EVE General Discussion

I’ve been playing EvE for a couple of months or so. I never played an MMO before (20 years of casual PC and console games). EvE, quite simply, blew my mind. I was hooked within 5 hours of playing. I enjoy every bit of the steep learning curve and I’m thrilled to know that it’ll not end.

My main has been mining for ISK almost from day one (steady but boring ISK) and is now skilling into a covop to do scouting/exploration/bomber runs in low/null. A second char has been doing missions/exploration and combat sites in a drone bunny (getting into the Myrm tomorrow). I'll continue to focus this char on drones. I’m am thinking of taking it to Low/Null sec. Looking for better return and some thrills.

I have no PvP experience at all. But am definitely interested. I believe that with some “tweaks” both chars could contribute to fleet PvP.

With this bit of background, here are my thoughts and questions:
What size of corp?
I’m intuitively drawn to smallish but stable and close knit group (50-100) with a higher ratio of experienced pilots to noobs (like me ;-)

Single purpose or multi-purpose corp?
Should I look for a single purpose corp(e.g. only PvP or PvE) and do the rest of my stuff solo? Or can I realistically find smallish corps that do more than just one thing?

What makes a good corp great?
How do I find out? What are the criteria – from your experience? What worked for you?

Why should they let a noob in?
I’m obviously a noob. My playtime is not limitless (RL comes first). Will better corps of the type and quality I described be interested at all? If so, what are they looking for in new players? What value can a new player bring?

I guess I could join one and then switch if it does not work. But I prefer to do my homework hoping to remain with the same corp/group of people for an extended period of time. I like the idea of a long term commitment.

Or maybe I'm asking the wrong questions? Thank you for your feedback!

this could be the start of something amazing, a new interstellar galactic corp upon which the foundations of new sec (new null sec) will be built!

there are many corps that recruit new players, although they try to limit how many rookies they recruit at once, simply to keep everyone sane and so they rookies receive proper attention. Many of these are great corps. Don't settle because you perceive your value to be low.

You know you're in a good corp when you want to log onto voice comms with them. I quit my last corp once i realized that i absolutely hated listening to them in teamspeak (like literally the CEO-ship was transferring to a guy i had kept muted on TS for over a month).

single vs multi-purpose really depends on the playstyle you seek, and weather you're joining a corp to accomplish specific ingame goals, or if you simply want guidance and a social community. As a general rule, hisec corps tend to be less focused, while corps in other areas are more focused, as some amount of focus and cohesion are a requirement of survival. However, there are so many exceptions that its not much of a rule. There are plenty of nullsec corps that allow their members to explore various gameplay paths, but they still maintain high levels of organization out of necessity. Its never so cut and dried.

lastly, watch out for mining corps that call themselves industrial corps. Mining ops can be a good time and all, but its not industry. They shuttle you towards mining skills, but never give you the knowledge or means to actually break into industry and understand it.

Thank your for the advice. Mining corp is not my idea of fun ;-)

But I see the value of joining a focused low sec/null sec corp and why this discipline is needed.

How do one find some of those great corps? Should I simply go over to the recruiting section of the forum?

generally I'd advise going to a larger more developed corp first.

While there are a lot of small corps that will take you its a mixed bag, sometimes their good active guys that will get you into the game, other times they'll not be that active and will leave you to your own devises.

Yes a larger corp will be less social but it gives you a position to get good at the game both in terms of SP and personal skill, then you can even think of building a corp with your friends.

Great corps have a few things in common.

An active and focused leadership team. They have goals for the corps and care what the members think. They are active, set up systems to help new players and work on achieving the goals.

Great corps contain members that want to be part of a group and aid each other and the leadership achieve the corps goals.

They are almost always PVP corps. Eve uni is an obvious exception but there are others including many WH corps.

The members between them have a vast array of eve knowledge and can help other with activities that are not the corps focus but are needed to make things run smoothly or to make isk (logistics/ POS running/ isk making guides).

Active members in your TZ.

The part about voice comms is so true it requires repeating. Eve is a social game, no matter how hard you win or fail. That's actually not that important to enjoying Eve. My less-then-stellar killboard is proof of this, haha.

I've been CEO too long to answer objectively. Most of my peers seem to recommend a "benign dictatorship", in which you have a couple of dudes calling the shots, but with very close consideration for the needs and desires of it's members. It's up to you how much authority over your activities you can manage, but the "mining isn't industry" example speaks for itself. Don't let yourself get milked. That's a matter of keeping contacts outside of your corp too. Always compare notes with fellow students, new capsuleers!

I get mild verbal abuse from my corp when I fail to clearly communicate goals and the motivations behind them. People that bear titles such as "Fleet Commander", "Recruitment Agent" or "Production Manager" should feel empowered and systems need to be in place to meet their needs. New members should know who to turn to for specific things. We've always accomplished greater feats when key members are willing to bring their best ships and conduct to a fleet. It's a bad sign if veteran members turn indifferent.

Read Kimmi's reply again.

:10bux: and a relatively low tolerance for badposting.

There is no way for anyone to tell you what you would think is a great corp sadly, especially not when every single corp can be so extremely different as they are in EVE. Its hard to find two that are "the same".
And you also have to consider that what some things makes it a great corp, others will laugh at and say that it (word that would not get past the forum filter)

Maybe they will have the same basic ideas and goals, but in the long run thats what they will have in common.

Now if a "great" corp will accept a new player?
In many cases yes!
Even the corporations that have a minimum SP requirement are often willing to accept a new player if they are polite, show potential, or simply have a good attitude and manage to flatter the recruiters enough

But well.. almost mandatory for me to post this in every thread i come across that has questions related to joining a corporation.
Its a guide that will hopefully help you figure out where to look, what to look for, what to say and what to avoid.

Good luck