In an in-character Scope dispatch earlier today, CCP has signaled the likely end of local chat in nullsec space. Citing a shortage of the resources needed to maintain the “Fluid Router FTL” communications network, CCP announced a “reduction in bandwidth in nullsec space.” CCP stated, in character, that capsuleers would have to deal with the developing Drifter situation “without the intelligence of automatic registry,” likely indicating the introduction of wormhole-styled local chat to nullsec. Pilots will likely still be able to use local chat if they want, but their names will not show on the local system pilot list unless they type in local.
The Scope dispatch also discussed a “change in Drifter tactics” explaining that Drifters are now targeting individual ships in space in addition to structures, meaning ratting activity and mining face threat now from both hostile players and Drifter NPCs. The removal of local, which the Scope dispatch indicated will happen within the week, means that hostile players will be able to enter systems and attack without any indication. While player ships can be detected via d-scan, Drifters cannot. This creates considerable threat to any ratting or mining ships that can be tackled.
Wormhole-styled local chat in nullsec has long been requested by players who engage in the PvP hunting of ratters and miners, but has not been something CCP has signaled as likely to occur. It dramatically increases the danger of ratting, as players will have to be constantly monitoring the directional scanner for contacts. While it does increase complexity in hunting as well, the burden is largely shouldered by ratters, who often AFK or rely on monitoring local to know when to dock because of roaming gangs. With the Drifter threat, d-scan alone is not sufficient to ensure safety, as Drifter ships do not register on the d-scanner. For now, the only safe ratting will need to be done in supercarriers or above which cannot be easily tackled, and under an umbrella.
This change also comes at a time when nullsec blocs are already disenchanted with CCP, as the Drifter invasion has stoked sentiments of unnecessary hardship and interference with bloc sandboxes. The Imperium recently was forced to withdraw from an invasion of Tribute in order to protect structures from NPC threats. Adding to this trouble, defending a structure from Drifters does not yield any significant reward for the blocs. It is necessary to defend structures, but there is no reward, making the Drifter invasions burdensome to null pilots. This is to say nothing of the affect it has had on PvE activity, with pilots under a new threat from powerful and aggressive NPCs that cannot be defended against by most ships.
On the other hand, the removal of local chat in nullsec is likely to contribute considerably to CCP’s ongoing struggle against botting. It is likely that most bots rely on local chat to determine when to align or dock. Without local, these bots will not be able to safely continue their activity, making them vulnerable to both player and NPC threats. Players engaging in PvE will have to be savvy and understand that there are considerable risks.
Player-run intelligence networks relying on local will also no longer work. Players will no longer be able to passively observe the local chat and report in a central chat to track the movement of roaming fleets, but instead will have to visually observe gates in order to monitor traffic. Scouting will necessarily become a legitimate gameplay style, even in home systems; and the undetected long-range deployment of large fleets is now much more feasible as cyno networks and the use of less-efficient routes demands players actively monitor fleet movements.
A change like this has not happened in Eve for some time, and it’s impossible to predict how players as a whole will respond to this change. While roaming krab-hunters and PvPers have been asking for this change for years, many players are staunchly opposed to it. Such a dramatic change will undoubtedly suppress economic activity throughout nullsec as players adjust to a new tactical landscape, ending an era of unprecedented production and likely leading to a period of scarcity.
Some of the likely response was seen last year, when CCP’s deployment of a new chat system led to a period of local chat disruptions throughout the game. In that period, many players didn’t bother with PvE content, while roaming fleets feasted on the killmails of unaware or unsuspecting ratters. Unlike last year’s local chat disruptions, however, this year the changes have been announced and will apparently stick around, with the Scope video indicating these changes would last as long as the Drifter invasion continued. With no evident timeline on CCP’s invasion storyline, it’s entirely possible local will remain gone from null indefinitely.
Whether you’re for or against the change, one thing is certain: Eve will not be the same without local in null. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
UPDATE: CCP have now released a Devblog with more details of the changes.
Nullsec Blackout: Triglavian Inversion
Local Blackout Scheduled, CCP Already Inconsistent
Drifter Onslaught—What We Know, What We Think, What We’ve Heard
Rammel Kas
Last time CCP screwed with local chat people simply stopped playing EVE. Wonder why they think this would be any different? And in case some hisec pubbie missed the memo… people NOT PLAYING means people NOT PAYING and the studio has to retrench and shut down.
