This introduction is meant to provide the basic information about faction warfare plexes. It is important to know the difference about plexes as these are the site of our glorious battles in the warzone.
There are five sizes of plexes within the faction warfare systems: Scout (previously called Novice), Small, Medium, Large, and Open plexes
Every Faction warfare plex is accessed by an acceleration gate EXCEPT the Open. In order to activate the acceleration gate you need to be within 100 km of the gate.
Note: Warping to zero can get you caught on the gate and slow your warp time, also more likely to get caught by pirates or enemy combatants. Warp to plexes at range unless you mean to land on someone at zero on the gate.
Inside of the FW plex there are two specific points in the plex that become important to understand one is the button, the other is the outpost/installation.
The button is the center point to which all capsuleers will land relative to the button after activating the acceleration gate to get inside.
Note: The above image shows both the button on the right and the outpost on the left, notice that the ship is orbiting the button.
Note: The above image is on the central outpost of a plex, players must stay within 30 km to keep the timer running. Notice the time is on the centre outpost. The image above shows the Gallente logo showing that is is currently 3 min on the gallente timer. Every minute you gain is a minute the enemy has to run the timer longer and vise versa.
Faction warfare plexes are in a deadspace pocket. Which limits warp in, and warp outs. All warp in to the deadspace pocket to a faction warfare plexes are in relation to the gate.
Why does this matter?
Hamort got caught by a dirty worm on the outside of the novice plex in Deven, Nuecius is coming to save Hamort. If Nuecius warps to Hamort from the fleet window at zero "0" he will land on zero at the gate. And Sabre who was on the inside of the plex can not warp directly to Hamort as he is also in the deadspace pocket.
Navy (NVY) plexes will only accept T1 and navy ships from the four major empires (Amarr, Gallente, Caldari, Minmatar). Advanced (ADV) plexes will accept all tiers of ships, including T2 and pirate ships. Triglavian and EdenCOM ships are only allowed in ADV plexes.