EVE Players (especially industrialists) -- what do you look for in a corporation

The Game Room
1

I’ve got a fairly high-end Orca/Obelisk pilot in EVE Online, and one of my friends has a near max level researcher/industrialist. In theory this is a great core around which to build a mining corporation, right?

What’s a recruiting method that would resonate with you as an EVE miner/hauler type? I’m not willing to bank on the “low/no tax” aspect. I’m thinking about pushing the idea that, as my Orca pilot gives an average 50% bonus to per-hour mining yields (not to mention the hauling advantages, or my absolutely perfect refinery skills), I’d be pulling a 15% cut of mining operational income for the corp and paying the rest back to the miners–this way, they make more than they would solo, but the corp gets a good base to feed the manufacturing end (which is where I’m making my own personal money/salary).

I’m also considering setting it up so that I would pay out every two weeks or every month in order to increase the ore I have sitting around and make extra money on clearing manufacturing jobs for profit (we have a plethora of researched BPOs, and I average 15-30% profit on buying minerals, manufacturing, and selling ships with a turnaround time of 1-2 weeks).

Is this a good business plan? How do other highsec mining corps handle this? To be honest, most I’ve seen or joined have a “everything/half goes to the corp, and the corp will give you some unspecified benefits at some future point” mindset, and I want to have a value proposition so I can attract the higher-end hulk pilots–the better the miner’s skills, the more benefit my Orca and foreman skills/mindlink give after all.

Advice? I’ve got enough in the bank that I’m turning a fair profit weekly, but the more minerals in the pipe, the more money I can make on manufacturing–and my PvP character is relying on this income. =P

2

Sounds interesting. I’ve been playing consistently, but casually for about 14 months now. I can fly a Hulk but have made most of my ISK playing poker and trading. I’m very interested in a PC corp though, most especially one that is run in a business-like manner and intended to make isk via the mechanisms you have described. Let me know if you are interested in collaborating, I’m pretty unattached in-game and am willing to relocate. Evemail Erasmus Starstrider.

BTW, it is the corporation management mechanics and fairly free-market sandbox nature of EVE that attracted me to it. I have a RL education in finance (BS from MSU) and would be interested in being an executive and heavy shareholder.

3

How you guys doing <evil leer> let me inroduce myself, I’m Director of Planetary Rape for Freelancers, Inc - a member of Mostly Harmless Alliance.

I am actually in 0.0 now, but spent most of the past 2 years mining hi sec. I have been a member of several hi sec based corps as an industrialist starting as an indy pilot, then hulk/skiff/mack pilot, then orca pilot and mining director, and now I fly any and all indy/ORE boats up to and including rorqual.

I have done the whole range from mine everything for myself, and sell for income [I really don’t manufacture, though I have built a few ships and assorted odds and ends] mine and give a percentage to the corp, to mine and give everything to the corp.

When I was mining director for Action Inc, I had a policy of taking apprentices and in exchange for books and the loan of the different ships as they train, they mined and turned everything over to the corp, and got paid a token amount - 100 K ISK an hour until they got into mining barges, 250 K ISK in mining barges and then once they got into exhumers, I took 25% of the ore/ice until they left the corp for a different corp. MSWAS who is no longer on the Dope was the manufacturing director for Core Tech MicroSystems [which morphed into Action Inc], and he was responsible for taking the mins and making stuff to sell to pay for corporate offices and skill books, the ice tended to get sold to buy ships.

Currently I run 3 mining characters and my main in the cap ship. 5days per week I mine for myself 2 days per week I mine for the corp. When I run a corp mining operation, we take 10% of whatever is mined, and I haul to the station or the rorqual and keep track, and give back 90% or we buy it for jita - 10%. The mins/ice goes into the corp ship replacement program, the ice goes to fuel the POSs and jump freighters.

In time of war, like we just had between Northern Coalition and Southern Coalition, I take my fleet to hi sec, and instead of me getting into a fighting ship, I mine and everything goes into the ship replacement program. Works for me.

Just as a random example, I mined roughly 1 bil ISK in ice [if we had sold the ice, instead of using it for jump freighter fuel] and another half bil in mins for the ship replacement program. Now the war is over, I am back to mining for myself, and also surveying the systems in 0.0 we have soverignity in for planets to plan for the new planetary mining that is opening up.

If I was a new pilot interested in doing the independent route, I would be interested in perhaps loaner ships to use while I built up the ISK to buy my own. Especially since the price of a hulk has crept up to over 150 mil ISK per … I really don’t mind the 10 or 15% taxes, every corp has taxes. I am not sure if I would mind having a ‘tithe’ of ore - I have had an assigned tithe of ore and ice on a previous corp and it was the equivalent to about 5 hours of mining a week. If you do make a required tithe, it is nice if there is a definite goal to it, perhaps build a ship or something for them once a year or something like that.

i would be very careful about joining with an alliance … we got screwed over by 2 alliances. Corps in alliances seem to have issues with other groups declaring war and being a royal pain in the ass =(

4

Well, it goes without saying that one must be careful with alliances. With new friends comes new enemies (usually). Also, you might want to be careful about announcing that you want to focus on industry. Many greifers or pirate corps see this as an open invitation to declare war on you. Then you’re not safe even in hi-sec. I would say, no matter what your vision for the corp, you should focus on mass recruiting. One of the attributes people look at when assessing a corporation, whether to join or war dec, is the size. Also, when your roster is bigger than those of the member corps of potential alliances, you will look more attractive to them.

Vertical integration removes many of the built in inefficiencies of having to sub-contract out or rely on markets for the activities not covered by the corp’s primary (or secondary, tertiary, ect.) foci. Plus, VI is a nice recuitment tool.

potential recruit: well, I’m really interested in [profession/skill/activity]
recruiter: great, we need that!

The nice thing about actual vertical integration is that the recruiter ISN’T just blowing smoke.

5

Fortunately for me, my main and my main’s corp are all PvP addicted, so declaring war on the corp on this character will result in a dozen guys with battleships and HACs farming killmails on your ass for jollies.