Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Jita is forever hitting its player limit cap, and there have been a number of solutions to the problem posted in the past, here, here, here, and here. CCP themselves have said that they want to distribute the trade volume and not have such a crowded superhub.

Some say that Jita is so popular because of its strategic location, or simply because it has become so established. But look at things from the point of view of the producer rather than the buyer, and one of the major contributing factors to Jita popularity becomes obvious.

Manufacturers like plenty of open slots, and like to be close to the market they buy their raw materials from and sell their products to. Here is a list of systems with 4 or more stations with factories within 5 jumps of Jita, with the number of factory stations in brackets:
Airkio (6), Annaro (7), Ansila (5), Anttiri (6), Autaris (4), Dantumi (7), Eskunen (4), Haatomo (9), Hageken (5), Hirtamon (4), Inaro (4), Irjunen (6), Isaziwa (7), Isenairos (5), Isikemi (5), Isseras (4), Itamo (11), Jita (6), Juunigaishi (4), Kaimon (6), Kakakela (8), Korama (7), Kubinen (4), Kusomonmon (6), Muvolailen (6), Niyabainen (4), Nonni (15), Nourvukaiken (7), Paara (6), Pakkonen (6), Piekura (6), Poinen (5), Saatuban (4), Saiso (4), Sirppala (6), Sobaseki (5), Suroken (9), Tuuriainas (5), Uemisaisen (4), Umokka (6), Veisto (4).
The majority of these slots are in fact in use. Apologies if I have missed your home system.

Let's compare this with Dodixie for example, with a list systems with 4 or more factory stations within 5 jumps:
Diaderi (4), Luminaire (4), Nausschie (4), Oursulaert (6), Scolluzer (5)

Although I haven't done the analysis for Minmatar and Amarr space, in general, Minmatar is as poor in factories as Gallente, and Amarr is somewhat rich in factories, though not to the extent of Caldari space. For any manufacturer, it's just common sense to choose a long term base in a system with lots of manufacturing slots, because moving minerals and blueprint collections is simply a pain. There is just no rational reason to choose Gallente space over Caldari space. It's no surprise then that Caldari space is number one for trade, followed by Amarr. Jita simply has the slots to back up its incredible volume. In contrast, the factories near the Gallente and Minmatar hubs are quite full, and the number of slots is nowhere near enough to satisfy local demand for goods. Just for the nitpickers, using Oursulaert as the central Gallente hub instead actually returns a smaller number of systems, I believe.

This overwhelming imbalance in factory slots cannot be helping with Jita overcrowding. I think that even if Eve were to start from a clean slate again tomorrow, one of the systems in Caldari space such as New Caldari or Jita would once again become the game's megahub. I propose levelling the playing field. The generous and easy to implement solution is to give many more factories to Gallente and Minmatar systems, and a few more to Amarr systems. Eglennaert for example, has 10 stations, but just 3 factories. The "correct", but hard to implement solution is probably to take away those slots from Caldari space, and redistribute them to areas that currently don't have them.

I know this won't fix the problem of Jita overcrowding entirely, as many will still ship their goods to Jita no matter what. But I think it'll be a very good step in the right direction. What's more, it will provide gameplay balance, so that Gallente and Minmatar industrialists get the same opportunities as their Caldari counterparts.

Thing is though, people go there because it's there. I remember a time when Jita had asteroid belts and agents offering missions. CCP removed those to encourage people to leave the system and take the load of the server. It didn't make any difference. I also remember when Oursulaert was the Gallente Trade hub, but that soon shifted to Dodixie as good L4 agents operated in Dodixie and lots of mission runners operated out of that system.

In short people sell their stuff where they expect people to buy it. I think it's too late to do anything about Jita and to be fair I don't think there's any need to do so.


Also I'm not interested in any gameplay balance that makes all empires the same. A balanced universe is a boring universe that makes travel to other places pointless if all empires are the same in slots, R&D, agent mission types and minerals etc. Just look and see how balancing ships has made them all bland.

It seems that the "Jita Problem" has existed almost ever since Jita "began": Core Empire Systems Straining From Traffic

Anyway..

Once upon a time, Yulai was a trade hub even bigger than Jita. CCP solved that problem by having the NPC entities re-route the stargates in that area. Something about combating smuggling. Here's the bulletin: Yulai in Decay

Now Yulai isn't even a backwater system. It's bare, empty, completely derelict and forgotten by most. The drifting wreckage of the Elder Fleet and the smashed bits of the CONCORD Bureau station glimmer in the cold, silent light - a ghostly reminder that once upon a time, things used to happen there.

Another thing you could do to help lessen the amount of trade in Jita is to raise NPC taxes on sales in Jita or implement a scaling tax rate. It would also have the secondary benefit of helping to remove more isk from the economy. If the taxes go high enough, a distinct possibility if tax rates scaled up and down according to a system's/station's trade volume and isk flow, people will shift their trade to other systems just to lose less money on them.

I like that you found the search button and the research put into this is fantastic. I don't see any down sides to increasing the spread of slots through out the empires. Whether or not that would be enough to encourage trade hubs to open in other regions more so than Jita remains to be seen.

Or instead CCP could simply implement a block/kick on the market & spam & and bogus contract "BOTS" that probably make up a decent portion of the population.

Either way, removing them would make local a lot more useful place to converse as opposed to the "nothing but spam" content presently filling that channel.

It's a win win either way

CCP just needs to throw more serverpower at Jita <3

p.s. yes, i'm a Jita-dweller, and yes i like it the way it is, Jita is the perfect spot for one-stop shopping (or selling).

I think you're missing the point slightly. The secondary hubs like Dodixie, Hek, and Rens are so poor in surrounding manufacturing slots that these are nothing but import hubs. No substantial volume of goods actually gets made in Gallente and Minmatar space. So long as the slot imbalance exists, these will always be inferior, and Jita can never have any real competition. Fixing the problem is not really about nerfing Jita, it's more about allowing the other hubs to actually operate as hubs in their own right.

All your other points are valid. Jita has become the main hub for everything and anything. But that's only because Jita does the bread and butter trades so well that all of the higher trading becomes possible.

When did Dod, Hek and Rens become import hubs?! Its been a couple years since I have been there, but they were export hubs for ages.

Absolutely, no one can know the answer to that. But distributing the slots at least removes one of the barriers to other hubs being competitive. Currently, it's just impossible for them to be anything but secondary hubs.

I suspect it will in fact help quite a bit, depending on exactly how CCP decides to make changes. What's more, I see no real gameplay reason for Caldari space to receive such a large slot imbalance, though a smaller bias might be justified for lore reasons.