In what will probably be the biggest change to Eve Online in the past three years, developer “CCP Whisper” has announced some details about how the new wormhole system will work. The wormholes will be added in the upcoming March expansion, which is timed to coincide with Atari’s boxed release. Whisper says: “These wormholes are unstable and will spawn and vanish randomly throughout the known universe. A pilot who stumbles across one of these stellar phenomena can fly through it and travel to unknown space, where there are no stargates or stations, just the unexplored void of a new solar system. And when I say “new solar system” that is exactly what I mean. It will not be moving you to instanced space but rather to one of the thousands of new solar systems we will be adding to the EVE universe.” Lots more after the jump.
Whisper continues: “Wormholes will shift all the time. They will open and close and reopen at random locations throughout New Eden and thus present you with an ever-changing area of space that no-one can control all the choke-points to. While it is theoretically possible to move a control tower into wormhole space, set it up and maintain it, the logistical challenge and risks of fueling and defending a tower in a system with no permanent links to known space would be considerable. But then again the potential rewards are equally great.”
This is hugely exciting because it essentially addresses the disappoint we faced over the original exploration mechanism, which did little more than spawn new missions. This will be “real” exploration, that offers something like the venture into the unknown that we want from such exploits, quite unlike the those that are possible in the teeming Eve universe at present. The idea of getting a gang together not simply to rove about looking for targets, or to run a mission, but to actually go into unknown space, is thrilling. And if that new space is 46% the size of Eve’s current galaxy then we face no shortage of places to head off to. If the wormholes do shift this radically it could mean that players get trapped for a time, or find themselves coming back out in some hostile part of space. I should think people will try to deploy towers out there, too, which will be a massive new challenge. Without the super-easy logisitcal support of capital jump-drive ships getting back and forth to these wormhole system becomes a fresh puzzle. It shouldn’t, Whisper thinks, be supportable to expand Empires into these new regions, but folks will try.
“One important point needs to be made: Wormhole space will not be able to be claimed as sovereign space. This is partly due to current implementation restrictions regarding how we added 46% more solar systems to EVE but mainly because we wanted to design an area of space which, while risky to travel through, is open to all players all the time. We have not forgotten about the desirability of space for colonisation, and will be looking at ways to implement that gameplay feature in the future.”
All this is clearly great news for people who wanted Eve to have some other dimension of exploration and PvE, but it also suggests some strange possibilities for PvP: will wormhole roaming to pick off explorers and industrial corps become the new frontier for PvPers? What kind of gang would you have to taken into the wormhole? It’s clear that if this is a popular system then certain wormhole systems will rapidly become well-trafficked, with multiple gangs entering the systems and probably fighting over the resources. So this announcement clearly raises more questions that it answers, but it suddenly makes the coming expansion all the more interesting, and threatening to revitalise Eve’s low-end of solo or small-group play. I can’t wait to see it in more detail.
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@ Azhrarn yeah well it doesn’t matter as much as people think it does
The ‘you can’t catch up’ argument is stupid. People get more diverse over time, not über powerful
egg, joining a corp is the best way to get used to the game. You’ll have friendly people to help you learn and get you killed.
So the spreadsheet now randomly loads other spreadsheets when you click on certain cells?
Why are we excited again?
I was sure I had replied here. Oh well..
Looking forward to this, but like many here I no longer have much time to actually play the game. Not to mention that all my EVE buddies are scattered all over the galaxy and I am left in my (for all intents and purposes) one man corporation. Shame really, for without someone to fly with, this game grows boring pretty quickly. Right now I only play when I feel like it, which recently translates to “once every forthnight.”
If someone needs a place to hang their hat (read: I miss PVP, come PEW PEW with me!1), send me an evemail at Markath in-game. Very casual, and don’t expect constant action or activity. If I can get a decent gang of regulars running again the corp might even join FW.. (Minmatar pride!)
Ey, a guy can dream right?
I tried an EVE free trial, but just couldn’t get into it. In theory I like so much of the games design, but in practice I just prefer swords to lasers.
I’ve convinced myself I want to get into this (for the nth time…), and have bought a new laptop to assist with the process. Let’s see if I get confused and give up after two days of pottering around in gorgeous dust.
