Corporations Enhanced
Welcome to the fourth and final installment in the Viridian in Focus series of articles, giving you early insight into specific upcoming elements of the EVE Online: Viridian expansion due this month! Viridian will be the first of two major expansions for EVE in 2023, introducing new tools for capsuleers to manage their corporations and set goals, to personalize Upwell structures, as well as engage in socially driven gameplay content. It will also provide more avenues for new and existing players to forge relationships as they fly and strive together for the glory of their corporation!
At Fanfest 2022, the mission to build stronger organizations within EVE was set, and the Viridian expansion is a major step towards making that a reality. A group of features are coming to EVE aimed at enhancing the corporation experience for both leaders and members by giving them the tools to organize their efforts, build their forces, and accomplish more together. These features will improve the corporation management experience, provide more purpose and tracking for member contributions and activities, as well as assisting corps with their initiatives. Get the lowdown on these changes as they are discussed throughout this article, in the video below, as well as on stream via CCP TV at 16:00 UTC today!
CORPORATION PROJECTS
At the heart of the improvements to the corporation experience in Viridian are Corporation Projects, a tool that enables leaders of corporations to create new projects that become visible to every member, allowing large and small corporations to be managed more easily. Player corporations significantly enhance capsuleers’ experience of belonging, achievement, and purpose in EVE Online, while also providing a source of pride and direction for many in New Eden. Corporation Projects will enable player corps to set goals for their members to contribute to, as well as providing them with the means to monitor member progress against those goals without having to leave the game.
The number of corp members that have contributed to a project and the progress made against its goals can be seen by the corp’s management. This will help them establish a good picture of which projects are popular among members, and how the activity of their members is pushing their organization towards a greater purpose or goal. For members, the increased visibility and clearly communicated projects can help them decide what they want to contribute to specifically, allowing them to actively have a substantial effect on their organization’s success. Viridian will introduce five types of Corporation Projects, and they are as follows:
Manual – Create a project without any contribution method to show and communicate how well the corp is doing in a particular scenario.
Dealing damage to other capsuleers – Corp management can track the damage dealt by their corp members to a specific character or specific organization, allowing a corp to see and influence participation in combat gameplay.
Killing NPCs – A project specifying the number of NPCs a corp wants destroyed that can be specific to a particular solar system, leveraging the military index of it and creating opportunities for a corp to increase their defenses against attacks on their sovereign space and allowing groups to better manage the bounty risk modifier of their systems.
Mine – A corp can incentivize and track resource gathering, specifying systems, and types of ore.
Deliver item – members can be asked to deliver a specific type of item to corp offices, enabling corps to create buyback programs or encourage contribution towards certain construction goals, e.g. supercapitals or structures.
These projects will enable corporations of any size to guide new members more effectively, not just the larger organizations with established recruiting channels and processes, allowing them to quickly focus their corp efforts. Every member, especially new ones, will clearly see what there is to do, and how they can help. Corp managers who create projects with good descriptions, linking recommended fittings and skill plans (which were originally introduced a couple of years ago) aimed at particular projects, will be of immense help to new members looking to progress within the ranks of the organization. With more experienced and committed members, a corp increases their likelihood of survival, growth, and ultimate success in achieving their long-term goals.
AIR OPPORTUNITIES
There are many possibilities for new and experienced capsuleers to find their path and a playstyle that best represents their interests, especially when opportunities are made clearly visible to them. Corporations and alliances in EVE have developed the phenomenal capability of embracing a large group of individuals and giving them things to do, things that help build a group identity and take novice capsuleers on the complex and deep journey that is EVE Online. The Viridian expansion improves this process for corporations by developing and strengthening it, minimizing points of friction, and increasing efficiency through a new interface called AIR Opportunities.
The Corporation Projects mentioned above need to be communicated and displayed to corp members in a way that allows them to know how they can be of value, contribute, and be a meaningful part of that group identity. To that end, Corporation Projects created by a player’s organization will be displayed to them via the new AIR Opportunities interface where players can find activities relevant to their day-to-day gameplay.
Its purpose is to provide a central interface that conglomerates activities of interest to players, as well as opportunities for players to fleet up and find glory together. This portal will present and track content that players are participating in. AIR Opportunities is intended to be a counterpart to The Agency, where The Agency is a catalogue of content in EVE and AIR Opportunities is the presentation of activities of interest to them that the player can do right now.
AIR Opportunities (and Corporation Projects) will assist players with being aware of what matters to their corporation and accessing activities that directly contribute to achieving those goals. This reduces the need for new players to check in various locations for things to do, as this will be the hub – or heart – where players can decide what they want to take part in today.
When a player makes progress against one of their AIR Opportunities or chooses to opt in to or track an AIR Opportunity, it will be represented in the active tab of the interface. This active tab will take on all the functionality of the current journal but will expand it by tracking any content that is represented as an AIR Opportunity. The opportunities can be shared by linking them in chat channels and EVE mails (drag and drop to create a link to specific opportunity).
HOMEFRONT OPERATIONS
Flying with other capsuleers, trying out different professions, and honing your skills out of the gate are key to being a success in New Eden. To that end, the AIR Opportunities portal will also be populated with brand-new activities called Homefront Operations, and these will be immediately discoverable on that platform. These sites will bring new and experienced capsuleers together to do new activities together, helping to establish social connections and introduce fleet gameplay. Homefront Operations offer a perfect opportunity for novice pilots to practice their combat, logistics, and hacking skills in a relatively safe PvE environment while cooperating with others. The highsec nature of the Homefront Operations makes the activities it offers a logical next step after completion of the AIR Career Program, especially if some players are apprehensive about venturing into lowsec or nullsec due to a lack of experience.
