Corp permissions for POS managment

This is the second post in a series on POS. The first post was a POS Introduction.

This post is talking about corporation role permissions required for a POS as of mid 2014.  With any luck whatsoever, it will be made obsolete in the next few releases but ... those of us that manage POS have been praying for a POS/corp role revamp for a long time.  POS permissions themselves will be another post; this one will be long enough.

Some of these images will be too small to read everything.  Click on them for more better images.

There are many ways of setting up Corporation permissions. This is how I do it, others may vary. 
Some of the steps below are not strictly necessary. I have probably missed something.  For those with experience, feel free to provide commentary (especially where I have done dumb things).  For those with questions; ask.

My goals are to have 6-7 players in a corp (unlimited alts) all using corporation fixed assets.  Additional 'casual' pilots are also welcome with limited functionality.

My attitude towards security is if in doubt, don't grant permissions.  I grant permissions where I deem it beneficial to the operation of the corp.  This sometimes means that I have denied too many permissions and need to search what else needs to be granted.  It also means (hopefully) that I won't have a POS stolen out from under us.

Some screen shots have too much information and/or are too small.  Click on any of them when required to see more detail.

Shares

Allocate all your shares to your CEO.

Corporation Wallet -> Shares -> Owned By Corp.
Right click and Give Shares to the appropriate pilot.

Division Names

We rename our divisions; both the names and the wallet divisions.  Generally, if I grant access to a storage division, I will also grant access to the equivalent wallet.


Corporation -> Home -> Details -> Division

Depending on how quickly you do all the permissions and whether you log out and back in again, some of the screens you look at might use the old division names rather than your new ones.

Rename titles

Titles are not required; but are one of the few corporation management ease of life tools.  Make a template of permissions and give either one player or a group of players a title.  By the time you have set up permissions, you will never want to do so again.


Firstly, from Corporation -> Members -> Title Management, click on some of the Untitled 1 - Untitled 15 and change their names to something. Call them whatever you want, but ... you will get confused if you use the generic names.

Create 7 titles for assigning to the 7 divisions.  (How to assign a title to a division is shown below). You can create other titles for other common roles in your corporation.

As examples of what I have set up in this corporation:

• The Foo title is an alternative to director that I can remove permissions from.  I find it a good habit to not even give myself full permissions all the time.
• The Member title is an easy way to grant common permissions where it makes sense.
• Established members may get the Veteran title, who may be given additional roles as needed.

Don't worry too much about what roles I have checked here; we will come back to this screen shot later.  Again, if the screen is too small, click on it to see more details.

Edit Member

From Corporation; Members, choose a pilot and Edit Member.

Grant a title

Any title you grant can be seen on the pilots public character sheet.  While I don't like leaking information, I also want to set alts of the same player (or type of player) up with the same permission.  This is one place I will sacrifice security for convenience.

General

Communications officer : Grants permission to look after corporation chat, and can delete Corporation bookmarks.  (Tidying up stale corp bookmarks is required in wormholes).

Config Starbase Equipment: Caution. This role is nearly as dangerous as director; that is, only grant to those you trust explicitly.  You can generally dismantle POS with this permission.

Starbase Defense Operator: Caution. Allows the recipient to shoot POS guns.  This too, is not a role to grant to unsupervised strangers.  Some corporations recommend using POS guns to blow up your own arrays to deny enemies kill mails and loot.  This risk is offset by a POS gunner being a very easy skill for alts and newbies to learn yet be very valuable in even the most difficult of sieges.

Station Service

With the most recent round of industrial changes in Crius, there is very little reason to deny corp members access to your research and industry modules.

We allow Factory Manger, Rent Factory Facility and Rent Research Facility to everyone.

Accounting

One of the most boring clickfests in Eve is setting up the following tabs.   We match 7 titles to the seven divisions to allow pilots with that title to withdraw ISK from the relevant divisional wallet.

