Legion Major Update Patch Notes

[h3]Legion Major Update[/h3][p]The Legion Major Update is now live![/p][h3]Features and Changes:[/h3][h3]Balancing: 🤝[/h3]

• [p]Reduced the Maximum Number of drones that can be assigned to a character from 50 drones to 20 drones.[/p]

[p]We’re cutting down on the number of drones that can be assigned to a single character at a time from 50 to 20 drones. There are things that we really like about drone assistance: there is a skillful element of assigning drones to someone else when you are jammed, damped or out of range. There is also some niche gameplay such as assigning drones to an interceptor to decloak players at gatecamps, assigning light drones to a dedicated anti-frigate ship in PVE such as incursions or PVP, and you can assign drones if you’re doing some specialized task like Logistics. Further, if you’re a new player you can assign drones to your more knowledgeable friends & fleet mates so you can focus on piloting your own ship.[/p][p]We feel like dropping down to 20 drones will still keep most of these cool use cases intact, while cutting down on undesirable gameplay.[/p]

• [p]Sentry Drones[/p]
  • [p]Increased Signature Radius on all sentry drones from 100m to 300m.[/p]

[p]Increasing the signature radius on Sentry Drones to Battlecruiser size so that they take more damage from Missiles, Bombs and Vorton Projectors, and are faster to lock so that they can be countered more effectively.[/p]

• [p]Armor Rigs[/p]
  • [p]Changed the drawback from Armor Rigs to be Agility instead of Max Velocity.[/p]
• [p]New Skill added - Advanced Armor Layering[/p]
  • [p]Grants 2% reduction to the mass penalty of armor plates per level.[/p]
  • [p]Rank 5 skill.[/p]
  • [p]Available in all empire school stations to purchase for 15,000,000 ISK, or from the character sheet for 19,500,000 ISK.[/p]
  • [p]Skill Requirements[/p]
    • [p]Armor Layering IV[/p]
    • [p]Mechanics V[/p]
    • [p]Hull Upgrades V[/p]

[p]We’ve heard concerns that shield setups are dominating and armor doesn’t feel great for skirmishing now. To help address this, we’re introducing a new advanced skill to shave off a bit more mass from armor plates and changing the drawback on most armor rigs to be a penalty to Agility instead of Max Velocity. This will still keep the original design intent and tradeoff that exists with armor/shield rigs in that they reduce some of your ability to mitigate damage in exchange for more tank. Losing turning speed and handling means you won’t be able to orbit as tightly or get as high angular velocity as before, but you now won’t also be giving up range control anymore which should make them feel much better on the field.[/p][p]We hope that this will make armor more viable especially at smaller scales and help promote more ships that have fallen out of favor such as AHACs.[/p]

• [p]Encounter Surveillance System site[/p]
  • [p]Increased the range that players are unable to cloak in the main bank room from 150km to 500km.[/p]

[p]Cutting down on some frustrating gameplay where snipers could enter the ESS and then cloak in the site to ambush players as they come in.[/p]

• [p]Marauders[/p]
  • [p]Removed -70% Micro Jump Drive reactivation cooldown role bonus from all Marauders.[/p]
  • [p]Vargur: 7.5% Falloff bonus per Minmatar Battleship level reduced to 5%.[/p]
  • [p]Marauders are now unable to access the main bank room of the ESS.[/p]

[p]Marauders continue to be dominant and oppressive at smaller scales of PVP. Marauders currently have incredible damage, high projection, a durable tank, and incredible mobility. We’re making an adjustment here to reign them in a bit while solidifying their role as ships which trade mobility for improved offense and defensive capabilities, and making the Bastion Module their core identity.[/p][p]We’re making another small adjustment to the Vargur because it is still an outlier. This set of changes should still keep them as apex PVE and PVP ships and the undisputed kings of firepower and defense, but allow for counterplay opportunities when it comes to facing them on grid.[/p][p]Additionally, we are experimenting by blocking Marauders from the ESS main bank room. This should hopefully lead to a more diverse meta for ESS engagements and allow other battleship and battlecruiser hulls to shine. We’ll be keeping an eye on this change to see if it leads to a healthier ecosystem overall.[/p]

• [p]Bastion Module[/p]
  • [p]Armor Repair and Shield Boost Amount Reduced from 100% to 60% while active.[/p]
  • [p]Added new bonus, 20% reduction in cycle time and capacitor cost for Armor Repairers and Shield Boosters while active.[/p]

