Cloud Imperium Makes $2 Million On The First Day Of Star Citizen's Alpha 4.0

Work was crazy this week and limited my blogging. But I had to make note of an event that occurred in Star Citizen: the launch of Alpha 4.0 yesterday.

Daily Sales From The Roberts Space Industries Website

In a Letter from the Chairman, Cloud Imperium founder and CEO Chris Roberts spelled out exactly what the launch looked like.

After a much longer than anticipated development process, what was teased in 2019 becomes a reality for all players when we launch Star Citizen Alpha 4.0 to the live servers, as part of what we are calling the 4.0 Preview.  

For the first time in our history, we will run 2 live releases in parallel, each with their own progress and persistence. This means you'll have the unique opportunity to choose which version you want to dive into, at least for a little while. At this stage, we both want and need the high traffic of a Live release to thoroughly test Server Meshing and the newly refactored systems that rely on it as they go through their final paces. We acknowledge that we did not have time to get all the mission types working before our holiday break, which is why we have decided to temporarily support two parallel Live tracks: Alpha 3.24.3 will remain available, so you can play the missions and engage in game loops that are not working to our new playability standards in 4.0. Meanwhile, the 4.0 Preview will also be accessible from your launcher as a second Live option. If you are not interested in previewing 4.0, you can simply select Alpha 3.24.3 from the dropdown and continue enjoying the current live build.  

This may feel like our usual PTU process, but there is one key difference: by running both builds on the Live environment, we can take steps to ensure that your progress on 4.0 will carry over. Our goal is for anything you do and earn in the 4.0 Preview to persist without any further wipes—unless something major happens, though we do not anticipate that.

That said, it's important to note that progress made in Alpha 3.24.3 will remain tied to that version and will not transfer to 4.0. This allows us to maintain a clean slate for the new systems coming online in the 4.0 Preview, ensuring a consistent and stable environment as we look to deprecate 3.24.3 in the new year.

Honestly, I'm not sure how much of a launch yesterday was. But one thing I know is CIG always runs a ship sale when a patch launches. Back in October I thought CIG removed a ship sale. Looking back I have the feeling Alpha 4.0 was supposed to release in the middle of October a week before CitizenCon.

With the launch of Alpha 4.0 came a 17-ship sale in the cash shop. And on the first day CIG brought in $1,988,088. As of the time of the screenshot at the beginning of the post, cash shop revenue was up to $111.5 million for 2024, or $6.1 million short of 2023's sales. With 10 days to go, CIG still has an outside shot of matching last year's total.

I should add one additional piece of information from the Letter to the Chairman. Chris Roberts revealed the servers hosted 32 million hours of play time this year. Converting to average concurrent users, the Star Citizen servers averaged 3700 players flying or running around at any time. In comparison, over the past year EVE Online has averaged around 23,000 users logged in at any one time. Given CIG has experienced twice the sales of CCP Games over the last few years, I was a little surprised at how small the Star Citizen player base really is.

Final Fantasy XIV's New Twitch Campaign

Over the past year or so I've participated in several Twitch campaigns sponsored by CCP Games. The goal of the campaigns is simple. Help streamers of EVE by boosting the number of accounts watching along with increasing watch time. After awhile I just ignore the campaigns unless something unusual happens.

My Inventory Page currently

Like today. Final Fantasy XIV has a new Twitch campaign that doesn't just involve watch time. 

We are excited to announce a new Twitch Support-A-Streamer campaign! A familiar frosty friend with purple accessories is making its debut, just in time for the Starlight Celebration in-game event on Monday, December 16!

Players will be able to obtain the Snowstreamer mount, along with 50 aetheryte tickets, by purchasing or gifting three Twitch subscriptions while watching eligible FFXIV channels during the Starlight Celebration campaign period.

Campaign Duration

From Monday, December 16, 2024 at 12:00 a.m. (PST) to Tuesday, December 31, 2024 at 6:59 a.m. (PST)

Campaign Rewards

Purchase or gift three (3) Twitch subscriptions while watching any channel streaming FINAL FANTASY XIV Online and receive an item code via your Twitch notifications for the following combined rewards:

• Three (3) Twitch Subscriptions: Fifty (50) Aetheryte Tickets and the Snowstreamer Bell.

Throwing money at a company (Twitch gets its cut) to get a mount? FFXIV has a long history of doing such. Perhaps one of the most famous is the Butterfinger mount from 2021. Buy $5 of Butterfinger products, snap a photo of the receipt, and score a chocolatey new mount. In fact, the mount returned as a Twitch reward which I managed to snag. More recently, FFXIV did a promotion for the Mountain Zu mount, which probably cost a a bit more.

I think a lot of the outrage over the promotion is players are used to items received from Twitch drops usually are free, ignoring any costs of leaving a Twitch stream open for a few hours. The other part of the outrage is the effective cost of the mount. I already have the snowman mount from when the event originally ran in 2020. The Twitch mount is just a reskinned mount replacing the color red with purple and is available in the cash shop for $12 (or $8.40 during the current sale). Three subs is either $15 or $18 (I'm not sure which) and 50 aetheryte tickets doesn't make up for the value difference. Trust me, I go out and farm for aetheryte tickets every week.

Perhaps we should keep an eye on the latest campaign. If successful, I bet more game companies will shift to rewarding Twitch subscriptions.

EVE Online Activity In November 2024

Do the developers of EVE Online have the ability to make players in the game's null security regions happy? I've had my doubts for years. After all, the developers in charge have made some pretty bone-headed decisions like the Chaos and Scarcity Eras over the past five years. But with the launch of a second null-based expansion this year in November observers may begin to get enough data to tell.

Jester's Average Concurrent User chart

From just before the launch of Uprising in November 2022 to the end of the launch month of Havoc in November 2024, the average number of accounts logged into Tranquility rose from just under 16,000 to just under 24,000. After an initial bump after the launch of Revenant, the metric is falling back down to 24,000 accounts. The fall shows little to no growth at least in the number of accounts going back a year.

The monthly economic report for November came out yesterday and I eagerly searched for the Active ISK Delta. After October's MER I thought the chance existed for two months of positive Active ISK Deltas for the first time since January 2017. I was a bit disappointed.

Sinks and Faucets, November 2024 MER

Instead, the net effect of players leaving and returning to EVE Online withdrew 79.1 trillion ISK, or 3.2% of the game's money supply, from the economy. To give an example of how much ISK was withdrawn, players paid a total of 25.2 trillion ISK in transaction taxes.

The 7 Active ISK Deltas below -75 trillion ISK

Yes, the Active ISK Delta was among the top 5 largest amounts of ISK withdrawn from the game in a single month going back to January 2017. But are large drops just expected in the month of November?

Active ISK Deltas for the month of November

The average Active ISK Delta for the month of November from 2017 to 2023 was actually a positive number: 8.8 trillion ISK. The positive number was due to the effects surrounding two expansions, Uprising in 2022 and Havoc in 2023. Perhaps the most impressive fact about 2022 and 2023 is that the Active ISK Delta was positive in the month following the annual Crimson Harvest event. The low sec/factional warfare focused expansions managed to retain and grow the number of players while the null sec focused Revenant did not.

Data from Dotlan EVE Maps

Looking at month-over-month data from Dotlan, activity decreased in five of the six categories I track. For instance, player ship kills decreased MoM by 13.5%, and the drop occurred despite ship kills increasing by 13.4% in Uitra. Player ships exploded in low sec 3.3% less often while the number of NPCs killed by players dropped between 1.8% and 3.3% across the three security bands. That's right, in a month a null sec focused patch dropped, NPC kills in null dropped below 200 million.

