This month’s update for EVE Online, YC119.3, brings some significant changes to New Eden.
I am once again content to use CCP’s logo for the update
The Rorqual and its capabilities are once again in the sights of CCPs nerf gun. The industrial capital ship, which long languished in POSes across low and null sec space as an AFK booster for mining ops, was given a serious boost of its own with the Ascension expansion back in November. Suddenly its new mining drones were the path to wealth in null sec. Even after the previous nerf to mining yields, Rorquals from Delve to Cobalt Edge were still out making bank according to the February economic report.
February 2017 report mining value by region
This was bringing down mineral prices thus, according to Dinsdale Pirannah, who I am going to troll on this front (“Trolling Detected” tag deployed), depriving high sec miners their inalienable right to grown rich by mining veldspar two jumps out of Jita. (Note the mining value of the high sec regions around Jita, Lonetrek and The Forge, on that chart.)
So, despite the likely overall net benefit of making production cheaper and lowering prices for all (plus the insane nearly 103 trillion ISK negative trade balance Delve, the mining capital of New Eden, was running on that report, which means that ISK was likely enriching high sec, not impoverishing it) that had to be fixed!
Okay, the Rorqual has been too much of a money printing machine of late, but I wanted to point out that the economics aren’t as simple as “high sec loses.” So now the billion ISK mining drones that Rorquals use (which will also now provide kill mails) will have higher skill requirements to get tech II benefits, while a change to spread out the asteroids in mining belts and anoms means that drone round trip time will effectively reduce yield. This will reduce overall productivity of the Rorqual by an estimated 25%.
High sec has been protected from belt spread by having the lock ranges of mining barges increased proportional to the change.
Meanwhile, the invulnerable PANIC jump hictor usage of the Rorqual has been curtailed a bit, as the ship now needs to have an asteroid locked in order to activate its PANIC module. So long as Jay can keep his super carriers out of asteroid belts, this should improve his quality of life.
Also on the null sec nerf parade is carrier ratting, likely the greatest source of individual null sec wealth. (If CCP is controlled by Goons, how come they can’t stop this?) Fighter signature radii are being increased and NPCs will view them as more threatening, thus making fighters both easier to hit and more likely to be targeted in the first place. The range of responses I have seen to this change have gone from “carrier ratting is dead” to “no big deal if you pay attention.”
Since I haven’t mined in ages and still rat in an Ishtar, neither of these changes make a difference to me personally, but the drama around the changes has been mildly entertaining. And fighters are getting a UI pass as well, so maybe I’ll figure out how to use them properly some day.
Another big change coming up for null sec relates to mobile warp disruptors, or anchorable bubbles as I generally hear them called. (I love when player terminology deviates from the official terminology.) Up until today, these things lasted forever once you dropped them, were a pain to shoot, had enough passive regen to make them somewhat proof against solo attacks, and after all that work didn’t even provide a freakin’ kill mail. Each of these items has been addressed in some way.
The biggest deal is that bubbles will die of their own accord when left in space. The timers are:
- Two days for all T1 bubbles
- One week for all T2 bubbles
- Two weeks for all Syndicate bubbles
Meanwhile, hit points have been reduced, regen has been toned down, and they now provide kill mails. Let the bubble holocaust begin! Also, the updates entry for these changes uses a screen shot I took at 319 station in Delve back in 2012.
319 Station, Many Bubbles Ago
Then there is a great big change to scanners and probes and that interface. That has really been a work in progress since I started player, but maybe this time for sure! I will have to see it in action to see if it makes any difference to my own indifferent scanning skills.
I mentioned the change to the Caldari Cormorant destroyer in a post last week, but the Caldari Chimera carrier is also getting a new look. We will see how the former sits with me once it is live in space. The latter… well the old model always looked like some sort of amphibian life that was trying to wade ashore, so I suppose it couldn’t get much worse… could it?
Those are what I think are the big items coming with today’s update, which has been deployed. For further details the patch notes and updates page are both available. And, as always, it isn’t an EVE Online release/update without another music track to go with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment