By now two EVE Online patches in a week should no longer surprise me. Today's patch is huge, affecting both the Equinox sovereignty system and industry. While the road to the winter expansion has begun, the developers still have unfinished business concerning the Equinox expansion. I'm not a null sec resident, but today's patch plus the activity I've tracked over the summer leads me to believe players are not adapting to the new sov system with the speed CCP wishes.
I have a practice of combining dev blogs with patch notes to try to provide a comprehensive look at the latest changes. I'll do so again with today's dev blog but I have to do so in three posts. This first post looks at changes to the Equinox sovereignty system.
The first passage gives away the developers' impatience with the rate of adaptation of the Equinox sov changes.
To further simplify the process of adapting the sovereignty system, the requirement for alliances to pay off outstanding bills before transitioning has been removed. This allows alliances to focus more on strategic decisions and operational planning rather than on managing finances.
I get the feeling the members of the Council of Stellar Management were telling the people in charge at CCP a lot of "I told you so". Then again, those making the decisions over in Reykjavik probably thought the null sec members on the body were just trying to give themselves an advantage and an easier time. Yes, I covered the CSM long enough to become that cynical.
Another issue addressed is the value of nullsec anomalies.
The new update also brings enhanced value to nullsec anomalies. The Major Threat Detection Arrays, a core feature of the upgraded sovereignty system, now provide better-value anomalies across all levels of truesec. This adjustment ensures that alliances, regardless of their location in nullsec, have more lucrative options for combat and exploration, creating more opportunities for both solo pilots and large fleets to benefit from improved PvE content.
Here are the changes according to the patch notes.
Major Threat Detection Array 1 & 2
- We've increased the number of sites provided by the level 1 and level 2 upgrades, especially for low truesec bands. See the tables below for the exact changes
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| Anom changes, hopefully in a more readable format |
Miners also received some love, although I should hesitate to say so until miners get some experience with the changes.
Mining operations in nullsec have added versatility with the introduction of a new tier of mining upgrades. This new tier is significantly less expensive but also less efficient, offering a flexible option for industrialists who prefer smaller-scale mining activities or who wish to balance mining output with other strategic goals.
New Sovereignty Mining Upgrades
- 7 Small Mining Upgrades have been added, one for each mineral type. These new upgrades cost significantly less Power and Workforce than the current mining upgrades, making them far more flexible. They also respawn significantly faster, with 1 hour long respawn times, and they utilize the same mechanics as the Equinox Combat Upgrades where they can respawn instantly if the time between the last spawn was long enough. These new upgrades provide about 1⁄8th of the ore of the existing upgrades, and do not escalate to the Mining Escalation which is being kept as an exclusive for the existing mining upgrades.
- Tritanium Prospecting Array 1 - 500,000 m3 of Tritanium providing ores.
- Pyerite Prospecting Array 1 - 1,000,000 m3 of Pyerite providing ores.
- Mexallon Prospecting Array 1 - 375,000 m3 of Mexallon providing ores.
- Isogen Prospecting Array 1 - 325,000 m3 of Isogen providing ores.
- Nocxium Prospecting Array 1 - 325,000 m3 of Nocxium providing ores.
- Zydrine Prospecting Array 1 - 750,000 m3 of Zydrine providing ores.
- Megacyte Prospecting Array 1 - 500,000 m3 of Megacyte providing ores.
- Power Cost: 500
- Workforce Cost: 6400
- Additionally, several asteroids added in Equinox have had their 3D model sizes increased so they look more impressive.
Next, sovereignty upgrade costs received a balance pass null sec accountants will probably like. As usual I'll start with a passage from the dev blog and conclude with the details from the patch notes.
The costs associated with sovereignty upgrades have been rebalanced to make the new system more accessible. First, the manufacturing costs for building orbital skyhooks have been reduced by 25%. Second, the workforce and power consumption required for each upgrade has been reduced, along with the magmatic gas and superionic ice requirements for those upgrades that utilize them. These changes reduce the resource strain on alliances looking to expand their influence, allowing for more streamlined and sustainable growth. With these adjustments, the path to asserting control in nullsec becomes less about overwhelming economic power and more about strategic planning and smart decision-making.
Rebalanced Sov Upgrade Resource Costs
As part of this update, we're also making significant changes to the Equinox Sov Upgrade costs, almost all upgrades are being reduced in Colony Resource costs.
Overview of the changes:
- All Previously Existing Mining Upgrades (Now Prospecting Array 2)
- Power cost reduced from 1750 to 1350
- Workforce cost reduced from 14000 to 12700
- Major Threat Detection Array 1
- Power cost reduced from 450 to 400
- Major Threat Detection Array 3
- Power cost reduced from 1450 to 1300
- Workforce cost reduced from 8700 to 7300
- Minor Threat Detection Array 1
- Power cost reduced from 270 to 200
- Workforce cost reduced from 1890 to 1800
- Minor Threat Detection Array 2
- Power cost reduced from 550 to 500
- Workforce cost reduced from 3850 to 3800
- Minor Threat Detection Array 3
- Power cost reduced from 850 to 700
- Workforce cost reduced from 5950 to 5400
- Advanced Logistics Network (Enables Ansiblex Gates)
- Power cost reduced from 1250 to 500
- Workforce cost reduced from 25000 to 18100
- Ice cost per hour reduced from 40 to 25 units
- Startup cost reduced from 2750 to 1770 units
- Cynosural Suppression (Enables Tenebrex Cynosural Jammer)
- Power cost reduced from 500 to 250
- Workforce cost reduced from 5000 to 4500
- Magmatic Gas cost per hour reduced from 2480 units to 205 units
- Startup cost reduced from 170,000 units to 82600 units
- Cynosural Navigation (Enables Pharolux Cyno Beacon)
- Magmatic Gas cost per hour reduced from 1095 units to 205 units
- startup cost reduced from 75000 units to 62000 units
- Supercapital Construction Facilities
- Superionic Ice cost per hour reduced from 145 units to 90 units
- Startup cost reduced from 10000 units to 5305 units
Finally come changes to Equinox sov that didn't fit neatly into other categories.
Miscellaneous changes
- Players no longer need to pay existing Sovereignty bills to transition their Sovereignty Hubs to the Equinox Sov mode.
- Reduced the amount of Structure Acceleration Coils needed to manufacture a Skyhook from 2 to 1. This represents around a 20% cost reduction for the manufacturing costs for Skyhooks.
- Increased the signature radius on the Metenox Moon Drill, Skyhook and Custom Office types from 14,000m to 32,000m so that all supercarriers and capital weapons can apply full damage to them.
- Supercarrier Close Range Fighter Missile Abilities will now apply full damage to Skyhooks, Metenox Moon Drills, all existing FLEX structures, Custom Offices and the forcefield/control towers in the new Equinox pirate/infested starbase escalation.
The dev blog also announced changes coming in October, although no date or real details included. I guess someone wants to encourage me to write a large patch note post next month as well. Or at least alert me one is incoming.
In October, the Upwell Consortium will bring further enhancements to their Equinox suite, iterating on the orbital skyhook mechanics to maintain their conflict-driving elements while making them less intensive to maintain and defend. The new design will increase the amount of reagents produced, decrease the maintenance workload, and ensure that conflict is still meaningful. This will reduce the ease with which attackers can exploit skyhooks, making the raiding less one-sided and making the structures more attractive for alliances and less intensive to maintain and defend.
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