Two and a half years since the Citadel expansion was released, we're finally on the home stretch of the original Structure roadmap outlined at Fanfest 2014 in the screenshot above. While the timeline lies in ruin (Citadels were originally planned to be released at the end of 2014 and Engineering Complexes a few months later), the direction remains consistent.

There's been a huge pile of news the last few weeks between Test Server dumps, CCP announcements and some interesting points from the CSM minutes. If you haven't been following closely this post should bring you up to speed with what we're hoping and expecting to hear from EVE Vegas.

Jammers, Gens and Jump Bridges

CCP are expected to outline their finalised plans for Navigational structures this weekend. As said much has been gleaned from test server dumps CSM minutes, let's take a quick look at the old structures.

The old process for navigation modules was quite simple. At a strategic index of 2 for the Beacon or 3 for the Jammers/Jump Bridges, you could install an IHUB upgrade for each respective module. Cynosural Navigation for Cyno Gens, Cynosural Suppresion for Cyno Jammers and Advanced Logistics Network for Jump Bridges. These modules cost a few hundred million to build and while I'm struggling to find an actual source on figures for Aegis sov, under Dominion they had upkeep costs of 4m, 12.5m and 25m per day for the Gen, Jump Bridge and Jammer respectively. The POS modules themselves all have 16m EHP between Shield and Armor to incap. The Generator takes 10s to anchor and 5 minutes to online, the Jammer takes 5 minutes to anchor and 30 minutes to online, and the Jump Bridge takes 30 seconds to anchor and 30 minutes to online.







The new structures follow a similar pattern. The IHUB upgrades will remain (although I suspect will no longer have an associated upkeep fee). There is then a new Upwell structure for each role that has no tether, docking or offensive capabilities, but - based on new strings found in test server dumps - can be boarded like a ship and the new service module for their respective roles can be onlined and offlined from the fitting window. Each structure has different levels of HP though none of them look like final figures. They do however all maintain the 5k DPS base damage cap inline with existing Medium Structures. Access to their respective capabilities will be controlled via ACLs, infact Jump Bridges can have different ACLs at each end by the sounds of it. As of today's Singularity update we also have this shown in the top left in null sov systems:

One of the most interesting debates from the last CSM Summit was the structures panel where CCP revealed their plans for what's now being announced at Vegas.I'd highly recommend reading the whole thing here, however here's a choice extract:

The CSM has concerns about how squishy the structures are and how the timers work in conjunction with the structure service being available. The cyno jammer structure was the main focus of this discussion, although concerns also existed about the other navigation structures. The CSM asks if they can be anchored within range of Citadels and CCP Fozzie responded they will be anchorable within weapons range of other Upwell Structures as they will not have weapons of their own. The exact ranges are still undecided.. Jin'taan says the 24 hour vulnerability works great for structures with 3 timers, but doesn't work well in this case. Sort Dragon asks what the damage cap is and CCP Fozzie says that hasn't been decided but will probably be less than an Astrahus. Sort Dragon says this will be the worst change to 0.0 in the last 10 years and says the team should go back to the drawing board.

Key Questions for Vegas

How long will it take to online a Cyno Jammer?

Final numbers to reinforce/incap each structure?

What will the fatigue factor be if any on Jump Bridges?

Will these structures all have 3 timers?

Are CCP adament that about it being possible to anchor these modules within weapons range of a Citadel?

What was the conclusion on the self-destruct mechanic discussed at the CSM Summit?

Upwell Monuments (aka Advertising Centres)







Given the lack of final visuals it's quite hard to comment on these, but the gist is that these are the billboards that have been discussed for years. Like the navigation structures they have no tether, docking or offensive modules and a single service slot that fills their role. They have the same HP stats as the Raitaru and Athanor though this is likely placeholder.

I'm sure these will get a mention, but they look months away from release.

Group Abyssal Sites

Today's Singularity update contained a ton of new items and text relating to group Abyssal sites. It appears that one pilot activates the the filament on behalf of fleet, and the filament is then useable in space by members of the fleet similar to a wormhole. There's also this ominous sounding bit of text: