Looking Forward To FFXIV's Cosmic Explorations

Last Friday I learned what I'll spend a lot of time doing in Final Fantasy XIV over the next 12-18 months: Cosmic Explorations. Sounding a lot like Shadowbringers' Ishgard Restoration, Cosmic Explorations not only will provide group content for crafters and gatherers but their enhanced tools for Dawntrail as well.

Content for gatherers and crafters level 10 and up who have completed the MSQ quest Dawntrail, players begin building a base on the moon with the release of patch 7.21 on 22 April, meaning I have a very short time to try out the content before jetting off to Iceland for EVE's Fanfest. But with patch 7.3 scheduled to come out sometime in July I should have time to catch up to most people.

One major improvement over Ishgard Restoration is a separate inventory space to hold the resources used during the event. I was so glad the developers addressed the inventory space issue. Not bad for gatherers, but for crafters? I had to dedicate so much inventory space for the materials I would use in the crafting portion.

The cosmo missions themselves are generally solo affairs. Think of guild leves except without the requirement to go back to the quest giver to turn in the items.

Emergency missions, on the other hand, are done by everyone in the area, sort of like a FATE. When the gauge at the top is filled the emergency ends. Each step in the emergency mission will provide rewards, with additional rewards assessed at the end.

The next type of mission is called Mech Ops. One lucky player will get to man the mining mech while everyone else plays in support. I say lucky because Cosmic Exploration will have a special currency used to bid on getting to use the mech. Those who lose the mech lottery will not only get their money back but an enhanced chance to win the next lottery.

The final type of mission are Critical Missions. I'm not sure if all emergency missions are critical missions, but I know that Critical Missions are brought about by the weather. I'm pretty sure we are not witnessing a return of The Final Days as we took care of that particular threat in Endwalker. But Critical Missions are another type of mission done with others.

Of course, what's an event without a little competition? Every two days players compete for the title of Star Contributor. Winning the title also grants a buff for 14 days along with some sort of marking while exploring. How many people want a hologram of their character in the main base camp?

One problem I foresee for the developers is that crafters and gatherers can begin working on their enhanced tools starting in patch 7.21 while those wanting relic weapons can't begin their grind until patch 7.25 a month later. But the combat players did it to themselves by insisting on having a Bojza-type area. Oh well, I'll need to work on upgrading 11 total tools so I won't have much time to waste listening to the complaints.

One last thing. I probably won't shut down my Island Sanctuary over this, but Cosmic Explorations have at least one new dye color. The color is Metallic Cobalt Green. I look for new dyes and where one shows up can I hope for more? I really would like a nice metallic purpose I can earn from playing the game and not just from visiting the cash shop.

During Shadowbringers I didn't reach the end of the MSQ until patch 5.4 so missed out on the first half of Ishgard Restoration. During Endwalker I became distracted decorating my new cottage and had to hurry to catch up to obtaining the expansion's tools. This expansion hopefully I can play with the crafting and gathering content when not progressing the main story questline and stay involved that way.

Revenant Major Update Patch Notes: Planetary Interaction QoL Changes

I woke up this morning to find when CCP Games labels something as major, they are not joking around. Today's Revenant Major Update for EVE Online features quite a few topics that deserve their own posts. The eight and final post will feature on changes made to planetary interaction.

Compared to the original user interface for planetary interaction, today's user experience is the height of luxury. But the latest changes are finally out of beta and live on Tranquility. Hopefully the work lives up to the description in the news article announcing the update.

Planetary Industry Enhancements

Capsuleers managing planetary colonies will enjoy major quality-of-life improvements. UI enhancements, multi-select for schematics, and the ability to reset extractors make operations smoother than ever. Hotspots will still shift over time, ensuring active management remains key to maximizing output. One of the reasons this is now moving out of beta is thanks to feedback and participation from capsuleers.

The patch notes provided a list of changes. The items with the small handshake icon are suggestions from players incorporated by the developers.

• 🤝 It’s now possible to restart extractors for a planet from the Planetary Industry window.
• To do this, the extractors need to have finished their cycle already, it cannot be done to refresh an ongoing extraction which hasn’t completed yet.
  
  
• PI Templates are no longer an opt-in feature preview and have been added as a feature for everyone.
  
  
• Several improvements have been made to the filters for PI Templates.
  
  
• Improved the search function for PI Templates.
  
  
• It’s now possible to rename PI Templates.
  
