Eve Expansions
Eve was originally released on May 6, 2003. Since the initial release, CCP has released the following expansions:
Contents
Castor
Release date: December 18, 2003
Castor was the first major content addition. It focused on refining current functions along with adding "Tech 2" elite components and ships. With its release, Eve players saw conquerable stations in 0.0 (deep space) security systems, the introduction of the agent mission running system, the introduction of research agents, and many other features released between the launch of Castor and its follower, Exodus.
Exodus
Release date: November 17, 2004
Exodus is considered by the developers to be the first major game expansion. The expansion added multi-level "deadspace" scenarios, new environments and ships, better handling of conflicts, additional market functionality, user interface improvements, and an updated in-game web browser. A formalized method for alliances between corporations and the ability to claim sovereignty of a solar system via new "player owned starbases" was also added. Prior to its official release, this expansion was codenamed "Shiva."
Exodus: Cold War
Release date: June 29, 2005
Cold War Edition contained an extensive new tutorial sequence and a storyline background introduction. Challenging "level 4" agent missions were added for experienced players, as well as "COSMOS" constellations where in-space agents began giving out story-driven missions and unique rewards. The freighter and dreadnaught capital ships, full-fledged player-owned "outposts," and improved NPC pirate factions brought deep space play to a new level. This expansion also added Unicode chat support, allowing communication in Asian, Cyrillic, and Greek languages.
Exodus: Red Moon Rising
Release date: December 16, 2005
Red Moon Rising was split off from the "Kali" expansion in order to maintain a more regular patch schedule. It included many performance optimizations and updates to combat, research, and manufacturing gameplay. The expansion continued the focus on attracting new international players as four new "bloodlines" were introduced with Asian features and a boost in starting skills. Unicode support was also expanded from the chat system to game-wide. A major focus of the expansion was revamping existing ships and adding many additional ship classes. Twenty-three new Tech 2 ships were added including Exhumers, Force Recon cruisers, Command ships, Interdictors, and most notably the capital ships Carrier, Mothership, and Titan.
Bloodlines
Release date: March 2, 2006
Bloodlines is the codename for the content patch that enabled players to create the new character "bloodline" with an Asian appearance.
* Achura, citizens of the Caldari State and expert scientists
* Jin-Mei, members of the Gallente Federation renowned for their legendary leadership traits
* Khanid of the Amarr Empire, the primary fighter-warriors of their culture
* Vherokior of the Minmatar Republic, the established manufacturers and engineers of the tribes.
Revelations I
Release date: November 29, 2006
Revelations is the second major game expansion of Eve Online. Previously known by the codename "Kali," Revelations was scheduled to be released in three parts. Major features of this expansion include an exploration / scan probe system, a formalized contract system, the invention replacement for the Tech 2 research lottery, ship customization with "rigs," and temporary "combat boosters." Existing features expanded include a "new player experience" that grants new players a large head start in capabilities, an upgraded fleet system, eight new deepspace regions, a new map that zooms from ship to galaxy seamlessly, popular new battlecruisers and battleships, and many more.
Eve Voice was integrated as part of Revelations content patch 1.4, it had initially been planned for release with Revelations II. Eve Voice is a Voice over IP tool integrated into the Eve Online client, the software is licensed by CCP from Vivox.
Revelations II
Release date: June 19, 2007
Revelations II is the second of three expansions, designed to show the increased tensions between the empires within the game universe. Several new features were introduced; including a mechanism for overloading modules and area of effect bombs. A number of existing features have been extended including Level 5 agents, changes to sovereignty, starbase outposts, and balancing changes to the Amarr race. Revelations II also changed the way new players start the game, in addition to new optional tutorials the existing tutorial has been shortened and refined, and players now start in a private dungeon to allow new players to get used to the controls in a protective environment.
