EVE New Citizens Q&A

You have probably heard people say, find a good player corp to join! Easier said than done right? What makes a good corp easily identifiable? How can you be sure you won't be scammed or killed? Surely, if a corp is good, they can pick and choose their recruits and thus have an SP requirement that will take a new player months to achieve?

The following advice relate specifically to finding a good PvP corp, by that I mean a good corp that will help you to realise your potential and does PvP as it's main activity.

First let me tackle the question on why so many corps have a major SP threshold. No matter how blingy or leet a corp may be, there are roles that a new player can fill. However, people are paranoid about recruiting a spy or corp thief. I've recruited both in the last couple of months and it isn't nice. It is difficult to guard against, it requires patience, monitoring and a hierarchical management of your resources to keep the important ones safe.

Most recruitment officers are too lazy to do that. So they slap a 20M SP requirement on their new recruits, knowing that most corp thieves and spies are freshly rolled. Ask yourself if they can't be arsed to take an interest in you for the first few weeks at least, are they a good corp for you? Personally, I think activity is a far better yardstick. I expect my recruits to simply be at least 6 weeks old, can fly one racial frigate decently and then I monitor their activity. They are expected to manage 10 kills a week for the first 4 weeks. That isn't hard, all you have to do is join fleet once or twice a week and mash the F1 button. But it is beyond the capabilities of most spies and thieves who just want to sit in station listening to comms while on their main elsewhere. Amazingly only 1 in 3 of my recruits achieve that criteria and it tends to be the young ones on their first account. You are valuable to us... those of us that want real fleet mates, not just numbers on the books or taxes in the corp account.

So when you see that tag on the corp advert saying "New Player Friendly", that doesn't mean they are desperate or useless, it could mean they actually take an interest.

The main place to start looking for a corp will be the "Alliance and Corporation Recruitment Center" on these forums. There are some flashy adverts, there and some dull looking ones. But all that really matters is that they provide the information you need to make a decision. You need to know the timezone they operate in, what general area of space (Hi, low, NPC Null or Sov Null), the language they speak, what ship types and activities they use/engage in and what criteria they expect of you. Logistics, local markets and resupply should be explained, especially in low or null sec. Do they use a third party communication tool eg. TeamSpeak. If they can't provide the answers to the obvious questions, they clearly aren't that bothered and it may well be a case of sink or swim when you get in their corp.

Don't take what they say as gospel. They should provide a link to their killboard. Check that they are getting kills in the Timezone you are interested in. Check the ages of their top pilots and cross reference them with Battleclinic and Eve-Kill if their Killboard doesn't go back far enough. Use the ingame 'Show Info -> Employment History' to check how long those pilots and especially their CEO, have been in corp. You are looking for an established corp that has been around for a while with experienced members who are both committed to their corp and can answer your questions.

Use DotLan, search for the corp and drill down into their statistics. You can dig out a lot from member movement. Don't assume a sudden drop indicates dissension, it could just be a purge of inactives. The important thing is long term sustained growth.

They should have a public channel, mentioned on their advert, get in it, ask questions of anything you have concerns about. Ask if they have their own forum (although it will probably be inaccessible until you join). Ask if anyone in corp has a blog. I for example, blog in our recruitment thread about my daily activities, rather than just typing "Bump" each day. Read the blog.

Yes it could take some time!

So you think you have found a good corp, but how can you be sure that they won't scam or kill you when you turn up at their base? Well the first thing you need to realise is that it isn't 'All or Nothing'. You don't have to commit everything to them in the first instance. Ask if they will accept collateral when moving stuff for you. If they don't you have to make a judgement call, but whether they accept collateral or not, don't give them all your stuff. Give them a couple of cheap ships and fittings the first time. Fly out to their area in a stabbed T1 frigate and then fly with them for a few days to see how you like it. Alternatively, buy the first ships and fittings off the local market when you arrive. As trust grows give them a second courier contract to move a bit more stuff. No matter how remote a corner of Eve you are going to, they will still be running regular resupply runs to and from one of the hi sec trade hubs. Use one of your alt slots to sit on the majority of your gear in that hub and set up courier contracts as you need them. If it doesn't work out or they kill or scam you out of a little bit, move back, write it off and start again.

Kind of a redundant thread with already 3 perfect guides by NC about how to find the corp that is right for you.