Arc De Triomphe

Tumbleweeds

It was quiet yesterday. So I took the opportunity to move some assets around.

Soooooooo many systems were visited.

I saw many beautiful sights and even turned up the graphics settings so I could see the glory of New Eden as it should have been.

Assets were moved, only to be replaced by new ones as buy orders were filled. It's a never ending cycle.

Convoy

Terrible music alert....

but I had to put that there, saying Convoy always brings up that song in my mind.

Towards the end I was fortunate enough to have three jump freighters passing through the same systems so I took the opportunity to take some screenshots:

EVE Online sure is a pretty game.

Travel Advisory : Bagodan

Are you taking a Freighter or Transport ship through Bagodan?

 

No, well move along nothing to read here... but if you are be very wary as it has, for a 0.7 system, become very hot for ganking in the past few days. I've seen a friend lose a freighter and I nearly lost a jump freighter last night myself.

 

What Happened/Happening?

 

This is just guessing by me but the recent hostilities (read: invasion) of Providence by Imperium could be partly to blame. I have followed the news about this but I had not seen the implications for traders and industrialists who pass close to providence on their travels.

 

 

 

Esescama is a nexus for people who plan to enter Providence via KBP7-G but we also have Dihra and Choonka (that I know people use) but it is Esescama that is the primary staging system for visitors.

 

Bagodan being under siege could be part of the operation to catch logistics for the defenders but also, as it may be for I no longer trade in Providence, over loaded or plain profitable freighters that have to travel this system to get to Amarr and/or Jita.

 

How is it going

 

Profitably I would say and they aren't just attacking large targets like Freighters but even smaller ships are being preyed upon.

 

As they are profiting they are staying put. I was surprised to see this kill, Royaldo is a former CEO and to see him lose this was cringe worthy. How he got caught I do not know but I think it could be as simple as auto piloting through at the wrong time.

 

You nearly got caught

 

I did, I was passing through heading to Amarr and then my home system with two jump freighters full of materials that I use in my manufacturing.

 

I didn't pay attention tot he yellow dot on the heron that was following my characters until two jumps before Bagodan. I never saw any scanning take place, I certainly wasn't yellow-boxed so it was all done passively.

 

I jumped into Bagodan and it was when I saw three Machariel's on grid, all with yellow dots, that I realised it was not a good place to be. Fortunately my other character was just arriving on gate to jump in so I aborted that and turned him around for the nearest system with a station.

 

Alas the other was in a bad situation, so I logged out.

 

What did you do?

 

Yes, I logged out. Worst case was I'd get shot and lose the freighter, almost as bad was I'd be shot but have a 15 minute timer allowing them to scan me down and kill me.

 

But I had a plan.

 

In order to enact it I needed to do so quickly AND make them think I was a newbie who just logged out and they'd have 15 minutes to leisurely scan me down and kill me.

 

I need to check the distance (in light years) between my jump freighter pilot and two cyno pilots I have for just such eventualities. Actually, they are there in case I get caught in Uedama or Niarja not Bagodan but I digress.

 

Distance is too much for one but the other is just in range so I login the character in (local is conveniently empty), and undock and light my cyno.

 

I log back in to the jump freighter pilot and see he has a kill right, he was shot and had an active timer. I enter warp and appear back on grid where I logged out. I can see local has increased in numbers, many with orange or red standings to my corporation/alliance.

 

I see a couple of ships appear as I'm exiting warp but I didn't take notice of them, I was leaving and leaving quickly.

 

I enter jump and am safe. I dock and then quit the for the night.

PSA: Refuelling your Jump Freighter

I've had to make a few jumps this weekend to move a lot of things to high sec and it is only as I return to my home for the final time that I realised how close I was to being stuck in the middle of nowhere.

This is the fuel bay of my Jump Freighter after I finished my final jump, damn good thing I don't have any more to do right now.

Remember people, refuel your capital ship AFTER every jump and keep those tanks topped up.

Cockroaches Assemble

Tonight was the first time I had to do logistics from Null Sec to High Sec and it seemed to be nicely timed with two other characters who were moving assets around, so much so that I even managed to grab a couple of screenshots of my Cockroach fleet as they undocked:

Combined they have a cargo capacity of nearly two million m3 of space and it certainly allows me to move large assets and contracts quickly and simply through New Eden.

I may be a little biased but I think the Amarr racial Freighter/Jump Freighter is by far the best looking even if it does remind me a little of a cockroach.

Packing

Having been watching the threadnaught and the lack of responses from CCP I made the decision on Wednesday to pack up as much of my NPC Null assets as I could and move it to a mid-point system that would be much easier to access them from.

I sorted through my assets and used General Freight or Station Containers to sort them to make things a little easier when deciding what to move and what to leave. Modules and ships would mostly be left, I could use an alt to seed whatever I had to market and sell once Phoebe was deployed and I should make a nice profit over my normal prices.