  
• Using a PI Template with a higher command center level than your character has, will now just upgrade it to your max skill level and try to add as much as it can from the template before running out of resources.
  
  
• 🤝 We now store the height of the window for each tab, so we are not constantly shrinking the windows when you switch tabs and back to them. This applies only to those tabs that do not have max height.
  
  
• 🤝 The sort order of templates is now alphabetical.
  
  
• 🤝 It’s now possible to select multiple pins by holding shift and then swap multiple schematics at once.
  
  
• The routes tab shows the short names for the pins.
  
  
• The text for the transiting routes in the 'Routes' tab is now using a secondary color.
  
  
• Added origin/destination to the 'Routes' tab.

Revenant Major Update Patch Notes: Factional Warfare And Pirate Insurgencies

I woke up this morning to find when CCP Games labels something as major, they are not joking around. Today's Revenant Major Update for EVE Online features quite a few topics that deserve their own posts. The seventh in the series will feature on changes made to factional warfare and pirate insurgencies.

As always, the news article provided a quick overview.

Factional Warfare: Seagulling Fix & Anti-Pirate Incentives

A critical fix is coming to Factional Warfare battlefield sites: payouts now require active participation, eliminating passive “seagulling” rewards for those who linger without engaging. This change is being tested on Battlefield sites before expanding to other areas. Additionally, anti-pirates can now claim new rewards, including valuable loot from Forward Operating Bases and roaming NPCs, increasing the stakes in Pirate Insurgencies.

Now, I think the news article may have exaggerated the changes just a tad. The changes, as short as they are in the patch notes, don't look bad.

Factional Warfare & Pirate Insurgencies:

• The Pirate FOB will now drop 1.5 billion ISK in average in loot.
  
  
• Regular pirate insurgency roaming NPCs now have a small chance to drop scorched navigation log items which can be turned in at FW LP stores in conjunction with some ISK and LP for a crate containing blueprints for new navy scanning upgrade modules.
  
  
• Rebalanced the number of pilots that get paid when completing multiplayer reward complexes. The new Schema is as follows:
• Scouts and Smalls are now NVY-2 / PIR-2
• Mediums are now NVY-3 / PIR-3
• Larges are now NVY-4 / PIR-4
• And Opens remain at paying up to 5 players before splitting the rewards.
  
  
• Players will now need to be inside a FW Battlefield site, and within 200km of the entrance beacon to the site for at least 3 minutes to get paid LP.
  
  
• Moved structures which were very close to the Amarr FW warp in for the Minmatar Battlefield so they will no longer bump off from it if trying to approach the central capture point.

I just want to point out the anti-seagulling features are just a test and may not last, or even work as intended.

Revenant Major Update Patch Notes: Mining Sovereignty Upgrades

I woke up this morning to find when CCP Games labels something as major, they are not joking around. Today's Revenant Major Update for EVE Online features quite a few topics that deserve their own posts. The sixth in the series will feature a subject that received a very long dev blog at the end of February: Mining Upgrades for the Equinox sovereignty system.

The news article gave a summary of the changes.

Mining Sovereignty Upgrades

Nullsec mining operations are seeing major boosts. Tier 1 and 2 mining sites now provide more ore from fewer but larger asteroids, reducing travel time and inefficiency. A new Tier 3 mining site, designed for capital-scale operations, offers enormous asteroids rich in resources. Mordunium refinement has been buffed to improve Pyerite availability, while Mercoxit yields increase across nullsec. Additionally, a new ORE deep core strip mining laser enhances efficiency for barges and exhumers, giving industrialists a powerful new tool for mining Mercoxit.

A new set of sovereignty mining upgrades were introduced in today's patch.

• New Tier 3 sovereignty mining upgrades have been added! The tier 3 mining locations are designed with Rorquals and large mining fleets in mind, with smaller numbers of asteroids but all of them are very high in volume. Each site contains just under 4x the total ore overall compared to the tier 2 mining sites.
  
  
• Tier 3 sites have a 10 hour respawn timer.
• Power Cost: 1800
• Workforce Cost: 18100
• Blueprints are available for purchase for 1 billion ISK.
  
