Reigning Capsuleers,

Achieve tactical supremacy and victory in New Eden with EVE Online's new Quadrant "Reign", the first in 2021! Launching a new year of Quadrants after 2020's successful introduction of themed content for EVE, Reign brings with it exciting new updates to fleets and travel, continuous balance and meta changes, plus returning events such as the Guardian's Gala and The Hunt.

Fleet options in EVE will improve during the Reign Quadrant thanks to the Fleet Discovery update.

Many more upcoming changes will soon see the light as the Quadrant progresses, as has been the case for all of EVE's Quadrants so far. One upcoming change will give Capsuleers more control over fleet formations and presence on the battlefield. For the curious, the Quadrant trailer is a solid starting point for theory crafters.



The Reign Quadrant also kicks off with substantial improvements to jump tunnel animations, providing a more immersive sci-fi experience, with the regions you are travelling between now visually reflected in the tunnel itself!

In addition, there are updates to how your home station is represented on the map, how it's managed, with the price for changing its location removed, plus quality of life improvements throughout the Quadrant which some you can check out on the EVE Online forums!

The notorious Guardian's Gala event will return to New Eden soon, and you are once again invited to disrupt the annual Serpentis pirates and Angel Cartel celebrations! More info on that is coming very soon, and the Abyssal Proving Grounds will continue into 2021 as well.

A CLASH OF TITANS

The largest war in EVE (and video game) history had been raging for months and tensions were building. The two sides of the conflict each possessed the largest supercapital forces in New Eden and a large scale confrontation felt inevitable as the battle lines pushed closer, the fighting grew bloodier, and each battle became more critical to each side's success, survival or morale.

On December 30th 2020 this tension finally came to a spectacular head in the most destructive battle New Eden had ever seen. As PAPI forces were continuing to press into the Imperium home region of Delve they began an assault against a seemingly "irrelevant" (1, 2) Keepstar in the system of M2-XFE. PAPI cleared the shield timer without much contest however when it came time for the armor timer, the Imperium supercapital fleet was poised to respond.

A lone Imperium interceptor pilot is credited with attacking the M2-XFE cyno jammer just prior to the start of the fight, granting the imperium forces a window in which they could bring in capital reinforcements while the cyno jammer repaired. The cyno jammer was then hit several more times by a small number of imperium pilots to keep the window open as they brought in additional reinforcements - however the attackers too were bringing in additional ships, as both sides attempted to achieve a numerical (and firepower) advantage.

At 22:33 GMT the PAPI forces moved into position below the Keepstar and all waited nervously to see if the Imperium forces would break from the safety of the Keepstar tether to engage. As the first shots were fired by PAPI at the structure, the Imperium broke from tether and returned fire - the resulting fight would be the most destructive in EVE History.



The fighting lasted approximately 14 hours as each side volleyed Titans and enemy supercapitals off field, one after another. The trades on both sides were incredibly even, with each side losing supercapital ships at around the same rate. The bloodbath continued until daily downtime the next day, when PAPI forces were issued the command to stay logged out after the servers went offline. As the dust settled, New Eden was left to tally a larger battle than had ever been seen before amidst a mountain of shattered titans.



(Yes, all of these pictures are actual in-game captures of the fight)

THE FINAL TALLY

ISK Lost: 29,111,604,784,863

Titans Destroyed: 257

Total Ships Destroyed: 3,404

USD Value of Losses: $378,012

Based on the average sale value of PLEX. This number is simply given as a way to represent the effort-value of the destruction and not an actual amount of money spent by participants on this fight.

Most Expensive Ship Destroyed: Grencia Mars's Vanquisher weighing in at approximately 381,097,221,673 ISK - over $5,500 equivalent USD value alone!

EVERLASTING TESTAMENT

Amidst the wreckage, a monument is being constructed in M2-XFE.



From the Designer: The initial concept was very clear in my mind: a diorama inside a semicircle with ships ready for the battle on its two opposite sides, and a banner in the middle bearing the records of all the players involved in the fight. I wanted something majestic and imposing to represent the epic scale of the battle. I was greatly inspired by the architectural rhythm of Hallgrimskirkja for the main structure. My team suggested implementing the shape of the Keepstar in the design; from that point I tried to include that shape as single piece or in a pattern in multiple ways. Once I found a solid shape for the main structure, I tried to merge with it some of the other previous experiments where I had used the shape of the Keepstar as a base until I ended up with a semicircular monument with the shape of the Keepstar inside of it.