30 minutes before downtime last night I started packing ships into carriers and my rorqual so at least they were ready for when I needed to move them.

Then I awoke to this.

It's always the way though, just as you finish pacing for a trip you remember something you missed or find out that plans have changed and you don't need the kitchen sink or that extra pair of socks.

My wife looked on incredulous as I whooped and jumped around the house this morning after reading that Jump Freighters will be getting a maximum jump range of 10ly instead of the 5ly that was originally announced.

It seems that public opinion and comment has swayed CCP somewhat and the small industrialist who does their own logistics has certainly come out the biggest winner. 

I've already been checking jump routes and whilst I'll need to add new mid-points this is much easier to do by moving existing cyno characters than create new accounts and setup new characters just for this purpose.

It's a Happy Friday around here today and I'm going to enjoy it by trolling my friend Cracker.

Jump Changes and Me

I've spent much of the past 24 hours reading posts about the changes to Jump Drives coming in Phoebe and investigating how they will effect my logistics network in order to move products and materials to and from high sec.

Let it be known I like the changes in terms of limiting Force Projection of Capital Ships but the changes in relation to Jump Freighters/Capital Industrial Ships I am not liking at all.

What I Do In NPC Null

Normalised to the minimum I have found that I do the following in NPC Null:

1. Manufacture in NPC Null of T1 modules using locally sourced and imported materials
2. Manufacture in NPC Null of T2 modules using some locally sourced but predominately imported materials 
3. Manufacture T1 and T2 rigs using locally sourced and imported salvage materials 
4. Ship out Reacted Materials for sale in order to fund Manufacturing and Research operations in NPC Null
5. Sell Manufactured T1/T2 modules/rigs on my local market

I also mission and rat in order to supplement my income in and around my market system (these aren't primary activities though and aren't listed above) nor is my my high sec trading/speculation listed as it is out of the scope of this discussion.

Exporting

I make metamaterials for sale to help fund my operations, it contributes to my income that I then use to purchase the minerals, T2 components and salvage needed to manufacture the range of T1/T2 modules and rigs I produce.

I never leave NPC Null with a partially filled Jump Freighter, it is always full whether that is with materials I need moved or courier contracts from corp/alliance that need to go to high sec.

My logistics network at the moment means I have to do two jumps to get to high sec, approximately 20 light years in total distance. I have two dedicated cyno characters in my primary jump systems but with clones in a secondary system should the primary be too dangerous to use.

Fuel wise it costs me less than 700 liquid ozone and 22,000 isotopes per trip to leave my NPC Null home. Once I reach my high sec entry system its a matter of dropping off any courier contracts or shipping materials to Jita for sale by my trading alt.

Importing

It is rare I make more than one jump a week but I do ad-hoc services, for a fee, should someone need it but I import raw materials for my metamaterial reactions as well as minerals, T2 components and salvage as needed to meet any shortfalls I have for production.

I try to plan at least 4 weeks ahead in what I need with at least 2 weeks reserve in case of unforeseen difficulties. As a result I typically make one run a week from Jita to NPC Null and if space is available carry courier contracts for corp/alliance in addition to what I need bought in.

I'd estimate at least 75%, probably closer to 90% if I'm honest, of what I need has to be imported from High Sec. 

Sourcing Locally

Local politics and supply issues mean that even if I tried I could not source all my requirements locally. 

I'm surrounded by entities that are hostile to me and my alliance, not to mention that roving gangs are regular visitors to Curse that make it extremely unwise to pilot anything larger than a hauler more than one or two jumps.

Those that I have spoken to aren't interested in selling me what they make at a reduced price, Jita price is the base but more often than not its Jita plus 10% or 20%, but they'd rather move it to Jita to sell than helping a "red" locally.

There are a lot of reactions happening in the Constellation I'm in, I've performed a full moon survey of the nearest 12 systems and have a good idea what is being made. However most of the high end moons are being extracted rather than reacted with other materials. It seems its easier to extract Hafnium or Mercury and move it for sale in Jita than it is to setup production POS'es and manage them.

PI materials are non-existent in the local market and everyone produces for themselves or, again, for export to Jita. Again I've spoken to some PI producers who aren't in my alliance and they aren't interested in making materials for sale to me both because I'm "red" but also because it will not be as profitable (so they have said).

Minerals I am able to get from reprocessing wrecks, although this no longer yields as much as it used to, as well as the odd hauler spawn but these do not provide all or even the quantities I need of minerals to produce items. I could mine, and I do sometimes, but I am missing out on Mexallon, Isogen and Morphite bearing asteroids so I continually need to import these minerals above all others. Tritanium I've got nearly a billion units of and most of the rest I have between several tens of million (pyerite) or thousands of units (nocxium/megacyte).

I salvage wrecks in belts or mission sites I've been given access to and over the course of 30 days this provides a lot of salvage materials but none is for sale, at least at reasonable prices, locally and anyone else who stockpiles is either doing so for shipping to Jita for resale or produce rigs themselves and do not want to supply a competitor.