[p]This retains the current repair effectiveness over time values as now without increasing the capacitor cost per second.[/p][p]We are doing this to help improve active armor Marauders which could sometimes end up repairing for most, or even exceeding their maximum Armor Hitpoints when using Asklepian Implants, boosters, x-type hardeners, et cetera. This would limit the ability of armor Marauders like the Kronos and Paladin when outfitted with high-end modules. It also made them require a disproportionally higher skill cap relative to shield Marauders given how armor repairers apply their reps at the end of the cycle.[/p][p]This will make Armor Repairers easier to use without over-repping on armor Marauders and limit them less when it comes to high-end fits that push the limits.[/p][p]Additionally, this change will help reduce the power of Ancillary Shield Booster Marauders a bit in PVP. We’ve heard a lot of frustration from the playerbase about multiple XLASB shield fit Marauders (Looking at you Vargur!) since they’re both very cheap and bypass the normal weakness that active tank marauder fits have against capacitor warfare. By moving some of the power of the bastion module into cycle time, this specifically hurts ancillary shield booster fits since they mostly just want raw boost amount to get the most effectiveness out of each charge and clip, rather than cycle time and the capacitor cost reduction.[/p]

• [p]Tactical Destroyers[/p]
  • [p]Can now enter the main bank room of the ESS.[/p]

[p]We're giving Tactical Destroyers some more roaming utility by allowing them to enter the ESS site. Like with Marauders, we’re experimenting a little here to mix things up, we’ll make changes if things end up going in an unhealthy direction like with 10mn T3Ds becoming meta or becoming too hard to catch.[/p]

• [p]Confessor[/p]
  • [p]New Defense Mode Bonus: 33% bonus to Remote Armor Repairer amount, and reduction in activation cost.[/p]
  • [p]Damage per level of Tactical Destroyer increased from 5% to 7.5%.[/p]
  • [p]Max Velocity increased from 230m/s to 250m/s.[/p]
• [p]Svipul[/p]
  • [p]New Defense Mode Bonus: 33% bonus to Remote Shield Booster amount, and reduction in activation cost.[/p]
  • [p]Damage per level of Tactical Destroyer increased from 5% to 7.5%.[/p]
  • [p]Max Velocity increased from 220m/s to 240m/s.[/p]

[p]Both the Confessor and Svipul are suffering a bit in usability. The Confessor has a bit too much overlap with the Retribution right now, which has significantly better mitigation while also having high damage with a range bonus. The Confessor's only strengths over the Retribution is the added utility, commonly used as a probe launcher, and the added damage and ewar resistance in sharpshooter mode. The Svipul has also struggled with other new ships entering the game like the Thrasher Fleet Issue and buffs to the Stabber, Navy Cruisers and medium Autocannons.[/p][p]The Hecate and Jackdaw are doing very well right now and are some of the most used ships in the game, so we’re giving both the Confessor and Svipul a bit more base damage and speed to hopefully make them stand out a bit more. We’re also adding a Remote Armor/Shield Booster bonus to them in defensive mode, to give them some more utility to potentially open up some spider tanking fleet options in PVP and PVE.[/p]

• [p]Ferox Navy Issue[/p]
  • [p]Medium Hybrid Damage per level bonus reduced from 10% to 7.5%.[/p]
  • [p]Medium Hybrid Tracking per level bonus reduced from 7.5% to 5.0%.[/p]
  • [p]Powergrid Reduced from 1250 to 1150 (same as regular Ferox).[/p]
  • [p]CPU reduced from 565 to 515 (same as regular Ferox).[/p]
  • [p]Reduction in Shield Booster power and CPU requirements per level bonus improved from 7.5% to 10%.[/p]

[p]We’re making some adjustments specifically to the Ferox Navy Issue to address its dominance in the fleet meta. Specifically, we are reducing the damage, tracking and reducing the Powergrid and CPU that it has, setting it back to the same values that the regular Tech 1 Ferox has. This should still mean it is viable but make it harder to fit a 5-6 slot tank and a DLA with railguns without fitting modules. At the same time we are improving the shield booster fitting bonus that it has which should compensate active tanking fits with a fitting reduction to make up for the loss in base PG and CPU.[/p][p]Additionally, we know there are concerns about the dominance of other railgun ships that may just simply replace the FNI as the top meta railgun ship, with those being the Vulture, Ferox (t1), Naga and Rokh. So we are going to make some adjustments to all rails overall.[/p]

• [p]Medium and Large Railguns[/p]
  • [p]Tracking Reduced by 10%.[/p]
  • [p]Optimal Range and Falloff Reduced by 10%.[/p]

[p]Railguns are dominating at all sizes, so we’re going to reduce their tracking and optimal & falloff slightly for medium and large railguns. Medium Railguns have been very strong for a very long time now, while Large Railguns have recently taken the top spot since the Viridian expansion where we gave a significant buff to the Rokh with a tracking and rate of fire bonus.[/p][p]This will mean that most of the Tracking Speed bonus for Large Railguns got rolled back, maintaining about 3.5% of it, but they’ll keep the rate of fire bonus they received. We hope this will mean that Large Rails will land in a good spot between now (Super Dominant) and pre-Viridian (Considered weak).[/p][p]We will continue to keep a close eye on the Vulture, Ferox, Ferox Navy Issue, Rokh and Naga after this set of changes and make further adjustments in the upcoming expansion if needed, whether they continue to dominate or end up too weak.[/p]

