- Site: EVE Online: Empyrean Age
- Publisher: CCP Games
- Developer: CCP Games
- Genre: Role-Playing Game
Game Media
By Brad Cook
I’ve returned to the Kisogo system, where I once again have plans to meet EVE Online producer Lína Ingvarsdóttir at the State Academy War School near Kisogo VII; little do I realize the irony of meeting at a Caldari-owned facility with a combat-oriented slant to its teachings. As I approach my destination, I idly watch pilots of various affiliations zip back and forth, busy with their own affairs. While the game’s four factions — the Amarr Empire, Minmatar Republic, Gallente Federation, and Caldari State — don’t always see eye-to-eye, at least they’re willing to maintain peace.
Until now. I flip on my deep space com in time to catch a breaking news report from Scope, the Gallente-owned news network. My heart leaps into my throat as I watch the scene unfold: An enormous Gallente Nyx cruiser on a deliberate collision course with the headquarters of Ishukone, one of the eight major Caldari corporations. As hundreds of ships desperately flee the doomed station, a reporter describes the state of panic around him.
Then the Nyx cruiser slams into its target, silencing the news report with a sickening crunch. I recall a comment Ingvarsdóttir left me with last time we spoke: a promise of “massive, all-out war” to come. That seems to contradict one of the definitions of the word empyrean — the highest reaches of heaven — but I’m sure all will be revealed as the conflict unfolds.
Join a Militia, See the War
“Basically you could say that the EVE universe at release was almost empty but has since then progressed towards player-controlled and player-operated space,” Ingvarsdóttir tells me when we meet at the State Academy War School. Many of the ships in the Kisogo system have already vacated the area, returning to their respective corporations to regroup and plan war strategies. With more than 250,000 players in the game, I’m sure many of them will concoct unique ways of approaching this conflict.
“[Our players] will always figure out ways to use new features differently than originally intended, so we run with it,” Ingvarsdóttir agrees. “We listen intently to the feedback we get from inhabitants of the game universe. Many of our developers are avid players who rose through the ranks of our volunteer organization until they were brought into CCP.”
No matter how involved you’ve been in EVE Online’s universe, however, the arrival of The Empyrean Age gives you the opportunity to boost your standing by joining a factional militia, one of several new features found in the expansion pack. You don’t have to renounce your current corporation to sign up; in fact, corporations are encouraged to link their resources through a militia and help their faction coordinate the war effort.
Each militia’s warfare agents offer a variety of missions for you to undertake; many of them will send you deep inside enemy territory to strike a blow for your side. As you complete missions and accomplish other tasks, you’ll rise through your militia’s ten ranks. Militia offices host warfare victories and kill statistics, allowing you to chart not only your success in the war but also the progress of your corporation and faction.
Play Your Part
The true measure of success in any war is territory held, and The Empyrean Age obliges with the ability to occupy star systems. Each system contains Factional Warfare Complexes whose activities are coordinated by a System Control Bunker. Factions attack each other’s Warfare Complexes and earn the ability to assault the System Control Bunker after securing enough victories. If the final attack succeeds, a cease-fire is declared and occupancy of that solar system changes hands.
While EVE Online already features 5,000 always-evolving solar systems, The Empyrean Age introduces a new region of space known as Black Rise. It contains 49 new solar systems and nearly 40 space stations where you can chat with other players, buy and sell equipment, get missions, repair and upgrade your spaceships or buy new ones, stash excess stuff, and more.
Her overview of recent developments complete, Ingvarsdóttir once again bids me farewell. I guide my nondescript Caldari Ibis frigate away from the State Academy War School, passing a few CONCORD security ships that seek to keep areas like this one free of conflict. Before she engages her mysterious ship’s warp drive, Ingvarsdóttir reminds me that The Empyrean Age’s war is simply one more stage in EVE Online’s history. “It’s constantly evolving,” she says. The future has yet to be written, because players like you and I will shape it.
Hit and Run. A pair of overmatched ships do some damage and then quickly head for a safe place.
Strike a Blow. The war escalates.
For the Empire. A character visits an Amarr space station.
EVE Online
Learn more about EVE Online by reading our previous feature which covers the original version of the game. Players dictate the daily evolution of the EVE Online galaxy, where solar systems contain thousands of worlds controlled by four races. Choose your faction and start building your wealth, using it to upgrade your spaceship or buy a better one, as well as purchase personal augmentations.
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System Requirements:
- Mac OS X version 10.4.9
- 1.8GHz Intel Core Duo processor (2GHz or higher recommended)
- 1GB of RAM
- 128MB video RAM (ATI X1600, NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT, or higher video card)
- 6GB hard disk space
- 56K Internet connection (broadband recommended)
Game Hardware
Check out our systems for your best gaming experience.
An Evolving Storyline
Our original article about EVE Online chronicles its back story, which is set 35,000 years in the future. Humans have long since lost contact with Earth — the planet’s existence is considered a myth by many — and have divided into four factions. While an uneasy peace existed before the latest conflict erupted, 200 years ago the Caldari and Gallente started a war that began with Caldari Prime falling under Gallente control. It ended nearly a century later.
The Caldari people have always seethed over the loss of their home world, and recently they’ve seen their society begin to crumble as excessive protectionism, the economic gap between rich and poor, and the Gallente Federation’s prosperity have all taken their toll. A dictator named Tibus Heth seizes on the discontent to galvanize nationalist attitudes, so when a rogue Gallente admiral crashes his cruiser into Ishukone headquarters, killing its Caldari CEO, he easily convinces the other mega-corporations to cede control of all military assets to him. He intentionally leaves the Ishukone facility unrepaired as a stark reminder to his people. (You can see the gaping hole if you fly by it in the game.)
Meanwhile, the Gallente Federation’s current prosperity comes with a few drawbacks, notably its ill-equipped military, thanks to the fact that Gallente citizens would rather get rich in the private sector. Heth has instigated riots on Caldari Prime and other Gallente-held planets where Caldari ex-patriots live, digging a thorn into the side of Gallente president Foiritan’s popular administration.
Gallente success has also resulted in a labor drain at the other factions, especially the Minmatar Republic, which has seen the largest losses. That problem has only added to Prime Minister Karin Midular’s woes as she tries to steer her people through an economic depression. Rampant corruption in her government has been fueled by the Amarr Empire, prompting Minmatar Elders to take matters into their own hands and hatch a two-pronged plan: incapacitate CONCORD while simultaneously invading Amarr territory and recovering millions of Minmatar slaves held there.
Recent developments in the Amarr Empire, however, could throw a wrench in the Elders’ ambitious scheme: the return of Jamyl Sarum. One of the Five Heirs, she supposedly committed ritual suicide as part of a new Emperor’s ascension, per the Trials’ custom, but she failed to name a successor. Vastly changed, Sarum has come back with a weapon that will change the balance of power, not only between the Minmatar and Amarr people but also within the Empire.
To keep up on the latest EVE Online developments, be sure to visit the news page regularly.