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Greetings capsuleers!

We recently made a few announcements in the Keynote and in the Structures presentation at Fanfest this year about the conversion of Outposts and Conquerable Stations to Upwell Strutcures. This devblog will outline the details you will need to know for what will be changing, when, and how you can best be prepared.

Outpost Replacement Event - coming June 5th 2018

TL;DR:

Every single Outpost and Conquerable Station will be converted into an upgraded Faction Fortizar during downtime on June 5th 2018

Be prepared for a longer than usual downtime for this change

These Faction Fortizars are powerful and limited edition – no more will be added

New Faction Citadels will belong to the last owner of the Outpost/Conquerable Station at the time of the change

Once Outposts and Conquerables are converted into Faction Citadels they will enter a temporary invulnerable mode

On June 7th structures will enter their standard shield vulnerable state

Further details on all of these points, and what you will need to do to prepare, are listed below. Please read this devblog carefully and thoroughly, and be sure to add any questions or concerns you have to the discussion in the comments thread for this blog.

Outposts and Conquerable Stations are changing

The Immensea Conquerable Stations and player-deployed Outposts have been an integral part of Null Sec space since their introduction in 2003 and 2005 respectively. These colossal structures have been the focal point of countless skirmishes, daring heists and the strongest of alliances. As Upwell Consortium continue their development of their own line of structures, their next daring steps are to reinvigorate these old testaments to New Eden's legacy, replacing them with upgraded Fortizar class structures. These new Faction Fortizars will be the most powerful of the class introduced to date and will be limited. No more of these types of Faction Fortizars will ever be added to New Eden. These structures are upgraded versions of the standard Fortizars, but no blueprints will be created for them - if these structures are destroyed, it will not be possible to replace them.

As the Conquerable Stations and Outposts have been such an important part of New Eden's history, permanent historic monuments will be erected on the sites of the Conquerable Stations and a select few of the especially storied Outposts. These monuments will include a simplified history of the station and system, and will be updated shortly after they are introduced to include the name of the alliance that controlled them last.

Introducing the Faction Fortizars

Upwell are introducing five new upgraded versions of the standard Fortizars - one for each type of Outpost and one for the Conquerable Stations. The Outpost replacement Fortizars will use a newly improved and enlarged model of the current Outposts, and will have bonuses connected to the roles they replace. These new hulls have been named by Upwell in a manner paying homage to the capsuleers who played a part in their original deployment.

‘Prometheus’ Service Fortizar

Replaces the Minmatar Service Outpost

Only 441 will ever exist

Named for “Prometheus Station”, the first ever Outpost in New Eden

Prometheus Station was deployed by Celestial Horizon corp and the Ascendant Frontier alliance in 5P-AIP

It was named for Prometheus Wrong, the player who sponsored its construction

Standard Fortizar bonuses plus reprocessing bonuses:

25% bonus to all structure combat rig effects

25% reduction in citadel and resource processing service module fuel consumption

2% bonus to refining yield for all variants of Ore and Ice

20% bonus to the rate of fire and capacitor consumption of Standup Burst Projectors and Guided Bomb Launchers

Slot layout: 7H (+1), 6M (+1), 4L; 3 Launchers Service Slots: 7 (+2) Fittings: 3.15M PWG (+450,000), 45,000 CPU (+7000) Hitpoints: 18M Shield (+3.6M), 18M Armor (+3.6M), 27M Hull (+5.4M) Capacitor capacity: 425,000GJ (+25,000) Fighter Bay: 5 Tubes, 350,000m3 Capacity (+50,000) Fighter Control: 5 Light, 3 Support (+1), 2 Heavy

‘Marginis’ Administrative Fortizar

Replaces the Gallente Administrative Outpost

Only 188 will ever exist

Named for “ISS Marginis”, the first Gallente Outpost in New Eden

ISS Marginis was built by the Interstellar Starbase Syndicate in KDF-GY

ISS Marginis was built from an IPO and was the first public freeport Outpost in EVE

Standard Fortizar bonuses with a much stronger service module fuel bonus:

25% bonus to all structure combat rig effects

50% reduction in all service module fuel consumption

20% bonus to the rate of fire and capacitor consumption of Standup Burst Projectors and Guided Bomb Launchers

Slot layout: 7H (+1), 5M, 5L (+1); 3 Launchers Service Slots: 8 (+3) Fittings: 3.2M PWG (+500,000), 43,000 CPU (+5000) Hitpoints: 14.4M Shield, 18M Armor (+3.6M), 32.4M Hull (+10.8M) Capacitor capacity: 425,000GJ (+25,000) Fighter Bay: 5 Tubes, 375,000m3 Capacity (+75,000) Fighter Control: 5 Light, 4 Support (+2), 2 Heavy0

'Draccous’ Manufacturing Fortizar

Replaces the Amarr Manufacturing Outpost

Only 398 will ever exist

Named for “Draccous Station”, the first ever Amarr Outpost in New Eden

Draccous Station was built by the EVE Defense Force corp of the Ascendant Frontier alliance in 0OYZ-G

