Fanfest 2018: Answers

Prior to heading out to Fanfest, I came up with somequestions I hoped to find the answers to while in Iceland. I figured now that I’m back in the States, I should record the answers.

1. What is coming in the summer expansion? I think I surprised some people at Fanfest by stating the expansion would come out on 29 May. Anyone who follows CCP’s release schedule would know, however. But enough about my Sherlock Holmes impression. What is in the expansion, Into the Abyss?

The centerpiece is the introduction of content for the Triglavian Domain. The Triglavians live in a different type of space called Abyssal space (hence the name of the expansion). For now, players can only access Abyssal space using Tech 1, Tech 2, and pirate or navy cruisers. To enter Abyssal space, players will need to use a filament to create a gateway between the two types of space. To make things interesting, players will have to exit Abyssal space from the same point.

The complexes within Abyssal space will consist of three procedurally generated rooms, with the final room containing a boss and phat loot such as skill books, blue print copies, and filaments that lead into deeper layers within Abyssal space with better loot. Players can also obtain living organisms that can transform the stats of a limited group of items, such as shield extenders/armor plates, shield boosters/armor repairers, propulsion modules, and electronic like scrams, webs, and neuts. The stats can either increase tremendously, turn the object into a pile of scrap metal, or fall somewhere in between.

I want to warn everyone that not only is the Triglavian content still in development, but that the whole area of content is a technological testbed existing on Tranquility. People with a long memory may remember CCP introduced Walking in Stations to players in the lead-up to the Incarna expansion in 2011 as a work under development. I really hope events transpire a bit differently this time.

I guess I should add one important feature of the new modules created by the transformation process. Due to the tremendous amount of combinations of statistics possible, the new modules will not appear on the market. Look for the items in contracts. Did I mention that potential purchasers cannot see the stats of the items in the contract? Yeah. Expect lots of scamming to occur until some trusted third-party sellers emerge. Hopefully, CCP will make changes to the contract system quickly, or I don’t see great adoption of the feature, at least not initially.

Update: CCP Fozzie says people will be able to see module statistics in the contracts.

Enjoying the posts so far. BTW there seems to have been a misunderstanding about the mutated modules and contracts. You will be able to see the stats of the mutated modules in contracts. However we still expect EVE players will find ways to scam people who don't pay attention :)

— CCP Fozzie (@CCP_Fozzie) April 17, 2018

A second major piece of news is that the conversion of player-built and conquerable stations to faction Fortizars will finally occur on 5 June. After that date, Pandemic Legion will probably depart Providence, allowing Provibloc to come back to the region. Whether PanFam will strip the region of all the faction Fortizars or sell them back to Provibloc is currently a matter of speculation.

Before leaving the topic, I need to mention the change that will most affect players immediately after launch day. The planetary interaction user interface is receiving over 40 quality-of-life improvements to reduce the amount of clicking. Into the Abyss may go down in EVE history as the expansion that fixed PI.

2. Any advancements in the NPC AI? As mentioned above, Abyssal space is a tech testbed. Expect the Triglavians, Drifters, Sleepers, and rogue drones present in the complexes to behave a bit differently that the existing NPCs on Tranquility. CCP warned that three-way fights between Triglavians, Drifters, and players will occur. We won’t know the full scope of the changes until they appear on the Singularity test cluster in the upcoming weeks. Also, expect changes to the content in the following releases on 3 July and 7 August. Players will undoubtedly find a way to make the content a bit easier than CCP would like.

3. What is the status of Project Discovery? We didn’t really receive a status on Project Discovery at Fanfest. No news about new citizen science projects leads me to believe that the current search for exoplanets will continue for the medium-term (6-12 months) future. I expect the content to remain relevant with the lore at least until the developers finish up the replacements for system cyno jammers and jump bridges, if not player-built star gates themselves. More importantly from my perspective, players will continue to earn CONCORD ship blueprint copies.

4. Who’s running for CSM? From what I heard, some 57 players applied to run for positions on the CSM, of which 48 successfully navigated the application form and will appear on the ballot. Shenanigans are already occurring, but I will leave news about that for future posts.

5. What is the status of Project Foundation? This has me scratching my head. According to the press handlers, Project Foundation was indeed the development name for the mobile game, EVE: War of Ascension. I didn’t go to the roundtable, but I hung around with someone who was addicted to the beta version released to Fanfest attendees. But I still want to know why the name change from Project Aurora to Project Foundation.

6. What is the status of Project Nova? According to CCP’s CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson’s presentation during the opening ceremony, Project Nova should release in months, not years. CCP did not show any gameplay footage, but players could sign up for news and access to the game on a website. Is a 2018, or even a Spring 2019 release possible?

7. Does the unnamed MMORPG under development exist? Nothing was said during the opening ceremony or the keynote, although I hear a game is in the initial stages of development.