Hanger Access (Headquarters, Based at, Other)

Similarly, the titles we created for divisions are ticked for both Query and Take.  We do not distinguish between Headquarters (where your Corporation Officially calls Home), Based At (we have never used this), and Other.  Some station based corporations might be able make better use of these distinctions, not so much for POS based corporations.

We set up Headquarters, Based at and Other identically.

Container Access (Headquarters, Based at, Other)

Container Access is very similar to to Hanger Access, but this time with only take permission being required.  Again we set the 3 of these up identically.  Tired of your clickfest yet?

Check your settings

This is all the screens I use for setting up corp roles.  Unless you are far more methodical than I am, you will have made a mistake.  Fortunately there is a summary screen you can check with.  Edit your pilot again, and check the Role Summary.  Have you granted the permissions you think you should have?

Further reading

Here are fairly mundane links with reasonable descriptions

• https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Roles_and_access_rights
• http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Corporation_%28Corp_Mechanics%29 (Essentially the same information)

Information about corporation shares https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Shares.
Here are a couple of links that should serve as a wake up call to those that want to give too many permissions.

• A guide to Corporate Theft in Eve
• http://themittani.com/features/corner-office-guide-corporate-security

Disclaimer

#include <std.disclaimer>  I have taken care and tried to get this correct.  Maybe I have misunderstood some setting, or my directions are not clear.  Get an alt or a trusted pilot and try to do 'bad things' with these settings; possibly on the test server.

If you have set up industry corporations before, and spot any shortcomings/mistakes, please leave a comment.

If you are setting up industry corporations and have questions, please leave a comment or lurk in our FooPub chat channel.

PI Timer for EVE (android) - a shoutout

I recommend to PI extraction based pilots with an android device the PI Timer for Eve application.

I have manual methods to catch mistakes; but I still make them.

So, I on the lookout for any PI helper program that would identify any of my Pebkac issues; and have found this one.

I have been using this app now for 4 days.


On the first set of pilots I added, I had missed a timer that the app found.  This is a clear win for the app, and it now is part of my Eve experience.

A brief howto:

It could be easier to enter your API key.  One method is as follows

Log into http://community.eveonline.com
Probably on your PC, but certainly whatever you are reading this post on.


Go to http://community.eveonline.com/support/api-key/CreatePredefined?accessMask=8388610
This sets sets your API key appropriately; enabling CharacterInfo, AssetList.  Add a key name of anything; I have used PITimer but that is personal preference.

On your android device, with a web browser, log into  http://community.eveonline.com (if you are not already logged in)

Write down the key id field
Copy the key_id field with your android device; the chances of successfully retyping is comparable with 0%

Go to the PI Timer on your Android device:

• '"add chars"tab
• 'clear' (you need to see 'Input KeyID here' and 'Input VCode' here at the top of the screen
• type in your Key Id and paste your Verification code (I need to delete a couple of trailing spaces)
• wait a little
• "Monitor Times"
• Be suitably horrified at the planets you have missed

I still want to see:

PI timer for Eve is a good start, and I am now using it.

Allow me to change the notification noise.  I have changed the notification noise on my phone to silent simply to suppress this.  I don't mind notification noises while at keyboard playing Eve, I can cope with them at work, but don't want them while sleeping.

Other checks I would like, if possible:

• Routes (both incoming and outgoing) are missing.
• Some basic counter of 'out of goods' for manufacturing planets; eg you have enough mats in the colony for 12 hours, plus a trickle from either extraction or manufacturing but you have run out.
• A warning that your storage units are likely overfull.  This one might be even more tricky especially with extraction/initial refining.  I still would like it even with basic assumptions.

I would like an easier way to enter the API key;  Eve-Droid offers several methods, and it would be good if other android apps emulated them.  Methods include a link that opens a web browser on the EVE Api key and offers an 'install' button, to reading from named text files on your android app with the information.

Finally I cant work out how to customise the type of warning.  Ideally I would prefer a notification only, without any whistles or buzzing.  I can work around it.  I made default notifications silent.

