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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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Corporation hunting
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Griad Galilei
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2012-03-29 00:21:08 UTC
Would like to ask for opinions involving corporations, mainly what to look for or to avoid. General experiences and empirical evidence are welcome.
gfldex
#2 - 2012-03-29 00:57:32 UTC
Avoid corps that pretend to be active but can't provide evidence there of (read: they don't got a killboard). I made the observation that space rich CEOs are much more relaxed then those that reach into the corp wallet when nobody is looking. Talk to them. If they don't got a history in game and just started their little corp with some really really cool RL friends close the convo right away. They are wanna-be bosses who believe that experience is for underlings.

Avoid the Goons, they will just scam you.

Anyway, your first corp will most likely not be your best. If you login and be bored just 10 minutes later look somewhere else for more activity.

If you take all the sand out of the box, only the cat poo will remain.
Griad Galilei
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#3 - 2012-03-29 04:12:28 UTC
ty for your reply, though I'm not sure what 'space rich' means. I shall commit it to memory nonetheless.
Petrus Blackshell
Rifterlings
#4 - 2012-03-29 07:15:43 UTC
"Space rich" = doesn't run the corp for his own personal profit. Independently wealthy.

I resent the blanket statement about RL friends starting a corp, though. Rifterlings is led by myself and a RL friend, but I don't think we can be described as "wanna-be bosses". It's more of an administrator and mentor role that is shared in order to not make being a CEO a full time job.

I would definitely advise staying away from corps with grandiose plans, a la "we will get started in hisec but then move out to be an awesome 0.0 PvP corp". Those never work (and they draw spies).

Also, pay attention to the way they conduct recruitment. Advertising in local? Bad sign. No review process? Very bad sign. Asking for a deposit? It's a scam. They don't try to get to know you? Another bad sign.

You're picking a group of space-nerds to nerd it up with. Be picky! Smile

Accidentally The Whole Frigate - For-newbies blog (currently on pause)
Megos Adriano
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#5 - 2012-03-29 13:01:55 UTC
The biggest thing to avoid in my opinion:

A corp that doesn't extend it's trust to you.

Some corps are looking for members to generate income. Some corps, however, are looking for participants.

EVE is a social game and while you can do almost anything solo (provided you have enough accounts...), for the most part you're going to reach a point where you need to be in a group in order to do something. And you're going to need some level of "access" within the group. Thus, a corp that doesn't extend it's trust to you will only limit your play experience by not granting you the level of "access" that you need. Now I'm not saying a corp should hand it's wallet and POS over to you as soon as you join. I'm just saying there are safe ways for them to grant you certain levels of access so that you can be an actual participant, and not a mineral/mission drone.

For example: On one of my original characters back a few years ago, I wanted to get into industry. I had a couple BPOs I needed to research. I joined an Indy corp and after a week of mining (and donating all the ore to them...) I asked about using the POS. I get rebuffed pretty harshly for it. They said "in time, we have to be careful for spies and thieves." - but not as nice. 2 months later I was still using public slots in low-sec. I didn't last much past the 2 month mark there.

So: Look for a corp that's willing to invest at least a basic level of trust in you.

Another thing to look for is this: You join corp and you're in Corp Chat now. There's a few people online. In a short amount of time, you see this on your screen:

o/ Hey there!
o7 Hey new member!
Hey (new member), want to come out and run some missions with us? We're in xx system.

vs:

Silence.
You say hello and ask what everyone is up to.
The response: "Missions. BRB."

Not a good sign. Look for a corp that, again, promotes active participation and group play. Avoid fractured, mercantile, untrusting "solo operative" corps.

And if you ever hit a wall and just can't find the right corp for you, you can always hit up EVE University. They take some effort to get into, but it's well worth it.

And boom goes the dynamite.
Lost Greybeard
Drunken Yordles
#6 - 2012-03-29 21:22:52 UTC
Generally, you'll want to find a corp with similar interests to you, and the same level of specificity.

If you're fine on your own and just want other people who can fill in the gaps in your expertise (manufacturing, etc), or you just want people to chat with, maybe look for a generalist corp. But if you genuinely want to do small-gang pvp or run L4s in a group, look for a corp exclusively or near-exclusively dedicated to that.

Alternately, you can just look for a really big corp and hope that there will be 5 or 10 folks that share your interest and play-times.

Most of the rest is interpersonal stuff, judging whether you're being taken advantage of or ignored is kind of a personal call, some people are just fine with a level of interaction that others find offensive.



Summary: Same answer as for basically anything in-game-- you find a good corp by trying a few and getting it wrong a couple times.
Deen Wispa
Sheriff.
Caldari Tactical Operations Command
#7 - 2012-03-29 22:03:56 UTC
Find a corp that's well managed. Corps can make or break your enjoyment with EVE.

