REVELATIONS II
New Game Features
Need for Speed™
Revelations II advances our commitment to improving the performance of EVE Online. With significant CPU and dogma optimizations launched in this release, Revelations II will also set the initial groundwork to provide full Vista support for future expansions. Also integral to our Need for Speed™ initiative is the continuous refinement of our Core Technology, the foundation infrastructure for EVE.
Structure Warfare Enhancements
Revelations II will significantly expand the opportunities for strategic operations between fixed structures in space by encouraging siege-type game play, enabling attrition warfare, providing tactical objectives for smaller attack forces, and improving the economic vitality of outposts. Specific game play element additions include:
Starbase Warfare
* New Starbase Tactics- Factionalized Structures such as Serpentis Control Towers and Domination Autocannon Batteries, each with unique looks and bonus attributes; Energy Neutralizing Arrays that can drain capacitor reserves from attacking fleets; Scanner Arrays that perform localized scanning for the presence of ships; Jump Towers that allow players to jump instantaneously between starbases owned by the same corporation; Cynosural Field Generators that can quickly bring capital ships to the battlefield; and Cynosural Field Jammers to prevent them from coming in.
o Energy Neutralizing Batteries can be anchored outside the forcefield of any starbase. They have a 50km range and drain 1000 capacitor every 10 seconds. Fitting requirements are 25 tf CPU and 350,000 MW Power.
o System Scanning Arrays can be used in systems with Sovereignty 2 or higher. When controlled, they allow pilots to run a 999AU scan with a strength of 25 and a duration of 90 seconds. This can only be used to scan for ships. Fitting requirements are 25 tf CPU and 25,000 MW Power.
o Jump Bridges allow instant travel between starbases. They must be paired to another bridge within 5 LY, and burn a variable amount of fuel per jump depending on range and mass. They require Sovereignty 3 or higher to online, must be anchored 15km or more from the force field and use 4,000 tf CPU and 750,000 MW Power.
o Cynosural Generator Arrays provide a permanent cynosural beacon available to everyone in your alliance, which can be the target of capital ship jumps or jump portal links. They require Sovereignty 2, must be anchored 15km or more from the force field and use 150 tf CPU and 375,000 MW Power.
o Cynosural System Jammers prevent the formation of new cynosural fields in the system, and force existing fields to collapse at the end of their cycle. This applies to fields generated by both modules and structures. It takes 30 minutes to bring online or offline and requires Sovereignty 3. It must be anchored 15km from the force field and uses 750,000 MW Power.
* Exposed Starbase Assets- We are opening up the tactical opportunities for smaller attack groups by moving some starbase structures beyond the protective force field. All such eligible structures will receive significant hit point increases, which will include all firepower, electronic warfare, and scanning arrays; cynosural field jammers and generators; and jump bridge towers.
o Structures have the following hitpoints based on size:
+ Large structures have 100,000 shield, 1,500,000 armor and 5,000,000 structure (and 90% structure resistance given by the control tower),
+ Medium structures have 50,000 shield, 750,000 armor and 2,500,000 structure (and 90% structure resistance given by the control tower),
+ Small structures have 25,000 shield, 375,000 armor and 1,250,000 structure (and 90% structure resistance given by the control tower).
o All turret structures have had their ranges and tracking revised based on their turret equivalents, so they work best against their intended targets: cruisers for small turrets, battleships for medium turrets and capital ships for large turrets.
o All structures now have appropriate signature radius assigned to them, making it harder for larger ships to acquire lock on smaller structures; large have 400m, medium have 125m and small have 30m.
o All offensive based structures now have appropriate scan resolution assigned to them, making it “harder” for large turrets to acquire lock on smaller targets; large have 10mm, medium have 50mm and small have 250mm.
o Unanchoring time for structures that are placed outside the force field now only takes 1 minute.
o You can now anchor structures that only require power while the control tower is in reinforced mode.
o Remote Hull Repairers are now available to reactivate incapacitated structures.
* Improved Defenses- Structures can now be anchored when the host control tower is in reinforced mode, forcing attack groups to patrol the tower until it is destroyed while giving the owner a chance to recover from assaults. Most importantly, players will now get direct command of starbase weapons, allowing them to control individual assets such as turrets, missile batteries, and stasis webifiers.
o The following structure groups can now be controlled by players: Electronic Warfare Battery, Energy Neutralizing Battery, Mobile Hybrid Sentry, Mobile Laser Sentry, Mobile Missile Sentry, Mobile Projectile Sentry, Scanner Array, Stasis Webification Battery, Warp Scrambling Battery.
o To control a structure, you must be within 15km of the control tower and have the Starbase Defense Operator role. You can control one structure per level of Starbase Defense Management.
o Structures under capsuleer control can be independently targeted and activated on any lockable object within range.
o Structures which use no CPU can be anchored and brought online while the tower is in reinforced mode.
