From Extraction to Production

In July, it was mentioned that the shortage phase was ending, and that in Q4 EVE Online would be fully moving onto the redistribution phase, followed by dynamic distribution later in 2022. Specifically, the following was mentioned:

• Introduction of moon ore & gas compression to better facilitate the newly decoupled industry changes
• A balance pass for all mining ships
• Additional specialized holds for gas and ice

As part of the New Dawn update, the foundations that have been built will be expanded upon and there will be full transition into the redistribution phase with a comprehensive update to mining and a balance pass to industry, including the above points and more. The goal is to provide players with more opportunity for resource gathering, better agency for efficient production, and to facilitate the transportation of materials. This will also add clearer progression for the mining path, as well as adding value for those who choose to specialize in the career.

This update introduces more raw materials into New Eden, compression for gas, ice & moon ore, updates to mining & mining crystals, and a rebalancing of the Orca and Rorqual as well as other mining ships. While the Orca and Rorqual will no longer be the best solo-mining platforms, they are receiving a buff to their command bonuses and added new roles.

All the details here and in the support document are a work in progress and subject to change before release on Tranquility. This is a major update and getting your feedback is imperative. As of today, the discussed changes are available on the Singularity test server, so we encourage all Capsuleers to dive in, explore the changes, and join the discussion in the official forum thread.

Highlights include:

• Doubling resource quantity of
  • Ore in asteroids belts
  • All Omber, Kernite, and Crokite quantities are doubled in sov anomalies
  • Ice belts (on top of the previous 200% increase)
  • Mykocerocin
  • Cytocerocin
  • Fullerine
• Double the extraction rate from all moons
• Reduced PI materials required for certain subcapital and capital components
  • Halving water for core temperature regulators, used in battleship & capital construction
  • Significant reduction in P4 materials used in capital component production
• Adding new specialized gas and ice holds to
  • T1 industrials
  • Expedition frigates
  • T1 barges
  • T2 exhumers
• Increasing the resistance profiles of all exhumers
• Increase the base HP of, and adding mid slot to, Covetor and Retriever
• Adding new gas harvesters for all mining barges and exhumers
• Introducing a new compact industrial core for the Orca.
• Adding compression for
  • Mykocerocin
  • Cytocerocin
  • Fullerine
  • Moon ore
• Condensing all reprocessing skills from 19 individual skills to 6
  • Refunding up to 13,568,000 Skill Points to be optionally re-allocated into the new categories (11,776,000 Skill Points)
  • ISK will also be refunded at the base price for the deleted skill books (both in the inventory and injected to characters)
• Condensing all mining crystals into the following categories:
  • Common
  • Uncommon
  • Rare
  • Superior
  • Abyssal
  • Mercoxit
• Introducing mining waste
• Adding new variants for each mining crystal
  • Standard yield
  • Higher yield, high waste, less reliable
  • Lower yield, very high waste, very unreliable

Disclaimer: All names for new skills and modules are placeholders and will be updated before going live on Tranquility.

Mining Waste and Resources

This update will see a doubling of resources available across New Eden. This includes:

• All ore quantities are doubled in asteroid belts
• All ore quantities are doubled in all resource anomalies
• All ice quantities are doubled (in addition to the previous 200% increase)
• All Omber, Kernite, and Crokite quantities are doubled in sov anomalies, whilst Mercoxit quantities are increased by 20% (in addition to the previous 200% increase)
• All Mykocerocin quantities are doubled, whilst spawn chance of extra sites that was added earlier this year has been reduced
• All Cytocerocin quantities are doubled
• All Fullerine quantities are doubled
• Extraction rate is doubled from moons
  • Moon Extractions will take the same time as before, but will yield 2x the quantity of ore when fractured. Extractions which are in progress (and not yet fractured) at deployment time will receive the 2x yield when they fracture
• Removal of all basic materials from R4 moon ore, finalizing the plan of removing basic minerals from moons

In addition to the doubling of resources, a new ‘mining waste’ mechanic will be introduced. Mining waste will create a greater benefit to increasing mining skills and using more advanced modules that lower the rate of waste. This also introduces new gameplay options, such as high waste mining of opponents’ resources via updated mining crystals that increase harvesting at the cost of increased waste. Mining waste can be tracked in the mining ledger.

To accomplish this, a few things are happening:

• Introduction of mining waste probability, which is a chance per cycle for resources to be turned into space dust. Mining waste is taken from the asteroid and not from the mining yield.
• Introduction of a mining waste multiplier, a multiplier on the mining amount that determines the actual amount being wasted. To put things into context, let’s look at the example below:

As mentioned earlier, different modules will have different attributes. The below table, apart from some exceptions (mainly named modules), demonstrates the expected waste-related attributes for each category.

