We got a good look at the future for EVE‘s gameplay at EVE Fanfest 2015 and again at EVE Vegas 2015, with plans to return to big blockbuster expansions with the Citadels expansion in spring 2016. EVE‘s player activity also showed a slow decline in tandem with global MMO subscriptions in 2015 but appears to have finally stabilised toward the end of the year. As a company, CCP continued to position itself as a leading player in the upcoming VR games market with its immersive dogfighter EVE: Valkyrie and the recently released mobile VR game EVE: Gunjack. We also heard very little from PS3 shooter DUST 514, and the rights to the World of Darkness franchise were sold off to another developer.
In this year-in-review edition of EVE Evolved, I look back at the past year of gameplay updates, lore and news coverage for EVE and CCP.
EVE gameplay updates in 2015
CCP released around 15 major updates this year, which varied in terms of scope and gameplay. January’s Proteus release brought us new exploration sites, graphical enhancements for asteroid fields, and a slew of small changes. February’s Tiamat update introduced the first of the Tech 3 tactical destroyers and gave corporations the option to have CONCORD police punish corp members who attack each other unlawfully. Before this update, spies could infiltrate any corp and attack other corp members in high security space with impunity.
March’s Scylla update focused mainly on rebalancing things like tech 3 subsystems and railguns, but also kicked off the Drifter storyline with a new series of in-character news videos and live events that happened in-game. April’s Mosaic patch introduced ship skins and the Opportunities system that replaced the game’s old tutorial system, buffed nullsec mining, added tough new burner missions, and completely ruined the entire game forever by changing the Damage Control module icon. June’s Carnyx update included new drifter wormholes and the first round of nullsec sovereignty changes, with the new system capture mechanics being rolled out in July’s Aegis patch. August’s Galatea release contained mostly cosmetic items and skins, and the first iteration on the sov system based on feedback.
September’s Vanguard update went on to make a few more small tweaks to the system capture mechanics along with adding some new burner missions and graphical improvements. October saw the Crimson Harvest patch that added a new blood raider event spawning lucrative sites all across the game. The Parallax update followed in November with yet more tweaks to the sovereignty and territorial warfare mechanics and the Brain in a Box performance upgrade that reduced lag when jumping between systems and increased the population cap in trade hub Jita. CCP deployed the colossal Operation Frostline patch in December to round the year off, adding the Operation Frostline holiday event, ship dirt effects, battle damage effects, new propulsion effects, the Endurance ice mining frigate, tech 2 logistics frigates, tech 2 command destroyers, and tons of other graphical improvements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awhqR-WjDDU
Storyline and lore in 2015
It was a great year for anyone who really loves the EVE Online lore, as CCP began to evolve the storyline using in-character news videos from Gallente news corp The Scope. Though most of the storyline events in the videos didn’t happen as traditional live events, the after-effects of them could often be seen in-game. The stories were frequently used to introduce new technology to the game, and there were also several reports on actual in-game events such as wars between alliances and coalitions, and the Crimson Harvest event.
The main story arc kicked off early in the year with what looked like a massive supernova in Jove space and the sudden appearance of Sleeper ships in normal space. The Sleepers eventually uncovered cloaked Jove observatories hidden throughout the New Eden cluster and began dismantling them, bringing parts back into their wormholes. We then learned that the ships were stealing our corpses and using them to manufacture new bodies, leading to a new faction called the Drifters who appeared to be of Jove origins. Much of the year’s storyline has been focused on the Drifters invading our space and assassinating the empress of the Amarr Empire. If you haven’t been watching the videos from The Scope, I suggest watching them all in order as they provide an immersive glimpse into the NPC storyline of EVE Online.
EVE coverage in the media
This year started off on a major sour note for us as AOL axed all of its weblogs, including Massively. I penned what I thought would be the final edition of EVE Evolved and readers asked where they would get their EVE coverage from. In the end, we pulled together and were able to relaunch as MassivelyOP as a fully independent site thanks to the generous pledges from backers on Kickstarter and ongoing support from readers via Patreon. We were able to bring back our EVE coverage and the site is now coming up on its one year anniversary.
We didn’t see many major dramas spill out from EVE Online and into the general gaming media this year. There were some very vocal complaints on the EVE forum over the proposal of a Transneural Skill Packet system that would allow players to extract their skill points and sell them on the open market, but this turned out to be a storm in a teacup. When we spoke to players and took a broader view of the EVE community that included bloggers discussing the issue, most seemed to be cautiously optimistic about the idea. There was also an issue with CCP renaming the Interbus Ship Identification System, which people assumed was done to avoid using the acronym ISIS.
All in all, EVE coverage across on the web seemed a little muted this year, perhaps because there was no big blockbuster expansion generating hype and the market for subscription MMOs and MMORPGs in general is still in a low patch. EVE blogs and community sites kept churning away throughout the year, with fansite Crossing Zebras really standing out to me with some fantastic articles and vidcasts. For the most part, 2015 was an average year with a few big in-game battles and wars, some big updates with new features, and enough internal community dramas to turn your face blue.
