Cool Spaceships Ahoy: EVE Online Rhea Update Launched

Do you like dramatic shots of cool spaceships looking cool in space? Because boy oh boy, the trailer accompanying EVE Online's latest big update 'Rhea' sure has some cool spaceships. Shiny metal usually holds few thrills for me, but watching this I'm beaming at EVE's new ships and improved graphics, especially the ship which looks like a cross between a Nighthawk bomber and a Mega-City One block, starlight glinting off cruel facets. Should you have an interest in EVE beyond cool spaceships, let me tell you this update has done a few interesting things too.

But first things first: pretty spaceships. Rhea introduces physically-based rendering, which is a word we're hearing a fair bit nowadays. In short, it's a graphics technique which makes objects reflect light more realistically. If you want to know more, this blog post explains with examples and equations and everything. Rhea also brings new ships, including one which - oh me oh my - can switch between three different forms, as well as redesigns of several older ships. It's that new Blackbird I'm cooing at most.

Beneath the shininess, Rhea's made a few interesting changes. It brings loads of new wandering wormholes to explore and a new system that's full of the blighters. It's done away with clone upgrades too. Previously, folks needed to keep buying better, more expensives clone bodies as they gained skill points or they'd risk losing a portion when they died. CCP hope this'll help newbies and maybe encourage oldies to take more risks:

"New players no longer have that awkward surprise awaiting them the first time they're podded without an updated clone, and veteran players have the high overhead of clone replacement removed from the equation when deciding to get into a scrap or undock for a risky run."

To celebrate the launch, EVE is on sale on Steam, down to £3.74 including a month's play time, and 'PLEX' time cards are discounted a little too. Rhea's full patch notes are this-a-way.