Data from Dotlan EVE Maps

Even in the one category that increased, player ships lost in null sec, I have to wonder how much of the 10.3% increase was due to seasonal effects. In 2023, the same metric increased by 17.6% between October and November. Finally, year-over-year the number of player-owned ships exploding in null sec actually went down 0.8%.

I figure the next expansion will also have a heavy null sec focus. I think the numbers we've seen over the past five or six months indicate such a focus is warranted. But what if the developers literally do not have the ability to make null sec players happy? Of course, given the history of the game, if I see problems brewing, the folks in charge in Reykjavik probably think everything is going better than planned. Which means what the company touts at Fanfest in May should prove enlightening, if not entertaining.

EVE Frontier Enters Closed Alpha Today

My predictions for Project Awakening in 2024, now known as EVE Frontier, were a little off. I did not expect Thursday's press release announcing the Closed Alpha for the blockchain game. The text is short enough to post the main part of the press release below.

CCP Games Announces Founder Access for EVE Frontier

REYKJAVÍK, Iceland – December 5, 2024 – Today, CCP Games announced Founder Access for EVE Frontier, giving players the opportunity to shape the future of the space survival simulation and access its in-development build on a continuous basis. Starting Tuesday December 10, Founder Access holders can join an exclusive, always-on server in Closed Alpha, where they will leave their mark on the galaxy of the Frontier as it evolves.

EVE Frontier is an online survival sandbox with an open server, economy and ecosystem: able to be modified through configurable and programmable components, currencies and features. Today’s ‘First Look’ showcases CCP Games’ vision for a merciless space survival experience that will reward player skill, awareness and mastery over the environment. As an awakened husk you will be cast into the long dark to explore, survive and build anew across over 100,000 star systems filled with death and opportunity.

Founder Access marks the next phase in EVE Frontier's development journey, offering permanent pre-launch access to players. Starting with Closed Alpha, Founder Access holders will be able to play, give feedback and experience the future of EVE Frontier as new features and content are added continuously. Founder Access packs offer additional benefits such as name reservation, cosmetics, Discord roles, access to CCP Games developer streams and more. Founders will also be able to redeem included premium subscription time when EVE Frontier launches as free-to-play in the future.

"In EVE Frontier we are deepening the contribution and connection players have over a living galaxy. A virtual world where developers and players are equals, where the rules apply to all." said CCP Games CEO, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson. "Our long-term vision is to create an open ecosystem built, operated and governed by the Frontier's inhabitants themselves. Founder Access is the start of a new and exciting phase in this development, giving players the chance to be a foundational part of our collaborative approach in a meaningful way."

While CCP describes the game as an "online survival sandbox with an open server, economy and ecosystem," I would describe the game as a full-loot PvP sandbox blockchain MMORPG. Or, as the crew over at MassivelyOP would say, a gankbox. As such, those who do not like non-consensual PvP should stop reading and forget the game even exists.

Also, if the presence of blockchain technology in a game makes one pause, also stop reading and put the credit card away. Especially if one is concerned about losing real world assets to in-game (and real world) PvP. The game will draw people collectively known as "cryptobros" and the sub-set known as "crypto-wolves." When these types of people are circling a video game, the odds are that the only way to win is not to play the game.

With those mandatory warnings out of the way, I should add that access to the Closed Alpha is currently available at the EVE Frontier website under "Founder's Access".

Starting Alpha Packages

Oh, and I should add those buying and entering the game are under an NDA until further notice. From the FAQ.

Yes, players in Founder Access will be subject to a Non-Disclosure Agreement as EVE Frontier enters Closed Alpha on 10 December. This means that while players can access the game, they cannot share gameplay publicly. We aim to lift NDAs in the future when we move out of Closed Alpha and as we continue to harden the core experience of our space survival simulation.

I already was coming into the game with a little trepidation. I did choose the Awakened account because I figure I wanted an account I could easily throw away at launch. I should also add that while the developers are boasting of the lack of information available through the UI, they did make telling the high-rollers apart from the cheapskates. Also, for the wolves out there, you want to go after those with the early access time. Also note I'm not one of those players.

At this point I should add that CCP plans to use blockchain technology to add sand to the sandbox. The developers partially accomplish the feat through the use of smart assemblies. The current FAQ describes these as:

Players can construct infrastructure such as storage facilities, trading posts, defenses and more. Think of it as enhanced base-building. Through each structure having a programmable layer, EVE Frontier allows for greater moddability and player expression on top of each "base item". Constructing infrastructure and deploying it on the Frontier does not require it to be programmed.

For example, a Smart Storage Unit (SSU) is a structure anchored in space, which acts as smart storage, holding and dispensing any form of inventory players choose to load it with (currencies, items etc.). With Smart Assemblies, this structure can be coded to serve as a marketplace, a quest giver, a bounty hunter system, an arcade machine etc. The programmable interface can be coded to be anything that results in an in-game output relevant to each piece of infrastructure.

For those wanting more details about the blockchain technology.

As an open environment, players can edit components of the game world and game server in real-time; giving the community the power to add their own functionality through Smart Assemblies, a feature that lets players program and configure in-game components and structures.

Smart Assemblies utilizes MUD, a framework for building on-chain applications: MUD | Framework and Redstone, a L2 blockchain designed for permissionless, open software: Redstone | Cost-effective chain for MUD apps, games, and worlds.

Combined with Carbon, these tools are at the foundation of our persistent and programmable game server at universe-scale: one server, one universe, evolving through players forever.

In addition, EVE Frontier features a player-driven, open economic sandbox using cryptographic standards. Create your own currencies, establish markets, and trade assets, services, and reputation for real-world value in a truly unrestricted environment.

Now, I'm not sure about using blockchain technology. My understanding is blockchains are slower than databases, for instance. From my limited knowledge, the big advantage is making the real world monetization process easier for the game publisher. But I'm sure I'll be wrong.

While this post I think is rather negative in tone, I have played EVE Online for 15 years. What are the two big rules in EVE?

1. Don't fly what you cannot afford to lose.
2. Trust no one.

I'm taking those rules with me into EVE Frontier. Especially since I know a lot of people will play the game to make real world cash.

Star Citizen's Intergalactic Aerospace Expo Pulls In $24.2 Million In Sales In 2024

Star Citizen's Intergalactic Aerospace Expo, the game's largest fundraising and new player recruitment event, concluded yesterday. The $24.2 million in sales fell 1.4% short of last year's $24.5 million sales total. On the recruitment side, only 51,848 accounts were created, a 27.8% decline from 2023's 71,811.

From the CCU Game Dashboard

For the first time since 2014 the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo experienced a year-over-year decline in sales. But a 1.4% YoY drop in sales should not spell trouble for CIG. To put the amount into perspective, the $24.2 million in sales CIG achieved over the past 14 days is 48.3% greater than the $15.1 million recorded by all games in the EVE franchise in the 3rd quarter of 2024. Overall, CIG is still on pace to record between $110-$120 million in cash shop sales for the third consecutive year in 2024. The company only needs another $3.6 million through the remainder of December to achieve that mark. If anything, this year's IAE sales performance should emphasis that CIG has probably maximized yearly sales from the cash shop and should plan accordingly.

The area that should cause concern is new account creation. Not only is this year's amount a 27.8% drop from last year, but is a 46.3% decline from the 107,705 new accounts created during the IAE in 2022. Eventually a declining player base will result in lower revenues. The launch of Squadron 42 may help in this regard, but the launch of CIG's single player game is not until sometime in 2026.