July 5, 2019 at 4:20 PMTaxea Rammel Kas
Brilliant.. Accounts set to alpha. But some plex is worth how many ganking-ships.. making high-sec more.. fun?
July 5, 2019 at 6:29 PMRammel Kas Taxea
You can ganku desu on alpha accounts too. 😉
July 5, 2019 at 7:18 PMTaxea Rammel Kas
What i meant to say: Using alphas. Buying ships via these insane plex-prices. No more need to mine..
July 5, 2019 at 8:21 PMGuilford Australis Rammel Kas
As I recall, CCP felt compelled to offer free SP as an apology to players for the local chat meltdown last year. Reprising a past mistake as a planned contrivance to irritate nullsec players (the players who create all the awesome fights that CCP depends on for recruitment purposes) would be a new level of stupidity for CCP, and I realize I’m making a tall claim there.
July 5, 2019 at 8:29 PMMoomin Amatin
This is very exciting news. But not for the reasons that some probably have in mind. The best bit is that it will affect the game in ways that are not expected.
As for all of those going on about how sweet the nullsec tears are tasting, well they are going to be nothing when compared to the potential for future tears of those that welcome the likes of no local.
July 5, 2019 at 5:00 PMGuilford Australis Moomin Amatin
I’m only just beginning to imagine the fun Liberty Squad will have hunting beans around Geminate without local chat to spoil the party.
July 5, 2019 at 8:50 PMSeraph IX Basarab Moomin Amatin
*Laughs in Therabtw*
July 5, 2019 at 10:17 PMGuilford Australis Seraph IX Basarab
Not a bad analogy. It’d be better if we still had Outposts in nullsec… but CCP already shat upon those, so Thera still has a leg up on us.
July 6, 2019 at 1:11 AMchimpy
God forsake that null becomes more dangerous than high sec! Won’t anyone think of the children !?!?!?!
July 5, 2019 at 6:36 PMGarreth Vlox chimpy
if this is enough to drive people out of null it will drive them right out of the game as most null players went there to avoid high sec.
July 5, 2019 at 6:55 PMchimpy Garreth Vlox
a bit too rough in high sec eh?
July 5, 2019 at 7:39 PMGarreth Vlox chimpy
its boring as fuck, war decs are exploitable, and concord limits your ability to have any spontaneous fun. What’s there to like about highsec?
July 5, 2019 at 9:28 PMGuilford Australis chimpy
Some of us grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and have CONCORD on our asses through no fault of our own *cough.* Totally not a ganker, please move along thanks very much.
July 5, 2019 at 9:48 PMNoob Guilford Australis
You do know you can raise your sec status, right??!
July 6, 2019 at 5:15 AMGuilford Australis Noob
Yeah, I’ve done that a couple times, but my sec status keeps… going back down. No idea why. Probably unrelated to all the ships and pods I keep killing unprovoked in highsec.
July 6, 2019 at 9:20 AMRammel Kas chimpy
Y’don’t get it do you? We don’t use that to avoid fights. Most the time it is used to find each other and generate fights. There is no concord blankets out there. You just shoot the neutrals either way. And trying to get cute with roams just means the big dogs will cyno in the 1000+ titans you saw us use up north to curb stomp the roams instead of trying to bother with mickey mouse shit. Oh wait you can’t have titans in hisec now can you?
Besides… my ganku desu says your precious hisec is a dangerous place to try to be. Think about it for a moment. Do you really want to live in a land of Burn Jita 23/7 for the rest of the year? We can do that nonstop on alpha accounts. No need to feed the :ccp: trolls until they un-f**k things.
July 5, 2019 at 7:26 PMchimpy Rammel Kas
If you want to burn Jita 24/7/365 I’m on board with that. I go to burn Jita in a shuttle as a tourist. You can arrange fights all you want thorugh multiple channels, but losing local will make it non consentual. I get the feeling that null is far more care bear than high, and what we are seeing is a knee jerk “think of the children” by nullers who will actually face danger now. High has some wonderfull player created danger e.g. CODE who I have put a tremendous amount of my ISK towards, and I support to the hilt. I think this is expsoing just how care bear null really is and the salt is glorious 🙂
July 5, 2019 at 7:34 PMMy advice to you is to buy a botting permit from http://www.minerbumping.com as soon as possible.
