Overview Tutorial
One of the most critical facets to survival in EVE (especially in nullsec) is your Overview; the goal of this tutorial is to not only show you how to [i]easily[/i] set up your overview, but to make sure you understand what each setting does so you know why you would want to modify the initial settings I show you! I'm going to just dive right in, so the first thing you need to do is click on the Overview triangle and select OPEN OVERVIEW SETTINGS.
There are six tabs in the overview, and we're going to cover what each of them are used for in detail; before showing you how to set your overview up, here's a simple crash course in how everything works:
In the FILTERS tab, you specify what you actually want to see, both by the Type of things you want to see, and the States they are in. The APPEARANCE tab dictates what those things you have specified to be shown will look like when displayed, by choosing the Colortag, Background, and EWAR that is directed at you. (Note that the Appearances are only applied to players/drones by default--so Stargates won't be colored, etc.) Then on the COLUMNS tab you indicate what columns you would like showing in the overview (and the order). After that the SHIPS tab allows you to indicate what information you want to see when you select/mouse-over another player. The MISC tab just allows you to force entries with a broadcast to the top of the overview (handy in large fights), and the OVERVIEW TABS err--tab... is where you can set up five different overview arrangements, depending on your activities. In this tutorial we will set up a tab for PVP, PVE, Wrecks, Blobs, and Drones; if you already have overview settings you don't want to lose with those names, either rename them or use a different name, obviously. Let's get started!
[b]APPEARANCE[/b] We're not going to start with the Filters tab, and that is because when you SAVE OVERVIEW SETTINGS, what you're actually saving is the current Filters. The other five tabs are global and apply no matter what filters you have loaded. Understanding that makes the Overview a lot less confusing to work with! So before we set up five different sets of Filters (based on what I do/don't want to see), let's set up what the things I do see will look like first! There are three tabs under Appearance: Colortag (what appears in the ICON column), Background (what appears on that row in the overview), and EWAR (what EWAR effects you want to be warned of when used on you). There are also two options, Apply to Ships and Drones Only (recommended) and Use Small Colortags (up to you, I don't like them). Let's set up Colortag first.
There are a lot of different categories to color by; and the order they are listed determines which the overview will use (the top is the highest priority). The reason for this is that while you might want an outlaw (someone with -5 or worse Security Status) to be flashing red, someone in your alliance might be an outlaw, and you don't want them flashing on your screen telling you to SHOOT! At the left of each category is a check mark--this determines if you want to add colortags/backgrounds for that. On the right you can specify the color of the tag/background, and also whether or not you wish for the color to blink. My recommendation is to make the three categories that you can shoot without provocation in hi-sec as blinking red--that's [b]Pilot is at war with your corporation/alliance[/b], [b]Pilot is at war with your militia[/b], and [b]Pilot is an outlaw[/b]. The rest of the colors I left on their defaults, and you need to decide which ones to apply colors for; on the Colortag sub-tab I checked everything--I what every thing to have an icon identifying them; on the Background sub-tab I left [b]Pilot has bounty on him[/b], [b]Pilot has no standing[/b], and [b]Pilot (agent) is interactable[/b] unchecked, because I don't want their rows colored. The reasoning is simple--out in Nullsec, I want to quickly be able to review local for non-blue icons, so every player portrait needs a colortag; you could even make it a different color than grey, but I do want to see if I'm looking at a Neut or a Red, myself. I really don't care if a player has a bounty on them, so I don't need their row highlighted, but if they have no other standing with me, I want the icon to show. Pilot has neutral standing means they have been [i]set[/i] to Neutral by you, your corp, or your alliance; Pilot has no standing means they have nothing set at all--so they won't be highlighted (they have the same icon, so if it's highlighted your alliance/corp/you have that player in your contacts). Agent is interactable has an icon to make them stand out in space, but no highlighting as they aren't players. Basically when I look at my overview, all players with a standing set will be highlighted. On the EWAR sub-tab I keep them all checked.
