Science & Industry

I have been around in mostly pvp focused corps and not actually been apart of an sucssful indy corp. but id like to make an corp that specialize in production. I want it to be a corp with more than one person. it should be bsed on every one contribuiting in one way or another. Primary goal for corp is to be able to build up from scratch. aquiering blueprings and making the isk on a corp level without basing it on donations from people in corp. it should also be rewarding for people to do stuff for the corp.

How would you build it up?

How would you organize it?

etc etc

Nyreanya covered all the important points, but I'd agree strongly with the ones above. As the CEO of any corp you have to expect to be doing most of the work to make the corp money. What this means is that you will lose money on a personal level.

Make the decision beforehand as to whether you think that is good time/isk spent or not.


Also - recruiting for an industry/mining/mission running corp makes you a target, expect that and have plans for it, as you say you've been in PVP corps so will likely be able to respond in a productive way to those threats, just make sure your members know what you plan to do if such an event occurs.

You gotta have op's. PVP focused corps have their roams, gangs, incursions, wars, etc. This is where most of the socialization comes from in many corps, so if you want activity you need to get people together. Mining ops are dull as the process of mining is for some is also the most social aspect of an indy corp. Its also going to be how most of your new players will be making most of their isk. Running 3 or more ops a week would be best IMO. You'll also need at least one max/near max orca booster to make it worth their time.

Things that would draw me to an indy corp would be.

1. Ore/mineral buying and selling program
2. Hauling services (both offered and paid to haul).
3. BPC's (so you don't need to hand out bpo's) for cheap.
4. Cheap researched bpo's should be available at some price, but not insane jita prices.
5. A message board where guides, research, spreadsheets, etc are available.
6. As well as the message board researched and tested information on what and how members can or should be doing to increasing profits (best PI setups to do, optimal skill training for specific skill focues, invention, etc).
7. Lowsec/wh/null access for mining, PI, etc.
8. POCO's setup with 5% export 0% import tax.
9. Avability to setup a POS. Your ability to not properly setup/secure a POS shouldn't affect a players need for one.
10. Members who actually want to work together to handle large projects, market manipulation, research, etc.
11. In an alliance that has the capabilities to deal with wardecs. Wars kill off non-alt indy corps, and being connected with a group of pvp players helps.

This statement equates industry with miners. Which it shouldn't. They're separate professions that are attracted by separate activities. That many people happen to do both is more due to the overlap of the things that attract them, or (sadly more often) a misunderstanding in how to value materials used.

Organized corp events, such as mining ops. Even if you aren't specifically a mining specialized corp, doing weekly events as a group will help everyone work as a team and not feel like random strangers that happen to share a corp channel.

Offer your corp members opportunities, not gifts or punishments. An intrinsically motivated corp member will be much happier doing their job than someone who has to be bribed to do it, or threatened to do it. Don't tell a corp member he/she HAS to train skill X, merely point out the benefits that having skill X would have and leave them to decide what to train. If they decide to train it, they'll be happier for having made that decision themselves. If they decide against training that skill, they probably wouldn't have enjoyed doing the activity related to that skill anyway.

Be fair and transparent. If you charge your corp members for things (like a corp tax) give them an idea of where that ISK goes. You'll inspire a great deal more loyalty if they know they can trust you.

Be consistent in your enforcement of corporation rules and make those rules clear to your members.

Set goals, both short term and long. Solicit feedback and opinions from your corp members. Even if you, the CEO, reserve the right to make the final decision, treating your corp members like a panel of advisers is not a bad thing. Not only will they feel more invested in the corporation for having voiced their opinion...one of they may actually bring up a superior alternative to your original plan that you simply didn't think of.

Once you reach 10 members, make use of the official corporation forums that CCP provides and encourage your corp members to post there, or just setup one yourself. A corp forum is a good place for longer, more detailed discussions.

Google Docs is your friend, especially for mining ops.

Make sure your corporation has a theme or a goal to it. Corporations who say they do everything, tend to do nothing. By focusing on a few specific industrial tasks (Mining, manufacturing ammo, PI, region trading etc) you can not only organize the efforts of your corp members, you can recruit higher quality pilots who are more likely to be interested in the specific activities your corp is involved in.

Always keep in mind that an industrial player could do their job almost as effectively solo as they could as a member of your corp. If you want to retain corp members, offer them opportunities and/or an enjoyable social environment that they couldn't have if they were flying solo. If you charge your corp members a corporate tax, make sure they feel membership in your corp is worth it.

In regards to spies, either limit information and access to your corp members to where a spy in your ranks wouldn't be able to get any real useful information or do damage to your corporate assets... or be super paranoid and do full background checks on your members. If you recruit brand new players, you are more prone to spies, so acting in the first manner may be encouraged unless you personally know the recruit.

If you DO recruit new players, make sure you and your senior corp members are open, friendly and quick with advice and guidance. While brand new players won't be instantly useful right out of the gate, they can become some of your most loyal and active members once they get some baseline skills up.

If you recruit combat pilots into your corp for protection purposes, make sure you have things to keep them occupied and entertained when they aren't needed for corporate activities. Some are open to getting a few industrial skill points and joining your corp for economic activities. Others will refuse outright.

