Alien forces have invaded EVE Online, and players across the galaxy are banding together to resist them. In the latest free expansion to EVE, a lost race of humans known as Triglavians have breached the walls of reality and are pouring out of the Abyss. Triglavian forces are currently laying siege to three different areas in the galaxy, and this is only the beginning.
First introduced during the Into the Abyss expansion exactly one year ago, the Triglavians represent the next step for EVE’s non-player characters. They are smarter and stronger than the game’s other NPCs and fly their ships and react as real players would.
Until now, they have been relegated to Abyssal Deadspace pockets, small PVE focused instances spawned by players, who could then conduct smash and grab runs on Triglavian holdings. In the year since their introduction countless incursions into the Abyss have been made by players across the globe. With this week’s Invasion expansion, it seems that the Triglavians are ready to fight back.
The Triglavian assaults seem to revolve around massive “World Ark” vessels, ships that dwarf even the largest of the Titan-class behemoths available to players. These World Arks serve as the conduit to bring Triglavian forces from the Abyss into the regular space.
The invasion starts in a randomly determined primary system; for now developer CCP says they’re focused in High Security space, the ‘safer’ areas of EVE, but they’ll spread out over time as the Triglavians become more confident in their invasion technology. From the centre point, the invasion spreads to connected star systems.
As a consequence of these incursions, effects from the Abyss are leaking into the surrounding areas, turning the entire skybox into a mass of roiling, blood red storm clouds. Any ships caught in this maelstrom are buffeted by Abyssal effects, causing massive changes to their base statistics and forcing players to have to rethink their strategies and loadouts before daring to venture too deep into the invaded territories.
After entering a star system under Triglavian control, players are randomly attacked by roving gangs of Triglavian vessels. Small assault forces periodically warp on top of player ships and assault them. Systems inside the invasion are not welcoming places for the unprepared.
Across the game yesterday, hundreds of players were destroyed by invading Triglavians while exploring the new feature or just while trying to go about their day to day EVE life.
Players have begun to resist, though. Groups of players have gathered in affected systems to form fleets to fight off the invaders, with the hope of reclaiming the territory and maybe turning a profit while doing so. The invading vessels seem to be the key to creating the new ships that were also introduced in the Invasion expansion.
These ships are upgraded versions of the Triglavian ships made available to players during Into the Abyss, and they’re highly anticipated additions to the game.
From the wreckage of Triglavian fleets, players are able to find new skill books, resources and research components which allow them, via the game’s complex Industry system, to forge these new ships. Or they can sell their spoils to the highest bidder on the open market and turn their risk into massive profits.
There is a great deal that players do not know about the Triglavian invasions at this point. CCP Games has been very cryptic in response to questions about the event, challenging players to discover the intricacies of how the Triglavian ships are invading and how to stop them rather than laying every detail out in patch notes.
The mystery seems to be as much of a driving factor for players as the contents of the event itself: public fleets, open to all, are forming in the affected systems, comprised of groups of players of all allegiances who want to unravel the mystery for themselves.
If you don’t play EVE, you can experience some of the mystery and excitement of Invasion via a 40 hour straight streaming event from EVE’s streamfleet group here.
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