There are few games with a relationship between players and devs quite likeEVE Online.EVE’s playerbase is known to be cut-throat and competitive, while also being devoted to the title, and its developer is known to foster the unique community ofEVE Onlineas best it can. The result is a game that mixes the civilized with the wild west, where players will start an enormous inter-player war, butput it on hold for the holidays.
Players have a much greater impact on the game than in many other titles, MMORPG or otherwise. Many of the most important events inEVE Onlineare player-driven, as is essentially the game’s whole economy. That doesn’t mean the developer, CCP Games, is completely hands off though, and it just released an update to help players create Fleets easier.
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The new Reign update dropped asEVE Online’s first Quadrant of 2021. For those unfamiliar,EVE Onlinegoes through updates grouped into a series of four Quadrants over the course of a year, with all updates in a Quadrant relating to each other before the next Quadrant shifts the game’s landscape. Last year, thefinal Quadrant’s Phoenix updatereshaped theEVE Onlinegalaxy. The Reign update opens 2021 with the Fleet Up tool, which lets players put out the call for a specific kind of Fleet, or specify which kind of Fleet they want to join. The tool then matches what players are looking for to what’s out there, almost like a job finding site.
The Fleet Up tool is designed to give players more control over how they put together Fleets, something invaluable inEVE Online. Like many things inEVE Online, this kind of organization has been handled solely by players up until now, and they’ve done a good job. CCP Games makes a habit of working with players, not against them, so it’s likely this tool will prove beneficial, even if it turns out to be redundant for systems that players have in place already. Just like the recentEVE OnlinePartnership Program, it’s designed to help players do what they love, and they will surely take advantage.
When properly coordinated, fleets inEVE Onlineare capable of impressive feats. The recentNew Year’s Battle proved to be the most expensive inEVE Online’s history, breaking two world records. A good part of this was because of the coordination made possible by Fleets.
Before that, the currentconflict inEVE Onlineresulted in two other, completely different world records being brokenduring the same war. It’s definitely a great time to be anEVE Onlineplayer, and odds are that wars will not cool down for some time, and the Fleet Up tool will see some good use.
