GWA PvP Basic – Combat Client Setup Guide
Table of Contents
Client Setup for combat...................................................................................................................1
Keyboard Shortcuts..........................................................................................................................1
Display & Graphics.........................................................................................................................2
Audio & Chat...................................................................................................................................3
General Settings...............................................................................................................................4
Configuring EVE Mail, the Neocom and Chat................................................................................5
EVE Mail....................................................................................................................................5
Wallet..........................................................................................................................................5
NeoCom Bar...............................................................................................................................5
Cache...........................................................................................................................................5
Bookmarks..................................................................................................................................5
Chat.............................................................................................................................................5
Client Setup for combat
Rule number 1 for combat is that lag kills. Your graphics settings might look cool, but if
these settings cause your client to lag when 10 hostiles land on grid and a battle starts,
you are dead. The last thing you want is a slide show when you're in a 50 pilot gang going
against another 50 pilots. For this reason, before engaging in combat in EVE you must
take time to set up your client properly. To reduce lag, 0.0 and other PvP pilots turn off
several game effects.
All the bells and whistles of maximum graphics settings look great, but these additional
features can drop your frame rate through the floor, especially when there is a large
number of ships on grid. To reduce the chances of this happening, explore the options you
get when hitting ESC key to bring up settings menu. Across the top you will see a row of
tabs. In this article we will only be dealing with three of these tabs: Display & Graphics,
Audio & Chat, and General Settings. Then we will move on to EVE Mail settings.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Below are some keyboard shortcuts for the various graphic effects and animations. These can be
viewed and changed under the Shortcuts > General tab on the ESC settings menu.
CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-E:
Toggle all effects
CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-T:
Toggle turret effects
CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-F12:
Toggle sound
These can be viewed and changed under the Shortcuts > Navigation tab.
ALT-Z:
Toggle Show All Brackets
ALT-SHIFT-Z:
Toggle Show No Brackets
ALT-SHIFT-X:
Toggle Special Bracket Display
All default shortcuts can be seen here http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Keyboard_Controls
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Display & Graphics
Windowed or Fullscreen: Fullscreen mode should lighten the CPU load, but makes it more
difficult to tab between different windows if you run multiple clients. To change between
Windowed and Fullscreen use ALT-RETURN (APPLE-RETURN for Mac OS).
Window Size (Resolution): One thing you will discover very fast with EVE is that you need to
utilize the entire screen and the higher the resolution you can support the more room you will have.
Run your client at the highest resolution possible, but keep in mind that you also want a good frame
rate. This can be a tricky balancing act. You can press Ctrl+F to see your frame per second (FPS)
count in game, or use FRAPS to measure it. Generally you want to keep your FPS count between
30 and 60.
Present Interval: This is the most important setting on this column. Here you want to select
“Interval One”. This will limit your FPS to 60. When sitting in a station your client can have very
high FPS count (up to and over 200). This will put a great deal of strain on your video card, which
has been reported to lead to overheating and your system shutting down or worse.
Effects: Turn off "Turret Effects", "Effects", "Missile Effects", "Camera Shake", "Ship Explosions",
"Drone Models", "Trails" and "GPU Particles". For large scale fleets it is best to have these effects"
turned off, however, in small scale fights leaving them on can be beneficial. It will allow you to
visually distinguish between different electronic warfare effects, such as when your ship is being
webified or warp disrupted, as well as let you to see remote repair and neutralizer/nosferatu effects.
Turn off “Sun Is Occluded by Ships” and turn on "Use LOD". LOD stands for "Level of Detail.
Turning it on means that EVE client will use simplified 3d models to show things that are far away
from the camera. Enabling LOD can result in smoother graphics.
Again, our goal is to have the lowest lag possible, therefore select the
lowest settings for all options.
Graphic Content Settings:
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Audio & Chat
Audio Engine Settings: Uncheck "Audio Enabled” to turn off sound. The sound in EVE provides
more situational awareness, but the load it puts on the CPU can cause the game to lag. For many
players turning the sound off when playing the game improves its performance. Another important
reason for turning off sound is that it can distract you and you will not hear important information
relayed on Vent.