I know folks that do nothing but corp hop for 2 years never really committing to a corp and always looking for greener pastures.

High Five. Yeah! C'est La Eve .
Ajita al Tchar
Doomheim
#8 - 2012-03-30 00:04:14 UTC
Petrus Blackshell wrote:

I would definitely advise staying away from corps with grandiose plans, a la "we will get started in hisec but then move out to be an awesome 0.0 PvP corp". Those never work (and they draw spies).


About a thousand times "yes"! Some of people who make statements like this will end up doing well, but the overwhelming majority of corps that "Currently do a bit of everything; planning on moving into 0.0 and eventually PvP'ing" suck and fold quickly. Especially in cases where the CEO is pretty new at the game in the first place, they often think they know how to run a corp already because they had a successful guild or w/e in their previous MMO of choice, but they don't understand how EVE and its corps work because they don't have much experience with EVE and being in corps. Realities are very different from any plans they might conceive.

Avoid corps that claim they are into everything, avoid corps that are small and not very established and trying to build something like "we will have an industrial wing to support the PvP wing, everyone can be in a group they like and everyone will profit!" because that usually doesn't work out. Specialist corps usually do much better. Also I would avoid corps that are just essentially a group of people where everyone does their own thing, basically where people are in that corp for no particular reason other than to sometimes chat (or often even not even that) and just "be in a corp" for the sake of it.

Hang out in public chats of corps if they have them. Look for active corps that are out and about doing stuff around where you live. Make sure whatever corps you're looking at have active people in your TZ if you want to hang around other people a lot. If a CEO or recruitment person appears to be lying about aspects of the corp based on what other people say, run. Don't pay people money to join their corps, either, it's probably a scam if they ask for money or "security deposits" or whatever.
My Neutral Toon
Doomheim
#9 - 2012-03-30 19:46:51 UTC
If any corp asks you for an Awoxing fee, its a trap.

...Can't. Tell. If ...Troll? Or Serious....

Butt Hurt about Harrasment? Read first GM post: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=88362&find=unread
Vimsy Vortis
Shoulda Checked Local
Break-A-Wish Foundation
#10 - 2012-03-30 20:19:31 UTC
Look up all corps you consider joining on battleclinic. If they don't have more kills than they do losses don't join them.
Petrus Blackshell
Rifterlings
#11 - 2012-03-30 20:22:32 UTC
Vimsy Vortis wrote:
Look up all corps you consider joining on battleclinic. If they don't have more kills than they do losses don't join them.

Hey, now. You're hurting my feelings.

Many newbie corps may have more losses than kills, particularly if they favor cheaply fit T1 ships as a way to learn combat. Basing any sort of judgment on one single raw killboard number is a bad idea. It does not tell the whole story.

Accidentally The Whole Frigate - For-newbies blog (currently on pause)
Tre Kantin
Primary. Sector.
#12 - 2012-03-30 20:28:33 UTC
Vimsy Vortis wrote:
Look up all corps you consider joining on battleclinic. If they don't have more kills than they do losses don't join them.



well that makes no sense, just because a corp doesn't pvp doesn't always make them bad or uneventful, your forgetting that a large portion of the eve community actually enjoys the drawls of sitting in belts lasers humming.

My advice, Figure out which career path you enjoy in eve, use the forums, the corp search feature, watch recruitment. Be picky about things, Grill the recruiter, as they should grill you back. Active member base is a tricky thing since we all have real lives
just because they have 100 members doesn't mean that the corp with 20 is less active.


good luck
Vimsy Vortis
Shoulda Checked Local
Break-A-Wish Foundation
#13 - 2012-03-31 19:40:21 UTC
Because a killboard covered in hulk or faction battleship losses won't tell you anything about whether or not that mining/missioning corp is a good place to be.
Kahega Amielden
Rifterlings
#14 - 2012-03-31 22:14:18 UTC
Vimsy Vortis wrote:
Because a killboard covered in hulk or faction battleship losses won't tell you anything about whether or not that mining/missioning corp is a good place to be.


That's not the same thing as what you posted at all.
Griad Galilei
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#15 - 2012-03-31 23:44:54 UTC
Thanks all for replies, bumping once more before abandoning. Went with E-uni for the time being, but afterwards will consult this thread once more. Fly safe.
Petrus Blackshell
Rifterlings
#16 - 2012-04-01 00:45:35 UTC
Vimsy Vortis wrote:
Because a killboard covered in hulk or faction battleship losses won't tell you anything about whether or not that mining/missioning corp is a good place to be.

No, but a board covered in frigate and cruiser losses but HAC and BC kills may look bad in the KDR, but is in fact a good KB.

Accidentally The Whole Frigate - For-newbies blog (currently on pause)