CCP has had something of a hot and cold relationship with asset safety.  Introduced with Upwell structures as part of the Citadel expansion, it was supposed to be a safety net for the plan to go hard on destroyable player built structures.  This was seen as a requirement by CCP back in 2015.

…we have to accept the fact no one will want to store items… in one of the new structures if they can be destroyed and lost on a whim.

And that is how asset safety was born.

I Feel Safe in Citadel City dev blog, August 2015

There was going to be a price to recover your items, with the amount being set as 15% of the market value.

Of course, that did not apply in wormhole space, where there is no local and no asset safety, so every structure kill is a loot pinata.  I have been there for a Keepstar kill in wormhole space.

CCP backed off on the whole asset safty thing a few years later with the Forsaken Fortress update that, among other things, provided a path to bypass asset safety so players could kill structures outside of wormhole space and get the loot pinata.

This was a serious screw job for players who had trusted CCP and had taken a break from the game, only to come back and find that not only had CCP setup a way to expedite structure kills, but also had nothing left because CCP’s asset safety promise turned out to be a lie.

Yes, there were reasons to make structures easier to kill, especially in high sec where there was an uncontrolled proliferation.  But also removing asset safety was a bit of a kick in the nuts as well as an opportunity for certain groups to grab big piles of loot.  I recall a PanFam player by the name of Elise Randolph loudly bragging on social media about this smash and grab.

Smash and Grab Bragging

Of course, Elise Randolph then went on to get hired by CCP as CCP Swift, so while the social media posts are still there, the name on the account has changed.  I noted this and other big hauls that were being bragged about in a post at the time.

So CCP went from seeing asset safety as a good thing, to maybe thinking it wasn’t such a good thing and that maybe people should suffer a bit more.  You should feel lucky you can get your stuff back for 15% fee!

However, yesterday CCP Swift… formerly PanFam member Elise Randolph… announced on the forums (not worth a news item or a mention in the patch notes  or on the launcher I guess) that there would be changes to how titans and super carriers would be valued in asset safety.

When it comes to asset safety valuation, there are a few methods that are used to determine pricing which generally work just fine. However, for certain items like Supercarriers and Titans, these numbers can sometimes go wonky™.

The Avatar and Wyvern, for example, are currently valued much higher relative to other supers and titans when considering asset safety fees, creating a situation where those fees are skewed higher.

On Monday, December 8th, we will be adjusting the values to be both more consistent and more in-line with the proper values. For unfit hulls – not including rigs and fits – the asset safety value for supercarriers (assuming a 15% fee) will be about ~3 billion ISK, and the asset safety value for titans will be ~10 billion ISK. Remember that there will be some small variance between the hulls as the build costs are not identical, and the fits & rigs themselves will also affect the price.

This adjustment is consistent with where the values have historically been. Namely, the Avatar, Ragnarok and Wyvern will be adjusted down to the rest. The remaining titans will slightly increase in their cost. Supercarriers will be largely unchanged.

For those who have already paid the inflated costs, anytime after 25 November, we will be reimbursing asset safety fees relative to these new adjusted prices. If there’s a situation where the prices increase, the original asset safety fee that was paid will remain the same. To put it simply: if you paid too much, you will be reimbursed. If you paid less, you will not be asked to pay more.

We’ll update in this thread the method and the time for when this adjustment will happen – for now, no action is needed on your side. If you have already submitted a support ticket for this it may be closed, but that won’t preclude you from the reimbursement.

Is CCP having some sort of change of heart about asset safety?  Because that is a hell of a deal.  That change values a titan at around 66 billion ISK and a super carrier at a mere 20 billion ISK if you accept the idea that 15% should be the asset safety fee.

That is crazy talk.  If super carriers are 20 billion ISK I’ll take two please!   I have the ISK right now.  In fact, if you let me sell some PLEX I’ll sign up for a 66 billion ISK titan!

Currently in the Imperium a super carrier hull is 58 billion ISK while a titan hull will run you 165 billion ISK.  Is Kun’mi gouging us on super prices?  Should I go ask him where my 20 billion ISK Aeon is?  How do you think that will work out for me?

Asset safety for a super carrier should be closer to 9 billion ISK and a titan nearly 25 billion ISK.

Of course this change has people losing their minds on Reddit, and rightly so, because the triggering event is the loss of so many structures by PanFam as part of the collapse of Pandemic Horde.  What was that, 25 Keepstars destroyed?

Remember this at R-AG7W and many more like it?

Now, do I think CCP is so dumb that with a history of favoring their friends in Band of Brothers that led to the T20 scandal that they would go and blatantly give many of the corporations that trace their roots to BoB back and the day a sweetheart deal after not giving a shit about asset safety prices up until yesterday?

I would hope they wouldn’t… and yet here we are.

I know the arguments that are going on, that so many many people got stuck by the failure of Pandemic Horde leadership that they deserve a break.  Also, the ongoing effects of scarcity… another of CCP’s bad ideas… made players poor or something, so they need the help.

But only if you have a super or a titan!

So a lot of line members are still screwed.  Nobody is getting a break on their navy dreadnought fees.  Nobody’s Rokh is getting even an ISK cheaper get out of the wrap.  Not one break on blueprint originals sent to low sec.

But old hands with the big toys, they got a bonus!

The intent is probably innocent.  This is likely a knee-jerk reaction to a sudden influx of asset saftey items.  But it looks bad and has the air of blatant favoritism.

It looks like CCP continues to favor one specific group of players.  I mean, why only back date the change to November 25th?  Doesn’t anybody before then deserve a break?  Or were they not in the right alliance? I mean, we blew up our own Keepstar in 1DQ1-A, where we had been for nearly a decade, when we made the move to Insmother and lots of people who were AFK got their stuff sent to asset safety.  No break for them.

Every Keepstar kill puts some supers in asset safety… unless they are in wormhole space… or that Keepstar we got into an abandoned state… and all those people paid full freight to get their big ships out of asset safety.  Why change now?

And, on the messaging front, could they not have found somebody besides a former member of the coalition who made a big deal of looting high sec structures when the asset safety changes were made to write the post?  Or not even write it, but just post it.  Was there nobody in ISD or whatever that could have taken the hit?  I mean, it just looks bad to have Elise Randolph announcing a benefits package for PanFam super pilots.

From this a thousand conspiracy theories will bloom.  Even if you don’t have T20 scandal on the brain, it seems like super pilots are favored or null sec gets special treatment, or whatever you can spin from it.

I have no dog in this hunt.  Kun’mi says I am not getting a 20 billion ISK Aeon any time soon.  I just like to track CCP and how their policies change on a whim.  At times they seem to be their own worst enemy.

[Roll footage of CCP Rattati declaring they don’t want to sell skill points for cash the same week CCP starts selling skill points for cash.  For me this remains the peak CCP comms error of all time, though it has a lot of competition.]

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