Always interview prospective members. Even if you want to have an open and loose recruitment policy, having that initial 1 on 1 conversation with a potential new member can give you a good feel on the nature of the pilot. During the interview, ask the pilot if they have any questions about your corporation. Ironically, you will learn more about a recruit by the nature of the questions they ask you than you will from the answers to questions you ask them.

If you operate in an area frequently, learn who the locals are. If you hop onto grid with a person you see all the time in local, a stray "o/" never hurts.

Make sure you have a plan to handle war decs and that your corp members know how the corp will respond to one. It will make it less likely for your corp members to scatter to the 4 winds in the event that you are declared on.

I hope this helps!

The single most important thing is to have goals. In pvp its to get into 0.0 or to be successful pirates or have great kb stats or become widley known for being leet etc.

Industry is not so easy....The obvious goal is for everyone to become rich but the problem is that this is far easier solo than trying to work on a group project.

There arnt really any industry jobs that allow for group effort, let alone any that benifit from it - the only thing that comes close is cap ship production - mining the minerals and making the components in house - but the miners get less isk thant hey would selling in jita and the profit from the cap sales is hardly enough compensation for 1 person - dividing it up turns it into nothing :/


The best thing would be for everyone to do their own thing but work toward improving corp assets/facilities that everyone can use for their own profit such as expensive bpos and pos labs etc.

Problem with THAT is how does everyone contribute? vouluntary contributions might bring in a bit soon after you ask for them but after a while will not be regular as ppl forget/decide they cant afford any more etc.

A required set fee or tax every month will be hated and you wont have any memebers
A required % feee every month will be impossible to enforce accuratly.


So since you cant keep a corp going with production, every "industrial" corp is essentially a mining/missioning corp with maybe a few perks like labs thrown in for personal use (funded by mining and missioning).


So you need miners....how to get and keep them? ops.....at first just do one a week at the weekend to ensure the maximum possible show up - once you have alot of members run several ops through the week at various times. If you hate mining like me then get someone else to run them but keep a close eye to make sure they are running them and dont just give up after a while.

100% agree with Teavan. While corp roles lack any granularity, and while Industry exists in its current form, it's always easier, more profitible, and more sensible to do it as a collection of individuals than as a corporate effort. Most industry corps are actually mining corps, social clubs, or roleplay.

This is it.

You want long term and short term goals that need to be constantly revisited and talked over with your corp player base. One of the best way to get people involved in an mining op is to have a stated reason for the op. We're helping "Harry" get his freighter built in this op.. We need (list materials) and set start and stop hour goals. Invite all to attend but do not punish those who can't make it. Long term goals will be more general and can be as simple as, "find a new alliance to join"... or find a "home in null sec." Remember that larger goals like these will probably need to be attacked by making smaller goals - or milestones to hit on the way to those goals. Post your goals where they can be seen by everyone.

Basically you want to get people involved... this means you will need to be involved and motivated even when it seems no one around you is. If you can get some good excited motivating lieutenants early on you will have an easier time keeping people.

Player retention is important but isn't going to completely save you corp alone. You will need to recruit.. people come and go some times leaving the game for good some times just taking time off and coming back. If you aren't growing you are shirking.

As a lead you will have to do things that will sap nearly all your free play time.. like communication with your leadership, addressing player drama, helping corp mates who are in a pinch, or recruiting.


Success doesn't just happen .. you have to get out and push easpecially at first.

Yea, we tried it several times, but running something as pure corp projects is really hard. Its hard to determine who does what etc. Its hard to share the profit, its hard to manage it.

So we dropped it and we are now changed into joint ventures of few people from corp. We talk abot it, we find something we could manufacture/react/whatever and than we calculate how much ISK we gonna need. And than we ask members who wanna go into it. ITs usually 2-4 people involved in different projects.

Me as CEO iam trying to help all of them, and iam involved in few of them myself. This is probably the easiest way i found out ... which can be actually controlled and managed.

But yea, the main reason is probably that we are primary mining corp, with doing industrial as part-time job to increase profits and doing something else for a change .... because you cant be miner forever :)

So start there. An industrial corporation can provide a Blueprint Library for its members to Copy from at Starbase Lab Research Slots. (Setup a Lab Access Wallet & Research Hangar for anyone to use to access the labs)

Beyond the Copy slots, you can provide ME/TE slots for members to either research their own BPOs or use a Research slot to help develop the BPO Library (in the latter case make it free to do). You can even make the Invention slots free (every bit helps right).

Choose a final moon product (like Fullerides or Phenolic Composites) and the starbase can cover its fuel cost and create isk flow to provide for more blueprints.

A corporation can also bring different perspective and deconflict products. An expert in one area of industry can lend advice to someone just starting out. Larger complex products (say T2 ships or Capitals) can have multiple people feeding into the larger production effort, reducing the amount of time (could be done with alts).

Alts allow us as a player to coordinate industry in our brains, on our own. This however means that we are also limited by the time we get to play. Having a few other players around to help take care of the task spreads out the common workloads and should help everyone be more efficient.

Yes the tools CCP has provided us suck. But there are still reasons to develop industrial corporations.