Corporations: Difference between revisions

A corporation, generally shortened to 'corp' (pronounced korp) in EVE is the equivalent of a guild in most other MMOs, but with a great deal more flexibility. [[NPC Corporations]] are functionally identical, but no members have any roles or titles.  

This article consists of two parts: the first part is a guide to setting up a corporation, the second part is a reference section.

= Guide =

To start a new corporation, open the corporation window by clicking the button in the sidebar menu, select the "home" tab, and within that tab the "details" tab. At the bottom there will be a button "create corporation". You will get the options to:  

*'''Select a logo.''' A corporation logo consists of three layers; each layer can have a pattern or item and a colour. Different patterns or items can be combined by giving two layers the same colour. Play around a bit to get a good-looking logo. Something to consider when designing the logo is what your corporation's main activity will be. An industrial corporation for instance may want to avoid using a pirate-like logo.

*'''Choose a name.''' A corporation name has to contain at least 4 characters and no more than 50 characters (ironically, the error message you get when trying to use a name longer than that is wrong - it claims the maximum length is 24 characters). It may only contain letters, numbers, spaces, and dots (full stop or period). The corporation name may not the same as the name of any other ''currently active'' corporation or alliance; it can be the same as the name of a closed corporation.

*Immediately after creating a corporation, you will get a notification saying "Select Wallet Division". Corporation wallet divisions will be explained later, for now click "yes" (indicating you want to select a wallet division) and select the Master Wallet.  

*Another thing which is smart to do immediately is to take all corporation shares under your own control. All corporations start with 1000 shares, which can be used for various purposes (which will be explained later). The shares are in the corporation wallet by default; for safety reasons it is generally considered best to move them to your personal wallet. You can do this by opening your wallet, selecting the "Corporation Wallet" tab and within that tab the "Shares" tab. Right-click the shares, select "give", fill out your own name, and press "ok". If you leave the shares in the corporation wallet, your corp will be vulnerable to hostile takeover by rogue members later on. Though the risk of that might seem small, it happens regularly in EVE - better to prevent it from ever occurring by this simple step. You can (re-)distribute the shares from your personal wallet to other people when needed.

==== Editing details later ====

As mentioned, you may want to edit some of the details which were entered when the corporation was created. If you are CEO or director an "edit details" button will be visible at the bottom of the corporation details window ("Corporation" window, "Home" tab, "Details" tab). When clicking "edit details" button you will effectively get the same screen as when creating a corporation. From here the corporation logo, home page, tax rate, and description can be changed, and membership applications can be enabled or disabled. Changing the logo carries a fee of 100 isk (yes you read that right, one hundred isk) which will be taken from the corporation wallet. Other details can be edited without a charge.

This means that even characters with low or even no corporation skills can become CEO of large corporations, as long as a previous CEO has updated the corporation with the proper skills. CEO's with low skills should take care not to accidentally click the update button; though no one will be expelled if the member limit is updated to below the current membership, no new members can be accepted until the membership has dropped below the limit.

==== Moving your Headquarters ====

Any member with the "Rent Office" role can rent an office by clicking the "rent office" button at the bottom of the station information panel in a station. There is no limit to the number of offices a corporation can have, but any corp can have only one office per station and every NPC station can have offices for only 24 corporations. (Player-built outposts in 0.0 also can have offices, but the number depends on the type and upgrades of the outpost.) After clicking the "rent office" button a window will pop up showing the current 30-day rental fee for that station. When clicking 'yes', the rent for the first 30 days will be withdrawn from the corporation wallet and the corp will immediately receive a bill for the '''next''' 30 days. This bill must be paid before the first 30 days are over, else the corp will lose the office. A new bill will be issued like this every 30 days, for as long as the corp has the office. If the corp has multiple offices, it will receive one bill per office. (More on bills, including settings to automatically pay them, later in this article.)

==== Dynamic rental fee ====

Note that office rental fees are ''dynamic''; they vary per station and will go up or down depending on demand at the station. Office rental fees are calculated daily at downtime based on the number of free offices at downtime. Monthly fees rise by 5% when there are no available offices at the station; prices stay the same when there is 1 available office. When there are 2 or more available offices, prices drop - the size of the drop is based on the number of available offices [http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1280861]. Since you only get a bill every 30 days and prices can rise by 5% '''per day''', there can be a large difference between one month's rent and the next month's rent (in the worst case, the rent can quadruple!).