Dust 514: Corporate Contracts
Corporate Contracts
Corporate Contracts are the means by which Dust Merc's fight in Factional Warfare in New Eden.
Currently only Merc's holding the role of Director or CEO can accept a Corporate Contract on behalf of his Corp. This will eventually be a grantable role given to trusted Merc's in a Corporation along with other familiar roles such as Personal Officer.
How it works
The Director or CEO goes to the Neocom and accesses Corporate Contracts. A list of all available Contacts is shown, that can also be broken down to which Faction is paying for the contract. So if you only fight for the Caldari you can choose accordingly. Please note that there is no Faction Standing for Dust Corporations. They're free to fight for who they want.
Contracts require a collateral of 1 million Isk from the corp wallet to be placed on acceptance of the contract. This collateral is only refundable should no other corporation choose to fight you and is lost should the corp fail in its contract, either by not playing or losing the battle.
Contracts are given an allotted time, usually 30 mins from acceptance during which time another corp will see the available battle and decide if they want to take it.
When a Contract is accepted is will be shown in the Battle Finder under the Corporation tab. Here are the details of the contract, where the battle is, who the opponents are (should another Corporation agree to fight) and the start time of the contract. A this start time a Merc can choose to enter the battle.
Start time
At the allotted time, members of the corporation can join the battle as they would any other battle. There is currently a limit of 8 players per side for a Corp battle but that will increase in the future. There is a ten minute countdown timer in a corporate battle instead of the usual two, to allow corp members to join and discuss tactics.
Once on the battlefield, the game is pretty much the same with a couple of minor differences. As mentioned it is 8 v 8 as opposed to the usual 16 v 16 and Orbital Bombardment is the 'Live' variety, meaning that when it happens, its a pilot in Eve laying down the fire. It also means that their might not be a pilot there to do it.
Should a Corporate Contract be completed successfully with a win, 1.9 Million Isk is paid into the Corp Wallet by the grateful Faction.