Outpost Warfare
* Targetable Outpost Services Individual services offered by outposts are now vulnerable to precision strikes. Attacking players will see a list of “opportunity targets” in their overview as they approach these stations, each of which will have different hit point values depending on their importance. Services—including any jobs running at the time of attack—will become unavailable for outpost residents as they are destroyed, but can be restored once selective criteria are met.
o Outpost services will show up as icons adjacent to the station icon in space. They will be targettable and can take damage.
o When a service has no shields or armor left and starts taking structure damage, it becomes disabled.
o To re-enable a service, it must have all armor and structure repaired, and be restored to 50% or higher shields.
Outpost Upgrades
* Tiered Improvement Opportunities Hierarchal “construction paths” for increasing the economic vitality of outposts will be implemented. These station improvements must be purchased as construction platforms, anchored at the outpost site, and supplied with the requisite materials. Once built, these upgrades are permanent, even if the outpost is lost. Possible improvements include the addition of office, factory, or research slots; increasing the efficiency of reprocessing and manufacturing facilities; or adding these services to the outpost. The upgrade level of the outpost determines the total number of improvements that can be made, the greatest of which are functions of race and sovereignty conditions.
o The following Upgrade Platform Blueprints have been seeded on the market: Foundation Upgrade Platform Blueprint, Pedestal Upgrade Platform Blueprint, Monument Upgrade Platform Blueprint.
o With Sovereignty 2, a Foundation Upgrade Platform can be anchored and built next to an Outpost. After downtime, this will enable the installation of a single Tier 1 Improvement.
o With Sovereignty 3, a Pedestal Upgrade Platform can be anchored and built next to an Outpost which already has a Foundation Upgrade. After downtime, this will enable the installation of an additional Tier 1 Improvement and a single Tier 2 Improvement.
o With Sovereignty 4, a Monument Upgrade Platform can be anchored and built next to an Outpost which already has a Pedestal Upgrade. After downtime this will enable the installation of a further additional Tier 1 Improvement, an additional Tier 2 Improvement and a single Tier 3 Improvement.
o Blueprints for Basic (Tier 1), Standard (Tier 2) and Advanced (Tier 3) Outpost Improvement Platforms have been seeded on the market. Amarr, Minmatar and Gallente have the following improvements: Factory, Laboratory, Office, Plant and Refinery. Caldari has the following improvements: Factory, Laboratory, Office, Refinery and Research Facility.
o A Basic Outpost Platform can be anchored and built at any Outpost of the correct race which has at least one Tier 1 Improvement slot free. This will permanently upgrade the capabilities of the Outpost in the manner described in the Platform’s information.
o A Standard Outpost Platform can be anchored and built at any Outpost of the correct race which has at least one Tier 2 Improvement slot free, and which has the Basic Improvement of the same type already installed. This will permanently upgrade the capabilities of the Outpost in the manner described in the Platform’s information.
o An Advanced Outpost Platform can be anchored and built at any Outpost of the correct race which has at least one Tier 3 Improvement slot free, and which has the Standard Improvement of the same type already installed. This will permanently upgrade the capabilities of the Outpost in the manner described in the Platform’s information.
Broader Sovereignty Scope
Revelations II will make sovereignty more modular by adding four different tiers of ownership and broadening its scope to the constellation level. Structured incentives and intermediary objectives—with unique benefits offered at each tier—will be available for alliances to pursue, but with the added challenge of contending with the tactical changes to starbase warfare. The benefits at each tier include which outpost upgrades can be added, what structures can be anchored around starbases, and how much fuel is required to sustain them.
Sovereignty tiers include Territory, Protectorate, Province, and Constellation Capital. The latter is achievable through Constellation Sovereignty, which is reached when half of the systems in a given constellation become official “territories” of the same alliance; three or more outposts and/or conquerable stations reside with the constellation; and at least one system is a Province—the alliance-declared capital system of that constellation.
* Sovereignty Level 1 (Territory) is achieved by the alliance having more towers (that have been online and claiming sovereignty) for seven days, than any other alliance in the same system
* Sovereignty Level 2 (Protectorate) is reached by maintaining Sovereignty 1 for 14 consecutive days
* Sovereignty Level 3 (Province) is reached by maintaining Sovereignty 2 for a further 14 days. Outposts in systems with Sovereignty 3 can be set as Constellation Capital
* Sovereignty Level 4 (Constellation Capital) is achieved by both having Constellation Sovereignty in the same constellation and holding an outpost with the Constellation Capital option checked for thirty days.