Major Consideration - Jump Range Change

Changing the maximum jump distance to 5ly for all jump capable ships will very possibly kill my efforts and I'll leave NPC Null for something either significantly closer to high sec or I may just move onto something new. I just don't know,  I'm not feeling quite so fatalistic about this situation as Lorna is but I am facing a serious threat to my activities that I cannot see a reasonable or simple solution to.

As I said in my opening, my Export route is currently two jumps and requires two cyno characters and no more than 10 minutes of action at the keyboard to do. 

Using DOTLAN to simulate the 5ly limit for my JF pilots (JDC 0, JFC V and JF V) I find now that 2 jumps becomes 7 jumps with four of those jumps requiring stops in non-NPC Null systems held by entities that are hostile to me. I can't see any way of getting blue status with them nor can I really "ninja cyno" as a Jump Freighter cannot fit a cloaking device and thus would be easy pickings for any probe carrying combat ship.

Looking for alternative routes I can change two of the stops to other systems but again they are either held by the same hostile entities or another one entirely. Some choice I have there.

Minor Considerations

Then of course there will be the two other "minor" changes I'd need to keep abreast of:

• Additional jumps means additional cyno characters, ships, modules and fuel needed

7 jumps means I'd need new cyno characters in new systems, that I don't have station access in order to jump. Wait I don't have station access so I'd need another character in a cloaked ship holding spare modules, cyno ships and fuel.

• Using jump clones for cyno characters could increase the jump time from minutes to at least a day or two depending on setup

Instead of adding new characters maybe I can use jump clones instead...  And if I did use Jump Clones I'd have to train them up to be able to have multiple clones (at least 5) and be maximum skilled in Cynosural Theory so as to not require cargo modules and use the minimum amount of fuel per lighting.

And then of course you've got to take into account the jump clone timers, what takes 10 minutes now and I don't need to do any jump cloning may take one or two days to complete the full journey due to the cool down period between jumps. I could add more cyno characters but I'd need to start another new account dedicated to cyno characters and I have more than enough accounts at the moment.

Of course jump cloning would only work if I had access to friendly stations on the route that I can install a clone and store ships, modules and fuel in. Ah, wait I don't.

• Use the gate network to move cyno characters ahead of the jump freighter and light as needed

I'd could use my cyno characters to travel through gates each time I needed a cyno but this would opening up the opportunity that I could die on the way (very likely) or be followed and have someone spring a trap and catch my jump freighter (very possibly).

What About Wormholes

I did have someone say that wormholes may be the saviour for people like myself. Find a nice Null->Low Sec (which I could jump out of) or Null->High Sec connector and I'd be all good. In theory it could work but in practice it wouldn't (I don't think).

I've seen four WH's in my home system in the past 2 weeks. 3 were to WH space and one was a null->null connector that was even deeper located than I was. I really don't see WH's being able to help.

Conclusion

The jump range change will more than half my JF range (11.25ly to 5ly) and limit the systems I can use whilst increasing the stops I must make on the way in hostile systems.

As a result my conclusion is simple, based on what has been announced, I will no longer be able to, as of Phoebe, be able to run a logistics network from my NPC Null home to high sec. 

We still have almost 2 months until Phoebe is released. Things can change, although as this post says:

Since this is a dev blog, this means it that CCP is a lot more solid on its decisions here than it would be in a trial balloon dev post on the forums

meaning that these changes are probably decided and unlikely to significantly, if at all, change between now and release.

Bugger.

We'll have to wait to see what happens and whether the feedback CCP are getting is going to see changes or not.

Stop, Revive and Survive

The post title comes from a Road Safety campaign from one of the Australian states and seems rather apt (to me) with the announced changes from CCP with regard to Jump Drives and Capital Ships.

Long Term Plan

Announced overnight by CCP Greyscale in a devblog are details of the three phases of changes that are coming to null sec over a-yet-to-be-given time scale:

• Phase 1 - Long-Distance Travel
• Phase 2 - Medium-Term Changes
• Phase 3 - Dynamic Warfare and Granular Territory Control

Very little information is given for Phases 2 and 3 but we have a lot of detail for Phase 1 as this is being planned for the next Expansion, called Phoebe, in November 2014.

Changes, Soon

It is made clear form the devblog that the changes are not "a silver bullet" that will fix all issues in null sec in one go but instead will form part of a greater number of changes, over time, that will represent a significant improvement to "specific areas of concern" within EVE Online.

The major change coming will be changes to how capital ships can move:

• they will now be able to use gates in null and low sec
• their jump distance changed to a maximum of 5ly per jump

but by far the biggest change are the new timers:

• Jump Activation - counter that shows how long you have to wait until you can jump again
• Jump Fatigue - counter of accumulated jump fatigue that is used to calculate the Jump Activation timer when you do jump

New Timers for Jump activation and Jump fatigue

An example is given in the devblog of how this will work in practice but basically the further you jump the longer it will take you because the length of wait between jumps will increase due to Jump Fatigue. 

Read the devblog, it clearly lays out the functionality and how it will work much better than if I reproduced it here.

Jump Freighters/Capital Industrial Ships

The Jump changes potentially could have a massive impact on goods movement within null sec and CCP appear to have foreseen this and have given Jump Freighters and Capital Industrial Ships (i.e. Rorqual) a role bonus that will reduce these timers by 90%.

From my perspective this is great, it means that when I have my "logi day" I won't have to worry too much about jump timers slowing my jumps down. I did have to check the jump range of JF's but they already are at 5ly so there won't be much change for me.

Fuel costs already went up, now I may have a couple of minutes between jumps when I use midpoints but aside from that these changes won't impact me very much I believe. 

How Will This Change Things

This certainly will have an impact on force projection but it will not change the ability of the current Null Sec power blocs to retain their power. They will need to adapt and change but the ability for them to deploy will not be greatly diminished and we will certainly see capital armadas moving via gates, with sub-capital support, to continue to strike fear into any smaller groups looking to get a foothold anywhere in Null.

We could see the end of large empires spanning entire quarters of null sec but entire regions would still be defensible and with the changes to jump mechanics it will make more sense for power blocs to maximise the use of the systems they have and relinquish control over areas they cannot actively defend or would be more trouble than they are actually worth.

Null Sec Power Blocs

These changes could stimulate Null Sec industry, forcing characters to use the space they have rather than claiming it and not making use of it. New null sec trading hubs could be created and catered to by local industry rather than importing everything from High Sec. 

A lot of space is currently unused because it is not very resource rich or profitable, Phases 2 and 3 should address this and perhaps we'll see rebalancing of system sec and upgrades that mean space is finally worth owning.

My own hope is that there will be smaller entities, be they Corporations or Alliances, that can will finally be able to gain themselves a small foothold in one or two systems in areas that the current Power Blocs cannot easily assault or want to retain because they cannot profit from them.

Actually I love that this brings risk back into null sec, no longer can wrecking ball fleets or massed capitals move around with impunity and at high speed.

More To Come

I see there is some "hurt feelings" in some quarters, so much so that they has been a leak of a post/message that CSM Member/Providence Head FC corebloodbrothers on internal forums.

People certainly get passionate about changes, especially if they feel it will have a negative impact and after having lived in Providence myself I can recall the insular and "me" behaviour a lot of people had. 

Changes can only be good, in the long term. Short term it means everyone will need to look at what they're doing and finding new ways of existing or adapting to the changes.

Reaction

"I was astonished by CCP’s latest DEV blog"
                                                                - EVE Hermit
"Dis gon b gud"
                     - Neville Smit

"I actually rather like this"
                                   - Stabs

Three quotes from three people who don't jump to conclusions or mince their words. These quotes come from their respective blogs based on their feelings on the devblog.

Wilhelm Arcturus also has an excellent write up, he even tries to explain to his non-EVE readers what this change could be compared to in other games. The other three seems positive about the changes but Wilhelm is, from my reading, on the fence about the changes possibly even thinking that they don't go far enough.

I believe they are a good start, I still feel that a mass restriction on cynosural fields is another way of limiting force projection, but what we're seeing (subject to feedback and change) is an excellent start and certainly seems to open the way for splintering of null sec space away from the current Power Blocs.

I'm sure over the next couple of days we'll see more comment come out, there will be the nay-sayers and the EVE Online Forums will be full of people saying the changes are too much and they will be quitting because of them. 

These changes are the start of something good and perhaps its time for a culling of the old guard to allow new players a chance to get into the game without the bitter vets of old.

One Hundred and Fifteen

The post title is the number of jumps I did yesterday through High Sec in my jump freighter.

There and Back Again and Again

I started the day in Jita picking up new items for the local store and collecting Alliance/Corporation courier contracts back to our null sec base. A handful of jumps were through 0.5 space so I made sure to take control at these times but otherwise I ran on autopilot for most of the journey and either did some RL chores  or helped my wife plant strawberries in a new area of the garden.

Of course as I moved through space people asked me if I'd left Jita and because I'm a nice guy I said I had but could go back. Going back at the time was 30-odd jumps but still, I had the space and I was asked nicely.

So I dropped my cargo off at a temporary station, so as to provide a less tempting target for any would-be ganker, and headed back to Jita, then Amarr and finally back to pick up that that I originally started with. Then it was 7 jumps further to the first system that was within jump range of home.

A little over seven hours and one hundred and fifteen jumps after I originally left Jita I was home. I delivered my contracts and logged off.

It was exhausting auto-piloting through New Eden.

