The November MER Shows Bounties Tanking and Mineral Prices Plateauing in EVE Online

CCP released the EVE Online Monthly Economic Report for November 2020 late last week, so it is time to see where the war and CCP’s nerfs are having an impact.

EVE Online nerds harder

NPC Bounties

I want to start with the biggest impact, which came with NPC bounties, long the largest ISK faucet in the game.  On November 10th CCP launched the Dynamic Bounty System and the mandatory Encounter Surveillance System changes, both aimed squarely at turning down the ISK faucet.

And how did that work out?  Direct hit maybe?  Look at the chart.

Nov 2020 – Top Sinks and Faucets Over Time

NPC bounties fell as far in November as they ever have on that chart, dipping down into the region of the Chaos Era experiments of summer 2019.  Even though the nerf only hit the last two thirds of the month, the numbers were telling when compared to October.

October 2020 vs. November 2020 faucets

You may need to click on that chart above to read the numbers, but you’ll see that NPC Bounties dropped off by 24 trillion ISK in November, allowing NPC Commodities… which is mostly wormhole income, with some Abyssal deadspace turn-ins… to jump to the top of the chart.  In fact, NPC Commodities and Incursion Payouts both jumped in November, almost as though people were looking for other channels to earn ISK.

As for where the bounties were being claimed, most of the usual suspects are in the top ten, but most took a hit.

1. Oasa – 4.10 trillion (PandaFam) 66% of October
2. Cobalt Edge – 2.17 trillion (PandaFam) 60% of October
3. Perrigen Falls – 1.99 trillion (PandaFam) 69% of October
4. Branch – 1.95 trillion (PandaFam) 46% of October
5. Fountain – 1.88 trillion (Imperium) 115% of October
6. Vale of the Silent – 1.80 trillion (mixed small groups) 71% of October
7. The Kalevala Expanse – 1.77 trillion (PandaFam) 79% of October
8. Detorid – 1.41 trillion (Legacy) 72% of October
9. Insmother – 1.34 trillion (Legacy) 65% of October
10. Tenal – 1.24 trillion (PandaFam) 70% of October

The one region that was up was Fountain, which wasn’t in the top ten in October.  I think that is where The Initiative was doing some ratting, though it might have been LowSechnaya Sholupen, which holds the constellations close to Aridia.

Overall the regional totals added up to 39.3 trillion ISK, down from 55.9 trillion ISK in October.  And, yes, those numbers do not match the ones on those bar graphs above because CCP calculates the numbers differently in different areas.  My total for regions comes from the raw data in the regionalstats.csv file that comes with the report.

Mining

Mining is still living with the nerfs from earlier that are keeping mineral prices at or near their all time high.

Nov 2020 – Economic Indices – Long Term

If you look at the short term indices chart, you can see a slight dip in November relative to the October peak.

Nov 2020 – Economic Indices

But that is mostly likely just the market prices stabilizing after the shock of the huge nerf to mining.  Minerals remain expensive and rare.

The top regions for mining remain mostly high sec.

1. The Forge – 1.37 trillion (High Sec)
2. Metropolis – 1.26 trillion (High Sec)
3. Domain – 1.22 trillion (High Sec)
4. Oasa – 1.20 trillion (PandaFam)
5. Sinq Laison – 979 billion (High Sec)
6. Lonetrek – 874 billion (High Sec)
7. Tash-Murkon – 793 billion (High Sec)
8. Derelik – 739 billion (High Sec)
9. Essence – 669 billion (High Sec)
10. The Citadel – 665 billion (High Sec)

A total of 23.7 trillion ISK in mineral value was mined in November, down from the 28.68 trillion ISK in value mined in October.  The new mining meta is to sit in high sec in a brick tanked Orca and AFK mine with drones.

Production

The top regions for production in November were:

1. The Forge – 21.59 trillion (High Sec)
2. Delve – 11.62 trillion (Imperium)
3. Lonetrek – 7.13 trillion (High Sec)
4. Sinq Laison – 5.88 trillion (High Sec)
5. The Citadel – 5.79 trillion (High Sec)
6. Domain – 4.89 trillion (High Sec)
7. Esoteria – 4.08 trillion (Legacy)
8. Tribute – 3.89 trillion (mixed small groups)
9. Oasa – 3.51 trillion (PandaFam)
10. Vale of the Silent – 2.94 trillion (mixed small groups)

Total production added up to 115 trillion ISK in value, largely concentrated in the high sec regions around Jita (The Forge, Lonetrek, and The Citadel), the main trade hub.  That is down from the 122.78 trillion ISK in production that happened in October.  Delve, focal point of the war, was down more than 6 trillion ISK, accounting for almost half the drop in monthly production in New Eden.

Trade Value

The top regions for trade value in November were:

1. The Forge – 439.5 trillion (Jita)
2. Domain – 55.46 trillion (Amarr)
3. Delve – 22.79 trillion (Imperium)
4. Sinq Laison – 20.93 trillion (Dodixie)
5. Lonetrek – 14.63 trillion (Caldari High Sec)
6. Metropolis – 10.13 trillion (Hek)
7. Heimatar – 9.70 trillion (Rens)
8. Essence – 5.07 trillion (Gallente High Sec)
9. The Citadel – 4.43 trillion (Caldari High Sec)
10. Insmother – 3.74 trillion (Legacy)

Jita remains the dominate numbers, accounting for 70% of the 629 trillion ISK in trading done in New Eden in November.  Amarr remains the strongest among the lesser hubs, holding onto its number two spot even after having the short route to Jita cut by the Triglavian invasion.  Delve was down about 2 trillion ISK in value, though the destruction numbers in the region were down considerably, so there were likely just less ships that needed to be replaced.

Destruction

Finally, the impact of the war, which was being fought for its second month in Delve.  The top ten regions for destruction were:

1. Delve – 4.50 trillion (Imperium)
2. The Forge – 2.04 trillion (High Sec)
3. The Citadel – 1.93 trillion (High Sec)
4. Lonetrek – 1.65 trillion (High Sec)
5. Sinq Laison – 1.36 trillion (High Sec)
6. Metropolis – 1.31 trillion (High Sec)
7. Oasa – 1.11 trillion (PandaFam)
8. Heimatar – 1.04 trillion (High Sec)
9. Esoteria – 1.01 trillion (Legacy)
10. Syndicate – 961 billion (NPC Null Sec)

Destruction overall was down from 45 trillion ISK in October to 40 trillion ISK in November.  The largest regional drop was in Delve, which saw 10.89 trillion ISK in destruction in October, largely due to the Keepstar fights in NPC Delve, to a mere 4.5 trillion ISK this month.  There is still clearly a war going on.  Esoteria, TEST’s home region, which has been under attack by the Imperium joined the list.  TEST’s response to that has been to declare they are abandoning the region to move into Imperium space.  That is an issue that has yet to be resolved.

And that is where things stood in November.

For December we will have to see if people adapt to the NPC bounty nerfs or if CCP’s minor tweaks to them have any impact on that ISK faucet.