A Look At The Active ISK Delta In October 2024

With the end of October EVE Online says goodbye not only to another Crimson Harvest but to another expansion. Last month was the final month played under the rules and features of the Equinox expansion. And with not only the presence of EVE's most popular seasonal event but the vast migration of The Imperium to better living space, how did that affect the money supply in New Eden?

In the month of October, the Active ISK Delts -- the net effect of ISK coming and going into the game economy with player accounts, including GM actions -- was 55.0 trillion ISK. To put the figure into perspective, what was the biggest money sink in the game in September turned into EVE's biggest money faucet in October. Player net migration into the game accounted for a 2.5% increase in the money supply last month. Overall, the money supply grew by 5.9%.

Looking back at past Octobers, one can see that despite the Crimson Harvest event, the Active ISK Delta was usually negative, indicating money withdrawn from the economy due to accounts logging or not logging into the game. Last month's total of 55 trillion ISK was the first time the Active ISK Delta was positive in October since 2017. I believe The Imperium's wealth is well-known, but seeing evidence in a bar chart as inactive players log into the game to move their belongings drives home the fact. The average value of the Active ISK Delta from 2017 to 2023 was -23.5 trillion ISK or 78.5 trillion ISK less than the figure in October 2024. While I believe a good part of the change is due to the combination of the seasonal event combined with the new twice-a-year expansion model, much of the value did come from the final implementation of the Equinox sovereignty changes that resulted in The Imperium moving out of Delve for greener pastures.

But the movement of one of the largest coalitions in New Eden did not result in the largest monthly Active ISK Delta. Going back to the introduction of the Alpha/Omega business model, last month only saw the fifth largest movement of ISK into the game due to the net return of players. The top 5 months are:

• November 2023: 104.5 trillion ISK
• November 2022: 74.5 trillion ISK
• May 2023: 63.8 trillion ISK
• May 2019: 61.3 trillion ISK
• October 2024: 55.0 trillion ISK

Just a note about the Active ISK Delta. Going back to January 2017 the Active ISK Delta has only had a positive value 15 times, or 16% of the months. Six of those times occurred since the beginning of the Second Expansion Era with the launch of Uprising in November 2022. But I don't have any records of the Active ISK Delta having a positive value for two consecutive months. Will the launch of Revenant next week break the trend? I have the feeling both the developers in Reykjavik as well as our overlords in Anyang hope the answer is yes.

A Look At EVE Online Activity In October 2024

In EVE Online's Second Expansion Era the month of October is usually an interesting point to look back on. Not only is the month the last one of the summer expansion, we can see how successful the last two expansions were in generating new activity, and presumably new players.

For once I can add some commentary from Jester on his graph. He believed that the increase was due to the big migration by The Imperium from Delve to the cluster's south and south-east. I believe the Crimson Harvest event had as much of if not bigger impact. Either way the average user counts grew from around 21,000 accounts to almost 23,000 accounts, slightly dipping down at the end of the month.

Looking at the numbers one can make the argument for both reasons for increased average concurrent users being valid. In high sec, the number of NPC kills increased by 15.1% in October compared to September. Even year-over-year making NPCs explode in high sec increased by 4.0%. But in null sec, major null sec movements seemed to dominate. The Crimson Harvest is a PvE event but NPC deaths in null security space decreased 1.8% from September. Overall, the end of the Scarcity Era continued with an increase of 24% of NPC explosions compared to October 2023.

Since the release of the Uprising expansion in November 2022 I have looked at low sec as a measure of the health of the game. After three months low sec once again witnessed over 200,000 player-owned ships dying in the security band. Also, I don't think Crimson Harvest had a big impact on low sec, with the number of NPCs dying in low sec slightly decreasing compared to September. Still, the number of NPC kills rose by 18% year-over-year.

Alliance XX Tournament - The First Weekend's Schedule And Rules

The activity in EVE Online continues this weekend with the first of the final two weeks of Alliance Tournament XX. The feeder rounds are over and for a change I can actually follow the brackets. Here are the brackets, with a focus on times for the first weekend.

Winner's Bracket Schedule

Loser's Bracket Schedule

Hopefully the brackets with the scheduled times helps plan for the big fights. The rules have also changed a bit, with the key changes listed below.

This tournament is now sponsored by the Guristas. As such, the previous CONCORD directives have been rescinded, reducing multiple pirate faction ship costs instead. Gallente-sponsored ships from ATXIX have had their costs restored.



The top 4 winning teams from ATXIX have been invited back by the IGC and will have no cost of entry.



The PLEX Silent Auction Buy-ins have been removed this year, and the entry cost has been increased from 3,000 PLEX to 4,000 PLEX.



Flagship rules have been adjusted to allow prize ships from the previous three alliance tournament to be fielded. Additionally, several previously restricted ships are now allowed.



The point system has been overhauled. The new point cap per team is 200 points, and multiple ships now have new unique point values.



Boosters that don’t directly impact the tournament, such as Cerebral Accelerators, are now allowed.



Instead of 4 total bans submitted to the referee, 2 bans will be submitted by both teams and then shared, followed by 2 additional bans from each team that will also be shared.



Several new ship hulls from the Equinox and Havoc expansions have been added to the tournament.

Today CCP released the specifications for ATXX's prize ships: Sidewinder, Cobra, and Python.

Sidewinder, Covert Ops Frigate

Cobra, Force Recon Cruiser

Python, Black Ops Battleship

The prize ship distribution this year includes everyone who wins at least one match.

Prizes

3 New Alliance Tournament sprize ships are to be issued. The Sidewinder (Frigate), the Cobra (Cruiser) and the Python (Battleship).

This Year’s Prize Ship Distribution:

The prize breakdown for Alliance Tournament XX is as follows:

• 1st (winner of finals): 40x Sidewinder, 40x Cobra, 20x Python
• 2nd (loser of winner’s bracket): 30x Sidewinder, 30x Cobra, 15x Python
• 3rd (loser of match 61): 20x Sidewinder, 20x Cobra, 10x Python
• 4th (loser of match 60): 12x Sidewinder , 12x Cobra, 6x Python
• Top 6 (2 teams, K.O. in losers round 6): 8x Sidewinder, 8x Cobra, 4x Python
• Top 8 (2 teams, K.O. in losers round 5): 6x Sidewinder, 6x Cobra, 3x Python
• Top 12 (4 teams, K.O. in losers round 4): 4x Sidewinder, 4x Cobra, 2x Python
• Top 16 (4 teams, K.O. in losers round 3): 2x Sidewinder, 2x Cobra, 1x Python

A total of 385 ships rewarded!

Victory SKINs are also awarded for each match victory, including in the feeder rounds. So every winning team is playing for 10 Enforcer, Marshal, Pacifier and Monitor SKINs per match.