• [p]Naglfar[/p]
  • [p]Midslots improved from 6 to 7.[/p]
  • [p]Lowslots reduced from 6 to 5.[/p]
• [p]Naglfar Fleet Issue[/p]
  • [p]Midslots improved from 6 to 7.[/p]
  • [p]Lowslots reduced from 6 to 5.[/p]

[p]Improving the shield tank effectiveness of the Naglfar line by improving the number of midslots they have available at the cost of a lowslot. This should mean the Naglfar can take advantage of the shield booster bonus a bit more effectively in HAW setups and open the door for stronger shield based anti-capital turret dreadnoughts. While we do think we are trading some of the unique versatility of the Naglfar hull here, the dreadnought meta has been heavily dominated by Revelations for the last half-decade, and the T1 Phoenix (that the T1 Naglfar now shares a slot layout with) are missile based so we feel comfortable making this change.[/p]

• [p]Sin[/p]
  • [p]Removed 10% bonus to logistic drone transfer amount per level.[/p]
  • [p]Added 10% bonus to Warp Scrambler range per level.[/p]
  • [p]Added +1 bonus to Warp Scrambler strength per level.[/p]
    • [p]These bonuses only apply to Warp Scramblers and not Warp Disruptors.[/p]

[p]The Sin is the least used Black Ops, and the logistics drone transfer amount bonus is fairly weak. We are replacing this with a 10% bonus to the range of Warp Scramblers, and then a +1 bonus to strength per level to Warp Scramblers. This bonus should be a lot more desirable and makes more sense for the role of Black Ops. We hope this bonus will improve the Sins utility in drops by making it more powerful at holding targets, and give it a niche in super hunting with the extra point strength.[/p]

• [p]Apocalypse[/p]
  • [p]Removed 7.5% Large Energy Turret Tracking bonus per level.[/p]
  • [p]Large Energy Turret optimal range bonus improved from 7.5% to 10% per level.[/p]
  • [p]Added 5% Large Energy Turret damage per level.[/p]
  • [p]Added 10% reduction in Large Energy Turret capacitor cost per level.[/p]
• [p]Apocalypse Navy Issue[/p]
  • [p]Removed 7.5% Large Energy Turret Tracking bonus per level.[/p]
  • [p]Large Energy Turret optimal range bonus improved from 7.5% to 10% per level.[/p]
  • [p]Added 7.5% Large Energy Turret damage per level.[/p]
  • [p]Added 10% reduction in Large Energy Turret capacitor cost per level.[/p]

[p]Reworking the Apocalypse. There is a lot of competition for large energy turret ships with the Apoc, Apoc Navy, Abaddon, Nightmare, Bhaalgorn, Armageddon Navy Issue and Oracle all fighting for the same space. Currently, the Apocalypse feels weak due to lack of a damage bonus, while the tracking bonus doesn’t feel particularly strong because a lot of other laser ships are better in applying damage in practice, such as the Bhaalgorn (Webs+Neut), Nightmare (Superior mobility and same tracking bonus), Armageddon/Armageddon Navy Issue (Ranged neuts and can fit Rapid Heavys/Bonused Drones) and the Oracles superior mobility allowing it to get better tracking through managing traversal. The unique selling point of the Apocalypse hull is the optimal range bonus, however the damage is still underwhelming.[/p][p]The aim here is to move the Apocalypse more towards a sniper attack role, focusing it more on ranged damage. so we are removing the tracking bonus of the Apocalypse, while giving it more damage, giving it a cap reduction bonus for lasers so that it doesn’t hurt as much running a MWD while shooting, and then improving the optimal range bonus slightly. We feel like this should make the Apocalypse stand out more in the lineup of Amarr Battleships.[/p]

• [p]Maelstrom[/p]
  • [p]Highslots reduced from 8 to 7.[/p]
  • [p]Turrets reduced from 8 to 6.[/p]
  • [p]Midslots increased from 6 to 7.[/p]
  • [p]Removed 5% bonus to Large Projectile Turret rate of fire bonus per level.[/p]
  • [p]Added 10% bonus to Large Projectile Turret damage per level.[/p]
  • [p]Powergrid reduced from 21000 to 18000.[/p]

[p]Reworking the Maelstrom to be a shield mirror of the Hyperion. This should help make it much more viable as a small gang brawler and PVE platform with the extra utility high and the extra midslot, while also making it more attractive in fleets by being a bit easier to fit with a pure artillery fit and increasing the alpha capability slightly at the cost of some DPS. We hope this will make it stand out a bit more from other Minmatar projectile ships like the Tempest Fleet Issue by leaning it more towards alpha strike damage and less towards rate of fire in fleets as an alternative option, and making it more viable as a counterpart to the Rokh.[/p]

• [p]Megathron Navy Issue[/p]
  • [p]Tracking bonus improved from 7.5% to 10% per level.[/p]
  • [p]Added 15% reduction in Armor Plate mass penalty per level.[/p]
  • [p]Maximum Velocity improved from 130m/s to 135m/s.[/p]