M2 BY THE NUMBERS

The numbers involved in this battle may not mean much to you in a vacuum, so we've gone through the most destructive battles in EVE history, some of which you may be familiar with including the now unseated 'Bloodbath of B-R', to help provide a sense of scale.






The numbers shown in this chart are not exact amounts spent by players on this battle (as much of these fleets were paid for in thousands of man hours of in-game work) but an equivalent value had they attempted to buy all the ships and equipment used in the fight out of pocket via PLEX (and bear in mind, this is just what was destroyed!). The USD value is calculated using the average value of PLEX purchases at that time and the average ISK market price of PLEX.

Interestingly, you can get an idea of how the value of ISK has changed over time, particularly looking at the differences in B-R (2014), between the ISK and USD graphs.

Data for the 2nd Battle of M2-XFE is absent from these graphs due to the issues experienced during the battle - including the unreliability of kill reports generated during the battle for ships that survived.




Of the 1,304 Titans that participated in this fight in M2-XFE an incredible 257 of them were destroyed - which amounts to nearly 20%.



Battles in EVE Online have grown steadily with time, from HED-GP and B-R back in 2014 (only a few days apart) to today. While the battle didn't quite break the record set by FWST for max players in a single battle, it certainly took its place among the top. Bear in mind that this graph is showing only those top battles in terms of destructive value.

For some of the following data we supplemented our numbers with data from our partner, Zkillboard. While this data is less 'official' it is reliably accurate with only the potential of kills not appearing if ESI data was not provided, so the numbers may slightly underrepresent reality - however all 257 titan kills are accounted for.



When it comes to Titan losses, this battle did not have a clear-cut winner. PAPI forces lost a combined 130 Titans while the Imperium lost 122, giving them a narrow 8-Titan lead over the attackers.



While the Titans tend to take the spotlight due to their size, power, and value - they were not the only ships fielded. Over a thousand players in subcapital ships also played a part.

If you'd like to browse the destruction for yourself, you can find more detail in this Battle Report.

OKAY, SO JUST HOW BIG WAS THIS BATTLE REALLY?

Let's forget about ISK and dollars for a moment and just talk about what a Titan is in the universe of EVE Online. Titans are MASSIVE weapons - but just how massive? 2,400,000,000kg to be specific (the mass of the Avatar). That's 2,645,547 US tons - the equivalent of over 7 Empire State Buildings (src) and nearly 14km in length (8.5 miles). A single titan is enough to scar a planet, should the planet be so unfortunate as to collide with one.

Mass of the Titan Wreckage: 591,100,000,000kg enough to be a dangerously large asteroid. Slightly more massive than 4769 Castalia, a potentially hazardous near-earth object. We can be thankful the wreckage is being salvaged for use in the monument and isn't at risk of careening towards any populated planets.

Approximate mass of all 1304 titans which were present: 2,999,200,000,000kg Just a bit more massive than the minor planet 1566 Icarus - a potentially hazardous near earth object which sparked a project at MIT to consider how to defend the earth from a potential impact, should it be found to be on a collision course (the final plan was to use 6 100-megaton nuclear warheads and pray that solved the problem).

Length of the Titans end to end: (assuming an average titan length of 15.75km) 20,538km - approximately half the circumference of the earth and nearly twice the diameter. In terms of raw scale, this was truly a massive battle. The pictures you see here showing fields of titans may be hundreds or thousands of kilometers across!

And these are just some fun fact about the size and mass, not even touching on the mind-blowing scale of capital weapons. The total firepower brought to bear in this fight was truly earthshattering – a very rough estimate of the total energy released of all the doomsdays firing simultaneously is equivalent to that of a small star (estimate based on the Nuclear L charge mass, damage and a comparison to modern nuclear weapons yields): Over 100 billion terajoules of energy - and yes, there are many other ways to estimate this and get very different numbers.

THE STORY CONTINUES

The war continues to rage in nullsec and the story has continued on since this battle, including PAPI forces finding themselves trapped and their daring escape from the Imperium 'hellcamp'. We are happy to celebrate the incredible achievements and historic events of this chapter of EVE's history and, as always, look forward to seeing where the epic tales you weave will take us next.