I don't know if I will watch the tournament live but I might try to catch the YouTube videos when I'm not running around. Live gets hectic and I won't get the chance to watch the coverage live.

A New Crimson Harvest Trailer ... And New Halloween Tradition?

On Saturday CCP dropped a new trailer for EVE Online's Halloween seasonal event, Crimson Harvest. I guess the marketing department didn't want to compete against itself with the big winter expansion announcement for Revenant on Thursday, which included a cinematic trailer. Oops!

Hard to believe the first trailer for Crimson Harvest dropped in 2015. I'd watched the original trailer a few days earlier but decided to see how much the graphics have changed over the last nine years.

A trip down memory lane. I do like the new trailer better. The graphics are not only newer, but whoever created the video stayed true to the original. Considering the event has lasted nine years, a wise choice.

Searching for Crimson Harvest videos did lead me to another thought. Will The Deathless and the pirates of Zarzakh become Halloween fixtures as well? They have the name and will probably figure prominently in future expansions. Above is last year's Pulse video announcing both the latest in the Zarzakh saga as well as the Crimson Harvest.

The news isn't a big this year as the continuing expansion of the Equinox sov system is still ongoing. But Zarzakh fits in with the horror theme of the holiday so another live event next year would not come as a surprise. Still CCP Mirage is a much more suave and debonair host for such news than a certain member of CCP's community team who tried his hand at promoting Halloween a few years ago.

Sorry CCP Convict, you know we all love you. And I did like the reference to Signal Cartel you threw in at the end.

A Look At The Active ISK Delta In September 2024

With the end of September another fiscal quarter is in the books. Before we get financial reports from everyone from game companies to the Federal Reserve, CCP Games has published EVE Online's in-game monthly economic report for September 2024. As usual I will focus on the Active ISK Delta with a little information to put the figure into historical perspective.

The Active ISK Delta is the net effect on the New Eden monetary supply of players leaving and returning to the game. The Active ISK Delta also includes any reductions due to any and all GM actions. In September, 65.3 trillion ISK left the economy from the movement of players into and out of the game. The change made the Active ISK Delta the biggest ISK sink in the game, dwarfing the 18.7 trillion ISK removed from the economy through transaction taxes.

Normally CCP would like to see players returning to the game in September. But if the Active ISK Delta is any indication, more players left the game in September than in August. The amount of ISK leaving the game actually rose from 35.5 trillion ISK in August. Now, the change could also indicate fewer left the game, but that those who did were longer term players. Either way, not really a good sign.

Being the end of September, I looked at the total Active ISK Delta over the 3rd quarter of 2024. For the information I have going back to the beginning of 2018, Q3 saw the smallest Active ISK Delta over the past 7 years at -240.5 trillion ISK. The ISK removed from the game by players not logging in for 30 days and GMs confiscating ISK was 10.7% of the money supply on 1 July 2024. Overall, the New Eden money supply fell by 1.7% during the course of the 3rd quarter.

While the money supply was falling, did that mean player activity declined as well? A quick look at the ISK velocity shows the answer is no. The overall velocity of ISK reached 0.5 again, meaning that the level of trade in September was in the neighborhood of 1.1 quadrillion ISK. Converted to something more tangible, that is approximately 386,000 months of game time using the Jita average on 30 September. For those who like real money conversions, the amount of trade is approximately $2.1 million if the game time is purchased at the 3 month rate in the cash shop.

Believe it or not, year-over-year less ISK left the economy as measured by the Active ISK Delta. The historical average value in September since the introduction of a free-to-play option is -40 trillion ISK. This year's figure improved upon last year's total of -78.1 trillion ISK by 12.8 trillion. So perhaps the trend is more positive than the rest of the metrics I'm looking at would leave one to believe.

Combining data sources helps paint a cleaner picture of the activity inside EVE Online. The data from Dotlan Maps showed a decline in activity in September. The Active ISK Delta then showed a record amount of ISK leaving the game as players fell inactive. But the remaining players didn't really let up on the economic activity as seen by the increasing velocity of ISK during September. Are we set up for a big reaction to the winter expansion when CCP finally announces the expected new content drop? To tell the truth, the game possibly is healthier than last year so we'll have to see.

A Look At September 2024 Activity In EVE Online

September is usually a key month for EVE Online. An increase in activity usually indicates a lot of interest in the game and a good financial showing for the third quarter. If no growth occurs, don't expect a really good winter. For CCP Games, I think they should thank the stars EVE Galaxy Conquest launches at the end of the October.

 

Our first indicator, as always, is average concurrent users. Jester's tracking graph shows the number of players logged into the game stayed consistently around 21,000 accounts. Not a good sign historically except in 2023 when the ACU dipped from 19,000 down to 18,000 in the middle of the month. Has the return to the two-expansions a year model changed player behavior? We'll see in November.

Looking at general month-over-month numbers, activity dipped a bit in high sec killing of NPCs, dropping 5.1% at a time the number should increase. Player ship deaths remained flat with a little additional activity in factional warfare and insurrection sites. But perhaps surprisingly, players slowed down killing each other in null sec, with player ship deaths declining 8%. I guess the Imperium's takeover of the cluster's south and south-east so the organization can move out of Delve slowed down activity.

Year-over-year, though, activity is still up. The kill exchange incentives the developers installed still distort the high sec ship kill numbers although players killed NPCs at increased rates. The big numbers are in null sec, as three months into a null sec expansion we see year-over-year growth. The ratting activity is most telling as the number of NPCs killed in null rose 32.6% compared to the number killed in September 2023.

 

With CCP's change in focus to null sec I'll also look at the engine that keeps EVE Online afloat financially: null sec PvE. While numbers are not climbing, players are presumably adapting to the new Equinox sov system slower than I think the developers anticipated. At least, that's my opinion based on the latest patches and the way the dev blogs try to cajole the null sec alliances to adapt to the new system. Of course, the Imperium is probably adapting in a way unanticipated by the devs, with the number of dead NPCs not rising as expected. Yes, always blame the Goons.

Numbers should rise in October as the weather gets colder and Crimson Harvest occupies everyone's attention. I do have to wonder if the SKINR system brought in enough income to tear apart previous financial estimates or if players logging in and shooting things in internet space is a good barometer of how the EVE Online is doing in the eyes of our overlords in Anyang. I guess we'll see next month.

EVE Online Patch Notes: Skyhook Enhancements And FAQ

CCP is in the process of dropping the last of the Equinox sovereignty system into EVE Online's null security space before the winter expansion arrives in the next month or two. Yesterday's patch updated orbital skyhooks, one of the lynchpins of the new sov system. The deadline for switching to Equinox sov is Tuesday, 29 October. Not much time which is why CCP also published an FAQ for what is coming up next. I figured having both the FAQ and patch notes in one place might be helpful. I'll start with the FAQ.