Given proper management, CIG should survive, and rather comfortably, through 2025 to reap the benefits of the launch of the studios first released game in 2026. However, I do have to include a reminder the man in charge at CIG is Chris Roberts. Given his track record at Digital Anvil, where he had to sell the studio to Microsoft because he ran out of money during the development of Freelancer, 2025 may hold a great deal of financial troubles for the company.

Do Rolling Expansion Launches Work?

A curious thing happened with the launch of EVE Online's latest expansion, Revenant. The developers keep rolling out content. First, we had the initial expansion launch on 12 November. Writing up the patch notes, the expansion seemed a lot smaller than the Equinox expansion in June. But then, two weeks later, the developers rolled out what I called the Thanksgiving patch on 26 November. When I read the patch notes, I thought to myself, "This is a mini-expansion." I published another 5 posts covering that patch.

This week players saw another sizable patch for Revenant. The accompanying dev blog detailed a new corporation project type, a new use for Evermarks, and starting tomorrow in-game cinematic introductions for ships. And I'm not even including today's patch. (Spoiler, check the wrecks in space.) Unlike other patches, I didn't even dedicate a post on the latest updates to the Tranquility shard.

I can see why CCP would choose a rolling launch for Revenant. They had two dates reserved for content drops at the end of November and start of December anyway. Last week saw a patch associated with the development and testing of EVE Vanguard, CCP's first person shooter under development. And tomorrow is the launch of EVE's second big seasonal event, Winter Nexus. If the developers have additional content to deploy, why not just add it to the patch?

Well, players of Final Fantasy XIV might go apoplectic. Maintenance downtime periods for content patches for the Square Enix title usually run from 6 hours for point patches to a full day for expansions. But CCP has really worked on their deployment capabilities over the years and now a thirty minute downtime is long. Now if CCP can just eliminate the daily downtime.

Anyway, I'm sure deploying a patch over 2, 3, or even 4 days does make things easier on the back end. But how about the player experience? Is it better to have everything dumped on our heads all at once, or spoon fed a little at a time over a few weeks? I'd hate it in FFXIV, but in EVE? I personally don't mind, except for when I need to cover the topic.

More Layoffs Reported At Cloud Imperium Games

Apparently Cloud Imperium Games, developers of the upcoming full loot, PvP sandbox MMORPG Star Citizen, didn't wait to see the financial results of this year's Intergalactic Aerospace Expo before making decisions on the size of its workforce for 2025. According to Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, CIG started laying off staff a few days ago.

The original claims were made by a former CIG employee who then locked his Twitter account (now known as X). Those claims I totally disregard as uncredible and possibly the result of a bitter former employee looking to strike back at his former employer.

What I do find credible is Henderson's reporting that his sources indicate up to 12 employees, mostly from the QA department, were let go. Henderson has earned some credibility with his reporting on the layoffs at the beginning of 2024 at CIG's North American offices as well as the CitizenCon crunch story at the beginning of October. In other words, Henderson has more credibility than some random Twitter user with an axe to grind who locks away his allegations so others cannot check the story.

I find the story of the layoffs credible from a different direction. CIG is currently on pace to bring in as much money this year as the company did in 2022. According to CIG's financial report for 2022, the company turned a profit of $1.3 million with somewhere between 15%-20% less staff than today. Since employee costs make up a huge portion of the budget, figure overall costs are 15%-20% higher in 2024 than 2022, even after the approximately 10% force reduction at the beginning of the year.

With cash shop sales apparently plateauing between $110-$120 million per year, CIG probably needs to cut costs to stay in business. But cutting QA? From everything I've read and watched, one thing not done to excess is quality assurance. I realize CIG's customer base does a lot of QA work on Star Citizen, but these cuts may cut too close to the bone in the long-run. Then again, Chris Roberts may still be salty about what happened during the Squadron 42 demo at CitizenCon.

Cloud Imperium Games' Sales Down 28.7% YoY In November 2024

While expected, Cloud Imperium Games posted another 25%+ year-over-year decline in cash shop sales in November according to the CCU Game dashboard. Last month's total of $20.3 million in cash shop sales was a 28.7% decline compared to November 2023's figure of $28.4 million. For the year the company's sales revenue is a few thousand dollars short of $98 million, down $11.2 million, or 10.2% for from the first 11 months of 2023.

For those who keep track of new accounts (aka "new citizens"), November's 61,068 was 33.9% less than the total of 92,395 in November 2023. For the year, new account creation is down 30.4% for the first 11 months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.

Overall, the recorded sales tracked on the CCU Game dashboard is $755.3 million since the launch of the Kickstarter in October 2012. But Cloud Imperium has additional funding sources not tracked by the dashboard. Overall, the company has recorded $853.9 million in confirmed revenue (the funding page & the 2022 financial report).

• Sales/Pledges: $755.3 million (through 30 November 2024)
• Subscriptions: $33.0 million (through 31 December 2022)
• All other sources: $65.6 million (through 31 December 2022)

In addition, the company has received a total of $63.25 million in outside investment. According to the 2022 financial report, $4.8 million of the amount was returned to investors in 2020. Including the outside investment money, the total amount raised by CIG to create Squadron 42 and Star Citizen is $917.2 million, or $912.4 million when excluding the returned funds.

I started this post with the word "While expected" for a reason. Because after my November update, I found out CIG had shifted some dates for the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo into December. Through the first 9 days of the event, sales this year were $414,000, or 2.7%, ahead of last year's pace.

Here is my take from 7 November upon hearing of the event's shift into December

Cloud Imperium announced the IAE will run from Nov 22-Dec 5. This shifts Star Citizen's biggest ship sale partially into December. Expect YoY revenue in November to drop from $28.4 million to $18-$22 million and rise in December from $8.4 million up to $14-$18 million. 1/2

— Noizy (@noizygamer.bsky.social) November 7, 2024 at 11:09 AM

I'm projecting sales for Q4 to fall between $42 million and $50 million. While not matching last year's performance, it will be CIG's second highest sales quarter in its 12 year history. However, those sales would see CIG either match last year's sales total or fall as much as 7% short of 2023. 2/2

— Noizy (@noizygamer.bsky.social) November 7, 2024 at 11:13 AM

Will CIG's cash shop sales this year surpass those of 2023? The prospect becomes less likely each day. Here are the December sales totals CIG needs to achieve to meet certain metrics of success.

• Match December 2023 sales: $8.3 million
• Match Total 2022 sales: $16.2 million
• Match Total 2023 sales: $19.6 million
• Match Q4 2023 sales: $22 million
• Match 2022 Total spending: $31.5 million

I threw in the final category of matching 2022's total spending to highlight that ship sales don't pay all the bills for CIG. Also, despite news of post-CitizenCon layoffs amongst the QA staff, headcount at CIG is still probably between 15%-20% greater today than in 2022, meaning total expenses probably increased by that much as well.

Renewing My EVE Subscriptions On Black Friday

Every year players of EVE Online always ask about sales on EVE subscriptions (aka Omega time) on Black Friday. Usually the answer is no. But I saw the ad for Black Friday sales on the launcher and amazingly this year's sale included game time. So I had to dive into the store and look around.

I have two accounts I pay for, with one running out of game time in April and the other in October. But if the sale is good and I have less than a year remaining I'll buy the sale. And the Black Friday sale was particularly good. Forget about the SKINs. The cosmetics are for ships I will probably never fly, especially the Monitor. But at $9.62 per 30 days when buying game time one year at a time, the price is less than half that of buying game time once a month ($19.99). So I went ahead and bought the 12 month Omega package.

