EVE Online is the biggest single shard, free to play MMO of all time. Its universe – shared by hundreds of thousands of players – is set 21,000 years in the future and centres on a distant cluster of over 7,000 star systems known as New Eden. It is the age of the Capsuleer; a revered breed of highly trained spaceship pilot that has achieved immortality through the use of cloning technology. Capsuleers enjoy complete neural harmony with their ships, controlling them from within an armoured capsule at the heart of their vessel.
New Eden, while dominated by the four great Empires of the Amarr, Caldari, Gallente and Minmatar, still contains many deep mysteries. Significant threats to the established civilisations of New Eden, as well as the players who take on the role of Capsuleers, exist in many forms. Massive player alliances and corporations regularly do battle and compete over disputed territory, and pirate factions have always been adept at causing trouble for Empire, citizen, and player alike. Then there are the Triglavian Collective and the Drifters.
The Triglavian Collective, until just recently, existed in an anomalous region of space called Abyssal Deadspace, hidden in an isolation that lasted for millennia. Constant incursions into the newly discovered pockets of Abyssal Deadspace by Capsuleers – as well as others – eventually caused the Triglavians to mount an offensive into New Eden. Their veil of isolation penetrated, the Collective emerged and began a full-scale invasion of known space, taking over star systems and bringing numerous fleets of technologically advanced spacecraft with them to secure fresh territory.
CONCORD, one of several policing forces in New Eden, has been urging Capsuleers to engage the Triglavian fleets and help drive them from occupied systems. Neither CONCORD nor the Empires have actively taken a hand in the fight against the invaders, preferring to let Capsuleers bear the brunt of taking the fight to the enemy. The Triglavian invasion is ongoing, with player efforts to halt their advance still very much underway.
The Drifters are the remnants of another of New Eden’s ancient civilisations called the Jove. An enigmatic and often aggressive faction, the Drifters also possess highly advanced technology and are distinguishable by their sleek and formidable warships. Their appearance on the galactic stage was sudden and seemingly triggered by a huge stellar anomaly nicknamed ‘Caroline’s Star’, originating in Jove space. Subsequently, all the stargates in Jove space started shutting down, with ancient structures and sites appearing across New Eden. Unidentified wormholes began opening at these sites, with Drifter forces arriving to investigate the strange structures. From then on, they’ve been a regular thorn in the sides of Capsuleers and Empires alike.
The Drifters have been responsible for several targeted incursions into known space, with one such attack resulting in the assassination of Amarr Empress Jamyl Sarum I. They have even caused grief for the Triglavian Collective, with plenty of evidence suggesting they had entered Abyssal Deadspace and engaged the Triglavians long before Capsuleers ever made the breakthrough.
While Drifter activity in New Eden has been a constant source of concern over the last few years, recently players were completely unprepared for the sudden, swift and unprovoked attacks by fleets of Drifter battleships on their forces in Nullsec. The aggression with which player ships and structures were seemingly targeted without pattern caused hysteria in the community. Some quarters were thrilled that the element of danger and risk had returned to the lawless Nullsec regions, while others were riled by the fact that huge alliance campaigns had to be paused while defensive forces were redirected to counter the Drifter invasion.
The Drifter assaults, unsurprisingly, had a noticeable impact on player movements in Nullsec regions. The Imperium, a large alliance of player corporations, responded to the Drifter invasion by pulling back from other regions to defend their assets that were under threat of attack. At the time, Imperium forces were invading a specific area of space. In an unprecedented move, both the Imperium and those defending against them agreed to call off hostilities temporarily in order to address the Drifter threat.
The invaders have targeted almost anything they’ve come across in Nullsec territories, including player ships and structures. The Drifters have even been observed attacking and destroying non-player craft and structures in space. Considering the fact that high security space has been invaded by Triglavian forces, the added Drifter threat throughout Nullsec has created an atmosphere of genuine chaos, unpredictability and danger across all of New Eden for players old and new.
EVE players are known for their ability to adapt to changing circumstances, and the Drifter invasion has been no exception. Experienced Capsuleers and their alliances have eventually found methods of defending their structures, repelling the onslaught to the point where they can once again resume their campaigns in other regions of space. While news spreads fast and effective tactics can be adopted by a majority of players, the Drifters’ reputation for unpredictability means that all will have to remain alert for further, unexpected activity.
However, mysterious and technologically advanced adversaries laying waste to Capsuleer vessels and systems has not been all that players have had to deal with recently. CONCORD announced that New Eden’s Fluid Router FTL communications network was under enormous pressure due to the combined impact of Triglavian and Drifter invasions. To ensure sustainable operation of the communications network and guard against the risk of it becoming compromised, reduced bandwidth across its Nullsec routers was enforced.
This created difficulties for the player alliance power blocs, who now had to deal with the developing situation without intelligence gathered from automated ship registrations on local system chat channels in Nullsec. CONCORD stated that should the Drifter and Triglavian attacks continue, which they did, support for the communications network in Nullsec would not continue. As a result, the Nullsec Blackout – as it has been dubbed – has been in place since early in the summer. Player reception to this turn of events has been divided, again with some parties welcoming the added excitement and danger of navigating Nullsec, while others lament the major disruptions to their activities and machinations in the region.
Adding further fuel to the rising tensions in New Eden during this age of chaos, CONCORD have raised market taxes across the cluster to help finance the continuing efforts of Capsuleers defending their territory from the Triglavian Collective and Drifter invasions. This has affected all transactions on the player market and acts as an ongoing reminder of what has been – and continues to be – a turbulent time in New Eden’s recent history.
Players of EVE Online have never had more to keep them occupied or engage their abilities as they do right now in the ‘Chaos Era’. Driving the Triglavian Collective back from their established footholds in New Eden, fighting off the Drifter menace in Nullsec and navigating dangerous regions of space – as well as intra-community relations – during the communications blackout mean that both veteran players and newcomers to EVE have plenty of challenges, varied gameplay and content to get their teeth into. As these situations in EVE develop, it is expected that Triglavian and Drifter activity will continue to influence Capsuleers, the Empires and everything else in New Eden.
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