  
• Large Veldspar Deposit
• Total site ore volume = 17,000,000 m3
  
  
• Large Mordunium Deposit
• Total site ore volume = 25,000,000 m3
  
  
• Large Kylixium Deposit
• Total site ore volume = 13,000,000 m3
  
  
• Large Griemeer Deposit
• Total site ore volume = 13,000,000 m3
  
  
• Large Nocxite Deposit
• Total site ore volume = 13,000,000 m3
  
  
• Large Hezorime Deposit
• Total site ore volume = 23,000,000 m3
  
  
• Large Ueganite Deposit:
• Total site ore volume = 16,000,000 m3

The pre-existing Tier 1 and Tier 2 also received buffs in the patch.

• The Power cost of Tier 1 and Tier 2 upgrades have been reduced by approximately 10% each.
• Tier 2 Power Cost reduced from 1350 to 1220
• Tier 1 Power Cost reduced from 500 to 450
  
  
• The Tier 2 nullsec sovereignty hub mining upgrade sites, such as the Grimeer Deposit, have been refactored so that approximately 40% of the asteroids in each site have been removed and their ore contents added to existing asteroids in the site, we have prioritized removing the lower quantity asteroids and tried to make sure there is at least one very large asteroid in each site, we’ve also compacted the asteroid belts to move more asteroids closer together.
• Additionally, after this refactor, the amount of ore in the Tier 2 sites has then also been increased by approximately 10-15%.
  
  
• This means that now, the average asteroid size in all of the sites has been significantly increased.
  
  
• The Tier 1 mining upgrade sites have also had their ore contents increased by approximately 10%.
  
  
• Increased the chance of getting the mining escalation from Tier 2 mining sites by 1.5x

Mining escalations are important and miners in player-owned null sec should be happier with the patch in that regard.

• The new Tier 3 sites have approximately 2.5x chance over the improved Tier 2 mining sites to get the mining escalation.

The devs also worked to address the mercoxit supply issues in the economy.

• We have a created a new ‘Enormous Mercoxit Deposit’ site which has 4x the amount of Mercoxit in it than the Large Mercoxit Deposit, and much larger asteroids.
• Total site ore volume = 960,000 m3
  
  
• Tier 3 mining upgrades will give a guaranteed Enormous Mercoxit Deposit into the system with a 12 hour respawn time.
  
  
• Tier 2 mining upgrades now will also give a guaranteed Large Mercoxit Deposit into the system rather than it being a chance-based spawn, which has an 8 hour respawn time.
  
  
• Tier 3 mining upgrades now also give a chance to spawn the ‘Large Mercoxit Deposit’ in addition to the guaranteed Enormous Mercoxit Deposit site.
  
  
• Tier 2 mining upgrades now also give a chance to spawn the ‘Average Mercoxit Deposit’ in addition to the guaranteed Large Mercoxit Deposit site.

The devs have also introduced new mining equipment specifically aimed at mercoxit.

• Added a new faction ORE Deep Core Strip Miner module which has 0% waste as an option for mining Mercoxit with mining barges and exhumers. It can be obtained from ORE corporation LP stores.
• Cost/Materials to Purchase:
• 37,500,000 ISK
• 56,250 LP
• 1x Modulated Deep Core Strip Miner II

Null sec will also produce more pyerite though a reprocessing change for a null sec ore.

• Increased the amount of Pyerite that Mordunium gives when reprocessed.
• Mordunium: 80 → 84
• Plum Mordunium: 84 → 88
• Prize Mordunium: 88 → 92
• Plunder Mordinium: 92 → 96

Two other items of interest.

• To help allieviate pressure on R4s and increase the value of Athanors - The magmatic gas fuel cost per hour for a Metenox Moon Drill has been increased from 110 units to 150 units.
  
  
• Most Mining sites spawned by upgrades will now persist their respawn time across downtimes (i.e. they won’t always respawn at downtime even if they were mined out at 10:59).

And finally a note from CCP Okami from his mining dev blog.

Notably we are not touching ore density of our newer Nullsec ores at this time. While we are aware of the feedback and understand the complaints with it, it’s a more complex lever to pull that touches both on reworking many of the sites from a content perspective and also puts some risk on stockpiles as well. Will this fix everything all at once? Being totally honest? Probably not. There’s no silver bullet here. And I can’t promise that this is going to be the magic change that gets it all right. However, since there are a large number of changes going out the door all at once, I want to see how these land and what their impact on our simulated universe is. I promise to be looking at data and check in with you guys every 2 weeks on the official EVE Discord. We’ll examine what levers and things we may need to keep adjusting on a monthly basis. Tending to this is an iterative thing and I think we can keep moving towards a healthier equilibrium.