[p]Giving some extra tracking to the Megathron Navy Issue to compensate it for the adjustment to large railguns, which will also mean a direct improvement to it with blasters fitted. Also adding a small speed boost and an armor plate mass reduction bonus to the Megathron Navy Issue to improve it for nano/skirmish armor fleets. This bonus has worked well on other ships, like the Oneiros, Eris, Catalyst Navy and Exequror Navy Issue, so we're excited to see the effect this will have on the Navy Mega.[/p]

• [p]Cenotaph[/p]
  • [p]Ladar Sensor Strength reduced from 25 to 15.[/p]
  • [p]Armor Hitpoints reduced from 5,000 to 3,500 (-1500).[/p]
  • [p]Structure Hitpoints improved from 6,000 to 7,500 (+1500).[/p]
  • [p]Low Slots reduced from 3 to 2.[/p]
  • [p]Role bonus to Medium Projectile Turret and Heavy Assault Missile damage improved from 100% to 125%.[/p]
  • [p]Max Velocity Improved from 160 to 170m/s.[/p]
  • [p]Agility improved from 0.6x to 0.55x.[/p]
• [p]Tholos[/p]
  • [p]Ladar Sensor Strength reduced from 16 to 8.[/p]

[p]We’re hearing about complaints of the Cenotaph's strength from wormholers and to a lesser extent other areas of space where very expensive, high resistance ships are used at very close range around fixed locations. These fits allow the Cenotaph to survive even with a 3 slot tank. In this environment things like range and speed don’t matter as much. We are making a set of adjustments to the Cenotaph to try and retain its strength in other areas of space where it’s not as dominant, while also adding more meaningful counterplay options to the Deathless ships as a whole.[/p][p]We are reducing the sensor strength of the Deathless ships to make ECM a very effective counter against them, especially in wormhole environments where their very close range missiles are not at as much as a disadvantage as they are in other areas of space. This should hopefully allow wormholers to more reliably counter while preserving a lot of their strength in other environments, where it is very difficult to ever get close to their maximum potential paper DPS output. ECM also is not very punishing in situations where you only have a DoT on 1-2 targets (since as long as you get a lock every 75 seconds then you can keep up the damage), but ECM is very effective at lowering the total DPS across the whole field since even a 25% chance to jam results in dropping the number of pods spread in optimal scenarios from 7 to 5.[/p][p]Additionally, we are shifting some hitpoints from Armor away into Structure to make armor tanked Cenotaphs more vulnerable, and taking away a low slot, which should make heavy armor cenotaphs much less viable. To compensate it for the lost lowslot and buff it in situations where it isn’t using the lowslots for tank, we are improving the damage role bonus and also giving it some extra speed and agility to partially compensate the potential loss of modules such as nanofibers and gyrostabilizers/ballistic controls.[/p]

• [p]Cyclone Fleet Issue[/p]
  • [p]Max Velocity reduced from 190m/s to 180m/s.[/p]
  • [p]Signature Radius reduction per level bonus reduced from 5% to 3%.[/p]

[p]The Cyclone Fleet Issue is a bit healthier than the Ferox Navy Issue, but still overperforming somewhat. We’re reducing the speed slightly and also reducing the signature radius reduction bonus to the same as the Hyena to remove some of the mitigation it has.[/p]

• [p]Harbinger Navy Issue[/p]
  • [p]Powergrid increased from 1550 MW to 1625 MW.[/p]

[p]The Harbinger Navy Issue is underused so we’re giving it some PG to open up a few more fits. Combined with the changes to armor rigs and the other dominant battlecruisers being knocked down a bit, we hope this will make this a more attractive pick.[/p]

• [p]Myrmidon Navy Issue[/p]
  • [p]Drone Capacity increased from 250m3 to 300m3.[/p]
  • [p]Now additionally gets a 10% bonus to drone tracking per level just like the Vexor Navy Issue does.[/p]

[p]Myrmidon Navy Issue is still the least used battlecruiser in the game. We’re giving it a powerful tracking bonus to match the VNI, and then improving the drone capacity on it so that it has more options and is harder to defang, and can afford to include more utility drones like the web drones it has a bonus to.[/p]

• [p]Tornado[/p]
  • [p]Agility Nerfed from 0.475 to 0.54.[/p]
  • [p]Max Velocity increased from 225m/s to 250m/s.[/p]
  • [p]Falloff bonus per level improved from 5% to 7.5%.[/p]

[p]We’ve heard frustrations when it comes to dealing with low align time, warp speed rigged, artillery fit Tornados “Windrunners”. So we’re making an adjustment to the Tornado which should hurt it in this role, but buff it in other roles. We’re nerfing the agility enough so that it will be much harder to get an under 4 second align time on the Tornado, making this type of fit a lot more vulnerable to being caught. To compensate it for this nerf, we’re buffing the base speed of the Tornado and also improving the falloff bonus per level that it has. The net outcome of this hopefully is that Windrunner fits are less effective and can be caught more easily, but Tornados that are staying on the field feel stronger.[/p]