* Constellation Sovereignty is achieved when the following conditions are met for fourteen consecutive days:
o Sovereignty 1 or higher in over half the systems in the constellation
o Three outposts or conquerable stations held within the same constellation
o One outpost has Constellation Capital set
* Starbases in systems with Sovereignty 4 cannot be targeted
* If one or more of the conditions for Constellation Sovereignty is subsequently lost, the constellation becomes Contested for 7 (not the originally listed 14) days. If at the end of this period the conditions are met again, Constellation Sovereignty is maintained. If they are not met, Constellation Sovereignty is lost.
Heat
Adding a new dimension to space combat in EVE, Revelations II brings you Heat: the ability to overload starship modules for a temporary boost in performance, but at the risk of damaging the module.
Performance overloads are temporary attribute increases for selected active modules, covering everything from firepower and defenses to propulsion and electronics. While the benefits of overheating are specific to the module, the cost—heat buildup—is cumulative to the rack that the module resides in, which has a fixed heat dissipation rate.
Overheating a single module therefore risks damaging every other module that shares the same rack—low, medium, or high—and each module has a maximum number of hit points it can withstand before failing. Modules that succumb to heat become unusable during combat, but can be repaired when — or if - the ship makes it back to a station.
* The following groups of modules now have an Overload attribute which states what bonus you will receive by overloading the module.
o Turrets
o Launchers
o Energy Vampires
o Energy Neutralizers
o Afterburners
o Microwarpdrives
o ECM
o ECCM
o Active Hardeners
o Shield Boosters
o Armor Repairers
o Remote Armor/Shield Repairers/Boosters
o Warp Scramblers
o Stasis Webifiers
* New skill, Thermodynamics, that reduces heat damage by 5% per level, has been seeded.
* Shield Boost Amplifier increases heat damage from Shield boosters by 100%
* Heat is distributed over the whole rack, split into High, Medium and Low.
* The User interface has been changes to reflect Heat and allow management of it.
* A module capable of overload has a green marker on top of the UI circle which toggles overload on and off. The rest of the circle will glow red once that module starts taking heat damage. Once the circle is completely red, the module will go offline and needs to be repaired before it can be brought online again.
* A heat status bar has been added above the capacitor, where it shows the heat consumption over the three racks.
* It is possible to overload the entire rack, using three buttons on the right side of the hit point bars.
Improved Corporation & Alliance Management
Revelations II will deliver significant enhancements to the management tools for corporations and alliances—the cornerstone organizations of EVE. These include the additions of:
* An alliance standing tab, which will give directors the ability to set and adjust corporation standings with other alliances;
* A starbase fuel technician role, which will allow players to perform basic starbase maintenance tasks but prevent them from damaging the base through resource theft or other means;
* Seven divisional wallets for corporations, which will give directors the ability to uniquely categorize corporate finances however they fit;
* A transaction log for each divisional wallet, identical in functionality to personal wallets;
* An export manager that will allow players with an accountant role to export corporate data to file, and all players to export their personal wallets to file;
* Remote search functionality of corporate hangars and manipulation of corporate assets, such as moving items between hangars and stacking;
* An alliance history tab similar to the character employment history tab; and
* Detailed shareholder reports, which lists individual member ownership of corporation-issued stock to players with an accountant or director role.
* Joining a corp. has been made simpler.
Agent Mission Improvements
Revelations II will introduce Level 5 Agents, and with them the most challenging PVE encounters for players yet in EVE. These missions are designed for capital ships or small gangs, who will face NPC elements that include dreadnoughts, carriers, and other mammoth adversaries that require vast amounts of firepower to take down.
To encourage group participation for tackling agent missions of any difficulty, gang support for missions will also be added, splitting the bounty for success evenly between participants. As for the actual rewards, the agent offer system is being enhanced in two ways: loyalty points will now be cumulative towards the issuing corporation of the agent, not the individual agents themselves; and with the addition of a new loyalty point store, in which players can view the entire list of available corporation reward offers and select which ones to accept as determined by their affordability in loyalty points and/or merchandise.
* Ten Level 5 agents for each Empire (nine for Caldari. Why nine? Don't ask us, ask the Jovians!) have been placed in selected low-security systems.
* Approximately thirty Level 5 missions are available for each Empire, focusing primarily on the growing conflicts between the four Empires.
* Carrier-class NPCs have been created for each Empire, along with Fighter-class support.
