EVE Online's latest update brings much-needed changes to the Factional Warfare system, continuing the work CCP Games has been devoting to the feature since the launch of its Uprising expansion last fall. Now players can join an empire's militia without needing to leave their player corporation, a much-welcome addition that will surely continue to douse the embers of its player war with even more gasoline.
Corporation members can now join the ranks of Factional Warfare without leaving their player corporation via the Direct Enlistment feature. This will allow non-aligned corporation members to participate without leaving their player group - a huge concern for many players with established corporation ties but still wanted to participate in the PvP warfare.
Corporations can, however, restrict which Empire their members are able to join, giving a way to avoid diplomatic incidents should players of the same corporation going to war against each other. It could also be a way to stop certain power blocks from accidentally firing the first shot into something that could spill into all-out Nullsec war.
Then again, maybe that's something that a player corporation out there will want - the tools are in the hands of the players here.
Also coming with the update is a new event, the Shadow War Event. This event is a race for new technology, this time interstellar shipcasters, as a way to jump ships from one system to a Factional Warfare hotspot should the tech fall into the Empire's hands.
"Following the event last year, the big 4 of New Eden find themselves at different stages of advancement in the race to take advantage of Triglavian technology, and that race continues now with your support! Stellar transmuter and transport relay technology can now be used to create interstellar shipcasters, with success in this endeavor granting an empire the ability to project ships from their HQ system directly into Factional Warfare conflict hotspots!"
The event will see players jump to different event sites to hack, salvage, or just plain fight over the data and fragments there that can be used to create the new technology. However, by doing so, players will be marked as a suspect, meaning that even in Highsec there won't be a penalty if a player shoots you out of the sky to collect the bounty.
Path to War also brings corporation and alliance emblems to every ship, giving another touch of personalization to EVE Online. These were available on some ships prior to the update, but this new patch brings them to every ship.
You can check out the full details on the EVE Online website. It's been a busy weekend for EVE Online, as players clashed in a battle with over six thousand pilots in a single system, resulting in some good fighting, and expected server trouble to boot.
