You see our dilemma.

Since the PC Dev blog it's been the elephant in room. How does a corp coming from a tradition of neutrality work in a game where there is nothing Neutral.

I'm sure there is a solution we just have find it. But I strongly feel that we should be transparent with the community with such an important matter.

The problem is that PC potentially is a large source of ISK for Dust Corps and we aren't going to be able to have a piece of the pie at the moment.

I agree with this, it will maintain your neutrality as long as you show no favoritism. Have a set fee per student for PCs that is open to anyone looking for people and have whoever is online take up those contracts, this would also benefit anyone who might have trouble fielding the full team they need. As far as I know few corps would have the renown or the size to fill such a role, small corps could possibly fill the PC slots of larger ones if they are short but unless corps take on smaller ones as fill-in alliances but then it is hard to know who is actually have decent and who isn't (let alone find them).

I am concerned about allowing the community to influence this decision too much. Please reflect on the reasons the Uni no longer holds sovereignty in New Eden and allow the wisdom of past experiences be the major deciding factor. Though I commend you for including the community in this discussion. The fact is there is a reason the Uni does not hold sovereignty and I truly believe those same reason will apply to owning districts as well.

And I'll admit, this is my main concern...that and exposure to the new mechanic...

Anyone acting like holding a district or two is somehow 'violating neutrality', is forgetting three things:

1) Dust 514 is not persistent like EVe online is.
2) There are plenty of ways to make a ton of ISK in Eve without holding any territory, while Dusts main source will be the districts.
3) holding ONE district is not going to affect anything so long as D Uni is strict about keeping it to one.

My comments are in regards to their ability to maintain neutrality and maintain the Uni culture. How they finance themselves in not my problem and has historically been through donations. Not tech moons or ratting or other forms of income that sovereignty would provide. PConquest is equall to sovereignty as far as I'm concerned and I do not believe the Uni can justify holding it here.

Though there are great suggestions already posted such as having the uni participate in a mercenary like fashion.

Did we just suggest the same thing at the same time?

I don't think we want to ask for favoritism from CCP..........that would nuke neutrality.....lol

The school corps can pick their own planet and set of districts, declare their intention, and go at it. Those that support the schools can help regulate interference from the community. The schools evolved from the players and should be managed by the players.

The player generated content surrounding this looks really interesting. I can see rogue corps attacking a school but that would provide experience for them. If it becomes overwhelming then stronger corps could step in.

The key is that it couldn't just be Dust University. There would need to be two, or better yet, three "colleges" in order to ensure a good supply of battles within the "training" context. In addition, having a balanced trio would reinforce the neutrality of all of the colleges involved.

You don't think its feasible that university members could be used to fill holes in a corp match?

I would imagine that would depend on the size/power of the corp involved. If it's a big protofest then you're right...but if it's a smaller corp trying to maintain a footprint in New Eden...possibly we could help.

Might I suggest that the leadership of DU (and indeed perhaps Ivy League) reach out to CEOs of the biggest corps out there. You don't necessarily need anything more than their assurance that their corp will support your plan to have a 'Training Planet'.

Indeed the street goes both ways. Provide quality training to prospective new Mercs and farm them out to big corps with the resources to use them and you will likely find those corps willing to provide ringers to protect your Districts from so called 'rogue' corps.

DU/EU fills a fundamentally necessary role in New Eden, the learning curve is exceptionally steep in the case of both games (sometimes I almost pity little redberries as I kill them two or three at a time.) A basic education and some mentoring is necessary for the majority of players out there who may be unwilling or unable to do their 'homework' and learn about this game.

Essentially you are 'selling' your education, by providing competent Mercs to established corps.
Again as long as you don't favour one corp over another (perhaps bidding on mercs could take place)
you shouldn't have a problem with neutrality.

I don't think CCP would go for it and I really don't think this is the way to go anyways. It isn't "fair" to all of the other corps out there. Just because D-UNI and a couple of other bigger 'training' corps are known, I'm sure there are a few smaller ones that only have a few members and trying to start out. It wouldn't be fair for them to not get their own free districts.

Also, it would just open up a can of worms because if they were to get to the size of D-UNI they would want their own districts also and so on and so forth.

Besides, we wouldn't want any college to get branded with the BoB taint, deserved or not.