Revenant Major Update Patch Notes: Filament Changes

I woke up this morning to find when CCP Games labels something as major, they are not joking around. Today's Revenant Major Update for EVE Online features quite a few topics that deserve their own posts. The fifth in the series will feature another nerf to fast, long distance travel through the use of filaments. 

The news article gave a very brief explanation.

Pochven Filament Changes

Tactical retreats through Pochven just got harder. Filaments now feature a spool-up time, preventing instant extractions. Additionally, their activation leaves a detectable trace on D-Scan and can be probed with combat scanners, allowing pursuit and counterplay. This is the first step in a broader look at Pochven travel mechanics.

The patch notes were equally brief.

Filaments have long been a powerful tool for both fast travel and escaping dangerous situations. The addition of a spool-up timer and scannable traces aims to add risk and enable counterplay.

The patch notes didn't reveal a complex system. Hopefully the desire for needless complexity is behind us all.

• A spool-up timer has been added to all travel filaments (Triglavian Space, Needlejack, and Ice Storm).
  
  
• A Filament Trace will appear next to the travel filament’s owner on activation:
• Nearby fleet members without capsuleer log-off timers will become linked to the trace as it appears.
• Characters will unlink from a trace if they cloak, change ship, or go beyond 30km of the trace.
• A link cannot be reestablished once broken.
• If the filament’s owner unlinks from the trace, it immediately closes.
• Traces can be scanned with combat probes or d-scan.
  
  
• After the spool-up completes, the filament’s owner can jump all characters which remain linked to it:
• Warp disrupted players will not be jumped.
• Filament owners will be given a confirmation prompt if characters will be left behind.
• Traces will close after 15 minutes have passed since it first appeared.
  
  
• Travel filaments can no longer be used on a deadspace grid.

The patch notes did provide a table with the spool-up times for filaments:

Revenant Major Update Patch Notes: Ship Balancing

I woke up this morning to find when CCP Games labels something as major, they are not joking around. Today's Revenant Major Update for EVE Online features quite a few topics that deserve their own posts. The fourth in the series will feature balance changes to specific ships and classes of ships.

According to the news article announcing today's patch, address complaints for nerfs to your favorite ships to the Council of Stellar Management.

Following discussions at the latest CSM summit, several ship balance adjustments have been made. Heavy interdiction cruisers can now fit cynosural field generators, adding new strategic options for fleet commanders. Also, ECM burst jammer restrictions have been tightened to prevent unintended abuse.

In addition to listing the changes, the patch notes also explained why certain ships received the nerfs or buffs in today's patch.

Eos

We’re making some adjustments to the Eos to specifically target the amount of damage and tracking that it has with sentry drones, while avoiding nerfing regular drone fits. This makes it more similar to the Ishtar which also has lower bonuses for sentry drones.

• 10% bonus to drone damage and hitpoints per level of Gallente battlecruiser has now been split into 2 separate bonuses.
• 10% bonus to heavy drone, medium drone, and light drone hitpoints and damage.
• 5% bonus to sentry drone damage and hitpoints.
  
  
• 7.5% bonus to drone tracking per level of command ships has now been split into 2 separate bonuses.
• 7.5% bonus to heavy drone, medium drone and light drone tracking.
• 5% bonus to sentry drone tracking.

Orca

The Orca had a higher align time than the Rorqual, so we are correcting this by giving it a significant buff to agility which should have it now be more comparable to the Rorqual and a reinforced bulkhead fitted Bowhead. We need to be careful not to obsolete Freighters, Deep Space Transports as hauling platforms but we feel like we can make this change now since both of those classes are also receiving warp speed boosts at the same time.

Taking into the account the 25% warp speed buff that it is getting, it should feel significantly more mobile when travelling between systems and mining locations.

• Agility multiplier improved from 2.6x to 2.0x

All other changes

• Heavy Interdiction Cruisers
• All HICs can now fit the regular Cynosural Field Generator.
  
  
• Interdictors
• Reduced the web strength of the Stasis Webification Probes launched by Interdictors from 40% to 20%, to reduce how effective they are against brawlers and sig tanking fleet compositions.
  
  
• Burst Jammers (ECM Burst)
• Can now only be fitted to Battleship Hulls, Hauler Hulls and Command Ships.
  
  
• A009 C13 Wormholes reduced lifetime from 16h to 4.5h.