Standard Fortizar bonuses plus manufacturing bonuses:

25% bonus to all structure combat rig effects

25% reduction in citadel and engineering service module fuel consumption

15% reduction in time requirements for manufacturing jobs

3% reduction in ISK requirements for manufacturing jobs

20% bonus to the rate of fire and capacitor consumption of Standup Burst Projectors and Guided Bomb Launchers

Slot layout: 7H (+1), 5M, 5L (+1); 3 Launchers Service Slots: 7 (+2) Fittings: 3.25M PWG (+550,000), 42,000 CPU (+4000) Hitpoints: 14.4M Shield, 21.6M Armor (+7.2M), 27M Hull (+5.4M) Capacitor capacity: 430,000GJ (+30,000) Fighter Bay: 5 Tubes, 400,000m3 Capacity (+100,000) Fighter Control: 5 Light, 3 Support (+1), 2 Heavy

‘Horizon’ Research Fortizar

Replaces the Caldari Research Outpost

Only 114 will ever exist

Named for the Celestial Horizon corporation that built many of the first Outposts (including the first Minmatar and Caldari ones)

The first Caldari Outpost was “Prometheus Research Station” built by Celestial Horizon of ASCN in GHZ-SJ

Standard Fortizar bonuses plus science bonuses:

25% bonus to all structure combat rig effects

25% reduction in citadel and engineering service module fuel consumption

15% reduction in time requirements for science jobs

3% reduction in ISK requirements for science jobs

20% bonus to the rate of fire and capacitor consumption of Standup Burst Projectors and Guided Bomb Launchers

Slot layout: 7H (+1), 6M (+1), 4L; 3 Launchers Service Slots: 7 (+2) Fittings: 3.1M PWG (+400,000), 47,000 CPU (+9000) Hitpoints: 21.6M Shield (+7.2M), 14.4M Armor, 27M Hull (+5.4M) Capacitor capacity: 425,000GJ (+25,000) Fighter Bay: 5 Tubes, 350,000m3 Capacity (+50,000) Fighter Control: 5 Light, 3 Support (+1), 2 Heavy

‘Moreau’ Fortizar

Replaces all of New Eden’s Conquerable Stations

Only 68 will ever exist

Named for Sébastien Moreau, the NPC founder of the Immensea organization that built the Conquerable Stations

Check out the “Forsaken Ruins” chronicle for the story

Jack of all trades:

25% bonus to all structure combat rig effects

35% reduction in all service module fuel consumption

10% reduction in time requirements for manufacturing and science jobs

2% reduction in ISK requirements for manufacturing jobs

1% bonus to refining yield for all variants of Ore and Ice

20% bonus to the rate of fire and capacitor consumption of Standup Burst Projectors and Guided Bomb Launchers

Slot layout: 7H (+1), 6M (+1), 5L (+1); 4 Launchers (+1) Service Slots: 8 (+3) Fittings: 3.4M PWG (+700,000), 48,000 CPU (+10,000) Hitpoints: 21.6M Shield (+7.2M), 21.6M Armor (+7.2M), 32.4M Hull (+10.8M) Capacitor capacity: 450,000GJ (+50,000) Fighter Bay: 5 Tubes, 400,000m3 Capacity (+100,000) Fighter Control: 5 Light, 4 Support (+2), 3 Heavy (+1)

Special Edition Outpost Replacement Rigs

At the moment of change to Faction Citadels, each of the replacement Fortizars will be fitted with one powerful Special Edition rig that will combine multiple bonuses. This includes the Fortizars replacing Conquerables and un-upgraded Outposts, but upgraded Outposts will receive stronger rigs with extra bonuses connected to their upgrades. All Outpost Replacement rigs will include hitpoint, capacitor, sensor, and point defense bonuses and will only ever be available through the Outpost Replacement event. Remember, destroying or unanchoring these structures will destroy the rigs they have fitted, so while these Faction Citadels can be unanchored and redeployed in highsec, lowsec, nullsec or wormhole space, this move will come at a cost. The special rigs are not replaceable - there will be no way to acquire any more of them after this event.

Industrial Support Facilities

The current Outposts and Conquerable Stations provide bonuses to the systems they are located in, in the form of reduced industry ISK costs. New Upwell Industrial Support Facilities will replace these bonuses and will be placed in the systems that contained Outposts and Conquerables, in the form of NPC landmarks. These landmarks will not be destructible at this time.

Systems with Amarr Outposts will receive an Advanced Manufacturing Support Facility

Systems with Caldari Outposts will receive an Advanced Research Support Facility

Systems with Gallente, Minmatar or Conquerable Stations will receive an Upwell General Industrial Support Facility

Preparing for Outpost Day

At downtime on June 5th 2018, the Outpost Replacement event will take place. Existing Outposts and Conquerable Stations will be replaced with the corresponding Faction Fortizars described above, as well as the automatic migration of all:

Characters

Assets

Clones

Offices

Industry Jobs

Market Orders

Contracts

Bookmarks pointing to the station itself

These new structures will belong to the last owner of the Outpost or Conquerable before this downtime, including those currently in Freeport or being fought over. You will need to take and hold these structures before June 5th, defending your holdings from your neighbours prior to this change.

