MMORPG.com EVE Online Correspondent Kevin Schram writes this in-depth look at the changes coming to the game's sovereignty system.

The 0.0 or 'null security' area of EVE Online's universe has always been where the game's action has been and where most of the intriguing stories of the game come from. Most of the corporate intrigue and large tactical battles have been set in the game's so-called 'outlaw space' area.

In Eve Online, different star systems have different security statuses. 'High sec' is the most secure, where the game's NPC police force will respond and destroy any outlaws quickly. In the 'low sec' systems, only stargates and stations in-game are protected by weak NPC turret systems, and in the 'null sec' systems, there is nothing between you and that pirate gate camp. Null sec systems are not owned by the game's NPC empires, and instead, player alliances are allowed to claim them through a sovereignty system.

Read Sovereignty Changes

I am not grasping this new Sov change.  When you drop a disruptor field, does that mean you have to defend the disruptor field for 12 hours? 

When they say invulnerable, to what is the system invulnerable, just another sov marker? 

I am presuming that if a disruptor field is dropped the owner of that system gets some indication  of such.

What happens to POS's in the system if the Sov changes?  I assume stations revert to the new system owner.

The problem with teasers like this, it opens up a lot more questions than it answers.

Its been covered a bit more which I'll try to explain. Realize that all numbers and times are subject to CCP balancing in about 3 weeks after some player testing event coming up.

Alliance A drops a sov claim beacon once onlined it is invulnerable cannot be destroyed and no other Claim beacons can be placed. This takes around 36(24/12) hours of anchoring and onlining(for how long and when it is vulnerable to attack in this process is indetermined yet). Having sov has no effect anymore to claiming outposts and such.

If Alliance B wants to claim the system  he anchors and onlines(also 36 total) a Disruptor at each star gate. Once alliance B has one at each gateway the Claim beacon from alliance A may now be destroyed.

That is the general gist of it but there are a lot of timers that CCP want to do some testing on, which is planned for either this coming weakend or the following. After that we'll have a bit more direct information on how it works. One thing that is very clear it is changing from the current system where you must take soverienty before you can attempt to remove an alliance from the system to the other way around. Outposts no longer recieve the immunity from having sov.

I am not against the changes and I really like the change. I think it will bring a decent balance to 0.0 politics and will allow those alliances that have hope and gander at gaining space a chance. It will really make alliances look more closely at what they can actually protect.

My question is what will happen with all the systems when the 'expansion' goes live? Will every system revert back to no SOV or will the current owners get a "no timer" claim mod? that is the main question I have.

Sounds like playing pigging in the middle with systems as the reward.

They have to get this right. I trust CCP, but this is going to be hit or miss. 

good explanation, but im still wondering what happens to all the assets alliance A has when Alliance B successfully gets claim? such as POS and sovreignty enhancements (they where saying that you could enhance millitarely, industrial or mining i think)

I believe the gist of the system is, sov changes are done in the cleanup phase, after a system has been taken. Either by kicking out the current holders militarily or grinding their patience to hold the system you want out of existance.

With this expansion, sov is what you do after you hold the system, its a mapmarker, not what you fight for in the actual system concerned. You fight the enemy until they either don't want the system, or cant hold it. How you do that, is up to your imaginations, planning and tactics.

Originally posted by Rebelgod

I am not against the changes and I really like the change. I think it will bring a decent balance to 0.0 politics and will allow those alliances that have hope and gander at gaining space a chance. It will really make alliances look more closely at what they can actually protect.

My question is what will happen with all the systems when the 'expansion' goes live? Will every system revert back to no SOV or will the current owners get a "no timer" claim mod? that is the main question I have.

I'd imagine that SOV would stay the same. If CCP set every 0.0 system to unclaimed, that would create a massive land grab.

Originally posted by Codenak

I believe the gist of the system is, sov changes are done in the cleanup phase, after a system has been taken. Either by kicking out the current holders militarily or grinding their patience to hold the system you want out of existance.

With this expansion, sov is what you do after you hold the system, its a mapmarker, not what you fight for in the actual system concerned. You fight the enemy until they either don't want the system, or cant hold it. How you do that, is up to your imaginations, planning and tactics.

Interesting idea. I suppose we'll have to see how it works when CCP turns on the new sov system on the test server later in October.

...stay tuned for more intel released at thise weekend EVE Fanfest 2009 :)

Honestly I am very surprised by this turn of events with EVE since the very first announcement of this.

I am reading every bit they put out, this change is so radical that will result in completelly different dynamics governing EVE online as we have known it since the beginning.

Personally I find it exciting, and have been thinking of resubing, but I'll wait till I know more about this system.

I am sure some will not like this, and I am expecting some to be throwing fits once it goes online, but if all goes well, this has the potential to make the game worthwhile to many more people than it currently does.

Oh and, I think some that have their RMT businesses all setup with some isolated sectors will lose that income, so get ready for it. Then again, less RMT is always better for an MMORPG.