I would love the writer of the app to do more; but he has produced a meaningful and valuable tool.   At the same time I am extracting more and spending less time working out what I need to reset.

So to the author (in game : Stjerna Kuuk), you have a donation expressing my thanks, and I look forward to future enhancements.

If you use or have written another program for PI (especially those that make good use of the API key) that you would like me to look at, please leave a comment.

Signature ID's to persist over downtime

CCP Masterplan

For those that didn't understand my cryptic tweet earlier, there is one more related change on Singularity as of a few hours ago:

When scanning down sites, the scan ID (ABC-123) should now be consistent across server downtimes. Ships should continue to have consistent scan IDs as before.
Aussie wormholers can have a beer to celebrate not having to rescan everything over downtimes :)

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=4915698#post4915698


An an Aussie that often tries to scan just before downtime, thank you CCP Masterplan

2 quick notes : c4 dual statics singularity and eve connection issues

C4 second statics available

 Thanks to a reddit comment, the second statics for C4's are available on singularity.  I don't mind the idea of dual statics in concept, but then remembered the rumour that C4's might have one static going to shallow wormhole space (c1-3), and one going to deep wormhole space (c4-6).

Think of what pilot wants a C1 static.  What ships can fit in there, and the type of PVP trouble/fun they are likely to have.  Now think of what pilot might want a c5 or c6 static, what ships, and the type of PVP trouble/fun they are likely to have.

Now imagine you currently have a c1 static, and are now getting a c5 or c6 static.

I like the idea of wormhole space becoming more populated.  Just at this moment, I am not sure how this is going to work.  Oh well, there are new wormholes, and new skills to learn.

Eve is down.

Just in case you didn't notice.  Or if you didn't notice, then Eve is probably back up again.

Tranquility will be rebooted and placed in VIP mode at 12:20 while troubleshooting occurs. This is a third party networking issue, and we're working with our partners to resolve it. Please ensure your characters are out of harms way as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

https://twitter.com/EVE_status

http://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/2dbrj7/server_eve_status_if_you_have_issues_connecting/

There is a large network outage affecting many players.  CCP decided this was unfair to those that could not connect, so have taken the server down into VIP mode.  Understandable, if somewhat inconvenient.
14:48: CCP Falcon explains VIP mode:

Would you consider it fair if you logged in after massive connection issues that lasted for hours for thousands of people only to find that your enemy could connect the whole time, and had reinforced or destroyed a huge chunk of your infrastructure?
Thought not, hence VIP.
:Smile:

POS introduction

The first thing you need to know about setting up an industry POS, is that one day you will be attacked.  The second thing you will note is the number of offline POS that are scattered around our universe.

The games skills you should to have for a POS are:

• Corporation Management 1+
• Anchoring 4 (reduced in Cruis)
• Starbase Defense Management 4 with 5 being ideal.

You also need someone reliable to log in every month to make sure your POS has fuel.  I have seen far too many players set up a POS, put expensive loot into various arrays, then let the fuel run out.  No fuel means no forcefield.  No forcefield means your loot is at the hand's of the loot fairy very quickly.

Different POS are good for different tasks.

Caldari :

• Best CPU, good for industry
• ECM bonus, good for 'Dickstar'
• Worst powergrid, not so good for guns
• Bonused weapons are missiles requiring CPU.  CPU is unavailable if you are re-inforced, i.e. exactly the times you need weapons.  
• Fuel generally 5% more expensive than the others

 Amarr :

• Best powergrid, so best if you want a weapon heavy installation
• Worst CPU, not so good for industry

Gallente and Minmatar are middle of the road towers, with generally cheaper POS fuel.

A small tower of any type is cheap to run, and offers defence against a couple of bored frigates.  If you happen to be in highsec, Concord will protect your POS until you are wardecced, but that is about it.