• [p]Talos[/p]
  • [p]Max Velocity improved from 220 m/s to 235m/s.[/p]

[p]Giving the Talos a little love since it’s underused outside of structure grinding and ganking.[/p]

• [p]Deimos[/p]
  • [p]Signature Radius reduced from 150m to 120m.[/p]

[p]The Deimos had a very large signature radius for a brawling focused armor HAC, moving it down to 120m which places it between the Vagabond (115m) and Zealot (125m), so that it can mitigate more damage. This should help it when brawling and in AHAC roles.[/p]

• [p]Zealot[/p]
  • [p]5% Rate of Fire bonus replaced with 7.5% bonus to medium energy turret damage.[/p]

[p]This is a very small damage bump (from 33.3% to 37.5% more damage) but will help the Zealot a lot more with cap stability, since the guns will no longer be consuming as much capacitor per second, and also means the crystals will last longer before they break.[/p]

• [p]Mamba[/p]
  • [p]New role bonus added, 25% bonus to drone max velocity.[/p]
  • [p]Maximum Velocity improved from 245m/s to 255m/s.[/p]
• [p]Mekubal[/p]
  • [p]New role bonus added, 50% bonus to small projectile falloff.[/p]

[p]The Mamba and Mekubal aren’t quite at the power level expected from a Pirate Destroyer and their current price point. We’re buffing them up by giving them an extra role bonus which currently all other T1 Destroyers and Navy Destroyers in the game get. The Mamba is getting the drone speed role bonus which the Algos has, and a bit more speed since it’s a bit too slow right now while the Mekubal is getting an additional falloff bonus, which will stack with its per level bonus, just like the Khizriel.[/p]

• [p]Magnate Navy Issue[/p]
  • [p]Capacitor Improved from 325 to 500.[/p]
  • [p]Capacitor Recharge Time increased from 180 seconds to 250 seconds.[/p]
• [p]Heron Navy Issue[/p]
  • [p]Capacitor Improved from 245 to 300.[/p]
  • [p]Capacitor Recharge Time increased from 135 seconds to 150 seconds.[/p]
• [p]Imicus Navy Issue[/p]
  • [p]Capacitor Improved from 270 to 400.[/p]
  • [p]Capacitor Recharge Time increased from 150 seconds to 200 seconds.[/p]
• [p]Probe Fleet Issue[/p]
  • [p]Capacitor Improved from 235 to 280.[/p]
  • [p]Capacitor Recharge Time increased from 130 seconds to 140 seconds.[/p]

[p]Setting the Navy Scanning Frigates base capacitor amounts and capacitor recharge time to the same values as their navy racial counterparts. This will result in them having much higher base capacitor pools and slightly higher capacitor per second rates. It was difficult to use them in PVP because of how low their capacitor pool was since they were unchanged from the base exploration frigates so this should improve them.[/p]

• [p]Skybreaker[/p]
  • [p]An additional high slot has been added.[/p]
• [p]Stormbringer[/p]
  • [p]An additional high slot has been added.[/p]

[p]Giving these ships a utility slot allows them a chance to escape their current niches and see more use in other areas of the game. Powergrid and CPU values have not been changed, so their new modules must fit within current fitting constraints.[/p]

• [p]Outpost Construction Skill[/p]
  • [p]Now gives 1% reduction per level in manufacturing time for items that require the skill.[/p]

[p]Making the outpost construction skill worth training to higher levels since currently no item in the game requires it to be higher than level 3 to build, and the vast majority of items only require it at level 1.[/p]

[h3]Factional Warfare:[/h3]

• [p]The minimum requirement to join the Pirate FW Factions (Angel Cartel and Guristas) has been raised from -2.0 to 0.0 to match the four empire militias.[/p]

[p]We are raising the standing requirements for players and corporations to enlist with pirate insurgency factions from -2.0 to 0.0 as we said we would in the earlier patch notes released on the 26th of June.[/p][p]We are doing this to address concerns with team killing (Awoxing) in the pirate militias, which happens significantly more frequently in the pirate factions than the empire factions which already have a standings requirement of 0.0.[/p][p]By raising the minimum to 0.0, corporations can no longer add fresh characters to bring their corp standings up below -2.0 as was previously the case.[/p][p]We know this isn’t going to completely fix the problem with team killing in factional warfare, but we hope it will reduce the number of incidents in pirate militias for the time being.[/p]