Images of the battle provided by Razorien EVE (now also known as CCP Aperture!)

FROM THE PARTICIPANTS

"This was a bare hands, bloody knuckle fight over a backwater keepstar in a system that didn't matter, and it turned into one of the most consequential fights in the history of EVE, lasting 14+ hours and seeing more Titans die than every other major Titan brawl put together. It was amazing to be there, to cover the entire fight from start to finish live on stream... even if it did cost me a Titan." - Brisc Rubal, The Imperium

"This battle is a bit like a poker game where both players stockpiled weapons for several years and then went all-in. One side started escalating the fight to the absolute maximum of their resources, and the other matched in full; not just in terms of manpower but also in the value of assets committed. It is rare in EVE to see so much at stake in a single fight as the losses can undo years of effort from thousands of participating players. However, in this rare instance it did indeed happen, causing the biggest fight we have ever seen, both for the numbers of players involved and the amount of assets destroyed. Really remarkable." - Gobbins, PAPI

MEDIA & COMMUNITY ARTICLES ABOUT THE BATTLE

Kotaku - Both Sides Claim Victory in Massive EVE Online Battle

MassivelyOP - The Christmas truce in EVE Online ends in explosive fashion with a costly $300k battle at M2-XFE

ScreenRant - EVE Online: Latest Battle Cost Players 250 Titan Ships & 23 Trillion ISK

New Eden Post - The Massacre of M2-XFE A Titan Graveyard Unlike Any Battle in EVE Online History

INN - M2-XFE in Pictures

INN - EVE of Destruction: The Titan Massacre at M2-XFE
The Ancient Gaming Noob - Titan Massacre at M2-XFE

Alpha Orbital - Graveyard of Titans - The Massacre at M2-XFE

Model Capsuleers,

Mixed Dimensions have released yet another batch of awesome EVE Online ship models, and this time you can get your hands on the formidable Armageddon, Hyperion, Scorpion, and Typhoon class Battleships!

There will be even more ship models to look forward to in the future, and you can check out which EVE ship models Mixed Dimensions have already released], including the Dramiel, Cynabal, Machariel, Rifter, Tristan, Magnate, Talos, Tornado, Condor, Naga, and Oracle. Get yours now!

A popular Abyssal Proving Grounds event returns! Make sure you have your Proving Filaments ready, either from Abyssal Deadspace loot drops or from the in-game market.

Until 11:00 UTC on 2 February, you can engage in 1v1 Tech I Battlecruiser matches. Permitted hulls for this round are: Brutix, Cyclone, Drake, Ferox, Gnosis, Harbinger, Hurricane, Myrmidon, Naga, Oracle, Prophecy, Talos, or Tornado.

Limitations for this round are:

• Modules limited to meta level 5 and below
  
• No pirate implants

This will be a dramatic series of fights so don’t forget to track your favorite Capsuleer’s performance using the leaderboards.

In the rich universe of New Eden, many activities can be more fun, efficient, or offer a larger destructive power when performed in groups. The new Fleet Discovery update makes it easier for Capsuleers to find and create fleets with other players that fit their plans!


Soon, as a new pilot, you will be able to utilize the new Fleet Up tool located in the center of The Agency to find and join fleets that match your skill level and interests.



Are you looking to fleet up and do some mining? Sort by Resource Harvesting to view active fleets, read their descriptions, compare how far away from you they are operating and if they meet your criteria, then simply request to join!

The new Fleet Up tool also supports filtering for fleets that are new player friendly, so as a fresh pilot, you will have an easier way to spot groups that will help you on your journey in the harsh vastness of space and connect you to the content you're after!


The added functionality in the Fleet Discovery update will also help Fleet Commanders (FCs) classify fleets more precisely, so you can recruit for Incursions, Faction Warfare, or seek out the experienced hot-droppers to help you achieve your grand plans much faster!

You can head over to the Singularity Test Server now to discover and try out all the functionalities of this new upcoming feature. If you do, please share your thoughts by joining the player discussion on the EVE Online forums, Twitter, or the EVE Online subreddit.

Fly safe, and fly together!

