Outpost Update #8 January 2012
Super long post update sniper (notice no EDIT at the end of my post, despite horrible spelling mistakes!)
Outpost Update #8 January 2012 Outpost deployments.
My normal Caveat:If you don't like it, skip it. If you don't like outposts and upgrading space this isn't for you, it's for the people that DO enjoy this stuff. STOP READING if you don't like this stuff!1!1!1!eleven!1!!!
This update will be long(ish), it might require a sammich, or maybe just a small snack, I recommend reading it while eating lunch or some food after coming home from work.
Corrections/Explanations
1. Update Schedule - I'm trying to keep with my schedule of every two weeks of putting an outpost update down for people to see when and where outposts have been deployed. This update #8 will be a catch up of January's deployments I missed while away from game
2. Outpost advice service - I still haven't done this, but I cleared the last 4 cases I was working on, I have a possible plan to attempt but I'm checking around first before I launch it. It'll need some isk I don't really want to sink into it after just reactivating 11 accounts with Plex's.
3. Outpost Regional Historicals - I'm getting these together but I try to get a hold of some people that lead certain alliances, at the same time I put a bunch of effort into a plan for some people I like and that ruined my time for the Cloud Ring historical. I'll be trying to get that out this week now that I have a few days off. Stay tuned and if YOU have some info about outposts, outpost upgrades that have occurred or outposts that were planned but never went down or were destroyed, please contact me in game and give me the story. I'll gladly credit people for the story and get the history out there for this, admittedly, fringe group of people that like this stuff.
In the month of January a total of 9 outposts were dropped in 30 days, An average of one every 3.1 days. The pace of outposts has been much slower then 2011 but that would be explained by the mineral buff that's increased outposts from about 12 billion isk to somewhere around 21 to 23 billion isk each. With outposts at double the price now it is no wonder why the pace of their deployments has slowed. On top of that suitable places to put outposts down are actually drying up slowly and the choice to not put an outpost down rather then spend 20 billion for the hell of it actually shows some restraint and planning.
Stats
9 outposts
4 Refineries
3 Office
1 Factories
1 Research
Like every month I've every written these updates we see that refineries again have tied or stayed in the top position, people continue to think that a refinery is the way their alliance will make a good amount of income. Having office outposts appear in second place for a change shows that during the month of January people weren't trying to tie factories to refineries and instead were adding office space and making entire constellations easier to be exploited. 3rd place was a tie between factories and research outposts, I still say research outposts are terribly designed and need 30 base lines of EACH ME, PE, Copy and Invention to be worth the 22 billion isk price tag, but those changes go unnoticed by CCP.
So onto the Updates!
The North
BranchGall outpost in RO90-H Goonswarm Federation (GF) http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Branch/RO90-H#sec this was dropped right after the White Noise war where GF conquered all of branch then gave away something like 85% of it to allies. The outpost is the 1st Gallente outpost in the constellation and the 5th outpost deployed in the constellation. With the horrible deployment of the MA-VDX refinery station next door by the now defunct Stella PolarisDOT there really wasn't any other option.
This deployment serves a number of purposes first of which is obviously a number of offices 1 jump back from the Venal border, this allows a 'guard tower' type of situiation to be present and without extensive auto piloting corrections anyone roaming from Venal will have to go through this system. It's location also allows capital projection into Venal to help control the 70+ tech moons there. Since the deployment of the outpost the 3 GF systems have seen very little ratting, which is common for even good systems on travel paths. While the two FCON outposts next door have seen a massive surge in activity for carebears. The constellation is very much 'done' at this point and no longer needs any additional outposts to be fully functional, even a Caldari research outpost can (and is) beat by a single Medium Caldari tower with 3 regular labs and 3 advanced labs so there is no need for it. The constellation is quite good for security status and two of it's over -0.75 aren't on the travel path and are a good source of Mercoxit for industry. As the drone region nerf continues to trickle down Morphite stocks are continuing to slowly tick upwards, I hope both owners of this constellation benefit from it.
Pure BlindFactory in F-NMX6 Fatal Ascension (FA) http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Pure_Blind/F-NMX6#sec this factory is the first outpost in the constellation, with one of the two NPC area's in Pure blind 2 jumps away and F-NM being a 'choke point' system this deployment makes a good amount of sense. With the old I.S.S. gallente outpost of P-2TTL being two jumps away this deployment could be a long term plan that could work well for FA in the future. Everyone knows Pure blind is absolutely crap for system sec status, with only EC-P8R having the lowest at a miserable -0.45. However with the two different NPC area's available alliances could make a good deal of money for their members at least by running them, even having teams of people join others with level 4 agents so the grind from level 1 agents to level 4 agents isn't so bad.
Note to people of Pure Blind. http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Pure_Blind/G8-D09#sov this constellation could become a ratters paradise, drop a refinery in R6XN-9, which allows ice belt refining (if anyone dares mine on a travel path) but lets people get to X-7OMU in one jump and 5ZXX-K in two jumps. A factory in 3V8-LJ provides a point for builders to supply ratters/mission runners with supplies and a Gall office in DP--1YE allows both ratting centers to be hit within two jumps in any direction. The side benefit of further 'trapping' in the NPC space within the area with more offices for PVP corps while allowing PVE operations to pay them off isn't bad either.
