CCP Fozzie just released a short feature update on the Eve Online forums. The upcoming change consists of making all structures vulnerable for 15 minutes right after launching in space, before the 24h of anchoring process. Coming out in October with the Lifeblood expansion, the refineries mechanics raised a lot of questions and concerns, and this new repair timer is meant to reduce risk-free ninja dropping on profitable moons.

There shall only be one

The concern about ninja dropping is that, as there can only be one refinery per moon on the mining spot, some groups would drop refineries on the spot even if unable to defend them. This would then force their opponents to wait for 24h before being able to shoot it down and replace it. And we say 24 hours… per level of Strategic index, so up to 144h in maxed systems!

The new 15 minutes timer is meant to allow the space holder (or any opponent around) to kill the bird in the egg. Note that it will also affect the use of citadels as advanced bases in conflicts, as they will now all be destroyable even before they are anchored.

The new cycle of anchoring for citadels is now, with the new timer in bold:

-> Drag structure into space
-> Choose name, profile and vulnerability schedule
-> 15 minute repair (vulnerable)
-> 24hr anchoring
-> 15 minute repair (vulnerable)
-> Online

Future and confessions

This change should hit Sisi in the next few days. Will it be enough to avoid ninja dropping? Is it long enough? Only time will tell and we are waiting to see how this mechanic will be used.

CCP Fozzie finishes his post with this short note:

Important: I want to make it clear that we don’t consider this to be the only issue with Upwell structure vulnerability mechanics. We are aware of and agree with the frustrations many players are expressing with the general Upwell structure vulnerability mechanics being too heavily weighted towards defenders and not providing enough options for interaction in the attacker’s time zones. We absolutely intend to make changes to these areas in the future, and will be continuing the dialogue with the CSM and eventually with the wider playerbase.

More changes to come for citadels and vulnerability, as CCP seems to try and listen to the community. Knowing CCP is aware that the mechanics need improvement is good. We now hope the future changes will be the right ones.