So the previous two posts I have done about the EVE Online Monthly Economic Report were specifically to call out baseline numbers against which to measure the changes CCP made in March and April updates.
Last week we got the April MER so we can see if anything changed. I began in February with NPC bounties, the biggest faucet in the game, so I will start there to see what happened.
Actually, even with the March report NPC bounties seemed to be going down, and the Top Sinks and Faucets chart seems to bear that out, that bounties were down.
April 2019 – Top Sinks and Faucets over time
The looks… promising. Numbers were down a lot in March as the update changed anomaly spawn times, continuing in April as that update hit fighter damage application to subcaps and the VNI got reeled back in a bit.
April 2019 – ISK Sinks and Faucets
The Sinks and Faucets chart for April shows NPC bounties ringing in at 57.2 trillion ISK, which is down from the almost 70 trillion ISK in bounties paid out back in February. The listing of bounties by region also shows some decreases.
April 2019 – NPC Bounties by Region
In Delve, the benchmark region that is always at the top of the list, NPC bounties were down by almost 3 trillion ISK in April when compared to the February numbers. Branch, however, was up over the same period of time and, at 6.7 trillion ISK in bounties, appears to be racing to catch up to Delve. So while there were fluctuations in the bounties across regions, it wasn’t universally down even if April rang in at only 82% of the February overall numbers.
That is a lot, but might be accounted for, at least in part, by other factors. And, of course, the question remains as to whether or not that was enough of a drop?
And then there is mining. Nerfs for that went in with the April update, specifically the yield of excavator drones, as well as some changes to the dynamics of Rorquals and their drones. I highlighted the data from the March MER to give a before picture.
The initial chart looks pretty positive that this change had some impact.
April 2019 – Mining Value by Region
Delve, ever my benchmark region for economic excesses, was down considerably. The March report showed 13.5 trillion ISK worth of ore mined in the region, while in April that number was down to 9.8 trillion ISK. Going to the raw data to get the totals for all of New Eden showed the following:
- Feb mining – 56.1 trillion ISK
- Mar mining – 58.9 trillion ISK
- Apr mining – 46.3 trillion ISK
With April ringing in at less than 80% of the March totals, it looks like there was some impact.
April 2019 – Economic Indices
Mineral pricing remained fairly flat in April. That means that the decrease in the value of mined ore wasn’t due to a drop in mineral pricing. However, it also seems to mean that the flow of ore was not stemmed sufficiently for demand to cause prices to rise.
So, as with the NPC bounties, we are left to wonder if there was enough of a correct to have any substantive impact on the overall economy of New Eden. (I also wonder about a couple of discrepancies in the data. Depending on which spreadsheet I pull data from, bounties may have been a bit higher and mining a bit lower.)
Next month the report for May should show some additional changes in output for both bounties and mining. As I noted yesterday, the Imperium is deploying for a war and has started moving north en masse. This means that the defensive umbrella in Delve will be mostly absent, save for a structure killing subcap fleet. Smart Imperium pilots won’t venture out to rat and mine, while the ignorant or oblivious will be targets for hunters who will no doubt flock to the region in search of easy prey.
When the biggest producing region in New Eden goes on a road trip, the numbers are bound to fall, which will give me something to look at when the May report shows up.
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