EVE: Revelations, Chapter 1 is being deployed.

[Electrofreak]

Yep, the first installation of the Revelations patch is being uploaded onto the EVE servers as we speak.

As usual, this is a free expansion to EVE. With it comes a few pretty sweet things (and preparations for more sweet things).

First thing to mention, all new characters will start with about a month and a half worth of training already under their belt. The character creation process has been fleshed out so that it's more understandable, and more difficult to create a shitty character by mistake.

So yes, you can start out the game actually somewhat useful. If you already have a character with less than 800,000 skill points, it will be bumped up to have that many or more. This means less skill grinding needed before the game starts to get fun.

Seamless map features have been integrated into EVE. This means that you can actually zoom the map out to a solar system view that allows you to get better bearings on the locations of planets, stations, bad guys etc in the system you're in.

This goes hand-in-hand with the new gang (group) combat system, which significantly improves the old system, adding a tiered command system to groups. You have your fleet commander, wing commanders, squad commanders, all able to pass down orders quickly and easily as necessary. Included in this is the ability for ships to do visual broadcasts of needs, such as a one-click request for backup, repairs, enemy spotted alert, and various other notifications. These notifications will be easily visible and useable via the solar system maps, so the gang can quickly and easily locate a member in danger and provide him with support. This streamlines gang communication without clogging up teamspeak.

Speaking of teamspeak, it won't be necessary. The new system will include built-in hosted voice communication integrated with the EVE client. Thus, you don't need to have someone patrolling TS to kick out people who aren't in your gang but are listening in (possible spies). Also, when your commander speaks, it will automatically mute everyone else, so comms overlap isn't as big an issue.

Of course, most people are excited about the new ships. A 3rd battleship has been added for every race. There remains a lot of controversy over these battleships and who got the best one etc, but there is no denying the fact that all of them are a welcome addition and powerful combat ships. All look absolutely incredible as well.

A second battlecruiser is added to every race as well. These ships are generally all-out combat ships intended to provide tech-1 pilots with a reasonably-priced combat ship that remains on par with many of the more costly Tech 2 heavy assault ships flown by more experienced players. These ships are also very impressive looking.

Ship fittings is significantly improved with the addition of Rigs, which are essentially an implant for your ship (implants for characters are a permanent increase to your character's statistics and abilities). Rigs cannot be removed from the ship once they've been equipped, and provide the ship with a substantial increase to a statistic, at the expense of a somewhat small handicap to another statistic. They can only be built through the destruction of NPC and player ships, which are then salvaged for parts. Player ships drop significantly better components to build Rigs with, and thus destroying another ship has the potential to provide the victor with more than just some of the modules off the enemy ship provided the victor has the ability to salvage the wreck. A byproduct of all this is that when ships explode, they now leave behind a twisted wreck in space, which looks a lot cooler than the shiny little loot can we had before.

There are a lot of other improvements too. Warp Core Stabilizers (the cowards module of choice) has been nerfed so that it cannot be used as effectively in agressive combat setups (nobody likes a cowardly attacker who just runs if you actually have a chance of fighting back).

Scan Probes have been improved pretty significantly so that locating an enemy ship who is hiding from you is generally easier. As is, it's virtually impossible to locate an enemy using the current probes if he has any experience dodging probe scans.

Combat has been lengthened, with all ships receiving a hit point increase and other defensive improvements to make combat more skill based than just a contest of who has the most guns.

Warp to Zero has been included in EVE as the developer's final answer to the Bookmarks (or Instas) problem. Now, any character can warp directly to a station or gate without having to use a bookmark to land directly on the destination in question. This makes travel through low security space much safer. However, as the pirates are rather unhappy with this change, expect to see some sort of compensation for them down the road (possibly warp bubbles becoming useable in some low security space).

Also improvements to the blueprint system have been added, with Invention allowing people to do specialized research for limited-run Tech 2 blueprint copies. Also Combat Boosters will be showing up, which are essentially drugs your character can take during combat that boost certain combat abilities, but have the random chance of some nasty side effects.

There's more stuff, but I forget what it is, and the Devs have the Patch Notes section of the EVE-Online website down temporarily while they update it.

Check here for more info: http://myeve.eve-online.com/updates/patchnotes.asp

This is the first chapter in the Revelations release. It will have a second chapter released probably in about 4-5 months, which will include factional warfare, some other nifty goodies the devs arent telling us about, and then by late spring / early summer next year, we should be able to expect to see the new DirectX 10 engine for Vista (which looks absolutely fucking amazing btw) and possibly the ability to walk around in stations. Some pretty awesome stuff is in store for EVE and this patch is just the start.

[Hamma]

First thing to mention, all new characters will start with about a month and a half worth of training already under their belt. The character creation process has been fleshed out so that it's more understandable, and more difficult to create a shitty character by mistake.

Best part.

Speaking of teamspeak, it won't be necessary. The new system will include built-in hosted voice communication integrated with the EVE client. Thus, you don't need to have someone patrolling TS to kick out people who aren't in your gang but are listening in (possible spies). Also, when your commander speaks, it will automatically mute everyone else, so comms overlap isn't as big an issue.

I have yet to find a game where in client comm's don't suck.

[Baneblade]

Eve client comms are hosted by a third party. Vivox.

[Baneblade]

Deployment is near complete. Eve-o is not fully back online, there seems to be login issues, and I have no idea where to find the Vivox service.