Turning “New Citizens Q&A” a bit on its head here… I am a veteran player, relatively recently returned from a hiatus, and am looking to reboot/restart my old corporation as a PvP-centric faction warfare newbie-friendly corp. I am well aware of the mechanics of doing that, and have all the logistical resources available, but I’m not sure what new players actually need.
So, since I’m an out-of-touch crusty bittervet, and this place is frequented by both new players and those who are familiar with new players’ needs, what should I make sure to account for – given the objective of growing a faction warfare PvP community?
Materially: Loose ships/fittings? Ready-to-go ships? Skillbooks? Import services from major trade hubs? ISK stipends?
Non-materially: Guides/tutorials (on PvP, FW, skills, etc)? Explicit instructions or long-term ops?
A good overview.
Basics of fw: complex, sentry gun, citadel, and system vulnerability mechanics.
An objective, short term and long term for corp, and for individuals.
Consistent presence, even if in a certain time zone.
Not losing ships for dumb reasons. Learning from mistakes. Not minding how often you have to repeat yourself.
I should of put a semi colon after that sentence. it’s really tripping over the same foot that makes it awful instead of funny. Good luck and fly well.
For fleets and events some prefit ships are great, but can also be nice to have some stacks of meta mods around to play around with other fits that the new players might want to create. And I think having some courier contract options helps here too.
Might want to have a dscan competition, have everyone hold on a gate, you jump into system and go hide at a celestial, then have everyone jump in and try to find you. last one there gets blown up, and keep going till only one person is left.
Or jettison a few ships in your system to give some incentive to learn how to combat probe, and of course someone else might find it first.
one of the best things I ever did as a new player was to have a bunch of 1v1s with other corp mates. Having the structured 1v1 gave a great chance to practice things, and then on top of that you could talk with the other person and figure out what happened in the fight. That said I have no idea how that interacts with FW standings.
the practices listed here make the difference between a corp and jailbait glorified punching bag for bored vets … actually that doesn’t sound any better
edit: you can ignore anything written in there about watchlists, thats gone.
The new duel timers getting auto renewed helps avoid any of that. Having corp friendly fire on is a must. Some great moments came out of that. Also helps newbros, as they often shoot corpies on accident all the time.
When I first started, I found it helpful when my first corp had ship replacement for the wardecs, training material we had to read on and then activities, classes, or lectures, we all sat thru and did with the CEO. He literally taught us how to tackle, scout, scan, on and on… I thought this was a good environment and I indulged. Keeping ship classes low, inexpensive, and easy to replace, yet effective against the targets we would engage.
Another thing I thought was helpful was delegation of some roles. Nothing major, simple stuff, small things that allowed members to feel like they contribute directly and are responsible for the corps dealings… Though Im aware this requires some level of babysitting, eventually those that struggled moved on to other things they were good at, while leaving those more responsible, to do pos fueling, etc… Being flexible is important, as long as you get that, each member should see the CEO or Director as their mentor, and will follow them to the end.
when new players join in our corp they look for some things
a place to ask questions
a place to chat and have a bit fun
a place where they can join others with no fear that the FC is angry when they make mistakes
a good idea to build a ship with a good fit for low ISK (pvp, exploration, mining, …)
someone who can tell them what skill is doing what and witch of the skills are REALLY important
ok yes somethimes a guy who throws a ship in there direction (situation: young guy has no the skill to use a mining barg but not the isk to buy and fit it yet)
not too many rules but some rules are needed
time to learn!! thats the most important … patience is a need
no strikt skillset … some corps give a skillplan for the first year to there new guys
ok we are not doing that much pvp but i think its the same an any things
we are a indy corp but we do most of the things possible and it was always around this …
Do you do wardecs? Unless you are an active wardeccer I can see no reason to even be in a corp at all, if you prefer to play solo. You open yourself up to the potential for aggression (wardecs) while reaping no benefit that couldn’t be achieved by just sharing a chat channel with your friends.
Newbros are precious about their employment history
No need for a newbie to have to ‘help’. Sounds strange but my point is that if you want to run a corp for newbies, then you need to basically be 100% self-sufficient as a corp already. Ask nothing of your new players except that they log in and participate. Many corps fail because they increasingly lean on their members just to stay afloat, forcing specific activities, raising taxes, etc. There have been some spectacular examples of this.
Infrastructure. If you have newbies out mining, you better offer refining, ore buybacks, hauling to trade hubs, etc. If you them to fight, you better offer an SRP.
You can certainly have members help with this, but again, do not expect newbies to fly jump freighters to Jita. There are many things that distract players from the content they actually enjoy- such as hauling loot or having to deal with the market when all they really want to do is run relic sites. By having a logistical backbone you allow new players to do (and spend their training on) the things that interest them right away. You can use this to integrate members into specific roles they like. If you have a guy that likes flying haulers, having members that need his services vertically integrates your corp’s efforts.
Focus. Far too many corp adverts offer pretty much everything in the game and very few actually provide it. If it’s FW you want to do, then concentrate strongly on that. Not that you can’t branch out eventually, but an initial lack of focus is a corp killer.
Group activity. Even if it’s not the ‘perfect’ way of doing something, always favor the social way. New players will benefit from a sense of community and an in-game identity. Be creative in how you do this. For example, using PvE that is normally done solo (such as missions) as a fleet training environment is much less stressful than actual combat. Things like fleet warping, calling targets, broadcasting for reps, manual piloting, and specific fleet roles can be taught by using PvE as a training ground.
comms. Voice comms are not only critical for fleet success, but offer a place for socializing and team building. Along with voice, a forum page where players can ask questions, have an op calendar, or just shoot the breeze is important.
Where do new corps get the ISK to pay for these goodies? Isn’t it from taxing their miners and ratters? I suppose the bigger alliances get rental money. Anything else?
it’s really tripping over the same foot that makes it awful instead of funny. Good luck and fly well.
