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Shared Resources & Alt Corps

As the NosyGamer said: ...what makes EVE unique is the nearly unlimited inventory space for each character. Of course, EVE wouldn't be EVE if players didn't push the mechanics to the limit, and one way that happens is by running industry at any scale above "a little sideline for some pocket money".

Very quickly the problem becomes not so much storing all those minerals, components, and other inputs, but in moving them around between characters. Since I don't want to spend some significant portion of my play time doing trades between characters in citadels, I have spent some time thinking about how to make the industrialists' experience better.

The standard solution to this issue is the alt corp, essentially a corporation set up to park ones characters in in order to share resources in a less cancerous way. This is not what CCP had in mind for corporations when they were developed, so they are not an optimal solution.

A more optimal solution would be to use two different existing mechanics in conjunction to create the sort of structure players actually want for industry and manufacturing. The ideal set up for me anyway would be rental hangars (like Corps get now, minus all the other stuff corps get), coupled with an ACL that would allow me to allow access to my alts.

Think of it as a small business office, instead of a full blown corp:
  • a business wallet with 1-3 divisions,
  • 1-3 hangars (perhaps with the option to rent additional hangars),
    • at a single location (no offices),
  • an ACL for allowing access to the hangars and the wallet,
  • cannot own stations, structures, deployables,
  • cannot hold Sovereignty, and,
  • cannot be the initiator or target of a wardec.

Let's look at each idea in turn

Wallet

While an individual industrialists doesn't need a lot of wallet divisions, it IS nice to have a savings account so to speak, and a couple other  envelopes to stick ISK for long-term projects is probably not a terrible idea, though it could be reduced to just 1-2 wallet divisions without really impacting most players at all.

Hangars

A small industrialist really doesn't need more than a single shared hangar or two, and perhaps an alternate system of escalating rents for more "floor  space" would take care of any complaints with only having one shared hangar.

These hangars are in one specific station/citadel/whatever, and a second location cannot be rented.

ACL

Instead of a full-blown corporate structure with multiple members, customization of roles, and titles as groups of roles, I envision a very simple access control list type structure.
  • View / Take / Put permissions from each wallet division
  • View / Take / Put permissions from each hangar division
  • Default access when someone is added is view permission to hangar 1 and nothing else.
No one has access to the wallets or hangars unless specifically added to the ACL, and only individuals can be added to the ACL.


Structures

As is fitting for a small business, this one-pilot owned shop cannot own any anchorable structures of any sort whatsoever. No Citadels, no Engineering Complexes, no POCOs, no POS equipment, no new Upwell anything. The only "business" assets are whatever is in the hangars and wallets in the one station the business has rented space in.


Sovereignty

Along with not owning any structures, it stands to reason that this small business cannot own any sovereignty structures, but I figured for completeness' sake that it should be explicitly stated that the small business cannot claim sovereignty, join a corporation as a fake person, an alliance, or whatever else gets introduced in the future.


War Declarations

Now, for the one that will probably get the most push-back; the small business cannot be wardecced. The reasoning is this: without the possibility to own assets in space or claim sovereignty,. it is essentially a non-entity in the politics of New Eden, and should be treated as such.

Will that reduce the number of corps in High Sec that can be wardecced? Almost certainly, as small-time industrialists such as myself instantly disband our alt-corps and buy a small office for the 3-10 characters we use to dump PP and manufacturing output into.

Will that have an appreciable effect on the state of High Sec and make it more of a "safe space for carebears"? Almost certainly not. Anyone who is worried about wardecs in High Sec destroying their industrial profits is already using various tactics such as out of corp hauling to avoid losing ships to wardeccers, and those that aren't, will continue to feed at the same rate they are now. If anything, it will create a false sense of security in those who think they will not be ganked without being decced first, and put some more shitfit haulers in space.

I would love to see a streamlined business structure that was in line with the majority of the small players needs. Feel free to let me know where the idea could be improved.

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