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Tuesday, September 8, 2009

And put a fork in the T3 Project

Holy crap do I feel light now. Pretty much since the start of Apocrypha our alliance formed a project to go and manage our T3 resource collection and manufacturing since a) we weren't rich and b) we needed to build up the skills to manufacture T3. Last week I decided that the project had outlived it's usefulness and it was time to close it down.

We proceeded to a resource auction amongst the shareholders. Out of 59 shareholders 11 participated in the auction and 9 different bidders won their bids. Anything not bid on (there was a minimum bid) simply got dumped in Jita. About 400mil worth of "stuff" (mostly salvage and some gasses) hit the markets in Jita on Sunday night. The rest of the resources (polymers, BPCs with about 600 runs of assorted subsystems and 13 hull runs, Melted Nanoribbons, Some left over subsystems) got distributed to the shareholders who bid on them. I managed to pick up the last Loki run (woot!).

On Monday I distributed the isk that was still in the project so the shareholders got 9.9bil isk split between them. This concluded the shutdown of the Project. As the biggest shareholder said "well one less thing to worry about". Man you have no idea.

Well I'm not running something like that again. It was a good experience though and did allow us to get plenty of pilots in the alliance into T3 ships (they are sweet). Now of course we've still got plenty of T3 manufacturing experience so we'll be able to continue with the T3 manufacturing within the alliance but now it'll be up to the individual manufacturers to do their thing.

This should free up my time to both address Alliance level issues and corp level issues. I think I'm about to go on a recruiting spree in a few days looking for mid and experienced SP pilots for serious wormhole work. Based on my experience so far here's what I'll essentially be looking for:
  • Able to fly serious BC (i.e. Full T2), HAC, SC, BS (for later plans). Those are pretty much what you need to go after the deeper sleeper sites.
  • PvE/PvP pilots. I.e. no PvP only and no PvE only pilots. Must be able/want to do both. I'm finding the pure PvP'ers aren't getting the steady PvP they crave and this is proving to be problematic at the alliance morale level for these pilots. The pure PvE guys on the other hand are just as useless as we need them to be able to switch over to PvP footing once an intrusion happens. Wormhole environment point against PvE only pilots who can't pull their weight in combat.
  • Self starters. Look this is mostly small gang work on both the PvE and the PvP side. This means that individual pilot initiative is necessary. The "Feed Me" types will get booted pretty quick. The "I'm bored" types because they are only looking for one experience won't be happy with wormhole life. If not enough people are around for going after hard sites, then the ability to go after alternate sites is almost a requirement.
  • Scanning skills are a must (not necessarily cov-ops but at least able to use cloaks would be good).
  • Lower SP pilots are not what I'll be looking for in the short term. Sorry guys but until I have a core of good Mid to high range SP guys to quarterback deeper wormhole work there wont' be enough pilots to support the lower SP ones. Once I have my corp up to the size that can go setup and operate in a constant class 3-4 environment with occasional class 5-6 work and have some good people who could run a class 1-2 teaching section THEN it'll be time to work on recruiting lower SP pilots.
  • Audio a must - I'll no longer be supporting any pilots that can't get on audio. No excuses.
However it'll be a few days before I'm ready to start recruiting actively. I need to hammer out some plans and some corp rules and what not and get it seriously sorted out as well as come up with an overall alliance plan now that the T3 project is wound down. Clean out the dead wood. Ah the leadership fun stuff.

On the personal front I'm going to finish up getting reverse engineering up to snuff and I'll finally be able to a-z a T3 ship. I just need to get the Reverse Engineering and the 5 Subsystem Technology skills to 4 and that will be good to go. I finally finished getting Recon IV and Heavy Assault Ship IV, so once the Reverse Engineering is in place it'll be a question of getting back to core skills (gah I'm lagging on some rather necessary skills there) and some tank and T2 weapons skills (need to get my missile/rocket skills up).

I'll also be able to concentrate on making some iskies and building myself a 2nd Loki and getting my stable of ships sorted out. Getting a few last modules for my POS. Sorting out the logistics of what needs to move where. Etc... Ah the fun of organization in EVE.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well laid out set of rules. Having been part of a wormhole corp before (which failed miserably because the CEO went missing after his recruitment spree) I wish these rules had been in place.

