Bitter Vet
Things that most vets returning to the game need this type of detail to understand changes to the game.
Bitter vets returning to the game, or people looking to expand their knowledge. Last updated: 2024 Q4
Please read the guide on Asset Safety if your stuff is stuck in low sec! It's easy to evac it.
The key points:
Shuttles are now bubble immune, and a few ships can fit a module to do it: Interdiction Nullification.
Click 'A' next to 'Route' on the left hand side. `Include Jump Gate in Route`. This enables jump gates in your routes.
Most overviews and interfaces have been overhauled under Photon. Change windows to 'floating' instead of full screen helps a lot.
You can do multi-overviews now, but has weird rules. Kisover is my overview that explains this a bit.
If you have been logged off for awhile, you can open a ticket with CCP and have them move a single ship with your best stuff to safe space directly. Just put it as 'stuck' and explain your return. Note, they will move any ship besides a capital or a freighter, so repackaging ships into a hauler or taking your most expensive ship is best. Pay attention to what pod you are in as well!
Note, if you have been gone awhile, go to Neocom | Activities | Agency | Agents | Career Agents and do those. See Newbie section if you've been gone a long time.
CCP also has an official returning to eve page - https://support.eveonline.com/hc/en-us/articles/6387243601180-Returning-to-EVE-Online
There have been several major changes for older players, which I'll repeat going backwards as best as I can remember. Note, MANY ships recieved nerfs/buffs over the years!
There is a new First Person Shooter beta testing called Vanguard, it's free with Omega, running a beta test once a month. There is also semi-open testing for an Eve Online crypto-based game called Eve Frontier.
Major nullsec sov changes have arrived and already been iterated upon. This is a semi nerf to null sec, with major changes in mining and drone sites. Equinox expansion has my early predictions, some of which have been addressed, but still remains a problem.
Air Career Program and dailies are no longer farmable on alts. All Skill points are applied immediately on the character that earned them.
Can no longer take an Ansiblex while tackled (pointed or bubbled) while making them smaller, no longer auto repair, and they were moved away from gates.
AI was changed in most Null sec ratting sites that shoot drones between waves. This does not affect squads or smaller ones, but most others. Also, patrols and hordes might spawn a dread that points you in about 10 seconds. The increased bounty values were reversed as well.
Faction Warfare is again worth it because anyone can participate. They also added Angel and Guristas Faction Warfare, which added Insurgencies which can change high sec to low sec, and low sec to null sec.
Multiple new mechanics added: Mercenary Dens to steel things on temperate planets, skyhooks that can be stolen in a window, and Metanoxes that means no mining to get materials out.
Filaments have a spin up time from 15-150 seconds depending on size, making them combat probable.
Singularity aka the test server, has been removed from the game as a reliable way to test things.
Capitals are somewhat expensive now, due to mining changes, though most ships went WAY up in price due to Scarcity push by CCP. Faction and Lancer Dreads got added. Almost nobody does carrier ratting due to filament changes. Filaments lets an entire group land in your system with little warning. Due to blue eyes and NPC dreads, Carriers are near impossible to rat in. While the Equinox Expansion added a micro jump drive effect and a conduit ability, but Carriers still are little used. Dreads Insurance was supposedly buffered but still hasn't taken effect as promised.
Revenant in 2025/03/12 attempts to decrease the cap and battleship price spikes by a 25% amount reduction of materials. Two weeks later, seems partially successful but still 250 mil for a battleship.
Major sales tax increases, so the difference between an omega and an alpha selling something without faction is now almost 6% different.
Interdictor nullification can be put on haulers now, even Interceptors need the module.
Warp Core Stabilizers are now limited to one per ship, and require activation to work.
There is a new UI called Photon UI. Biggest change is light/dark mode, and you can right click and warp a full menu earlier, don't have to navigate down. My Eve UI needs to be updated a bit, but still applies.
Some ships are no longer really used due to their high prices. T2 and Faction stuff has come way down in some cases, while others like the Gila are just absurdly expensive for what they are. Ships are great has a big list of great ships right now.
There are changes in the blue donut, allowing smaller corporations to get a placeholder in null sec without interference from the null blocks. The Great South Eastern Agreement is over, but Horde is still honoring it.
Marauders got buffed with bastion changes, great for PVP and PVE. Has supplanted most carrier and battleship game play. Note, do NOT fly Ravens or Rattlesnakes. Bigger isn't better has these changes to filaments!
CRAB Beacons have replaced nearly all capital ratting. This is doable in a carrier + other cap/super, solo dread, or solo super, only in certain 'protected' space under a supercap umbrella. It's often recommended to have a partner. New Capital ratting sites are also here, but not great income.
Hac nerf came in, wiped out most hacs other than the eagle and zealots. Large fleet engagements went to faction BS and Marauders. VNI also got nerfed along with a lot of other ships heere and there.
Multiboxing mining is now mostly barges instead of Rorquals due to rorqual nerfs.
They added an additional SCC surcharge component of industry of 4%, making industry very hard to do for most new players. A cruiser BPO can cost around 50-90 mil to fully upgrade. Stacked on the tax increases, it makes it very hard for alpha to do industry.
Ore compression is a thing now, possible in player owned citadels for belt ore, and an active module for non-belt ore, only available on certain ships, the Orca and Rorqual.
Regular cynos can only be lit by HICS (new 2025), Force Recons, Blackops, anchored beacons, and an new deployable that costs around 40 mil for 1 hour.
ESS (Encounter Surveillance System) takes 40% of your income and squirrels it away for 3 hours for Null sec ratting . If nobody runs it in 3 hours, congrats, you get 2 extra tics per hour.
They created new space called 'Pochven'. It's a triangle for Triglavians and Edencomm. They took over parts of high sec, so you can have stuff stuck there moved for you or use filaments to get it out. This space operates like null sec without local. Great isk in there for a good enough fleet!
Drifter holes link together vast areas of space. This has like 60 wormholes that connect everywhere. They're usually easy to map yourself. Thera is mapped heavily by eve-scout. See Wormhole Navigation
Jump gates do not give you jump fatigue. Jump fatigue is capped at 5 hours, or 30 minute timer each jump at max fatigue.
Filaments make it super easy for you to escape or get content. If you can stay safe, you can exfil null sec easily now. Multiple types of filaments were added to move you to different null sec, pochven, and high sec systems. I have more details in my Exploration guide. or read below.
You cannot reset the tutorial without starting a new char. To cancel out of the tutorial, click the ? in the upper right corner of the blue box with aura. Thanks to William Pierce in game for pointing this out!
CCP tested Blackout, which stopped local being updated in null, and it cost them 10-20% of their player base.
Even old accounts can claim recruiter links. You can easily give yourself free omega on old accounts doing this. See the Home page how this works.
Eve Portal, the only working mobile interface, got discontinued. https://forums.eveonline.com/t/eve-portal-discontinued/429351
Eve Mon got a new home, check Eve Sites for a link.
I'll have more, I'll think about how to order these. I've included some links to the only other part of information we have, unfortunately.
https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Interdiction_Nullifier
https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Filament
I did one of these back for a 2016 version on The Imperium site a long time ago for much older vets returning.