Maximum Warp Speed, Mr Navigator

The cargo size I was carrying influenced my decision to refit with nanofiber structure's in the low slots, this provides a noticeable increase in agility that helps you get into warp faster. A higher top speed would be a nice addition so I checked the prices for the recently added warp speed modules, which increase ship acceleration and warp speed:

• Limited Hyperspatial Accelerator
• Experimental Hyperspatial Accelerator
• Prototype Hyperspatial Accelerator

The Prototype Hyperspatial Accelerator is the top variant that modifies by 0.3 where as the other two do so by 0.25 and 0.2. Prices are considerably different with the Prototype being ten times the price of the Limited and five times the price of a Experimental (133m vs. 13m/25m).

I was going to buy three Prototype but have decided to hold off and see if any of my friends come across the BPC's for these modules on their travels. I'm in no rush for them, I've managed to work without them thus far but I would like to get them by the end of this year as a nice upgrade for my high sec travel.

Wares to Market

I've had a good collection of wares to take to market this week, I've been usually frugal in my stockpiling of Metamaterials so I had a nice stack of around 170,000 units each of Photonic and Terrahertz along with the loot from my missioning/officer spawn.

All up my cargo bay said it was worth around 7 billion worth of materials I'd be shipping and this is good timing as I'm only a week or so from needing more input materials for my towers.

Jumping Out

Shipping the materials out of Curse was simple enough, I have two cyno chains I can use and I fired up one and had the materials in high sec within 5 minutes of filling the Jump Freighter. 

I have two cyno chains because sometimes a mid/end-point system may have too many pilots in it for me to want to jump. This is especially so when I'm carrying such an ISK amount.

Moving to Jita

Next I unloaded everything in my local high sec station and setup courier contracts to another alt to take the stuff to Jita for sale. I do this as a precaution against ganking, by splitting up the wares and using courier contracts I'm hoping that the casual ganker will ignore me and I'll be able to pass unhindered. 

Of course this means multiple trips but a alt with a full mid-grade Nomad set and extra warp speed implants doesn't add much time to the journey.

For Sale

Once in Jita its time to sell and this is where patience really counts. I want to make the most from what I'm selling but I also don't want to sell, at first, to buy orders so I look at the price of what I'm selling and then lower the price by a small amount so as to give myself some "daylight" between my items and the next cheapest.

For Metamaterials this means lowing the price further so I will only change by, no more, than 3 ISK but in fact I only dropped the price by 0.75 ISK. Other items were put on at just under current lowest with the hope they'll sell fast.

I setup my sell orders just before downtime and when I logged in this morning I'd sold roughly half of what I had available, which was good, and I spent a little time redoing orders and changing prices as needed.

That's my days market work done, now its time to earn some more ISK via missions and ratting.

Jump Drive and Isotope changes are coming

In just over two weeks Crius will be deployed and with that a whole raft of changes to industry, star bases and one major change to jump fuel usage for capital ships.

Stimulation

CCP are trying to stimulate the isotope market and keep prices steady due to changes made in Kronos that could have seen a significant drop in the number of player star bases being operated. 

In order to stimulate the market there really needs to be something that will take over the need for the isotopes that previously would have been used in POS fuels. CCP have decided to change jump drives (and jump portals) and make them consume 50% more isotopes on use.

It's a bold change and one that has had plenty of comments in the official forum thread and it turns out that one of the comments was such a good idea that CCP have implemented it as part of the changes.

The changes coming will be as follows:

• 50% increase in fuel usage by all jump drives and jump portals
• 33% decrease in isotope volume from 0.15m3 to 0.10m3

The latter change is especially good against the first as without it it was probable that some multiple jump courses could require refueling stops but this means that you'll be able to carry more 33% isotopes without changing fuel bay.

Costs

I've calculated the costs for fuel usage in Kronos and post-Crius and come up with the following based on the following isotope costs:

Isotope cost as of 7th July 2014

Highlighted in red isotope quantities that exceed the ship fuel bay size

It's clear from this that any pilot not trained to at least Jump Fuel Conservation IV is going to seriously cut into any profits or rewards for jumping. 

Fuel costs are definitely going up but the reduction in isotope volume will mean most pilots will be able to continue without the need for refueling points. Only really low skilled pilots will have an issue and realistically I don't think this is an issue as any jump freighter pilot will be trained to have all jump skills to V.

How This Affects Me

Not a huge amount but for me my costs will increase by 11m per round trip.

It looks like I'll be increasing my shipping prices for Corp/Alliance/Friends. My current price per m3 almost covered the increased costs but not quite so I'm going to increase my shipping prices by 10% per m3 to cover this and still jump "at a profit".

Post Crius

What will happen post-Crius will be interesting. Will we see a reduction in isotope costs or will they stay pretty much unchanged.

I think the latter is most likely, isotope usage will increase over time but people will have stockpiled before hand to ensure that they have stable costs, at least until they use what they have stockpiled, and the convenience of a supply to last any further fluctuations. 

Personally I've bought enough to survive a couple of months worth of normal usage and I know friend who are/have done the same. It's good planning to have stockpiles for situations like this.