The East
Perrigen Falls
R-AG7W Gall outpost in R-AG7W Legion of Xdead (Xdeath) http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Perrigen_Falls/R-AG7W#sec this is the first gallente office outpost in the constellation and the second outpost in the constellation ever. This outpost was deployed during the Xdeath/Solar war when Xdeath was having problems with it's other office systems being head shotted by Solar and company. It is in a good position to have access to Malpais and yet still be within easy gate or jump distance of the two gallente offices in the constellation next door. Between the 3 gallente office outposts almost an entire coalition can fit between the two constellations. For this constellation however the need for more outposts isn't really there, with so many outposts in Perrigen Falls almost any need can be filled within a few jumps, the constellation to the 'south' has 3 factories with every single constellation in P falls that touches this constellation having a factory within it for easy use. Since most alliances simply import from Jita during wars the need for a factory isn't even present. I would consider this constellation (and almost this entire region) done for outpost deployments, there will be more dropped obviously but the need for refineries and gallente office outposts at the moment is non-existent in the entire region.
Cobalt EdgeGall outpost in HB-5L3 Intrepid Crossing (IRC) http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Cobalt_Edge/HB-5L3#sec deployed the first gallente office outpost in the constellation, this is the 6th outpost for the constellation and the only office outpost in that constellation. This deployment sits on the Tenal border and with Razor, GF and the entire CFC looking for good fights IRC space has proved a good place to 'joy ride' into. Fights have been happening almost daily for the last year+ and this office puts a place for the majority of IRC's corps to have an office and try to have a camped up system defense instead of allowing one of their best constellations to be swarmed before a defense is haphazardly assembled between 3 or 4 different outposts.
The constellation is setup in an interesting pattern and shows the signs of multiple owners over the years. Originally Dusk to Dawn (D2) held some systems here then evolved into Mostly Harmless, and deployed the 3 factories and 1 refinery here. Eventually Legion of Xdeath and Solar decided that they could nuke all of the orginal Northern entities that were squatting in the drone lands and blitzed out Mostly Harmless, I.R.O.N. and Atlas over the course of a year. This was mostly during the time when Prom and Dyspo were worth so much so the territories were filled with renters instead of either Xdeath or Solar taking anything but the best systems for themselves, and of course the moons.
Back to the constellation IRC have added the research outpost in 1GT-MA and now this office outpost, with these additions the constellation can be considered 'done' and needs no further outposts to have access to all services. It's worth noting that the Q-V factory outpost is at level 2, while both 42S and VY- are at level 1. This, should give almost 87 factory lines across the 3 amarr outposts with an additonal 6 across the other 3 types of outposts for a total of 93 factory slots. Office wise the constellation has an astounding 48 office slots to cram almost all of IRC into for defense, roaming or carebearing. The constellation is setup pretty decently as is, I would consider upgrading the outposts further as the region of Cobalt Edge is mostly 'full' of outposts. The region only needs a few ice belt refineries to be complete, but they aren't super important, all in all I would give this deployment and the way Cobalt edge is setup as a whole a thumbs up. People might hate on IRC for only allowing refineries in the holding corp but it HAS prevented refinery spam like we've seen in Oasa, P Falls, Providence and Outer Passage, where all of those regions can claim refineries within 2 jumps of another refinery.
MalpaisResearch in 8C-VE3 Shadow of XdeathX (SOD) http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Malpais/8C-VE3#sec deployed this research outpost in this constellation, it is the first and only outpost in the constellation as of this writing and was most likely deployed with no other options in the constellation existed for a better choice. The entire constellation is low true sec and bad belt counts, the good systems that do have good belt counts are on the travel path systems and the entire constellation seems to be a 'runner up' choice for the corp that choose it. I like the fact that it is a caldari research outpost, despite the fact that research outposts are quite literally useless at this time (CCP still doesn't understand that 3 characters can MAX out the outpost on their own). The choice for this placement most likely came from the fact that the corp that deployed it was renting this system and wanted to have access to a place to dock more then what the outpost could provide them. Coupled with the I-hub upgrade to spawn more wormholes this outpost can become a bit more useful, but that also means you can have wormhole roamers a bit to often as well. It's a mixed bag deployment that will most likely be ignored as most people consider Malpais a secondary region with alliances that are extremely quiet and like to carebear in peace.
The South
CatchRefinery EX6-AO Legio Astartes Arcanum (LEGIO) http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Catch/EX6-AO#sec deployed this refinery. When this was dropped it was the 2nd outpost in the constellation and the 1st refinery in the constellation. Since then En Garde has dropped a factory on the western tip of the constellation and made this travel path constellation much more useful. This refinery placement however I do like, with the outposts deployed in Catch over the years the intel channels for the owners of this outpost give them tons of warning if roamers are coming in. Despite not having Dark Glitter in the ice belt the refinery is in a decent placement, the ice belt means the fuels needed by caps and POS's could be flowing all the time with a watchful group. With the research outpost next door providing some basic services and the V-3YG7 outpost one system past that this deployment becomes even better, the ore concentrations in system aren't that good, but I-Hub mining upgrades make that hurt less these days.
