Editor’s Note: This article was submitted to us by Ghost Negotiator.
EVE Online Lifeblood has recently been released on the Tranquility servers. This expansion has several new features including the long awaited moon mining revamp. When it comes to EVE Online Lifeblood, no-one is sure yet how exactly the changes will affect the game. As for myself I have been digging into the market of the major trade hubs in EVE Online to see what I could deduce. The results, I hope you will agree, are quite surprising.
EVE Online Lifeblood Expansion explained
Lifeblood expansion of EVE Online has recently released on the main servers of CCP Games. Because of the massive changes from the Lifeblood expansion, a lot of things have been changing on the tech 2 markets.
Changes to Player Owned Starbase (POS)
Most of us will have seen the large deployed sticks with a force field around it which are attached to most moons in the EVE universe. These POS’s are commonly used for safe spots in space (particularly in low and null space), industry or moon harvesting.
Previously, by anchoring the POS on a goodie-filled moon and adding modules to it, the moon materials will flow into the attached silo from a Moon Harvesting Array. These moon materials are a vital component in the Tech 2 ship and module industry. The base moon materials can be reacted with others to create a range of more valuable Tech 2 ingredient for those willing to go the the extra step in search of profits. Notably, both the mining and reacting process are passive, requiring no direct input from the player until Silo containers reach capacity.
Moon Materials changes in EVE Online Lifeblood
In the Lifeblood expansion of EVE Online this passive method of gaining income through moons has been removed. In fact Lifeblood is a complete overhaul of the entire set of Moon Mining and Reaction mechanics. Thanks to the Upwell Consortium we now have a set of new refinery structures to manage the extraction of these materials and this comes with some big changes.
The Refineries are a variant of citadel, just like the industry focused Engineering Complexes. They can be anchored anywhere that a normal citadel or engineering complex can, however they can also be anchored at a new special moon beacon which then allows the moon mining process to be activated. For now only Low and Null security systems are mineable but rumour has it that some high security systems (0.5) and possibly wormhole systems may get this ability in 2018 (though without the special moon materials used for Tech 2 production).
EVE Online Lifeblood VS. Market
As what has taken for granted in EVE Online Lifeblood expansion is that the focus has taken on moon mining. With these changes its most noticeable thing for every player is the Tech 2 market for space ships. These ships have been going up in price within a day of the release of Lifeblood. The cause is there is a sudden reduction in moon materials.
When looking for example on the Kronos you will see a noticeable price change of 400 Million ISK. It’s original price used to be around 1.3 Billion ISK. These days it is way higher, at 1.7 Billion. This is one of the many examples that I have been keeping track on. As for modules that you use on your space ship, they have not changed much in price because they generally do not need moon materials.
Tech 2 Market Doomed in EVE Online Lifeblood?
Markets in EVE Online will balance out over time till the supply starts flowing back into the market. Markets in EVE Online are completely player driven and only time will tell. Because the supply of moon materials came to a sudden stop, there is a large amount needed to get it to recover.
Once the structures are getting anchored for moon mining, the markets will refill their stocks on moon materials. Once this cycle has started after its current dead stop prices should go down as well. Because of resumption of the moon materials brought back to the market, prices will go down as well in the mid and long term.
Active mining for moon materials
In the new expansion of EVE Online Lifeblood, you might have already expected that moon mining is now an active activity instead of the passive player owned structures. This requires mining fleets going out and mining the asteroids for materials. These materials will be useful in all ways, regardless of the security of space.
Because of the changes you will have to do a new kind of moon analysis, which is currently still done through Moon Survey Probes ammunition and launcher. When you’re doing a survey you will receive information what the moon contains. From there you can make the decision on anchoring your citadel over there.
The new process of moon mining
With the new process of moon mining in EVE Online Lifeblood Expansion, you will have to use your citadel for grabbing a chunk of the moon, which will be tractor beamed to an area in space. These pieces from the moon will have to ripen over a certain period of time. This can be done up to 56 days, and you may have already guessed! The longer it is hold in space the better the minerals & materials.
Once you have decided to blast the piece from the moon it will shatter around into an asteroid field. You can mine these asteroid fields as much as you like and reel in the minerals & moon materials. When it comes to high security space there is still not much known about the defense of pirates attacks yet.
The moon mining balance
Most likely, CCP Games has released the new version of moon mining with a lot of reasons, knowing that releases are usually experimental in many ways during their expansions. The Lifeblood expansion of EVE Online has been one of the most complicated releases yet.
Moon mining in EVE Online Lifeblood will definitely change a lot for every player. Because no one knows what EVE Online will bring for sure with the Lifeblood expansion.
Faction Bases in Empire Space
As for what EVE Online Lifeblood has to offer for people in high security space. These so-called faction bases owned by Guristas Pirates and Blood Raiders are short fleet based content for people who live in high sec. From these pirate bases in high sec you can earn a decent amount of Player Vs. Environment (PvE) Experience.
Also this includes a lot of future changes to create more dynamic content for EVE Online. Players will be able to find unscripted events within the game. These short co-op game play sessions should create a more dynamic play style. Which intends to create the game more dynamic and less of a grind.
Encouraging new players to play EVE Online
EVE Online has always had a large learning curve for everyone within the game. This caused a lot of players to hook off from the game while it has so much to offer. As what is being worked on is lowering the step for new players and making it more dynamic for everyone. This includes making drastic changes to the game EVE Online. Including features like resource wars and faction bases in high sec.
Alpha Clones, heads up!
If you’re an Alpha clone and hit your training cap already for your character. Coming to the December release, you can also train up skills even higher when you’re omega and up to 20 Million Skill points. Most of the skills up till a battleship will be available under unlimited use. This will enable a lot of new things for you as an Alpha pilot in EVE Online.
Even as an alpha clone you will be able to pilot battleships as long you have trained the battleship skills. To train these skills you will need to have a subscription to the game. You can either to chose to inject those skills or train them through time.