Rammel Kas chimpy
You seem to assume what I am talking about. I just had to un-deploy out of a hot bloc war because freaking wingnuts at CCP caved to some hisec pubbie who died once to many because they can’t find their way out an obvious bottleneck in the map. And concord would not save them no matter the fact they brought a instant-warp ceptor or assfrig to a super fight. Some people just seem to NEED all the hand holding they can get don’t they? And this local shit is all that it amounts to. Someone elsewhere pointed out already. The big groups aren’t going to care for that. They will simply up-ship and stay in their supers then go get rekd trying to roam.
No. What we are getting pissed about is that it seems CCP are lending an undue ear to people who have no skin nor real insight in the nullsec game, giving them a lot of hand holding while removing sand from the sandbox. Local is part of the challenge of roaming null. Like scanning wormholes is for J-space. The counter play, warp speeds and the ability to read the map is how you apply skill to kill or avoid the jaws of the trap. Aside the stupidly broken Mary Sue NPC’s also breaking null roams (see the twich clip of Bjorn Bee for example) it really seems that they are dumbing down the system because a small handful of people complained because they don’t make the cut, or don’t want to go to the effort of cobbling together a strong enough force to contest it.
That being said yes we are looking forward to next burn. Sounds like it may merit a sooner rather than later.
July 5, 2019 at 7:59 PMScott Wilson Rammel Kas
I would love nonstop burn jita. Are you kidding me?
July 5, 2019 at 10:07 PMGuilford Australis
Fine with me. This is another change that benefits large alliances that correctly use Aegis Sov and can defend their territory with insurmountable supercapital force while punishing renter alliances and small groups.
It’s… almost as though CCP crapped out another poorly-conceived gimmick to ‘break up the nullsec blocs’ or whatever and will end up looking like a bunch of doofuses when it ends up destroying the people they think they’re helping.
July 5, 2019 at 7:42 PMScott Wilson
So create cyno lighting teams. You know any drifters in system are going to come running if a cyno is lit. There are a finite amount of them. Don’t wait for them. Bait them with cynos and destroy them. Then start working on a profit model that incorporates killing them. There has to be something.
July 5, 2019 at 10:03 PMGuilford Australis Scott Wilson
It is not known whether there is a “finite amount of them” or whether they respond to cynos. Additionally, there is no known “profit model” for the Drifter invasion since they drop useless loot.
The possible loss of local chat is simply another middle finger to nullsec players since we already cannot probe or scan the Drifters to which you refer.
July 6, 2019 at 12:53 AMKyle Mosley Guilford Australis
Have you played in J-Space at all?
The same Arithmos Tyrannos is what we escalate in our holes for isk.
They drop half a bill in Blue Loot.
You can farm them, you just need to be coordinated and develop strategies.
July 6, 2019 at 8:21 AMGuilford Australis Kyle Mosley
The nullsec Drifter ‘invaders’ are not the same as the J-space variety. They have different capabilities, behaviors, and loot.
July 6, 2019 at 8:53 AMGarreth Vlox Kyle Mosley
Nice job demonstrating how the people not living in null have no idea what is going on with the event, the drifters in null right now are NOT the drifters you escalate to get in wormholes, they drop at most a few mill worth of crap and the salvage is reinforced metal scraps.
July 7, 2019 at 10:47 AMGarreth Vlox Scott Wilson
“There are a finite amount of them. ” And they can align in one second and leave warp just as fast meaning you can’t “bait” the response, if you think otherwise clearly you don’t live in nullsec.
July 6, 2019 at 5:09 AMKyle Mosley Garreth Vlox
If you think they cant be killed or fought, you clearly havent played in J-Space
July 6, 2019 at 8:37 AMGarreth Vlox Kyle Mosley
If you think the drifters in null are the same ones in Jspace then you are talking out of your ass and have not even bothered to go to null and see what these drifters are like. Different ships, different mechanics, different attacks, different loot table, different spawn triggers and timers.
July 7, 2019 at 10:49 AMScott Wilson
Stop whining about shit and overcome it. Jesus.
July 5, 2019 at 10:05 PMGuilford Australis Scott Wilson
I detect whining in this comment but not in the article or in the comments from those who stand to be affected by the proposed change. Do you sincerely believe no one should know about this or make any preparations to adapt to it?
Do you also believe the major nullsec blocs have demonstrated no ability to ‘overcome’ past changes (such as Aegis Sov)?
July 6, 2019 at 12:39 AMScott Wilson Guilford Australis
You suck at internetting. Now write a book for me buddy.