• [p]Insurgency Balance[/p]
  • [p]Reduced the base amount of systems needed to be won from 7 to 5.[/p]
  • [p]Increased the ambition modifier cap from +13 to +15 (so winning 20 systems is still the maximum difficulty cap).[/p]
  • [p]Increased the weighting of Frontline and Command Ops systems for the Insurgency FOB when choosing a system for a new insurgency so that it is more likely to choose those systems.[/p]
  • [p]Increased the weighting of dominant control (when a side owns 66% or more of the warzone) so that the Insurgency FOB is more likely to choose those systems.[/p]
• [p]Insurgency Mining Ambush Sites[/p]
  • [p]Increased the signature radius of the Hijacker Taipans and Hijacker Echos from 25m to 80m (which is the same as the ORE Safeguard Atrons) so that they are much easier to track for players and the NPCs.[/p]
  • [p]Increased the shield hitpoints of the pirate and Mordus battleship NPCs by 50% to increase the time it takes to run the sites a bit and give more opportunities for players to get caught while running the site.[/p]

[p]The pirate tackle frigates had very low signature radius when compared to the ore tackle frigates, and were very hard to track for both players and NPCs. Additionally, the sites were getting run a bit faster than we would like so we’re increasing the time slightly by increasing the HP of the battleships.[/p]

[h3]Character Resculpt Update:[/h3]

• [p]It’s now possible to swap between the Male and Female body models using a Pilot’s Body Resculpt Certificate available from the NES.[/p]
• [p]As part of the update, every capsuleer receives a free character resculpt token that is bundled with the weekly 15,000 free Skill Points available in the New Eden Store. This is normally an Omega only benefit, but until 16 September only, it is available to Alphas as well![/p]

[h3]Capsuleer Safety in Highsec:[/h3]

• [p]Autothysian Lancers:[/p]
  • [p]In the aftermath of the Drifter Crisis, the Autothysian Lancers no longer have a presence in high security space.[/p]
• [p]Forward Operating Bases:[/p]
  • [p]Forward Operating bases that would previously spawn in highsec are now spawning in lowsec, and at a higher rate.[/p]

[p]We’ve been looking into the subject of capsuleer safety in highsec, and as part of our investigation we've noticed that new players do lose ships to Autothysian Lancers and 'diamond rats' (from the FOBs). While the new player journey should include the experience of ship loss, destruction at the hands of Autothysian Lancers and diamond rats does not adequately teach new players about how to improve their survivability. The issue of highsec safety is an ongoing discussion that will require further time and continuing feedback.[/p]

[h3]Missions & NPCs:[/h3]

• [p]Significantly increased NPC buy order quantities for the following commodities:[/p]
  • [p]Rogue Drone Infestation Data.[/p]
  • [p]Neural Network Analyzer.[/p]
  • [p]Sleeper Data Library.[/p]
  • [p]Ancient Coordinates Database.[/p]
  • [p]Sleeper Drone AI Nexus.[/p]

[p]The new buy order quantities will mean no more stack splitting for all but the most determined of hoarders. These quantities have been split more equally across all applicable stations, meaning you can expect a consistent experience no matter which Corporation you choose to sell to.[/p]

[h3]New Contribution Methods for Freelance Jobs:[/h3][p]Freelance Jobs now include three new contribution methods, giving more options for corporations.[/p]

• [p]Destroy Capsuleer: Project Managers can now set up Freelance Jobs that reward destroying specific capsuleers or organizations.[/p]
• [p]Remote Boost Shield: Earn rewards by boosting allies’ shields through Freelance Jobs.[/p]
• [p]Remote Repair Armor: Earn rewards by repairing allies’ armor through Freelance Jobs.[/p]

[h3]Pochven:[/h3]

• [p]Smaller-scale sites have had some mechanical tweaks:[/p]
  • [p]All such sites will now appear within the Triglavian Invasions Opportunities page.[/p]
  • [p]NPCs within EDENCOM Scout Fleets will no longer have mixed factions (e.g. Amarr NPCs will no longer appear with Caldari).[/p]
  • [p]Battleship NPCs will no longer spawn during the first wave in these sites.[/p]
  • [p]Moved NPC spawn locations to reduce bumping with the hackable container.[/p]
  • [p]Various improvements to how NPCs within these sites handle idling and swapping targets.[/p]
  • [p]NPCs will now make more consistent use of their microwarpdrives.[/p]
  • [p]A Rogue Drone battleship will now always spawn during the 2nd or 3rd wave of an Incipient Drone Swarm site.[/p]

[p]Adding the sites to the Triglavian Invasions page has their location visible at any range within the region. This should promote more purposeful movement around the triangle while also offering a way for hunters to locate potential targets.[/p][p]Separating the EDENCOM subfactions will mean there are less types of EWAR to deal with per instance. This should bring the difficulty of the site more in-line with that of the Convocation Watchpost.[/p][p]Lastly, battleships spawning in the initial wave could result in swings in difficulty and time requirements. This was especially true for Incipient Drone Swarms, which could take far longer when multiple battleships spawned. Now, battleships will only spawn during the 2nd or 3rd wave. A battleship spawn is guaranteed in Incipient Drone Swarm sites, both to supply standings gains and to ensure the site runtime is a decent length.[/p]