However, Highsec may not always remain the oasis of peace as it has been in the past. The rising tensions between the empires will spread to highsec as the consequences of war will start being felt beyond the battlefield and behind the frontlines. These Homefront Operations sites will be populated by NPCs including forces from their opposing faction, pirates, and rebel groups. While flying around in highsec, you will also see new billboards and posters, as well as propaganda and in-station announcements that will communicate the atmosphere of rising tension in empire space.
At launch, Homefront Operations will consist of six types of adventure, optimized for about 4 to 5 players. Experienced capsuleers will be able to select newer capsuleers to join them for a variety of specific opportunities to play in a small group. Players can test out different roles in content that will take about 15 minutes to complete, meet other new players, and start flying in a fleet. New players can expect to get rewards from participating in these fleets that are more lucrative than doing anything else solo in highsec. This provides experienced players with another avenue to teach new players the ropes, get them up to speed and to a point where their skills and experience can be valuable to the organizations they wish to recruit for, all while having an adventure together.
The Homefront Operations sites themselves will include content that requires players to mine asteroids while increasingly challenging enemies spawn over time, hacking points in a site which help lower the defenses of a specific target allowing it to be destroyed, keeping a friendly ship that is under attack alive and allowing it to fire its weapon on an enemy structure, tackling enemies attempting to escape a site, and defending a base while it is attacked. They will also contain stunningly new and improved volumetric clouds, bringing more immersion into the gameplay space.
Of further benefit to new capsuleers coming in, it will be exciting to try out the fleet gameplay that they will have heard so much about, joining a small group of players mostly at their level and guided by a seasoned capsuleer acting as fleet commander. Capsuleers that enjoy the experience can then move on to the next Homefront Operation, and step by step, start to get to know other groups of players who may invite them to join a corporation.
LOYALTY POINT INCOME FOR CORPS
To further enhance corporations and the experience of members, the Viridian expansion will allow corporations to receive income from Loyalty Points (LP). The rate set by the corp for the percentage of ISK it receives from members’ earnings will now also be applicable to all activities generating LP. This will be another source of revenue for corporations, as the LP can be exchanged for items in LP stores and then traded for ISK. As a result, corps will have more resources and better infrastructure, leading to more opportunities for members to do more activities. Corporations of all sizes can also now take advantage of LP income and incentivize members to carry out activities in New Eden that reward LP and directly benefit the organization.
One example is the running of Factional Warfare (FW) missions. Where previously corps would only see a relatively low benefit from a percentage of members’ ISK income due to a lack of NPC bounties, introducing the LP taxation allows corps to increase their income from members running FW missions. Direct Enlistment, introduced after Uprising, already acts as a foundation for corps to promote FW as an activity, and this will further strengthen that participation. As mentioned above, that LP could then be spent by the corp CEO or anyone with a director level role to obtain items from LP stores to distribute to members, or to build great fittings from factional modules and ships. Alternatively, the LP can be exchanged for items, and the items sold for ISK that is then used to provide (or bolster) ship replacement programs or donated to another player corporation.
Additionally, LP trading between corporations will be enabled, and this will also act as part of the long-term plan of facilitating more of a free and streamlined economy. LP trading will not only work as transfers within an alliance, but also allow groups to directly barter their LP for different resources.
Coming soon after the launch of Viridian, corporations within alliances will also be able to donate corporation EverMarks to the executive corporation of the alliance they belong to, as long as they have been part of the alliance for at least 30 days. Executive corps can then distribute accumulated EverMarks to any other corporation that has belonged to the alliance for at least 30 days, allowing holding corporations within alliances that may be responsible for structure management to use SKINR and apply nanocoatings to structures.
TAX REFORMS
Empowering and strengthening corporations is a major part of the Viridian expansion, and there are also changes coming to broker’s fees and industry job fees that will create a more equitable environment for industrialists, leveling the playing field and creating more opportunities for groups to increase profits by utilizing observable knowledge.
These changes will give more ISK to facility owners and give them more agency to leverage their citadel as an income source as a means to stay competitive. Previously, the SCC would take half of the cut taken from the broker's fee - which really ate into the ability of facility owners to earn any profit - especially if they wanted to stay competitive with a low tax rate. Now, facility owners can earn the full amount, with the SCC taking a fixed 0.5% instead.
Similar changes are being made to industry job installation fees, giving facility owners the ability to earn more income from their structures - especially those located in low-indexed systems - and also increasing the value proposition for a corporation of owning an Upwell structure.
Additionally, changes are being made to how industry job installation fees are calculated. Firstly, system bonuses are being removed. System bonuses have existed since the creation of the industry index system, but they have remained relatively obscure. Those with this knowledge, or lucky enough to live in an area to experience these benefits, would previously have had a significant competitive advantage.
Looking ahead towards the launch of EVE Online: Viridian, corporation leaders and members can get genuinely excited for how Corporation Projects will allow them to focus efforts on achieving greater goals, having those targets surfaced more visibly with AIR Opportunities, and establishing new revenue from activities that generate LP income. New capsuleers can enjoy trying out new skills and honing them while under the leadership of more experienced capsuleers in Homefront Operations, giving them even more options when deciding their next steps after the AIR Career Program.
Stay tuned for the upcoming CCP TV stream, join the discussion on the official EVE Online Discord, and prepare yourself for the imminent release of the Viridian expansion!
