Jump drives
Reason: Add something about the new Jump Gate, Cyno Beacon and Cyno Jammer. Also check the sections after the Operation section
Reason: Changes to Cynosural Field Generator, and addition of Industrial Cynosural Field Generator I, implemented in September 2019 update: https://www.eveonline.com/article/pxf1u0/patch-notes-for-september-2019-release
Ships with built-in jump drives can jump to a cynosural field or beacon in another system in their jump range. All capital ships have built-in jump drives. Besides those, jump freighters and black ops battleships have a built-in jump drive. Jump drives allow for rapid movements of ships for example to redeploy. They are further used to "drop on" something as a gank or to escalate fights which are already ongoing.
Operation
Jump drives are not modules. They are built into the hull of the ship. All ships that contain a jump drive require the Jump Drive Operation skill to pilot. The following classes of ship contain jump drives:
- Dreadnoughts
- Carriers
- Supercarriers
- Titans
- Jump Freighters
- Black Ops Battleships
- Capital Industrial Ships
Unlike stargates, which are free to use, jump drives require fuel. The jump drive comes with a special fuel bay. The fuel required depends on the faction that constructed that drive, and can be produced by refining corresponding ice. The respective fuel type for each faction is:
| Amarr, Blood Raider, Sansha, CONCORD | Helium isotopes |
| Caldari, Gurista | Nitrogen isotopes |
| Gallente, ORE, Serpetnis | Oxygen isotopes |
| Minmatar | Hydrogen isotopes |
The fuel cost for each jump does not depend on the number of stargate jumps to the destination. It depends on the distance between the two systems in space (measured in light-years). Each jump drive has a maximum jump range, and consumes a certain amount of fuel per light-year. The skill Jump Drive Calibration increases the jump range by 20% per level which means at the maximum of level five the range is doubled. The skill Jump Fuel Conservation redudes the fuel consumption by 10% per level which means that you use half the fuel at the maximum level of five. Jump freighters also have their required fuel reduced by the skill required to fly them. These three skills make a huge difference to the base figures, as shown in the table. Jump ranges are prone to rebalance with patches. Used to be 3.5 - 6.5 ly base ranges, but were shortened during the October 2014 Phoebe release as part of an effort to reduce long range power projection in nullsec. This change is being reverted, together with a big increase in jump ranges for the capital industrial ship, in the November 2016 Ascension expansion.
| Ship class | Ship type | Base Range | Max Skills Range | Fuel per ly | Fuel bay (m3) | Fuel bay (units) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capital | Dreadnought | 3.5 ly | 7 ly | 3000 units | 8 000 | 266 666 |
| Carrier | 3 000 | 100 000 | ||||
| FAX | ||||||
| Super Capital | Supercarrier | 3.0 ly | 6 ly | 3000 units | 5 000 | 166 666 |
| Titan | 60 000 | 2 000 000 | ||||
| Jump Freighter | Anshar | 5.0 ly | 10 ly | 9400 units | 12 000 | 400 000 |
| Nomad | 8200 units | |||||
| Ark | 8800 units | |||||
| Reha | 10000 units | |||||
| Black Ops Battleship | 4.0 ly | 8 ly | 700 units | 1 250 | 41 666 | |
| Capital Industrial Ship | Rorqual | 5 ly | 10 ly | 4000 units | 10 000 | 333 333 |
Finally, activating a ship's jump drive consumes 95% of the energy in its capacitor (reduced by 5% per level of Jump Drive Operation). Because Jump Drive Operation level five is required for the Jump Drive Calibration skill, it is usually assumed to be at level five. At this level, 71.25% of the capacitor is consumed which rounds up to 75% in everyday communications and is coloquially called "jump cap". Because of the huge amount of cap needed for jumping capital ships usually have a capacitor booster fitted. But, in special cases you would rather fit cap rechargers and capacitor power relays to reduce the amount of time between jumps.
Jumpdrive Isotope Usage Formula
The white part of the formula applies to all jumpdrive capable ships. The green part only applies to Jump Freighters and the red part only applies to Jump Freighters and Rorquals. The red part is stacking penalized so the order of the modules is from highest bonus to lowest bonus.
| Variable Name | Meaning | Valid Values | |
|---|---|---|---|
| LY | Light Years | up to ~ 10.00 | Distance of the jump. |
| F | Fuel Consumption | up to 10 000 | Base Isotope Fuel Consumption per Light Year. |
| JFC |  Jump Fuel Conservation level |
0-5 | |
| JF | Jump Freighters level |
0-5 | Only applies to Jump Freighters. |
| JDEx | Jump Drive Economizer | 0.04, 0.07, 0.1 | Jump Drive Economizer fuel bonus. Stacking penalized, ordered with highest bonus
first and lowest bonus last. Only Jump Freighters and Rorquals. |
Cynosural Fields
Cynosure (pronounced like "sigh no sure") is a little-used word. It means a guide, or a person or thing that draws attention towards itself. It was once the name of the North Star, making it a very appropriate name to give to the cynosural fields of New Eden.