I also looked at the packages and found one with SKINs for ships I actually fly. The Rifter and Arbitrator are nice and while I don't fly Retrievers, I do like the Rockbreaker SKINs. So I bought the Silver Starter Pack for the sale price of $11.99 for both accounts. So at the end of the day, I purchased 390 days of Omega time for $9.80 per 30 days.

I was reminded of one other thing at the checkout screen. I was asked for a content creators WeHype code. I spent over $250 today but didn't have a code to put in. A pity because that was $12.75 that could have gone to someone. If content creators were ever going to participate in the program, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the times to join.

I did notice PLEX were not on sale today. Hopefully we will see the in-game New Eden Store which uses PLEX as currency hold a Cyber Monday sale. Now that I saw that the Rockbreaker SKINs are not just for mining barges and exhumers, I might want to pick up a few if they are on sale.

EVE Online: Revenant Thanksgiving Patch - Trustbreaker Arrays

Tomorrow is the CCP Games' first effort to link gameplay in EVE Online and its new first person shooter under development, EVE Vanguard. From 28 November to 1 December a testing event for the FPS game will go on requiring some sort of involvement from players in EVE Online. Between the dev blog and patch notes, here's the information provided by CCP.

First from the dev blog.

In connection with the Vanguard deployment starting on 28 November, the Deathless Circle has deployed Trustbreaker Arrays, which connect to the enigmatic Warden structure in Zarzakh. These arrays scan for crucial passkeys required to breach planetary defenses, enabling Vanguard forces to claim planetary strongholds. However, the arrays are now under siege by Drifter forces, and the Deathless has issued a call to capsuleers to intervene. 

From 26 November to 2 December, pilots can defend the arrays to earn ISK rewards, or destroy them to seize passkeys as valuable commodities. These skirmishes offer a high-stakes choice: stand with the Deathless or shut their operations down. 

The patch notes provided important information. Things like ship restrictions, recommended group sizes, and where to find the Trustbreaker Arrays. You know, the important stuff.

The Deathless Circle has deployed Planetary Trustbreaker Arrays to steal passkeys for planetary defense networks ahead of Vanguard assaults. These sites have fallen under attack by Drifter forces!

• Deathless Trustbreaker Under Attack sites are appearing in pirate Insurgency FOB systems.
  
  
• Capsuleer fleets can choose to protect the Trustbreaker Array for the duration to receive a reward from the Deathless. 5 capsuleers are recommended for this challenge.
  
  
• Alternatively, those who do not wish to support the Deathless can wait for the structure to generate PDN passkeys before destroying it. Many groups would pay handsomely for any such commodities seized from the wreckage!
  
  
• Regardless of their motivations, capsuleers are limited to bringing standard T1 cruisers or below within the site.

To participate in the testing, players in EVE Online should find an insurgency between 28 November and 1 December and take a side. Oh, did I mention rewards? No cookies, but everyone likes skill points, right?

The battle intensifies on 28 November, as war descends to the surface in EVE Vanguard. Insurgency deployments unleash warclones on planets to directly impact the ongoing war in space. In addition, capsuleers get daily rewards for taking flight in EVE Online between 28 November and 1 December: Vanguard-themed SKIN design components, 3,000 EverMarks, and 50,000 Skill Points. Choose your allegiance, shape planetary battlefields, and leave your mark on the EVE Online universe from the ground as well as amongst the stars. Learn more about EVE Vanguard and add the game to your Steam wishlist so you don’t miss a moment of action. 

EVE Online: Revenant Thanksgiving Patch - Little Things

CCP Games has faced a problem with the last couple of EVE Online expansions. After the goodies accompanying the launch of an expansion end, so does the attention of many players. The developers have come up with a unique solution. Once the login rewards and free game time run out, drop more free content. And so, I woke up this morning to find a mini-expansion's worth of patch notes waiting on the launcher along with a dev blog. After a quick read, I think the mashup might prove useful. So here's part four of the effort covering the Little Things updates introduced in today's patch.

The Little Things features are something that originated over a decade ago. At a certain point the developers discovered players don't just demand Jesus features. Making our lives easier gets applause also. The dev blog noted:

Today's release also ushers in a few Little Things to improve quality of life. While some Little Things are bigger than others, these are some of our favorite changes to make. If you have any QoL suggestions, head on over to the EVE Online Forums where we'd love to hear from you.

I'm not sure which change is better, making information in contracts more visible or being able to buy from more than one sell order at a time. I'll let you judge.

🤝 The yield, range and cycle time for gas cloud scoops and gas cloud harvesters has been added to the tooltip of the modules.

🤝 Corporations that you have 0 LP within your personal wallet or corp wallet are now hidden.

🤝 Added a dedicated neocom icon for the overview, so you can now more easily see it in the neocom and the ctrl+tab window when you have it minimized.

🤝 The input fields for courier contracts have been made bigger, and the left panel can now be expanded, so you can see larger values more easily.

🤝 Added checkboxes to courier contract filters so you can now more easily search for unfiltered results, without having to delete the info from the filter fields.

🤝 You can now copy names of item types in info windows and the market window.

🤝 You can now edit bookmarks through the radial menu while using the solarsystem map.

🤝 Added the number of jumps a system which is a point in your current autopilot route is if you mouse over it.

🤝 You can now drag and drop items onto the neocom item hangar icon to move them.

🤝 You are now able to buy from more than one sell order at a time from the ‘buy this type’ window.

🤝 You can now deliver corp items to yourself in the ‘deliver to’ right click menu.

🤝 Multiple skills can now be moved around in the skill queue.

🤝 Multibuy can now interpret ‘1x item name’.

EVE Online: Revenant Thanksgiving Patch - Factional Warfare and Insurgency Balance

CCP Games has faced a problem with the last couple of EVE Online expansions. After the goodies accompanying the launch of an expansion end, so does the attention of many players. The developers have come up with a unique solution. Once the login rewards and free game time run out, drop more free content. And so, I woke up this morning to find a mini-expansion's worth of patch notes waiting on the launcher along with a dev blog. After a quick read, I think the mashup might prove useful. So here's part three of the effort covering some factional warfare and insurgency changes introduced in today's patch.

The dev blog didn't really have much to say on the subject.

Over in the warzone, changes to Factional Warfare and Pirate Insurgencies ensure more meaningful engagements with improvements to Battlefield sites, shifting the makeup of signatures, buffing deployables, and more.  

The patch notes are a lot more descriptive on the changes made and the reasons why. This section of the patch notes sounds more like a dev blog than the typical CCP patch notes.

In Equinox we fixed battlefields being cheesed by holding a single battlecruiser NPC alive, however with that fix, players feel like Battlefields are now too tedious and not rewarding enough and this has caused a reduction in fighting and PVP in and around battlefields. To address this, we are approximately doubling the time between NPC waves.

• Respawn time for NPCs has been significantly increased

Propaganda Broadcast Structures and Listening Outposts advantage deployables are not being used outside of key system sieges. We’re trying to improve this by increasing their availability and effectiveness.

• Drop rates of Encoder Splice and Decoded Packages from FW Operation Centers (Rearguard Data Sites) has been approximately doubled.
  
  
• Doubled the effectiveness on advantage of the Propaganda Broadcast Structure and the Listening Post objective deployables.

A key complaint from anti-pirate players in insurgencies is that the Pirate FOBs have such huge tether ranges that it makes it incredibly difficult to siege as pirate aligned players can remain tethered and invulnerable until they want to engage while close to their ships even in long range setups, so we’re bringing it down to a value that should still feel very comfortable for players coming in from the shipcaster, but less powerful as a tool used against players trying to siege the FOB.