Given that a significant portion of mining is done using T2 modules, this is an overall net boost to global resource availability.

Compression

Let's dive into the details of how compression is going to change:

• Gone are the days of 'lossless' compression. From now on, when you compress resources, some amount will be lost during the process.
• Compression in stations will have a different efficiency depending on the type of resource that is being compressed, except moon compression will not be available. Compression will still be instantaneous but will be less efficient than in-space compression. Compression efficiency is as follows:
  • Ore 90%
  • Gas 90%
  • Ice 79%
• Rorqual, Orca and Porpoise will be able to do compression in space but will require specialized modules for it. However, only the Rorqual can compress Moon Ore in space.
• Each compression module will be able to compress only a certain group of resources as defined by its tier.
• Gas compression modules for all gas types (Myko, Cyto, Fullerines) are being introduced.
• Moon ore compression modules for all moon ore types are being introduced. Moon ore compression will be unique to the Rorqual and will be only available out in space.
• Compressed types will now have the same portion size as their uncompressed counterparts. You can calculate the compression ratio by the difference of volume between the two types.
• Existing compressed types of quantities will be compensated due to this change, such that no loss occurs.

New Modules

The following compression modules are being introduced:

• For the Rorqual:
  • Mobile ore compression modules
  • Mobile moon ore compression modules
  • Mobile gas compression modules
  • Mobile ice compression modules
• For the Orca & Porpoise:
  • Compact mobile ore compression modules
  • Compact mobile gas compression modules
  • Compact mobile ice compression modules

The Rorqual modules have a higher duration per cycle, but they are more efficient (fewer resources are lost during compression).

Compact modules have reduced duration, but they are less efficient. Each compression module can support one of the resource tiers. For example, the Mobile Abyssal Ore Compression Unit can only compress abyssal ore types. The Mobile Rare Ice Compression Unit can only compress rare ice types etc. The same paradigm exists between Tech I vs Tech II modules. Tech I modules are faster but less efficient than Tech II modules. You can find the full list of module stats here.

How does it work? When you have a compression module fitted, you can load the appropriate resources as 'ammo' in the module and activate it. The ‘input quantity’ of the uncompressed type will be consumed and the ‘output quantity’ of the compressed type will be delivered to the main inventory of your ship. To load the resource, you right-click on the compression module. Upon doing so, at the top of the menu you will see all suitable resources for this module that exist in your main inventory. Resources can only be loaded from the ship's main inventory.

The blueprints for the new modules will be released before the end of November so that an inventory can exist before the actual compression changes happen.

New Skills

To accommodate for the new modules, the following skills are being introduced:

• Mobile Asteroid Ore Compression
  • Allows the use of T1 mobile ore compression modules
• Mobile Asteroid Ore Compression Specialization
  • Allows the use of T2 mobile ore compression modules
• Mobile Asteroid Ore Compression Optimization
  • Reduces the cycle duration of ore compression modules
• Mobile Moon Ore Compression
  • Allows the use of T1 mobile moon ore compression modules
• Mobile Moon Ore Compression Specialization
  • Allows the use of T2 mobile moon ore compression modules
• Mobile Moon Ore Compression Optimization
  • Reduces the cycle duration of moon ore compression modules
• Mobile Gas & Ice Compression
  • Allows the use of T1 gas & ice compression modules
• Mobile Gas & Ice Compression Specialization
  • Allows the use of T2 gas & ice compression modules
• Mobile Gas & Ice Compression Optimization
  • Reduces the cycle duration of gas & ice compression modules

All new skills will be released by the end of November.

Industrial Cores

The industrial core is being updated, resulting in an increase in support capabilities for the Rorqual. In addition, a new compact industrial core is being introduced and will be available for the Orca.

The compact variation will require a new skill; Compact Industrial Reconfiguration. These changes to industrial cores further reinforce the roles of both the Orca and Rorqual in their effectiveness to supporting mining fleets. Their role is further enhanced with the introduction of moon ore compression for the Rorqual, with gas, ice, and regular ore compression for both Porpoise and Orca as well. This has not previously been possible and will allow for increased operational runtime and easier transport of gas and moon ore.