A large tower, properly configured in any of the defensive strategies, is a harder nut to crack without dreadnoughts, so in Highsec or C1-C4 have a little more survivability.  Capital class ships are designed to break towers, and while a good configuration can delay and even assist in defence, your POS will want assistance.  I don't play in null, but if I know that Capitals to bad things to POS, I strongly suspect that Super Capitals are not kind either.

If you want to be attacked, have a small POS full of industry modules without any defences of any kind.  This applies in all areas of EVE.

The best defences that even a faction large tower can give you will not guarantee protection, but with the number of undersized and 'bravely' configured POS, it is fairly easy to become harder than the next POS over to attack.  Don't be the clearly rich, easiest target on the block.

With larger POS, comes increased fuel costs.  POS fuel is expensive.  In highsec, you will need 'charters' from the faction's space you are in.  These charters cost peanuts in comparison to POS fuel.

Assuming a highsec pure industry POS of whatever size and race, should have anchored the following items:

• Racial guns (unless Caldari) sufficient so that when you offline all industry, you can fill your powergrid with modules that don't use CPU.  That is, no room for missiles here.
• A Caldari tower should have a full set of another races weapons
• Small fast batteries are of 'situational' use (Small Pulse Laser Battery, Small Blaster Battery, Small Autocannon Battery).  Even smaller ships may be able to find places to attack your POS that these short range guns can't reach.
• Fill your offline guns with ammunition, covering as many damage types as your guns allow.  You may need to online guns, fill with ammo, then offline again.  This can be done from the safety of your POS forcefield
• There is no such thing as too many guns.  Guns (not missiles) can be onlined even when you are re-inforced.
• Shield hardening arrays.  Like most items in Eve, you have 2 resist holes; fill these first.
• Energy Neutralisers are 'expensive' (cpu/powergrid), but a few of these can mess up a logistics or Capital ship's day. 
• ECM, especially on a Caldari tower (bonused), covering all races

You want easy access to spares of all of the above. Strontium Clathrates gives you up to 41.7 hours time to realise you have a problem, depending on how much stront you fill your bay with.

If you are anywhere but highsec, you want a sizable portion of your above defences online.  Even in highsec, any spare powergrid should be filled with online guns.

As an 'order of magnitude' budget for an industry POS, as of mid 2014, for a T1 POS I would allow :

• Large POS : 1B setup plus 500M/month for fuel
• Medium POS : 500M setup plus 250M/month for fuel
• Small POS :250M setup plust 125M/month for fuel

Faction towers are more expensive initially, but have lower fuel requirements, and more shield/armor.  Faction modules are also available. Faction towers and modules are remarkable, as in I find myself asking corp members about these faction towers, and what they are hiding, so I can only wonder what they do to those that hunt POS.

As a disclaimer, I am not the foremost expert on attacking or defending POS.  I have been sieged and survived, and have blown up many offline POS.  I have read what has worked for others, and what has not worked.  I invite those that know better to share their wisdom, whether that be as comments or as links to other articles.


Other reading material:

• http://eve.1019.net/pos/ is a slightly out of date EFT like POS planner.  I use the Corporate Hanger Array to simulate a Personal Hanger array; the refining arrays are now called reprocessing arrays, and the Medium Intensive Refining array has become the new compression array.
• http://web.archive.org/web/20121002040835/http://talocanunited.com/wordpress/setting-up-your-pos-designing (Website sadly gone, but the way back machine to the rescue)
• http://vonkeigai.blogspot.com/2014/03/sieged.html
• http://localectomy.blogspot.com/2014/07/pos-nomenclature.html Language warning but still worth the read for two things : His description of the various POS setups, but also for what he looks for in targets.
• http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/POS_Setup, with some qualifications. Towers can be added to most highsec systems.  Standings are no longer required, but a player corporation at least a week old is needed to set up a POS.  I am also not certain I agree with all of the roles descriptions.

I intend to write a series on POS.  The road to hell is paved with good intentions.