Two extra Rebellion-scale Eve On-line expansions are deliberate for the approaching 12 months, CCP Video games has revealed in a brand new 2023 roadmap for the venerable house MMORPG. The Rebellion growth, which launched late final 12 months, launched some sweeping adjustments to New Eden, and CCP Video games says it plans to maintain up that tempo now that it’s switched to an growth mannequin for introducing new content material.
The Icelandic developer isn’t prepared to debate particulars in regards to the subsequent expansions simply but, however they’re presently scheduled to reach within the second and fourth quarters of the 12 months. Rebellion – Eve On-line’s first official ‘growth’ since 2018 – added a bunch of latest Navy ships and dreadnoughts to every fleet, but additionally launched the revamped faction warfare system that focuses motion on dynamic front-line techniques.
The approaching expansions will be anticipated to be impactful on that scale, CCP Video games tells us.
“We’re hitting a very nice candy spot with this growth,” Burger Finnbogason, Eve’s artistic director, says. “And yeah, the subsequent one shall be much more superb.”
There’s a lot to stay up for within the close to time period for Eve gamers, nevertheless. Within the first quarter of the 12 months, CCP Video games says it plans to introduce a brand new story arc for the factional marketing campaign that challenges gamers to assist their empires develop new transportation expertise, which is able to culminate in a particular occasion.
This quarter will even see the rollout of the Eve x Excel beta, which was unveiled at Fanfest in Reykjavik final 12 months. That characteristic will enable a Javascript API to drag knowledge from Eve straight into an Excel workbook – the end result of the “spreadsheets in house” joke that Eve gamers (and critics) have been making for years.
Within the Eve shopper, CCP has already been rolling out its revamped ‘Photon UI,’ which now permits customers to show a number of overview home windows at a time, with panes devoted strictly to ship techniques like drones, for instance, group developer Peter Farrell explains.
CCP Video games plans to carry this 12 months’s Fanfest September 21-23, and Halloween and winter-themed occasions are slated for the fourth quarter.
Each the builders and long-term gamers often observe that extra gamers in Eve means a extra enjoyable Eve expertise for everybody, and Finnbogason says the crew has seen a wholesome surge in day by day lively customers for the reason that launch of Rebellion.
“Often if you do expansions like this, you get a hockey stick impact – we get loads of curiosity day one, after which it dwindles out and you find yourself with about 10% of the spike because the uptick or the lengthy tail,” he tells us. “However that’s not what we’re seeing, we’re really seeing a very wholesome lengthy tail off this launch – we’re nonetheless seeing extraordinarily wholesome days greater than a month after launch.”
If house video games are your factor, don’t fear – we’ve bought you lined.