On November 10, 2020 CCP released “Dynamic Frontiers” an update that looked at revamping Encounter Surveillance Systems. Included in the revamp were the permanent placement of ESS’s in every null-security system, as well as a secondary bank that a portion of the bounties are stored behind lock and key. Bounties are now paid out automatically every three hours instead of the users discretion.
Tied to the ESS is the Dynamic Bounty System, a system that regulates the maximum payout of a system based on the amount of player-vs-player (PVP) activity. Simply put, the more PVP that happens in the system, the higher the payout is at the end of the timer. For example, in the system of T5ZI-S, the bounty modifier is 180%. This means that for every 1 ISK you earn from bounties, you receive 2.80 ISK at payout. Pretty cool right? On the flip side, if you over rat in a system, the bounty payout will drop, with some numbers as low as 75% meaning for every 1 ISK you earn from bounties, you would get back .75 ISK. Not very cash money if you ask me.
Comparing October’s MER with November, bounty payouts are down a staggering 57.48% from 55.292T to 31.775T and that’s with the new ESS changes taking effect for only two thirds of the month. I’m curious to see what December’s MER will look like having the entire month of the changes in effect. Will the payouts continue to plummet, or will we start to see a normalization of payouts as capsuleers adjust to the new changes?
Once again, Fraternity held Oasa leads New Eden in total NPC bounties with 4.1T ISK followed distantly by Pandemic Horde held Cobalt Edge who produced approximately 50% of the value generated in Oasa. On a surprising note, Fountain was the only region in New Eden to see an increase in Bounties, going from 1.62T to 1.87T a 115% increase. Looks like The Initiative took the initiative to fill the war chest coffers prior to their deployment to fight Brave and Legacy on their front door.
We also see that for the first time incursion payouts have surpassed bounty prizes in value with bounty prizes at an almost historic low, comparable to the Chaos Era of summer 2019.
Highlighting some other aspects brought forth with November’s MER we see that the war front in Delve was relatively quiet for the month with total destruction falling 58.72% from October with only 4.5T ISK destroyed compared to 10.9T ISK last month. Take that with a grain of salt however as there were no titanic Keepstar fights this month either.
We are also still seeing the effects of the mineral distribution with high-security regions dominating the mining value figures with only 1 null-security region (Oasa) generating more than 1T in mining value for November. With the high-security regions of The Forge and Metropolis leading the way.
Lastly we see that while production in The Forge has stayed consistent at 21.6T for October/November, production in Delve is down 43% to 11.6T from Octobers 21.6T ISK. With the slow grind of destroying Imperium production facilities playing a significant role. For the month of November, 15 Raitarus, 11 Azbels and 9 Sotiyos met their untimely end.
While the full scope of CCP’s scarcity plan remains to be seen, if things continue at the current pace im sure that we will start to see a wasteland that was once New Eden sooner rather than later.
The full monthly economic report for November can be found here.
