becoming more deadly and ships and equipment are increasingly geared towards good combat performance. But people are also learning how to co-operate on the battle field, giving each other support or concentrating their powers towards a common goal. The most obvious example of this is formation flights, where two or more ships synchronize their moves in order to gain maximum advantage possible from their weapons, defenses or their ship’s maneuverability.

Formations require a level of skill and discipline from those participating in it and the participants must have complete faith in their formation leader, as he alone dictates the assault patterns of the formation. There are now several standard types of formations, each giving different tactical advantages. All participants in a formation must possess the required knowledge for that particular formation, as well as be on a ship allowed in that formation.

http://web.archive.org/web/20030402165851/http://eve-online.com/background/potw/feb01-01.asp

(out of date presumably)