8.1.2009
EVE Online: Apocrypha Uncovers a New Version of the Universe Itself
Reykjavik, Iceland January 8, 2009- CCP, one of the world’s leading independent game developers, today announced the launch of the tenth free expansion for EVE Online, its popular science-fiction massively multi-player online game (MMOG). EVE Online: Apocrypha is the most ambitious EVE expansion in the game's over five year history and it coincides with the March 10th, 2009 release of EVE Online as a boxed product through a partnership with Atari.
The fabric of space itself will be transformed as vast, unpredictable wormholes open to connect previously unexplored regions of the universe to the stars of New Eden. The seeds of advanced new technology await inside of these cosmic anomalies for those brave enough to explore them. This infusion of technology will enable production of the most dynamic vessels ever – Tech 3 modular ships with an astounding amount of customizability that can fill any role from skirmish muscle to industrial support.
Furthermore, NPC agents in EVE Online: Apocrypha will be authorized to assign Epic Mission Arcs to the pilots of New Eden. These branching, far-reaching mission strings are full of meaningful stories and more intelligent and deadly adversaries.
In addition, we are offering an entirely reworked New Player Experience for those joining (or rejoining) the game – giving them better insight into how to thrive in a truly limitless universe. We’ve already launched EVElopedia—a great repository for information on all things EVE where our players are also building their own living history of the previous five years of Alliance warfare, political intrigue and nostalgic recollection
“Just this past week we broke our concurrent user record with 45,186 people flying unbound in the same game world at the same time—a huge percentage of our quarter of a million current subscribers and a true testament to EVE in our sixth year of operation,” said EVE Online Senior Producer Torfi Frans Olafsson. “Today is an unprecedented time to start playing, as you can get ahead of the curve before Apocrypha releases in stores and our hard work hits the server cluster. It’ll be easier than ever to get ‘lost in the wormhole’ that is EVE with what we have planned for the future of our expanding universe.”
Leading up to the release of EVE Online: Apocrypha and the boxed version of EVE Online in stores, we’ll be revealing more features on
www.eveonline.com.
Availability:
EVE Online: Apocrypha will be available at retail stores across the galaxy in March this year and as a free download at
www.eveonline.com/download/ for existing subscribers. A new Premium graphics client for Mac will also be included in the retail box.
Visit the EVE website now to sign up for a free 14-day trial account or to reactivate your account to get ahead of the curve.
About EVE Online
Set tens of thousands of years in the future, EVE Online is a breathtaking journey to the stars, to an immersive experience filled with adventure, riches, danger and glory. With nearly a quarter of a million subscribers worldwide inhabiting the same virtual universe, EVE features a vast player-run economy where your greatest asset is the starship, designed to accommodate your specific needs, skills and ambitions. EVE offers professions ranging from commodities trader to mercenary, industrial entrepreneur to pirate, mining engineer to battle fleet commander or any combination of these and much more. From brokering business deals to waging war, you will have access to a diverse array of sophisticated tools and interfaces to forge your own destiny in EVE. Learn more and sign up for a free trial at
www.eveonline.com.
Definition of Subscribers
EVE Online subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active electronic time code (ETC) to play EVE Online, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions and expired ETCs.
About CCP
CCP is widely recognized as an industry-leading pioneer of the single-server persistent universe architecture as the developer and publisher of EVE Online, the critically-acclaimed, science fiction-based massively multiplayer online game (MMOG). Utilizing a cross-discipline approach combining cutting-edge technology and artistic excellence, CCP is dedicated to providing vibrant, compelling products that transcend the boundaries of conventional MMOGs and facilitate social networking through virtual worlds. Privately held and founded in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1997, CCP's international reach now spans the globe with offices in Atlanta and Shanghai as well as a base of operations in London. More information about CCP is available at the company's website,
www.ccpgames.com.
- 12,500 possible configurations.
- Five ship components needed. Propulsion, three mid sections (offence, defence, power core) and a sensor array (bridge type thing).
- Each section determines separate abilities. Propulsion for speed, probably offence module for weaponry, etc, etc. Not been fully decided at time of writing.
- The combination of the modules decides the overall stats of the ship.
- Each section requires different skills (loltimesink).
- It would appear that the power core decides what other hull modules you can fit, so you can't have a nano-ewar ship with a billion guns. I might be reading that wrong though.
- Alternatively CCP might introduce some kind of "heat" that allows you to overload the structure of your ships to get this kind of power from one, but only for a very limited time (might just be wild imaginings of the writer though).
- They have been thinking up ways to make sure that Tech III is very much an option, not a requirement. Will they succeed?
- You can disassemble an assembled Tech III ship. Probably useful for transporting at least. Example given is needing your ship to be faster so getting your transport guys to bring down faster components, which will be much smaller and easier to carry, instead of a load of new Tech II ships.
- Rigs: Probably only one, and will make it harder to disassemble the ship because obviously the rig will break. No mention of actual Tech III rigs so far though.
- 'winsauce'. Not entirely sure what this is. There is an implication that disassembling a ship might make it lose something. Talk about crew members or a ship being 'sentient' and thus maybe gaining 'experience' or somesuch that is lost when it's broken down. Whatever it is, it's talk of a ship learning and becoming better through some system. Not confirmed and at this point probably going to remain on the drawing board because of balance issues. It could stay there, or it could come in later.
- A little box to the side suggests that as well as what was previously said about trying to not make older ships obsolete, Tech III should hopefully not need a ridiculous amount of time to train, at least initially. Breadth > Depth in the skill department here.
- Apparently not a lot of coding issues so far. An original prototype was thrown together by the CTO while waiting to do his FanFest presentation (cocky bastard).
- Base chassis might get a name but the likelihood is that CCP aren't going to be insane enough to come up with names for all variations. Not really sure how this is going to work though. They might just use the component type names stuck together, creating "Hunter-Squirrel XE-4". Implication here that we get to name what we create.
- Tech I = multi-purpose. Tech II = specialisation. Tech III = Tech I + Tech II; a ship that can fill any role you want, but only one at a time.
- Covert Ops pilots should either cry or rejoice. You're going to need to get good at spotting subsystems and knowing what they do. 'Look At' might become popular, although pretty painful in a large group of Tech III ships.
- You won't be able to tell a ships role/subsystems from scanner results.
- Subsystem targeting is still an idea (as it has always been) but at the moment it seems they haven't decided to put it in because of balance issues etc. Probably not going in then.
- Only cruiser sized Tech III ships. No idea when Tech III modules will come out. Any other ships released in the expansion will be related to "True Exploration".
Szkoda ze nie bedzie na razie innych klas T3 poza cruisers (np. battleships)
Ale poza tym drobnym szczegolem zapowiada sie smakowicie. Premiera w Marcu.