The last thing you need to do is set the priorities for each category--this is because the overview will stop at the first category that matches and is checked. So here's what you should have (for Colortag, all checked):
Pilot is at war with your corporation/alliance (blink on) Pilot is at war with your militia (blink on) Pilot is in your fleet Pilot is in your corporation Pilot is in your alliance Pilot is in your militia Pilot has excellent standing Pilot has good standing Pilot has terrible standing Pilot has bad standing Pilot has neutral standing Pilot is an outlaw (blink on) Pilot has security status below 0 Pilot has bounty on him PIlot has no standing Pilot (agent) is interactable
[img]http://www.eugee.info/eve/overview/02.jpg[/img]
For the background, move "corporation" down below "militia"--that way all alliance/militia will be the same row color, but you can still pick out your corp-mates by icon. Note that a pilot in your fleet will override all colortags/backgrounds except "at war" with your corp/alliance/militia.
Congrats, you've now done the hardest part of setting up your overview! Let's get the rest finished now:
[b]COLUMNS[/b] It's pretty much downhill from here; the columns are simple, and you just need to check the ones you want to see, and possibly adjust the width of the columns or your overview as needed. TAG allows the fleet commander to assign a letter/number to things on his overview, and if you're viewing the same thing, you'll see the letter/number as well. It's commonly used in missions/PVE to specify which NPC ship to focus fire on (or "Do NOT shoot ship X!"). I recommend turning it on, it's also my left-most column, but that's personal preference; when you have it on the end it can get covered up by EWAR icons. ICON is the next column, and gives you a quick idea of what the ship you're looking at is--basically mandatory. Distance is how far away the item is, I pack this small enough to show the distance to anything on the current grid. I usually end up sorting my overview by either TAG, ICON, or DISTANCE. Name is pretty obvious, in the instance of a ship it's the player's name. TYPE is the description of the object, and often matches the Name, but for Player's this is the ship they are flying. You can also show Corp, Alliance, Faction, Militia, Size, Velocity, Radial Velocity, Transversal Velocity, and Angular Velocity, but most of these are of arguable use, and I don't have any of them turned on.
[img]http://www.eugee.info/eve/overview/03.jpg[/img]
TIP: When traveling or at a gate camp, sort the overview by Icon, ascending (arrow pointing up): New hostiles will appear under the last icon, so you can target/point them faster.
[b]SHIPS[/b] This tab dictates what you are shown when you mouse-over a player (or what is shown over their ship in space when selected), and the order. I prefer to show Pilot Name first, then Ship Type, then Corp Ticker, then Alliance Ticker. I don't show Ship Name (there's some use, but generally it's spam), and I don't add additional text. I also check the option to hide the Corp if they are in an Alliance, because ultimately that's what I want to know.
[img]http://www.eugee.info/eve/overview/04.jpg[/img]
[b]MISC[/b] This couldn't be much simpler--do you want Broadcast targets to move to the top of the overview? Typically you do--like when the FC broadcasts to shoot a target, it's easy to find it amidst 400 ships then. The other button is to reset all overview settings--don't push it. :)
[b]FILTERS[/b] Wait a minute--Overview Tabs was next in line! Until we have set up our Filters, we can't do much with the Overview Tabs. But once we get our different filters, it's really easy to mix-n-match our filters to have some really nice overview/bracket setups! So the Filters are really simple--if the object to be shown on your overview is not checked on the filters, it will not be shown. That means that if you don't have T1 Battleships checked, you will never see T1 Battleships on the overview. Same goes for Stargates, or Control Towers (POS), or Wrecks. If it's not checked, you won't see it. There are actually two tabs to go through, the first is Type--this is what objects you want to see, and it's a very, very long list. You only want to see a relative handful of them, most of the time, especially in PVP. The second tab is States, and these are things that have to be true about the object in order to display it. There are 17 categories this time, all the old ones from appearance, plus Wreck is Already Viewed, and Wreck is Empty.
