EVE Online Gets Four Navy Attack Battlecruisers on November 10

EVE Online launches its Fractured Skies expansion on November 10, bringing four Navy attack battlecruisers and 13 free pre-fitted AIR Academy ships.

A new phase of Factional Warfare

Fractured Skies is the second expansion in the Theaters of War trilogy, and CCP frames it as the start of a new era for Factional Warfare and planetary conflict. The four empires have built Conquest Engines, which can take control of whole star systems inside the warzones. A truce arranged by CONCORD still stands. As tensions rise over the coming weeks, cracks are expected to show, and once the pact breaks, Factional Warfare changes. Until then, every completed campaign objective and every recruited capsuleer strengthens the empire a player has chosen.

Navy attack battlecruisers and rigs

Four Navy attack battlecruisers arrive: the Naga Navy Issue, Tornado Fleet Issue, Oracle Navy Issue and Talos Navy Issue. The Naga swaps hybrid weapons for cruise missiles and torpedoes, while the Oracle gains optimal range and the Talos gains mobility and falloff. Players can get all four only through Factional Warfare LP stores. The expansion also adds synchronizer rigs, which get stronger with every matching faction module fitted. Nine sets cover the four empires and five pirate factions, and the pirate versions bring bonuses no existing rig offers along with heavier drawbacks.

Free AIR Academy ships

Stations in Exordium now offer an AIR Academy Ships service. The ships come pre-fitted, so new capsuleers can try different weapons, defenses and playstyles without learning the fitting system first. Ships from every faction can be claimed regardless of a character's faction. A player holds one Academy Ship at a time, and claiming another replaces the old one along with its supplied gear. A short intro animation plays the first time each ship type is claimed, and skills that improve standard ships also boost their Academy versions.

Academy ship limits

The freebies come with firm limits. Academy Ships can only operate in Exordium and the Abyss, and they cannot leave through the Yulai stargate or the Shipcaster routes. They cannot be traded, reprocessed or repackaged, and their wrecks give no salvage. When travel is blocked, the game explains why and offers to buy the equivalent standard ship and fitting through Multibuy at regular market prices. Making that purchase leaves the Academy Ship in place.

Military campaigns and the January clash

Each empire starts a flash Military Campaign at launch, with four objectives covering exploration, PvE, PvP and industry. Players collect faction items and hand them in at their empire's headquarters for personal rewards and achievements. Each completed objective unlocks a bonus for that empire, and those bonuses become active in designated faction systems from January 5. Later in January the four empires fight over access to Drifter technology in a community event set in lowsec. The winning empire gets an exclusive Drifter module in its LP store for a limited time.

Official videoWatch directly inside the article

EVE Vanguard becomes playable around the clock as a paid Alpha alongside the expansion. Warclones complete contracts and expeditions, and their combined efforts unlock combat, hacking and mining sites in empire highsec and lowsec space that capsuleers can enter. The update expands the game with new maps: High Castle in highsec, Vorago in lowsec and The Vault in nullsec, where three squads of three fight for rare Weapon Cores. Players earn Weapon Telemetry as they use a weapon family, and the Gallente BR-60 joins the arsenal.

HUD, achievements and mission sites

The new HUD arrives as an opt-in beta through Feature Previews in the client settings. This first pass covers the command board at the bottom center of the screen, which shows capacitor, module, shield and armor information. The AIR Career Program also moves into the Achievement System with 78 new achievements, and players who finished it before can complete it again for all its rewards. CCP also cleaned up the overview across 37 Level 1 combat mission sites.

Source: Steam announcement

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