Revenant Major Update Patch Notes: Warp Speed Changes

I woke up this morning to find when CCP Games labels something as major, they are not joking around. Today's Revenant Major Update for EVE Online features quite a few topics that deserve their own posts. The third in the series will feature changes to warp speed affecting nearly all ships in the game.

The news article about the update gave a brief description of the change. 

Warp speeds across ship classes are being standardized for more consistent travel mechanics and better fleet balance. Heavy assault cruisers (HACs) will see a slight warp speed reduction to align with their Tech I counterparts, while specialized ships will retain their warp bonuses where appropriate for their roles.

The patch notes went further into why the developers made the change.

Overtime, we’ve adjusted and rebalanced different ship class warp speeds, most recently in 2019 and they are now fairly inconsistent with some ships like Heavy Assault Cruisers having the same warp speed as Stealth Bomber Frigates and Tech 1 Destroyers, while industrial ships such as haulers and mining barges which are also the same size (M) are slower than some battleships.

This can make it difficult for new players to understand the relationship of warp speeds between different size classes of ships and Tech II ships currently have faster warp speeds than Tech I ships, even when it doesn’t always make sense for their specialized role, like the above-mentioned heavy assault cruisers warping faster than regular cruisers. Tech II ships from the size above are also competing with the tech I and navy size below for warp speeds, which makes it is harder to justify bringing smaller classes of ships. This also contributes to unhealthy ‘force projection’ since stronger, more powerful ships, are also able to cross the universe faster.

I also suspect that the reduction of 13 ship categories down to 7 might help the game code run more efficiently, but that's just a guess.

Warp speeds - new vs old

• Grouped up all ships based on their size, such as Small, Medium, Large and Capital. Removing the 10% or +0.5AU/s bonus from Tech II ships.
  
  
• Ships that are slightly bigger than this size category, such as Destroyers for small, Battlecruisers and Haulers for Medium etc. are placed in a plus sized group.
• This leaves us with just 7 base warp speed tiers rather than the current 13!
  
  
• Tech II ships which need the increased warp speed for performing their specialization, such as Interceptors and Interdictors, have been given role bonuses to warp speed to keep their current warp speeds about the same while making these ships easier to identify for new players.
  
  
• The Net result from these changes are that Titans, Freighters, Mining Barges, Exhumers, Haulers will now warp 10-15% faster, The Porpoise and the Orca get improvements of 25-30% and most Tech II ships which are not specialized will warp slightly slower.
  
  
• Additionally, Capsules will now warp at 4.0 AU/s to match cruisers, which is what they did before the 2019 warp speed increase for Cruisers.
• We are not buffing the warp speed of corvettes at this time, which still warp at 3.0 AU/s, to make sure we do not obsolete shuttles and tech I frigates as travel options.

Revenant Major Update Patch Notes: Ansiblex Gates And Force Projection

I woke up this morning to find when CCP Games labels something as major, they are not joking around. Today's Revenant Major Update for EVE Online features quite a few topics that deserve their own posts. The second in the series will feature changes to Ansiblex Gates designed to affect force projection.

The news article about the update gave a brief description of the change.

Force Projection Adjustments

Ansiblex jump gates are becoming more vulnerable, creating new strategic opportunities for those looking to disrupt enemy logistics. Capsuleers using these gates will now land closer upon arrival, making them easier to intercept. Additionally, Ansiblex gates will no longer auto-repair and must be actively repaired like Metenox moon drills. Warp disruptors and interdiction bubbles will now prevent gate use, further limiting force projection and making nullsec movement more tactical.

The description in the patch notes was a bit more expansive.

We’re making a number of changes to Ansiblex Bridges to limit their force projection power. We’re doing that primarily through giving players more agency by making them more difficult or dangerous to use in contested space, removing the damage cap and requiring them to be manually repaired just like Metenox Moon drills, and requiring new Ansiblex bridges to be placed off grid from stargates to make scouting from the gate harder, rather than introducing new systems or mechanics which limits their use such as jump fatigue.

Our goal with these changes is to make sure nullsec line members and sov holders are still able to use Ansiblex bridges to access the core space that their alliance controls, so that they can still efficiently do daily activities such as mining, ratting, PI, Mercenary Dens, refueling and logistics work without impeding them with a system like fatigue. While opening up more gameplay options to counter force projection, such as delaying responses and fleets with defensive Interdictor and bubble usage, making them more dangerous through increasing the ability for players to setup traps like bombing runs and pipebombs, and to give more options to raiders and roaming gangs by making them easier to camp, and increasing the burden of maintaining distant Ansiblex gates outside of the alliances core space.

