Wednesday, October 15, 2014

What Next for Null Sec? Wealth Redistribution?

Now if I was able to read CCP Greyscale's mind this is what I think I'd see. I'd see CCP shaking the ant-farm even more. In fact I see them continuing Greyscale's risk/effort vs reward balance. Now that force projection is severely limited, its time to get people fighting. Not right away though. Let the changes sink in. Let the maps and boarders be rewritten as renters flee and alliances space changes depending on the new jump ranges. Then once everything is settled then I think they will really shake the ant-farm.....


...and do this by redistributing the wealth of New Eden

We've already seen this risk vs reward balancing in the Cirius expansion. High Sec is now the worst place to mine, refine and manufacture in terms of ISK/hr, but it is far the safest and easiest. Null sec is now the best place to mine, refine and manufacture but generally carries more risk and a lot more effort. Will that soon be for everything? Not only that, will CCP look at null-sec and decide that too can scale? There is a difference between null-sec regions when it comes to risk and accessibility? No more will there be simply three areas in Eve; high-low-null (yes and wormhole, I thought you guys just wanted to be left alone other than better POS and clone facilities?) Will CCP look at scaling null sec depending on the risk vs reward aspects of the particular space?


Null Sec near high-sec border = Poor
Null Sec near low-sec border = Meh
Null Sec a distance away from Empire space = Not bad.
Null Sec in the arse end of nowhere = FREE MONEY FOR ALL!

Will rat bounties and combat sites scale depending how deep you are into null? The more jumps you are away from high-sec, the higher the bounties are, the better the combat sites that spawn and the better the mood of the loot fairy? Those alliances who have great ratting space and also easy access to high-sec suddenly may find their ISK/hr drops whilst those in worthless deep space suddenly turn into Scrooge McDuck swimming in a pool of ISK?


Could something major like a redistribution of moon goo lead to mass migration? We saw this with the T2 manufacturing moon goo and the Goons taking over the richest parts of null. Will CCP redistribute moon goo based on difficulty to get to? The most valuable goo moved to the arse end of the cluster whilst the easily accessible regions get the crap?

Or will CCP introduce something new and valuables in the depths of space? T3 modules* must be something CCP are thinking about. May be their introduction will require special moon goo or minerals. To make T3 modules you will need Sleeper parts from wormhole space and then some rare minerals/moon goo from normal space. This could take the form of planetary ring mining that has been hinted at before.

I think the wealth of null-sec now is not what it will be in a few months. Worthless, inaccessible space will suddenly become the new gold-rush when CCP make changes turning null-sec on its head.


Time will tell.....

8 comments:

  1. "High Sec is now the worst place to mine, refine and manufacture in terms of ISK/hr, but it is far the safest and easiest."
    I dislike your premise that value should increase and safety should decrease. It is arbitrary and manipulative. It is reflects one of Eve's core design blunders.

    Instead, resources should deplete and regenerate slowly. In this way, high population areas (h-sec) will be low revenue generators and remote areas higher generators. More logical and sensible ... something Eve could use a lot more of.

    Of course this presumes an improved ease of movement dynamic (something sorely needed such as ratz descending on gate camps) and a limit to infinite growth mechanism (something also sorely needed such as "humans" or capsuleer ownership of structures).

    Your other point is safety. Safety should be relative to one's location and stature within a cluster group. It should be disentangled from resource availability. Again, more obvious logic.

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    1. Juzuz Art... really? the ...premise that value should increase and safety should decrease..., actually 'value increases AS safety decreases'... is EXACTLY what EVE's designers wanted, still want and plan for.

      That YOU don't like this, as you put it, design blunder, is your problem. Sounds like what you want out of the game is something else... say something more WoWlike? And you know the answer to that don't you? You aint gonna find it here...

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    2. (yes and wormhole, I thought you guys just wanted to be left alone other than better POS and clone facilities?)