Details can be found here. As can be seen, and has been discussed before, the role of the Rorqual and Orca will be changing in New Eden. It is becoming less feasible to solo mine in them since the drone mining yield for both the Orca and Rorqual is being reduced. It will nonetheless play a vital role in space as mentioned before - in being a support mining ship – both for boosting fleets and compressing. This will mean that Rorqual proliferation in New Eden will be impacted, which will mean more from everyone that is not in a Rorqual – unless in the scenarios where mining groups optimize together with a balance between good mining ships and good mining support ships.

Mining Crystals

With the introduction of ore tiers, single ore mining crystals are being replaced with tiered versions. This means that each crystal will now support all ores in its tier. For example, the common ore mining crystal gives bonuses to all common ores (Veldspar, Scordite, Pyroxeres, and Plagioclase). At the same time, three different types of mining crystal will be available for each tier, as mentioned before:

• Type A: Standard yield
• Type B: Higher yield, high waste, less reliable
• Type C: Lower yield, very high waste, very unreliable

All existing crystals will be migrated to their Type A counterparts depending on the tier to which they belong. For further information click here.

New Skills

With the introduction of the ore tiers, reprocessing skills are also receiving an update. The single ore reprocessing skills will be replaced by a single reprocessing skill per ore tier. For example, Veldspar, Scordite, Pyroxeres, and Plagioclase processing skills are replaced by the Common Ore Processing skill. The details can be found in the supporting document, but in short, players will be reimbursed the Skill Points and the ISK cost for the skill books, and should they decide to train all the new skills, they will be left with about 1.8 million unallocated Skill Points after completing training for the new ones.

In addition, the Deep Core Mining skill is being updated; its probability of damage reduction bonus per level changes from 20% to 10%.

Modules, Drones & Rigs

There is also a new line of gas harvesting modules that will be unique to mining barge and exhumer ship types. The existing gas harvester modules will be renamed to gas scoops and the harvester keyword will be used for barge/exhumer equipment. Similarly in this case, the details of this update are available here.

Ships

Mining and industrial ships are receiving a balance update which will create more clarity between the roles/specialization of the different ships. An important component of this balance pass is the update to specialized resource holds, which can be boiled down to a few key adjustments:

Specialized Resource Holds

Specialized resource holds are being updated:

• Specialized ore holds will support asteroid and moon ore, including compressed ore.
• Specialized gas holds will support all gases, including compressed gases (Myko, Cyto, Fullerines).
• Specialized ice holds will support all ice, including compressed ice.

Changes to ships with specialized holds can be found here, but some highlights include:

• Hoarder: gets a 30k gas hold and relevant bonus
• Kryos: gets a 30k ice hold and relevant bonus
• Primae: gets a 10k ice hold and 10k gas hold

For a comprehensive look at all changes, peruse the supporting document.

Ship Industry Update: 6 Month Follow-up

October marked six months from the ship industry mega update and as such, it is a good time to review these changes. To address some player concerns, we will be making the following changes. Please note that types in the blueprints that are not listed remain unaffected and values in parentheses indicate previous values.

Please also note that there will another review of ship blueprints six months after this update goes live.

The highlights:

• Core Temperature Regulator: Water changes from 2500 to 1250
• Capital Core Temperature Regulator: Integrity Response Drones changed from 150 to 100, Self-Harmonizing Power Core changed from 150 to 100
• Enhanced Neurolink Protection Cell: Genetic Safeguard Filter changes from 200 to 100

Conclusion

Almost two years ago the journey of shoring up EVE’s ecosystem started. This was done to ensure that EVE is set up for a thriving third decade, with the goal that EVE will eventually outlive us all. EVE’s ecosystem was not in a healthy state, and the two-year shortage phase has understandably been a challenging road. It has meant tighter belts, and a complete shake-up of the institutional knowledge that EVE players have utilized when it comes to earning ISK and resources. Now as a part of the New Dawn update, we are expanding on the foundations we have built and transitioning fully into the redistribution phase, with a large update that includes doubling of resources (and also introducing mining waste), a balance pass for all mining ships, Moon Ore & Gas Compression, and more.

In the next couple of weeks, we will publish a ‘Winter Status update’, akin to the July Status Update that was released earlier this year, which will give you better insight into everything going on in EVE.

There’s a lot to take in as this is one of the biggest updates to industry and mining in EVE’s (almost) 19-year history. It is on the test server for a reason – it is pivotal to get players’ eyes on it, as with anything this big there are bound to be things that need a re-review, so as mentioned before we encourage all Capsuleers to dive in, explore the changes and join the discussion in our official Forum thread. Remember, whenever anything big like this happens in EVE, new opportunities arise for those willing to jump in, experiment and become experts.