• Tether Radius on the Pirate FOBs has been dropped from 100km to 50km

Another common complaint with FW and Insurgencies is the amount of multiboxing destroyers in the warzone. We’re trying to address this by shifting the FW sites back towards 1-man sites and the insurgency 5-person sites away from Smalls and into Mediums and Larges. We’re doing this because it’s fairly difficult to contest 5 Destroyers inside smalls with less than 5 pilots, but much easier in Mediums and Larges where 2-3 Navy Cruisers/HACs or 1-2 BCs can engage them. Having slower responding but larger, more rewarding 5-person sites will hopefully also increase the number of them that are contested.

• Reduced the number of Factional Warfare Small NVY-5 and Small ADV-5 sites. A slightly increased amount of Small NVY-1s and Small ADV-1s will appear in their place to keep the potential number of victory points generated per day the same.
  
  
• Reduced the total number of the insurgency Small ADV-5 sites, their chance to spawn has been rolled into increasing the number of Medium and Large ADV-5 sites which spawn instead.
  
  
• The Respawn time of all insurgency ADV-5 sites has been increased (slowed down) to keep LP and Corruption generation rates similar with an increased number of Medium and large ADV-5 sites spawning.

And finally a change I don't really think needs an explanation.

• Added appropriate salvage to the Angel and Guristas FOB wreck.

EVE Online: Revenant Thanksgiving Patch - Ship Rebalancing

CCP Games has faced a problem with the last couple of EVE Online expansions. After the goodies accompanying the launch of an expansion end, so does the attention of many players. The developers have come up with a unique solution. Once the login rewards and free game time run out, drop more free content. And so, I woke up this morning to find a mini-expansion's worth of patch notes waiting on the launcher along with a dev blog. After a quick read, I think the mashup might prove useful. So here's part two of the effort covering additional ship rebalancing in Revenant.

The dev blog briefly mentioned some of the changes made to ships in today's patch.

A few ships, like the Ferox Navy Issue and the Eos were overperforming, which has been addressed by making them more engageable. Heavy assault cruisers have regained their MWD signature radius bonus to make them a bit more viable in the current meta, and various other ships, like the Ashimmu and Maulus Navy Issue, have been improved. 

This update also introduces several changes aimed specifically at mining. Resources can now be compressed through the right-click menu instead of the compression window, exhumers and barges have improved locked targets, and excavators are now faster.  

Normally I don't use quote boxes for patch notes. But for the explanations of the ship changes I'll change the format, at least for this post.

Ferox Navy Issue

The Ferox Navy Issue is overperforming, so we’re increasing the signature radius back up to the regular T1 Ferox amount and then nerfing the agility and targeting range slightly. We’re hoping the combination of sig and agility reduction will make them a bit more vulnerable to battleships and stealth bombers in fleet encounters. The Ferox Navy Issue loses the optimal bonus the regular T1 Ferox has so we are shaving a bit of max targeting range off as well.

• Signature Radius increased from 300m to 325m
• Agility nerfed from 0.66x to 0.69x
• Max Targeting Range reduced from 67500m to 60000m

Eos

Toning down the Eos somewhat. It has 11 mid-slots and low-slots combined, unlike all other Command Ships which have 10, which is even more powerful when you consider it is a drone ship. Seeing it start to become a little unhealthy in some places so we’re reducing the power of sentry drone fits slightly.

• Drone Optimal range per level reduced from 10% to 5%

Heavy Assault Cruisers

In the Uprising expansion, we made significant changes to HACs by removing or reducing long range bonuses and completely reworking the Muninn which was the most dominant ship in the game at the time. We feel like the meta has shifted now with more Battleships and Navy Battlecruisers being viable so that we can now add back the 50% MWD signature radius role bonus to HACs which we removed in early 2021.

• 50% reduction in Microwarpdrive signature radius penalty Role Bonus added back

Ashimmu

The Ashimmu has lower usage than the other pirate cruisers, so giving it the ability to field 5 medium drones, or 2 flights of light drones. And giving it some small speed improvements.

• Drone Bay and Drone Bandwidth increased from 40 Mbit/sec to 50 Mbit/sec
• Max Velocity increased from 208 to 215m/s
• Agility improved from 0.58x to 0.55x

Scythe

The Scythe has fitting issues, especially since it’s an entry level support cruiser so giving it a small amount of love there. Also boosting the mobility of the Scythe a bit to try and help it stand out from the Osprey more by improving its strengths.

• CPU increased from 285tf to 300tf
• Powergrid increased from 345MW to 375MW
• Max Velocity increased from 250m/s to 260m/s
• Agility improved from 0.6x to 0.57x

Vengeance

The Vengeance has low usage, so we’re giving it a small facelift with some extra damage (But still keeping the Hawk on top with kinetic damage missiles) and a bit more powergrid to help give it some more options.

• Rocket Damage Per Level of Amarr Frigate increased from 5% to 7.5%
• Powergrid increased from 43MW to 46MW

Cruor

The Cruor is underperforming relative to its peers. We’re giving it an extra drone to bump up its damage potential a bit, but have that DPS be destructible. We are then improving the Cruor’s mobility so it can better use the long-range web for catching kiting ships.

• Drone Bay and Bandwidth increased from 5m3 to 10m3 and 5 Mbit/sec to 10 Mbit/sec, respectively.
• Max Velocity increased from 330m/s to 340m/s
• Agility improved from 3.6x to 3.4x

Maulus Navy Issue

The Maulus Navy Issue currently has 1 less total slot than the other Navy EWAR Frigates, so we’re correcting that by giving it an extra high slot. The hope here is that this will improve its versatility and open up options like triple neut setups that its brother in spirit Tristan is capable of. Small PG boost to help fill that high slot, and then a small mobility improvement since it currently is the slowest navy frigate.

• Highslots increased from 2 to 3
• Powergrid increased from 35MW to 38MW
• Max Velocity incrased from 315m/s to 325m/s

Mining Ships

Just a personal note. It's about time the developers realized their mistake with the nerfs to the Procurer made back in 2022. Now, do we really need to have wastage?

We’re giving all mining barges and exhumers an extra few locked targets to improve quality of life when mining. Specifically, the Procurer and Skiff are getting a significant agility buff, which will bring down their align times by several seconds each, and an extra midslot. During the 2022 rebalance, the Procurer and Skiff both lost a slot each total, while the Covetor and Hulk gained one, when we rebalanced them around all having the same total number of slots. The Procurer and Skiff also had their agility nerfed a bit too much and so we are now correcting this and giving them back the slot they lost. Finally, we are improving the speed of Excavators to increase their effectiveness when mining, especially when mining further away asteroids, since the Rorqual is now a more supporting role and excavators are balanced around high wastage.

Rorqual

• 'Excavator' Mining Drone base velocity increased from 175m/s to 250m/s
• ‘Excavator’ Ice Harvesting Drone base velocity increased from 90m/s to 125m/s

All Exhumers

• Max Locked Targets improved from 6 to 8

Skiff

• Agility improved from 0.8x to 0.64x
• Midslots increased from 4 to 5

All Mining Barges

• Max Locked Targets improved from 5 to 6

Procurer

• Agility improved from 0.8x to 0.64x
• Midslots increased from 2 to 3

Navy Faction Light Fighters

Small buff to navy fighters doing longer PVE encounters like the Forsaken Sanctums and Teeming Hordes. Without obsoleting T2 Fighters which still have slightly higher DPS.