One Wish

Changes to Ice mining and certain events have certainly fluctuated pricing over the years I've been in game but the one thing that really makes no sense to me is the limit that isotopes can only be mined in the racial area that they are used by.

i.e. Helium can only be mined in Amarr and aligned regions, Oxygen in Gallente/aligned regions and so on

I'd like to see this change and instead all ice belts should provide a good mix of different types instead of just the one. 

Imagine warping to an ice anomaly and seeing not just Dark Glitter or Glacial Mass but maybe a group of Clear Icicle or Blue Ice. Certainly limit the amount of non-local/region racial ice that appears but start making it appear everywhere and maybe that will also stimulate the market as there would be more supplied from all over New Eden and not just certain regional places.

Freighter/Jump Freighter Changes in Kronos and beyond

I had a long post I've been working on about the upcoming changes to Freighters/Jump Freighters and then an update was posted that made what I was saying moot. So I scrapped it and now this is what I have.

What Was And Will Be

Initially rigs were going to be allowed to be fitted to F/JF and changes to ship statistics and cargohold capacities but a threadnaught developed and after considerable feedback this was reviewed and has been changed to F/JF having three low slots, and not rig slots.

As a result, when released, freighters and jump freighters will be able to fit the following:

• Expanded Cargohold (adds to cargo hold at the expense of structural hitpoints)
• Reinforced Bulkhead (adds structural hitpoints at the expense of non-warp velocity)
• Hyperspatial Accelerators (new module, adds to warp speed)
• Inertia Stabilizers (faster align time, but larger signature)
• Overdrive Injector Systems (faster non-warp velocity at the expense of cargohold capacity)
• Adaptive Nano Plating (grants armor resistance to all forms of damage)

Six fitting options, including a new warp speed affecting module, that will give players who use F/JF a lot more options in fitting and more importantly the flexibility that rigs would not provide.

Adding three Reinforced Bulkheads to a freighter is going to increase the EHP by nearly 80%, even just one and a couple of cargohold expanders will 5% increase in EHP. Maybe not enough to stop a concentrated gank effort but perhaps enough that any ganker will think twice before striking.

Base Stat Changes

One major change coming is the changes in base stats for F/JF, the major of these being the lowering of the base cargohold for each ship which by approximately 40% for Freighters and 50% for Jump Freighters.

This is quite a shock, fortunately the ability to add three cargohold expanders and you'll bring the cargo capacity back up to just over the old cargo capacity for JF's (no more than 1%/2% difference) or a significant increase for Freighters (finally you can have a cargohold of over the 1,000,000m3 size).

The table below is based on a fully skilled pilot with V's for all relevant skills for piloting.

Ship	Old EHP	New EHP	EHP Change	Old Cargo (m3)	New Cargo (m3)	% Cargo Change
Providence	193,690	227,427	+17.42%	918,750	543,750	-40.82%
Charon	195,783	210,860	+7.70%	981,250	581,250	-40.76%
Fenrir	174,049	204,749	+17.64%	900,000	543,750	-39.58%
Obelisk	200,827	235,712	+17.37%	937,500	550,000	-41.33%
Ark	351,357	411,567	+17.14%	344,531.30	168,750	-51.02%
Rhea	326,264	400,487	+22.75%	367,968.80	180,000	-51.08%
Nomad	314,978	394,272	+25.17%	337,500	165,000	-51.11%
Anshar	363,687	441,612	+28.11%	351,562.50	171,875	-51.11%

Jump Freighter Nerf

The nerf to cargohold capacity is a major change for JF's that can be possibly be attributed to force/logistic projection and the ability of JF's to carry such a large amount 'relatively safely'. This combined with the 50% increase in fuel usage that we'll also be seeing means that any JF run is going to cost significantly more come Kronos and the next expansion.

Comment

As a Jump Freighter pilot, these changes are frustrating but do open up more flexibility for pilots through the introduction of three low slots rather than two/three rig slots. In fact it means you can carry several different modules and refit as required in local stations or via a mobile depot.

The Jump Freighter changes are going to hit the 'bottom line' much more than the freighter changes. Yes, fuel size is getting reduced by one third (from 0.15m3 to 0.10m3) so we'll be able to carry more but the fuel is going to be used faster and, more than likely, cost more. Already we're seeing prices near 1,000 ISK per unit and this will only increase as supply decreases and demand increases.

Certainly I'm giving serious thought to changing my racial JF to one who's fuel I can mine locally.

I was almost right

I was very happy to hear during FanFest that CCP will be allowing Freighters and Jump Freighters to fit Capital sized rigs, not modules as I thought the description showed.

I was almost right, first time for everything as a few friends are no doubt thinking.

It will be interesting to see if I can put cargohold increasing rigs on my Freighters, I was always under the belief that the cargo size would not exceed 1,000,000 m3 because CCP didn't want capital ships to be moved in high sec. If I'm able to add one, two or even three cargohold rigs then I'm pretty sure this will allow this limit to be exceeded.

