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Capsuleers!
EVE Online: Havoc is the upcoming second major expansion for EVE in 2023, and this second installment of the Havoc in Focus series will give you early insight into more specific elements of the expansion due 14 November.
Havoc will allow you to align with the Angel Cartel or Guristas pirate factions and spread corruption in empire warzones, introduce brand new Angel and Guristas ships – including the long-awaited Angel Cartel titan – as well as building on the strong foundations for player corporations that debuted in Viridian with enhancements to Corporation Projects, AIR Opportunities, and more.
During EVE Fanfest 2023, information on capsuleer alignment with the Angel Cartel and Guristas pirate factions, as well as the new Pirate Insurgencies feature was introduced. Get the lowdown on these pirate-based developments as they are discussed throughout this article, in the video below, as well as on stream via CCP TV at 16:00 UTC on 19 October!
BREAKING THE LAW – ALIGN WITH ANGELS & GURISTAS
Living out the space pirate fantasy in New Eden has always been a big part of EVE Online’s varied universe of capsuleers. While some align with empire militia in Factional Warfare, nullsec-based player alliances, or choose to fly solo, others have been drawn to lawless activities in lowsec and beyond, identifying more with the raiding and chaos caused by New Eden’s many pirate factions. EVE Online: Havoc will offer capsuleers with the necessary standings the opportunity to pledge their allegiance to the notorious Angel Cartel and Guristas pirate factions.
Alignment with the Angels or Guristas will come with benefits such as Pirate Insurgent Loyalty Points which unlock rewards in Pirate Insurgent Loyalty Point Stores, including access to the upcoming Angel Cartel Khizriel-class battlecruiser and Azariel-class titan, plus the Guristas Alligator-class battlecruiser, in addition to the recently released Angel and Guristas destroyers. Pirate-aligned capsuleers will also have free access to the Zarzakh system and will be able to dock at the Jovian megastructure “The Fulcrum”, gaining certain market and industry benefits. At the same time, those choosing to align with empire militia opposing the pirates can play as the heroes that enforce the law, stamp out the pirate threat, and gain Loyalty Points for the militia they have enlisted with.
Should a capsuleer have -2 standings or higher with either the Angel Cartel or Guristas, they can enlist with those pirate groups much the same way as how enlistment works with empire militia in Factional Warfare: Direct Enlistment, Player Corporation Enlistment, and NPC Corporation Enlistment. Once enlisted with Pirate Insurgents, a capsuleer can then participate in Pirate Insurgencies.
Speaking of standings, capsuleers who take aggressive action against others enlisted in their faction, or certain NPCs belonging to that same pirate faction which are associated with the Pirate Insurgency activities, will see their standings with that faction reduced. Capsuleers will remain enlisted with the Pirate Insurgents and continue to be in their respective faction provided they keep their standings at -2 or above, be it Angels or Guristas.
In order to aid capsuleers who need to improve their Angel Cartel and Guristas standings ahead of Havoc’s release, the Angel and Guristas epic arcs have been tweaked to provide a bigger standings boost (up from 30% to 45%) and a shorter cool down period (14 days instead of 90). This tweak to standings and cool down will revert before the end of the year, so be sure to use this opportunity and be prepared for Havoc and Pirate Insurgencies!
Capsuleers who align with the Angel Cartel will then end up in a mutual war with other Factional Warfare militia-aligned capsuleers who represent the Minmatar Republic and Amarr Empire. Those who choose to align with the Guristas will be in a mutual war with capsuleers enlisted with either the Caldari or Gallente FW militia. Consequently, capsuleers aligned with these pirate factions will find themselves being intercepted and attacked by empire navy NPCs of the two empires they are at war with when they enter highsec, so it will pay to stay vigilant at all times!
HEART OF CORRUPTION - PIRATE INSURGENCIES
Spurred on by The Deathless in Zarzakh, the Angel Cartel and Guristas will be raiding space that has been destabilized in the Amarr-Minmatar and Caldari-Gallente warzones respectively. Come November, the Havoc expansion will allow capsuleers to take part in these Pirate Insurgencies when they align with the Angels or Guristas.
Pirate Insurgencies are a discrete warfare system where there is a winner and a loser, a beginning and an end. The Insurgency conflict between pirates and empire militia can be seen as a race, compared to Factional Warfare which more closely resembles an ongoing tug of war.