I was wondering if anyone would mention the fatigue mechanic introduced in the Phoebe release. If not for fatigue, Phoebe would have gone down in history as the release that brought players the expanded skills queue.

Since the developers went to great lengths to explain the changes I'll just conclude with the details from the patch notes.

Ansiblex Gates & Force Projection:

Ansiblex Jump Gates

• It’s no longer possible to use an Ansiblex while warp disrupted or inside a bubble.
• Ansiblex Jump Gates have been renamed to Ansiblex Jump Bridges for more clarity on not being able to use them while warp disrupted anymore.
  
  
• Reduced the Radius attribute on the Ansiblex Jump Bridge from 13,000m to 7,000m.
• This will mean that it now takes up much less volume/area in space and will be easier to camp with warp disruptors and bubbles.
  
  
• Ansiblex Bridges no longer auto-repair, no longer have a damage cap and now use the same reinforcement flow as Metenox Moon Drills.
• Ansiblex HP values and resistances have been rebalanced following this change, to provide an increase to their total EHP while giving them higher resistances and lower flat HP to make them easier to remote repair for logistics pilots.
• Shield HP and Armor reduced from 750,000 HP to 500,000 HP.
• (Note: These are increased by 4x when it is high power).
• Shield and Armor Resistances increased from 20% to 75%.
• Structure Hitpoints increased from 3,000,000 HP to 12,000,000 HP.
  
  
• Ansiblex Bridges can no longer be placed closer than 100,000km to stargates.
• Existing Ansiblex Bridges will be grandfathered into their current locations, but once destroyed, they will need to be placed at least 100,000km away from the nearest stargate to be replaced.

Revenant Major Update Patch Notes: Mercenary Dens, Industry, And Taxes

I woke up this morning to find when CCP Games labels something as major, they are not joking around. Today's Revenant Major Update for EVE Online features quite a few topics that deserve their own posts. The first in the series will feature industry topics, including one not mentioned in the news article.

The developers gave a brief description of the changes in the introductory news article:

Industrial Overhaul

Manufacturing capital ships and Tech I battleships is now cheaper, reducing the resource strain and making fleet deployments more feasible. Lower costs mean less risk when bringing these hulls to battle, reinforcing their role in fleet warfare.

One item not mentioned explicitly outside the patch notes is the rise of the sales tax from 4% to 7.5%. Sales taxes are automatically deducted after an item is sold, but are mitigated by the Accounting skill. For each level of Accounting learned, the sales tax is reduced by 11%, meaning at level 5, the sales tax is only 3.4%. For those who sell PLEX to fund their PvP habit, I'd advise training Accounting to 5 if the skill is not already at that level.

Mercenary Dens received the following changes during downtime today:

• Mercenary Dens base Infomorph generation has been lowered from 80-115 (avg 100) to 65-100 (avg 82.5).
  
  
• MTOs now only give 350 bonus infomorphs instead of 500 when completing a MTO for a max development mercenary den.
  
  
• Existing MTOs which have already been generated will still give 500 bonus Infomorphs.
  
  
• The Development levels of Mercenary Dens have been decreased to the following:
• Development 1, 5%.
• Development 2, 10%.
• Development 4, 15%.
• Development 5, 20%.

Tech 1 Dread production just became less resource intensive. The following reductions should show up on all blueprints.

Revelation:

• Capital Propulsion Engines required have been reduced from 5 to 4.
• Capital Armor Plates required have been reduced from 5 to 4.
• Capital Ship Maintenance Bays required have been reduced from 5 to 4.
• Capital Turret Hardpoints required have been reduced from 20 to 15.
• Capital Siege Array required have been reduced from 20 to 15.

Phoenix:

• Capital Propulsion Engines required have been reduced from 5 to 4.
• Capital Shield Emitters required have been reduced from 5 to 4.
• Capital Ship Maintenance Bays required have been reduced from 5 to 4.
• Capital Turret Hardpoints required have been reduced from 20 to 15.
• Capital Siege Array required have been reduced from 20 to 15.

