EVE Online Shares Nullsec Mining Changes, What's Coming For the Future of Mining

EVE Online has been chugging along with its modernization efforts, and it seems mining is no exception. One of two official blogs released this Friday, this one by CCP Game Design Director Okami, goes over changes that are coming to mining, plus the philosophies and struggles behind the important game farming mechanic. 

Much of it centers around the mining changes made with the Equinox expansion that launched last summer. Equinox was meant to give a boost to the null security regions, or “nullsec,” which is another word for the vast areas of the map where PvP is permitted consequence-free. In the case of mining, there were plenty of upgrades and new ores, aiming for more flexibility for playstyles and mining corps. 

However, they acknowledge that it hasn’t exactly worked out the way they hoped. The changes caused more micromanagement, less bang for players’ buck/ISK, and more “ratting”—basically, pirating NPC ships—than actual mining, as the former yielded better results. 

After discussions with its player-populated Council of Stellar Management panel and monitoring player talks about the issues, a number of changes being made. Namely: 

• Higher ore amounts will be found across fewer bigger asteroids 
• T3 mining upgrades will be available for Sov Hub, bringing more than three times the ore as T2 
• Certain ores will see balancing, including more plentiful Mercoix and higher refinement rates for Mordunium 
• Addition of a new MORE Deep Core Strip mining module for Mercoix 

They won’t be touching newer ores yet as not to disrupt the economy so heavily (hello stockpilers), but they’re aware of the discussions around everything.

And these changes are coming quite soon—March 12, to be specific, with the Revenant patch.

As for the future of mining, they have a lot on the table. For instance, they’re “totally committed to Capital Mining, which seems to mean developing out the Capital ships for mining, because they “want to get Rorquals back in space.” Plus, Okami says they really want to start looking at non-nullsec spaces to add to and adjust mining. 

There are also half-developed and speculative concepts and plans on the table, including auto-moon miners, a waste mechanic, and finding valuable “jackpot” ores. 

This is far from the only thing CCP has been touching up, as on Friday, they also announced changes to the value packs sold in the stores. We may also hear about plenty more updates at the EVE Online Fanfest, which sold out in record time this year.