Force projection after the September patch
Working out what moving an alliance capital would change — yours or
someone else’s? The September update ties the capacitor cost of an Ansiblex
jump to the distance from the alliance capital system, and the whole of
null-sec is divided into zones around those capitals. This map shows two
things: whose zones lie where, and where a bloc has holes — its own systems
its own fleet cannot cheaply reach.
The numbers are not invented: ship class base costs and zone multipliers
come from the CCP devblogs of 17 and 21 July 2026, and remain inputs — CCP
is still tuning them. Distances are computed in honest 3D from real system
coordinates, while the picture is a flat projection of the galaxy with the
vertical axis dropped. The zone colouring is therefore correct, but the
titan range ring drawn over it is for reference only: New Eden spans 22.8 ly
vertically — more than the diameter of zone 1 — so a system above or below
the plane looks closer than it is.
How a jump’s cost is calculated
cost (TJ) = ship class base cost × multiplier of the
destination zone
Three consequences, none of them obvious:
The cost does not depend on the distance between the
Ansiblexes themselves, and does not depend on mass: the base cost is a
new attribute of the ship class.
The multiplier comes from the destination zone, while the
capacitor is drawn from the gate you leave . A jump from zone 1
into zone 2 costs; the way back is free.
Since the price of delivering into a system depends only on that
system’s zone, coverage adds up system by system without caveats.
Base cost by class, TJ: frigate 4, covops 5, destroyer 6, interceptor
8, cruiser 10, HAC 11.5, T3C 13, battlecruiser 14.5, battleship and
command ship 16.5, black ops 18, marauder and Rorqual 19. The Rorqual has
hand-set deviations from the formula in zones 2 and 3 — 57 and 104.5
instead of 38 and 114.
At the very bottom of the table, at 1 TJ, sit the capsule, the shuttle
and — more importantly — the freighter, hauler, mining barge and
exhumer : hauling through an Ansiblex is barely touched by the patch,
what gets expensive is the combat fleet. The devblog lists over forty
classes; this map counts the combat ones, and coverage is built from
them.
The devblog’s own example: a Tengu going from zone 2 into zone 3 —
13 × 6 = 78 TJ.
The gate capacitor holds 1250 TJ and recharges by roughly 200 TJ an
hour, non-linearly, the way a ship capacitor does: fastest around the
middle, slower near either end. A full recharge from empty takes about
6 hours 15 minutes. At release the gate capacitor cannot be neuted or fed
by remote cap transfer.
What that means in practice: a battleship in zone 3 costs
16.5 × 6 = 99 TJ. A full capacitor passes twelve of them, and on recharge
alone about two an hour. That is the new weak point of null-sec.
Zones, and where the border runs
Zone From the capital Multiplier 1 0–5 ly 0 2 5.1–10 ly 2 3 10.1–15 ly 6 4 15.1–20 ly 9 5 20.1 ly and beyond 15
The first zone’s multiplier is zero — inside it jumps are free, in any
number.
Behaviour exactly on a border (5.0 against 5.1 ly) is described
nowhere by CCP. This map counts the border as belonging to the nearer
zone and marks that as an assumption. The borders themselves can be
edited by hand in the panel on the right — if the numbers change before
release, you will not have to wait for the map.
What a hole in the umbrella is
Under the umbrella means a system a bloc reaches cheaply: its own
territory in zone 1 or 2 from its own capital. A hole is the opposite —
its own system in zone 3 or beyond. On paper it holds: the fleet is
stationed there, sov is paid. But reinforcements arrive at a price that
makes a fast response impossible.
Before the patch such places did not exist, and there is nowhere to see
them in advance today. That summary is exactly what this map builds: pick
an alliance and get the list of its own systems outside its own
umbrella.
Titan bridges, and what the patch leaves alone
The rings drawn over the zones are titan bridge range: 6 ly with Jump
Drive Calibration V, and 12 ly in two legs. That is a different mechanic,
and the patch does not touch it at all: stargates, titan bridges and
filaments stay as they were.
Also from the same patch: capitals and supercapitals can no longer use
Ansiblexes — except the Rorqual; ACLs become alliance-only; tolling and
liquid ozone are removed; cyno jammers per system go from three to one.
Jump fatigue for Ansiblexes was considered by CCP and rejected.
What this map cannot do
Coalitions are not fully mapped — that is what the “work in progress”
banner at the top is about. Only claimable null-sec regions are drawn:
empire space, NPC null and wormholes take no part in the calculation,
because Ansiblexes and sov capitals do not live there. CCP is still
tuning the patch numbers, and by release they may differ from the ones
here. The age of the data the map states itself, in the first line of the
panel.
And once more about the ring: it is not a ruler. The error of the flat
projection against honest 3D, measured over 200 thousand system pairs, is
0.7% at the median — but 8.7% at the 95th percentile, and up to 98% on
close pairs separated mostly along the vertical axis.