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EVE Online: Building an EVE Empire-(Rule 3-4)

Apr 17, 2009 eve online|331views

The third rule of our thought experiment in building a vast Eve empire is the Rule of Sovereignty. As we all found out a couple of weeks back, the loss of sovereignty can literally kill off an Eve empire in a simple stroke. Sovereignty is what gives you a home in 0.0 and should be defended at all costs.
 
When building your empire, you want to ensure that you can keep control of the systems that you are in and expanding into. Part of this mechanic has a very real consequence; you gain sovereignty in such systems. It is important that the members of the empire know that with this sovereignty comes responsibility. The responsibility to protect it is foremost but also utilizing these systems is important as well. Each system should be providing something for the Empire at large, whether as a base of operations, an economic stronghold, or even a chokepoint to defend from.
 
None of the systems that you have sovereignty in should be “empty” systems. There needs to be a basic need fulfilled at each of your sovereign systems, whether it is for mining moon minerals, or perhaps belt ratting, or even perhaps a front line system for future war efforts. An empty system is one that won’t be defended as vigorously as one that has something to lose.
 
An “empty” system means there is nothing there worth fighting for. If an empire has too many empty systems, then the members of that empire have no idea how important each system is. By having an importance labeled to every system with sovereignty then the members have a personal stake in the systems they find themselves in the most. It comes down to people protect more vigorously that which they perceive as theirs. This means that if you have systems that are not worth anything to you, rent them out! By being charitable with such systems, you expand your influence and power of your Empire. 

For sure, you will want to impose limitations, such as no more than 1 or 2 POS’s in the system and everyone in your empire must be marked blue. Notice that while this means they may not be a part of that Empire, in truth they are. For they are under the influence and power of the Empire they rent from.
 
An empires influence is more than just sovereignty though. Economically it needs to be the top if not only producer of goods within those systems. Whenever and wherever you can, you will want 100% of your marketing goods to be made by players within the empire, versus shipping them in from other agencies (with regards to perhaps those things made by NPC corporations). This means you want to aim for 0% importation of goods and services into your sovereign space.
 
Likewise you want to aim for 100% export to actually circle back into members of your Empire versus those outside of it. Especially in terms of weapons, ships, etc that would be considered an asset to other alliances. By controlling the empires economics this way you are ensuring that you have a self sufficient Empire and that you are not providing the enemy with anything they can in turn use against you.
 
It goes without saying that the larger your empire is in terms of systems, the more pilots that are needed. There is no fast and sure numbers to put here, as in how many pilots per system you should aim for. The only thing you need to take into account as your empire grows, is to grow at a steady but moderate pace. In this manner you will know when you have reached a current limitation on how much space you can adequately defend and know when you need to encourage more recruiting or perhaps leasing space to other alliances or corporations. I suggest dealing with corporations only versus alliances, unless it is a small alliance. In this manner you are in a better position to bring them into your Empire and also to limit the influence your leasers have. In other words, use a leased system as a bargaining chip to expand your Empires control and influence. 

There are some negatives that come with this rule. The biggest is that once you claim territory you WILL become a target for other alliances and empire builders out there. All of these rules work in tandem to each other, so you shouldn’t be claiming sovereignty until you can meet the other rules as well. Once you start claiming space you will be in a state of constant preparation for war. Either because other empires will try to take what is yours, or you will try to take what is theirs.
 
The other negative that comes with this rule is that once you start down this path, to lose is to hurt your empire seriously – even to the point of crippling it. The BoB situation for example. They are still a force, but no longer the major threat it once was. Why? The fall from sovereignty is that high.

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.

Other layers must exist within the empire and within the three main areas as well. It is not enough to be militarily strong in terms of experience pilots for example. Another layer in the military strength has to be in training new pilots up. The fact of the matter is, players will come and go. If you can’t match pilots coming into the empire as some leave, you will be left in a weakened state. Likewise, economically it is not enough to concentrate in only a couple of technologies in the game as like the stock market, past performance is not indicative of future results.

Another way there needs to be layers is in how the empire itself is formed. An empire by its very definition needs to be in 0.0 to flourish and even be considered an empire, but it doesn’t need to only be in 0.0. It needs a presence in high sec and low sec as well. Granted this presence doesn’t need to be as extensive as it is in 0.0, but does need to be there. Combat pilots can learn their ropes in low sec combat, while industrialists can learn theirs in high sec. High sec is a safe place for some industrialist to make ISK and to make the things the empire needs out in 0.0. Low sec is a great training ground for future combat pilots.

Layers need to be secured, regardless of what that layer is. Assign corporations to be in charge of layers and then have other corporations as back-ups - adding yet another layer. By adding layers this way, you secure the empire by always being able to shore up if a corporation leaves or decides to join the enemy. Speaking of which, expect this to happen. If you expect it, you should plan for it. An empire may even consider the use of some corporations as spies in enemy territory. The sad fact is that there are spies everywhere in EVE, and if played to your advantage, can be very useful. As in the case of BoB a few weeks ago, a single person can be devastating to a corporation, an alliance, or an empire.

One of the chief things you can do in your empire to make it strong and to provide layers in a variety of ways is to define a role for each alliance, each corporation, and each member. I’m not talking about role as in the game mechanic, but role as in what players are held accountable for and asked to do. This should always match up to what it is the players themselves want to do. If a player is all about combat, then get them involved in combat, don’t demand they spend their time mining and vice versa. By having happy members, you add a layer of security you otherwise would not have. Happy members rarely leave or go to the other side.

Since redundancy is a part of creating layers, everything in your empire should be redundant. If you have one major capital ship fleet, work on creating two. They can of course come together to form one mega capital ship fleet, but should also work independently of each other as well. Don’t have just one source of economic power, have several.

Last but not least, consider an onion itself. At its core is where the base of the empire should be. Each layer beyond that should in itself be part of the empire but if peeled away, another layer revealed. Don’t forget when this happens, add another layer.

Next time we will talk about the Rule of Peace.

Tags: Empire, eve online