History of Incursions: Difference between revisions

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The '''history of Incursions''' is long and storied. Game balance changes by CCP over the years have both indirectly and directly changed the shape of Incursions and the groups that run them.

~~As an activity that is concentrated around singular constellations~~ and ~~requires people to group together (~~and~~/or multibox heavily) in order to do, many communities have formed together and faded away~~. ~~Friendships, rivalries, and animosities were created amongst them, much like in any other space or~~ activity ~~in EVE. However~~, given their subjective ~~value~~, non-balance change events are limited to those that had a substantive impact on ~~[[EVE University Incursion Community|EVE University~~'s Incursion Community]] or on the larger Incursion community.

This page serves largely as a collection of devblogs and patches documenting the history of Incursions and [[EVE University Incursion Community|EVE University's Incursion Community]]. While it is a very social activity, given their subjective importance, non-balance change events are limited to those that had a substantive impact on E-UNI's Incursion Community or on the larger Incursion community.

== Timeline ==

Line 51:

| colspan="2" style="white-space: nowrap;" | ↑ [[#May 2019 - Single Highsec Focus|May 2019]] ''"Single Highsec Focus"''

| colspan="2" style="white-space: nowrap;" | ↑ [[#April 2020 - Surgical Strike|April 2020]] ''"Surgical Strike"''

| colspan="2" style="white-space: nowrap;" | ↑ [[#December ~~2023~~ - Focus ~~Headshot Campaign~~|December 2023]] ''"Focus ~~Headshot Campaign~~"''

| colspan="2" style="white-space: nowrap;" | ↑ [[#December 2023–June 2024 - Focus headshot campaign|December 2023]] ''"Focus headshot campaign"''

|}

~~= History of Incursions =~~

~~This is a collection of devblogs and patches documenting the history of Incursions and our community.~~

== January 2011 - Introducing Incursions ==

Line 1,155:

Line 1,152:

Eventually, groups changed their strategies to fully take advantage of a Marauder's bastion cycles. Even though the ships can't be repaired while in bastion, Incursion rats' use of rigid one-minute aggro cycles means that it is easy to time bastion activations such that a ship is never aggroed while in bastion.

Headquarters groups further incorporated Micro Jump Drives (MJDs) to compensate for the lack of mobility while bastioned. The changes also served as another change favoring armor doctrines over shield doctrines. Both the Kronos and Paladin have slot layouts and bonuses that lean themselves towards armor tank, and could reasonably field a buffer tank in armor ~~whereas~~ they could not for shield. Shield marauders instead had to rely on expensive deadspace shield boosters, which are very powerful, especially on Vargurs, but meant a more expensive fit compared to armor with less flexible application enhancement.

Headquarters groups further incorporated Micro Jump Drives (MJDs) to compensate for the lack of mobility while bastioned. The changes also served as another change favoring armor doctrines over shield doctrines. Both the Kronos and Paladin have slot layouts and bonuses that lean themselves towards armor tank, and could reasonably field a buffer tank in armor where they could not for shield. Shield marauders instead had to rely on expensive deadspace shield boosters, which are very powerful, especially on Vargurs, but meant a more expensive fit compared to armor, with less flexible application enhancement.

Vanguard groups, not having to deal with as much DPS as the HQ groups, could instead active tank with armor or shield using a deadspace armor repairer or shield booster. So long as waves are killed at a decent click, this allowed for Marauders to remain in bastion even while aggroed. Not needing a MWD and MJD, that meant that shield groups (e.g. the Uni) could apply an extra tracking computer and sensor booster onto their Marauders, improving their ability to shoot the frigates that comprise the majority of Vanguard Incursion rats. Thanks to this, a fleet largely comprised of T1 ships with one or two Marauders could still clear sites much faster due than a comparable fleet with pirate BSs due to the Marauders' outstanding DPS output. This, combined with other doctrine changes, brought the Uni from a group that could expect a baseline of 10 minute sites (60 M ISK/hr) to one that could reliably reach a baseline of 6 minute sites (100 M ISK/hr).

= Dead links =

== November 2021–June 2023 - Bastion nerfs ==

After the major change to Marauders, Incursions did not experience any major game balance changes for the next few years. The only changes of note are later nerfs to the Bastion module. CCP did not pull back on the DPS boost that the Bastion module now gave, but instead weakened its secondary bonuses over several updates.

==== Patches ====

From [https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/patch-notes-version-19-06 the patch notes for version 19.06] (July 13, 2021)

{{quote|Adjusted Bastion Module:

Target painter resistance has been reduced from -95% to -50%.

Sensor dampener resistance has been reduced from -95% to -50%.

Weapon disruption resistance has been reduced from -99% to -50%.

Bonus to sensor strength has been reduced from 1,000% to 100%.

Removed the ECM Immunity.}}

From [https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/patch-notes-version-19-09 the patch notes for version 19.09] (October 13, 2021)

{{quote|Fixed an issue that caused ECM to not work on Marauders with an active Bastion module.}}

From [https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/patch-notes-version-20-07 the patch notes for version 20.07] (August 9, 2022)

{{quote|Marauders may now be Warp Disrupted or Warp Scrambled by NPCs while in Bastion Mode.}}

From [https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/viridian-expansion-notes the expansion notes for Veridian] (June 13, 2023)

{{quote|'''Bastion Module'''

Our goal is to create new weaknesses and therefore opportunities for counterplay in PvP for Marauders where they currently do not have many. These changes would lean into the class identity as being strong but immobile and offer smaller ships the chance to play around a Marauder with EWAR tools that are currently often useless in the face of its EWAR resistance bonus.

Duration Increased from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.

Removed the electronic warfare resistance bonus to Sensor Dampener, Tracking Disruptor, and Target Painter resistance.

The ship continues to retain its incredible firepower, tank, range and application but will now have a few weaknesses.}}

==== Changes ====

* Marauders in Bastion no longer have near-immunity to EWAR

* Bastion cycle moved back to 60 seconds

==== Effects on the Community ====

As this did not impact the damage or repair bonuses that the Bastion module provided, this ultimately did not have a major impact on the Marauder's now dominant position within highsec Incursions. The move back to a 60 second bastion timer meant that its usage had to be done more carefully. But given the aforementioned one minute aggro cycle of Incursion rats, this was still manageable.

== December 2023–June 2024 - Focus headshot campaign ==

A campaign by a group of multibox gankers to consistently headshot the highsec focus' mothership resulted in very limited availability of highsec Incursions over the course of roughly six months, straining highsec Incursion groups at all levels.

==== Origins ====

The exact origins of what started the campaign are unclear. But its leader and/or spokesman was Wrathful Hawk, a multibox ganker. He had previously earned fame (or infamy) for spearheading a highsec [[Orca]] ganking campaign in 2022. After a later period of lowsec gatecamping, he would begin targeting Incursion Bowheads in 2023 using roughly 20 [[Oracle]]s plus auxiliary alts in logoff traps. Bowheads were previously not regular gank targets due to their high EHP (>600K EHP, where one T2 gank-fit [[Catalyst]] can reasonably do 17K damage in a 0.5 security system's gank window), but Hawk had found the right amount of damage and element of surprise to successfully gank them often, taking advantage of Incursion runners who would carry their bling in their Bowhead to recover the >2B ISK that ganking one cost.

While this netted many high value kills, highsec gankers often also value the notoriety that ganking can bring. And in this respect, there was an opening in Incursion mechanics that didn't fit the traditional definition of ganking, but could also be more disruptive and notorious than it as well.

==== How it worked ====

An Incursion focus ends either when it times out or the mothership ([[The Kundalini Manifest]] in highsec) is killed. There had only been one highsec focus since their quantity was reduced from three in 2019. The mothership spawned as soon as the focus reached zero influence. Highsec HQ Incursion groups could pop the focus at any time, but generally didn't until the final day, due to the shared interest highsec Incursion groups had in farming the sites.

As such, a motivated enough group could regularly headshot the focus as soon as the mothership spawned. Doing so however requires a large fleet of >30 battleships to do in highsec, fleets that typically only Incursion groups would muster in highsec. But a dedicated enough group of multiboxers, using a brick tank, box-friendly doctrine (such as Leshaks or [[Apocalypse Navy Issue]]s), could form a fleet that could complete the mothership site. And after some failed headshot attempts in December 2023, that is exactly what Hawk and other multibox gankers were able to do. And once a reliable formula was found, it was repeated in many a highsec focus after.

As this was simply running the site, stopping the headshot would require Incursion runners to become gankers themselves to stop them. And since attempting a gank hangs a killright on the ganker for a month, something that could be redeemed at any time to turn the person suspect, ganking was something that was untenable for Incursion runners to do on their Incursion characters. Further, blocking the headshot would require a successful enough gank that can stop the attempt every time it was attempted. By contrast, the headshot only had to succeed once. And the doctrines chosen were neither easy nor profitable to gank.

The headshotters would also pair the campaign with a protection racket, offering to leave a focus up for tens of billions of ISK. These were largely not entertained by highsec Incursion groups, and so most focuses were headshot within a day of spawning.

