True space exploration coming to EVE

By Oli Welsh Published 27 January, 2009

Next expansion's wormholes explained.

CCP has shed some light on how unexplored space is going to be opened up in the next free EVE Online expansion, Apocrypha, due on March 10th.

In a blog post titled "Sic Iter Ad Astra - Building a Bridge to the Stars", a developer going by the handle Whisper explained how Apocrypha's wormholes are going to work, and how the game's scanning mechanics are going to be completely overhauled.

With space in EVE comprehensively mapped and becoming crowded, wormholes to unexplored zones are being added to bring a sense of the unknown to the sci-fi MMO.

"We are going to give you thousands of new solar systems which will contain new NPCs, new exploration content and new pockets of resources to exploit," said Whisper.

Unstable wormholes to these new systems will spawn and vanish randomly throughout known space, remaining open until either a random time limit is reached, or a random amount of mass to pass through them is exceeded. There will always be a way back to known space, but it will require exploration to find.

In order to make wormholes easier to locate, scanning will be made faster and easier, with more powerful and flexible scanner probes, including cheap exploration probes which cannot locate other ships but will be able to track down wormholes "and other celestial anomalies".

Rewards for exploration will include Tech 3 technology drops from "a brand new type of NPC", rich ore deposits, or a short-cut between two distant areas of known space that might open up a temporary but lucrative trade route, or the possibility of a surprise attack on an enemy.

The important facts are that it will be impossible to establish stable and predictable routes to the new space, or to colonise it, meaning that all the unexplored space will be "open to all players all of the time".

It's a radical and exciting shift in how EVE's single universe works. We'll bring you more on the Apocrypha expansion in the next couple of months; in the meantime, check the EVE Online gamepage for features galore.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DFawkes #1 3 years ago

    I'm not sure if I like the sound of taking my rookie ship through a wormhole for it to close behind me and trap me in volatile (probably low security) space. Nice idea though, nice to see how it'll turn out.

  • Macross #2 3 years ago

    dont take your rookie ship through then :)

    looking foward to this, maybe we will start seeing more nomadic corps that live in wormhole space out of a capital ship or orca and only emerge again to trade before heading back off into the unknown...

    they say you can even establish player owned structures (although not system soveriegnty) there, but refuelling said bases might be a problem as you dont know where the wormhole to that system will open next.

  • Vistrix #3 3 years ago

    Some huge features are coming to EVE this year, I cant wait.

    This is going to encourage newer players to explore the lower security areas.

  • DFawkes #4 3 years ago

    @Macross
    But I want to explore! I suppose it's in March though, plenty of time to get a better ship.

    You make some good points - I love the idea of a nomadic corp setting up in this new frontier, building structures and making homes in unstable places. Could lead to desperate raids and piracy should you mess with them.

    I certainly agree with Vistrix, as a newer player I'll be making sure I've got a good clone ready, getting into one of my smaller ships, and just go out exploring low sec, just for a look.

  • kangarootoo #5 3 years ago

    I've never played Eve, and I don't know much about it other than what I read here. But on the face of it, this sounds like a fantastic idea.

    Eve sounds like a game environment that has become so organised and so completely managed by players, it has lost some of the essence of what a deep space video game should surely be about.

    I kind of hope (in that pointless manner, where I realise it really doesn't matter either way) that a few people who have until now been utterly content with running banks and mining moons (or whatever goes on) will just think "Balls to it! I'm going to lock the front door, load up a ship, hop through a wormhole with it and just see wtf happens on the other side".

  • Eraysor #6 3 years ago

    Sounds like delicious win except for the probability of spawning in the middle of a bunch of hostiles.

  • quantumsheep #7 3 years ago

    I think that's exactly what I'll be doing, Kanga!

    Got back into this recently, in a big way.These wormholes sound fantastic!

    Having said that, some enterprising soul will take the fun out of it all by going through wormholes with a gang and camping the other end for easy kills of anyone that follows through. Repeat ad infinitum...

    Edit: I also like the idea of limping away from a battle and doing a 'blind jump' through a wormhole! Ooooh, I'm excited! :)
    Edited by 1 at 27/01/09 @ 11:40

  • coolbritannia #8 3 years ago

    Captain Janeway would love this.

  • Benno #9 3 years ago

    This game really is like no other. I think i'll get it again once the walking in stations thing is released.

    I think loads of people will as well.

  • quantumsheep #10 3 years ago

    You may be right Benno - I know a lot of people are put off it because you don't actually control a 'person', but a ship instead.

    Still, that hasn't been a problem for most people, eh? :)

  • kangarootoo #11 3 years ago

    "You may be right Benno - I know a lot of people are put off it because you don't actually control a 'person', but a ship instead."

    Ooh, I didn't realise that. So if you ship gets destroyed, is it gone? Or can it respawn the way (I imagine) your character does in WoW if it gets killed?

  • DFawkes #12 3 years ago

    Nope, if your ship is destroyed, it's a goner. You can insure it, but the original is still in pieces. That's part of the thrill - dying is a tangible loss. If it's your last ship, you get a free rookie ship at least.

    Your pilot will try to escape in a pod, but if killed you just use a clone - though if you don't update your clone you can lose some skills. I think, I've been to afriad to do anything that'd get me killed.

  • kangarootoo #13 3 years ago

    That sounds kind of harsh. I hope that won't mean the only people who go exploring are the super rich who can spare a ship or two.

  • ZuluHero #14 3 years ago

    If youre a bounty hunter the only way to prove it is to scoop up the remains of another player, whether it seems harsh or not. Back when i used to play EvE, i used to collect frozen corpses. Had a whole hanger full of them.

    Apperently some do-gooder player wanted a special place to lay them to rest, so CCP designted a graveyard for them in some sector. Has like a shrine and everything. Just millions of these 'special' pods floating around.

    I've never seen it though, might have been just a myth...

    Hearing of new features always gives me a hankering to fire up the old account again, i used to love the explroing aspect of EvE (never had time for the old mining crap). This sounds alot like when you used to mis-jump when you hyperspaced in Elite or Frontier. Fun times...

    I will certainly go back when the avatar stuff goes in. I only hope that the game retains the same amount of 'EvE polish' inside stations as well as much as it does out :)

  • TriggerHippie #15 3 years ago

    Here be Thargoids

  • DFawkes #16 3 years ago

    I love the idea of that space graveyard, and the fact the game has it's own myths built up - like when the first player-owned titan was being built, it was all whispers until it actually happened.

  • Macross #17 3 years ago

    The cemetary you are talking about is in Molea and is still there I beleive although i have not been there for a while. I know it was desecrated not too long ago by Jihadswarm (a division of Goonswarm) cos they claimed it went against their beleifs, but I dont they completey flattened it. I dont know if it has been repaired or not since then.

    Theres a website somewhere that you can look up if you have been buried there by someone! 0.o http://az ia.geekandproud.co.uk/docs/eve_...

  • Spekingur #18 3 years ago

    Taken way too long for Eve to get something like this; freeform exploration, as some like to call it.
    I might be bothered back to Eve and check it out - although I'll probably end up quitting again like the times before that. They are basically talking about instanced solar systems, it seems. So theoratically a small corporation could "own" a part of this instanced space.
    Still waiting on Infinity to shape up to an actual game and Star Trek Online to be released. Both promise freeform exploration as well.

  • warthog2k #19 3 years ago

    @TriggerHippie

    Exactly what I was thinking... WITCH SPACE!

  • Macross #20 3 years ago

    @Spek

    They arent instanced in the common sense, the are the same as normal eve solar systems in that respect, always there. They just arent attached to other solar systems in the usual fashion and have different things in.