• [p]Rebalanced Torpid Sleeper Hives distribution and rewards:[/p]
  • [p]Increased the number of sites present within the region to 6 (from 3).[/p]
  • [p]Decreased the optimal per-pilot ISK payout to 27m (from 33m).[/p]
  • [p]Decreased the average number of Stability Telemetry commodities within the hackable container.[/p]
• [p]Increased the optimal per-pilot ISK payout earned within Convocation Watchpost and EDENCOM Scout Fleet sites to 18m (from 15m).[/p]

[p]Three instances of this site proved to not be enough to meet demand, so the number of sites has been doubled. Rewards have been rebalanced to compensate for the greater potential faucet.[/p][p]Convocation Watchpost and EDENCOM Scout Fleet sites continue to be less appealing than Incipient Drone Swarms and Torpid Sleeper Hives due to their negative standings effects. The payout increase aims to reward those who are willing to put up with the additional dangers these standings hits cause.[/p]

• [p]Optimal per-pilot payouts for Observatory Flashpoint sites have been increased to 150m ISK (from 120m ISK).[/p]
• [p]Micro Jump Drives can no longer be activated within the lobby area of Observatory Flashpoint sites.[/p]
• [p]The Observatory Flashpoint failure timer will now only start after the initial guard NPCs are destroyed within the main combat area.[/p]

[p]The previous change to site rewards had an outsized effect on groups running non-Marauder setups. We are adjusting the payout values of the site so it is still valuable for these groups.[/p][p]To compensate for the reward reversion, a Micro Jump Drive block has been added to the lobby of these sites. This is intended to reduce the usefulness of Marauders within that area.[/p][p]In addition, the site must now be fully in-progress before the failure timer begins ticking down. This is to prevent players rerolling the site spawn without any effort.[/p]

• [p]NPCs within Vigilance Point sites have had a number of balance changes:[/p]
  • [p]NPCs will now utilize microwarpdrives to close distances.[/p]
  • [p]NPCs will move more slowly when within their optimal orbit range.[/p]
  • [p]Inertia modifiers and mass values have been adjusted to make NPCs more agile.[/p]
  • [p]Optimal weapon ranges have been increased and falloff ranges have been added.[/p]
  • [p]Weapon tracking has been improved significantly.[/p]
  • [p]Shield and armor resistances have been reduced.[/p]
  • [p]Signature radii for Frigates, Destroyers, and Cruisers have been increased.[/p]
  • [p]Signature radii for Battleships have been decreased.[/p]
• [p]Drifter officers within Vigilance Point sites must now be destroyed before the next wave spawns to increase the Destroy Drifter Commanders counter.[/p]
• [p]Vigilance Point site beacons will now appear within their lobby area instead of the combat area.[/p]
• [p]Vigilance Point site beacons will now persist after the site is completed.[/p]
• [p]Vigilance Point acceleration gates will now be accessible without a key after the site is completed.[/p]

[p]A common solution to this site has been kiting NPCs and largely ignoring them, which goes against the intended gameplay loop. As such, outrunning these NPCs has been made much more difficult. NPCs will now be more of a threat, but are also easier to destroy.[/p][p]The change to when Drifter officers must be destroyed aims to increase the challenge when attempting to draw out Strategos. This also prevents Allecto’s blind fury being used as a tool to help clear multiple waves.[/p][p]The beacon and acceleration gate behavior has been made consistent with Observatory Flashpoint sites. This prevents them being usable as safe locations following the site’s completion.[/p]

• [p]Overmind Nursery Groves have been partially rebalanced:[/p]
  • [p]Replaced the Triglavian Survey Databases found when salvaging an Overmind Nursery Nest with Triglavian salvage materials.[/p]
  • [p]Reduced the maximum number of sites to 9 (from 10).[/p]
  • [p]A beacon will now spawn in the site’s lobby area when the site completes.[/p]

[p]Replacing the red loot with Triglavian salvage gives a way to acquire these materials without damage to Triglavian standings.[/p][p]The average value for this site has increased fairly significantly with this change, resulting in a small tweak to the number of sites available. Also, the number is now divisible by 3.[/p][p]Like with Vigilance Point sites, the beacon has been added to prevent the site being a safe haven once the site ends.[/p]

[h3]Science & Industry:[/h3]

• [p]Increased metenox daily consumption from 3600 to 4800 (from 150 hourly to 200).[/p]
• [p]Decreased magmatic gas volume from 0.1 to 0.01.[/p]

[p]We are actively working towards a stronger long-term solution for the Metenox and its impact. These changes are meant to be short-term iterations to nudge the Metenox in the right direction, while we take the time we need to find a better long-term solution.[/p]

[h3]Sovereignty:[/h3]

• [p]🤝 It’s now possible to configure Skyhooks while they activating (during the 30 minute window).[/p]
• [p]🤝 It’s now possible to configure Skyhooks remotely through the ‘My Orbital Skyhooks’ page.[/p]

