EVE Online Gets New Ships and COVID-19 Research with the June Update

CCP continued on with the Quadrant 2 of 2020 plan with a content filled patch today.

That somehow translates to June 2020

The big items from this update are three new ships being introduced to the game.  These are three EDENCOM ships.  EDENCOM is a military command setup by CONCORD and the four empires to combat the Triglavian invasion. (See the video from The Scope for the tale.)

Sourced from Upwell, the new ships also feature a new weapon system, the Vorton Projector, similar to the Arcing Vorton Projector that Keepstars can mount, which reaches out to hit multiple targets.

A Keepstar reaching out with its lightning

The first ship is the Skybreaker Frigate.

EDENCOM Skybreaker

Its stats are:

EDENCOM Frigate bonuses (per skill level):

• 6% bonus to all shield resistances
• 5% bonus to Small Vorton Projector damage

Slot layout:

• 1 High Slot
• 4 Mid Slots
• 3 Low Slots
• 1 Turret Hardpoint
• 0 Launcher Hardpoints
• 3 Rig Slots
• 400 Calibration

Fittings:

• 44 PWG, 235 CPU
• Defense (Shield / Armor / Structure) : 800 / 210 / 320
• Base shield resistances (EM/Thermal/Kinetic/Explosive): 20% / 20% / 50% / 50%
• Base armor resistances (EM/Thermal/Kinetic/Explosive): 50% / 45% / 25% / 10%
• Base structure resistances (EM/Thermal/Kinetic/Explosive): 33% / 33% / 33% / 33%
• Capacitor (amount / recharge rate) : 425/ 157.50s
• Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass): 330 / 3.6 / 967,090
• Warp Speed: 5 AU/s
• Drones (bandwidth / bay): 0 / 0
• Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 55km / 609 / 5
• Sensor strength: 12 Gravimetric
• Signature radius: 37m
• Cargo capacity: 158m3

The second is the Stormbringer Cruiser.

EDENCOM Stormbringer

Its stats are:

EDENCOM Cruiser bonuses (per skill level):

• 6% bonus to all shield resistances
• 5% bonus to Medium Vorton Projector optimal range

Slot layout:

• 1 High Slot
• 6 Mid Slots
• 3 Low Slots
• 1 Turret Hardpoint
• 0 Launcher Hardpoints
• 3 Rig Slots
• 400 Calibration

Fittings:

• 970 PWG, 390 CPU
• Defense (Shield / Armor / Structure) : 4,000 / 600 / 1,200
• Base shield resistances (EM/Thermal/Kinetic/Explosive): 20% / 20% / 50% / 50%
• Base armor resistances (EM/Thermal/Kinetic/Explosive): 50% / 45% / 25% / 10%
• Base structure resistances (EM/Thermal/Kinetic/Explosive): 33% / 33% / 33% / 33%
• Capacitor (amount / recharge rate) : 1,860 / 441s
• Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass): 200 / 0.52 / 11,640,000
• Warp Speed: 4 AU/s
• Drones (bandwidth / bay): 0 / 0
• Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 75km / 273 / 7
• Sensor strength: 19 Gravimetric
• Signature radius: 130m
• Cargo capacity: 473m3

And, finally, there is the Thunderchild Battleship.

EDENCOM Thunderchild

Its stats are:

EDENCOM Battleship bonuses (per skill level):

• 5% bonus to Large Vorton Projector damage
• 5% bonus to Large Vorton Projector rate of fire

Slot layout:

• 2 High Slots
• 7 Mid Slots
• 5 Low Slots
• 1 Turret Hardpoint
• 0 Launcher Hardpoints
• 3 Rig Slots
• 400 Calibration

Fittings:

• 16,500 PWG, 880 CPU
• Defense (Shield / Armor / Structure) : 13,500 / 4,620 / 6,600
• Base shield resistances (EM/Thermal/Kinetic/Explosive): 20% / 20% / 50% / 50%
• Base armor resistances (EM/Thermal/Kinetic/Explosive): 50% / 45% / 25% / 10%
• Base structure resistances (EM/Thermal/Kinetic/Explosive): 33% / 33% / 33% / 33%
• Capacitor (amount / recharge rate) : 7200 / 1125s
• Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass): 95 / 0.136 / 102,141,000
• Warp Speed: 3 AU/s
• Drones (bandwidth / bay): 25 / 25
• Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 118km / 103 / 7
• Sensor strength: 26 Gravimetric
• Signature radius: 485m
• Cargo capacity: 861m3
• Frigate Escape Bay: 1 Unit

As with all battleships now, the Thunderchild has a frigate escape bay, so you can put a Skybreaker frigate in there if you want to keep to the theme.

There are fifteen variations of the Vorton projector weapons being introduced for these ships, five for each of the hull sizes.  So there will be small, medium, and large versions in Tech I, Compact, Scoped, Tech II, and Faction flavors.  The ammunition varies in range and emphasis on kinetic or electromagnetic damage, with tech II versions available as well.

There are also modules to improve rate of fire and damage for the new weapon systems.  They are:

• Vorton Tuning System I
• Compact Vorton Tuning System I
• Vorton Tuning System II

And there are, naturally enough, skills to go with all of this.  The new skill list is:

• EDENCOM Frigate
• EDENCOM Cruiser
• EDENCOM Battleship
• Vorton Projector Operation
• Small Vorton Projector
• Medium Vorton Projector
• Large Vorton Projector
• Small Vorton Specialization
• Medium Vorton Specialization
• Large Vorton Specialization
• Vorton Power Amplification
• Vorton Arc Guidance
• Upwell Encryption Methods

We got a few of those skills with last week’s Gathering Storm login campaign.  A new event, the Lighning Strikes event, has now gone live.

Lightning Strikes is live

Running from now until June 29th, it allows players to find Upwell Covert Research Facilities in the Anomaly Scanner in Low-Sec and Upwell Connected Null-Sec.  Running those sites will reward players with Skillbooks and Materials for the new EDENCOM ships.

All of which would make for a pretty big patch day, but that is not all we get.

Also coming today is Project Discover Phase 3.

More Project Discover

The new focus for Project Discovery is the coronavirus.

In collaboration with scientists from McGill University, BC Cancer and front-line COVID-19 clinicians including Dr Andrea Cossarizza, a Professor of Immunology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia School of Medicine in Italy, players will be able to contribute to the fight against COVID-19 by analyzing data produced by flow cytometers. Flow cytometry is a technique used to detect and measure physical and chemical characteristics of cells, especially those of the immune system that are important in the body’s response to infection with SARS-CoV-2, the strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19

That looks huge and there will be an intro stream on Twitch at 19:00 today to help launch the project.

And, in addition to all of that, another round of module tiericide has hit with this patch.  CCP even did a new dev blog about tiericide, just to remind us all what the intent was and how to interpret what they are doing.

This time the pass is for Shield Resistance Amplifiers, the passive shield resist modules.  The list of module changes is quite lengthy.  However, at its roots there is a normalization of names following these rules:

• EM Ward Amplifier to EM Shield Amplifier
• Explosive Deflection Amplifier to Explosive Shield Amplifier
• Kinetic Deflection Amplifier to Kinetic Shield Amplifier
• Thermal Dissipation Amplifier to Thermal Shield Amplifier

All of which appears to me to be the core of the patch.  There are still the usual fixes and updates, but the above are the big bits.

CCP has announced that the patch has gone live.  The extended downtime was barely that long at all.

For all the details CCP cared to share you can read the patch notes.  In addition there are the usual General Feeback and Known Issue threads in the forums related to the release.