Expansions of Eve Online

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Main article: Eve Online

Eve Online
Developer(s)	CCP Games
Publisher(s)	SSI (expired) CCP Games
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
Release date	6 May 2003 6 May 2003 23 May 2003 12 June 2006
Genre(s)	MMORPG Space simulation
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: T (Teen)

Eve Online is a player-driven persistent-world massively multiplayer online game set in a science fiction space setting. Since its release on 6 May 2003 the developer CCP Games has added a total of eight expansions to the game with the ninth being in development. This article highlights the expansions and the changes they introduced to the game.

Contents 1 Released expansions 1.1 Castor 1.2 Exodus 1.3 Exodus: Cold War 1.4 Exodus: Red Moon Rising 1.5 Bloodlines 1.6 Revelations I 1.7 Revelations II 1.8 Trinity 1.9 Empyrean Age 2 References

[edit] Released expansions

[edit] Castor

Release date: December 18, 2003

Castor was the first major content addition. It focused on refining current functions along with adding "Tech 2" elite components and ships. With its release, Eve players saw conquerable stations in 0.0 (deep space) security systems, the introduction of the agent mission running system, the introduction of research agents, and many other features released between the launch of Castor and its follower, Exodus.^[1]

[edit] Exodus

Release date: November 17, 2004

Exodus is considered by the developers to be the first major game expansion. The expansion added multi-level "deadspace" scenarios, new environments and ships, better handling of conflicts, additional market functionality, user interface improvements, and an updated in-game web browser. A formalized method for alliances between corporations and the ability to claim sovereignty of a solar system via new "player owned starbases" was also added.^[2] Prior to its official release, this expansion was codenamed "Shiva."

[edit] Exodus: Cold War

Release date: June 29, 2005

Cold War Edition contained an extensive new tutorial sequence and a storyline background introduction. Challenging "level 4" agent missions were added for experienced players, as well as "COSMOS" constellations where in-space agents began giving out story-driven missions and unique rewards. The freighter and dreadnaught capital ships, full-fledged player-owned "outposts," and improved NPC pirate factions brought deep space play to a new level.^[3] This expansion also added Unicode chat support, allowing communication in Asian, Cyrillic, and Greek languages.

[edit] Exodus: Red Moon Rising

Release date: December 16, 2005

Red Moon Rising was split off from the "Kali" expansion in order to maintain a more regular patch schedule. It included many performance optimizations and updates to combat, research, and manufacturing gameplay.^[4] The expansion continued the focus on attracting new international players as four new "bloodlines" were introduced with Asian features and a boost in starting skills. Unicode support was also expanded from the chat system to game-wide. A major focus of the expansion was revamping existing ships and adding many additional ship classes. Twenty-three new Tech 2 ships were added including Exhumers, Force Recon cruisers, Command ships, Interdictors, and most notably the capital ships Carrier, Mothership, and Titan. (See Spaceships of Eve Online for descriptions)

[edit] Bloodlines

Release date: March 2, 2006

Bloodlines is the codename for the content patch that enabled players to create the new character "bloodline" with an Asian appearance.^[5]

• Achura, citizens of the Caldari State and expert scientists
• Jin-Mei, members of the Gallente Federation renowned for their legendary leadership traits
• Khanid of the Amarr Empire, the primary fighter-warriors of their culture
• Vherokior of the Minmatar Republic, the established manufacturers and engineers of the tribes.

[edit] Revelations I

Release date: November 29, 2006

Revelations is the second major game expansion of Eve Online. Previously known by the codename "Kali," Revelations was scheduled to be released in three parts. Major features of this expansion include an exploration / scan probe system, a formalized contract system, the invention replacement for the Tech 2 research lottery, ship customization with "rigs," and temporary "combat boosters." Existing features expanded include a "new player experience" that grants new players a large head start in capabilities, an upgraded fleet system, eight new deepspace regions, a new map that zooms from ship to galaxy seamlessly, popular new battlecruisers and battleships, and many more.^{[6] [7] [8] [9]}

Eve Voice was integrated as part of Revelations content patch 1.4, it had initially been planned for release with Revelations II. Eve Voice is a Voice over IP tool integrated into the Eve Online client, the software is licensed by CCP from Vivox.^[10]

[edit] Revelations II

Release date: June 19, 2007

Revelations II is the second of three expansions, designed to show the increased tensions between the empires within the game universe.^[11] Several new features were introduced; including a mechanism for overloading modules^[12] and area of effect bombs.^[13] A number of existing features have been extended including Level 5 agents,^[14] changes to sovereignty^[15], starbases^[16] outposts,^[17] and balancing changes to the Amarr race.^[18] Revelations II also changed the way new players start the game, in addition to new optional tutorials the existing tutorial has been shortened and refined, and players now start in a private dungeon to allow new players to get used to the controls in a protective environment.^[19]

[edit] Trinity

Release date: December 5, 2007^[20]

Features include an updated graphics engine and 5 new ship classes totalling 20 new ships. The 5 classes are interdictor cruisers (Heavy Interdictors) and electronic warfare frigates (Electronic Attack Ships) as well as battleships (Black Ops, designed for covert operations and Marauders, designed for long-range deployment) and freighters (Jump Freighters).^[21] Although "Factional Warfare," a major addition to game mechanics, had been planned for this patch it has since been announced that it will now be included in a future patch,^[22] along with Ambulation (walking in stations and Full Human Representation, announced on the Eve Online Fanfest 2007). Starting with the release of Trinity CCP offers two editions of the Eve Online client. One with regular graphics content, called Trinity 1.0 Classic, and one with updated graphics, called Trinity 1.0, also referred to as Premium.^[23] Players who run a Shader Model 3-capable graphics card can choose whether they want the Classic or Premium content. Without such a graphics card the client uses the Classic content.

The initial version of the Trinity patch could under certain circumstances delete the player's operating system's boot.ini file, thus rendering the operating system unbootable.^[24] Six hours after the release of this faulty patch CCP fixed the issue. While the number of affected players is unknown, 215 had specifically asked CCP for assistance.^[25]

[edit] Empyrean Age

Release date: June 10, 2008

Empyrean Age, previously named Kali 4, is the name of the ninth expansion of Eve Online and the last one in the Kali tetralogy.^[26][27][28] CCP has included Factional Warfare in this release.^[26][28] Also, in this expansion the in-game story plays a key role and the situation in the game reflects events depicted in the novel of the same title by Tony Gonzalez.^[26] The expansion allows both individual players and whole corporations to fight for certain NPC factions and battle for control of certain regions of space.^[26][29] Agents provide missions and objectives which alter player and corporation standings with the factions accordingly.^[29]

[edit] References