Near the end theft was rampant. Hulks and Orcas were going missing! I managed to stay on a bit by pairing up with other corps that lived in the same wormhole, but it was just too much disarray and I ended up leaving.

It's a shame too, all the requirements you have fit me perfectly. But, I'm not joining :)

I just wanted to comment and wish you good luck. I enjoy reading about w-space conquests from those who are successful. Keep up the good work.

Squizz Caphinator

Letrange said...

@Squizz
Yep, up until now I've been trying to work with things at the alliance level but the focus of the different corps don't always mesh so I've decided that it's time to grow my corp and make sure it's specialized in wormhole work.

Magson said...

Dang, your corp sounds like exactly like what I'm wanting to get into, and I even match your skill and attitude requirements, methinks. Sadly, I don't get much playtime in right now -- lucky to be on once or twice a week for an hour or so, so I don't think I'd be helpful to anyone right now. :-( Perhaps in a few months once IRL settles down.

Unknown said...

im breathing a sigh that i got in under the line, ill go make myself useful now. but yes, would love to have some more w-hole parteners. oh, and Letrange its time to change the oil in the Orcca.

Apis

Reaper Cross said...

Thats sounds just what im after ive wanted to move to
wh space for a while now its just a shame i dont have the sp's only have 5 mil :( and have only just started to run lvl4 missions thats mainly bcause ive been liveing in outer ring for awhile. I can t2 fit a drake and it wont be lnog before i can do the same in a raven keep me in mind if you start looking for the lower sp pilots :)

im fairly active on most nights and weekends

Reaper Cross

Quivering Palm said...

Nice rules Letrange!

I'd also add that you should be looking at employing players from different timezones so you always have someone at your wh at all times.

Anchoring at II should also be on your requirement list to able to anchor pretty much everything in case you need - but also able to anchor any medium or even large mobile bubbles should be an extra.

I must admit I am quite surprised you don't ask for any mining / gas harvesting skills. Gas Harvesting at V is pretty easy to get to and well you can mine just fine in a BS - not need to be in a Hulk...

Besides T3 production we try to be self-sufficient in any T1 ships and module needs, so all of us need to have some basic mining and gas harvesting skills to help in gathering the resources to build stuff. I must say I'd never thought I'd enjoy crushing rocks - but it's all different inside Wspace and not only by being vigilant in looking into directional but also knowing that what you mine now will get you in a BS or T3 ship later on kinda makes you want to mine more :-)

Lastly, I would also imagine you have some idea of how to share profits and split the loots... I have come to realize that lots of wormholeers expect that they will get like a daily or weekly income like what they'd make when doing missions or whatever in kspace - and there can be some missunderstandings if you don't be forward to explain how exactly you pay your employees :-)

my 2c
QP

Letrange said...

@QP gas harvester and miners are actually not all that hard to come across. And honestly if the intention is going deeper (and it is) full time miners will have difficult logistics unless we stick to the class 4 and bellow and make a Rorqual.

Benoit CozmikR5 Gauthier said...

First up, gratz on the entire endeavor! I have no idea how you guys did some of the stuff you did, and I'm not talking about game mechanics here. This thing became your main job and you were doing mission IRL to make CAD :)

Second up, once I see that thread on the EVE-O recruitment forums, I'll be bumping it the way one bumps a HIC with a full-speed inty >:)

And note to all would-be ChaosStorm applicants, what he says about PvP/PvE is true; if you're not good at both W-space may not be for you. I now know that it's not for me :)

Dante Edmundo said...

Gratz on a successful T3 industrial Enterprise and its winding down. As usual, you were thorough with your goals and successful.

Good solid plan for recruitment and its good to know exactly what you're looking for ... probably makes it more manageable as well once someone signs on the team.

I'll keep my eye out for when you open the get for lower SP players ... since I know its a definite long term investment with higher risk involved.

Would be interested in seeing what you think about some of the new Sovereignty plans.

Looks like the "infrastructure" development might prove rather interesting, especially if CCP follows similar skills/requirements lines used for manufacturing etc.