==== Impact ====

In most other games, persistent content denial for an area of gameplay would be against their rules, and its sustainment a grounds for punishment by the game developers. But in EVE, it's just an act in the sandbox; players playing the game, and the game working as intended. After all, this was something that was always possible for as long as Incursions existed, and especially ripe for disruption since the move to a single focus four years prior. And focus headshots were nothing new to Incursions - groups have dealt with focus pops from other groups for as long as Incursions existed. All it took for was for one cadre from outside Incursions to take advantage of it, and take advantage of it persistently.

Hence, the campaign lasted for a long time, and resulted in a negative impact to the health of all highsec Incursion communities. Only the most elite of groups would be able to eek out runs in the short windows that a highsec focus was available, although breaks in the headshots gave other groups some reprieve. Island focuses turned from undesirable to desirable, as they were generally not headshot.

The highsec Incursion community had a representative on the [[CSM]] at the time: Kshal Aideron, the leader of the group EVE Rookies. Later into the campaign, she would relay to Incursion groups that the issue had been brought to the attention of CCP. And by June, they put out a change that would neuter the effect of the campaign.

== June 2024 - Headshot protection ==

In the Equinox expansion, CCP issued a change that delayed the spawning of the mothership in highsec and lowsec Incursions.

==== Patches ====

From the [https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/equinox-expansion-notes expansion notes for Equinox] (June 7th, 2024)

{{Quote|'''Incursions'''

Mothership sites within High and Low Security space now have a minimum amount of time before they can appear. Null Security space is unaffected by this change.

'''High-Security space''': the Mothership will not appear until at least 3 days have passed.

'''Low-Security space''': the Mothership will not appear until at least 1 day has passed.}}

==== Changes ====

* The highsec focus is guaranteed to last at least three days, and the lowsec focus at least one day.

==== Effects on the Community ====

These changes limited the ability for the headshot campaign to deny access to highsec Incursions. The campaign would end shortly after. The choice to apply the change differently to different areas of space meant that nullsec groups could still quickly headshot foci if desired to clear the cyno jamming effect, and is something that would have been disrupted had this change been applied uniformly. As such, hishec groups could return to normal operations, though they had to recover from the months of disruptions.

== Dead links ==

[[Category:Incursions]]

