Fleets, corporations and alliances

New Citizens Q&A
1

Hi, as always I get a ton of (maybe stupid) questions about this beautiful but terrifing game.

I’m just playing since 8 days and mostly I’m doing ARC missions alone. In this initial phase I only want to play PvE, because I’m not ready to play against more skilled, real people. Eve is a harsh world and I’m too weak for now. So:

1 - what is a fleet?

2 - what is a corporation?

3 - what is an alliance?

4 - what’s the difference between one and the other?

5 - fleets, corporations and alliances are PvP only? Is there any possibility to avoid real people for the moment and at the same time joining a fleet, a corp or an alliance or PvE is esclusively based on playing as a lone wolf?

2

Hi Corvus. I’ll answer your questions one at a time:

1 - what is a fleet?

A fleet is a group of players who have formed up temporally with a specific aim in space. This could be as they want to do a mission together or go out looking for combat. Normally fleets last for as long as they are needed whether it’s a few minutes, or several hours. They allow some options like the fleet commander can warp everyone under their command in one go, or you can broadcast to the rest of the fleet that you need assistance.

2 - what is a corporation?

A corporation is a more long term collection of players. Normally people join together in corporation with like minded other individuals though of course this isn’t a requirement. Corporations can have assets in space, as well as shared hangar spaces and wallets in stations/structures. Please be aware due to how Eve works you always have to be in a corporation, you will always default to an NPC corporation, called this as they are ran by the game, but everyone else you see in it or in the ingame corp channel, are other players.

3 - what is an alliance?

An alliance is a group of corporations, the extra benefit is they can start to claim space out in the lawless areas of new eden. Alliances can number into the thousands of players.

4 - what’s the difference between one and the other?

See above :slight_smile:

5 - fleets, corporations and alliances are PvP only? Is there any possibility to avoid real people for the moment and at the same time joining a fleet, a corp or an alliance or PvE is exclusively based on playing as a lone wolf?

Not at all, lots of people form fleets and corps for any number of reasons, whether it’s to tackle harder missions or fight other players. Be aware though that there is no way to completely avoid other people, you will see them in space, buy from and sell to them on the market, and so on. You can however stay in the NPC corp your entire career and do your best to ignore others, but I would give other players a chance, it’s a multiplayer game for a reason :slight_smile:

3 Likes
3

First, thanks for your answer.

Of course I don’t want to avoid peole for ever. Simply I don’t want to confront myself NOW with skilled players who will destroy me forcing to start all over again.
I already have lost my ship three times since I begin to play, and I don’t have much resources by now. I need to grew up, stay in High Sec and win easy against NPCs to make ISK. This is the reason for which I want to play only PvE at the moment.

So ok, I understand what are fleets, corps and alliances. If I understood correctly between these, corps are the only one I can join remaining in PvE, as fleets and alliances are made by real people, right?

The question is: how can I distinguish a NPC corp from a real people corp?

4

All corps you can choose to join (with the exception of the milita corps) are run by players. Just because they are run by players though doesn’t mean they are into combat, there are plenty of mission running/incursion/industry corps out there.

You can tell that a corporation is an npc corporation as they will show as a member of one of the main factions, such as the Republic Military School (which you are in) is part of the Minmatar Republic.

1 Like
5

Thank you again, now everything is clearer for me :slight_smile:

6

  1. People form fleets in order to get a group of ships organized. The game has a standings system (look in the People and Places app in-game), and you can set others as red, neutral, or blue, and they’ll get this color tag attached to their name and their ship. Everyone in your fleet will get a purple tag. Everyone in the fleet will automatically join the fleet channel, and the channel it can be voice-comms instead of text. The fleet commander (a player) can organize the fleet into wings, and members of the fleet have the ability to see each other’s shields and armor (health bars). Just makes it easier to act together, coordinated, during a fight or other activity (mining, exploration, missions, etc.).

  2. People join player corporations in order to form longer-lasting friendships with other people who are interested in the same goals in-game. The advantage of a corporation is that the CEO and Directors will very likely have a plan for the corporation to accomplish something, and will very likely have goals and tasks and organize fleets for you to participate in. This game doesn’t have quests to move you along, you have to either come up with your own goals in the game, or participate in the goals of a corporation. Just like with the fleet, a corporation has its own chat channel, and also provides other niceties: shared hangar space where the CEO / Directors put ships and modules for people to use, a corporation wallet that can accumulate taxes or contributions and then be used to pay for ship replacements, etc. Usually player corporations also have an associated internet forum where further communication and interaction can take place, but the CEO and Directors will have to set that up, as it’s not provided by the game.

