Battle-ready capsuleers,
The universe never stands still, and EVE Online’s first narrative arc has already been building tension between the empires. Now, the stage is set to bring about an intense, thrilling future in New Eden. The time to choose your battle, fly your colors, and reap the greatest rewards that victory and loyalty can offer draws near!
Uprising is a brand-new narrative-driven expansion for EVE Online launching in November, ushering in major improvements to Factional Warfare (FW), introducing a suite of new ships in addition to a plethora of balance changes to existing ships, corporation and alliance logos on your vessels as part of the introduction to heraldry, new visually immersive hangars, and more.
The first narrative arc has already begun with the discovery of an abandoned EDENCOM structure after its cloak began failing over a storm planet in the system of Athounon. Capsuleers have also found mysterious construction sites across space, with some believing these to be stellar harvesters and stargates being independently constructed by the empires, leaving the tenuous peace between them at risk.
Keep your eyes open as the narrative arc progresses, and be sure to take part as the story unfolds. Your involvement will help shape New Eden by revealing fresh features to help in future battles, including brand-new ships in-game, some of which will be unveiled much sooner than others. The introduction of these new ships will increase the diversity of tools available to a wide array of capsuleers, from those just starting their journey to more established veterans, while bringing some serious visual intimidation to the battlefield!
The Uprising expansion brings many significant changes to Factional Warfare some of which are outlined in the State of the Union news item including a complete rework of complexes, and a new advantage functionality that allows you to give your chosen Faction an edge in FW.
This part of the expansion aims to evolve Factional Warfare into a more intense and exciting combat playstyle for FW enthusiasts. There will be more incentives to support and fight for your favorite Empire, a wider array of opportunities to contribute to the war effort across the warzone, and new events will be introduced creating more possibilities for empires to issue campaign objectives to those who enlist.
This is only the beginning! There are even more exciting improvements following this expansion that will help open the gates even further to Factional Warfare in EVE, with a significant update that includes factional allegiance, targeted for Q1 of 2023. This will allow players to aid a Faction in FW irrespective of corporation or alliance.
A phased rollout of Factional Warfare improvements enables us to observe how players in the current FW ecosystem interact with the features without tipping the scales too drastically too quickly. Allegiance is a focus to address, as we know many capsuleers are excited about Factional Warfare and are eager to get involved.
For those pilots not currently enlisted in FW, there will still be plenty for you to do across the warzone, roles to perform, stories to partake in, and amazing rewards to earn.
Furthermore, the new Frontlines in Factional Warfare will draw pilots closer to the borders of their opponents and present new rewarding challenges that focus capsuleer efforts towards key, emerging conflict hot spots where empire history will be written!
Alongside this big shake up of combat strategy, opportunities to earn rewards that unlock Heraldry on ships will be made available. Corporation and alliance logos on ships will act as the introduction to Heraldry, with many more customization options on the horizon following this initial launch such as citadel SKINs and holograms on ships.
If that wasn’t enough, there will be massive enhancements to Upwell hangars that will ramp up the visual immersion while docking and undocking in New Eden. The special attention put into this visual upgrade helps ensure that when you undock from your new hangar, you’ll still get out into space at a speed that is on par with other structures in the game. What better way to admire those fantastic alliance logos and new ships than in a beautiful new hangar?
From now until the release of Uprising in November, there will be a steady stream of updates and content as shown in the roadmap below, while the narrative arc will also continue to advance the story in-game. Our goal moving forward is to unveil more of our roadmap to the community as time progresses. Stay alert, keep your eyes to the stars, your warp drive ready, and your ammo loaded.
The time is quickly approaching for capsuleers across the cluster to rise up, unite under their banners, storm the frontlines, and do it in style!