Corporations
From Starport: Galactic Empires
Corporations are teams of characters, working together to create the winning empire. Corporate partners can share ownership of Colonies and Defenses. Weapons fired by your corporate partners or defenses won't hurt you. Corporations have a maximum number of players, usually 5, but it can be different in different galaxies. The founding member is the CEO. He has control over the corporate password and the ability to remove any members. CEO's are also the only characters qualified to own the Corporate Flagship, one of the better Spaceships in the game.
If you are not a member of a corporation, you can join one by getting the corporate password from a CEO of an existing corporation, or you can start your own and be the CEO.
You might not want to put all your eggs into the corporate basket, so to speak. You may want to maintain some personal holdings that only you know about and don't share with your corporate partners. If you are in a corporation and want to place down personal colonies or defenses, you can do this by temporarily resigning from the corporation, placing down your items, and then re-joining the corporation.
If you had holdings before you joined or formed the corporation, they will remain personal, unless you decide to give them to your corporation. You can give colonies to your corporation using the /givecolony text command while inside the biodome of the colony you wish to give. As long as you are a member of the corporation when you lay down a defense or colony, it will be designated as a corporate holding and friendly to other members. You can change colonies that you placed from corporate to personal ownership using the /takecolony command.
A word to the wise CEO about corporate security: Be careful who you give out your corporate password to. Not all captains deserve your trust, and some of them could even be spies. It's also wise to change your corporate password frequently, or at least when you admit a new member. That way you can be sure only you, the CEO, knows the password. If one of your mates needs the password to leave the corp and come back, change the password to something temporary for him, and then change it back to the real password that only you know after he is done.
When corporate colonies generate experience, the experience awarded is divided amongst the members of the corporation.
When a member of the corporation leaves the corporation, either by voluntary resignation or by the CEO removing him, that character is not allowed to invade colonies owned by his former corporation until two days have passed. Also, when a member becomes no longer part of the corporation, he takes with him any corporate colonies that he himself originally founded and those colonies are removed from corporate control.
Contractors
Members of corporations may hire other players to serve as contractors for their corporation. This is accomplished by hailing the person and offering them contract status in the trade interface. Contractors may share fire with members of that corp for fighting together, and may also land on corporate colonies. On colonies, contractors are only allowed to use the refinery building and none others. Contractor status may be terminated by any member of the corporation or by the contractor using the Corporate Info screen.
A corporation may have a maximum number of contractors equal to three times the maximum number of members. Each character may only contract for up to three other corporations. A reflexive alliance may be formed between members of two different corporations by both players serving as contractors for each other's corporation.
