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Today is the day that the null sec changes outlined back in June with the Equinox expansion launch and experimented with live, in production ever since, becomes mandatory.
Equinox is here – Seize Something
I just know that somebody at CCP is taking the fact that GSF is moving of its own accord across several regions of null as proof that their rejuvenation plan is working. And, I guess if you can accept the fact that the changes imposed by CCP made us want to spread out and take more space to keep our alliance viable, sure thing. CCP can claim, “Made you form… and move!”
But I don’t see the big rental empires in the north and the dronelands sharing much of that rejuvenation spirit. If you already had a lot of space, and the rental empires have plenty, with some decent true sec, you were probably good. And once we finish moving… then what? As I noted a bit back, there are opinions out there about winners and losers with Equinox.
I checked the patch notes this morning to see if CCP had decided to make any last minute adjustments to the Equinox sovereignty scheme, but they could not find anything else they wanted to change.
Patch Notes for 2024-10-29.1
Features & Changes:
Sovereignty:
All remaining Sovereignty Hubs which were running in Legacy mode have been automatically converted into using the new mode.
It is no longer possible to remove rigs from structures which were eligible for rig removal.
The rigs change represents a concession CCP eventually made allowing groups to take down structures and recover the rigs rather than destroying them, a pretty clear acknowledgement that null sec alliances were going to face a reduction in what they could deploy and maintain with Equinox. And yes, there are a few other fixes in the patch notes, but nothing that has an impact on the sov changes.
I guess CCP achieved all their goals and are ready to move on to the next thing.
I still have a lot of questions about WHAT CCP’s goals for Equinox really were, unless “rejuvenation” is a little known synonym for “nerf.”
As an expansion it meant the end of farms and fields, the return to a bunch of null sec systems not being worth the effort to upgrade, a pretty substantial downgrade to the number of combat anomalies, a trivialization of mining anomalies (you can pick what spawns, but you only get a selection of tiny rocks), and a push on any large group to change from a tall to a wide stance on sovereignty… unless they were already wide the way PanFam and Fraternity were.
Due to how the new resources are allocated, there is even a low key nerf to power projection in that there are not likely to be as many Ansiblex jump gates in use. I mean, Fraternity appears to have made a choice on that front in Geminate and Vale of the Silent… or they forgot… one of the two. But there are less Ansiblex jump gates online today. You’d think the “small gang” crowd I mentioned the other day would be happy… but they are never happy if there is somebody out there not forced into their play style.
Oh well. The motto of EVE Online has always been Harden The Fuck Up I guess. That is what the song says.
As always, no tears here. I’m in a group that will adapt to the new meta the same that it always has. We’ve been doing that for the last three weeks… the last three months really… in such a big way that you’ll be able to see it on the October MER pretty clearly.
The question remains though as to whether or not this is what CCP intended.
At least we got our free 15K skill points again today. (And some free drugs.) Yay?