July 6, 2019 at 1:20 AMGuilford Australis Scott Wilson
I’ll take that as “yes” and “no,” respectively.
Unrelated: Give me a genre, setting, profit margin, and publisher, and I’ll make us both millionaires.
July 6, 2019 at 1:24 AMGarreth Vlox Scott Wilson
ducked both questions came back with bullshit, nice try, better luck next time.
July 6, 2019 at 5:06 AMScott Wilson Garreth Vlox
Yes. It’s like I didn’t care.
July 6, 2019 at 5:31 AMGarreth Vlox Scott Wilson
You cared enough to come here and bitch in the comments.
July 7, 2019 at 10:42 AMScott Wilson Garreth Vlox
Yes, to pick on you. Amazing you missed that aspect of things.
July 7, 2019 at 12:04 PMViince_Snetterton
This is truly wonderful news. Every new bit of news indicates to me that the new owners of CCP finally got around to looking at the key stats. Then they decided to read the riot act to the corrupt CCP employees in bed with the RMT cartels: “Either reign in the cartels RMT operations, or lose your job.” Next step is I hope they roll back the ridiculous inequity in resources between high sec and null sec.
July 6, 2019 at 1:12 AME.Katelo Viince_Snetterton
I think there is no need for that. perhaps throw the last few valuable resources in nullsec to compensate for the missing local.
July 6, 2019 at 6:49 AMor we delete the local for high/low and then redistribute everything
Guilford Australis Viince_Snetterton
Highsec can have the same resources as nullsec the day it embraces the Drifter invasion and warp nullification and eliminates local chat, CONCORD, and NPC stations.
The inequity in resources exists because we have to put up with major inconveniences in nullsec that no one in highsec would tolerate.
July 8, 2019 at 12:00 PMGanthrithor
Ugh. I’ve been ganking / commerce raiding / ratter hunting / whatever you want to call it for over a decade and even I think this is a shit idea. It will be fun for two weeks while some people won’t know what’s happening, and then it will be fucking garbage as everyone who’s not in Goonswarm realizes they literally shouldn’t bother logging in to the game anymore. Who am I going to shoot then?
I wish they’d removed interdiction nullification or killed jump drives or basically any change other than this. Between the lack of intel and the undetectable, insta-gib NPC fleets floating around, literally nobody is going to play this game, including me.
July 6, 2019 at 4:08 AMGarreth Vlox Ganthrithor
Can confirm have logged in twice since patch release, both times to shoot drifters have no intention of logging in anything shiny ratting or otherwise till things change or I unsubscribe all accounts because nothing changes.
July 6, 2019 at 5:07 AMGanthrithor Garreth Vlox
Like, I’m not gonna rat, they’re not gonna rat, I already have ~80b isk but I don’t want a titan, what the fuck am I going to do in EVE with no desire to repeatedly die in a fire attempting PvE and nobody around to shoot at except the other teams’ also-bored covert hotdrop gangs? It’s gonna be an absolute, unmitigated fucking disaster. I’m probably going to unsub all my accounts– it’s already been several years of basically dicking around PvPing in tiny ships for laffos or just fucking mining because there’s nothing relevant going on. What are we all doing with our lives?
July 6, 2019 at 6:49 AMpsycros Ganthrithor
If you’re like most of us, wishing there was a game very much like EVE that’s not EVE.
July 8, 2019 at 1:21 AMGanthrithor psycros
I unsubbed. Welp, end of an era.
July 11, 2019 at 3:53 AMSeraph IX Basarab Garreth Vlox
:tears:
wew
July 6, 2019 at 2:56 PMLrrp
My 2 cents. What I don’t understand is for years ccp has been trying to get people out of high sec into null. Now when null has a bit of a population, ccp seems bent on driving peeps out of null. There use to be a saying, “Greed if good”. I’m going to change that to, “Stupidity is good”. As to the drifters, this is another stupid factor. If they had some sort of good bounty/drops then it might be interesting. Since they don’t I see it as another downside. So two downsides and no upsides make for customers looking to go elsewhere. Since this is not a free game to play I wonder what the rational is in driving paying customers away. Which brings me to a sudden thought
With all the talent the Imperium has I wonder what it would take to make our own eve style game? Initiate a kickstarter fund and I know I would contribute money to it. A game with all the positive aspects, leaving out the negatives. Yeah, I would most certainly contribute to that. So ccp (and your korean masters) how will it feel knowing you pushed people far enough that you killed your own game. So korea, do you still think 450 million was money well spent?
