preTLDR : Escalations nerf has been a direct nerf to content, could have been done better
I used to be a successful DED hunter, cruising trough null space with multiple accounts looking for DED site runners for hours, searching for t3cs/wrecks on dscan, probing them without being seen, sneaking up on them was my EVE.
Then comes the nerf, not sure how many anoms you need to clear on average to get an escalations but it’s very rare.
Think that what should have been done is simply reduce the Overseer’s value if CCP wanted to reduce ISK faucets, maybe reduce the drop rates too. Bonus points if you make the escalations spawn further/in the next region
Right now, ratters just stay in the same systems all day long, sure there are still some escalations procs but it still sucks for content, no more chase, no more hunt.
The escalation nerf was to reduce the faucet of Pirate Hull BPCs and other faction loot drops, not to reduce ISK faucets, the main ISK faucet problem at the moment is Carriers running Anoms not their escalations.
You may want to restructure your argument here, if you think you still have one, given that the reasoning you’re arguing against isn’t the reasoning CCP used when they nerfed escalation rates.
Not sure that is the case. When I was in a large null sec alliance the upgraded systems always had multiple carriers flitting between Sanctums and Havens, going through loads per hour. And Ishtar takes time to chew through those sites.
Gonna need some kind of source on that, because last time I checked the VNI wasn’t what’s been nerfed like 4 times since it was last changed and it takes anywhere between 5 and 8 VNIs to equal the hourly ISK of one Carrier…
They also lowered the drop rates, and you’ve presented no evidence that the reduction in players you’re seeing out and about is a result of the change in escalations. The escalation changes were over six months ago, it seems more likely to me that you’ve killed all the low hanging fruit and it’s either smartened up or cut its losses and gone off to do other things.
Plenty of people I know get escalations and simply don’t run them because it’s not worth their time compared to the risks involved.
Assuming you have 8 accounts, and a computer that can run them, and your profits are minus the cost of PLEX so you need to be able to run those 8 accounts for 7-PLEX a month more per month than you could 1 Carrier account just to break even. That’s the difference, roughly, between playing 40 hours a week each month and about 24 hours a week (rounded to 4 weeks to a month).
Everything we have as far as actual information points to Carriers, not VNIs, being the larger contributor to the current ISK influx. There just aren’t enough people who can run VNIs at the kind of scale required to even break even against a single Carrier let alone be really profitable.
I’m sure the VNI and other drone boats still contribute, but they don’t seem to be anywhere near the majority of the problem.