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.
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.
Dirk MacGirk
Certainly a case of the low-hanging fruit being plucked. Not surprising given the combination of the introduction of the low-power mode and the removal of vulnerability windows for an initial attack. The default timer being set to 18:00 on Saturday (for those who failed to change that prior to the release on Tuesday) also allowed enough time for attackers to get the ball rolling, even those in hisec that needed to wait out the 24-hour period on new war decs.
Word on the street is also saying that the hacking of even Keepstars for reinforcement information isn’t as difficult as what was advertised.
February 18, 2018 at 7:14 AMRammel Kas Dirk MacGirk
From what I’ve seen lately it seems a few low sec groups were dropping the low cost ones almost like safe run spots for themselves. I assume that’s what they were being used for. None of them were powered.
February 18, 2018 at 7:23 AMxearal Dirk MacGirk
Heh.. called it in the comments of the earlier article about the (then)upcoming changes. I even put some popcorn on sale to watch the fireworks show.
And yes.. it was stating the Obvious, but it’s nice to see it backed up by graph porn.
February 18, 2018 at 7:10 PMDirk MacGirk xearal
oh yeah. I mean its good to see people acting on the ability to take some of this stuff down. The changeover created a short term opportunity for those who don;t pay attention, but longer term the changes should also result in more activity against structures.
February 18, 2018 at 9:32 PMWiNGSPANTT
“all that really happened was that people sat around, pressed F1, and came home. This is not very fun.”
Maybe in k space. In w space, where there is no asset safety, hundreds of billions of ISK in loot dropped. I would wager it is over 1 or 2 trillion, in one day. My corp itself cleared nearly 200 billion in loot, and every major wormhole entity was doing similar things. This is a colossal change for wormhole space.
February 18, 2018 at 3:01 PMArrendis WiNGSPANTT
That is a *really* good point, and something a lot of us can easily forget.
February 18, 2018 at 4:54 PMEthan02 WiNGSPANTT
The reports that made it to zKill also seem to indicate that wormhole space is where the most ISK has been impacted. Graphically this can be seen on https://www.adam4eve.eu/stats_structure_kills.php
February 18, 2018 at 9:07 PM600 billion in WH vs. 400 in null and low combined. Interestingly currently no impact in highsec seen.
Ganthrithor
OK, but how many of these dead structures are purely the result of the increased flexibility for destroying discarded structures?
I can see a lot of people not bothering to destroy abandoned hardware pre-patch due to :effort:. Now you can show up and shoot an abandoned, small structure whenever you want and have it go straight to the hull timer for final disassembly. My guess would be we get an initial spike in destroyed spacejunk followed by similar numbers once players are back to shooting at occupied structures.
February 19, 2018 at 12:58 AM