Frequently Asked Questions

 

What happens to my old upgrades and territorial claim units (TCUs)? 

Your old upgrades and existing TCUs have had their reprocessing rates adjusted so you will get back the full bill of materials upon reprocessing them. 

When will the grace period for removing rigs end? 

On 29 October at 11:00 UTC. 

What happens if I am in the process of building a supercapital manufacturing upgrade in a system that can no longer support it after the transition? 

The building process will be paused. If your system cannot physically install the necessary upgrades, the Game Masters will refund you for your build’s bill of materials. 

Where will information about skyhook vulnerability be visible? 

Vulnerable skyhooks will appear in the Agency and on the map. 

When can the secure bay be emptied? 

The secure bay can be emptied at any time. 

When a skyhook comes out of reinforced mode, is the next vulnerability period based on that timer or the original vulnerability timer? 

Skyhooks will always use the reinforcement timer to determine their next vulnerability period. 

How is the skyhook vulnerability window calculated? 

The vulnerability window for the skyhook is determined by its reinforcement timer, which is calculated using a normal distribution within a 3-hour standard deviation. The next vulnerability window is 72 hours +/- the variance from the normal distribution, shown below. 

Does this mean that the timer will start exactly every 3 days? 

Not quite. Initially, timers may seem to follow an exact 3-day cycle, but as the system continues to generate timers with random offsets, they will gradually start spreading more evenly across the days. Below is a worst-case scenario simulation of how the vulnerability windows distribute in a hypothetical situation where every skyhook had the same reinforcement timer. In practice, this will even out much faster.  

How long is the window to raid a skyhook before it becomes invulnerable? 

A skyhook will remain raidable for one hour after the vulnerability window opens. 

Will I see the skyhook timer anywhere in space, or will I have to warp to the skyhook to see it? 

All vulnerable skyhooks are visible through the Agency and on the map, and all pilots belonging the same corporation as the skyhook owner, with the correct roles, can see the vulnerability timers in a new tab on the structure browsers. 

However, if you do not belong to the same corporation as the owner, and if it is currently invulnerable, you will need to warp to the skyhook to see its timer. 

I started the post with the FAQ because I know how much people love reading patch notes. But anyone trying to figure out how to min/max orbital skyhook mechanics probably wants to read the details as well. Below are the patch notes for yesterday's update.

Patch Notes for 2024-10-1.1

Features & Changes:

Sovereignty:

• Skyhooks have now been updated to Upwell’s latest firmware → Equinox Update: Enhanced Skyhooks | EVE Online
  
  
• Skyhooks now have a Secure Bay and a Surplus Bay, rather than an Immature and Mature Bay.
  
  
• The Secure bay can be accessed by players on the ACL at any time, and 50% of all the materials harvested from the Skyhook enter into the secure bay.
  
  
• The Surplus bay can only be accessed through the Skyhook raiding gameplay, and contains the other 50% of the reagents generated.
  
  
• There is no longer any waste when raiding a Skyhook, you get 100% of the surplus bay contents on a successful raid, the secure bay is not affected.
  
  
• The Skyhook Reagent silo is now only vulnerable to being attacked during a 1 hour interval, every 3-4 days, the time period for the surplus bay is loosely based on the 6 hour exit window chosen by the Skyhook owner for their reinforcement timer.
  
  
• It should be noted that while it is likely for a Skyhook theft event to come out in a timezone favorable to the defender, Skyhooks theft events can actually happen at any time of the day. Skyhooks use a gaussian distribution to determine the next vulnerability window.

• In this example, a Skyhook has a 68.2% chance to come out sometime in the 17:00 to 23:00 window set by the defenders, but it does have also have a chance to come out at anytime of the day. There is a 27.2% chance that it will instead come out at some time in the 3 hour window before or after their preferred time, a 4.2% chance it will come out 6 hours before or after their preferred 6 hour long time window, or 0.2% chance to end up at a time in the completely opposite timezone.
  
  
• If a Skyhook is not raided during it’s 1 hour interval, then it will reschedule a new time, and the materials in the surplus bay will remain inside and effectively roll over, meaning the next time it’s vulnerable, if it was raided, it would have 6-8 days worth of reagents inside and so on.
  
  
• If a Skyhook is successfully raided, then its vulnerability will end early and reschedule, so any vulnerable Skyhook you raid will be guaranteed to have 3-4 days worth of reagents in it at minimum.
  
  
• If the Skyhook owner changes the reinforcement timer of a Skyhook, then the current scheduled vulnerability will not change, and the new reinforcement timer will only have an influence on the Skyhook when the next Skyhook theft vulnerability window is chosen.
  
  
• Skyhook owners can no longer offline or turn off Skyhooks on reagent planets (Ice/Lava).
  
  
• Skyhook owners with the Station Manager or Director roles can see the vulnerability timers of their Skyhooks remotely using the my Skyhook page on the structure browser.
  
  
• Skyhooks which are currently vulnerable can be seen by any player using the world map Vulnerable Skyhooks filter or by using the Colony Resources page in the Agency and choosing to view theft vulnerable Skyhooks.
  
  
• All Players can also see the vulnerability schedule of a Skyhook if they warp to the Skyhook grid.
  
  
• The Link period for players who are on the Skyhook Reagent ACL has been reduced to 5 minutes instead of 10 minutes.
  
  
• Skyhooks will immediately alert everyone within 2 jumps of a Skyhook if a "friendly theft" is activated, just like the notification which would happen if a regular raid was at the 5 minute mark.
  
  
• Skyhooks have a 50% chance to drop all of the contents in their Secure and Surplus bays when killed (just like regular player ships).

Crimson Harvest 2024 Confirmed To Launch On October 3rd

Today CCP announced the Crimson Harvest, EVE Online's longest running seasonal event, will once again run for a full month. The event begins next week on a Thursday, 3 October, and ends on 5 November. While the modern CCP may shy away from the event's beginnings, I always go back to watch the original Scope video introducing the event.

While available in every area of space, the choicest areas to engage with Crimson Harvest sites will be Derelik and Blood Raider-occupied Delve. Perhaps the next major war in that area should bear the name Omar's Blessing instead of a Goonswarm-inspired name.

While no patch notes are yet available, I did find some good information on the special event website. The basic overview hasn't changed much over the years.

• Pick your side in the bloody conflict between the Blood Raider Convenant and the Order of Tetrimon.
  
  
• Look for horrific combat and hacking sites throughout highsec, lowsec, nullsec, and wormhole systems, as well as Pochven.
  
  
• Combat sites will appear as anomalies in the probe scanner.
  