• Heavy Rocket ability charge count increased from 12 to 15.

Standard Cerebral Accelerator

Was being abused by new freshly injected characters to take advantage of the 20% damage boost in ships like Marauders and Dreadnoughts, or PVP smurf accounts rather than being used by new players. Removing the damage bonuses and increasing the attributes on it from +3 to +5, to compensate it, which should make it actually more useful for new players and remove the abuse cases.

• Removed 20% turret damage boost and 20% missile rate of fire boost.
• Increased attributes from +3 to +5.

EVE Online: Revenant Thanksgiving Patch - Mercenary Dens

CCP Games has faced a problem with the last couple of EVE Online expansions. After the goodies accompanying the launch of an expansion end, so does the attention of many players. The developers have come up with a unique solution. Once the login rewards and free game time run out, drop more content. And so, I woke up this morning to find a mini-expansion's worth of patch notes waiting on the launcher along with a dev blog. After a quick read, I think the mashup might prove useful. So here's part of the effort covering additions to one of the new features introduced in Revenant, Mercenary Dens.

First from the dev blog is an overview of the additions to Mercenary Dens that didn't make it onto Tranquility with the launch of the Revenant expansion.

Since the launch of Revenant, capsuleers have been hard at work constructing and destroying mercenary dens all over nullsec space. Today, Mercenary Tactical Operations (MTO) have been introduced to these dens, enabling capsuleers to seize control of their systems’ destiny. Upwell has lobbied for a crackdown of the transportation of the encrypted infomorphs of workers in breach of their work contracts, but the Deathless Circle has found a way to remotely transmit infomorph applicants using infomorph decryption keys, unlocking the same kind of remote consciousness that capsuleers use when they die. The production of these keys can be further stimulated through mercenary site activity and they can be delivered to the Deathless for handsome rewards. Dive into MTO today to drive development and reduce anarchy by completing operations, boosting production of infomorph decryption keys that can be traded for valuable rewards, and eliminating potential workforce disruption.

The above sounds great. Or confusing. Definitely confusing without some details. Thankfully the patch notes supplied a lot of details.

 

Mercenary Dens

• Mercenary Dens now have 2 new attributes, Anarchy and Development. Both Anarchy and Development values will slowly increase over time, approximately 5 levels per day (24 hours). Eventually, when the level hits a certain threshold, the Anarchy or Development for that mercenary den will level up, which can have certain affects.
  
  
• While a Mercenary Den is reinforced, passive Anarchy and Development are paused.
  
  
• Added a dedicated window for viewing all your mercenary dens which can be found via the neocom under Industry, or from the mercenary den agency page.

Anarchy

• Anarchy Amount: 0-19 - Level 0 - 0% reduction to Skyhook Workforce
• Anarchy Amount: 20-39 - Level 1 - 0% reduction to Skyhook Workforce
• Anarchy Amount: 40-69 - Level 2 - 10% reduction to Skyhook Workforce
• Anarchy Amount: 70-99 - Level 3 - 20% reduction to Skyhook Workforce
• Anarchy Amount: 100 - Level 4 - 40% reduction to Skyhook Workforce

This means that if left alone, it will take 8 days for a mercenary den to start to negatively impact a Skyhook.

Development Amount

• Development Amount: 0-19 - Level 0 - Regular Informorph Production rate
• Development Amount: 20-39 - Level 1 - 15% bonus to Infomorph Production Rate
• Development Amount: 40-69 - Level 2 - 25% bonus to Infomorph Production Rate
• Development Amount: 70-99 - Level 3 - 35% bonus to Infomorph Production Rate
• Development Amount: 100 - Level 4 - 50% bonus to Infomorph Production Rate

I do have to put my two cents in at this point. I believe players were promised some PvE content along with the introduction of mercenary dens. Today's patch introduces the gameplay. Plus, the sites seem custom made for newer player to contribute to the economic well-being of a null sec alliance. At least in theory. We'll need to wait for experience to see if the developers' plans bear fruit.

Mercenary Tactical Operations (MTOs)

Approximately every 3 days, a mercenary den tactical operation (MTO) will become available. MTOs are new PVE content designed for a single player in a cruiser. These sites are behind an acceleration gate that only lets in T1 and faction cruisers, or any destroyer/frigate. Once an MTO has been warped to, a beacon will appear in space which anyone can warp to, even hostile players. MTOs are very rewarding and will drop on average around 80-100 million ISK in loot, and if they are successfully completed, they will decrease anarchy by 20 points, and increase development by 10 points. Since it takes 4 days for anarchy to increase by 20 points, this means that running a MTO once every 3-4 days (when it becomes avaliable) will be enough for Mercenary Den owners to maintain their dens to prevent any adverse affect on the Skyhook if they so wish.

To Start an MTO, you will need to be undocked in the solarsystem where the mercenary den is located, and then start it from the Opportunities window, or from the Mercenary Den window. MTO sites always spawn in the same solarsystem as where the Mercenary Den is located. A Mercenary Den can have a maximum of up to 3 MTOs at once, and MTOs last for 4 days after being offered.

If a Mercenary Den is already maxed out at level 4 Development, completing a MTO will create 500 bonus infomorphs directly into the mercenary den on completion in place of the development reward.

A Slow Start For Star Citizen's Intergalactic Aerospace Expo in 2024

On Friday Cloud Imperium Games launched the beginning of Star Citizen's Intergalactic Aerospace Expo. Star Citizen's biggest event, the IAE has two purposes. The first is to attract as many new players to the game as possible. The second is to make as much money as possible. Lasting this year from 22 November to 5 December, the first weekend of the event is now in the books. According to the statistics available at the CCU Game dashboard, the event is down compared to 2023.

One of the concerns I had was whether the announcements at this year's CitizenCon would negatively impact the IAE. In October, CIG openly declared Star Citizen will be a full loot, PvP sandbox. Perhaps most importantly in terms of ship sales, the company announced AI crews to help solo players fly multi-crew ships was not a feature Star Citizen would possess at launch. 

In other words, solo pilots could not expect to use AI crews until the four systems not yet in the game -- Pyro, Nyx, Castra, and Terra -- were fully complete and in the game. Pyro will enter the Persistent Universe with the launch of Alpha 4.0, but the other planets? Even if CIG completes one system per year, the soonest solo players can expect to hire AI crews is sometime in 2028. And given CIG's track record, the year is probably closer to 2032.

The 1st weekend's performance

On the matter of attracting new players, CIG is on a bit of a two-year losing streak. The possibility exists of the game not attracting the creation of new accounts at 2021's level of 524,161. This weekend's performance is typical of the issue. Over the first three days, the 18,894 accounts created is 33.5% behind 2023's count of 28,432 over the number recorded by last year's first weekend.

The sales numbers are not quite as bad. Over the first weekend the IAE generated almost $4.2 million in sales. Still, the amount is 14.1% behind 2023's pace of $4.9 million. Perhaps the most significant piece of information is this year is that far behind even after the limited time sales of the Idris and Javelin.

Perhaps one of the biggest reason for following the two-week sales event is the potential impact on the Star Citizen player base. The last time the IAE suffered a year-over-year decline was 2014. A decade of sustained growth, at least for an event, can lead to complacency. A lot of the content creators I watch don't seem to think sales could go down this year. Admittedly, I still don't think the streak will end this year, but I'm not as sure as I was last week. If the event doesn't pull in $24.5 million like last year, do we start hearing louder cries of "Star Citizen is dying"?