Moros:

• Capital Sensor Clustes required have been reduced from 4 to 3.
• Capital Armor Plates required have been reduced from 4 to 3.
• Capital Propulsion Engines required have been reduced from 5 to 4.
• Capital Ship Maintenance Bays required have been reduced from 5 to 4.
• Capital Turret Hardpoints required have been reduced from 20 to 15.
• Capital Siege Array required have been reduced from 20 to 15.

Naglfar:

• Capital Shield Emitters required have been reduced from 4 to 3.
• Capital Computer Systems required have been reduced from 4 to 3.
• Capital Propulsion Engines required have been reduced from 5 to 4.
• Capital Ship Maintenance Bays required have been reduced from 5 to 4.
• Capital Turret Hardpoints required have been reduced from 20 to 15.
• Capital Siege Array required have been reduced from 20 to 15.

Tech 1 battleships also received a 25% decrease to input materials.

• Tritanium required has been reduced from 8,000,000 to 5,200,000.
• Pyerite required has been reduced from 4,000,000 to 2,600,000.
• Mexallon required has been reduced from 600,000 to 390,000.
• Isogen required has been reduced from 200,000 to 130,000.
• Nocxium required has been reduced from 24,000 to 15,600.
• Zydrine required has been reduced from 6,000 to 3,900.
• Megacyte required has been reduced from 3,000 to 1,950.
• Auto-Integrity Presevation Seals required has been reduced from 200 to 150.
• Life Support Backup Unit required has been reduced from 100 to 75.

In addition, the tech 2 Scorpion also received a 25% decrease to input materials.

• Tritanium required has been reduced from 6,000,000 to 3,900,000.
• Pyerite required has been reduced from 3,000,000 to 1,950,000.
• Mexallon required has been reduced from 450,000 to 292,500.
• Isogen required has been reduced from 150,000 to 97,500.
• Nocxium required has been reduced from 18,000 to 11,700.
• Zydrine required has been reduced from 4,500 to 2,925
• Megacyte required has been reduced from 2,250 to 1,463.
• Auto-Integrity Presevation Seals required has been reduced from 150 to 112.
• Life Support Backup Unit required has been reduced from 75 to 56.

All capital ships, not just dreads, also receive a manufacturing buff as the input materials for Capital Components also decreased by 25%.

Finally, two additional updates I couldn't categorize.

• Combat Battlecruisers and Attack Battlecruisers have had their reprocessed materials updated to the same inputs as the blueprint, so they will now have more accurate (higher) insurance payouts.
  
  
• The Estimated Item Value for multiple items in the game in the manufacturing cost breakdown should now more accurately reflect the value of the finished product.

Drifter Crisis: Race for the Hives Patch Notes And Lore

All hell has broken out in EVE Online's lore. After letting the Drifters run amok, 10 NPC factions (yes, 10!) are now prepared to attack the Drifters in their home wormholes. After a pair of strikes in Tabbetzur on Thursday, the Republic Fleet and allied capsuleer forces barely emerged victorious over Deathless Circle and Drifter forces. But the story may now proceed.

Today's patch brought another major one-time event to New Eden. In an event lasting until Sunday, 16 March, players will race to turn in resources to their allies. Ten factions are competing for the opportunity to learn more about (and exploit) Drifter technology. 

Harmonics Boost Competition Over Drifter Wormholes

Interested parties throughout the cluster have begun reaching out for the newly available Harmonics. The items' only function is to provide remote access to the Warden. This Warden access is believed to be a significant advantage in the race for a sustainable foothold in Drifter wormholes. As the Deathless Circle has ceased deploying these structures, those discovered so far may be the only copies in existence.

ATTENTION: The Scope has consulted with experts and they believe that only items received by the end of YC127.03.16 will be of use to the interested parties. After that point, the Deathless Circle will have been able to reroute their remote connections and the Harmonics will be of no value.

The ten factions are:

• Amarr Empire via the Ministry of Internal Order.
• Angel Cartel via the Archangels or Guardian Angels
• Caldari State via the CEP or House of Records.
• EDENCOM via the DED.
• EverMore via Paragon.
• Gallente via the Federal Intelligence Office.
• Minmatar Republic via the Republic Security Services.
• Society of Conscious Thought via the SOCT and Genolution.
• Triglavian Collective via the Convocation of Triglav, Perun Clade, Svarog Clade, or Veles Clade.
• The Upwell Consortium via Ytiri.

Today's announcement gave an overview of the event.