  
• Hacking sites will appear as cosmic signatures that require scanning down using a probe launcher and scanner probes.
  
  
• Scavenge the remains of your wrecked rivals for improved loot drops.

Something new to the event are components for the SKINR system will drop. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if SKINR items were handed out to visitors to CCP's studio in Reykjavik.

The season of slaughter brings budding SKINdustrialists a cornucopia of design elements to bring their most twisted creations to life, including the Brutal Splatter pattern, Steel Violet, Ritual Gourd Satin, Savant Carmine Satin, Anointed Dead pattern, and much more. Log in every day, complete brutal challenges, and loot the wrecks of your victims to uncover each component.

And of course, CCP will provide streamers in the EVE Partners program with Twitch drops.

Oh, and I almost forgot about the daily login rewards. The dev blog didn't go into great detail, but the event site is showing Omega (subcription accounts) can receive:

• Astero Deathglow Remnant SKIN
• Avalanche Deathglow Remnant SKIN
• Harvest Anti-Disruptor Booster II
• Crimson Harvest Fireworks Crate
• 26,500 EverMarks
• 650,000 Skill Points.

At this time the information about the rewards for points timeline is not available.

I can remember a time when players thought the Crimson Harvest was a dumb idea and no one would ever take to the idea of a developer driven event. Nine years later the war between the Blood Raider Covenant and the Order of Tetrimon continues on. Sometimes EVE players really do adapt and accept new ideas if the ideas are sound in the first place.

Upcoming Updates To EVE Online's Orbital Skyhooks

Today CCP published a dev blog without dropping a corresponding patch for EVE Online's Tranquility shard. The subject of the dev blog are a set of upcoming buffs to orbital skyhooks. I imagine the word is coming out now so players can adjust to the changes, as some may impact the markets. Also, I have the feeling the developers may include the beginning of this year's Crimson Harvest in the same patch that implements the changes to orbital skyhooks.

The Upwell Consortium has closely monitored the performance of its revolutionary Equinox suite, and following extensive feedback from power users, significant enhancements are set to be rolled out in an orbital skyhook security update coming in early October. A certain vulnerability to raiding will be addressed, taking some of the advantage away from attackers seeking to raid skyhooks. These changes will bolster the attractiveness of the structures by improving their output while also reducing the logistical burdens placed on their owners. 

The first two changes listed in the dev blog will address vulnerabilities to raiding. First, the developers have cut down the window owners of the structures will need to worry about defending the basis of their infrastructure.

To address the imbalance in raid dynamics, orbital skyhooks will only be vulnerable to raids during specific windows that are visible to all pilots. These periods are based on the structure owner’s preference, but feature a significant randomized offset, introducing an element of unpredictability. As a result, defenders will have better opportunities to plan their defenses, while raiders must operate within tighter, more strategic timeframes. This shift will reduce the constant pressure on skyhook owners, who will no longer need to be on high alert around the clock, while still preserving the opportunities for intense, tactical conflict. 

Next, raiders can't take all the contents of orbital skyhooks, thus allowing sov holders a minimum level of supply for their infrastructure needs.

An important adjustment to orbital skyhooks coming with this update is the employment of a dual storage system that splits resource output between a secure bay and a surplus bay. The secure bay will ensure that half of all produced reagents (magmatic gas or superionic ice) are protected, available only to the owner and their approved access list, or upon the destruction of the skyhook. This ensures a stable flow of resources for owners without overwhelming loss to raids. Meanwhile, the surplus bay will hold the other half, which will be vulnerable during the raiding windows. Attackers can claim the entire contents of the surplus bay, which has a 100% drop rate during raids, offering significant rewards while maintaining the competitive drive in nullsec. 

I'd heard that some sov holders had taken to raiding their own skyhooks to ensure they had at least some supplies for their infrastructure. I wonder if the two-bay system will impact that. Given the min-maxing that occurs in null security space, I'm highly skeptical.

As I don't live in null sec I really don't follow these items on the market, but apparently the devs have decided the reagents must flow.

Another important aspect of these skyhook enhancements will result in greater efficiency, leading to a significant increase in the amount of reagents extracted and, therefore, flowing into the market, directly impacting the entire economy of New Eden. The streamlined system will reduce operational friction while boosting overall productivity. Alliances operating in nullsec can expect more consistent resource yields from their orbital skyhooks, as well as less logistical work, making them an even more valuable asset for holding territory and fueling war efforts. 

That last part confuses me. I thought Equinox sov was based around the amount of resources an alliance could extract using their orbital skyhooks. No need to sell the structures given the ending of the dev blog.

With the upcoming enhancements to skyhook operations, this is a great time to adopt the Equinox sovereignty system. These updates will significantly reduce the daily burden of managing orbital skyhooks while offering greater output, making them more valuable to owners and alliances alike. 

In addition, the Upwell Consortium has announced that on 29 October, transitioning to the new system will become mandatory for all capsuleers. Those who have yet to make the switch are encouraged to do so before this deadline to ensure a smooth transition and avoid disruptions. 

For those not living in null, the last paragraph is perhaps the most important. That gives us an idea of when the winter expansion will hit Tranquility. The only question is how long CCP will give the late adopters of orbital skyhooks to get used to the new system. I'm betting Crimson Harvest ends on 7 November with an expansion launch on 12 November. But if CCP is in a rush, I can see the expansion launch on 5 November.

The Siege Of Zarzakh Is Over, Bring On The Crimson Harvest

The Drifters have been unsuccessful in the Siege of Zarzakh. Horizon Siege Point sites and roaming Drifter/Sleeper fleets will no longer appear.

EVE Online patch notes for 2024-09-24.1

In today's patch notes for EVE Online, I noticed the Siege of Zarzakh had ended with the removal of Horizon Siege Point sites. An hour or two later I saw CCP publish a summary of the two-week event along with the next step in the story.

Subsequently, a shrouded structure of unknown origin, possibly the target of the siege, has appeared in Zarzakh without explanation. Intercepted messages indicate that something of note is set to occur soon, although the exact timing is currently unclear. 

Capsuleers are invited to investigate the mysterious structure in Zarzakh for themselves, but as of yet, no official explanation for its sudden appearance has been offered.  Furthermore, rumors are circulating that Thukker ships are preparing for maneuvers in the Altrinur system.

Is the Thukker gathering in Altrinur, a system in Metropolis three jumps from the trade hub of Hek? Or are players about to experience the launch of the Crimson Harvest? An annual event dating back to 2015, the event ran around Halloween and was the first seasonal event in EVE. Last year the event was extended to run an entire month, from 5 October to 6 November. For those wondering, the event started on the first Thursday of October. If last year's timing holds, then the Crimson Harvest will begin on 3 October. Given the popularity of the event, I expect login numbers to jump.

