EVE Frontier (official site), the in-development space survival MMO from Fenris Creations, receives its next major update, Cycle 7: Vestiges, on September 29. At the center of the update is a reworked core flight system that gives players far more control over how they pilot their ships. Vestiges also brings character progression, physical docking, deeper exploration and Feral Drones that now run on the same systems as players. Cycle 7 changes how the universe is generated, so it opens with a complete universe reset.
No more fixed flight plane
Ships are no longer tied to a fixed flight plane. Pilots can now strafe, roll and perform more complex maneuvers, as the game moves toward manual flight with full freedom of movement. Aim Flight, the new default control scheme, has players steer their ship with the mouse. Gamepads are supported too. With steering on the mouse, the keyboard is free for accelerating, braking and other actions.
An orientation horizon remains on screen so players can keep their bearings, and a ship left alone will drift back toward it. Players can swap between Aim Flight and the existing WASD controls whenever they like. They can also split movement from targeting, flying in one direction while using the mouse to aim weapons in another.
Your ship’s build shapes how it flies
A ship’s handling now depends on its modular components. Thrusters decide how much push it has. Engines govern how efficiently fuel becomes thrust and how the ship handles. Each fitting brings its own flight characteristics, so the way a ship is built and configured now defines how it feels in space.
- Skills: a new skill system lets players grow their Character and Shell through experience earned in the Frontier. Skills make their actions more effective.
- Physical docking: ships can latch directly onto ports on objects and infrastructure in space to use their services. While docked, they stay present and visible in the world.
Feral Drones now follow player rules
Feral Drones are now fully dynamic. They operate under the same knowledge, rules and abilities as players, and they can scan, travel, mine, salvage and scavenge. As a result, they compete with players for many of the same resources. Where players travel and what they do will shape the Feral activity around them.
A galaxy that has to be discovered
Exploration now relies on discovery. As they travel, players pick up in-system and inter-system signatures and build up their knowledge of the surrounding space. The galaxy now holds new points of interest, ancient constructs and stellar environments, among them multi-star systems whose environmental effects combine in challenging ways.
Because several of these changes affect how the universe is generated and discovered, Cycle 7 kicks off with a universe reset when Vestiges goes live on September 29.
Wider context
In EVE Frontier, players are the last relic of humanity, waking from stasis in a decayed civilization. Swarms of feral drones roam its wastes, and survivors fight over its resources. Fenris Creations launched EVE Online in May 2003. The studio is headquartered in Reykjavík and has additional studios in London and Shanghai. It announced Vestiges together with the Sui Foundation, the organization behind the Sui Layer 1 blockchain.