In part four of his Building an EVE Empire series, EVE Online correspondent Sam Guss takes a look at the onion theory of running an empire.

Rule 4 of empire building is The Rule of the Onion. To quote an ogre, an ogre is like an onion... well, an Eve Empire should be built like one too. An onion, not an ogre. Onions have layers and it's in these layers that an empire becomes stronger. Later in this series of articles we will be discussing the rule of three, however, there is a lot of cross over with that rule and this one, so we shall be talking about it some here.

For an empire to be successful it has to be strong in several areas, the main three being militarily, economically and politically. If an empire isn't strong in these three areas, then the chances of it remaining successful are limited, and while it may grow, it can not keep itself together in the long term. It must be political in terms of being able to use diplomacy when needed and most importantly keeping its members and corporations within the empire happy. It has to be strong economically, as it must have a way to finance itself. Lastly, it has to be strong militarily since expansion in many cases will require the ability to invade and destroy in order to advance and grow.

Read Building an Empire IV, The Onion

Hi,

This was a very interesting read, same as your previous articles.

Being mostly in empire-space (the safer zones in EvE), I see many corporations with only one member. I see this as a sign of the fundamental desire for independance of most eve players and maybe even their distrust in other players. Some players voice their concern that the CEO of a corp just wants to fill up his own pockets through the corporation tax. In my short 0.0 alliance experience, I saw how difficult it can be to make every pilot feel he's being treated just. I witnessed as an outsider how quick even a two-thousand pilot strong alliance can crumble under the pressure of war.

Currently the most succesful alliances seem to be either those who have a renown or those who can deliver on their pilots short-term goals. The latter ones are usually pure PvP alliances. They fight each and every day and therefore attract PvP'ers more then Industrialists. The alliances that have a renown are not necessarily specialized, but give their pilots the feeling of belonging to a group. In both alliance types the pilots share common goals and ideals, but even more so a common identity.

I think that to create such an identity you need to communicate a lot. You have to communicate internally to both know how your members feel about their leadership and to give the members an idea where you want to lead them. You will also have to communicate to the general public. The type of pilots you're interested in should want to join you.

The common identity is important, because most pilots dislike what they call "politics". Yet it is vital for every alliance to know what it's relations are to other alliances. It is just as important as the relations between the corporations that make up the alliance. The common identity will help strenghten the bond between the alliance corporations. You know how weak or strong your common identity is, when your alliance faces difficult times.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: an alliance is more then heaps of ISK (in-game money) and a couple of fighters. The heart of each empire is the people that are a part of it.

 totally agree with you on this and the article.

Great read and being in an alliance of only 600-ish people i can see the same struggles and differences in people that are in the larger alliances you speak of.  It's tough to get a bunch of people together that act and live very different from eachother in RL and play the game totally different from eachother to co-operate and function and 1 unit and be successful...  

Eve is tough when the number of people gets larger.

Great read, thanks!

I totally agree with what you have written and like the other two above thanks for your thoughts, however you post got me thinking and I would like to add having listened into lots of chat in local and corp channels it is apparent that some people play just in 0.5+ and have never yet dare venture out of these safe areas. For CCP have to come up with a way to encourage these people to dip their toe into thes areas to enjoy the full implication and fun this game has to offer.

I have just joined a small independent corp of hard core PvPers who live daily in and out of the Wormholes and the chit chat I hear on TS has me so excited I want o have the skills to join them but feel if I try I will be wasted due to my lack of time in the game and I also think many other new players feel this way too.

Now with that said I will be venturing into 0.5 and below very shrotly once I feel I have the skills levels I want for my current ship/ships, I have spent many hours reading the market to gain an understandimg of what moduals/ammo combinations and their effects have on the ships I plan on commanding. I have never been so excited about going to war before having not been an avid PvPer in any game, though I do like the risk/reward of this.

The thing which sticks in my mind the most is how differnet the ships need to be for ratting and PvPing, they are two worlds apart, the AI in this game seems very well done and while I hear some of the problems which the game has after the last free expansion appear to of annoyed the vets in the game for me being a n00b have not got a clue so they do not have an impact on me at this satge. Another thing I like is that I can stand shoulder to shoulder with a vet in a frigate and give them a good fight.

So what I am trying to say many articals have been written and I have read them all but sadly their are many people playing Eve to date who are scared silly and need people to hold a hand of friendship out and be genuine and not bite their hand off, however due to the harsh reality of Eve this may never happen. I am aware their are corps out their and also the n00b channel too but I mean the people who sufffer in silence and maybe move on due to the lack of group activities in the first part of the game.

Sorry went a little OT their but was trying to give my angle as a new player experience, though I am sure you have heard it all before.Thanks for your post and thoughts on Eve.

Bandit.