So we have the possibility of two live events running at the same time in October. The first is the popular seasonal event Crimson Harvest and the other is the continuing storyline leading up to the winter expansion.

With the good news I have to issue a note of caution. If we see the Crimson Harvest launch this week, that's a bad sign for CCP. An early launch of the seasonal event, along with all the associated sales in the cash shop, means CCP isn't meeting their quarterly revenue goal of ₩20 billion announced to investors on the Q2 earnings call. Yes, it's unfair our overlords in Anyang publicly set the EVE universe a revenue goal at its historical high while giving the declining Black Desert IP a pass, but as the saying goes, "It is what it is."

EVE Online September 2024 Patch Notes: Oops We Forget About Blueprints

I took a day's break yesterday and CCP managed to slip in another patch. I don't know if someone just slipped up with their decimal points or the developers heard some feedback from EVE Online's industrialists. So on Thursday, the rest of the industry changes introduced on Wednesday made their way to Tranquility.

Features & Changes:

Industry:

In Yesterday’s patch, we reduced the inputs and outputs of the Genetic Safeguard, Genetic Lock Preserver, Genetic Structure Repairer and Genetic Mutation Inhibitor blueprints by a factor of 20, but did not change the blueprint manufacturing or copying attributes, which may have unintentionally throttled the construction of these items more on job time. We are, therefore, making the following changes:

• Genetic Lock Preserver Blueprint
• Max Runs for blueprint copies increased from 40 to 400.
• Manufacturing time reduced from 16000 seconds to 1600 seconds.
• Copying time reduced from 12800 seconds to 1280 seconds.
  
  
• Genetic Safeguard Filter Blueprint
• Max Runs for blueprint copies from 10 to 100.
• Manufacturing time reduced from 32000 seconds to 3200 seconds.
• Copying time reduced from 25600 seconds to 2560 seconds.
  
  
• Genetic Structure Repairer Blueprint
• Max Runs for blueprint copies from 40 to 400.
• Manufacturing time reduced from 16000 seconds to 1600 seconds.
• Copying time reduced from 12800 seconds to 1280 seconds .
  
  
• Genetic Mutation Inhibitor Blueprint
• Max Runs for blueprint copies from 40 to 400.
• Manufacturing time reduced from 16000 seconds to 1600 seconds.
• Copying time reduced from 12800 seconds to 1280 seconds.

Before continuing on with the rest of the changes and fixes I just want to make an observation about CCP's patch deployment abilities. Over the years the company has worked extremely hard to reduce downtime for players. Yes, we have a 5-10 minute downtime each day, but when I started playing in 2009 the daily downtime was one hour.

Nowadays, we expect major patches like Equinox to deploy in half that time. I compare expansion deployment downtimes my current main game Final Fantasy XIV. For major expansions like Endwalker the servers are down worldwide for 24 hours. A patch like we experienced on Wednesday would undoubtedly take at least 5 hours of downtime to deploy. So, hats off to CCP's infrastructure team for all the work they've put in over the years to make the deployment of new content and bug fixes much less painful.

As for the project managers and team leads, just because you have the ability doesn't mean you have to use it. In other words, just because the infrastructure team can deploy fixes lightning quick doesn't mean you should become dependent on the capability. I'm pretty sure the players would appreciate getting all the content deployed in one patch.

Now for the rest of the patch notes. The first is an additional change to the content deployed in Tuesday's patch. For this change, I have the feeling the issue wasn't trying to rush a content pass and just forgetting how EVE players think.

PVE:

• Only characters within 100km of the Horizon Breach Engine will be considered eligible for payouts in Horizon Siege Point sites.

And finally defect fixes. I noticed for Wednesday's patch no defect fixes mentioned for the user interface. I guess the plan had been to deploy fixes at the first opportunity and not add them to what turned out to be a significant content drop.

Defect Fixes:

User Interface:

• Fixed an issue which could cause the Zarzakh Emanation error message to show an incorrect, incredibly high number when trying to use a gate you’re not locked to while having an Emanation timer.
  
  
• Fixed an issue where Structure SKINR licenses were not being displayed on the Corporation Administration page for the Structure SKINR.

Ranting aside, I hope people find this rundown of what is hopefully the last patch of the week helpful.

EVE Online September 2024 Patch Notes: Modules, Communications and Pochven

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. The final post covers module changes, communication UI changes and Pochven.

Smartbombs are the highlighted module change in today's patch as they received a full balance pass. I don't know if the dev blog description is a flowery way of saying "we screwed up." Will players react positively to buffing all the things instead of nerfing EM damage smartbombs?

A comprehensive balance pass has also been applied to all smartbombs, bringing them up to par with the current EMP smartbomb stats. This rebalance not only ensures consistency across damage types but also encourages more strategic decision-making with faction and officer-level smartbombs. These new options provide capsuleers with enhanced customization possibilities for their combat setups and bring more diversity to the battlefield.

The patch notes are less flowery but more detailed.

Smartbombs have undergone a full balance pass. All smartbombs in the game have been brought up to parity with the current EMP Smartbomb stats, which were better than the other damage types.

• Meta "Named" Smartbomb modules are now 'Compact' and use less powergrid.
  
  
• All compact meta smartbomb damage types now use the same 20% reduced CPU requirements that EM Smartbombs have.
  
  
• Added Storyline variations for the Kinetic and Thermal Smartbomb damage types which were missing before.
• Players can obtain blueprint copies for these smartbombs from exploration content such as Data Sites, like most current storyline module blueprints.
• Explosive Storyline Smartbombs have been buffed to now have the same values as the EM ones.
• Storyline Smartbombs have received very small fitting buffs to keep them as the easiest to fit modules with the changes to Meta Smartbombs becoming the Compact variation.
  
  
• Faction and Officer smartbombs of non-EMP damage types have had their stats brought up to parity with EMP stats. We aim to not only bring the other smartbomb damage types up to par with EM, but to also make more interesting choices between the smartbomb damage types at Faction and Officer levels. Thus, after bringing them up to parity, the following changes were made:
• Thermal Smartbombs: +20% range, -20% damage.
• Explosive Smartbombs: +20% damage, -20% range.
• Kinetic Smartbombs: -20% capacitor cost, -20% CPU cost, +20% cycle time.
  
  
• There now are 36 new Mutaplasmid types available to further customize and modify Smartbombs.
• Smartbomb Mutaplasmids can modify the damage, range, cycle time, capacitor cost, CPU and powergrid requirements of Smartbombs.
• Players can obtain these Mutaplasmids by completing regular Abyssal Filaments. The type of Filament that drops each Mutaplasmid type is based on the damage type associated with that Filament.
• EMP (EM) Smartbomb Mutaplasmids - dropped in Electrical Filament Abyss.
• Plasma (Thermal) Smartbomb Mutaplasmids - dropped in Firestorm Filament Abyss.
• Proton (Explosive) Smartbomb Mutaplasmids - dropped in Gamma Filament Abyss.
• Graviton (Kinetic) Smartbomb Mutaplasmids - dropped in Exotic Filament Abyss.
  
