EVE: Equinox Post-Launch Patch Notes - Size Matters

I had heard of disgruntlement coming out of null sec following the launch of EVE Online's Equinox expansion. Null security space is a bit like Texas: everything is bigger. The spaceships are bigger (titans), the structures are bigger (keepstars), the systems are bigger (except for Thera), and of course, the weapons are bigger. But I didn't know just how bad the developers had, to use a technical term, fucked up until I read about the asteroids in today's patch notes.

In a dev blog announcing today's changes, CCP noted that one of the changes was to increase the minimum asteroid size in the new anomalies "such that it can accommodate multiple strip miner cycles." Like I've said in the past, I barely visit null security space. But I do know about how much bigger null sec asteroids are compared to those in high and low sec. A totally understandable design decision that allows null sec players to bring out their big mining toys, Rorquals and Hulks. I know, Hulks are allowed to fly in high sec, but they can't really go full out when compared to mining the big rocks in null. Having to switch constantly from one asteroid to the next is something that is only supposed to occur in Empire space.

I realize developing a game in Iceland gives game makers a somewhat unique experience, but maybe CCP needs to hire a developer or two from Texas to give a perspective on null sec. Preferably ones who wear big belt buckles.

The changes today don't just affect the size of asteroids. CCP addressed a lot of concerns voiced over the last month. First, the devs explained the changes to mining sites.

While the ability to select mineral types was an improvement, the sites themselves felt underwhelming, both in terms of the social experience of mining and in their overall value. A few steps have been taken to address this; first, the smallest asteroids have been removed and the minimum asteroid size has been increased such that it can accommodate multiple strip miner cycles. Additionally, the overall volume of the sites has been significantly increased with the Hezorime (Zydrine) and Mordunium (Pyerite) anomalies seeing the largest increase. For asteroid size, we wanted to make sure there was an improved experience compared to old Colossal spawns. The Hezorime deposit will now include significantly larger asteroids, with a single 600k m^3 behemoth asteroid and several dozen with a volume larger than 100k m^3. 

The patch notes spelled out the changes.

• All Prospecting Array upgrades
• Several asteroids have been combined so that the majority of asteroids in each location require multiple strip miner cycles to mine out.
  
  
• Isogen Prospecting Array (Griemeer Deposit)
• Total Ore Volume increased from 2,631,000 m3 to 3,000,000 m3.
  
  
• Megacyte Prospecting Array (Ueganite Deposit)
• Total Ore Volume increased from 1,982,287 m3 to 4,000,000 m3.
  
  
• Mexallon Prospecting Array (Kylxium Deposit)
• Total Ore Volume increased from 2,040,000 m3 to 3,000,000m3.
  
  
• Nocxium Prospecting Array (Noxcite Deposit)
• Total Ore Volume increased from 2,100,008 m3 to 3,000,000 m3.
  
  
• Pyerite Prospecting Array (Mordunium Deposit)
• Total Ore Volume increased from 4,500,000 m3 to 6,000,000 m3.
  
• Rebalanced the ore content of the site to a smaller overall percentage of Mordunium asteroids and more Omber and Hedbergite to improve the average isk/hr of mining in the site.
  
  
• Tritanium Prospecting Array (Veldspar Deposit)
• Total Ore Volume increased from 3,000,000 m3 to 4,000,000 m3.
  
  
• Zydrine Prospecting Array (Hezorime Deposit)
• Total ore Volume increased from 2,015,799 m3 to 5,970,000 m3.
• The size of several asteroids have been vastly increased to make this site very comparable to the Colossal Asteroid Cluster, with 24+ asteroids bigger than 100,000m3 and a behemoth 600,000m3 asteroid.

The developers also decided the new mining escalations introduced in Equinox also needed some love.

The mining escalation has also become a more significant objective to take on and complete. The total volume has increased significantly, and the less valuable asteroids have been replaced with spodumain, various Abyssal asteroids, and mercoxit, greatly increasing both the mineral yield and value. You’ll also be seeing them more often, as the escalation rate has been increased significantly.

• Mining Escalation
  
  
• Shrouded Asteroid Cluster has been overhauled and is now the Interstitial Ore Deposit.
• The chance of acquiring the mining escalation has been greatly increased.
• Total Ore Volume increased from 3,750,000 to 8,480,000 m3.
• All asteroids have been replaced with Spodumain, Abyssal Asteroids and a small amount of Mercoxit.

The part of today's patch that convinced me the talk of a return to the Scarcity Era wasn't hyperbolic chatter were the buffs to combat anomalies.

Mining anomalies are only part of the equation, as combat anomalies are also being reevaluated. The number of anomalies the threat detection arrays spawn has also been increased, allowing groups to maintain a larger population for PVE, even while running hyper-optimized blitzing setups. To reward those pilots committing larger ships and more optimized setups, the spawn time has been reduced by 40%. This still utilizes the new spawning paradigm, meaning that in all cases the new sites will respawn significantly faster. 

The above passage came from the dev blog. The patch notes included a more in-depth explanation of what the changes contained.

Firstly, we’re greatly decreasing the maximum possible respawn time for the sites spawned from their upgrades from 20 minutes to 12 minutes. For context, the old sovereignty upgrade sites respawned between 20 to 12 minutes based on the level of upgrade that spawned them, for an average respawn time of 16 minutes. This now means that there is no single case where a site from the old system could respawn faster than the same site in the new system, and the maximum possible respawn time is now 25% faster than the old average respawn time before you even factor in the improved respawning logic that the new sites use - where the time the site was spawned is used to determine the respawning time, rather than when the site was completed. Additionally, we’re also increasing the number of combat sites provided by most upgrades by 1, and also increasing the expiration time for the new capital focused escalations based on feedback we got from players struggling to complete or sell them in time due to fatigue/logistics of moving capitals.

• Capital focused escalations (Shielded/Infested Starbase and the Capital Staging/Hive sites)
  
  
• Escalation Expiration timer from 24 hours to 72 hours.
  
  
• Minor and Major Threat Detection Arrays.
  
  
• Maximum Respawn Time reduced from 20 minutes to 12 minutes
• An additional combat anomaly has been added to most upgrades
• Adjusted anomalies spawned by Major Threat Detection Arrays in drone space to increase the amount of Drone Horde and Drone Patrol sites by replacing some or all of the Squad and Herd sites.

The patch notes concluded with tables showing the contents of the new sets of sites spawned by each upgrade tier in each security band. I took a shot at making the tables more compact.

Non-Drone Region combat sites

Drone Region combat sites.

Except for the foolishness in making asteroids smaller, I'm not going to take the developers too much to task. After all, one of the big criticisms in the past was a tendency to give players way too many benefits (remember the Rorqual?) and then have to take them away. Instead, in Equinox the developers chose the other direction, acting like Scrooge McDuck and then doling out benefits.

EVE Online's newest developer, CCP McDuck

I should also add this post-patch for Equinox will make the July monthly economic report a little more interesting. Will today's changes make players happy? We'll have to wait for the July numbers to roll in.