* Freighter-class NPCs have been created for each Empire.
* Most factions now have access to Energy Neutralizer Towers to increase their defensive capabilities.
* Empire Navy NPCs now drop loot as well as tags.
* Missions now have basic gang support. Choosing the “Me and my gang have completed the mission” option at the end of a mission will cause LP, ISK and Standing rewards to be split equally between up to five people in a gang.
* The existing LP/Offers system has been replaced with the new “LP Store” feature.
* LPs are now attached to NPC corporations rather than individual agents; all existing LPs will be migrated from the individual agents to their parent corporations.
* The LP Store now contains a wide variety of new offers for implants, factional hardware and blueprints. Offers vary between factions and between corporations within a faction.
Expanding the Frontiers of Exploration
Revelations II will significantly expand the content for solo exploration, increasing the chances of discovering in-space encounters and hidden deadspace pockets of varying difficulties—including greater rewards through rare NPC commander spawns. The balance of escalation will also be improved, with an emphasis on creating a more gradual difficulty progression through encounter stages and. Finally, a built-in scanner that has no requirements for additional skills or modules will be added to assist with finding low-risk encounters.
* Existing “Escalation” sites have been revisited, and now have a good chance of spawning a “Commander”-level NPC when the completion trigger is tripped.
* 100 new “Encounter” combat sites have been added. These are “Unknown”-type sites tuned to be substantially easier to locate and complete than existing Exploration content.
* Encounter sites have a small chance of spawning a “Commander” NPC.
* All ships now have a built-in exploration scanner. This device has a 5AU range, 25 sensor strength in all types, a 30 second duration and can only scan for Cosmic Signatures. It is not affected by skills, rigs or bonuses.
* Gravimetric sites (hidden asteroid belts) are no longer located within Deadspace zones, allowing ships to warp in to any designated point inside the site.
* The following static sites have been removed from static spawn locations and distributed evenly across the appropriate factions’ space. Each site can only be found within systems with specific security statuses.
Rogue Drone Asteroid Infestation, Sansha's Command Relay Outpost, Serpentis Narcotic Warehouses, Mul-Zatah Monastery, Guristas Scout Outpost, Serpentis Phi-Outpost, Outgrowth Rogue Drone Hive, Angel's Red Light District, Crimson Hand Supply Depot, Guristas Troop Reinvigoration Camp, Sansha War Supply Complex, Angel Military Operations Complex, Cartel Prisoner Retention, Pith's Penal Complex, Angel Cartel Naval Shipyard, Blood Raider Naval Shipyard, The Maze, Centus Assembly T.P. Co. and Serpentis Fleet Shipyard.
Immersive New Player Experience
To better acclimate new players to EVE, the rookie tutorial experience will spawn directly in space beginning with Revelations II, inside a protected dungeon inaccessible to all but the new player.
* Players start in their own protected dungeon out of harm’s way
* Tutorial dungeon can be accessed again within 30 days of account creation.
* The dungeon can only be started in rookie systems
* Re-written and shortened tutorial
* Informative optional tutorials have been added to further aid players
* Second and third characters have an option in the character creation process to start in station or in space. Starting in station is on by default, but can be changed if player wishes to redo the tutorial on that character
* Restarting the tutorial through the Aura window, will initiate warp to the dungeon with a confirmation box.
Anti-Fleet Warfare
Revelations II will introduce new tactics for dispersing large concentrations of ships. Motherships will be able to equip a Remote ECM Burst module that will jam the sensors of any ship within the effect radius of the target. Stealth bombers can be armed with six different AOE (area-of-effect) Bombs that damage everything—friend and foe alike—within their blast radius. In addition to the four primary damage types, two additional ordinance variants include capacitor draining and target lock breaking bombs. Carriers will be able to revert to triage mode, in which its logistic and defensive capabilities are greatly enhanced at the expense of nearly all of its firepower.
* Stealth bombers can now deploy bombs. The changes to bonuses and attributes are as follows:
o Bonus: +5% damage to cruise missiles per frigate skill level,
o Bonus: +5% em/thermal/kinetic/explosive damage to cruise missiles and bomb per covert ops level,
o Bonus: -99% reduction in cruise launcher powergrid needs,
o Bonus: -99% reduction in Bomb launcher CPU use,
o 3 launcher and 2 turret hardpoints,
o The Nemesis had an increase in 10tf while the Manticore, Purifier and Hound received a 15tf increase,
o Cargo capacity has been increased as follows:
+ Purifier: 135m3 -> 260m3,
+ Nemesis: 155m3 -> 215m3,
+ Hound: 145m3 -> 195m3,
+ Manticore: 120m3 -> 185m3.
