CCP Games, a leading independent developer of massively multiplayer games, today has rocked the notorious player-controlled metagame of EVE Online with changes to force projection while delivering dozens of other features and improvements to the game in the “Phoebe” release. Bringing some of the boldest developments in more than 11 years to EVE’s massive sci-fi universe, Phoebe echoes the developer’s new mantra of challenging long-held assumptions while staying true to EVE’s often-praised sandbox game design.
In Phoebe, major changes have come to force projection – the way EVE players use jump portals to move their massive spaceships across gaming’s largest universe. The introduction of a new jump fatigue mechanic means players and their corporations, alliances and coalitions now have to make even more strategic decisions as they set up supply lines, commit themselves to a battle far away from their home solar systems, or jump into a fleet fight as a third party. These changes are paired with the new ability of capital ships to use stargates provided they don’t lead to high security space and for Titans to use their terrifyingly powerful doomsday devices in low security space. Changes to medical clone installation, sovereignty structures and station service durability are sure to inspire new paradigms for player-driven conflicts.
For some time all the major coalitions and alliances in EVE Online have been preparing for the changes politically, diplomatically and militarily with a flurry of activity and diplomacy in player-owned space at levels not seen in years. Many regions have already changed hands in advance of Phoebe and some have been effectively evacuated, awaiting ambitious new occupants to stake their claims.
Phoebe offers a wealth of other features and changes as well, aimed at refreshing and expanding the massive EVE universe. Developed with a huge amount of player feedback and towards a vision of expanding to player-constructed stargates and beyond,
Phoebe mixes quality-of-life improvements with new additions to offer significant new content to players who engage in EVE’s limitless gameplay styles. Phoebe includes:
- A lifting of the 24-hour start time limitation for the character skill queue, which allows players to map out and train skills for months and years and evolve their gameplay experience how they want
- Consolidation of the entire Invention and Reverse-Engineering systems with improvements to each and a more intuitive progression for industrialists
- Multisell: The ability to create multiple market sell orders for EVE’s sophisticated and much-studied player-run markets
- Updated escalation sites, data sites and reward scaling for missions and low-end wormholes
- An upgraded sensor overlay brings more life to space including player bookmarks and better orientation
- A new notification system that’s completely configurable to help each player quickly identify the information that’s important to them.
- Higgs Anchor: A new module that should prove useful to low-end wormhole usage and miners
- Rebalancing of stealth bombers and heavy interdictors
- More UI and game systems improvements listed in the patch notes
“The constant evolution in the universe and the collaboration between players are what makes EVE truly unique,” said Andie Nordgren, executive producer for EVE Online. “With Phoebe we have purposefully started to make changes where we don’t necessarily know the outcome, making it an exciting time to play EVE.”
Phoebe is the fifth release in a new and aggressive development strategy for EVE that includes around ten releases annually. This has delivered more content, more frequently, to its legendary player-base. As with every release, Phoebe is available for free to all EVE Online subscribers and trial users.
Further information about Phoebe can be found on the feature page, as well as in developer blogs, or patch notes.
The next release, Rhea, is due out 9 December.
