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Empyrean Age details revealed in EVE developer chat

James Egan
Updated ·2 min read


MMORPG.com invited a few of the EVE Online staff from CCP Games to participate in a live developer chat this past Sunday. MMORPG.com was kind enough to provide a complete log of the chat, which was hosted by their own Community Manager, Laura 'Taera' Genender. Among the EVE Online devs present were CCP Greyscale (game designer/factional warfare), CCP Ginger (ISD manager/storyline), t0nyG (lead writer), and CCP Wrangler (community manager).

The developer chat was primarily focused on the changes that The Empyrean Age and its factional warfare will bring, but the CCP staff addressed a number of other issues and concerns as well:



  • Assault ships -- changes are planned, no definite dates.

  • Capital ships -- changes in the pipeline, nothing to change in next patch.

  • Recon ships -- no changes to Gallente recons. No one mentioned the Pilgrim or Curse.

  • Factional warfare missions -- no hardcoded boosts to payout (yet).

  • Level 5 missions -- payouts have been fixed, these missions will be more lucrative.

  • Gatecamps in factional warfare -- CCP not touching it. It's a sandbox, folks. Do as you will.

  • NPC buffs -- faction navies have been boosted, will repel enemies of their faction.

  • Mission fitting -- standard mission fitting will get you killed. Fit for out-and-out combat if you want to survive.

  • Ranks and rewards -- discussed at length.

  • Recovering standings -- acknowledged it's a problem, but no immediate fixes.

  • War profiteering -- non-participants in factional warfare may still reap isk rewards.

  • News coverage -- 'fiction' news can now affect storyline. CCP hopes for direct player interaction in storyline one day.

  • Pirate factions -- not directly involved in factional warfare at present. =(

  • Militia game mechanics -- discussed at length.

  • 0.0 PvP -- plans to deal with blobs and nanogangs, but no comment.

  • Fanfest 2008/travel package -- in the works, to be announced.

  • Occupancy -- this is the factional warfare variant on Sovereignty.

  • New ships -- Navy-issue Omen, Amarr Magnate, four new faction cruisers.

  • Bounty hunting -- acknowledged it is in need of overhaul, not in pipeline.

  • Atmospheric flight -- "All of us have had that image planted in our imagination for just as long as you. We're going to get there someday-it's a vision we we're working towards with more passion than I can really describe." (t0nyG)

Check out the full chat log at MMORPG.com for a more in-depth Q&A on what EVE Online will be like in the Empyrean Age and beyond.