The April MER and Mining and Ratting

CCP got us the Monthly Economic Report for April 2020.  These seem to be dropping later in the month this year, but at least we’re still getting them.

EVE Online nerds harder

This was a report I was waiting for as it will show us the impact of the last round of mining changes, the removal of common ore and mineral types from moon mining.  That change went in at the end of March, so April is the first time we will be able to see any repercussions.

April also saw the Surgical Strike update, which made super carrier ratting less viable, so we can see if that had an impact on NPC bounty numbers as well.

But mining first.

All that scarcity appears to be working, at least when it comes to mineral prices.  Those continued a sharp rise in April.

April 2020 – Economic Indices

That continued rise in prices is now looks like it could reach an all time high, as the long term chart shows.

April 2020 – Economic Indices – All Time

The all time peaks look like they hit in 2012… I am not sure what was going on at those two moments… but the trend looks like we are heading there again.

Interestingly, not all of the indices are following the mineral price spike.  The primary producer price index (PPPI) is climbing somewhat with the mineral spike.  But the PPPI has ore prices as one of its components.  Here is what makes up the PPPI:

• Ore
• Planetary Processed Materials
• Planetary Refined Commodities
• Planetary Specialized Commodities

The consumer price index (CPI) however has remained flat.  Here is what makes up the CPI:

• Ammo
• Commodities
• Drones
• Implants
• Skills
• Starbase structures
• Tech I modules
• Tech I ships
• Tech II modules

That list feels like it needs to be updated as there are some items with very little price variation there.  While there are a few skills that are drops, the influence of those outliers no doubt gets hidden by the vast sea of skills with very static pricing.  You can buy most skills straight from your character sheet so you cannot even get gouged on standard skills any more unless you really want to be.

The flat line of the CPI also seems to indicate that maybe we’re working off supply further down the production pipeline.  Realistically, if mineral prices are going up, ship and module prices should be as well… people are complaining that tech II guns are tough to find in Jita, so those prices should be spiking… but the line remains flat.  Perhaps the CPI going up is what CCP is waiting for.

And then there is the secondary producer price index (SPPI), which is trending on an almost reciprocal line to mineral prices.  The SPPI is made up of:

• Blueprints
• Commodity
• Planetary Commodities
• Planetary Refined Commodities
• Planetary Specialized Commodities

That is mostly planetary interaction output, which hasn’t been touched by CCP recently.  Demand there appears to be going down as the mineral drought throttles production.

Going as planned?  We shall see.

Meanwhile, looking at the mining numbers by region, it is starting to look like a high sec activity.

April 2020 – Mining Value by Region – Bar Graph

The total mined overall was 31.58 trillion ISK worth (a number inflated by the rise in mineral prices), with the  top ten regions by value mined in April being:

1. Delve – 1.81 trillion
2. Domain – 1.64 trillion
3. The Forge – 1.59 trillion
4. Oasa – 1.35 trillion
5. Sinq Laison – 1.34 trillion
6. Lonetrek – 1.15 trillion
7. Fountain – 911 billion
8. Metropolis – 888 billion
9. Genesis – 878 billion
10. Tash-Murkon – 869 billion

That list is three null sec regions Delve, Fountain, and Oasa (2x Imperium and 1x PandaFam), and seven high sec regions. (Those seven are also close to trade hubs.)

If you go back to November of last year, six months back, before all of this kicked off and after the Chaos Era had ended, the top ten regions for mining were flipped the other way around, with seven null sec regions and three high sec regions.

1. Delve – 4.55 trillion
2. Esoteria – 2.43 trillion
3. Outer Passage – 2.00 trillion
4. Querious – 1.39 trillion
5. Domain – 1.14 trillion
6. The Forge – 993 billion
7. Malpais – 953 billion
8. The Kalevala Expanse – 910 billion
9. Feythabolis – 781 billion
10. Sinq Laison – 737 billion

So the mineral squeeze, the starvation diet, the diminution of asteroid yields, and the removal of common ore and minerals from null sec seems to be having an effect.  And CCP is still looking for loopholes.  Earlier this week they removed asteroids from combat anomalies, just in case you were tempted to rat and mine at the same time.

Which brings us to ratting and NPC bounties.  As mentioned above, April saw the Surgical Strike update launched, which reduced the effectiveness of shield and armor resistance modules.  This was ostensibly put in place to make more capital ships explode… there were additional nerfs aimed straight at supers and titans… but which also had an impact on PvE as well.  Your mission running, abyssal pocket, and ratting fits all took a hit, and so NPC bounties fell.

April 2020 – Top Sinks and Faucets Over Time

A total of 50.46 trillion ISK in NPC bounties were collected in April, with the top ten regions being:

1. Delve – 5.79 trillion
2. Oasa – 4.47 trillion
3. Perrigen Falls – 3.02 trillion
4. Fountain – 2.54 trillion
5. Cobalt Edge – 2.50 trillion
6. Branch – 1.91 trillion
7. Esoteria – 1.90 trillion
8. Omist – 1.87 trillion
9. Tenal – 1.62 trillion
10. Malpais – 1.58 trillion

Compare that to March, where 58.26 trillion ISK in NPC bounties were paid out.  The top ten regions for March were:

1. Delve – 7.91 trillion
2. Oasa – 7.14 trillion
3. Perrigen Falls – 3.71 trillion
4. Cobalt Edge – 3.07 trillion
5. Omist – 2.93 trillion
6. Tenal – 2.84 trillion
7. Esoteria – 2.11 trillion
8. Fountain – 2.09 trillion
9. Feythabolis – 1.92 trillion
10. Branch – 1.80 trillion

Every region on the April list is down compared to their March numbers.  This was likely due to fewer super carriers out ratting after the update.  Super carriers had long been pretty much invulnerable to subcaps, requiring a dreadnought fleet to take one down reliably. (The dreadbomb.)  Now, with the resistance changes and fighters applying less effectively to subcaps, they are now vulnerable.

While the dip in NPC bounties doesn’t seem that big, it only represents a partial month of change.  I expect that the May numbers will show a further decline as the state of NPC bounties and ratting adjusts to the new normal.  There is a lot of that going around.

So it goes.

As always, the full monthly economic report has a lot more data and many more charts than what I post here, so if you are interested in the details you can dig into it.