I blame Jim’s smorgasbord of Eve-centric postings across a variety of sites – I spent the best part of the working day skimming them, and they’ve painted quite the pretty picture. Let’s hope I’m adopted by some caring corporation who take kindly to getting distracted easily.
This sounds awesome. But I’m only really game if it turns out to be possible to build my MERCENARY ASSHOLE PIRATE COVE, that harbors my cutthroat gang of angry douchebags in improbable safety and comfort. Not sure where these people would come from, but that’s what the game is all about.
Among the reasons I never got into EVE, but loved WoW (and am preparing to love it again, oh yeah):
EVE has a strong PvP bent. There is, as far as I know, no flat out protection from PvP even in high sec – sure, the police will go after pirates and such, but they’re not infallible and if they want you badly enough, you can be gotten. Also, the better stuff’s all in low sec. WoW confines PvP to flagged players and certain specific areas and servers. I hate PvP, so it’s obvious which system I prefer.
EVE is boring solo. This is true of a lot of MMOs, and I always enjoy grouping, especially with friends, more than I do soloing. But I don’t know anyone else who plays EVE regularly, so that’s a problem. WoW (and many recent MMOs that follow in its lead) is quite solo-friendly, although I probably wouldn’t be able to sustain interest long term if I soloed the entire time.
And – probably bigger than either of the other two – there’s EVE’s skill system. I like a nice juicy carrot dangling in front of me for my playtime. For me that’s usually levels and neat new powers/spells/whatever to play with. EVE’s skill system barely has this to begin with, being mostly focused on letting you use new classes of gear. And then further sabotages my fun by caring not a whit whether I play or not. When my advancement is unconnected to what I’m actually doing *in the game*, it’s not any kind of reward at all. And so I’m left with the rather tiresome task of earning money. You know what that’s called? A job.
If I read the developer blog post right, clone travel of any sort is a no-go. Self destructing leads to death, not waking up in your med close vat.
I might be wrong, though. I’m sure we’ll find out fairly soon.
Jump clones are a definite no go.
I love ccp. They are truly the masters of MMO design and implementation. I take my hat off to them in a big way. I don’t get how WOW sells more copies than EVE does, they are doing EVERYTHING right.
It’s situated in space. Lots of people are turned away by that.
yeah maybe it’s the whole space thing
or maybe it’s because it has no gameplay and is only for the true aspergers-afflicted nerd who jerks off to numbers and spreadsheets
@buzzard
What is the problem of jerking off to numbers?
Also, like so many guys here, I love to read about the game and politics and battles but I just cant play it.
This blog has gotten me to go try out EVE, as not only am I attracted to anything with big massive spaceships, but I’ve been looking for a slower pace MMO that doesn’t require me to feed 5 hours a day into it to progress (stupid raiding game). Pvp doesn’t bother me much when I stand a fair chance.
I do like WoW and all, but the raiding demand has been a bit much…I need a mathier game that requires less twitch and more thought. I’m hoping EVE fills that niche.
Numbers are hot.
Four? PHWOAR, more like!
“Huh. Woah. We have a sudden increase of subscribers.”
“Hmm. Weird. Let’s see…”
“Ohh, Jim Rossignol wrote an article about EVE Online again.”
Why do I not play this game?
…maybe it’s because it has no gameplay and is only for the true aspergers-afflicted nerd who jerks off to numbers and spreadsheets
And you’re Iggy fucking Pop aren’t you..? Idiot.
Iggy Pop is advertising insurance now
And Ozzy Osbourne is advertising WoW.
Well, theis expansion is going to be really nice. I’playing EVE since about approx 3 Years and i can tell that this expansion is the biggest one ever made, and its going to be for all players, new one and older ones. For example they made Epic mission Arcs for Level 1 and 2 Missions, these are the missions, beginners rather do. Wormholes will be for experienced players though, because the Sleeper NPCs will be pretty hard to destroy.
One more thing is that there are going to be some new Graphics. Take a look at the EVE-Online Apocrypha trailer. This trailer only uses ingame-graphics.