There are multitude of permanent overview settings under Load Default now. We want the ALL filter for one of the tabs later (and it's a good fallback if you can't determine what Type an object is--it will show up on the ALL overview and you then know what to check/uncheck to show/hide it elsewhere. Let's set up the PVP filter first--it will be very simple and straightforward. Go to TYPES and click Deselect All. It's a lot faster than unchecking everything. Now go back and check the following:
Celestial > Beacon, Covert Beacon, Stargate, Warpgate, Wormhole Deployable > Mobile Warp Disruptor Entity > Destructible Sentry Gun NPC > Pirate NPC, Mission NPC Ship > All Checked Station > Station Structure > Control Tower, Jump Portal Array
Next go to STATES, and only check the following: Pilot has a security status below 0 Pilot has bad standing Pilot has bounty on him Pilot has neutral standing Pilot has no standing Pilot has terrible standing Pilot is an outlaw Pilot is at war with your corporation/alliance Pilot is at war with your militia
Go ahead and click the box in the corner next to Overview Settings and SAVE OVERVIEW SETTINGS. Save this setting as "PVP".
Next, go to Types, open up Entity, and check all the "Mission" categories (there's a lot) as well as Spawn Containers; then go back to your STATES and check everything, and the two Wreck categories. Save your overview settings again, and call this one "PVE".
Now go to the TYPES tab and uncheck everything under Ship, then save the settings again, calling it "No Ships". Almost done!
Finally, load the PVE settings again--and under TYPES > Celestial, check Cargo Containers, and Wrecks--then save your settings as "Loot". Now you may end up wanting different settings later, but by the time you're done doing all this you'll understand what you want to change and why.
With all of your filter categories set up we're ready to move on!
[b]OVERVIEW TABS[/b] Okay, we're ready to put this all together now. We've set up our filters now, so on this last tab we're going to specify five different views. The Tab Name is self-explanatory; the Overview Profile is which set of filters to apply to the overview, and the bracket profile is which set of filters to use for objects in space! This allows us to setup tabs that will show us a different set of objects in space than we see in the overview. Most of the time, there's no need to adjust the Brackets, but you have the option. Create a total of five tabs, by right-clicking a tab in the overview and choosing Add Tab. In in Overview Tabs... tab, we're going to specify and Tab Name, Overview Profile (filter), we'll cover the bracket profile differently. So name all your tabs and set their profiles accordingly:
Here's how the tabs will behave: PVP - Overview: PVP, Brackets: Blank. Overview will only show red/neutral players (and NPC rats), plus key Celestials/Deployables/Structures. PVE - Overview: PVE, Brackets: Blank. Same as PVP, plus blue players. Loot - Overview: Loot, Brackets: Blank. Same as PVE, plus cargo containers/wrecks. Blob - Overview: PVP, Brackets: No Ships. Same as PVP, but ships/drones in space will not have icons on them (much easier on video card). Drones - Overview: Drones (default option), Brackets: Blank. This will show ONLY drones--handy for frigates.
[img]http://www.eugee.info/eve/overview/05.jpg[/img]
Now that you're overview is all set up, you'll probably find things you would like to tweak. For instance maybe your job in a fleet engagement is to kill frigates. You could set up a filter to only show Frigates (I'd start with the PVP filter and remove non-frigates from Types > Ships) and then decide what bracket profile to show (I'd probably show all brackets unless the fight is huge, then No Ships). I hope this was all helpful, enjoy!
[b]Closing Tips:[/b] [list][*]Once your overview is set up the way you're happy with, choose EXPORT and save your settings. That way if you should mess them up later, you can just import your old settings and be good as new! [*]If you can't figure out what something is space is classified as, just right click a tab and load the Default > ALL profile; now you can right click the object to figure out what it is. Remember to reload the correct profile for that tab afterward! [*]Remember the basics: Appearance, Columns, Ships, and Misc are global settings, you only configure them once, for all profiles. Filter is what you are actually saving in a profile. Overview Tabs is the same as right clicking a tab and loading overview/bracket profiles. [*]Appearance always displays the FIRST match that is checked. So if a pilot is in your corp, an outlaw, and has a bounty, with these settings they will have a corp icon, and alliance background. [*]Filters will only display an object whose Type & State(s) are all checked. On the PVP filter, if an alliance pilot (unchecked) in a battleship (checked) is an outlaw (checked), they will not show up on your overview, because not all the Types/States are checked.[/list]