      Quite simply... Yes. =]

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  2. What draws people to Jita? That's the model to contemplate when thinking of population redistribution in EVE. A bitter taste for some of the 'piratical' elements of coalitions, but that's really how you'll bring people out into null. Give players a reason for wanting to go to a null sec market rather than Jita or Amarr.

    That'll take a combination of security (both on ingress/egress as well at in system) and sufficient trading of products and materials for a large inventory. Provide that in null which already has existing advantages for production and mining, and you'll see it shift.

    Of course, this will redefine coalitions too. They'll shift from their current 'warband' model to something more feudal. They'll still need to protect their interests, but what those are won't necessarily be in direct control anymore. Sort of like an overseer, making sure the machine is running smoothly. They can still mumble contempt for 'carebears,' but the new reality will be they need them as much as the miners and haulers need them. Reciprocal will be the word of the day.

    At least that's my guess.

    -Xavi Bastanold

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    1. "What draws people to Jita?"

      The simplest answer is safety. Of course there are other factors but the main one is it's in high sec and therefore relatively safe compared to low/null.

      Besides that there's location, Jita is well situated on the most traveled high sec (again *safer) trade routes.

      Caldari also used to be considered the best for PvE ISK generation. To the point where most PvE characters were Caldari flying drakes, ravens and tengus. The Caldari simply outnumbered the other races by a large margin which led to more business in Caldari trade hubs.

      But really the main thing is it's safer trading in high sec than in low or null. Exactly as it should be, you don't build and sell aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf because you're going to use them there. You build them in the USA, Britain, France, etc., because it's safer building and selling them there.

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  3. It is, after all, the "Socialist" way.........

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  4. High rat bounties in null always bothered me. Looking at it in a somewhat logical way, why do the empires give a rats rear end if you kill someone they don't like, but so far away form them that they weren't an immediate threat. To me nullsec shouldn't print isk ever. It should be almost, if not more expensive from a material standpoint (weapon ammo, average drone loss etc) to kill rats in null than you get from bounties. It should however pour material wealth out like a floodgate.

    Null in a sense is the wild west. It should be resource rich, many times more than it is today. the rats should be guarding and harassing the gathering of those resources. so you want to earn a living in null? Mine the crap out of annoms that are heavily guarded and continuously attacked so that part of your mining contingent has to be a protective escort. Nullsec as a hole should never want for minerals, and raw materials. However to drive trade it should be diverse in what it gives, so that if you want to build anything trade is still necessary. The isk should conversely flow well from highsec. empires have a vested interest in not getting their teeth kicked in by pirates in their back yard. but since it is the equivalent of the urban center farming there for resources should be scarce and poor paying. a learning area for mining in profitable space. Lowsec? a hybrid of each, on a moving scale as sec status lowers, lower bounties, harder belt rats better belts.

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    1. Good comment and basically good points but, we already have this. To sorta paraphrase you...

      Negsec (wormhole space, W-space or Anoikis as is is moar properly known)...in a sense is the wild west. It (is) resource rich (and) the rats (IE Sleepers, are) guarding and harassing the gathering of those resources.

      The resources available in Anoikis are on par if not better than nullsec, the rats are as hard if not much harder in Anoikis and there is NO CONCORD... none, na-da, uh uh, nope notta one...

      ALL our ratting ISK is made from the harvesting and sale of Sleeper Loot & Salvage... So in your "wild west of EVE" premise of (1) better resources with (2) increased rat difficulties... in Anoikis add to that the greatly increased hazard of having to transport our L&S (and PI and whatever else) through Wormhole space and Empire space to get to market. And once in market we have to buy at least one product for our POS fuels that cannot be made or acquired in Anoikis... and then we have to ship it back in... every month... year in and year out.

      Just like real people had to do in the real west... only instead of Sleepers, they had to deal with pissed off Native Amurricans, drunken robber gangs and the like both ways...

      Really want some of what you seem to yearn for my friend? Come, jump the crazy marble and see what Real West life is like on the other side of the sky... =]

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