EVE Online News

Tactically-astute Capsuleers,

The Fleet Formations update has gone live in EVE Online! As part of the Reign Quadrant, Capsuleers now have a powerful tactical weapon to wield on the battlefield.

Fleets will be able to arrive at a location from warp in a variety of formations that not only look amazing, but can also be used to influence fleet behavior.

Fleets can warp in pre-determined Point, Sphere, Arrow, Wall, and Plane formations. The shape, size, and spacing between ships can also be adjusted. There is also an additional Relative (custom) formation option which will snapshot the relative position of all ships within a given range of the Fleet Commander and warp them all to the same relative positions at the warp destination.

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Also as part of the Fleet Formations update, the new deployable Mobile Cynosural Beacon is now available in-game. Improving the ease of fleet travel by cyno in New Eden, the Mobile Cynosural Beacon allows fleets to be deployed without the need for a dedicated cynosural beacon ship.

This personal deployable takes 2 minutes to come online, at which time it will activate a cyno beacon allowing other Capsuleers in Jump Drive capable vessels within the same fleet to jump or bridge to the beacon’s location. The Mobile Cynosural Beacon cannot be scooped into a cargo hold after deployment as it simply decays after a set duration.

Warp to the action in formation, summon your fleet with a deployed Mobile Cyno, and reign supreme on the battlefield!

Date: Saturday, 6 March 2021
Time: 16:00 to 20:00 UTC/EVE time
Where: Ouelletta star system in Verge Vendor.

On Saturday, March 6 A Band Apart will be hosting their 7th Annual Frigate Free For All in Ouelletta!

They have over 4,000 free, fitted frigates to hand out to Capsuleers who attend or you can bring any ship you like! Thousands of ships will be destroyed (not just frigates!) and the killmails will rain from the heavens.

Some CCP developers will be hurling themselves into the fray as well and we’ll be streaming the event live from our point of view on CCPTV.

For more information check out this post on Rixx Javix’s blog.

Get yourselves combat-ready, Capsuleers, as the Abyssal Proving Grounds return once more! Until 11:00 UTC on 2 March, you can engage in 4-player free-for-all Combat and Attack Frigate competitive battles.

Permitted hulls for this round consist of the Atron, Breacher, Condor, Executioner, Incursus, Kestrel, Merlin, Punisher, Rifter, Slasher, Tormentor, and Tristan.

Limitations for this round are:

• Modules limited to meta level 5 and below
  
• No pirate implants
  

Make sure you have your Proving Filaments ready, either from Abyssal Deadspace loot drops or from the in-game market. You can also track Capsuleer performance in the Proving Grounds using the leaderboards!

Expert Capsuleers,

Brand new Expert Systems will be coming to EVE Online in the near future! They are designed to help rookie Capsuleers discover and experience new activities by providing specific virtual skills and skill levels for a limited time that cannot be extracted through the use of Skill Extractors. For a one-week period per Expert System, Capsuleers will be able to taste the dream of a particular profession in EVE without having to commit to the skill training required by that path of progression and waiting for it to complete.

Developed by a grouping of Caldari megacorporations called PKN Interstellar, Expert Systems can be used as a tool for individual Capsuleers or corporations to bring new pilots and recruits up to speed more rapidly and interactively on elements of gameplay while those players train the necessary skills the usual way on their character. They will act as an introductory taste, a gateway to potential careers in a universe of opportunity, great for onboarding pilots.



Another benefit of Expert Systems is that the AI responsible for providing access to the skills is not located in the Capsuleer’s body or capsule, meaning that they will not be lost when a pilot’s ship or capsule is destroyed in space - similar to how Cerebral Accelerators work. Unlike Accelerators, however, the Expert Systems will be applied to a character upon redemption and cannot be transferred between characters or sold on the in-game market. While an Expert System is applied, players will still be able to gain Skill Points and train new skills (and of course train the same skills they have active in an Expert System).

Once an Expert System expires, access to the temporary skills and levels provided will be removed and Capsuleers would need to either extend their access through a repeat Expert System purchase or train the skills themselves. Given the potential repeat costs, it is more beneficial in the long run to train the skills permanently, rather than continue to purchase the same Expert Systems.

Expert Systems, in their current form, will be obtainable only from the EVE Store and others will occasionally be part of daily login rewards. Since the Expert Systems that are to be offered are a new player aid, they will focus on lower-level activities.



With over 1.3 million distinct human beings (not counting alts!) trying EVE Online for the first time in 2020, helping new players find their footing in New Eden remains one of the most important projects for the game. Feedback from new and veteran players has regularly referred to the complex nature of deciding what path to tread at the start of one’s New Eden adventure. Expert Systems will provide a solution for players who want to try a profession without committing fully to the skill training it will require - whilst not undercutting the value of skill training, Skill Points and Skill Injectors. The first of these products to become available will be focused on exploration, mining, and the core skills required to operate spaceships in EVE (commonly referred to as the ‘Magic 14’).

[h3]Update: The cause of this exploit has been resolved as of 2 March 2021.[/h3]

Greetings,

It has come to our attention that a small number of Capsuleers have been exploiting a bug allowing capital Dreadnought ships to cloak when using Abyssal Siege Module.

Effective immediately, using this method to cloak Dreadnoughts with Abyssal Siege Module active is considered an exploit. We kindly ask players to refrain from abusing it while we are working on resolving the problem.

If you have witnessed this bug being abused or are a victim, please contact our customer support by sending in a ticket in the ‘Rules & Policies – Exploits’ category. Players who used this exploit in-game are encouraged to reach out to us in the same fashion to soften the applicable bug abuse penalty.