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 The '''history of Incursions''' is long and storied. Game balance changes by CCP over the years have both indirectly and directly changed the shape of Incursions and the groups that run them.
-As an activity that is concentrated around singular constellations and requires people to group together (and/or multibox heavily) in order to do, many communities have formed together and faded away. Friendships, rivalries, and animosities were created amongst them, much like in any other space or activity in EVE. However, given their subjective value, non-balance change events are limited to those that had a substantive impact on [[EVE University Incursion Community|EVE University's Incursion Community]] or on the larger Incursion community.
+This page serves largely as a collection of devblogs and patches documenting the history of Incursions and [[EVE University Incursion Community|EVE University's Incursion Community]]. While it is a very social activity, given their subjective importance, non-balance change events are limited to those that had a substantive impact on E-UNI's Incursion Community or on the larger Incursion community.
 == Timeline ==
@@ Line 51: / Line 51: @@
 | colspan="2" style="white-space: nowrap;" | &uarr;<br>[[#May 2019 - Single Highsec Focus|May 2019]]<br><small>''"Single Highsec Focus"''</small>
 | colspan="2" style="white-space: nowrap;" | &uarr;<br>[[#April 2020 - Surgical Strike|April 2020]]<br><small>''"Surgical Strike"''</small>
-| colspan="2" style="white-space: nowrap;" | &uarr;<br>[[#December 2023 - Focus Headshot Campaign|December 2023]]<br><small>''"Focus Headshot Campaign"''</small>
+| colspan="2" style="white-space: nowrap;" | &uarr;<br>[[#December 2023–June 2024 - Focus headshot campaign|December 2023]]<br><small>''"Focus headshot campaign"''</small>
 |}
-= History of Incursions =
-This is a collection of devblogs and patches documenting the history of Incursions and our community.
 == January 2011 - Introducing Incursions ==
@@ Line 1,155: / Line 1,152: @@
 Eventually, groups changed their strategies to fully take advantage of a Marauder's bastion cycles. Even though the ships can't be repaired while in bastion, Incursion rats' use of rigid one-minute aggro cycles means that it is easy to time bastion activations such that a ship is never aggroed while in bastion.
-Headquarters groups further incorporated Micro Jump Drives (MJDs) to compensate for the lack of mobility while bastioned. The changes also served as another change favoring armor doctrines over shield doctrines. Both the Kronos and Paladin have slot layouts and bonuses that lean themselves towards armor tank, and could reasonably field a buffer tank in armor whereas they could not for shield. Shield marauders instead had to rely on expensive deadspace shield boosters, which are very powerful, especially on Vargurs, but meant a more expensive fit compared to armor with less flexible application enhancement.
+Headquarters groups further incorporated Micro Jump Drives (MJDs) to compensate for the lack of mobility while bastioned. The changes also served as another change favoring armor doctrines over shield doctrines. Both the Kronos and Paladin have slot layouts and bonuses that lean themselves towards armor tank, and could reasonably field a buffer tank in armor where they could not for shield. Shield marauders instead had to rely on expensive deadspace shield boosters, which are very powerful, especially on Vargurs, but meant a more expensive fit compared to armor, with less flexible application enhancement.
 Vanguard groups, not having to deal with as much DPS as the HQ groups, could instead active tank with armor or shield using a deadspace armor repairer or shield booster. So long as waves are killed at a decent click, this allowed for Marauders to remain in bastion even while aggroed. Not needing a MWD and MJD, that meant that shield groups (e.g. the Uni) could apply an extra tracking computer and sensor booster onto their Marauders, improving their ability to shoot the frigates that comprise the majority of Vanguard Incursion rats. Thanks to this, a fleet largely comprised of T1 ships with one or two Marauders could still clear sites much faster due than a comparable fleet with pirate BSs due to the Marauders' outstanding DPS output. This, combined with other doctrine changes, brought the Uni from a group that could expect a baseline of 10 minute sites (60 M ISK/hr) to one that could reliably reach a baseline of 6 minute sites (100 M ISK/hr).
-= Dead links =
+== November 2021–June 2023 - Bastion nerfs ==
+After the major change to Marauders, Incursions did not experience any major game balance changes for the next few years. The only changes of note are later nerfs to the Bastion module. CCP did not pull back on the DPS boost that the Bastion module now gave, but instead weakened its secondary bonuses over several updates.
+==== Patches ====
+From [https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/patch-notes-version-19-06 the patch notes for version 19.06] (July 13, 2021)
+{{quote|Adjusted Bastion Module:
+Target painter resistance has been reduced from -95% to -50%.
+Sensor dampener resistance has been reduced from -95% to -50%.
+Weapon disruption resistance has been reduced from -99% to -50%.
+Bonus to sensor strength has been reduced from 1,000% to 100%.
+Removed the ECM Immunity.}}
+From [https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/patch-notes-version-19-09 the patch notes for version 19.09] (October 13, 2021)
+{{quote|Fixed an issue that caused ECM to not work on Marauders with an active Bastion module.}}
+From [https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/patch-notes-version-20-07 the patch notes for version 20.07] (August 9, 2022)
+{{quote|Marauders may now be Warp Disrupted or Warp Scrambled by NPCs while in Bastion Mode.}}
+From [https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/viridian-expansion-notes the expansion notes for Veridian] (June 13, 2023)
+{{quote|'''Bastion Module'''
+Our goal is to create new weaknesses and therefore opportunities for counterplay in PvP for Marauders where they currently do not have many. These changes would lean into the class identity as being strong but immobile and offer smaller ships the chance to play around a Marauder with EWAR tools that are currently often useless in the face of its EWAR resistance bonus.
+Duration Increased from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.
+Removed the electronic warfare resistance bonus to Sensor Dampener, Tracking Disruptor, and Target Painter resistance.
+The ship continues to retain its incredible firepower, tank, range and application but will now have a few weaknesses.}}
+==== Changes ====
+* Marauders in Bastion no longer have near-immunity to EWAR
