The Cloudhunter Challenge.
Not sure if anyone who follows the podcast or read the blog has heard of me talking about our member named Cloudhunter. He is a guy from a null sec corp who almost quit EVE because the guys from his null sec group yelled at him for undocking for pvp without a fleet/plain.
He showed the will to fight, even out numbered, even when winning wasn't certain. He got my attention with a reddit post about that very story. I sent him a private message and asked him to join us, because that is exactly the kind of members we like. The rest is history.
Well, he devised what we are now calling "The Cloudhunter Challenge". He didn't call it that at first but it has become a right of passage for all new recruits or potential recruits since Dan Hour (the star of part 1).
A little history. SUSU is a pvp wormhole corp, and up until recently you could never really get the pulse of a new member by anything other than his past deeds. You had to evaluate his previous kill boards with a fine tooth comb try and make your best guess on future actions based on previous actions. We still do to an extent, but its not the only way we judge a new recruit as being useful or not.
Some times we would recruit people who just wanted to pve, not scan, or lounge around in the pos while other people do real work. The work of creating content for each other. It takes a special kind of player to be able to have the confidence to do things solo, to find holes solo, to be crafty enough to bribe your way into a situation and infiltrate a hole.
Worse, we would get people who didn't want to actually lose ships in pvp. How do you have a pvp corp filled with people who didn't scan or lose ships?! Well Cloudhunter took note and reminded me of my own words and used Dan Hour as an example.
Enter "The Cloudhunter Challenge"
Come in, kill us or be killed by us, put forward the effort to get it done and laugh about it after it was over. The type of player SUSU is after, a content generator threw and threw. So, instead of what was done in the past, each time I receive a application email, I give them the same canned response.
So far its worked beautifully.
We have found that it not only weeds out lazy people, but it weeds out would be thieves. Think about it, you are trying for a quick nab of ships from an SMA, now you are required to do work? Most thieves will simply look for easier pickins.
The Cloudhunter challenge does a bunch of things.
1. Shows they know how to shoot a gun at something other than a red cross.
2. Shows they know how to be sneaky. Very useful for the would be scouts.
3. Shows they don't mind losing ships in pvp.
4. Brings content to our members. Whats better than people coming to fight us in our own wormhole?!
So far in the time TCC has been in play, I can clearly say, it has dissuaded two thieves, two guys who had no real intentions of ever being effective members and brought us new useful members. Below are some examples of actual applications from people.
Example of How NOT to apply to our corp.
WH
From: Bodhi Sattva
Sent: 2013.10.22 20:46
To: Longinius Spear
we are looking to join somone in a WH
wonder if you are looking for people to join you
if so
what is your J#
fly safe
bodhi
Re: WH
From: Longinius Spear
Sent: 2013.10.22 21:30
To: Bodhi Sattva,
Who is "we" other than yourself?
Re: Re: WH
From: Bodhi Sattva
Sent: 2013.10.22 21:36
To: Longinius Spear
myself and a corp mate
my corp is on a bit of a hiatus and he and i really dig WH life
we lost our hole due to RL.....ceo gone and internet issues
looking to ally with a new corp/ alliance
do WH activities with some cool people
fly safe and let me know what else you would like to know
bodhi
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Re: Re: WH
From: Longinius Spear
Sent: 2013.10.22 22:03
To: Bodhi Sattva,
If you want to join us, here is how. I'm not making this up, this is legit how we recruit.
We used to bring people and interview them with API's and whatever. We still do that...
But....
We have changed our recruiting practices a little. We added some extra fun to the process. We are requiring all new applicants to come into our home and kill us, or try to.
You may think this is above your reach. But I'm not putting any level of rules to it. Use whatever means necessary to get it done. Locators, spies, bribes, our enemies, hell... our friends. Many of our members will just tell you the way in, cause we're bored. Some won't, I can't speak for all of them... but I can insure you.. all of them are sneaky. Come in and kill us.
This proves a few things that is a growing concern for new members.
1. You'r willing to lose a space ship and you don't care how.
2. You have the skills for scouting and infiltration. The bread and butter of our corp.
3. You have a sense of humor.
4. Your crafty and will bring content to our little family.
-- GL. Email your kill or loss mail from inside our hole we will then continue the interviewing process.
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Re: Re: Re: WH
From: Bodhi Sattva
Sent: 2013.10.23 08:21
To: Longinius Spear
sounds fun
need to know you j# and POCO tax rate first
Re: Re: Re: WH
From: Longinius Spear
Sent: 2013.10.23 16:38
To: Bodhi Sattva,
Our tax rate is 0. Our J# isn't hard to figure out.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: WH
From: Bodhi Sattva
Sent: 2013.10.23 17:36
To: Longinius Spear
is there a lomit as to what ship i can bring......just frigs....we one on one????
i have no clue what your J# is?????
i am a bit inactive so if you could tell me????
let me know the rules ans i will build a ship and come in to fight
\o/
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From: Longinius Spear
To: Bodhi Sattva
"i am a bit inactive so if you could tell me????"To: Bodhi Sattva
Than why would we want you in our corp?
We make these challenges for a reason. We use them to 'weed out' ... In-actives. People who don't know how to scout or hunt. We are a pvp corp. We want pvpers. Not people who aren't.
I'm sorry to put it to you so bluntly but I don't think you're following what we are asking of you.
Also, whats with the "English is my 3rd language" responses?
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Example of How TO apply to our corp
Joining SUSU
From: Tiliyana
Sent: 2013.10.22 01:11
To: Longinius Spear,
Hey Longinius. I talked with you in comms a few months back about joining SUSU but then I took a short break from eve. You may not remember me, but I was told about you guys by Lotor. I'm back and I'm still interested in joining SUSU if you're still looking for people.
I never really got much into pvp, which is too bad because it was the aspect of the game that interested me in the first place, but I'm ready to go for it.
I've talked with Lotor and I've listened to the podcast enough that I know SUSU is where I'd like to be and I'm sure I can be valuable asset to the corp. I thought I'd send you evemail and get a dialogue going.
Let me know if you'd like an api or something else.
Re: Joining SUSU
From: Longinius Spear
Sent: 2013.10.22 03:18
To: Semper Ubi Sub Ubi, Tiliyana,
Awesome. !
We have changed our recruiting practices a little. We added some extra fun to the process. We are requiring all new applicants to come into our home and kill us, or try to.
You may think this is above your reach. But I'm not putting any level of rules to it. Use whatever means necessary to get it done. Locators, spies, bribes, our enemies, hell... our friends. Come in and kill us.
This proves a few things that is a growing concern for new members.
1. Your willing to lose a space ship and you don't care how.
2. You have the skills for scouting. The bread and butter of our corp.
3. You have a sense of humor.
4. Your crafty and will bring content to our little family.
-- GL. Email your kill or loss mail from inside our hole we will then continue the interviewing process.
--- Spear
Re: Re: Joining SUSU
From: Tiliyana
Sent: 2013.10.23 05:23
To: Longinius Spear
Hey Spear. I hope you don't mind, but I have a friend who is interested as well, Kremit. I figured same rules would apply to him. So we made it to your home and had some fun:
Kill: Bronya Boga (Hurricane)
Kill: Kremit (Drake)
Kill: Tiliyana (Thorax)
Let me know what's next for us :)
From: Longinius Spear
To: Tiliyana, Bronya Boga
Nice work!!To: Tiliyana, Bronya Boga
Next step is you jumping on coms with us. Ask Bronya Boga for our coms info.
I look forward to hearing the story!
-- Spear
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Re: Re: Joining SUSU