Trinity
Release date: December 5, 2007
Features include an updated graphics engine and 5 new ship classes totaling 20 new ships. The 5 classes are interdictor cruisers (Heavy Interdictors) and electronic warfare frigates (Electronic Attack Ships) as well as battleships (Black Ops, designed for covert operations and Marauders, designed for long-range deployment) and freighters (Jump Freighters). Although "Factional Warfare," a major addition to game mechanics, had been planned for this patch it was later announced that it would be included in a future patch, along with Ambulation (walking in stations and Full Human Representation, announced on the Eve Online Fanfest 2007). Starting with the release of Trinity, CCP offered two editions of the Eve Online client. One with regular graphics content, called Trinity 1.0 Classic, and one with updated graphics, called Trinity 1.0, also referred to as Premium. Players who run a Shader Model 3-capable graphics card can choose whether they want the Classic or Premium content. Without such a graphics card the client uses the Classic content.
The initial version of the Trinity patch could under certain circumstances delete the player's operating system's boot.ini file, thus rendering the operating system unbootable. Six hours after the release of this faulty patch CCP fixed the issue. While the number of affected players is unknown, 215 had specifically asked CCP for assistance.
Empyrean Age
Release date: June 10, 2008
Empyrean Age, previously named Kali 4, is the name of the ninth expansion of Eve Online and the last one in the Kali tetralogy. CCP has included Factional Warfare in this release. In this expansion the in-game story plays a key role and the situation in the game reflects events depicted in the novel of the same title by Tony Gonzales. The expansion allows both individual players and whole corporations to fight for certain NPC factions and battle for control of certain regions of space. Agents provide missions and objectives which alter player and corporation standings with the factions accordingly.
Quantum Rise
Release date: November 11, 2008.
The Quantum Rise expansion includes features such as a new certificate system that allows verification of a player's proficiency in certain defined groups of skills by other players and a medal system for awards by corporations. Industrial ships were rebalanced and optimized, with addition of the Orca-class ship, "a sub-capital logistical ship with a mining command focus." The staged delivery of the expansion began with the recent implementation of new technology such as StacklessIO and EVE64 which upgraded the server hardware and streamlined communication between server and client to reduce lag. These improvements provide performance allowing for player vs. player battles with thousands of participants. Further hardware and software improvements are planned. Other features of the expansion include further graphics updates as started in the Trinity expansion; the ability for players to group their vessels' weapons for easier interaction; changes to autopilot routes and avoidance of player-defined solar systems. This patch also included the controversial "nano nerf".
Apocrypha
Release date: March 10, 2009.
At Fanfest 2008 it was announced that instead of a six-month gap between expansions the subsequent expansion to Quantum Rise, Apocrypha, would be released on March 10, 2009. This expansion included a training queue, Tech 3 vessels, and exploration of uncharted space through unstable wormholes. Apocrypha has improved NPCs' artificial intelligence and has added a new NPC faction to the game, the Sleepers.
Apocrypha 1.5
Apocrypha 1.5 was released on August 20, 2009 and considered by CCP to be a mini-expansion. CCP felt that Apocrypha was released very early for a Summer expansion, and that they had enough content ready to go for it to be classified as more than a patch. The new mini-expansion brought to EVE four more epic mission arcs, new rig sizes, specialized cargo bays for specific ships, and performance enhancements for their Factional Warfare.
Dominion
Release date: December 1st, 2009.
The main focus of Dominion, the 12th expansion, is an overhaul in the alliance warfare sovereignty mechanics. It also includes the introduction of pirate epic arcs, an upgrade for planet graphics, an overhaul of the fleet UI, the introduction of XL cruise missiles and launchers, a rebalance of dreadnoughts, an overhaul of faction battleships, an overhaul of titans and the DD mechanics, and an improvement to in-game sound. Dominion significantly overhauls the In Game Browser (IGB) with Chromium's toolkit, allowing the IGB to behave more like a true browser and properly render HTML, javascript and stylesheets - generally making it functional.