  
• We will keep a close eye on the balance of missile "firewalling" strategies, Interdictor Bubble hitpoints for tackling Supercarriers and Titans, PVE Smartbomb balance, and Smartbomb gatecamps following these changes.

But smartbombs are not the only modules the developers worked on. 

Increased Drifter activity in the Abyss and known space has brought as many as ten new high-ranking pirate officers out into the open, potentially dropping over 50 new modules. There are reports of rare officer frigates in highsec asteroid belts and officer cruisers in lowsec belts, providing both a challenge and an opportunity to acquire powerful new equipment. 

Frigate and Cruiser Officers and Officer modules

• New Officer Frigate and Officer Cruiser NPCs have been added to the game.
• Officer Frigates can appear incredibly rarely in 0.5 rated high security space asteroid belts.
• Officer Cruisers can appear incredibly rarely in 0.1 and 0.2 rated low security space asteroid belts.

50+ New Officer modules have been added to the game.

• 1mn and 10mn Afterburners
• 5mn and 50mn MWDs
• Small and Medium Energy Neutralizers
• Small and Medium Energy Nosferatus
• Small and Medium Armor Repairers and Shield Boosters
• ECM modules and Signal Distortion Amplifiers
• Micro Auxiliary Power Cores
• 200mm and 425mm Autocannons, Light and Heavy Neutron Blasters, Small Focused and Heavy Pulse Lasers, Rocket and Heavy Assault Missile launchers.
• Assault Damage Controls
• Warp Disruption Field Generator
• And more!

But wait, there's more! Those who like to shield tank their frigates, destroyers, and cruisers (and tech 2 variants) will probably appreciate some more standardization.

Gistii B-type and Gistum B-type shield boosters

• Increased shield boost amount so that they now bridge the gap between C-type and A-type, rather than barely being better than the C-type while using more capacitor. This means they now follow the same precedent set by the large and x-large shield boosters.
• Gistii B-type Small Shield Booster shield boost amount: increased to 48 from 41.
• Gistum B-type Medium Shield Booster shield boost amount: increased to 144 from 124.

Something mentioned in the dev blog turns out to involve an improved user interface.

Effective communication is at the heart of strategic planning, relationship building, and successful trading in New Eden. Recognizing the importance of chat as a tool for information sharing and social interaction, several new improvements have been introduced to give you greater control and to refine the overall user experience.

User Interface:

• The tabs stacked in one window can now be reordered with drag & drop.
  
  
• Chat window improvements
• The hierarchy of the context menu has been improved to indicate settings applicable to the specific channel and to all channels.
• The context menu is now available from both the chat options menu (three dots) and the chat tab right-click menu.
• It is now possible to automatically hide messages containing specific phrases by using filters.
• Multi-line chat messages can now be automatically collapsed if longer than the chosen number of lines.
• The following chat channels no longer allow referral links:
• Local chat in starter systems.
• Local chat in Career Agent systems.
• Corporation chat for NPC starter corporations.
• Premade channels, e.g. Rookie Help, Spanish Recruitment.
• Minimized chat windows will now remain minimized after restarting the client.

Pochven also received some changes, including the ability to drop a specific structure.

Capsuleers operating in Pochven will now be able to deploy the mobile observatory. This structure, once deployed and having completed its automatic activation process, will periodically scan the solar system for cloaked objects with a chance to reveal them. This increases the chance of revealing hostile capsuleers engaging in espionage in the system and eradicating the threat or discouraging it in the first place. 

Pochven:

• Mobile Observatory deployables can now be deployed in Pochven.
  
• Rebalanced the web strength of several Minmatar EDENCOM NPCs which had stronger than 100% webs.

And finally, believe it or not, no bug fixes deployed. I guess yesterday's patch addressed those.

EVE Online September 2024 Patch Notes: Industry Changes

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 second post covers the industry changes.

I have the feeling these changes indicate more of the CSM telling those in charge of the in-game economy, "I told you so."

Today also sees updates aimed at refining capital ship production, balancing smartbombs, and expanding the range of available modules. These changes are designed to provide capsuleers with more streamlined processes, new strategic opportunities, and diverse options for outfitting their fleets.

Capital ship manufacturing has been optimized to simplify the process for constructing capital and supercapital ships. By adjusting the material requirements and workflows, capsuleers can now build these powerful vessels more efficiently. This update is expected to make capital ship production more accessible, allowing smaller builders to specialize in making certain capital sub-components with less concern about resource requirements. Additionally, the costs for Tech I battleships have been significantly reduced by halving the Isogen requirements, which have been replaced with Nocxium. This adjustment eases some of the mineral dependencies and lowers the overall cost of Tech I battleships, providing more opportunities for capsuleers to build and field these ships in greater numbers.

First, the changes to capital ship manufacturing.

Several adjustments have been made to Capital Ship Manufacturing. The goal of these changes are streamlining capital manufacturing so that it’s easier for smaller producers to get involved as well as a slight reduction to the cost of building capital ships.

• Fulleroferrocene, PPD Fullerene Fibers, Fullerene Intercalated Graphite, Methanofullerene, Lanthanum Metallofullerene and Scandium Metallofullerene have been removed from Capital Construction Components.
  
  
• The amounts of Isogen and Mexallon required for construction of Capital Clone Vat Bay, Capital Doomsday Weapon Mount and Capital Jump Bridge Array have been reduced by 10%.
  
  
• The amounts of Fulleroferrocene, PPD Fullerene Fibers, Fullerene Intercalated Graphite, Methanofullerene, Lanthanum Metallofullerene and Scandium Metallofullerene required for the manufacture of FTL Interlinks have been significantly increased.
  
  
• Reinforced Carbon Fibre, Megacyte, Zydrine, Fullerides, Noxium, Isogen, Tritanium, Mexallon, Pyerite, Phenolic Composites and Racial Carbides have been removed from the manufacture of FTL Interlinks.
  
  
• The amount of Auto-Integrity Preservation Seals and Life Support Backup Units needed to manufacture Titans are increased by 100%.
  
  
• The amount of Trigger Neurolink Conduits needed to manufacture Titans are increased by 50%.
  
  
• The amount of Capital Core Regulators needed to manufacture Titans is increased by 25%.
  
  
• Genetic Lock Preserver Blueprints, Genetic Structure Repairer Blueprints, Genetic Mutation Inhibitor Blueprints and Genetic Safeguard Filter Blueprints have had their input materials reduced to 5 and output reduced to 1 (reduced by a factor of 20 for both) to make it easier to create them in smaller batches.