Isotope prices are increasing, slowly

I would like to add cargohold rigs to my JF's, the ability to carry a extra cargo would be a boon to my shipping contracts and the extra space means I can claw back some of the monies I'll be spending on increased fuel needs.

Conflicted no more

Mid February I posted soliciting advice on whether I should return to the character I helped kill my cut of the ransom they paid but that was dishonoured by the pilots I flew with.

Well based on the comments I got, thank you those that did publicly and privately comment, I decided that the right course of action was the give the money back to the pilot I helped kill. I have done that and I feel that I have done the right thing.

I wasn't happy when the ransom was dishonoured and although I took the money I didn't feel right having it. Returning it was the right decision, ransoms are to be honoured I believe and many of you have agreed with me.

Thank you.

Screwing my Logistics Chain for a night

Fool Me Once

 

I ran into an embarrassing situation last night, I had to move a JF full of product from null sec to high sec using my secondary JF character. Only I couldn't because the mid-point cyno toon is on the same account as the JF character, so I spend nearly an hour moving another character twenty or so jumps so he can jump out. Yet I run into the same problem again because where as I used to use the Jump Beacons in Providence for the final jump now I cannot because I don't live there anymore.

 

Dammit.

 

 

Fool Me Twice

 

I wasted a couple of hours messing around getting a cyno toon, modules and fuel to the right station and then, to compound my stupidity, I didn't have enough fuel in the JF to make the final jump and had to borrow 30m ISK to buy enough fuel to finish the jump.

And of course as I undocked some NA. guy decided to try to bump me off station with a Cynabal... but I eventually made it to high sec and safe'd up in a station whilst I went off and did something else to calm down.

 

Fixing the Fool

 

After I logged off last night I spent some time considering my options as my plan is to use a second JF on this run as I have the need for it. Unfortunately 'as-is' I do not have the cyno alts on the right characters to be able to do this.

 

In order to be able to do it I'll need to repurpose a PI character into a combined PI/cyno toon and make sure they have two jump clones (at least). This will give me the flexibility to have two JF characters active at the same time and allow me to be able to move nearly 700,000m3 at a time from null sec to high sec.

 

I was going to utilise the PLEX for Training scheme but thinking further the character that the PI toon is currently on doesn't need to be training concurrently as he's just finishing up "nice to have skills" and a 30/60 delay on these won't be an impact for him.

 

Jump Freighter Fuel Economy

Disclaimer and Note:

 

I'm sorry about the use of the pictures instead of tables within this post. I'm not au fait with HTML so didn't know how to add the tables manually as the WYSIWYG editor didn't have a table insertion function

 

All values and details were gathered from publically available sources via EVEMon, EVE Central and EVE Online Wiki. Additional information from Glevon Goblin and my own calculations.

 

You Learn Something New

 

I was reminded by a post at The Abysmal Aussie that most people know that Jump Freighters use different type of isotope as fuel but very few know that the amount of isotopes consumed per jump is not the same across each racial ship.

 

The actual isotope usage is (from what I can find) is:

 

This base consumption is per light year travelled, So a 3ly jump would use three times this value and is then modified by your skills in Jump Fuel Conservation and Jump Freighters, which means the higher you have these skills the more fuel you'll be saving which lowers the cost of each jump.

 

Fuel Usage Example

 

I've used the ICSC Jump Planner to plot the fuel usage for each Jump Freighter based on pilots with different levels of the modification skills. I wasn't able to find a system that was 1ly from another so I've used a grouping that I am familiar with and provide, what I think, is a good set of data for differing jump lengths to indicate usage:

 

You cannot have a 0,0 skilled pilot flying a jump freighter but these values are provided as they are the closest to the base consumption value and confirm that value.

 

This proves is the better your skills the more substantial your savings will be. Jumping 4.22ly with a JFC I/JF I pilot is (roughly) 3.2 times more expensive in fuel than a JFC V/JF V skilled pilot and this appears uniform over each racial jump freighter.

 

If you do lots of short jumps then you could get away with a JFC III/JF III skilled character as your pilot but really the minimum is a level IV for both skills. Training to Level V is time intensive (at least 2 months/60 days) but if you do a lot of jumps it is something you really need to invest in.

 

My Situation

 

I have two characters trained to fly Jump Freighters, with a third finishing Jump Drive Calibration V in about two weeks, and since training JFC V/JF V on one character the other hasn't done a single jump.

 

The drop in fuel usage has meant that I buy fuel once a week and still have some left over at the end of each week, the result of which is I'm slowly stockpiling through the excess. By lowering my fuel usage I've actually increased the value of what I do move.

