Of course, the game I'll blog the most about is EVE Online and the upcoming Kronos patch on 3 June. Yes, I called it a patch. Of course, the patch is expansion-sized since it originally was going to hold the summer expansion, but CCP considers it a patch, so a patch I shall call it.
Anyway, since I'm not sure about the whole industry revamp thingy CCP is doing, I need to actually play through the content in order to judge the effect of the changes, at least on my own game play. Perhaps some players are savvy enough to tell from the information CCP has released what will happen, but I am not one of those people. So I came up with a list of things I need to do to properly judge Kronos.
Ships
Right now I'm very disgruntled over the nerf my poor Procurer will receive. The 77.7% increase in base speed designed to aid high sec miners in their battle against James315 and the New Order means I'll abandon mining while fully aligned. What's the use when I have to turn around so often? Add to that the mining output decrease. And I'm lucky in that I currently don't use Mining Laser Upgrades. I could get my pre-Kronos output back, but that would require dropping a nano and my Damage Control II. The drone bonuses? Garbage, as far as I'm concerned, although the increased drone bay will allow me to carry ECM drones if I need to escape. The only good thing is that the Procurer is such an obvious bait ship that I might get bothered less in the belts after the Kronos patch drops.
As for the other ships, the new Prospect looks intriguing, but probably more a ship I would use in a roam through NPC null if I'm desperate for megacyte. It's new enough and shiny enough that people roaming through low sec will go out of their way to try to kill one. I want a ship that isn't going to attract so much attention. Which is why I don't fly a Skiff in low sec either.
Also at Fanfest, CCP announced that blockade runners and deep space transports will receive a rebalance pass in Kronos. If the balance team thinks that they buffed the Procurer, I'm really afraid of what they will do to my Prowler. My Mastodon? That ship needs so much love I hope the balance team can give me a reason to fly that hangar queen.
Ship-related Tasks
- Log onto Singularity and come up with viable fits for all the ships.
- Acquire ship and module blueprints needed to fit the ships correctly.
Mining
I'm very skeptical of the notion that Kronos is going to spark a flood of players heading into low sec to mine. At first I didn't consider the addition of the new types of ore sites a buff at all, but then I started to think outside the box. Because I already mine in 0.1 and 0.2 systems, I already can mine hedbergite almost any time I want just by going into a belt. But after looking at the geography of Minmatar low sec, I'm open to the possibility that the sites will prove an upgrade to 0.3 and 0.4 systems. But really, if people are not wandering through low sec looking for the crokite and dark ochre sites, are they really going to come to low for Jaspet?
Then again, I welcome the addition of new types of sites in low as long as they don't replace the spawning of the existing sites. Part of the reason is the situation in Heimatar. That region of the Minmatar Republic only contains one 0.2 system. In all probability, more hedbergite is mined in high sec than in low sec in that region. A pretty silly situation.
One change I don't think a lot of people are taking into account is the switch from mineral to ore compression for moving mining products around. Does anyone think that people who are drawn to mine in low sec due to the availability of a cloaky mining ship like the Prospect are going to more ore around in a tech 1 industrial? For those thinking that miners can just use a low sec POS, the nature of relying on ore sites that spawn throughout the region means a friendly POS will probably not be available in system. Assuming, of course, that the player doing the mining is willing to put up a low sec POS in the first place. More likely, those people will transport the ore back to high sec using their Prospect. If mining picks up in low sec, I foresee the majority of the increase happening in systems adjacent to high sec.
Mining-related Tasks
- Do survey of current ore sites pre-patch.
- Do survey of ore sites post-patch.
- Find new mining output on Singularity pre-patch.
- Conduct analysis of ore sales in the Minmatar Republic post-patch.
Industry
I'm really curious how this will work. The low sec stations should have less use, and thus less in taxes. However, the high sec industrialists should attract most of the available teams, with null sec acquiring the rest. Will that make low sec the least effective place to build? I'm not referring to capital construction. I'm referring to the items I make: ammunition and nanite repair paste. Hopefully I can stay competitive. With any luck, I can move into manufacturing modules, but that I think won't happen anytime soon.
One other item I'm watching is the cost of researching and copying blueprints. With the changes to the remote use of blueprint originals in POS, I expect virtually all POS owners to move those activities to NPC stations. I'm willing to bet that move will make low sec stations a lot less competitive with high sec facilities than many expect.
Industry-related Tasks
- Develop spreadsheet that records construction costs accurately.
- Track construction costs in both Minmatar high and low sec.
- Track copying costs in both Minmatar high and low sec.
- Track ME and TE research costs in both Minmatar high and low sec.