Next come changes to producing Tech 1 Battleships. No changes for pirate and navy ships. One of the nice parts of the patch notes are the goals of the change is described in greater detail.

A small amount of tweaks has been made to Tech 1 Battleship Blueprints to bring down their current costs to make them more affordable, reduce the current Isogen bottleneck (which currently makes up almost 50% of their cost), and also make them more cost efficient than Navy Battleships which currently cost only 20-25% more than Tech 1 Battleships.

• Adjustments made to Tech 1 Battleships (does not include Navy or Pirate blueprints)
• The amount of Isogen required is reduced from 400,000 to 200,000.
• The amount of Nocxium required is increased from 12,000 to 24,000.
• This represents, at the time of writing, an approximate 75 million ISK reduction to the cost of producing a Tech 1 Battleship from a ME:0 blueprint in an NPC station.
  
  
• Adjustments made to the Scorpion
• The amount of Isogen required is reduced from 300,000 to 150,000.
• The amount of Nocxium required is increased from 9,000 to 18,000.

The dev blog didn't mention Marauders and Black Ops, but the Tech 2 Battleships also received some attention.

We have also made some adjustments to the cost to produce Marauders and Black Ops. The main intention here is to keep their current price mostly the same or slightly higher, since both Black Ops and Marauders are incredibly strong right now and we don't want to unintentionally make them even more powerful by lowering their price. We are, therefore, increasing the amount of Reactor Units used in their blueprints, to make it so that they use primarily more R64 moon materials. This means that controlling valuable moons is more important for the production of Tech 2 Battleships.

• Adjustments made to Marauder Blueprints
• The amount of Reactor Units required is increased from 225 to 675.
• This represents a cost increase of approximately 60 million ISK at the time of writing these patch notes.
  
  
• Adjustments made to Black Ops Blueprints
• The amount of Reactor Units required is increased from 150 to 450.
• This represents a cost increase of approximately 40 million ISK at the time of writing these patch notes. Note that because the cost reduction of the Tech 1 Battleships used for production, the cost should remain roughly the same. It is possible that higher demand or market speculation for R64 materials may increase the costs in the future.

The final industry item concerns a new source of blue print copies for Navy ships.

LP Stores:

• New LP Store Offers have been added for military corporation LP stores - offering Navy Ship BPCs in exchange for LP and Nexus Chips, rather than LP and ISK.

EVE Online September 2024 Patch Notes: Sovereignty Transition

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

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.

EVE Online Patch Notes: Horizon Siege Point Changes And Other Fixes

Looking at today's patch notes for EVE Online, I see one main theme: Horizon Siege Points. This limited time content is associated with the current live event, The Siege of Zarzakh. I imagine the siege will continue up until the release of the winter expansion so fixing pain points is probably worth the development effort.

The first change is increasing the rewards Horizon Siege Points hand out for fighting the Drifters.

Features & Changes:

Gameplay:

• Increased the meta levels of Officer modules dropped from Horizon Siege Point sites.
• Increased the bounty values of named Drifter NPCs in Horizon Siege Point sites.

I know that 2 of the 3 defect fixes associated with the user interface are associated with the event. I'm guessing that the desyncing issue is also, although if the fix applies to all timers I'd say the fix is very welcome.

User Interface:

• Info Panel objective timers will now take time dilation into account and no longer become desynced with the server.
• Allecto's Modified Medium Multispectrum Smartbomb will now appear within the Officer section of the market.
• Fixed meta level and group information not appearing correctly for Officer modules dropped from Horizon Siege Point sites.

I'm not sure the developers really wanted to fix this next issue as it proved EVE does indeed have sound.

Audio:

• Very loud jumpgate atmo is no longer sticking to users' ships.

The next fix concerns an issue with the Metenox Moon Drill. Considering the amount of traffic I receive from people looking up the feature, this fix is probably very welcome to logistics players in null sec.

Gameplay:

• Fixed an issue which would prevent Metenox Moon Drills from being successfully anchored on incredibly large moons.

And finally we come to fixing an issue with Homefront Operations. I wonder if the issue arose from the Deepflow Rifts event.

Homefront Operations:

• The mine objective no longer appear during the initial set-up timer in Abyssal Artifact Recovery sites.

A Look At The Active ISK Delta In August 2024

The monthly economic report (MER) for August covering EVE Online's Tranquility shard dropped last week. Before performing my monthly look at the Active ISK Delta, I need to point out two items of interest included in the release of the MER by CCP itself. The first involves the growth of the money supply.

In August, we observed a significant upward trend in the money supply, reaching 2,190T ISK. By the end of the month, this represented a 1.5% increase compared to the end of July, when the supply was 2,158T ISK.

No commentary from the developers whether the change was good or bad, just that a change had occurred.  The second involves ore introduced back in December 2022.

Last month, we identified several ore types that were missing from the charts and these have since been added:

• Ducinium
• Eifyrium
• Mordunium
• Mutanite
• Ytirium

In fairness, though I think Mutanite was introduced sometime in the first half of 2023.

Already we see a potential issue with the data in the MER. The accompanying article mentions the rise in the money supply rose from 2,158 trillion ISK while the beginning point in the MER is 2,160 trillion ISK. Not a good start, especially after the disclosure of ore missing from the MER for over 18 months.

But the purpose of this post is not to complain about the MER. Instead I want to review the Active ISK Delta.  The Active ISK Delta is the net effect on the New Eden monetary supply of players leaving and returning to the game. The Active ISK Delta also includes any reductions due to any and all GM actions. In July, 35.5 trillion ISK disappeared from the game economy from the movement of players into and out of the game. For the second month in a row, players leaving the game was the biggest ISK sink in the New Eden economy. The drop is much less than July's total of 141.5 trillion ISK. Still, the Active ISK Delta was 88.9% greater than the amount of transaction taxes paid by players in August.

The change in the Active ISK Delta led me to wonder how much of the change was seasonal. Looking back to the beginning of the Alpha/Omega F2P period of EVE history, the average value of the Active ISK Delta was -13.1 trillion ISK in August from 2017 to 2023. The median value of -16.5 trillion ISK over the same period doesn't show too much of a difference. One item of interest is that the Active ISK Delta was positive for 2 of the last 3 Augusts. But still, the value of the Active ISK Delta was smaller than average in August.

Last year the summer slump only lasted two months, August and September. In 2024 will the summer slump also last two months, just in the months of July and August? September has always served as an indicator of player interest in the game. If players come back earlier, the third quarter of 2024 may look better financially for CCP.