  3. Alliances are groups of corporations, and corporations band together in order to accomplish larger goals. Typically this is done in 0.0 space in order to have enough people to conquer a large section of the map, and have enough resources to field the large capital ships that are required for the wars. For high-sec, alliances are often formed as a defense against wars; more people to fight if someone declares war, and also the fees for declaring war are higher.

So these are constructs within the game that make it easier for people to interact and play together. They are very similar to groups, guilds, and guild alliances that you may see in other MMO’s. You can join and leave at will, and also the fleet commander or CEO / Directors can kick you if you misbehave.

If you are NOT within a player corporation, because of a limitation with the way the game keeps its database of accounts and players, the game will automatically place you in an NPC corporation. But an NPC corporation doesn’t provide any benefits because it doesn’t have CEO / Directors / players to organize events; you just get a chat channel to talk to all the other solo players who have been dumped into the same NPC corp as you.

7

If you stay in an NPC corp, be aware you have to pay 11% tax of your ratting income. Corporations set their own tax rate which is likely to be less.

8

As you’ve noticed, Eve is a complex game with a steep learning curve. By far the best way to learn is by joining a corporation that specializes in mentoring new players. One example: https://www.eveuniversity.org/

If you haven’t already done so, complete the career missions: https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Career_Agents

and the Sisters of Eve Epic Arc: https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/The_Blood-Stained_Stars

You’re going to have lots of questions - whether you ask them in chat or here on the forums they will be answered by other players!

9

You can do your best to avoid contact with others and be quite successful, but you cannot expect to be able to play completely without the influence of others on your plans. EvE is a single shard sandbox where you are free to interfere with others and they are free to do the same to you within the rules.

If you find it it’s getting too hard or you start to feel burned out, drop me a line and i’ll be happy to help out. I have enjoyed being in many corps / alliance including my current corp, but I play almost completely solo and have a great time. That said I do PvP, but many of the same rules apply.

10

Thank you.
Let me explain my point: I have anything against PvP and maybe in future I will join a PvP corp or alliance, but I began to play 8 days ago, so too early, I’m too weak, I loose also against NPC pirates in rogue nests (lost tree ships in 8 days), so for now I don’t want to play against real, skilled people that would wipe me away in a flash. For the moment I enjoy PvE, understand the complexity of the game, the differences between all the stuff (this turret or that? Antimatter or Plutonium? Active shield or passive? Booster, extender or hardener and why? And so forth).
Also, I don’t have much time for playing, so I don’t want to get involved with corps or alliances that would ask me to make this or that when I can’t. I prefer do a couple of missions here and there if I have ten minutes, or enjoy trying different equipment in simulation mode. You now, take my time, as I want, when I want.

And about this:

1 - is it possible to continue doing PvE if you’re part of a corp or alliance?
2 - is it possible to have a personal ship, equipped as you like or do you have to use alliance ships that others decided how to equip?

11

It is absolutely possible to be a member of a corporation and still play casually - doing whatever you enjoy. Some PVP corporations require a minimum level of participation to remain a member but most highsec corps are little more than social groups.

You will pay a tax on bounties to your corporation (usually a lot less than you are currently paying to your NPC corp). Most corporations will also have a loot/salvage buyback program where they offer you convenience in exchange for a small markup on the loot.

Some will have organized events where new players can participate in fleets running level 4 missions - orbit a battleship in your frigate and shoot small stuff. The Angel Extravaganza bonus room is a pretty amazing place when you are a month or two old!

You will fit and fly your own ship for any PVE activity. Fleet Commanders prefer that you fly a doctrine ship in PVP fleets - it makes their life a lot easier because they know the capability of those ships. Also, most alliance offer a ship replacement program (SRP) for doctrine ships. Insure them and you can actually make ISK when they blow up!

12

Yes and no.

Corporations are like “guilds” in other games in the sense that they are basically groups of players with a shared interest and/or pool resources together.
Depending on the Corporation you join, you can be free to do anything you wish to do with minimal investment into the Corp itself.
Or you can be a part of a group that has specific operations that you can/should/must be a part of.

However, unlike “guilds” in other games Corporations are, by default, competitive. Other Corporations (and Alliances) can unilaterally (see: non-consensually) “declare war” on another Corporation/Alliance where both sides can then shoot at each other with impunity.

Most Corporations are not that good as people tend to create them without considering this risk. So they often “crumble” in the face of a war.
Good Corporations will actually give you a “crash course” in combat (either in taking part or avoiding it) and incorporate you into their tactics for operating under a war.

A Corporation/Alliance can provide you with pre-fit ships and/or show ship fittings to their member players (for whatever situation or tactic), but you should always have your own ship(s) for your own purposes.

I should note that you should take a moment to listen to the older, more experienced players around you when it comes to ship fitting though. Odds are, they know how to optimize your ship for what you wish to do better than you do.