[h3]Wormholes:[/h3]

• [p]Wandering k-space wormhole connections have been added to C4 wormhole systems:[/p]
  • [p]S047 will connect to high-sec systems.[/p]
  • [p]N290 will connect to low-sec systems.[/p]
  • [p]K329 will connect to null-sec systems.[/p]
  • [p]Each of these new wormholes will be battleship-sized.[/p]
  • [p]These wormholes will be significantly rarer than those found in C5 and C6 systems.[/p]
• [p]Z142 and C248 wormholes will now spawn more frequently.[/p]
• [p]Scan levels for certain wormholes have been changed:[/p]
  • [p]Wandering wormholes Z647, D382, U574, V753, V911, and W237 from level 1 to level 2.[/p]
  • [p]Wandering wormholes O477, Y683, E175, and Z457 from level 2 to level 1.[/p]
  • [p]Wandering wormholes R474 and B274 from level 3 to level 2.[/p]
  • [p]Wormhole S199 within low-sec from level 2 to level 3.[/p]
  • [p]Wormhole M267 from level 3 to level 2.[/p]
• [p]J492 wormholes will now appear within wormhole systems.[/p]

[p]The goal for these new(-ish) C4 wormholes and increased frequency of Z142 and C248 wormholes is to give residents access to more content opportunities. In addition, those in C4s may occasionally luck into a direct to high-sec connection![/p][p]Scan levels have been tweaked for both consistency and usability. Any wormhole that can appear as both static and wandering will now use different scan levels so they are more easily distinguishable.[/p]

• [p]Information window descriptions for wormholes have been updated:[/p]
  • [p]The messages for the wormhole’s destination, maximum ship size, lifetime, and mass stability have been simplified.[/p]
  • [p]Lifetime and Mass Stability messages now include color for improved readability.[/p]
  • [p]A 1-hour remaining lifetime message has been added.[/p]
  • [p]A Drifter wormhole destination message has been added.[/p]
  • [p]A C13 wormhole destination message has been added.[/p]

[p]This change aims to improve the readability of wormhole messaging and remove an unintuitive barrier for newer players. Messages will no longer need to be decoded and can now be read as plain text. The new destination messages have been added to make them more clearly distinct from C1-C3 wormholes. These additions should still leave plenty of room for mastery, such as learning to narrow down locations further via wormhole names or appearances.[/p][p]The 1-hour remaining message gives players a bit more clarity to the level of risk they are taking when jumping through a wormhole near its end of life. This should be especially useful for those jumping through frigate wormholes.[/p]

• [p]The warp-in and spawn points within C2 cosmic anomaly sites have been adjusted.[/p]
• [p]The targeting prioritization for Capital Escalation site Drifter NPCs is now much more varied.[/p]
• [p]The value of loot dropped from Upgraded Avenger NPCs has increased to 50m ISK (from 35m).[/p]
• [p]Deepflow Rift sites will no longer spawn within wormholes.[/p]

[p]Many of the spawn points found in C2 cosmic anomaly sites were extremely far apart. This resulted in a lot of time within the site being dedicated to just moving between locations. Having the spawns closer together makes running these sites more enjoyable and rewarding.[/p][p]Capital Escalation site Drifters often focused logistics ships when present, making it easier for higher value ships to avoid danger. These NPCs are now much more likely to vary the kinds of ships they target.[/p][p]Upgraded Avenger NPCs will only appear and remain within a Capital Escalation site that has been escalated. Increasing the rewards earned by defeating these NPCs further encourages the use of capitals for this content, creating more juicy targets out in space.[/p][p]Deepflows Rifts have generally been considered out-of-place within the wormhole ecosystem and as such have been removed. Already existing sites will remain but will not respawn once completed.[/p]

[h3]Defect Fixes:[/h3][h3]Gameplay:[/h3]

• [p]Rorquals, FAX and Jump Freighters will now be blocked from sites which disallow other capital ships from entering.[/p]
• [p]The Retriever is now shown on the Astrogeology skill as ‘required for’ at level 3 like the other 2 mining barges.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a Sansha NPC showing up in the Serpentis Variation of the ‘Violent Expulsion’ level 1 mission.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Angel Sentry towers being used in the Serpentis Rally Point instead of Serpentis sentry towers.[/p]

[h3]Localization:[/h3]

• [p]Fixed a typo in the name of the Consortium Vorton Tuning System.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a typo in the name of the Ship Restrictions for the Pirate Interception missions.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the name of Mordu’s Legion in the Outer Ring region description.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a typo in the Delve region description.[/p]

[h3]Pochven:[/h3]

• [p]Fixed a very rare issue where a second Gallente Dreadnought could appear within Observatory Flashpoint sites.[/p]
• [p]NPCs within Observatory Flashpoints and smaller-scale sites will now correctly orbit within their EWAR effect ranges.[/p]
• [p]Drifter and Sleeper NPCs with remote repair effects can now repair their allies.[/p]