On Tuesday, Feb 13 2018, CCP implemented the Upwell 2.0 structure changes. In case you missed what the changes are specifically, you can look here.
Already, New Eden’s citadels are feeling the effects of these changes.
We know from CCP Quant that there have been a lot more structures reinforced to hull. This is not particularly surprising. Even a small fleet can bash down a low-power structure easily. So, they did.
CCP Quant shows us how structure RFs have spiked.
However, keen zKillboard spectators may have noticed something else. On Saturday, Feb 17, over 300 citadels across New Eden were destroyed before 2200. A week earlier, 19 died. This is a 1700% rise in the number of destroyed citadels.
What does this mean for structures?
Now, to be clear this does not fix everything. A lot of structure kills are not particularly enjoyable content. Few were contested. So, all that really happened was that people sat around, pressed F1, and came home. This is not very fun.
However, it does act to counter structure spam. We cannot expect this level of structure murder to continue unabated. It will tail off as people remember to fuel things or retime vulnerability windows. But the implications of the mechanics indicate that at least some of this is here to stay.
Perhaps more importantly, it shows a change to CCP which has had immediate impact. One of the issues highlighted with CCP strategy is that they don’t quickly innovate for fear of failure. In many ways, this makes sense. EVE is more a virtual universe than a game. However, this clearly shows that a change did have a positive effect. This should encourage CCP to take more action.
Is this the beginning of a long period of structural cleansing? Or is it just a one-time purge? INN will watch as things progress, along with analysis of developing trends.
