CCP has just announced some major nerfs to various aspects of EVE Online industry. This all means a very big shakeup to production chains across New Eden is coming April 2021. The Dev Blog released today detailed a ton of changes, so we’re going to recap them here. The basic idea is that CCP is about to make it much easier to produce small T1 ship hulls, while making more complex larger ship classes harder to produce.
The biggest effect of the update for small-scale producers is that Tech I ships will be easier to produce when dealing with anything below Battlecruiser size. Larger ship classes have now been made much more complicated. Here is a more generalized recap of the changes as they appear now.
Recap of the Basic Impact
- T1 frigates and destroyers require no Nocxium, Zydrine or Megacyte, which reduces the mineral burden for low-level production.
- Industrial transports, Cruisers, and Battlecruisers have had mineral inputs adjusted too.
- T1 and beyond Battleship hulls need new materials made from reactions, which themselves use low-level PI elements like Oxygen, water, hydrocarbons and more.
- Faction ship hulls require gas cloud products to produce, this includes both Navy and Pirate hulls.
- Capital and Supercapital hulls will require more raw materials as well. Exploration loot, moon materials, PI and gas products all needed now.
General price impacts are predicted as follows:
- PI Materials – Increase
- Low-end Gas Products – Increase
- LowSec Mining Materials – Increase
- R4 Moon Materials – Increase
- Ice/Isotope Materials – Increase
- Battleship Hulls – Increase
- Faction Hulls – Increase
- Capital Hulls – Increase
- Isogen – Increase
- Pyerite – Increase
- Mexallon – Increase
- Tritanium – Decrease
- Nocxium – Decrease
- Megacyte – Decrease
- T1 Ship Hulls (Battlecruiser down) – Decrease
One of the bigger impacts is how much capitals will be affected. The basic recap is that Capitals have reduced basic mineral requirements, but now require PI materials and Gas products. This will both reduce stocks of PI for NullSec blocs and push for expansion by various groups. Triglavian and EDENCOM ships also require moon products and PI materials. This will further negatively impact existing stockpiles.
With recent nerfs to mineral distribution in NullSec, these blocs will have to expand even further. This will lead to many player groups feeling overextended. Given the current political landscape of the Null regions, we might be looking down the barrel of a major consolidation of power. Wormholes are about to see a ton more traffic as a result of these changes, that’s a guarantee.
CCP is working to phase the rollout of these changes over the next month. Expect a two-part patch cycle, and then expect CCP to change values in response to player behavior. EVE players love to break things.
There’s still a rather noticeable chance that the change could push smaller groups out of Wormholes. The Wormholes are a great source of gas clouds, which will now be required for higher-tier production jobs. Mycoserocin gas clouds will also be added to many new systems in the game’s regions to increase the availability of these materials. But, it’s unclear how much of an impact this will have. It could lead to a situation where NullSec blocs push small wormhole groups out. Although with Gas Clouds getting seeded into LowSec, this may not be as big an issue.
Some other specific changes have been added as well. The production chain for Standup Fighters have been complicated, adding Tech I Standup Fighters as inputs for the Tech II variant. Other gameplay changes are also planned to undo some of the more hated changes in the game. The Dynamic Bounty System will also see an increase in the average bounties across the universe. This DBS was something many players hated the longer it has been in the game. Seeing it get buffed is a sign that CCP might actually be paying some kind of attention to the systems they implement.
If you want to see the changes broken down in detail, check out the spreadsheet CCP put out.
Source: CCP