Voice Settings: Most alliances and corporations in EVE use either Ventrilo or Teamspeak. This way
if the server goes down or one of pilots becomes disconnected, he or she will still be able to use
voice communications and hear what is being said. EVE Voice however is a nice alternative to use
when your Vent or TS goes down.
Chat: Logging chat can create extra lag, but the information stored in the logs can be very useful.
Whether you want to leave this option on of off is up to you.
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General Settings
General: Find the box that says “Show Session-Change Timer” and place a check on it. You can
have other boxes set to whatever you wish. This option will display a small circle at the top left
corner on your UI when your session change is on. Mousing your mouse over the circle will display
the time left until the change is complete. Being able to see the session change timer is very
important in PVP, for example, in a situation where you have to evade a gate camp. Session timer is
enabled every time you change or leave your ship, every time you dock or come through a gate, and
every time you jump clone or get podded. Refer to the following article if you do not know what the
session change timer is Using Session Change Timer.
Help: Uncheck the “Show Damage Notifications” box. "Damage Notifications" are a small pop-up
typically seen in the middle of your screen informing you of damage dealt or received every time
you take or deal damage. Needless to say, this creates quite a bit of lag in large group PVP
situations. This option can be quite useful in small scale PVP and PVE however.
Auto Target Back: Another important change is to set the “Auto Target Back” option to zero (0)
targets. When checked, your ship will automatically target-lock on any ship that locks target onto
you first. If your modules are cycled this will make them activate on the locked target. However,
often in combat situations the ship that locks you first is not the one you want to be shooting at. In
0.0 or any other kind of PvP you will be choosing targets much more intelligently, not letting them
choose you. The ship locking you might be a friend simply trying to test locking time (or a logistics
pilot in your gang). If your weapons are cycled you might end up killing your friend's ship. There
are also several tricks used in empire space that can get you CONCORDed if your auto-targeter is
enabled. It is a good idea to have this option turned off.
Layout: You can set this up any way you like. Choose a nice colour scheme for your UI, this shows
Nero as selected, a deep red theme.
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Configuring EVE Mail, the Neocom and Chat
EVE Mail
The next setting is located in your EVE Mail window. To open EVE Mail, look at the side of your
EVE client on the NeoCom menu bar and find EVE Mail icon. Click it to open.
Once your mailbox is open, click the white square in the top left corner to access settings, and set
'CSPA charge' to 0. This means people don't have to pay money to invite you to fleets, etc.
Below that, under "When notificiation is received" deselect "Blink EVE Mail NeoCom Button".
Whenever your ship gets destroyed you will receive an email stating the amount of ISK that has
been transferred to your wallet via insurance. This will prompt your mail box to blink, which causes
a small amount of lag.
Wallet
It is also a good idea to turn off the blinking effects of your wallet. Each time your ship gets blown
up, you will receive some ISK from its insurance. If your wallet settings are set to make your wallet
blink, it will blink upon this event and cause a small amount of lag for your client. In turn, it will
make it more difficult for you to enter warp with your pod and avoid getting pod-killed.
NeoCom Bar
You can right click on the NeoCom bar and use the "Disable Blink Notifications" to turn off
blinking on all icons on the menu.
Cache
If you find that your EVE client loads slowly and is persistently being bugged by various small
bugs it might be time to clear your cache. It is a good idea to periodically clean it out in any case.
To do this press "ESC" button and go to "Reset Settings" tab. Find "Clear all cache files" option and
click on "Clear". You will have to restart your client after this.
Bookmarks
Keep bookmarks within folders as much as you can, this way you can double click on a folder's bar
in the "Places" tab under "People & Places" to have it open in a separate window for easy reference.
A folder containing safe spots or tacticals can be opened when needed.
Chat
Set chat channels to text only, the avatars can take time and resources to load and are a potential
source of lag. Do this by clicking on the icon at the top of the channel window that is just straight
white lines..
Right clicking on the channel's tab and selecting "Show Compact Member List" will remove avatars
from the member list for channels such as Local, useful in systems where a high number of pilots
are present and allows for easy spotting of war targets and pilots with low/terrible standing.
For some channels you can hide the member list by clicking on the icon above it with the red cross.
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