On December 20, just before everyone headed off for their Christmas break, CCP finally answered the question that has been bouncing around New Eden this week: “Are the anomaly changes in Null-Sec a feature or a bug?”
A devblog was released explaining that a resource distribution overhaul was underway, and that the first part of this had been implemented on December 17. Pilots had noticed nullsec mining anomalies taking less time to clear, and that they appeared to have lower quantities of ore in each rock. Without any confirmation from CCP, and no mention in any patch notes that had been issued, players were left speculating as to whether this was a bug or a feature, and what the exact changes were.
CCP’s explanation began with a change that had not really been noticed by players: “On Tuesday 17 December, Veldspar and Spodumain rocks were removed from Null-Sec asteroid belts“. This large change passed largely unnoticed for three days due to the fact Null-Sec belts are only really mined for raising the System Index, which allows anomalies to spawn. The confusion regarding mining yields was explained by CCP Dopamine saying “...the quantity of ore for levels three, four and five asteroid Anomalies in Null-Sec were greatly reduced (33%, 50%, and 66% respectively).” Level three, four and five anomalies are the Large, Enormous and Colossal anomalies.
The blog went on to say that further changes to resource distribution will be occurring in the coming months, and that players were not notified in advance of these changes to allow for an element of mystery and sense of discovery within New Eden. For future changes, some will be without notice (although, patch notes could, and perhaps should be updated once the change is out for a day or so to avoid players quite understandably thinking features are bugs), and changes that require pilots to have time to prepare will be notified in advance.
To go along with the devblog, CCP issued a video wishing all capsuleers Season’s Greetings, and shows CCP Burger deleting Spodumain and Veldspar.
