EVE Aether Wars: Phase Two – Join The Fight!
Back in March, CCP and Hadean announced a collaborative project that has shown huge promise for the future of New Eden – The EVE Aether Wars Tech Demo.
What followed was an incredible show of support from the EVE community that saw a groundbreaking test of Hadean’s Aether Engine during GDC 2019.
At 17:30 UTC on March 20th, the floodgates were opened, and thousands of EVE Online players joined pilots from across the globe to fight in a no holds barred free for all that saw the destruction of 88,988 ships.
3,852 human players joined AI pilots to deliver an engagement that saw a peak concurrent battlefield population of 10,421 pilots, and a total of 14,710,908 torpedoes fired during roughly an hour of carnage. Simply Insane. You can check out more details of the results of Phase One in this dev blog.
This, along with the amazing level of support that we saw over the course of 2019 for the testing and development of the 64bit EVE Online client are prime examples of the commitment our pilots have when it comes to future proofing and advancing the underlying technologies that power internet spaceships.
…or maybe it’s just your love for breaking stuff and blowing shit up! Either way, it’s super useful, and we want to continue to embrace it!
Phase Two:
We’re super happy to have announced Phase Two of the EVE Aether Wars Tech Demo in July and are looking forward to watching our intrepid pilots wreck everything again on August 18th.
This blog is designed to give you guys a little more of an insight into what to expect, and a bit of sneak peek too.
This time around the gameplay used for testing is going to be very different, with combat taking place in a location that might seem a bit more familiar to some of our more fearless pilots – Abyssal Deadspace.
The objective will be to gather as many resources as possible – by any means necessary.
This means that while some pilots will be looking to gather resources as quickly as they can, in true EVE style, some might also be looking to take advantage of the work of others to earn a quick space buck or two.
It’s going to be interesting to see how things play out, and it’ll be particularly curious to see if the tenacity and blood thirsty nature of our pilots will cause more carnage than the first test.
Improvements From Phase One
While we’re partnered with the awesome team at Hadean for EVE Aether Wars, we also view this project very much as a collaborative effort with the EVE community too, and the feedback you’ve all given has helped shape how we’re moving forward.
The first change we decided to make was to set the time of the Phase Two play test based on community feedback to maximize potential attendance.
On top of that, the technical team here at CCP – Team EVE Infinity – has been hard at work improving the look and feel of gameplay as well as squaring away performance improvements so that we can push Hadean’s Aether Engine harder than ever.
Now we just need you guys in the pilot seat – or rather in the pod – to do the shooting so that we can stress test like never before.
You can see from the images that are scattered through this blog that there’s been some serious progress made on the project and we can’t wait to get it in your hands again in the coming weeks.
How Can I Take Part?
The play test will take place on Sunday, August 18th at 17:00 UTC / 13:00 EDT.
We need as many pilots as possible to take part in the test, so we’ve based this time on feedback from the EVE Aether Wars survey that was hosted after the first test.
To take part, you can sign up for free on Hadean’s website here, and if you’d like to find out more about Phase Two, you can check out this video too.
Once we get closer to the test itself, you’ll receive an email with full details of how to download, install and set up the test client so that you can be part of what might end up being the largest single battle in the history of online gaming!
Let’s Do This!
The largest single battle in the history of online gaming sounds like an insane thing to be a part of, but we know that it’s already something that our players can make a reality.
Right now, the EVE community holds the Guinness World Record for the most concurrent players simultaneously involved in a single multiplayer PvP battle. This was during the battle of 9-4RP2 on January 28th, 2018 with 6,142 players on grid pounding at each other in a biblical firefight.
We’re sincerely hoping that we can smash that record as we ramp up stress testing of Hadean’s Aether Engine in order to push it harder than ever before.
Throughout this project both CCP and Hadean have been astonished by the level of support that the EVE Community have shown for testing of the Aether Engine and it’s fantastic to see so many of you passionate about a technology that could pave the way for significant improvements to the infrastructure that powers EVE Online in the future.
As part of pulling all the pieces of the puzzle together and making improvements in preparation for Phase Two, Hadean’s CTO, Rashid Mansoor has a few words of thanks an encouragement for all the capsuleers out there who’re taking part:
"We’re really, really excited for you to get stuck into Phase Two as we couldn’t do this without your help. Not only do we need an army of you to push our Aether Engine technology as far as it can go but it has been your feedback following Phase One that’s helped us craft Phase Two into an even bigger, better gameplay experience and build the most powerful MMO engine. A massive thank you to everyone who has signed up and we can’t wait to see you all on the battlefield!"
Streaming!
As part of the Phase Two playtest, we'll also be streaming on the CCP Twitch channel over the course of the events, with the EVE community's very own Raiden Harmann from Streamfleet hosting and interviewing a selection of CCPers and Hadean who've been working on the EVE Aether Wars project.
Rewards & Prizes
As a thank you from both CCP and Hadean, every pilot who takes part in EVE Aether Wars: Phase two will receive a set of souvenir Aether Wars SKINs for three Guristas hulls – the Worm, Gila and Rattlesnake.
In addition to this, each pilot who takes part in the play test will be entered into a prize draw to win a trip for two to EVE Vegas 2019, where we’ll be celebrating the US leg of the EVE Invasion World Tour.
As part of the Phase Two play test, our friends over at CORSAIR are also pitching into to reward the pilot who makes it to the top of the leaderboard with a pretty kick ass prize.
The lucky leader of the pack at the end of the play test will recieve a brand new CORSAIR ONE Gaming PC, worth around $2,800.
Check it out, shiny. You can read more about the specs here.
We’re super excited to be hosting EVE Aether Wars: Phase Two on August 18th and can’t wait to see how many pilots we have on grid for what might shape up to be the most savage fight in online gaming.
If you haven’t already signed up, you can do so here, and remember - in the coming days as we get closer to the test, we'll be sending out an email that includes full instructions on how to download, install and get involved, as well as more details about the competitions, prizes and gameplay objectives you need to hit to win them!
We’re looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible on the battlefield!
o7