Ships with a jump drive can only jump to cynosural fields or beacons. Cynosural beacons are provided by the navigational structure Pharolux Cyno Beacon (colloquially simply called beacon or cyno beacon). Cynosural fields are generated or "lit" by the ship module Cynosural Field Generator. Cynosural fields and their generators are colloquially abbreviated as cyno. A cynosural field can be seen on the overview from any place in the system and is "warpable". Further, it appears on the universe map.
The Cynosural Field Generator module requires the skill Cynosural Field Theory at level one to be fitted. Its activation time is ten minutes and it has a base consumption of 500 Liquid Ozone per cycle. As the Liquid Ozone consumption is reduced by 10% per level of Cynosural Field Theory, the maximum consumption is actually 450 Liquid Ozone per cycle. The minimum consumption is thus 250, but commonly the skill is trained to level four so that 300 Liquid Ozone are needed. This corresponds to 120 m³ of cargo which fits into the corvettes Ibis, Velator, and Reaper (but not Impairor). Those ships are popular as throw away cyno ships, because you can always board your corvette in any structure. Cynos can only be lit in null and low sec but not in high sec and wormhole space. Mobile Cynosural Inhibitors prevent the activation of cynos in a 200km radius but do not remove existing cynos. Solar systems as a whole can be cyno jammed either through the navigation structure Tenebrex Cyno Jammer or a Sansha Incursion.
If you want to light a cyno you have to be in a fleet (only fleet members can jump to that cyno) and slower than 500 m/s. After you light the cyno your nominal speed becomes zero but you continue to drift and can also be bumped, but the cynosural field stays at the position, where you lit it. Further, you cannot dock in a station or structure and cannot eject, but you can self destruct. Indeed you can light a cyno after you initiated the self destruct sequence. This is used as a trick for extra safe traveling. The cyno needs several seconds until it appears on the universe map. If you light the cyno shortly before you self destruct and immediatly jump to it, you can minimize the risk of being caught. But, be aware that if you jump to a cyno in the same moment as the cyno ship dies you still jump but don't land at the former spot of the cyno but at the sun – usually, a very undesirable result.
Cynos are commonly lit on cheap expandable ships. Corvettes have already been mentioned above. T1 exploration frigates are also useful as they have a relatively big cargo hold, while being cheap and warping fast. Nereus can be useful for cynos which are supposed to stay up as they can fit a strong passive shield regen tank and have a good cargo. Typical ships to fit a bait cyno are the Maller and Gnosis as they are cheap and can be fitted relatively tanky. Force Recons have a bonus to cynos (80% fuel reduction and 50% cycle time), but they are more relevant for covert cyno, which are explained below.
Cynos are sometimes used for cyno vigils to remember eve online players who died in real life. If other pilots are aware of such an occasion they don't attack those vigils out of piety.
Jump Portal
A (Covert) Jump Portal Generator allows to create a bridge to another system. The Jump Portal Generator can only be fitted on a Titan and the covert version only to a black ops battleship. They are high-slot passive modules which enable the bridge function of the ship.
This allows them to transport other ships to a cynosural field or beacon.
Titans can bridge non capital ships while black ops battleship can bridge ships which have the ability to fit the Covert Ops Cloaking Device II but it is not necessary to have it fitted.
Using the module requires Jump Portal Generation skill at level one.
The ship with the generator must first be within jump range of a cyno lit by a member of the fleet.
Once the cyno is lit, the Generator pilot can create a jump bridge (the "Bridge" option is right next to the "Jump" option), which behaves something like a temporary stargate for the other ships in their fleet.
The jump bridge stays open for one minute, and immobilizes the ship holding it open.
The act of opening a Titan bridge costs 500 units of Strontium Clathrates (there is no cost for opening a Black Ops bridge), modified by Jump Portal Generation, and when ships jump across the bridge, they consume fuel from the bridging ship's fuel bay.
If there is no fuel in the fuel bay, the ship will consume fuel stored in the cargohold.
For other ships to be able to jump through, they must be in the same fleet and within 2500 meters of the ship creating the jump bridge. When the jump bridge is up, the Generator pilot should announce it. The pilot that wants to jump then clicks on the jump bridge ship in space or in the overview. Either method opens a box with the the option "Jump through to [SYSTEM NAME]". If clicked too soon, these two options do not automatically update and require you to click again. Another way is to bring up the radial menu on the jump bridge ship or the pilot in the watch list, which does update if you hold it open. The symbol you click on is at 12:00 o’clock and is a stick-figure person. This symbol highlights and becomes active when the jump bridge is up.
