I will never forget what my first professor Economy said to us.
“Economy is not an exact science. If it was an exact science, I’d be able to predict the changes in economy. And be filthy rich. I am not. Sadly, I am stuck teaching you.”
True, economy is a science based on what people do. And since we can’t predict what people will do – believe me I tried – we are stuck studying the field in hindsight.
So no predictions in this analysis, because the problem with predicting the future is that the only time you are going to find out their truth, is when you are in the future.
So about the state of economy in EVE, april 2016. Lots of data, as usual. Difficult to read, as usual.
Players and Corps are getting richer. Players more than Corps. In April though, some of them lost ISK, a lot of ISK. Hmm… can you think of any reason?
For those interested in the long and boring explanation about the velocity of money, check the wiki pages. As I understand the velocity of ISK measures the number of trade interactions in which the same unit of ISK is used and transfers ownership.
As for April 2016 the velocity of ISK was a funny month. It looks like a lot of people first were saving their ISK, before investing or trading it massively. Then afterwards, a bit more saving, then a bit more trading, before the Citadel Expansion, in which they were trading again a lot more.
So where was all that destruction?
Conclusion:
The global war between the MBC and CFC still had a major impact on regional economy in April. The top 3 out of 5 regions were places of vast destruction, whereas only the 2 largest trade capitals remained the places to be for easy preys, warmongerers, pirates and Concord.
To back up all this destruction, or at least to keep up the large stockpiles, a lot needs production. But where are those heavens of creation?
The top 3 is reserved for the carebears providing Jita and the runners in those regions. Number 4 provides Amarr, and probably from there the closer nullsec regions. Number 5 provides the lesser trade capital of Dodixie and the countless mission runners in the area. For all the commotion about hisec carebears, it seems to me they are the ones keeping up the economy in EVE.
But who’s mining all the minerals for it?
Number 1 is again reserved for The Forge. As main production region, I’d guess producers there don’t like to move around a lot and mine, trade, produce and sell as close to Jita as possible. Lonetrek being second supports the same reason. A lot of mining to support the producers providing Amarr makes Domain the place to be to mine the lower level ores. Metropolis as the 5th mining region of the month surprised me a bit. Sure, Hek is the trade capital of Minmatar, but Metropolis is not a top producing region. Perhaps the ore is traded and distributed more than used for production.
Number 4 being Providence – home to the Curatores Veritas Alliance – is odd. Looks like these guys are mining a lot these days. Feeling at ease perhaps. Or stockpiling for production. One should ask around what their plans are.
If you hadn’t figured it out yet: these are the trade hubs in EVE:
Lonetrek comes in 5th. It could be explained by April being a war month, and Lonetrek is also a mission runner heaven plus production and mining region.
Before we move on to the region trade balances, it is more useful to take a look first at the regional import and export values. It could later explain the regional trade balances.
The biggest export (e) regions are:
The biggest import (i) regions are:
One shouldn’t be surprised a lot of stuff is moved out (e2, e4, e5) and in (i3, i4, i5) the top 3 trade capitals. But for The Citadel and Lonetrek is another explanation needed.
Checking the Net Export, we see that Lonetrek is relatively by far the greatest importer in April 2016. The reasons behind this could lie in the war efforts. A lot of ships, equipment, structures had to go to Saranen and neighbouring systems. That and Lonetrek is a popular mission runner region, which requires quite a lot of ships, equipment and ammo. The Citadel on the other hand is exporting a lot more than it is importing. Being a major production region, it could buy its recources more than it is mining them.
Relatively biggest exporters (e):
Deklein and Branch being under siege during April, it shouldn’t be a surprise they were moving out. As for the Tenerifs, that was Darkness moving out, into CFC territory.
Relatively biggest importers (i):
Tenal was under siege, and in early stages a lot more was moved in than out in that region. Drone Walkers rapidly crushed that region into submission. It must be noted that The Forge is rather an importer than an exporter. The combined stockpiles in Jita should be huge compared to other regions, but sadly no data is available. On another note, no data is available about the import/export ratio of the wormhole regions. Actually no economic data is available.
Negative Balance
Clearly the same picture as with the relatively biggest importers. People made a lot of ISK due to the war efforts.
Positive Balance
And again the same picture as with the relatively biggest exporters. They couldn’t sell their stuff fast enough.
Conclusion:
The war efforts had a major impact on regional trade and export. But not so that the usual activity to produce were neglible. On the contrary, production and mining usually – with the odd exception of Providence – takes place in hisec, near the trade capitals, while, depending on the region of warfare, a lot of stuff gets moved around in nullsec. In this case Darkness moving out and in, and Drone Walkers moving in, distorted the pictures. And CFC moving around and eventually moving out.
Now, that wasn’t too hard, was it?