July 6, 2019 at 12:39 PMGuilford Australis Lrrp
I agree that the Drifter stuff and the proposed local chat elimination are a middle finger to nullsec, and I definitely agree it is a manifestly stupid strategy for CCP to pursue.
But it is CCP, so we imagine they’ll go all-in with it and pretend to be shocked by the consequences.
July 6, 2019 at 1:33 PMLrrp Guilford Australis
I think ccp is leaving themselves a out by this statement:
“The duration of this blackout is undetermined, and we’ll be monitoring what effect this has on the cluster.”
July 6, 2019 at 3:09 PMGarreth Vlox Lrrp
yeah pretty much reads like “So if this all goes to shit and the nullsec pop tanks and no one undocks we’ll just roll this back in a few days, Bullshit some lore together for another blog post and act like it was never intended to be anything more than a temporary event.”
July 7, 2019 at 10:45 AMSeraph IX Basarab Lrrp
So much whining because you don’t have risk free krabbing.
July 6, 2019 at 2:55 PMLrrp Seraph IX Basarab
You obviously are a troll. Just look at how many Rorq’s and ratting ships are lost and you will realize how stupid you sound with your “risk free krabbing” statement.
July 6, 2019 at 3:12 PMSeraph IX Basarab Lrrp
Krabs being retarded doesn’t prove krabbing isn’t easy.
July 6, 2019 at 3:48 PMBumpy Dog Seraph IX Basarab
Honestly, such a pathetic comment. I have read your many articles and know you capable of much better. This is just troll garbage. Go back to Reddit where this mediocrity lives.
July 6, 2019 at 6:56 PMSeraph IX Basarab Bumpy Dog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wggTsCHXn94
July 7, 2019 at 2:30 AMGuilford Australis Seraph IX Basarab
I notice you’re the only one talking about krabbing here.
July 7, 2019 at 10:55 PMpsycros Lrrp
“Since this is not a free game to play I wonder what the rational is in driving paying customers away.”
It probably WILL be a truly F2P game before long. The Koreans looked at EVE and went, “Wow, a western game with a grind as bad as our own!” Coming soon: full access to everything in alpha state and totally unlimited injectors.
July 8, 2019 at 1:32 AMCarlGustav
Seriously this is an ill thought idea
I’m all for local removal if CCP have created this a ingame intel tool where players and specific structures could share there intel with there alliance. Even a structure that every 5-10 min get warpin to even cloaked players. Hit afk camping as a active camping just can warp off).
This would make local be better for land owners. But that structure could be attacked and then the scanner is offline…..
Removing local without a intel tool is stupid at best.
July 6, 2019 at 2:30 PMSeraph IX Basarab CarlGustav
Use a scout. There’s your intel tool.
July 6, 2019 at 2:54 PMAnubis
You know what this will do: more difficult null sec = no more player sustaining their accounts by just ratting, forcing players to pay more. All I see is a stab a players wallets, nothing more. Ever since plex was buyable it really has destroyed the game. I dont know, just an off base opinion.
July 6, 2019 at 6:36 PMGanthrithor Anubis
Where do you think all those PLEX on the in-game market come from? Other players buy them with real money and list them. It’s not like CCP have been giving away game time– it’s just that a small minority of credit card warriors have been the ones paying for all of it.
July 6, 2019 at 7:32 PMGeneral Thade
Are you kidding??? LMFAO
July 7, 2019 at 5:36 PMBarend Van Niekerk General Thade
i sure as hell will not be logging in. Too much risk losing a Titan
July 9, 2019 at 3:36 PMGuilford Australis
They might even have a Bishop to serve their parish. Perhaps even His Most Eminent Holiness Max Singularity.
July 7, 2019 at 6:00 PMHavish Montak
As someone who enjoys Welping, I love the idea of removing local. From a whaling stand point this is fantastic. From a PVE standpoint, how about reporting intel better? The idea that you are at risk 247 is great. You’ll only earn the isk if you take the risk.
I would detest a structure that restores local as this would make the defensive advantage too great.
July 9, 2019 at 10:14 AMBarend Van Niekerk
To be quite honest. No local will make me do even less. With Cloaky campers like Olmeca around, it would be suicide trying to do any form of Krabbing. This will be really bad as no one would risk a Titan or Super to try do anything. Dreadbombs will increase 10 fold.
July 9, 2019 at 3:41 PM