EVE Online Patch Notes: The Siege Of Zarzakh

The run-up to EVE Online's winter expansion continued yesterday with the release of The Siege of Zarzakh. The Drifters have decided to attack the Deathless Circle's home system of Zarzakh.

Drifters have launched an all-out attack on the four systems that contain stargates to Zarzakh. Zarzakh is a unique solar system in close proximity to a black hole, currently occupied by the Deathless Circle. It is only accessible via ancient Jovian gates which are located in four systems in distant reaches of New Eden. These systems are Turnur, Alsavoinon, H-PA29, and G-0Q86. Roaming Drifters have been detected in these gate systems along with Sleeper drones under their control.

As the attack began, deep space telemetry detected a massive warping of spacetime around Zarzakh itself. This warping has created a boundary through which no events can be observed. It is functionally the same as the event horizon around a black hole, except that selected energy and matter seem to be able to pass through it unimpeded. Reports out of Zarzakh have confirmed that there has been no change inside the system itself, or with the black hole present there.

Drifter forces are trying to use stargates leading into Zarzakh instead of their normal methods for entering systems. Apparently the nature of the system prevents the Drifters normal means of travel. What follows is where lore and patch notes meet.

Drifter forces in the besieged gate systems have deployed never-before-seen structures that are generating incredibly powerful spacetime-warping fields. SOCT telemetry indicates that these fields are attempting to disrupt, and ultimately breach, the Horizon. Designated as Horizon Breach Engines, the structures are under the control of a single Drifter, Tyrannos Tekton. “What we are witnessing,” Sver qualified “is a hyperspace siege.”

Capsuleers approaching the locations where engines have been deployed, called Horizon Siege Points, have received communications from one Malaya Hrada. Malaya Hrada is the caravanmaster of the Hrada-Oki, a Deathless Circle allied Thukker caravan. She appears to be hunkered down inside the Fulcrum along with many other Deathless operatives and is offering rewards to any capsuleers willing to disrupt the Drifters' efforts.

The patch notes describe the update as follows:

• Zarzakh is under siege! Drifter and Sleeper forces have begun launching attacks within the four systems connecting to Zarzakh.
  
  
• Horizon Siege Point sites have begun appearing within the connecting systems. Capsuleers must keep the Drifter siege engine from becoming fully online within these sites. The device is only vulnerable while it is active. Be warned! While in this state, the engine will call for Drifter and Sleeper reinforcements.
  
• Roaming fleets of hostiles patrol these systems, targeting any capsuleers they find.

Then we get into some fun stuff. Apparently the Jovian station known as The Fulcrum has some automated defenses The Deathless cannot control.

A source inside the Fulcrum has confirmed that its deep systems activated as the Horizon came into effect, causing speculation that the Fulcrum itself is its cause.

At the same moment that the Horizon appeared, changes were observed in the behavior of the stargates inside Zarzakh. An effect identified as the “Emanation Lock” is being experienced by those who travel to Zarzakh. After entering Zarzakh, stargates now only allow exit back into the system from which a traveler originated. All other transits are barred by the Horizon.

The current leading hypothesis is that this is an automated security response, protecting the system from any unchecked traffic. Early reports indicate that the Emanation Lock degrades over time and its effects are expected to end after six hours in the system, at which point the traveler is “naturalized” as a legitimate Zarzakh occupant and is once again free to exit through any gate.

The same sources have reported that the lock has thrown traffic through the system into chaos. This suggests that Deathless Circle operatives were as surprised by the appearance of the Emanation Lock as the rest of New Eden.

The patch notes spell out what the Emanation Lock does in the game.

Zarzakh:

• Due to a mysterious surprise attack from the Drifters, The Fulcrum has activated an “Emanation lock” on the stargates into Zarzakh and within the system of Zarzakh, preventing the Drifters from accessing Zarzakh by any means; this has temporarily stalled the drifter attack for now…
  
  
• Whenever a player enters Zarzakh from a stargate, they will become locked to that stargate and get an emanation lock timer for 6 hours. Players will only be able to leave Zarzakh through the stargate they are locked to for the next 6 hours.
• Players can always leave Zarzakh through the Deathless Shipcaster, Clone Jumping or being pod killed, even with an Emanation lock.
• If players do not have an Emanation lock timer, they can leave through any gate.
• The Emanation lock is only given when entering Zarzakh, not when leaving it.
  
  
• If a player is outside Zarzakh with an Emanation lock timer, they can enter through any gate (It only prevents you from leaving Zarzakh). Entering Zarzakh from any gate will overwrite any old emanation lock timer with a new timer. You can only be locked to one gate at any time.
  
  
• Being pod killed into Zarzakh (If you have your home station set there) or clone jumping into Zarzakh is always possible regardless of Emanation Lock status.
  
  
• Warp Disruption Probes (From Interdiction Sphere Launcher modules fitted to Interdictors) and unscripted warp disruption field generator modules (from Heavy Interdictors) can no longer be used in Zarzakh.
  
  
• Escalations can no longer route a player through Zarzakh.
  
  
• Autopilot will no longer route a player through Zarzakh.
  
  
• If a player is inside Zarzakh with an Emanation lock, then Autopilot will consider the players Emanation lock and not route them through a gate they cannot use.

In perhaps related news, the Deepflow Rifts will only appear for two more days, which means a Thursday patch.

Recent news has revealed that the Deepflow Rift sites will be closing soon. The Society of Conscious Thought (SOCT) has detected a drop in the energy signatures in the deepflow coinciding with the Drifters’ assault on the gate systems. As these caused the rifts, SOCT scientists predict the deepflow will stabilize and rifts will cease to appear on 12 September. 

But the sites are not just going away if the patch notes concerning Homefront Operations are any indication. At the very least the content will change for the next two days.

Homefront Operations:

• Increased the bonus percentages for Abyssal Artifact Recovery weather effects to 20% (from 10%).
  
  
• Penalty percentages for Abyssal Artifact Recovery weather effects will now scale with the difficulty tier.
  
  
• Increase the initial setup timer in Abyssal Artifact Recovery sites to 90 seconds (from 60).
  
  
• Increase the escape timer in Abyssal Artifact Recovery sites to 60 seconds (from 45).
  
  
• Decreased the collision radius of Destabilizing Array objects in Stabilize Rift sites.

The developers have also fixed some defects in Homefront associated with the event.

Defect Fixes

Homefront Operations:

• Info Panel objectives will now reappear if warp is started and then cancelled within ongoing sites.
  
  
• Mine and escape Info Panel objectives will now appear when arriving at an ongoing Abyssal Artifact Recovery site.
  
  
• Fixed a minor formatting issue in Traffic Stop site Operational Intel text.
  
  
• Drifter NPCs in Abyssal Artifact Recovery sites will now have their shield hitpoints applied correctly.