Today marks the second day of Fanfest streaming and the day we finally found out more about the new Havoc expansion, teased in yesterday’s Keynote presentation. Nearly 12,000 people watched various CCP developers walk us through some of the upcoming features of the game.
Up first, CCP Ghost presents us with the “Super Fleet Formula”, detailing the flow of new players to fearsome warriors. He tells us that 14% of brand-new players say they’ve made a friend playing EVE Online within 10 hours of gameplay. Without going into more detail about Ghost’s presentation, all of this has led up to the changes being made to some of the organizational features introduced in Viridian.
CCP Nomad comes to the stage to give us the details. The first big change is payment integration with corporation projects. This is essentially a way for corporation directors to set payout amounts for completing objectives in projects. There will be an escrow account that the corporation puts money in and, when objectives are completed, payouts will be processed from that. Nomad gives us an example of a delivery project where capsuleers are tasked to bring the corporation five Ravens. He explains that project managers can set the price and the item type as well as a limit on quantity, members can deposit the item into the corp hangar, complete the objective, and get paid.
Nomad gives us some more details on the project manager role as well as some quality-of-life updates before jumping into the next big update: new project types. The first new addition, remote reps, rewards capsuleers for repairing ships, finally giving logi pilots the recognition they deserve. He also lets us know that this is what Rattati was talking about yesterday, not logistics pilots on killmails. Second up is a kill capsuleers project, rewarding only those that get the final blow on an enemy. Third, scanning signatures, rewards capsuleers for scanning down cosmic anomalies.
Fourth, capturing and defending Faction Warfare complexes. This project is great as it gives corporations the ability to direct their members in faction warfare to make sure they’re capturing and defending the right areas of space. The fifth new project type is manufacturing items. You can specify where the item should be built down to the specific structure which is quite interesting strategically from both a financial and a sabotage perspective where you could put a project in a structure where your corporation gets more taxes or where an enemy does industry, raising their costs.
Nomad gives us a fresh look at the new AIR Opportunities coming soon as part of an update to the new player experience. It has been quite some time since the NPE has seen an update and, with the addition of experts Mike Azariah and Kshal Aideron to the CSM, we could see some quick iteration on these updates. AIR Opportunities are going to more fleshed out, including new objectives to enlist in faction warfare, mine ice, complete epic arcs, among others. He also tells us about AIR Daily Goals, quick objectives to complete each day with skill points as the main reward and ISK and EverMarks with corporations having the option to tax them.
Before going into some of the technology that went into corporation projects and goals, Nomad gives us a look at the future of corp projects. His slide is riddled with redactions but it includes things like alliance projects, SRP, interconnected projects, and others. There are a lot of possibilities with this future and Nomad reminds us that anything can be a mission, created by us, before leaving the stage and welcoming CCP Mischief.
Mischief walks us through some of her history and gives us a rundown of the cosmetic additions that have been made recently with EverMarks. She also lets us know that career emblems will soon be available as cosmetic items. Continuing, she explains how there will soon be a library of patterns and materials to elevate the designs of your structures and add a brilliant level of personalization.
Then, in a huge surprise, Mischief talks about giving us the ability to create our own skins for spaceships using the SKINR tool. Using nanocoatings, patterns, and materials you can design and share your own skins, and then, when the skin is created, it could cost PLEX to apply them for each individual player. This type of tool could be used to have everyone in a fleet wearing the same type of “uniform” in a fleet. Of all the things announced so far, this gets the best reaction.
In the same vein, Mischief lets us know that we can expect to soon use custom structures on our structures, like statues. Or holograms, fireworks, volumetric clouds, and a host of other coming-soons. You will also be able to change the interior of structures, make your own billboards and displays to show your current corporation project, reward members for contributions, etc. Like a gift that keeps on giving, Mischief finally goes into more detail about things like achievement skins, custom ship trails, and activation effects.
Next up, CCP Psych brings us to the frontlines of the Deathless story. First, he talks us through the foundations built with recent expansions including direct enlistment, frontlines and advantage. Direct enlistment allows us to align with the pirates while frontlines give us a place to participate in the pirate insurgencies while corruption suppresses the empire’s advantage. All together, these mechanics work together to provide an entirely new level of content. Of course, we couldn’t get by without mentioning EVE Vanguard.
Next, we’re treated to what could be a scary sight for some null-security players as it’s confirmed that these same mechanics could be applied in the form of frontlines in nullsec, sovereignty warfare, and player structures. Then, Psych takes us into the big news: how we’re going to use Zarzakh in November.
You will be able to enlist with either the Guristas or the Angel Cartel in the same way you can enlist with the empires now. The pirates are at war with specific empires, the Guristas against Caldari and Gallente and the Angel Cartel against the Amarr and Minmatar. Capsuleers who align with pirates will get special access to things in Zarzakh. Corruption and suppression are two new mechanics coming. Corruption represents the amount of criminal activity in a system while suppression represents the presence of law enforcement. Insurgents and Vanguard will be the corruption generators in the system. Though Psych didn’t explain what corruption does necessarily, we can expect it will make the systems weaker and more susceptible to insurgency.
Next on stage is CCP K1P1, giving us some more details about the Pirate Insurgencies. Insurgencies start when a system is chosen to act as a forward operating base for pirate operations. When the system is selected, the FOB is constructed and the insurgency begins. Surrounding the FOB system are the insurgency systems, where suppression and corruption are active. If either side successfully corrupts or suppresses 5 systems, the insurgency ends.
The warzones are dynamically created based on player activity. These insurgencies can also stretch beyond the bounds of traditional faction warfare space, like into high-security space. This is because the Faction Warfare and Insurgency systems are separate and act as different layers overlayed on top of each other. In this regard, you could be fighting for the Deathless against a player who is also fighting against the Caldari or Gallente, creating a scenario where all three participants are enemies.
Corruption affects the system in stages from 1-5. Every new stage of corruption releases new effects across the system, including pirate gang spawns, the cessation of Empire police, owner advantage in the system, or increased warp speed. On the same token, increasing suppression in a system could add things like increased pirate bounties, militia LP, and decreased corruption gains, among others. Once a system becomes fully corrupted, it may start to behave like a lower security system. High-security could look a little more like low-security, and low-security like null-security. Once the insurgency ends, any system effects are reset.
In addition to insurgencies, K1P1 also brought us some more details about the Alligator and Khezriel, the new pirate battlecruisers, including their stats. And, finally, we get to see the stats for the Angel Titan, Azariel. She also had some news about the skins and other rewards available in the new Guristas and Angel Cartel LP stores.
And that rounded up the Havoc presentation for today, and likely the last mention of it we’ll hear from the stream (aside from a mention in the closing ceremony). Overall, the excitement level for Havoc here at New Eden Post is through the roof.
How are you feeling about the upcoming expansion? Let us know in the comments.