- Conduct analysis of the sales of my products in the Minmatar Republic (Heimatar, Metropolis, and Molden Heath)
Conclusion
I realize this summary of the changes to low sec sounds pretty negative. Quite frankly, I think low sec got nerfed again. But I don't want to go off spouting how bad the patch is unless I have facts to back up my assertions. Facts I won't have until we have played with the patch for weeks, if not months. Given my limited play time, the tasks I'm setting for myself are probably too ambitious. And hopefully, my theory crafting is totally wrong and low sec will experience an industrial renaissance. I doubt it, but I can hope, right?
If they mess up Prowlers I'm going to be one very unhappy camper.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you mine in a T1 fit retriever? If it's ganked, you just don't care.
ReplyDeleteNot getting ganked is part of the challenge of low sec mining. If you die, that means the other guy won. Besides,the mining output is just about the same. Why mine in a ship (the retriever) that is going to attract attention? People will hesitate to attack a Procurer aggressively (because bait fit), but will not hesitate to go after a Retriever. Retrievers are easy kills. In low sec, don't give easy kills.
DeleteYou are correct about the true impact of the destruction of high sec and low sec industry being a slow motion thing.
ReplyDeleteIt will take months for players to get fed up with moving every month, chasing a lower slot cost, in order to try to do the impossible, which is compete with the tightly regulated industry going on in null sec.
The cartel's will strictly limit who produces, what is produced, how much, when, and where, in order to keep slot costs at a bare minimum for all high value modules and ships, while controlling the best NPC teams.
They will be lowest cost producer for any set of products they choose, and no one can do a damn thing about it.
As for mining, yeah, what makes more ISK: Some guy setting up shop in high sec in a mining barge grinding low end ores in large quantity, or some guy flitting about low sec looking for higher end ores, with a 10,000 cu m bay, then trying to figure out how to get the raw ore to market.
Because with these changes, raw ore or compressed ore will be worth more than the minerals, as null sec will still need the raw ore for their huge huge supercap mineral demands. Few people clue in that a supercap needs about the equivalent of at least 1,000 battlecruisers, and null sec players still make way more ISK / hour doing activities other than low end mineral mining, so they will continue to import compressed ore from high sec.
High sec and low sec just became third world countries, exploited for their raw materials, but shut out of any value added jobs like manufacturing.
GUP, or as good Dr. Eyjo's say Gross User Product.
DeleteFYI the (GDP) Gross Domestic Product = sum total of market value of final goods and services PRODUCED in a country during 1 year OR
the sum total of INCOMES of individuals living in a country during 1 year.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product#Determining_GDP
See where I am going here ?
Regards, a Freelancer
PS: sorry Nosy to hear you stuff in lo-sec gets nerfed :(
@Anonymous - I'm hoping my stuff isn't too nerfed. But as I told Neville Smit at Fanfest, we should be able to milk these changes for post ideas for months!
DeleteDinsdale as usual you give the NS folks too much credit. Cartels are hard to setup, and even harder to keep going. The tech cartel was only possible due to limited tech moons cornering the market on something and selling it for less due to teams is just too hard for their interest level. Industry is far too easy to do, and the NS entities make too much isk via renting. They would be competing with their renters who wouldn't be part of a cartel. More likely they are going to be renting to indy corps who will be pulling in the teams, and the landlords will reap the benefits of their renters efforts to gain a team.
ReplyDeleteAs far as LS the basic issue is CCP views risk as high to null sec. (with wormholes being uber NS.) As a result LS always gets something in between HS, and NS. Sadly this is not true as LS is in many ways more risky than NS once you get a couple jumps in. Certainly I get attacked far more often in LS than in Provi or wormhole space. What LS needs is to be accorded the same risk factor as NS or given an edge no where else has.
i stopped playing eve altogether. i went to a different mmo. with all the changes that ccp has for eve im seeing large alliances gaining and the small guy being thinned out.
ReplyDeleteThe addition of the ore sites to low strikes me as being in the same vein as the re-addition of the lower level combat sites to low, as Sugar Kyle had suggested, with the goal being to make life easier on low-SP pilots wanting to live in low from the beginning.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see a module for miners that has a 95% reduction to speed when active. Call it a "stabilization interface", or something like that. It would allow ships to easily mine while fully aligned at capable of warp.
ReplyDeletejust slow down - you know you can control that, right ?
DeleteThe intention isn't to simply go slower, but to reduce the capped top speed for the purpose of entering warp instantly when someone appears on grid.
DeleteBut, I think since we are talking about the ability of making escape while semi-AFK easier, why not create a module that is conditional autopilot? For instance when a non-blue lands on grid the ship will auto jump and also sound an alarm. This can have a built in delay, so that ships which jump in have a second to lock and tackle which is important to general game mechanics.