The best way to make this constellation better would be to switch from a 'refinery' pioneer mindset to a 'factory' industrialist mindset. With CNC providing refinery services at the southern part of the constellation, and the gallente office outpost in CZK providing offices, there is no further need for refineries in this constellation. However factories in any of the remaining systems would enable docking points and building services. I know this mindset is hard to switch to, but EVE has been going this way for years. Refineries only take a few seconds to do their job, factories however are almost always needed, and when you get into super cap building the need for factory lines shoots into the stratosphere.
Providence
Refinery 1-1I53 Yulai Federation (YF) http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Providence/1-1I53 deployed this refinery. This is the 5th outpost in the constellation and the 2nd refinery. And as usual with Providence this is a terrible deployment, being the 18th refinery in this region of 84 systems for an amazing 21.4% of the systems in this region now having a god damn refinery. I know the mandate of the CVA holders is to make this region an extension of empire in some way and that's perfectly fine, but my god guys. Build ANYTHING but refineries. *cough* okay with that out of the way lets get down to the constellation: With the factory next door ZT-L and YF holding sov there, this is probably their best option, but the refinery in N8XA next door makes this refinery redundant in the extreme. With the 3 factories in a row this constellation has absolutely no need for more refineries, there will most likely be one placed in the G-B22J system because Care Factor holds a factory next door. The empire link to Domain in R3- however makes this constellation incredibly interesting, a Jump freighter technically could undock from the Amarr station and jump directly on top of almost any station in the region. So building super caps in this region is quite easy, with the 'Burning' of Providence I'm not sure if the Provi holders do that anymore but it might be possible.
Insmother
Refinery F39H-1 Red Citizens (RC) http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Insmother/F39H-1#sec deployed this refinery. This is the 2nd outpost in the constellation and the 2nd refinery. This refinery could have been placed in XKH next door for 2 more belts as well as giving better access to the W-6 system for carebearing, being one system forwards would have allowed more systems to be exploited in the constellation. Being under a renter alliance the building corp probably had no choice in the matter, but this is another example of politics screwing up sensible practice (much like real life am I right Americans). Now that region has since fallen to Solar the chance of this area being built up has again been taken off the table, this isn't a bad thing however. The region is very built up on the pioneer mindset of refineries, it seems to slowly be having factories spring up here and there but the mindset of refineries still has 3 or 4 constellations that 'could' use another refinery. I have a long personal history with insmother and have seen it go from no outposts all the way up to recently where it fell to Solar Fleet and has tons and tons of outposts from the time it was under RA and much of it became a renter heaven.
The constellation could use a few factories but that is literally all it needs, everything else is elsewhere and the constellation itself is on a travel path so it makes it quite annoying to do anything else. A factory in W-6GBI would be all I would recommend to make both refineries a tad more useful and then call the constellation 'done'.
The West
FountainRefinery R3W-XU Elite Space Guild (ESG) http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Fountain/R3W-XU#sec deployed this refinery. This is the 2nd refinery and 4th outpost for the constellation, this outpost was honestly not needed since ESG already had control of the BYXF refinery. It isn't a horrible deployment but it wasn't needed with the BYX refinery 3 jumps away, most people forget that a refinery takes literally one second to do it's job. A factory or research outpost can take days, weeks or even months to work, while a refinery will take 1 second with the click of a mouse. They only see that the refinery bay on the refinery keeps adding minerals and ice products to their hanger.
The one thing I can think the deployment of this refinery was for comes from hidden mining belts and the fact that the system is on a 'side' system that the auto pilot will not take anyone there unless you set the system there directly. The refinery was probably meant to pay itself off from the system by itself and having the PNQY system next door to use for a corp office and the 4 factory lines.
The constellation itself is setup well with the BYXF refinery, but I have to give the deploying corp correctly, a director in that corp contacted me and asked my opinion on why BYX would be a better choice compared to elsewhere. With the ice belt next door in C-C, people can mine ice in peace and bring it to BYX for refining, the factory in C-C isn't a horrible choice but some afk pvpers might decide to setup on the gate between the two systems, but with the true sec being so horrible I highly doubt anyone would care to unless this area became an alliances primary systems.
The wrap up!
This update took a TON of time since my corp tapped me to setup some stuff that I'm really good at, but I hate with a passion. So now that's all done and I have off all week (from rain) I'm going to try to update the outpost updates, the ISK making guide and try to write a few other things I've had sitting in the pipe. Expect a few more follow ups and I'm going to get the Cloud ring historical update out this week if it freaking KILLS me.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Don Peyote
) And you would have to invest materials to rebuild outposts. So soon, some stations would remain in ruins forever if there is no need to reconstruct them.
), I'm quite suprised they decided to leave. What FA is now left with is mostly shitbird ex BLM corps, corps that jumped ship rather quickly when things went south from Black mark...
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