As many of you, Capsuleers, already know by now, CCP pushed the massive changes to mining and industry to the Tranquility server earlier this week. These changes were first announced last month, but they’ve been reworked after players’ protests in and out of the game.
Making massive changes to such a complex sandbox ecosystem like EVE Online is a very complex process, which is why another major mechanic that should have been part of the update, compression, has been delayed.
The main takeaway is that all mining ships have been adjusted, some more, some less. For example, the mining barges and exhumers received major buffs to make them more tanky and have an increased mining yield. On the other hand, the Orca can now fit new Large Industrial Core modules, which also act like a Siege module.
Orca has always been a fleet support ship rather than a solo mining vessel, but the new changes make that even more obvious. It’s probably the main reason many players complain that the Orca has been nerfed, but this massive ship was never intended to be used as a solo mining ship. On the bright side, an Orca fitted with a Large Industrial Core module can now dish out more than 1k DPS (damage per second) with five Hammerhead II heavy drones.
If you’re not content with the changes made to the Orca, here is a little secret: CCP confirmed that the industrial ship will be further rebalanced to make it at least slightly better than it was before the changes.
Moving on to the Rorqual, the capital industrial ship has been revised to increase the effectiveness of boosts while still providing a decent mining yield. For example, drone ice harvesting cycle time has been reduced from -10% to just -6% (retains 10% bonus to Drone Ore Mining yield).
Photo: CCP
The Capital Industrial Core that can be fitted on the Rorqual had its CPU value doubled from 50 to 100, just like the Power Grid, which went from 50,000 to 100,000 after the changes. The Tech II Capital Industrial Core specs are even better for the Rorqual: 150 CPU, 150,000 Power Grid.
The Rorqual is also getting drone buffs all across the board, including maximum velocity bonus, ore mining yield bonus, and ice harvesting time. Command and Mining Burst Range/Strength Bonus have been increased too.
Although the changes announced previously by CCP included a rebalance of other mining ships like the Venture, Prospect, and Endurance, they have been reverted after consideration of feedback.
More importantly, this week’s update doubles the harvestable resources of every variety in the game. That doesn’t mean that there will be more asteroid belts throughout the systems; it’s just that the rocks will contain double the amount of resources.
Also, all standard Ore Reprocessing skills (not including Moon Ore Reprocessing) have been removed completely, and all skill points returned to the players. Instead, they have been replaced by new skills, covering the six new “tiers” all non-moon ore has been reorganized into. It will make it much easier for new players to get into mining and make their way up to Tech II. Here are the new tiers after the update:
If you’ve been mining until now, you should know that the mining crystals have been completely revamped too. Starting this week, Tech I and II crystals for each of the new tiers listed above, including Abyssal Ore, have three separate variants (the same goes for the existing moon ore mining crystals).
Photo: CCP
The new mining crystals provide new standard increased yield with normal “residue” probability (Type A), further increased yield with more risk of residue (Type B), or negligible yield eroding away enormous quantities of resources (Type C). The latter is meant to provide players with a new, more aggressive gameplay. Basically, you can head to an opposing faction’s turf and start destroying the minerals in the system using a Type C mining crystal.
The waste profile of mining modules and drones have been changed as follows: Tech I Modules – 0%; Tech II Modules – 34%; ORE Modules – 0%; Tech I Drones – 0%; Tech II Drones – 34%; Augmented Drones – 40%; Excavator Drones – 60%.
Something that many players aren’t happy about, “mining residue,” is a new mechanic that adds a chance of destroying a unit of a resource from the source itself (never decreasing the actual yield each cycle) to every module and drone capable of gathering ore, ice, or gas. The original announcement of the changes includes some numbers regarding the mining residue, but the formula has been updated following player feedback and testing.
As far as “compression” goes, CCP wants this to be “a feature of the Industrial Command Ships,” but the team wants more feedback on the changes, so this has been delated to early 2022.
These are just some of the most important changes included in the mining and industrial update, but many other aspects of the game have been touched, so it will take more time to figure it out whether they’re beneficial for EVE Online’s economy or not. Meanwhile, make sure to check out the full patch notes for all the details.
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