Missions & Complexes

First of all, thank you CCP for doing the much needed step of removing DPS-mining for minerals. It was a massive flow for minerals into the game and was seriously depriving EVE of mining as a serious profession *snicker*.

It seems though that residents of these regions have been given a bit of a shorter stick.

(A) Drones do not drop any loot of any kind. No meta items, no T1, no random ammunition caches. This ranks them significantly below the other races where ratting is concerned, considering the market value of some meta items. They do not make up for this with extraordinary salvage or anything like that either.

(B) The 'faction' Drone spawns drop components and T2 salvage. Things used in building. Again, if the plan was to bring Drones in line with the other factions, why not have them drop faction modules of some kind that are immediately useable?

(C) Drone anomalies are limited in variety and do not have escalations. <-- Seriously, this is bad, mmkay.

(D) No Drone space complexes. <--- Sadface

(E) No officer spawns that I've heard of <--- More sadness.

(F) No security status increase for killing the drones. <--- Though this is the least important of all of them, it's kinda still missing.

I can't help but think that the Drone regions have been a little over nerfed now. I'll try to collect some more data on sites and spawns as I have higher military index data available.

Has anyone else seen problems with Drone ratting so far? Please do post your observations, even if you disagree with me on some of the above or have information that I do not have yet.

Most importantly, will CCP be going back to address these issues if they are found to be legitimate ones? As it currently stands, I see people moving away from using these regions of space in favour of neighbouring ones, or even highsec.

It's a shocking idea, I know, but maybe regions aren't supposed to be all equally desirable.

There definitely exist certain variables that make some regions more desirable than others, and this has not changed. However there was always a status quo for the money making activities of the average player, so to speak, and the variance in sites and activities made the prospect less boring.

This way drones are currently doesn't only make the region less desireable, it makes it anathemic, where players would rather be OUTSIDE the region to make cash, rather than within. I don't think any such thing should exist in nullsec.

Indeed, regions should not all be equal.
But this is many many regions that are terrible in almost every-way, in comparison.

If it's an undesirable place, it can be a place for corps to start their null career. Atm the only viable way of doing it, is joining an existing powerblock.

On the other hand, adding /improving drone related content might help. For example, making it so that drone regions are the sole area with building materials of...drones? (t1, t2, FACTION, fighters FB's etc.) BPC from complexes/profession sites, T2 from mags and overseers/sentients, material from rats...(Cue Gallente flame...)

Anyways , u get the drift. Drones need love, just not too much, cause they don't love us back.

And to answer your question: No, it wasnt overdone. the way it was before didnt make any sense. This is just a way of whiping the sheet clean so you can start over.

Also, adapt or die :)

There is still on-going development with the rogue drones. They will get *something* from your list above but for now, I am not telling you what :)

We haven't 100% confirmed what we will be doing - we will discuss it when it is more final. I just wanted to let the community know we hadn't forgotten and will be doing something more with them.

Thanks for continuing development work on rogue drones. I don't think anyone in the Drone Regions really minds waiting for more information, so long as we know that work is being done and the Drone Regions won't be left in their current state for years. The Drone Regions' major attraction was their well-developed industrial base, driven by a ready supply of minerals, which allowed for local production of almost all tech-1 ships. So unlike all other nullsec space, prices of Tech-1 ships and other modules were not terribly overpriced relative to Jita, and consequently while raw ISK per hour may have been lowed for Drone Region residents, their real income was about the same or higher due to lower prices.

If anything, I suspect most Drone Region residents are more interested in whether any work is being done on nullsec mineral supply and industry. At the moment, one of the biggest detriments to nullsec industry is the need to import low-ends and export high-ends. Even at current prices, it still doesn't make much sense for miners to mine low-ends outside of big mining operations, so those have to be imported, with associated fuel and time costs. High-ends have to be exported, with associated losses due to fuel and time costs. That in effect is a double-tax on ships and modules for all nullsec residents.

Thank you for your response Affinity. I'm glad to see you haven't forgotten the Drone regions :) I'm really hoping whatever you introduce will usher in a new era of less boring PVE. At the moment running Drone Hordes (the Haven equivalent I believe) is just SO boring, and it brings in pittances.

Also our sov upgrades are largely being wasted, since the same levels in a system one region West, for example, yields some excellent site spawns and explorable sites.

I look forward to seeing what changes you come up with. If you need more feedback, please don't hesitate to ask and I'll be happy to collect data for you.

its cool, all the devs are being heavy handed and cryptic this last strech here, its great fun. Check out threads about the other great changes including, but not limited to : The "inventory" , our skin colors, and the wardec changes.