+* Bastion cycle moved back to 60 seconds
+==== Effects on the Community ====
+As this did not impact the damage or repair bonuses that the Bastion module provided, this ultimately did not have a major impact on the Marauder's now dominant position within highsec Incursions. The move back to a 60 second bastion timer meant that its usage had to be done more carefully. But given the aforementioned one minute aggro cycle of Incursion rats, this was still manageable.
+== December 2023–June 2024 - Focus headshot campaign ==
+A campaign by a group of multibox gankers to consistently headshot the highsec focus' mothership resulted in very limited availability of highsec Incursions over the course of roughly six months, straining highsec Incursion groups at all levels.
+==== Origins ====
+The exact origins of what started the campaign are unclear. But its leader and/or spokesman was Wrathful Hawk, a multibox ganker. He had previously earned fame (or infamy) for spearheading a highsec [[Orca]] ganking campaign in 2022. After a later period of lowsec gatecamping, he would begin targeting Incursion Bowheads in 2023 using roughly 20 [[Oracle]]s plus auxiliary alts in logoff traps. Bowheads were previously not regular gank targets due to their high EHP (>600K EHP, where one T2 gank-fit [[Catalyst]] can reasonably do 17K damage in a 0.5 security system's gank window), but Hawk had found the right amount of damage and element of surprise to successfully gank them often, taking advantage of Incursion runners who would carry their bling in their Bowhead to recover the >2B ISK that ganking one cost.
+While this netted many high value kills, highsec gankers often also value the notoriety that ganking can bring. And in this respect, there was an opening in Incursion mechanics that didn't fit the traditional definition of ganking, but could also be more disruptive and notorious than it as well.
+==== How it worked ====
+An Incursion focus ends either when it times out or the mothership ([[The Kundalini Manifest]] in highsec) is killed. There had only been one highsec focus since their quantity was reduced from three in 2019. The mothership spawned as soon as the focus reached zero influence. Highsec HQ Incursion groups could pop the focus at any time, but generally didn't until the final day, due to the shared interest highsec Incursion groups had in farming the sites.
+As such, a motivated enough group could regularly headshot the focus as soon as the mothership spawned. Doing so however requires a large fleet of >30 battleships to do in highsec, fleets that typically only Incursion groups would muster in highsec. But a dedicated enough group of multiboxers, using a brick tank, box-friendly doctrine (such as Leshaks or [[Apocalypse Navy Issue]]s), could form a fleet that could complete the mothership site. And after some failed headshot attempts in December 2023, that is exactly what Hawk and other multibox gankers were able to do. And once a reliable formula was found, it was repeated in many a highsec focus after.
+As this was simply running the site, stopping the headshot would require Incursion runners to become gankers themselves to stop them. And since attempting a gank hangs a killright on the ganker for a month, something that could be redeemed at any time to turn the person suspect, ganking was something that was untenable for Incursion runners to do on their Incursion characters. Further, blocking the headshot would require a successful enough gank that can stop the attempt every time it was attempted. By contrast, the headshot only had to succeed once. And the doctrines chosen were neither easy nor profitable to gank.
+The headshotters would also pair the campaign with a protection racket, offering to leave a focus up for tens of billions of ISK. These were largely not entertained by highsec Incursion groups, and so most focuses were headshot within a day of spawning.
+==== Impact ====
+In most other games, persistent content denial for an area of gameplay would be against their rules, and its sustainment a grounds for punishment by the game developers. But in EVE, it's just an act in the sandbox; players playing the game, and the game working as intended. After all, this was something that was always possible for as long as Incursions existed, and especially ripe for disruption since the move to a single focus four years prior. And focus headshots were nothing new to Incursions - groups have dealt with focus pops from other groups for as long as Incursions existed. All it took for was for one cadre from outside Incursions to take advantage of it, and take advantage of it persistently.
+Hence, the campaign lasted for a long time, and resulted in a negative impact to the health of all highsec Incursion communities. Only the most elite of groups would be able to eek out runs in the short windows that a highsec focus was available, although breaks in the headshots gave other groups some reprieve. Island focuses turned from undesirable to desirable, as they were generally not headshot.
+The highsec Incursion community had a representative on the [[CSM]] at the time: Kshal Aideron, the leader of the group EVE Rookies. Later into the campaign, she would relay to Incursion groups that the issue had been brought to the attention of CCP. And by June, they put out a change that would neuter the effect of the campaign.
+== June 2024 - Headshot protection ==
+In the Equinox expansion, CCP issued a change that delayed the spawning of the mothership in highsec and lowsec Incursions.
+==== Patches ====
+From the [https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/equinox-expansion-notes expansion notes for Equinox] (June 7th, 2024)
+{{Quote|'''Incursions'''
+Mothership sites within High and Low Security space now have a minimum amount of time before they can appear. Null Security space is unaffected by this change.
+'''High-Security space''': the Mothership will not appear until at least 3 days have passed.
+'''Low-Security space''': the Mothership will not appear until at least 1 day has passed.}}
+==== Changes ====
+* The highsec focus is guaranteed to last at least three days, and the lowsec focus at least one day.
+==== Effects on the Community ====
+These changes limited the ability for the headshot campaign to deny access to highsec Incursions. The campaign would end shortly after. The choice to apply the change differently to different areas of space meant that nullsec groups could still quickly headshot foci if desired to clear the cyno jamming effect, and is something that would have been disrupted had this change been applied uniformly. As such, hishec groups could return to normal operations, though they had to recover from the months of disruptions.
+== Dead links ==
 <references group="Dead link" />
 [[Category:Incursions]]