It is also imperative that you double-check which corporation controls each of your structures, for management.

Note:

As these new Faction Fortizars are Upwell Structures, they will follow the rules that govern Upwell rather than the previous settings applied to the Outposts or Conquerable Stations. This means that access to docking, office rental, jump clones and the numerous other services available in these structures will now be governed by ACLs, and not standings or unconditionally. Further details about ACLs (Access Lists) can be found here.

If you are the owner or administrator of an Outpost or Conquerable Station:

Ensure that the owning corporation is correct Ensure you have preset a Default Corp Profile (details below). Be sure to check the levels of access within this profile, including who has access to rent offices, dock, or access the other services available Ensure you have preset a Default Reinforcement Time and Day (details below). Be ready to fit your structure.

The Faction Fortizars will be in an Invulnerable state as mentioned above, and during this time they can be fitted with the appropriate defences you feel they need.

Profiles and Reinforcement

Since the March release, it has been possible to set a Default Profile for a corporation. This profile applies to any newly deployed structures, but is also the ACL profile that will be applied to the Faction Citadels during the Outpost Day event. To set a Default Profile, right-click against the profile you choose and select "Set as default profile".

It is also possible to set a Default Reinforcement Time and Day for the corporation.

Outpost Day - June 5th 2018

Invulnerable until June 7th 2018

Once Outposts and Conquerables are converted into Faction Citadels they will enter a temporary invulnerable mode. During this invulnerability time the structure can be fitted freely, but cannot activate modules, launch fighters, or begin unanchoring. Reinforcement time and day changes can be queued during this time but will require the standard 7 days to take effect. It is therefore a good idea to set this default before the change is scheduled to happen.

The Invulnerable mode will last until Thursday June 7th. On June 7th structures will enter their standard shield vulnerable state. Further details about how Upwell Structure vulnerability states work can be found here.

Please note that you will not be able to transfer ownership or decommision a structure during its initial invulnerability period.

Services will be available immediately

The new Faction Fortizars will be preloaded with the following online Service Modules:

Standup Market Hub I

Standup Cloning Center I

Standup Manufacturing Plant I

Standup Capital Shipyard I

Standup Research Lab I

Standup Invention Lab I

Standup Reprocessing Facility I

These Fortizars will also come with enough free fuel to run these services for 7 days.

All Market Orders and Contracts will be transferred to the new structure.

All Industrial jobs will continue to run. If a capsuleer's access to the structure or its Industrial services is lost, the installed jobs will continue to run until they complete. They will then be able to be delivered remotely.

All medical and jump clones will be moved from the old Outposts and Conquerable Stations to the new Faction Fortizars.

Jump Clones can be destroyed quite easily by the owners of Upwell Structures. Details on how jump clones work in Upwell Structures can be found here.

All corporation and character assets will be moved to the new structures. If a corporation or individual capsuleer does not have docking access at the new structure, their assets can be retrieved by pushing them into Asset Safety.

Note that once items are in asset safety, they cannot be transferred to another character until correctly delivered.

Corporation offices will be moved to the new Faction Fortizars.

Corp offices owned by corporations that will no longer have access to rent them (given the new ACL profile associated with the structure), will remain rented until their current bill cycle is complete, at which point the office will become impounded and can be retrieved through asset safety.

There will no longer be a limit on office rental slots available in Faction Fortizars.

No changes to corporation roles or the individual access of corp members will be made. However, the "Based At" function is not available in the new Faction Fortizars. Be sure to check what access your corp members have before this change.

Locked blueprints will remain locked.

Only bookmarks to the previous Station item itself will be updated to the new structure. This means that some tactical corporation or personal bookmarks in the vicinity of Outposts or Conquerable Stations may now be within the geometry of the new Faction Fortizar due to the size increase and this may lead to collisions.

If you or your corporation previously had certain access rights to a station but find that you do not after the change, be sure to check with the owners that you have been remembered in their new ACLs.

Last owner controls all

All Upwell Structures must be owned by a corporation, even those freely open to the public. At the time of the conversion from Outposts and Conquerable Stations to Upwell Faction Fortizars, a corporation must be determined to be the owner, even those stations previously in Freeport Mode.

If the Outpost/Conquerable is currently owned by a corporation, they will be the new owner and their default Profile will be applied, affecting all docking, service access, taxes, etc. If the structure is currently being fought over, but the conflict has not ended, the Defender will be the new owner.

If the Outpost/Conquerable is not currently owned by a corporation and is in Freeport Mode, the last corporation to have owned the structure before it entered Freeport will automatically become the new owner.

image by Wilhelm Arcturus - evepics.wordpress.com

Public Testing

Our testing of all of these changes is well underway and we will need your help to ensure that everything runs as smoothly as possible on the date of the change. If you are able to help out, please look out for instructions and schedules of how we will be involving the Community on our various test servers here.

As always, we offer you our sincere thanks for all the help we receive, and we look forward to see how you determine the new shape of New Eden to be.