* Blueprints of the Launcher and the Bombs have been seeded on the market as long with skills required.
* Bombs cannot be deployed in empire space.
* Bombs have a 15 second countdown before detonation.
* Motherships can now fit a Remote ECM Burst module.
* Motherships now have a bonus of -99% reduction in CPU requirement of Remote ECM Bursts.
* Only one module can be fitted at all times.
* The module has these attributes:
o Range: 75km,
o Falloff: 150km,
o ECM Strength: 25,
o Effect Radius: 20km,
o Duration: 30 sec.,
o Reactivation delay: 5 – 10 minutes, dictated by the Projected Electronic Counter Measures skill.
* Carriers and Motherships can now use Triage mode.
* Triage mode skill, module and blueprint have been seeded on the market.
* The ship using the triage mode will be affected in the following manner:
o Armor/Shield boost amount increased 100%,
o Armor/Shield boost duration -50%,
o Unable to move,
o Consumes 500 Strontium Clathrates,
o Early deactivation is disallowed,
o Transfer amount on logistic modules increased 100%,
o Duration on logistic modules reduced -50%,
o Maximum active drones set to 0,
o Scan resolution increased 900%,
o Maximum targets increased by 4,
o Capacitor requirements for all modules in the following categories increased by 9.999.900 %
+ Propulsion Jamming,
+ ECM,
+ Remote Sensor Damper,
+ Tracking Disruption,
+ Target Painting.
o Immune to all offensive modifiers (except Remote ECM Burst)
General Improvements
Dozens of enhancements will be included with Revelations II, ranging from adding faction missiles to loot drops; the introduction of Tech II Sentry and Logistics drones; giving commanders the ability to transfer their gang-boosting role to another pilot; seeding the market with more gas cloud harvesters to encourage booster production; adding rogue drone commanders to exploration complexes; plus many more unique improvements to better the EVE experience for new and veteran players alike.
Other Enhancements
* A new test server has been added, Multiplicity. It can be found from the server selector list. This server will be used for testing hotfixes for the current Tranquility build. Please remember never log onto a test server with your Tranquility client - copy the Tranquility folder to a new folder and use the new copy.
Additions, Improvements, Changes and Fixes
Note: Changes and additions may be added in the future during the continuing Quality Assurance process. Finalized changes or additions will be highlighted with green text.
Client Changes
General compatibility changes for Windows 2000, XP and Vista, to better comply with Microsoft recommended best practices for data file locations.
Game capture, log and cache folders have moved from "c:\Program Files\CCP\EVE"
* The capture and logs folders are now located under "My Documents\EVE"
* The settings and cache folder are stored under
o Windows 2000/XP "C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\CCP\EVE"
o Windows Vista: "C:\Users\%user%\AppData\Local\CCP\EVE\"
The location of the settings folder can be forced to remain where it was stored prior to Revelations II. This can be useful when connecting a second client to a test server and not mix the settings.
* The shortcut would refer to: "C:\Program Files\CCP\EVE\eve.exe /end /LUA:OFF"folder by running eve through a shortcut and using the following switches (case sensitive): /end /LUA:OFF
For Vista users:
* Run eve as administrator when you patch from Rev 1.4.3 to Rev 2.0.0.
* You will be asked for the administrator password when you run the new version for the first time if in order for the data file migration, to the new location, to take place
* The installation on Vista has been worked on so that players will get fewer User Access Control windows.
* On machines installing the client for first time on a fresh install of Vista, users will get two User Access Control windows, (one after initializing the setup and another when installing RedistD3DXOnly.exe)
Once the client is launched for the first time, if u have Windows Firewall turned on, there will also appear a Window allowing you to unblock EVE.
Character creation
* The voice over now correctly matches the displayed text.
* Gallente > Gallente > Immigrants > Military > Special Forces background selection now correctly gets Science level 2.
* Caldari > Achura > Inventors > Industry > Engineer background selection now correctly gives Industry 3, the requirement for Mass Production.
New Player Experience
* The icons for Business/Executive Commander and Military/Soldier are no longer the same.
* The default position of the fitting window will no longer overlay the default position of the tutorial window.
* If you log off during the tutorial, it will now continue from where you left it, rather than jumping to the next section.
Skills
* Fixed an error with skills not being trainable after a character transfer.
* The Marketing skill incorrectly applied to remote buy orders. Procurement is the correct skill.
* Clarified the description of Electronic Warfare skill to emphasize that ECM and ECM burst are different types of modules and thus are not in general affected by the same skills.