EVE Vanguard x EVE Online - Groundbreak Runs From November 26 To December 9

I intended to make a prediction that EVE Vanguard, CCP Games' under development MMOFPS game, would run an event interacting with EVE Online sometime in 2025. A prediction I can no longer make since such an event is running at the end of November and extending into December. The Pearl Abyss-owned studio made the announcement on its corporate website yesterday.

REYKJAVÍK, Iceland – November 19, 2024 - Today, CCP Games announced a public limited-time access event for EVE Vanguard, the in-development MMOFPS that directly connects to the legendary EVE Online Universe. From November 28 to December 9, players can descend onto diverse planetary battlegrounds as technologically immortal warclones, engaging in intense ground combat that directly impacts the largest player-driven war in gaming history. To obtain an access code visit the EVE Vanguard Discord server.

In YC126.11.28: Groundbreak, players will join live insurgencies that reach from ground to orbit, shaping the future of New Eden. With every deployment, you have the chance to align with a faction of your choice and dive into intense 9v9 battles, capturing artillery cannons to bombard enemy fleets from the surface. Each victory strengthens your side's grip on planetary zones in EVE Online, driving opposition forces out of contested airspace and having real-time impact on the ongoing war in the cluster.

In a dev blog yesterday, the developers gave the lore explanation for the influx of all the players/testers from Vanguard. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the link between the two games is the relatively new insurgency system.

CAPSULEER REINFORCEMENTS

The Deathless is making his presence known all over New Eden – on planets and in space. He has put out a call to the capsuleers of the cluster to join in the fight against Drifter forces, in part to aid Vanguard forces in planetside operations. The Deathless Circle has deployed special towers connected to the newly revealed Warden, which scan local networks for passkeys needed to break planetary defense systems, allowing Vanguard warclones to fight for key positions in insurgencies. These towers are under attack from Drifters, and the Deathless has asked capsuleers to help defend them. There is of course nothing stopping them from destroying the towers and stealing the passkeys for themselves, should they prefer to support suppression-aligned forces. 

In a positive move, players are not confined to insurgencies and the ties to EVE Online players. The devs will take advantage of Vanguard's persistent state and run content between major conflicts.

Between insurgency deployments you can hone your power by raiding planetary zones for rare resources and blueprint parts. Face off against brutal NPC militia and rival warclones, scavenging for materials to craft tactical chipsets and blueprints. Use them to build your own custom arsenal and gain an edge for the next objective. You have the freedom to formulate your own goals, strategies, and fragile alliances, with myriad methods of achieving what you set out to accomplish. Decide where you wish to deploy, manufacture an unbeatable armory, and destroy your rivals. 

In addition to participating in the event itself, CCP is running a rewards promotion for EVE Online players from 28 November to 1 December, or Thanksgiving weekend in the United States. The rewards are up to four SKIN design components, 3,000 EverMarks, and 50,000 Skill Points for participating all four days.

I do want to an additional point not really in the press release or the dev blog. To all the bloggers and content creators creating their end of the year predictions, EVE Vanguard is scheduled to launch on Steam Early Access in 2025. Adjust your predictions accordingly.

CCP Didn't Mean To Swing The Nerfbat On Null Sec Sites

Sometimes I bet the developers over in Reykjavik feel they can't win. On the one hand, for years players have complained about the PvE in EVE Online and that the devs need to update the existing content. On the other hand, players don't like change. The latest example showed up in the patch notes on Friday.

The changes in question seemed rather innocuous when I read through the patch notes. In fact, I lumped the changes into a category called "other null sec site changes."

Nullsec Combat Anomaly Graphics and Gameplay Overhaul

Several Combat Anomaly sites in nullsec have been renovated.

• All variations of the Forsaken Sanctums, Sanctums, Havens, Patrol and Horde sites have had full art and asset renovations
• Over 100 different nullsec anomaly sites now have an objectives panel. So you can now easily see what wave you are on and how many NPCs remain at a glance!
• Several NPC groups now warp in instead of spawning in place where appropriate.

In the patch notes, the biggest concern with the graphics upgrade is the potential of the volumetric clouds in the sites impacting the performance of multi-boxers. Turns out the biggest complaint is the warping NPCs.

Apparently the issue concerns pilots of Edencom ships. I don't play in null sec so don't really have experience with area of effect weapons. I found a thread on the EVE Online sub-Reddit explaining the complaint.

Due to the mechanics of EVE/Vorton guns, if even one single ship lands outside of your 10km bubble, kiss any benefit over AFK spinning an Ishtars goodbye, because now you have to spend JUST AS MUCH TIME killing that one single lone Battleship (usually) as you did the rest of the wave that DID land within the 10km range.

Congratulations. Your clear time just doubled. Because of one ship. Because of 100 meters of range.

This one ship landing .1 km outside of your AOE range effectively doubles the amount of time/ammo taken to clear that particular wave, which ruins the whole benefit/point of running Stormbringers versus just AFK spinning Ishtars.

Now, take the above complaint with a grain of salt, although the explanation of the mechanics seems sound. Also, if I want to put on my tin foil hat, the developers may have balanced the ratting ISK faucet around the speed of clearing sites using AFK Ishtars.

Or, as the developers have done for years, tried to introduce more active gameplay into EVE. We have the age-old conflict of those who want more engaging gameplay versus those who want to gather their ISK as quickly as possible. After all, as we all learned in World of Warcraft, "Time is money, friend."

In the developer response to the issue in Friday's patch notes, making AoE farming, while not an intended consequence of the change, more difficult wasn't unwelcome. In fact, the big concern for the developers was for players not to see the move as an effort to nerf income generation. Here is the explanation from the patch notes.

With the renovation update to Nullsec anomalies, and bug fixes for the NPC dreadnoughts released in Revenant, we did not intend to significantly impact Nullsec income with the changes to the NPCs warping in instead of spawning in place. We also have not made any intentional changes to the AI used by the NPCs which would cause them to attack drones more frequently.

To address these concerns, we are increasing several Battleship and Battlecruiser NPC bounties found primarily in Nullsec by between 30-40% to compensate for the reductions in efficiency for AoE farming (Smartbomb, Stormbringer and Thunderchild ratting) due to the NPCs warping in and potentially requiring higher level of activity for increased drone management for drone setups. We are also happy for this to be a significant boost for more active forms of ratting that were not as directly impacted, such as Marauder ratting.

If anyone wants to know the impact of player backlash against the Scarcity Era, the above is a demonstration. The developers basically stated, "yes, we nerfed your playstyle, but we didn't do it to keep you from making ISK." I'd say we may need to look at this as a filter for future actions, especially in null security space.

For completeness' sake, I'll conclude this post with the actual changes the devs made on Friday to the combat sites.

• Increased the bounties on several NPCs found primarily in Nullsec Anomalies by 30-40%.
  
  
• This results in the following total average bounty increases for these popular Nullsec anomalies:
• Hubs: 28.40%
• Rally Points: 28.50%
• Patrols: 30.20%
• Havens: 31.70%
• Forsaken Hubs: 34.50%
• Hordes: 34.70%
• Sanctums: 35.70%
• Forsaken Sanctums & Teeming Hordes: 36.00%

So for those who didn't engage in AoE farming, CCP handed them a big income boost.

Black Desert Mobile Merges Servers Down To Three

A day after Pearl Abyss' earnings call for the third quarter of 2024, the South Korean game company merged the six Black Desert Mobile servers down to three. The company did give players two weeks notice, so the news wouldn't have caught vigilant investment companies by surprise.