I personally stuck with recommended fits when I was a nubbin until I got a better sense of ship fitting. After that, I began to make my own modifications to my ship. :slight_smile:

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I should also note that it is best to look at your ship as something that is, in some sense, “disposable.” Despite your relative youth in the game and low resources, the odds that your ship will blow up is quite high.

This is why joining up with older and more experienced players can be quite advantageous.
If you are willing to fill a role for them (and/or die trying), they can potentially supply you with a buttload of cheapo ships that you can use to help them.

And yes… even as a week-old newbie, you CAN assist and be pivotal in both PvE or PvP encounters. You simply need to learn how and in what ways you can be helpful.

2 Likes
13

Ok, thanks for the tips, they’ll be helpful for me.

14

This really depends on what you think PVP is.

I have started in WoW, and I have quickly learned that PVPers there are usually a bunch of immature kids, they laugh at your attempts to learn PVP in battlegrounds and so on. They usually don’t need you, they don’t WANT you to be in their group, because you, as a newbie, slow them down and kill their performance (it’s short sighted but this is how it goes).

In EVE, we NEED you. Fights are asymmetrical, there is no battleground with 20 fixed players. If a new player does not join a fleet because he thinks he is new and not needed, it will be one ship less for that fleet - and it could be precisely that ship, YOUR ship that might’ve changed the outcome of the battle. This is why no one shoos away newbies from fleets (with few exceptions like capital fleet or black ops) and people typically do their best to explain to newbies what’s going on. And most importantly, your expected bad performance most likely does not kill the fleet. Yes you might lose a ship, but quite often it will be reimbursed by your corporation/alliance or your corp might already have some ships ready for you.

Also, in fleets you don’t fly alone, you have your fleetmates with you, and they are often flying against the similar mix of veterans and newbies :slight_smile:

About your questions:

I don’t know a single alliance that would disallow their members to rat (shoot NPC piRATes) or mine. Typically a PVP alliance looks at the PVE activity as something to generate money for their members, with a silent hope that said money would be spend at least partially towards buying PVP ships. Specifically in nullsec, mining and ratting in systems increase their defensive index, which means the more people PVE in their own nullsec systems, the harder is to conquer those systems.

For PVE, you can do whatever you wish, sometimes alliance requires some modules for capital ships but you’re far from it. For PVP, usually DPS and logi (healer) ships are supposed to be of certain type and fit and there is a good reason for it which I can happily discuss at some point. However DPS and logi are not the only roles in the fleet and you can happily come in a random PVP fitted frigate or even a destroyer to many fleets. Just follow the basic fitting logic and it would work.

Also, since you like doing simulations, let me show you our lord and saviour Pyfa (download here)

(Btw good questions, keep asking, the only stupid question is the question that is never asked :wink: )

15

Nothing is stupid if you don’t know, how would anyone learn. We all stupid at one point… Most of us still are :parrotdad:

You don’t have to go looking to fight other players. I have maybe a year under my belt, and I haven’t done any PvP. I’m very happy doing exploration scanning and hacking, small combat sites, mining, building equipment, and personal space trucking.

PvP is very exciting, but just not my thing, but most like it.

16

In my opinion, you’re never ‘too new’ to PVP.

You can be new and still get out there, be it from joining fleets or going out alone. Each time you do get out there, you gain new experience and learn from mistakes. Part of pvp is having the skills of course, but it’s also having experience and learning what to do in different situations; something that is best learned by getting your feet wet and your ships dirty.

That said however, If all you want to do is just play at the PvE side of things, then go for it. That’s the great thing about the game, you have so many paths you can choose. If you are looking into corps and alliances, just make sure that the corp/alliance also fit what you are looking for; there is a lot of PvE/Industrial corps and alliances out there! :slightly_smiling_face:

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17

If you dont have an account yet, youre too new for PVP.

18

Yes, you won’t be prepared for PvP without training PvP, thus you can’t be too new for PvP. Quite everybody’s first fights are just a disaster, no matter how “old”.

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19

Not at all, it just means you’d need to first create your account, login, and then shoot things. :wink:

I know my first fights were horrible, but yes, you learn from those mistakes and then try again. The only thing I suggest if you want to give it a shot is to use cheap ships when starting out, like frigates so that the cost of a loss isn’t that great.

Most importantly, of course, is to have fun! :slight_smile:

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20

Agreed,
you pick up the knack of PvP just like anything else in eve.

Pretty much regardless of age you’re going to get your arse kicked the first couple of times so in that regard a day 1 newbro and a 5year bear braking bad are on level ground.
IMO PvP will teach you how to eve just as well if not better than pve.

Assuming you can afford the losses