New faces need new servers! Oh, and where's Red Moon Rising?

We have been working hard on testing Red Moon Rising (RMR) - which is tentatively scheduled for deployment next week. Besides all the new content in RMR, we've been working hard on optimizations too, especially since the EVE universe continues to grow at a faster rate than we have ever seen before.

Recently, we deployed server optimization hotfixes seperate from optimizations made in RMR. One of the hotfixes performed beyond our expectations. We regained 25% of our CPU usage on all Proxies resulting in a noticeable lag reduction in most systems.

In addition to these optimizations, we started testing 64-bit server hardware last week on Tranquility. This is in preparation for our upcoming server upgrades - and the results are astonishing. A Proxy server previously running at 70% CPU, which came down from 95% CPU after the aforementioned optimization hotfix, is only using 25% CPU on the new 64-bit hardware.

Please note, only one of the many Proxies is running on 64-bit hardware, the testing is to make sure the replacements we are considering investing in actually give a performance increase. We feel the results speak for themselves and are moving forward in the testing and upgrade process.

At the same time we welcome all the new pilots to the EVE universe, we want to reassure both our trusted veteran pilots and the newcomers, that measures are being taken to address server lag and playability.

As a closing note, we hope Red Moon Rising passes testing over the next days, enabling a deployment on Thursday the 15th of December. I encourage you to read the RMR Features, Patch Notes and Dev Blogs to get more insight into RMR and what's happening in EVE.