When a Pirate Insurgency begins, a pirate forward operating base (FOB) – be it Angel or Guristas – will be deployed into that destabilized space, and the pirates will begin to raid the space and systems around them. During these raids, corporate outposts, mining fleets and more will be targeted and attacked. At the start of a Pirate Insurgency, taking the star system where the FOB is deployed as the center, the Insurgency will spread into other surrounding systems from that central point, depending on local geography and borders. When those initial systems containing the Insurgency content are chosen, raids won’t have started and security forces will not have come knocking yet, so capsuleers have an opportunity to get their ships in position, or out of harm’s way. Pirate-aligned capsuleer activity can then help the Insurgency continue to spread across more systems.
Systems within a Pirate Insurgency can be affected by capsuleer activity to convey a level of corruption and/or suppression. The more criminal activity the pirates engage in, the more the crime level increases, and that will determine the corruption level of any given system within an Insurgency. Conversely, those aligned with empire militia can partake in law enforcement activities which, if successful, can increase the level of suppression within a system. The overall progress of an Insurgency, including the stage of corruption and/or suppression of the individual solar systems within, will be made visible in the Insurgencies UI in-game.
As the corruption level increases in a system, various bonuses will be granted in that space that alter the nature of it, and the effects will become cumulative. The intention is to convey a feeling of law and order breaking down, and the pirates reveling in that lawlessness. These effects can range from simple changes like greater loot drops from PvP kills to more complicated effects that will give the feeling of a reduction in security status of the system itself.
When corruption is pushed to its maximum level, an affected lowsec system will start to feel like nullsec. This will be achieved by way of effects such as allowing the use of interdiction bubble launchers, heavy interdictor bubbles, and bomb launchers. Similarly, at maximum corruption, a highsec system will start to feel like a lowsec system, and this will be accomplished by making aggression against another capsuleer result in a suspect timer and not a criminal timer. This means that CONCORD will not respond to that aggression in the affected highsec system. However, aggression against a capsule will still result in a criminal timer, and under those circumstances, CONCORD will respond. This will make corrupted space feel unique compared to other regions of New Eden.
In a situation where suppression increases within an Insurgency system, that too will feel uniquely impactful, but more secure since suppression is effectively law enforcement. As capsuleers aligned with empire militia complete activities in a Pirate Insurgency system and increase the level of suppression, a different set of effects can apply – and this can be in addition to corruption effects that have already been applied due to the simultaneous nature of the corruption-suppression race. Suppression effects can include CONCORD paying more for pirate bounties, bonuses for militias – including the potential for changes that affect the nature of PvP in those systems – and at level 5 suppression, gates and stations in that system will become even more secure with upgraded sentry guns.
When a system does become fully corrupted, the pirates will score a point towards their overall Insurgency progress. If a system becomes fully suppressed, the militia factions will score a point towards their Insurgency progress. If those fighting for suppression reach their target point value, then the pirate FOB will become vulnerable. Similar to Upwell structures, the pirate FOB has a single reinforcement timer, so the shields must first be downed, then capsuleers must return to destroy the structure. When the pirates reach their target point value, they will bag a substantial amount of LP and leave, ready to wreak havoc in another Insurgency! Furthermore, after seizing ownership of the solar system where the FOB was placed during the Insurgency, when the pirates win an Insurgency and leave, the system they occupied is returned in a weakened state with a vulnerable iHub, so it can be stolen by the opposing empire militia.
As systems become corrupted, that corruption will spread geographically. Systems that the pirates are attacking and the systems that are under an Insurgency will grow naturally, and it will be partly directed by capsuleer action as activities within Insurgency systems are completed. This spread can be adjacent to the system in which activities are completed, but if that’s not possible, the spread will occur adjacent to another system in the Insurgency zone. Compared to FW warzones which remain relatively static, the Insurgency warzone is a bit more dynamic, flexible, and will be a bit different every time it spawns, making use of local stellar geography to create a particularly unique and interesting set of circumstances every time.
Pirate Insurgencies and the opportunity to align with the Angels and Guristas in Havoc will allow capsuleers to fulfill their pirate destiny and really cement the fracture in the destabilized empire warzones. Simultaneously, it will also offer those aligned with the empires the chance to defend those regions and stamp out the waves of criminal activity heading for the frontlines. Both sides will have to fight for their cause and will be rewarded handsomely if victorious. Be sure to join the mass test happening on the Singularity test server on 19 October to try out the Pirate Insurgency features for yourself and get an idea of what a corrupted New Eden will look and feel like come Havoc’s release on 14 November!