The biggy: Eve Online nullsec sovereignty changes announced

In Eve Online all the big stuff we read about goes down in nullsec, unpoliced space. Players own it, players fight over it. More specifically, the big powers fight over sovereignty of systems, which is where they get their resources and how they fund their wars.

This is all about to change. The nullsec populace has been sitting on its hands for months waiting to see what game developer CCP has planned for sovereignty, and now CCP has finally obliged them.

In a big fat post on the Eve Online community site, CCP Fozzie goes into detail. He outlines the thinking, some of the new mechanics and talks through a likely scenario to try and explain all the new bits.

"We know that when changing a system as complex and competitive as nullsec sovereignty, it is very important to provide adequate time to incorporate feedback and get the changes right," CCP Fozzie wrote.

"We have been discussing these designs in detail with the Council of Stellar Management for a little over a month now and we are releasing these dev blogs early so that we can get the crucial public feedback process started as soon as possible.

"Our current plan is to release Phase Two of the Nullsec and Sovereignty revamp in June 2015." That date is "open to change".

He concluded: "Sovereignty is a huge priority for CCP in our plans for 2015 and we are not going to hold back when it comes to making bold changes to the nullsec landscape."

The discussion will continue at the annual FanFest gathering in Iceland, between players and developers, the event taking place 19th - 21st March.

CCP kicked off its nullsec revamp with the release of patch Phoebe in November. That update effectively made space bigger - made it harder for people to zip across the galaxy to a fight far, far away. You may know this as dogpiling. The result was big nullsec power-blocs consolidating their power in space they could now realistically defend, and jettisoning/selling-off the rest.