Cosmopolitan Capsuleers,

At the end of last year, we welcomed back the dedicated players from Japan by releasing a fully supported Japanese localized version of the game. With the influx of new pilots and the return of battle-hardened veterans, we must not forget that we are all pilots in the EVE Online universe united by a shared passion.

To revere this milestone for our ever-growing community, we will have a week-long United Eden celebration filled with daily rewards and challenges for both the Alpha and Omega pilots, that will run from 19 to 26 January!

Please be sure to log in daily during the event to claim exclusive items at both the Alpha and Omega clone levels. To claim the full series, you will need to log in 4 of 7 days during the event. These rewards include:

• Slasher, Tormentor, Kestrel, Tristan, and Capsule Zakura Hansei SKINs
  
• Skill Points
  
• Zakura Bazei Firework
  
• Men’s and Women’s ‘Saikadori’ Facial Augmentation

Please watch for daily challenges posted on your overhead display. These challenges reward skill points. You can use Skill Points to help you boost your skill training towards piloting better crafts, wielding better weapons more effectively and more.

Happy celebrations, pilots!

On Saturday 2 January, both sides of the months-long nullsec war in New Eden gathered for another showdown in the system of M2-XFE. The fight was supposed to be a follow up to the biggest Titan clash in EVE’s history, which occurred just two days prior. This battle did not unfold the way anyone expected it to. A large proportion of the attacking side experienced in-game issues, which resulted in devastating losses for them.


The ongoing war in New Eden has seen some of the largest and bloodiest battles in EVE’s history. The war has already claimed two official Guinness World Records, whilst also breaking many other EVE records, including a record number of battleships killed in one battle, and a record number of Titans destroyed in another.

The second fight in M2-XFE was a next step in the evolution of these unprecedented fights. Three systems in Delve were the focus of the fight: 1DQ1-A (defender staging), T5ZI-S (attacker staging) and M2-XFE (battlefield). 1DQ1-A’s player count topped out at 4226, T5ZI-S hit 6723 and the player count in the target system of M2-XFE went the highest with 6739 pilots, breaking the Fury of FWST record of 6557. The three systems – which were each reinforced – saw a combined peak of 13,770 players around 23:23 EVE time. To put this in perspective, approximately 35% of all online pilots in the game were situated in just these 3 systems.

These numbers are unrivaled - and unrivaled numbers in New Eden lead to uncharted territories when it comes to performance. Neither side of the war, or CCP, can, could or will be able to predict the server performance in these kinds of situations.


Of the 3 nodes; attacker staging, defender staging, and fight; 2 were under heavy load: the T5ZI-S and M2-XFE nodes (since both had about 5-6k pilots). As pilots attempted to jump from one heavily loaded to another, they experienced odd and unresponsive game behavior. This was simply a brutal symptom of what happens when there is a great deal of activity between two heavily loaded systems.

Both during and after the fight, players experienced things that don’t happen under normal circumstances. Things like ships disappearing, ships reappearing, ships not appearing in the right systems – even after going through the jump tunnel, ghost killmails, duplicated ships/mods where a wreck with loot was in M2-XFE but the fitted ship was in T5ZI-S, bridging Titans getting moved to the system it was bridging people to, among others.

Many of these unusual events have not happened in recent times (although some veterans will remember that they have been seen before), and that is largely because the increasing size of large battles has been more gradual over the last 10 years. However, this fight dwarfed any previous engagement in New Eden. Had every player who was trying to get into M2-XFE successfully done so, it would have nearly doubled the current Guinness World Record for concurrent players in a single fight with approximately 12,000 players.


There has been an ongoing discussion regarding a “population cap in M2-XFE.” The only system in the game that has a population cap is Jita - to avoid the system going into Time dilation. There was no population cap set for M2-XFE.


The table of systems which have population caps set, of which there is only one.

What players were seeing in their client call log was a standard call that is an everyday occurrence. The client will call every jump – and when logging in - to check if there is a population cap on the destination system – in this case it was not receiving a reply from the heavily loaded system (the population cap being one of the different calls it was not receiving back).

While there was no population cap, players did have trouble entering the system – which was an unfortunate symptom of the sheer scale of this fight. This caused a great deal of unexpected outcomes, and has, understandably, been the cause of great frustration for many players.