Fight for Your Faction

A seasonal challenge and reward track has been introduced, giving capsuleers the chance to score points for one of 10 factions as they push back against the Drifter threat. While they share a common goal, these factions are not allies. They are rivals, each seeking to claim power, resources, and strategic footholds in the war, as they race for the Drifter hives...

By completing event challenges, you will earn points that can be assigned to your chosen faction. At the end of the event, the top five factions will launch the next phase of the war by directly occupying Drifter wormhole systems.

Of course, the developers listed the rules for the event in the last place anyone would think to look: the patch notes.

Drifter Crisis:

The Race for the Hives has begun!

• 10 factions are vying for Drifter Wormhole control.
  
  
• Pick your favorite and complete challenges on the reward track.
• Gain points by completing challenges relating to Drifter Crisis sites.
• Claim volatile boosters, Drifter SKINR components, and the Drifter Plugsuit.
  
  
• The Top 5 will occupy a Drifter Wormhole system at the event’s end (11:00 UTC, April 3rd, 2025).
• Note: Points gained after the reward track is completed will continue to be tallied for your chosen faction.
• Stayed tuned to the New Eden News to learn how well, or how badly, your faction is doing.
  
  
• Warden Connection Harmonics can now be turned in to LP stores as an alternative to NPC buy orders:
• Search for 'Gratuity for Warden Connection Harmonics' within LP stores of the relevant corporations.
• These gratuity items can then be sold to NPC order for the standard price.
  
  
• Drifter Crisis Field Rescue sites and Salvage Research Homefront Operation sites have been rebalanced:
• Wrecks are now significantly easier to salvage.
• Note: This should be most noticeable for players with lower salvaging skill levels.
• The number of wrecks within a site has been increased to 30 (from 18).
  
  
• Drifter Crisis Lancer Counter Offensive sites and Dread Assault Homefront Operation sites have been rebalanced:
• Focused neutralizer NPCs will no longer respawn after being destroyed.
• Focused neutralizer fleets are now weighted towards Cruisers.
• Additional focused neutralizer fleets will spawn during the first and second Dreadnought siege cycles.
• Target structure EHP values and allied Dreadnought damage values have been increased to make directly damaging the structure less viable.
  
  
• NPCs equipped with ECM have been added to Drifter Crisis Lancer Counter Offensive sites.

For those who might have some trouble picking one of the 10 sides, the lore team thoughtfully provided some background.

The Four Major Factions (Amarr, Caldari, Gallente, Minmatar)

Intelligence operatives from the four major factions have begun searching for information on how to achieve this new technological development. The Republic Security Services, Ministry of Internal Order, and Federal Intelligence Office have all made enquires on the behalf of their respective governments. In the Caldari State, the House of Records and direct representatives of the Central Executive Panel have done the same.

The Angel Cartel

The Angel Cartel is known to use Jovian tech as inspiration for their unique ships. Recent arrests believed to be tied to the Guardian and Salvation Angels indicate a key interest in seizing Drifter technology.

EDENCOM

Formed to fight against the Triglavian invasion, EDENCOM has recently begun training on Sleeper drones instead. Shifting focus from the Triglavians to the Drifters could be seen as a natural extension of EDENCOM’s remit. It is believed that EDENCOM is collaborating with the DED who would act as a proxy for their interests.

EverMore

A household name, this corporation’s manifesto is to “bring all things to all people”. EverMore has framed itself as a cutting edge technology developer. Their subsidiary Paragon hosted the above-mentioned scientific talks recently, and acts as their parent company’s capsuleer liaison group.

Society of Conscious Thought

The Society has been vocal in its belief that they should be the stewards of Jovian technologies. Through their own corporation and Genolution they will likely be glad recipients of any new technologies.

Triglavian Collective

The Triglavian Collective is believed to be in the midst of a full-scale conflict with the Drifters inside Abyssal Deadspace. All Clades and the Collective itself have begun reaching out within Pochven for technologies that would give them an advantage over “The Ancient Enemy Azdaja”.

The Upwell Consortium

The Consortium is known for its advanced infrastructure technologies, from megastructures to unique cloning techniques. Ytiri, one of the consortium’s member corporations, has recently begun making enquiries about Drifter Wormhole technologies on the Consortium’s behalf.

I imagine the event is relatively short as to allow a longer event occurring in Drifter wormholes. Fanfest is only seven weeks away and I have the feeling CCP would like to announce something big for the finale of the storyline at the company's big event at the beginning of May.