The big news last week was Legion’s first patch went live on Friday the 9th of this month. The patch devastated entire fleets in seconds without a single shot fired. If the destruction had occurred, the real world value destroyed would have reached the record books.
In short, the rail gun meta was significantly nerfed by the patch, along with a host of many other buffs and nerfs across the empires’ fleet of ships. The patch did more damage than perhaps the Goon/Horde “war.”
The rail gun meta has been popular from the introduction of the Ferox Navy Issue(FNI) in late 2022 until now. Three years of dominance of the hull that now has been undone, providing a more varied approach to fleet doctrines.
Is CCP no fun? Depends on who you ask, but remember EVE pretty much has unlimited ways you can play spaceships, when a meta becomes too locked into fleet composition for too long, the game becomes stale.
Stale gameplay leads to complaints and complaints result in lost subs, and you get the picture.
For today’s post, I am going to look into the FNI after my initial post in June and how the market has changed throughout the months leading up to the patch, and the initial market reaction to the nerf.
Target Scope
Target Market: The Forge
Date Range: 01-05-2025 to 15-09-2025
Commodity: Ferox Navy Issue (FNI)
Observations
As the trend lines show, the hull was generally in decline. Without much destruction, the ask volume increased, depressing the ask price.
Looking at the graph, the FNI’s decline started well before the patch, showing signs of weakness in late June when it was fast becoming obvious that the Goon/Horde war wasn’t going to continue in the same of the initial skirmishes.
On the bid graph things look more volatile, with a one day trough spiking the profit margins (below). While spiky, the profit margin values have stayed relatively stable and flat, though a precipitous fall has happened in the days after the 09-September patch.
In my earlier post in June (highlighted in sky blue), I spotted the inversion of the market, however, despite inverting again, the supply of FNIs outstrips demand.
Going into the final weeks before the patch, supply spikes to the second highest point but as the patch announcement and notes trickle out, FNIs are removed from the market.
Demand sees signs of strengthening, but the reasons why are unclear. I don’t predict for the market to fully recover given the changes in the meta.
Analysis
Is the FNI doomed for all eternity? Depends. Clearly, the current meta of railgun boats is going to change the doctrine make up going forward. Discussing this with corpmates and others online, the Vulture doctrine isn’t going anywhere. While the demand for FNIs will decrease, T1 Feroxes will continue to have use in terms of production of Vulture for fleet warfare.
To be fair to the FNI, while it’s nerfed, I don’t foresee a major crash in usage but it will have less preferential usage and create other opportunities for new ships to enter into fleet doctrines.
Given that FNIs are a separate production line and based on faction dog tags/currency and LP, I imagine demand for both the currency items and the Caldari LP, and therefore prices, will decrease, which will not be significant. The currency items and LP are often used for multiple LP store items.
Industrialists: This is your time to scale back FNI production, and start working with fleet commanders on the next set of doctrine fittings. Continue producing standard T1 Feroxes for T2 production as Vultures, which are still in use in their related game content. The FNI isn’t disappearing, rather its ubiquity is going to decrease. If you are building a large number of these you best bet is to reduce the amount you’re producing and invest production in a more diversified manner.
Station Traders: Hold any further investments into FNI until fleet doctrines start to solidify. I can’t say where to put your bets, as a dominant fleet doctrine has yet to shake out. FNIs are not going anywhere, but going forward fleets will be more varied, which for the long term health of your portfolio, start diversifying now will starve off any problems.
Overall, the markets are shifting due to the recent nerf by the patch on 09-Sept 25 and its effects on fleet composition. The markets should be able absorb this shift and I don’t foresee a crash unless another hull becomes dominant in the fleet doctrine. While change can be difficult in ship doctrine, for both the long term health of the game and the economy it is necessary.
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Sources
Adam4Eve API – Market Price History
Discord
