EVE Online: Apocrypha Features List Unveiled

CCP revealed today the full features list for EVE Online: Apocrypha, the tenth free expansion for the popular science fiction massively multi-player online game EVE Online. EVE Online: Apocrypha features new regions, Tech 3 modular ships, Epic Mission Arcs, an entirely reworked New Player Experience for those joining (or rejoining) the game, and more (check full article for details). EVE Online: Apocrypha is slated for a March 10th release.

The details are as below:

Reykjavik, Iceland February, 26th, 2009 - CCP, one of the world's leading independent game developers, today announced the full features list for EVE Online: Apocrypha, the tenth free expansion for EVE Online subscribers, which is due out on March 10th, coinciding with the availability of EVE in retail outlets across North America, Europe and Pan Asia. Pilots will be able to scan down and enter massive, chaotic wormholes that have opened into unexplored solar systems. There, untold opportunities await behind the powerful defensive curtain of an ancient, deadly race. When defeated and pillaged, their ships and fortifications become the basis of the next level of technology back on the "safer" side of the wormholes.

EVE's Senior Producer Torfi Frans Olafsson on Apocrypha: "Just like the human body is said to regenerate itself every seven years, EVE Online continues to grow and evolve in its sixth year of operation, with systems being added, refined, refactored and polished with every expansion we make. As the player base continually grows, we are able to increase the development team and bring in more engineers, designers and artists for each expansion. This allows us to deliver such a broad range of features catering to a variety of playstyles in a volume that we can be proud of."

"It's both comforting and disturbing to come home after work, log in to EVE late in the evening and find the same developers that spend their long day building EVE, playing it and enjoying it deep into the night. We are a company that truly sips its own champagne, likes it and strives to make it more tasty whenever we can."

The improvements for Apocrypha include:

   Explore and dominate more than 2,400 solar systems that exist on the other side of unstable wormholes opening up throughout New Eden. New scanning mechanics allow you to find and explore them in the first truly uncharted space in EVE.

   Wormholes aren't the only thing to discover. Booster sites, archeological digs, hacking sites, gas clouds and salvaging sites are some of the surprises in store for those pilots skilled in scanning exploration. 

   The Sleepers, a new NPC race, protect an ancient technology within the wormhole-space. They exhibit intelligence unlike any enemy yet found in new Eden, requiring pilots to react to their deadly, shifting tactics.

   Tech 3 strategic cruisers are the first ship class to arise from reverse engineered technology gleaned from wormhole space fueling their production. Their modular nature allows for a broad level of customization of both ship appearance and performance. 

   The New Player Experience has been rebuilt from the ground up with improved tutorials and an easier introduction to possible "career" paths. Rookie starship pilots will find it smoother than ever to become a force to be reckoned with in the limitless world of New Eden.
 
   The introduction of Epic Mission Arcs, huge branching mission sagas, are designed to give new pilots a tour across many regions of space and bring them out the other end, battle-hardened and knowledgeable about the EVE universe.

   Hundreds of visual aspects in the game have been renovated, including almost every effect in game. All new assets make up the massive wormhole spaces, such as new NPC structures and gorgeous nebulas. Space just keeps looking better with age.

   With further performance increases, optimizations and graphics upgrades, we bid farewell to our Classic Graphics Client as players across all platforms begin to enjoy the beauty of Premium Lite.

   Mac owners rejoice! EVE will now be available to you in all of its Premium graphics glory.

   Character attributes can now be rearranged in order to diversify or specialize skill training with Attribute Remapping, perfect for a veteran who needs to switch focus or a new player who's just discovered a different niche.

   Players can now schedule automatic training of multiple skills with an original skill queue planning interface designed for maximum efficiency.

   A redesigned Ship Fitting Panel screen allows for more information when kitting out your ship. The ability to export both ship fittings and overview settings means that you can share your best configurations with your friends or you can quickly re-fit a replacement ship to head back into battle.

   The Audio Engine allows more flexibility for our sound designers, meaning a complete revamp of a lot of audio effects including warping, jumpgates and cloaking. Brand new sounds will also grace Apocrypha's new visual effects. 

   Our efforts to bring EVE closer to everyone's home continue with the localized Russian client coming out of beta testing to full support.

The full feature list is expanded upon further at www.eveonline.com/apocrypha, including links to blogs on specific features written by members of the development team. The page also contains interviews with our developers, screenshots, our teaser trailer and more. Check back in for regular updates as we reveal even more of Apocrypha leading up to launch.