CCP Taking a Hard Look at Clone States for Future Improvement

The EVE Online blog has been updated with a forward look at Clone States, a recently introduced feature that allows players to try out the game at their own pace for free. Since launch during Ascension, Clone States have been popular and have helped increase day-to-day activity in the game. However, there are some significant ways that the team hopes to improve them even more.

One of the major sticking points is that this type of activity is too restrictive and that players make a decision to subscribe or not very quickly. To help players stay invested in the Clone State, one of the things that will be done in the future is to expand the Alpha Set to make more skills available to players. Players will gain access to Tech II small and medium weapons, battlecruisers and battleships as well as four factions to train with.

Yes, Battleships! Battleships are some of EVE’s most iconic ships and the most common aspiration for new players. We see them as an essential part of a deep EVE experience and so we want everyone to be train to fly them. We’ve also heard loud and clear from the CSM and from the discussions surrounding the announcement at EVE Vegas that Battleships are widely considered powerful and this might be scary territory for existing players. That’s why we’re holding back on Tech II Large weapons for now, and it’s also why we will watch behavior post release very carefully. If we see negative effects, we will make changes. We hope that isn’t necessary though and we believe that granting access to Battleships for Alphas will be exciting for everyone in New Eden.

You can check out all the details on the EVE Online site.