The three servers being merged into the others were known as Oasis servers. In Black Desert Mobile, Oasis servers were special game servers introduced by Pearl Abyss in April 2024. These servers offered opportunities for both new and returning players compared to players on the regular servers. Here are some key features of Oasis servers:

Leveling Up Quickly: Players could level up five times faster compared to regular servers.

100% Black Pearl Refund: Returning players got a full refund of their Black Pearls, which could be used to purchase in-game items.

Quality-of-Life Improvements: Updates like Shadow Gear upgrades and new crafting recipes were available.

Community Events: Various events, giveaways, and special title events were held to engage players.

Given the servers only lasted six months before their announced merge into regular servers, I assume the idea a failure.

At one point Black Desert Mobile was the main driver of revenue for the Black Desert franchise. In the third quarter of 2019 BDM brought in 57% of Pearl Abyss' overall revenue, or approximately ₩76 billion ($63.6 million). In the last quarter five years later, mobile gaming only brought in 21%, or ₩15.6 billion ($21.2 million) of the company's gaming revenue. And unlike in 2019, last quarter mobile gaming revenue was split between BDM and EVE: Echoes, although the vast majority was probably generated by BDM.

Between the long decline of Black Desert Mobile and the failure to upgrade Black Desert Online for next generation consoles, Pearly Abyss is close to falling below the ₩75 billion recorded in company revenue for Q4 2017, the first month of the operation of BDM.

My First Two Days In FFXIV's Patch 7.1 - Crossroads

I've spent a couple of days playing the latest patch of Final Fantasy XIV, Crossroads. I normally refer to the patch number, in this case 7.1. I have to say I'm feeling better about the Dawntrail expansion, particularly the MSQ. After playing for two days I think I came up with a plan for the next two months or so, up to patch 7.15.

First, the MSQ. So far I haven't changed my opinion that the Dawntrail MSQ is only better than the A Realm Reborn MSQ amongst the expansion (and yes, I consider ARR an expansion). The feel of the story reminds me of the Shadowbringers expansion point releases, meaning the quality picked up in patch 7.1. The story also continued to drop pieces of alternative universe writing about the New World. For an example from the early Dawntrail MSQ, what would happen if, instead of Europeans bringing disease to the Native Americans, the Europeans picked up a deadly disease from the natives? We get something similar with the railroad story in Crossroads.

Of course I'm going to complain about the dungeon, Yuweyawata Field Station. The final boss had similar mechanics to the first boss of Alexandria, meaning a lot of dancing around telegraphs. I somehow made it through the final boss after about an hour. I agree with the comment from Alphinaud if you approach him after the fight: "I don't know how we made it through."

I did notice that the trial for patch 7.1, The Minstrel's Ballad: Sphene's Burden, is not required. The trial, as indicated by the mention of The Minstrel, is a harder version of The Interphos and thus is not required for the story in the MSQ. After all, The Minstrel is just providing an idealized story of what actually occurred.

The next bit of new content I started are the Pelupelu society quests. I really liked the little introduction quest required to unlock the feature. The Pelupelu are for combat jobs, just like the first society quest introduced in Endwalker. The experience points granted for doing the society quests is rather good. So good I decided to do society quests for Endwalker and Shadowbringers also. For doing the 9 quests I received a few points shy of 10 million experience points. I figure that reaching maximum level in a society will take 42 days. If so, I think I can not only level Dancer to 100, but Summoner as well. Once that is done, I just need to level a melee DPS and a tank job to complete all of the role quests for Dawntrail. I currently have Warrior to level 60 and no melee jobs started.

I do need to finish up one piece of patch 7.0 content. I still have to complete the quests for 2 of the NPCs in the Wachumeqimeqi district. Once those are done, I understand I can access an overall quest to finish off the area once patch 7.15 arrives, probably sometime in January. I have the feeling a lot of crafting and gathering content will drop in patch 7.15 so I need to finish up so I'm ready when the patch drops.

Looking at the above I have a lot of daily tasks ahead of me. But I really don't mind because I like running around the world and the new quests tell a bit more about the new lands I'm exploring. 

Pearl Abyss Q3 2024 Earnings Call

On Tuesday in South Korea, Pearl Abyss held its earnings call for the third quarter of 2024. The company experienced a quarter-over-quarter revenue decline of 2.8% down to ₩79.5 billion ($58.6 million). Year-over-year the company's revenue has declined 6.3% compared to Q3 2023's revenue of ₩84.9 billion ($64.7 million). 

The drop in revenue alone doesn't tell the full story of Pearl Abyss' poor financial performance in the third quarter. In the third quarter, the company posted a operating loss of ₩9.2 billion ($6.8 million). Over the past four quarters, the company has posted losses in three, totaling ₩19.9 billion ($14.7 million). 

The operating loss translated into a net loss of ₩7.8 billion ($5.8 million). In response to a question from one of the investment analysts, a member from the Pearl Abyss C-suite explained the company had experienced a couple of one-time expenses that contributed to the losses. The first was ₩2.5 billion spent on responding to a tax audit from the South Korean government. The other was ₩500 million in increased electrical costs for air conditioning during the summer's abnormally warm summer.

While the second net loss over the last four quarters, Pearl Abyss has shown a profit of ₩9.2 billion ($7.2 million) over the period. 

In another piece of news, ₩5.0 billion, or 6.3% of Pearl Abyss' revenue did not come from game revenue associated with its two main intellectual properties. In the past Pearl Abyss has posted significant revenue from its financial division. Apparently the same happened again in the third quarter, although none of the investment analysts on the call asked about the subject.

In a look at the Black Desert IP revenue fell from the previous quarter by 10%, down to ₩54.0 billion ($39.8 million). The year-over-year decline was steeper, with the quarter's revenue down 21% from the ₩68.4 billion ($52.1 million) posted in the third quarter of 2023. The financial picture in the fourth quarter looks rosier as Tencent began Black Desert Online service in the People's Republic of China on 24 October. Additional sales are possible as the company plans special events to celebrate the 10th anniversary in December.

The picture was brighter for the games set in the EVE universe. Quarter-over-quarter sales fell 5.1% down to ₩20.5 billion ($15.1 million) in the third quarter. But year-over-year sales rose 28.1% compared to Q3 2023's mark of ₩16.0 billion ($12.2 million), meeting the revenue expectations set on the Q2 earnings call.

Revenue should rise for the EVE IP in the upcoming quarter. In addition to the bi-annual EVE Online expansion launching today, the new mobile game, EVE Galaxy Conquest, launched globally on 29 October. In addition, two games under development, EVE Vanguard and EVE Frontier were mentioned on the call. In response to token sales concerning CCP's blockchain-based MMORPG, the Pearl Abyss CEO referred all such queries to CCP.

The most questions, however, were asked about Crimson Desert. The Pearl Abyss leadership spent a lot of time deflecting questions about the game, probably to not overshadow any upcoming announcement coming up at G-STAR this weekend starting on Thursday in Busan. After a question about the demo at G-STAR, the analyst was told to go to the convention floor and play it himself. I think the question might have struck a nerve as those on the call had already been told the playable demo at G-STAR would basically be the same one presented at Gamescom except with one additional boss.

Some questions about Crimson Desert were answered on the call. For example, the 22% increase in advertising expenditures up to ₩8.9 billion ($6.6 million) was mostly due to increased costs associated with attending game shows and other events to introduce the game to the public. Also, the studio is still considering multi-player modes as well as downloadable content to keep revenue up after the game's first year on the market. When Crimson Desert was first introduced a multi-player mode was included as a feature.