Top news stories of the year:
Configurable corp friendly fire is coming to EVE OnlineFebruary 17th's Tiamat patch for EVE Online will "give player corporations the ability to configure whether friendly fire within the corporation is considered legal…
EVE Evolved: Exploring EVE’s ‘new opportunities’
This week saw the first concrete reveal of EVE Online's potentially revolutionary new Opportunities system, which promises to replace the current tutorial with a…
EVE Online tests potentially revolutionary tutorial replacement
Throughout its over 10-year life span, EVE Online has always been regarded as having an insane learning curve. New players are dropped into the…
People are still getting scammed for big bucks in EVE Online
You'd think that EVE Online players would have taken the "trust no one" mantra to heart after a decade of news stories about corporation…
EVE Fanfest 2015: EVE is getting customisable structures and player-built stargates
It's often said that EVE Online is ultimately built by its players and that the developer's job is to produce the tools for players…
EVE Fanfest 2015: CCP opens VR Labs, unveils four new side projects
The story of how virtual reality dogfighter EVE: Valkyrie was born is a great indicator of shifts within the games industry. While the big…
EVE Fanfest 2015: Project Legion may be in development limbo
At last year's EVE Online Fanfest, developer CCP Games announced Project Legion, a complete reimagining of failed console MMOFPS DUST 514 for the PC.…
EVE Online’s Sleepers are stealing corpses to rebuild their bodies
When unstable wormholes began opening all across EVE Online back in 2009, players cautiously ventured forth into the unknown and discovered the ruins of…
EVE Evolved: How many subscriptions does EVE have?
Two weeks ago, a mathemagician over at The Nosy Gamer published some interesting calculations showing that EVE Online's subscriptions may have dropped by around…
CCP would like you to buy some EVE ship SKINS in its cash shop
CCP is ramping up the focus on its cash shop thanks to a new dev blog examining EVE Online's ship SKIN system. Ship skins are…
EVE Online is scrapping its old tutorial on April 28
Say your goodbyes to EVE Online's current tutorial, because it's being completely removed from the game on April 28th in favor of a new system…
EVE Evolved: Seven years of EVE Evolved
When I started writing about EVE Online for Massively back in 2008, the MMO genre was really hitting its stride, and emerging sites like…
EVE Online’s PLEX is helping Nepal victims
Have you donated to disaster relief efforts in Nepal yet? If not, and if you're an EVE Online player, you can do so via…
CCP Games buys back $20m in bonds, drops Legion trademark
News is circulating in the EVE Online blogs and forum that developer CCP Games has just bought back $20 million in publicly traded bonds.…
EVE Evolved: Have the Drifters conquered the Jove Empire?
EVE Online's Carnyx release is right around the corner on June 2nd, and it's going to be a big update! The Caldari will finally…
EVE’s PLEX for Good raises over $103,000 for Nepal victims
CCP has published a blog post detailing the results of its latest PLEX for Good fundraising drive that provided assistance for victims of the…
CCP financials for 2014 continue their downward slide
It's become a cottage industry for EVE Online fans to try to figure out whether CCP Games is doing well or not. Gone are the days…
Player analyst believes EVE Online concurrency is at its lowest point since 2008
It's really difficult to be sure about how EVE Online is doing, since CCP Games has stopped releasing subscription numbers on a regular basis.…
EVE Evolved: It’s never too late to start playing EVE
Any time an in-depth discussion pops up about EVE Online, it's never long before someone pipes up with the complaint that new players just…
History of EVE Online book rolls first copies off the printing press
EVE Online's player history is a massive, ever-shifting entity, and one man is making good on his dream and promise to put it into writing.…
EVE Evolved: The war for Providence
In the previous edition of EVE Evolved, I looked at how the state of PvP in EVE Online has changed since the Aegis Sovereignty…
EVE Online reintroduces large-scale expansions
Earlier this week, EVE Online Executive Producer Andie "CCPSeagull" Nordgren announced that the game will be returning to large-scale expansions in addition to frequent patches. What can…
EVE Evolved: Does skillpoint trading make EVE pay-to-win?
[AL:EVE]EVE Online's realtime skill training system has been a major point of contention throughout the game's lifetime, being a boon for those with little…
EVE Vegas 2015: The future of PvE in EVE Online
While the focus of EVE Vegas 2015 was definitely on the new Citadel structures and the capital ship overhaul coming next spring, the topic…
EVE Vegas 2015: Citadel expansion details revealed
CCP promised some big reveals at EVE Vegas 2015 and so far it has definitely delivered. In yesterday's EVE Online keynote speech, we heard concrete…
CCP has sold White Wolf and World of Darkness to Paradox
CCP Games has apparently sold White Wolf and all of its properties -- including World of Darkness and Vampire: The Masquerade -- to Paradox,…
Venture capitalists pour $30M into CCP’s VR plans
If you were worried about the health of EVE Online studio CCP after its recent sale of White Wolf and its associated IP, well,…
EVE: Gunjack launches on Samsung Gear VR
Not every inhabitant of the EVE Online universe is some fancy hotshot pilot with a billion-ISK warship under his or her seat. As CCP…
EVE Online releases its December patch with Operation Frostline
The winter holidays are very different when you are in space and literally everyone is threatening to blow your ship up. That's hardly the…
EVE’s ‘ISIS’ ship browser gets a rename
EVE Online's Operation Frostline patch yesterday brought to light an intriguing change: a new name for the game's ship browser, the Interbus Ship Identification System, otherwise…
EVE Valkyrie will launch bundled with the Oculus Rift
Oculus and CCP have just announced that the EVE-spinoff VR shooter, EVE Valkyrie, will launch bundled with the Rift itself in 2016. https://twitter.com/oculus/status/674983291527671808 CCP…
EVE Online expert Brendan ‘Nyphur’ Drain has been playing EVE for over a decade and writing the regular EVE Evolved column since 2008. The column covers everything from in-depth EVE guides and news breakdowns to game design discussions and opinion pieces. If there’s a topic you’d love to see covered, drop him a comment or send mail to [email protected]/topic/y!