Ships that jump through a jump portal use up isotopes from the bridger's fuel hold. The formula to calculate how much fuel is used is:
| Mass × Portal Consumption Mass Factor × Base Cost × Skill Mod × Distance in LY |
| Titan | Black Ops | |
|---|---|---|
| Base Cost | 3000 Isotopes | 700 Isotopes |
| Portal Consumption Mass Factor | 0.000000001 | 0.000000135 |
| Skill Modifier | 1 - (0.1 x Generator's Jump Fuel Conservation level)
| |
For example, a Manticore jumping through a Black Ops bridge will consume 69 isotopes per LY with Jump Fuel Conservation V:
| 1,470,000kg mass x 0.000000135 x 700 isotope base cost x 0.5 JFC V modifier x 1LY = 69.4575 |
Both Titans and Black Ops can bridge and jump to Cynosural Fields, but only Black Ops can bridge and jump to Covert Cynosural Fields.
A bridge can be activated if the host ship is in a warp disruption bubble, but ships inside the warp disruption bubble cannot take the bridge, only those outside a warp disruption bubble and who are not warp disrupted below a warp core strength of 0.
Covert Cynosural Fields
Covert Cynosural Fields are a special variant of 'normal' Cynosural Fields which were discussed above. In a context, where you might speak of either version, cynos, which are not covert, are often called hard cynos. A Covert Cynosural Field is only visible on the overview if you are on grid and can be generated even in cyno jammed systems. The module to generate a covert cyno is named Covert Cynosural Field Generator and can only be fitted to certain ships. Those are Black Ops Battleship, Blockade Runners, Covert Ops Frigates, Force Recon Ships, Stealth Bombers, and Strategic Cruisers (with the covert subsystem); further, the single hulls Etana, Prospect, and Rabisu. As a rule all ships which can fit a covert cloak (except the Sisters of EVE ships) can fit a covert cyno.
The Covert Cynosural Field Generator requires Cynosural Field Theory at level 5. Its activation time and fuel consumption is only a tenth of the usual cyno. As Cynosural Field Theory has to be at five, it always only needs 25 Liquid Ozone which greatly reduces the cargo space needed. Otherwise, the module still immobilizes the ship generating the field and can only be used if it is slower than 500 m/s. The bonuses of Force Recon Cruisers apply to covert cyno as well, which means they are pinned down for only 30 seconds.
Only Black Ops battleships can jump and bridge to covert cynos. Black Ops Battleships can only bridge ships which are able to fit a Covert Ops Cloaking Device (it doesn't have to be fitted). Bridges by Black Ops only last 20 seconds. For more details about bridging mechanics see the above section about it.
Jump Fatigue and Jump Activation Cooldown
As of the October 2014 Phoebe release, traveling using a Jump Drive, Jump Portal, Jump Bridge, Covert Jump Drive or Covert Jump Portal causes fatigue to capsuleers and a delay is required between successive jumps. This delay is determined by the jump fatigue mechanic. Jump fatigue is presented as a time value, indicating the time it will take to decay to zero, and can accumulate to a maximum of 5 days. It decays in real time, whether logged in or not. Jump fatigue is recalculated after every jump.
- Jump fatigue has a minimum value of 10 x (1 + (LY just travelled)) minutes
- Otherwise, the existing jump fatigue is multiplied by (1+*LY just travelled)
During each jump (and before jump fatigue is recalculated) a Jump Activation cooldown also appears. While this is active, the ship cannot travel by jump drive, jump bridge or jump portal.
- The Jump Activation cooldown has a minimum value of (1+(LY just jumped) in minutes
- Otherwise, the Jump Activation cooldown is one tenth of the pilot's Jump Fatigue value (before the jump fatigue is recalculated for this jump)
In practice this means that ships can typically jump around once per hour (more if jumps are shorter) without accumulating Jump Fatigue, but more frequent jumping will rapidly build fatigue. Jump freighters and other industrial ships will be able to maintain more frequent jumps.
- the Jump Activation cooldown is capped at 30 minutes
- Jump Fatigue is capped at 5 hours
For example, if a carrier wants to travel a long distance by making 5 ly jumps:
- Before the first jump, the pilot has Jump Activation (JA) cooldown of 0 minutes and Jump Fatigue (JF) of 0 minutes.
- After the first jump, the pilot has JA cooldown of 6 minutes and JF of 60 minutes.
- After waiting 6 minutes for the JA to decay, the pilot has JA cooldown of 0 minutes and JF of 54 minutes.
- After the second jump, the pilot has JA cooldown of 6 minutes and JF of 5 hours (the maximum).
- After waiting 6 minutes for the JA to decay, the pilot has JA cooldown of 0 minutes and JF of 4h 54m.
- After the third jump, the pilot has JA cooldown of 30 minutes (the maximum) and JF of 5 hours (the maximum).
- After waiting for 30 minutes for the JA to decay, the pilot has JA cooldown of 0 minutes and JF of 4h 54m.
Two groups of ships have special considerations:
- Black Ops Battleships and the covert cloaking ships they bridge gain a 75% reduction to effective distance jumped when calculating fatigue.
The following ships gain a 90% reduction to effective distance traveled when calculating fatigue:
- Jump Freighters
- Capital Industrial Ships
- Deep Space Transports
- Blockade Runners
- Industrials
- Shuttles
- Capsules
