Attention Capsuleers,
The Summon the Swarm update is now live in EVE Online, providing daring pilots with a new opportunity to earn exciting rewards!
This update introduces a new deployable structure, the CONCORD Rogue Analysis Beacon - or CRAB. This new deployable is authorized for use in Low and Null security space to research local Rogue Drone activities.
To begin its broadcast and analysis cycles, it must be powered up through the use of a capital or supercapital class vessel. Once initialized, it will attract hostile Rogue Drone threats that must be destroyed in order to complete the analysis cycle.
Successful completion will reward pilots with new mutaplasmid technology for mutating drones, as well as both bounties and research data to be handed in for additional ISK.
Thanks to extensive player testing on the Singularity test server, a number of improvements have been made that significantly enhance the experience of the new update:
- Fighter targeting AI has been refined, allowing more ship types to complete the sites.
- Deployables have been further restricted, to prevent interference with nearby Player Owned Structures or Citadels.
- Bounty rewards have been more than doubled in the live release!
- Infested Ogres have been modified to no longer pause the site.
Ready for a new challenge? Form your fleet, acquire a Rogue Analysis Beacon, and prepare to summon the swarm!
CONCORD Preliminary Field Research Report
Over the course of many repeated deployments of the CRAB, it was observed that active scanning for Rogue Drone activities failed. Analysis of test data indicates signal interference rapidly reaches a saturation point within the local system rendering further operation ineffective. Restrictions and information systems have been integrated into CRAB deployable structures, providing researchers with the current state of local system signal interference levels. This information will also be updated into Neocom firmware used by capsuleers going forward.
CRAB deployment and activation requires the involvement of capsuleers, due to a specific design requirement for using the secure FTL communications equipment available within hydrostatic capsules. However, capsules only have a limited reserve of Complex Encryption Qubits (CEQs) available for use to securely establish the link with the CRAB, and bridge to CONCORD FTL networks, during the broadcast cycle. This will impose limitations on use, as repeated linking to a CRAB by the same capsuleer will eventually deplete their reserve of CEQs. The CEQ reserves available for secure linking will regenerate over time as the capsule systems generate new encryption keys.
During the course of our CRAB testing and analysis, DED fleets engaged a number of extremely dangerous modified Rogue Drones. It has been found that these newly-detected Rogue Drones have been mutated by the use of new Rogue Drone technology. Our fleets have made note of several new mutaplasmids retrieved by the CRAB from the remains of the Rogue Drone threats encountered, all with radically different characteristics from the mutaplasmids retrieved from Triglavian technology caches. This finding urgently demands further study. Due to the extreme threat from these entities, we have assigned bounties on every discovered new Rogue Drone variation so far.
On completion of the broadcast and analysis cycle, the CRAB will relay its findings. The operating capsuleer may retrieve any resources recovered by the CRAB. CONCORD has now set up purchase orders for Rogue Drone Infestation Data collected during the operation of the CRAB, incentivizing capsuleers to sell their observation data for our research team to study further.