 

I charge 200isk/m3 to move cargo now, when I started I was charging 300isk/m3 and that was spent on fuel with anything left over counted as profit. Now I'm running a consistent profit after fuel costs and this allows me to reinvest in more fuel so I always have enough on hand at my jump locations (not to mention Liquid Ozone for lighting cyno's)

 

Why Should You Care

 

You should care because of the price of isotopes and how they can be easily manipulated.

 

Average price of isotopes in Jita over a one year period (spikes indicate ice interdiction by Goons) - Graph by Glevon Goblin 

 

As we saw with the Goon Ice Interdictions over the past eighteen months the price of Nitrogen isotopes doubled overnight with a high being almost four times the original price within a couple of days. This made using the Rhea much more expensive and a risky gambit as gankers would and did go after ships carrying Nitrogen isotopes.

 

Each m3 of the Jump Freighter has a cost, jumping an empty freighter is a waste, all you're doing is burning ISK so it pays to know how much your costs are and EVE doesn't tell you in a simple manner.

Fine, but which should I buy

That's a question only you can answer, it really depends on:

• your pilot(s) skills and what they are racially specialised in. If you can fly more than one then that opens up your options but most likely you'll be fixed to one type and the earlier.
• isotope prices

If you have the ability to mine an isotope, or at least buy from a null sec source, then that may affect what you go for.

I have two Ark's because my characters are Amarrian however I also now have access to Hydrogen Isotopes in a couple of systems I jump too. As a result when my new character is trained he will be getting a Nomad. It isn't free to mine but it is certainly, with good mining skills, cheaper than buying in Jita.

[Brainstorm] Freighters and Jump Freighters

Overview

Those who have played for more than a year will know what ships to use and what ships aren't. CCP are changing things to make all ships attractive not just specific ones.

The work being done by CCP to rebalance all ships at the moment, through statistics changing, bonuses are added/removed and changed to make them fit into various roles. The simplest description to cover all this work is to make them better.

These changes are ongoing and CCP does ask for feedback in the forums when they propose changes, and it certainly gets it.

Freighters and Jump Freighters

Look at a Freighter or Jump Freighter and it is, simply put, a large cargo bay with engines. That's it, you can't add rigs nor modules and really you should be able to. Your only way of improving agility or tank is via skills and not modules.

I feel this should change and they should allow certain module and rig types to be installed but also they could benefit from something like T3 sub-systems to allow configuration changes to both the capacity but what type cargo can be carried.

Modules and Rigs

In my opinion it's a huge oversight that you cannot add modules or rigs to a F/JF. Modules should be limited to certain ones and rigs should be Capital sized (F/JF are larger than Battleships which is what Large Rigs are for)

I don't think adding guns to a F/JF should be possible nor any modules/rigs for increasing cargo capacity but modules/rigs that can do the following should be.

• avoid warp disruption
• increase shield/amour/structure resistances/HP
• increase agility
• increase warp/maximum speed

One module that should definitely not be usable is a cloaking device, the mass of the ship or the fact its cargo bay violates the space/time compression field should prevent them working.

Sub-Systems

Sub-systems add a nice configuration option to T3's and whilst I wish there was more variation in the sub-systems, the whole 'idea' works very well. I think it could be ported to F/JF's to open up some excellent options that otherwise may require new ships (and we all know they take a lot of CCP resources to make).

Some of these would be very useful in everyday situations and others have been suggested by some people elsewhere as new ship types. I don't think we need new ships, as nice as they are.
Suggestions for sub-systems that could be added to F/JF's are:

Cargo Compressor - allows more cargo to be added without increasing cargo hold size
Pro: Reduces cargo size by 25% when in cargo hold (does not work on containers, plastic wrap or ships)
Con: Increases mass by 15% / reduces structure by 20%

Ship Transporter - converts part of the cargo hold into a ship maintenance bay
Pro: Converts 80% of the cargo hold into a ship maintenance hanger allowing assembled ships to be moved (excl. capitals)
Con: agility reduced by 20%

Micro Jump - allows use of MJD on F/JF
Pro: reduces cool down of use of MJD by 55%, increases MJD jump range by 100%
Con: Ship capacitor reduced by 15% and recharge penalty of 10%

Electronic Survival - allows use of ECM Burst module
Pro: Allows F/JF to fit a single ECM Burst module to avoid capture, 25% reduction to cool down of Burst ECM modules
Con: reduction in available PG by 50%, CPU by 25%

Active Defence - increases shield, armour and structure HP
Pro: 25% increase in shield/armour and structure HP
Con: agility reduced by 25%, mass increased by 15%

Expanded Fuel Bays - increases fuel bay size
Pro: increases fuel bay size by 200%
Con: reduction in cargo hold capacity by 30%

Warp Integrity - gives a F/JF a chance to escape capture by point/scram
Pro: Confers a +3 Warp Strength to the F/JF
Con: 20% reduction in cargo hold


Those are just some ideas to give extra options to the F/JF pilot. I'm sure there are more and people can suggest better Pros/Cons but these are an idea.

Improve what we have and use new ships, later, to add extra value.