Another discussion has revolved around whether all players could have loaded given enough time. Due to the unprecedented circumstances, any discussion on that is theoretical – what can however be said is that we’ve received reports of players that waited for their jump tunnels ended up traveling, but to the same system as they originally were in.


As per our usual policy Customer Support won't be reimbursing any losses or moving players between systems. It is our policy to not get involved with fleet fights, and that policy has been upheld during this war – for both sides.

We will be intervening as little as possible in the repercussions of this battle. We will not be taking away any insurance payouts for ships that are still alive, removing looted duplicated modules, or going into hangars to destroy ghost titans that survived. We will only consider moving players who are completely unable to log into the game, if there are any such cases. Players that can log into the game will have to move themselves.


CCP and the pilots of New Eden have long been engaged in a perpetual arms race. Players push the envelope of what is possible, and we continue to improve performance with improved hardware, software, and changes to the mechanics of the game. As EVE players continue to create larger and larger wars, with bigger and more epic battles every week, these battles continue to bring the game into unknown territory. We salute all the players for their efforts and their ambitions – this ongoing war, which at times has had unfortunate moments for both sides, is continually reshaping the landscape of New Eden and adding new and exciting stories to the history of EVE Online.

A new Abyssal Proving Grounds event is now live in EVE Online, so make sure you have your Proving Filaments handy either from Abyssal Deadspace loot drops, or from the in-game market!

Until 11:00 UTC on January 19, you can engage in 4-player Tech 1 Cruiser free-for-all combat, meaning that the permitted hulls for this event include the Arbitrator, Bellicose, Blackbird, Caracal, Celestis, Maller, Moa, Omen, Rupture, Stabber, Thorax, Vexor - limited to meta 5 modules (no Faction/Deadspace/Officer/Abyssal modules). Pirate implants are also restricted.

Don't forget, you can keep track of Capsuleer performance and prowess in this event using the leaderboards!

Highly active Capsuleers,

You still have time to celebrate all of your achievements and activities in EVE throughout 2020 and create your own, unique, "My Year in EVE" video! In a year of broken records, landmark achievements, great changes, and vast amounts of activity in New Eden, you can choose elements of your exploits in space to feature in the video alongside the core information and statistics.

Whether you've spent your time basking in combat glory, exploring the mysterious depths of wormhole space, making a killing in industry, or all of the above, active Omega pilots are eligible for a "My Year in EVE" video. You will be able to choose which character to feature on your account, but keep in mind that only one character per account will get a video.

Get started and create your video today, share it with your friends and on social media using #MyEVE2020, then revel in their adoration! Or just do it purely for bragging rights. Whatever you do, don't miss this opportunity to immortalize your victories and milestones from a great year in EVE!

The year in review video for EVE in 2020 has now been sent out to all eligible EVE Online players, allowing them to immortalize their achievements, activities, and victories in New Eden in 2020! For the first time, this video allowed players to select five categories in order to personalize their video to better reflect their chosen activities throughout the year.

The criteria for receiving a video involved all non-deleted player characters needing to have been active between 1 December 2019 and 1 December 2020. They also needed to have an active Omega subscription to create the video. All data points were collected for these characters.

Most data points have a percentile rank value attached to them which indicates a value‘s relative rank within a list of values. So, a “Top 10%” indicator means that the character in question has a value ranked in the top 10% of all character values for that data point.

Here is a summary of what each statistic displayed in the videos represents, with all of them calculated for the period between 1 December 2019 and 1 December 2020:


- Skill Points Gained - the total sum of all Skill Points added or removed on a character.



- Stargate Jumps - The total sum of all stargate jumps for a character.
- Warp Drive Activations - The total sum of all warps for a character.
- Systems Visited - The number of distinct systems visited by a character. A forced minimum is 1, so if no travel between systems has been recorded, 1 is shown.


- Hours Spent Sitting in Stations - The total number of hours a character spent in stations.
- Hours Spent Soaring Through Space - The total number of hours a character spent in space.
- Most Frequented Security Area - The security level of the space where a character spent most of their time, in recorded session seconds.
- Favorite Ship - The ship most flown by a character, in recorded session seconds.


