Personally for me it's whoever started the wing or if by mutual consent (Player 3 says ooh look an Anaconda and players 1/2 reply roger) it can be changed. Many use voice comms to decide.
Some wings deliberately stay split up in combat taking on 3 different ships unless 1 players shields fail and everyone rallies round to help them escape or win. It kinda depends on what you made the wing to do.
When helping new players I pretty much always keep an eye on and follow them.
In summary I don't think there really is an etiquette so to speak
I hardly use wings at the moment (most of my friends are in other games and I've been exploring since December), I do use them heavily for Fuel Rat operations though where the client is always the leader should we happen to escort them to a station or whatever else after saving them.
Some wings deliberately stay split up in combat taking on 3 different ships unless 1 players shields fail and everyone rallies round to help them escape or win. It kinda depends on what you made the wing to do.
When helping new players I pretty much always keep an eye on and follow them.
In summary I don't think there really is an etiquette so to speak
I hardly use wings at the moment (most of my friends are in other games and I've been exploring since December), I do use them heavily for Fuel Rat operations though where the client is always the leader should we happen to escort them to a station or whatever else after saving them.
In our group we go with something similar, but we alternate based on who has the best ship in the wing, who has the best scanners etc. Generally we organise ourselves into a loose gaggle and hunt as a pack. One ship (with the longest range scanners and KWS) is responsible for spotting and scanning, one ship is the sucker punch ship and lets the first volley fly which highlights the target purple for all others in the wing. The third ship is usually a big hitter and protects the wing as well as dropping the shields or powerplant of the target. However, if a player in the wing sees something that is a high value or high ranked option that hasn't been seen by the scanning ship, he/she will call it out and lead the way until the scanner can be brought to bear. It works quite smoothly and means nobody is out on their own getting a slap from some NPC clipper while others are off dancing with eagles.
The only etiquette problem we seem to suffer from, and I guess a lot of folk find it the same, is when you have multiple big ships in your wing and you all get in close, it is hard to see each other and often collision with friendlies happens. Its never hard enough to cause any real damage, but it can be annoying when you have just got your double plasma life taker lined up and your mate in his anaconda pushes the nose of your ship up from underneath!
The only etiquette problem we seem to suffer from, and I guess a lot of folk find it the same, is when you have multiple big ships in your wing and you all get in close, it is hard to see each other and often collision with friendlies happens. Its never hard enough to cause any real damage, but it can be annoying when you have just got your double plasma life taker lined up and your mate in his anaconda pushes the nose of your ship up from underneath!
