Thursday ought to’ve been the spotlight of the EVE Online calendar. But even with EVE Fanfest’s cancellation, the subsequent few months are set to be large ones for New Eden with Eclipse, EVE’s second quadrant of the yr. An extragalactic invasion involves a head with star-snuffing starships, interstellar easter egg hunts, and a charity drive to make use of all these spacebucks you’ve amassed for real-world good.
Fanfest may be gone, however that doesn’t imply we are able to’t all come collectively and watch some large spaceships blow up in a cinematic facet ratio.
Eclipse is the second of EVE Online’s new “Quadrants”, smaller themed updates dropping 4 instances a yr. Last months Fight or Flight, for instance, let you tuck a Frigate into the bays of your Battleship, supplying you with a second likelihood to wreak havoc or run away.
It’s an method that appears to be paying off. In dialog with Sin, CCP’s Scott Rhodes claimed that “Overall each small but substantial release has been really successful for us. Hopefully that will continue and we’ll see more people joining and enjoying the game.”
Eclipse kicks off innocently sufficient. The Hunt, EVE’s annual interstellar seasonal egg hunt, returns for one more bout, letting newer pilots in smaller ships monitor down capsules and occasion websites for goodies. After that, the security gloves are off. Eclipse marks chapter three of the Triglavian Invasion. Piloting ships styled after gaming peripherals, the Triglavians have been causing mischief since last May. Now, it appears they’re ramping their battle as much as 11.
For now, we’ve solely hints at what which means. The trailer suggests the Triglavians could have some form of star-killing machine with the ability to (briefly, I’d hope) shut down EVE’s system-hopping leap gates. We additionally briefly glimpse a brand new ship sporting a chain-lighting laser beam, akin to these beforehand solely wielded by the game’s colossal Keepstar citadels.
It’s not all doom and gloom in outer area. This week, CCP introduced that charity drive PLEX For Good is back. Mere months after elevating over $100,000 for Australian bushfire aid, the drive is now elevating funds for the Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund which hope to, amongst different issues, ship important medical provides to healthcare employees throughout the globe.
Supplies like N95-grade face masks, which – to assist unfold consciousness of the marketing campaign – CCP are toying with getting applied in EVE’s wildly overproduced character creator. Funds are being raised by means of donations of PLEX – an in-game license that’s often both used to increase subscription time or offered available on the market for enormous quantities of ISK. These could be despatched to in-game character “PLEX For Good”, and CCP will donate the real-world worth of all contributions to the response fund on the finish of the marketing campaign.
EVE’s immortal space-capitalists may not be vulnerable to an infection themselves, however a minimum of they’ll do their half to assist these of us caught down right here on Earth.
