The Verite Influence Map is one of Eve’s most popular maps. A quick glance can give the casual player a general overview of what powers own what space, and to some, achieving your name on the map means you’ve made it as an entity. It is fairly colorful now anyway and additional colors and SOV holding entities are popping up almost daily it seems.
Fozzie SOV has not even gone live yet, and even a full month plus out, the map is changing. The failed N3 assault on Fountain followed by CFC’s counter attack has opened the doors to countless entities to appear and take space for themselves. The biggest change is Northern Associates, the rental empire of N3 has completely crumbled and alliances everywhere are taking their space for themselves.
Compare the SOV map of today, to one from a scant few months ago. For starters, the upper map shown here has a substantial list of sovereignty changing hands. The giant brown swath of former NA space is now populated by tons of new alliance names and colors starting to decorate the map. Smaller former renting entities are taking their places as real SOV holders. The southern regions and drone regions are the largest areas where SOV has changed hands. Almost daily the map changes and the rental empire is continuously shrinking.
For a long time people complained how stagnant null sec was. The concept of the blue donut was real. The bigger groups went to places like Catch and farmed HERO to pad killboards and wave around Epeen as big as the regional control. According to the influence map, this is indeed changing. But, are these rainbow sprinkles really revitalizing null sec, or is it going to stay a donut, just with additional sprinkles covering it?
New groups still cannot break into null sec. Larger entities still seem to think controlling several regions is the way Eve should be. CFC still controls the North. N3’s tattered remains are still banded together holding a chunk of the south. Southwest is a large group of blues, and the east is either Triumvirate who claim control of three regions, or xXDEATHXx who control the rest. Fozzie SOV is supposed to break this up, and prevent smaller groups from controlling vast quantities of space. “Spheres of influence” are a new phrase being thrown around.
It will be extremely interesting to see how much Fozzie Sov alters this map, or if it even will. Border systems could be attacked with ease, but the null sec out in the middle of nowhere is still hard to get to for mounting a serious attack. Troll attacks will happen on a regular basis of course. However, after said troll ceptor attack, defending it should be fairly easy as getting a significant threat out into deep null could prove fairly challenging.
Many of these groups are still banding together, blueing up, and making themselves as safe from harm as possible. Larger entities are gathering up large quantities of pets or “allies” to use to help protect space. Gathering in groups and herding together as many people as possible to protect moons, income, and SOV is still a thing. I personally, truly hope Fozzie SOV changes null sec entirely. Alliances unable to hold entire regions, or several of them at once could open the doors to a truly vibrant map with a crazy rainbow back splash.
Hopefully after June, null sec will turn into a whirl of colors, and look like Skittles and Starburst Jelly beans were poured across the SOV map. Delicious fruity candy are far better than blue iced donuts covered in sprinkles!
