EVE Online Legion Expansion Launches May 27th, Brings Freelance Jobs, New Ships To New Eden

During EVE Online’s Fanfest today, CCP Games unveiled the future of EVE Online with its latest expansion, Legion, coming on May 27th. Ths expansion brings two new ships, new features for corporations, and crucially an expansion of the corporation jobs system which brings Freelance Jobs to the MMO.

Freelance Jobs are a key part of the expansion, with CCP Games effectively creating the first real gig economy system in a major MMO. Freelance Jobs allow corporations to effectively create quests for players to undertake, regardless of whether they are in the corporation or not. 

These jobs can be used as a way for corporations to effectively trial prospective recruits as well, and could be an easy way for new players to get their bearings working for the large corporations in New Eden without having to decide to join right away. 

It also opens the door for future types of content players can create, including their own epic arcs. EVE Online is a game where much of the drama in the space opera is driven by the forces and wills of its players, and this is just another tool to allow for that creativity to flourish. 

These tools are also in the back end according to Bergur “CCP Burger” Finnbogason, creative director of EVE Online, which will empower devs to create new NPC projects, jobs, story arcs and much more. To help facilitate this even more with players, the ESI (EVE’s API) is getting updates and will have a dedicated team set up to keep it updated and relevant into the future. This will allow players to create new content in EVE Online from their own applications. 

Brand Identity

Corporations have been at the center of every major expansion since the last Fanfest, and Legion looks to be no different. Outside of Freelance Jobs, players will be able to come a bit closer to matching their in-game branding with their out of game counterparts thanks to a new color picker with full RGB and Hex Code support.

Thanks to this color palette, we’re getting a Corp Palette that will effectively incorporate your corps color identity into your ship SKINs, allowing in-game brand managers to effectively create an official in-game colorway for their members.

New Ships To Explode

It wouldn’t be an EVE expansion without some new ships to explode. EVE Online: Legion introduces two new ships into the fray for Capsuleers to explode: the Triglavian Tech II Maurader the Barbaroga is built on the Triglavian Leshak, bringing its entropic disintegrators to the fray. The Barbaroga will also be equipped with Bastion mode, unlocking a metric ton of DPS for players to unleash. 

The Sarathiel is a new Angel Cartel Dreadnought, bringing capital-class firepower to the battlefield alongside the Angel Cartel’s penchant for being incredibly mobile on the battlefield. The Sarathiel is unique in this case as it is able to use its Capital Micro Jump Drive while in siege mode, giving it unparalleled mobility on the battlefield. 

I cannot wait to see how these are incorporated into large fleets once Sarathiels start rolling off the corporation production lines. 

Legion also expands on Equinox Sov, giving alliances new ways to expand their influence, fortify systems and much more. Legion also brings balance changes to cruisers and capital ships, and even brings a visual overhaul of five of the MMOs ships to continue CCP’s process of beautifying New Eden.

Tracing The Rays

Speaking of beautifying New Eden, EVE Online is continuing its effort of ensuring that EVE remains one of the most visually arresting games on the market. These new initiatives include improved volumetric fog, and incorporating a new lighting model into the MMO, namely bringing ray traced shadows to EVE Online.

This is the first step to more fully bring ray tracing into the MMO. EVE Online is also seeing DLSS come to the MMO to make it even more performant, especially with lower-end hardware. This will be coming after the expansion.

We’re also seeing EVE Online integrate HDR support into the MMO later this year, bringing higher dynamic range cube maps to the universe of New Eden with richer colors, more detail, and more - which will pop when combined with the updated lighting model coming with the future ray tracing updates.

EVE Online: Legion is coming later this month, dropping on May 27th.