Approaching its 20th anniversary, free-to-play space MMORPG Eve Online is turning a new page with the release of Eve Evolved, a massive initiative to improve core elements of the game. The latest update to Eve Online kicks off that transformation, according to developer CCP Games, and much of what’s new in this patch is aimed at attracting new players and sweetening Eve’s longstanding reputation as a challenging game.
When you start a new pilot, a “capsuleer” in Eva’s terminology, your first step is usually to start taking jobs from some up-and-coming career NPC agents. Each is a series of missions designed to introduce you to Eve’s different career paths. Agents will show new players how to become an Enforcer, Industrialist, or Explorer, with various single-player missions to complete in separate single-player “dungeons” in nearby space.
The Eve Evolved update brings a stunning graphical overhaul to these areas, filling once-rare sectors with forests of asteroids and swirling cloud matter. Space stations are covered in dust and distant nebulae look much clearer thanks to high-resolution remastering of these celestial bodies.
Here’s the trailer, which has some nice before-and-after comparison shots:
Eve Evolved is more than just a new space skin and new asteroids, beautiful as they are. The update also launches the AIR career program, which makes the onboarding process a bit more free while still being informative. Instead of just giving linear sequences of missions, the new AIR Career Schedule offers lists of different recommended actions based on the new player’s chosen career path. They will send new pod players into populated areas of space where they can rank up alongside more experienced players by simply doing “Eve business as usual.”
“It’s about making people unplug,” says Bergur Finnbogason, creative director of Eve Online. “The more people undock, the more fun you have: flying with others, shooting others, accidentally blowing up nice things that other people accidentally undocked… It’s great content and it’s a lot of fun. So that’s the key.”
This new focus combines with other changes CCP has made to the new player experience in Eve Online, such as the skill planning system introduced in 2021 and a new cinematic intro mission.
Additionally, conversations with professional NPCs now take place in the improved Photon UI, which has a “compact mode” that can be used in certain windows (as described on the official Eve Online site).
Much of the latest update will also appeal to old-timers. CCP retuned many game sounds to improve the mix when multiple ships are in the same scene. Ships have received an updated level of detail and texture, and textures now load faster and easier. As a result, the game looks and sounds noticeably better than it did last week.
“Public perceptions are the hardest to change,” says Finnbogason. “These ideas that Eve is tough, that Eve is ruthless, have become myths. And for many, many years, we believed in all these myths! We have lived for them. At one point, there was even a marketing campaign saying, “Eve is so hard you can’t even play it.”
But Finnbogason says that recent CCP research has caused the company to reevaluate the game; Sure, the brutal PvP warfare and ruthless factional politics that surround it still exist, but that’s not all.
“I think with the friendship machine investigation, we must have eaten our hat en masse,” he says. “Just as 80% of our players consider themselves helpers, 95% of solo sessions are preparation for multiplayer.”
Eve Evolved is not a one-time update and will continue until the end of the year. As teased during Fanfest Reykjavik, it will also include several new story arcs, some of which are already spinning in the distant star systems of New Eden.
Source : PC Gamesn