- Ships Destroyed - The sum of all PvP ship kills, both final blows and kill assists (where a character has a recorded involvement in terms of damage applied on the killmail attached to the kill) for a character. Note that this is only for ships, capsules were excluded as well as all ships with an ISK destruction value of 0.
- Structures Obliterated - The sum of all PvP kills of orbitals, structures, deployables, and starbases. Both PvP final blows and kill assists (where a character has a recorded involvement in terms of damage applied on the killmail attached to the kill) for a character. Note that for this value all structures with an ISK destruction value of 0 were excluded.
- Pod Kills - The sum of all PvP capsule kills, both final blows and kill assists (where a character has a recorded involvement on the killmail attached to the kill) for a character.
- Value of ISK Destroyed - The sum of all ISK lost to the victim of PvP kills where the character in question was involved, both as final blows and kill assists in terms of damage applied, including the ship hull, modules, and cargo. Note that all types of destroyed objects were included here.


- The biggest kill a character was involved in as the final blow or damage applied in terms of ISK lost for the victim. Note that this is only for ships, since capsules were excluded, as were all ships with an ISK destruction value of 0.


- Adventures Into the Abyss - The total sum of all Abyssal Deadspace sites visited for a character.
- Caches Looted - The total sum of all Bioadaptive and Biocombinative Caches looted by a character.
- Preferred Abyssal Environment - The abyssal difficulty/environment combination most visited by a character.


- Competitive Matches - The total sum of Proving Grounds entered for a character.
- Glorious Victories Scored - The total sum of all Proving Grounds wins for a character.
- Top Leaderboard Rank Achieved - The best recorded rank in the Proving Grounds for a character.


- Missions Successfully Run - The total sum of all successfully-run PvE missions for a character.
- ISK Rewards Claimed for Missions - The total sum of all Agent Mission rewards and Agent Mission time bonus rewards for a character.
- Storyline Missions Completed - The total sum of all storyline missions successfully completed by a character.


- Pirate Ships Downed - The total sum of all PvE NPC kills for a character.
- ISK Claimed From Bounties - The total sum of all NPC bounties claimed by a character.
- Escalations Triggered - The total sum of all PvE dungeon Escalations triggered for a character.


- Volume of Ore Mined - The total volume of ore mined by a character, expressed in m3.
- Gas Volume Harvested - The total volume of gas mined by a character, expressed in m3.
- Volume of Ice Mined - The total volume of ice mined by a character, expressed in m3.


- Manufacturing Jobs Started - The total number of industry jobs started by a character.
- Manufacturing Jobs Completed - The total number of industry jobs completed by a character.
- ISK Value of Output - The total sum of successful industry jobs, each multiplied by the average market price for the produced item type.


- Volume of Resources Extracted (m3) - The total volume of Planetary Production material extracted by a character.
- Most Extracted Resource Volume (m3) - The most extracted Planetary Production mineral type by volume for a character.


- Wormhole Systems Entered - The total number of wormhole visits made by a character between. Note that this is total wormhole visits, not distinct wormhole systems visited.
- Hours Spent in Wormhole Space - The total number of hours spent in wormhole systems by a character.
- Visits to Thera - The total number of visits to the Thera system in wormhole space.


- Data Sites Hacked - The total number of Data Sites completed by a character.
- Relic Sites Plundered - The total number of Relic Sites completed by a character.
- Total ISK Made From Hacking - The total sum of all ISK captured as gained through looting of exploration sites, combat exploration and Ghost Sites for a character.


- Market Transactions Made - The total number of completed transactions made by a character.
- ISK Value of Sales - The sum of ISK made through market sales by a character.
- ISK Value of Purchases - The sum of ISK spent through market purchases by a character.


- Most Valuable Acquisition - The most valuable item acquired by a character on the HyperNet Relay, calculates as the number of tickets created for an item multiplied by each ticket price.
- HyperNodes Purchased - The total number of HyperNodes purchased by a character.
- Best HyperNet Offer Return - The most valuable item placed by a character on the HyperNet Relay, calculates as the number of tickets created for an item multiplied by each ticket price.


- Total ISK Into Wallet - The total sum of positive ISK entries into a character’s wallet.
- Total ISK Out of Wallet - The total sum of negative ISK entries into a character’s wallet.
- Net ISK End of Year - The net of all ISK entries into a character’s wallet.

There have been some reports that some data has been inaccurately calculated. This is being looked into and will be resolved for future reference.

Happy New Year, and fly safe!