[2023] The new EVE Online launcher Beta

Greetings Capsuleers!

We are Team Stargate, the people behind the EVE Launcher.

If you haven’t had the chance, we highly recommend reading the accompanying news item for an overview of the new launcher beta.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to join us in the EVE Launcher beta. The path has been laid by the CSM delegates and ISD volunteers, as we received indispensable feedback from them early on in our closed alpha phase.

We hope you will give the new EVE Launcher a try, and we would love to hear your feedback. Should you encounter any issues, please file a bug report from within the launcher, and should there be something blocking you completely from starting the game client, you can of course switch back to the current launcher for the time being. If you do we would truly appreciate if you would let us know why either with a bug report, or a reply to this forum post.

Let us briefly go over some of the feature changes

Installer (Windows)

One of the first significant changes that you will notice is the new and revised installer for Windows. Rather than having to navigate through a step-by-step installer, a new one-click install system will get the EVE launcher installed and ready to go in similar fashion to other popular applications such as Discord and Slack. You also no longer have to have the game client located beside the launcher, as you will be prompted to choose the directory where you’d like the game files to be installed. It will automatically detect your existing EVE Online installation, so you only have to confirm this location.

Native ARM support for MacOS

The EVE Launcher can now run natively on M1 MacOS machines, eliminating the need for Rosetta 2 dependency.

Launcher updates

One of the main behind-the-scenes changes we have been working on is enabling a rapid release cycle for the launcher. This approach enables us to respond more swiftly to feedback, allowing for quicker bug resolution and more frequent updates. A significant contributor to this efficiency is the newly implemented update system for the launcher.

The launcher will automatically update itself in the background, without having to ask you to restart the launcher to finalize updates. When a new version is downloaded and installed, an icon will be visible in the title bar to signify an update is ready. Clicking this icon will force a launcher restart to activate the latest version. If you do not want to do this, this will simply happen automatically the next time the launcher is started.

Note: On MacOS the updated launcher is applied after the application has fully closed, clicking the launcher update icon will close the application, apply, and then start the new launcher version.

Character information

A long standing feature request has been to be able to see which characters reside on each account, and this has been one of the key elements in the design of the new launcher. Not all information that we would like to have visible in the launcher is ready at the time of the beta launch, so you will see a fair bit of “Coming Soon™” in this initial beta release, but this will be released gradually as the functionality for this is ready.

Launch groups 2.0

The “launch groups” feature has been overhauled and allows you to better organize your startup of the game client. Some of the key functionalities of this feature are:

• Launch groups can be created or renamed
• Adding user accounts to a group, with each account able to be assigned to one or more groups. Each user can optionally be assigned a character found on the account or a client profile. If a character has been assigned to the launch group, it will be automatically selected on the character selection screen for you, taking you directly into the game. Without one assigned, the game will wait on the character selection screen until you choose a character to play.
• Determining the startup order of user accounts within a group. Accounts will launch in the order they appear within the group, and can be reordered by dragging the reorder icon to the left of each username.

With this feature, we hope you can better manage the startup of your fleets.

Enhanced Support Features

Filing a bug report has never been easier – you can now submit one directly from the launcher, with all pertinent support information attached automatically. Keep in mind that a username is necessary, so you must be logged in before filing a bug report.
For other needs, such as requests from our Customer Support, you can generate a “Support Payload,” an archive containing relevant logs, crash dumps, and other valuable data for our investigation. These support functions can be found under Settings → Tools / Cache.

News in the launcher

The news section has been flipped on its side in this new launcher, quite literally. In the default layout the amount of news items shown has remained the same compared to the current launcher, but once resizing the launcher is enabled again it will behave better with the amount of news items shown.

The keen-eyed among you will also notice that - by popular request - the launcher will now also include the New Eden News feed.

Migration

We have included migration of your accounts from the current launcher into the beta, so once you have installed the launcher and confirmed your shared cache location, your user accounts should be loaded in and ready to use. In case your accounts have not seen use in over 30 days, they may appear grayed out with a red triangle. Clicking on the account will prompt the login form with the username pre-filled for re-authentication.

Looking to the future

Over the past few weeks, we have run a closed Alpha test, including CSM delegates and ISD volunteers. The feedback from these two groups has been amazing and we have already started working on implementing some new functionality based on that feedback. Additionally, we are still implementing some features that are in the current launcher, that are not (yet) in the new launcher.

One of the main points of feedback by the CSM and ISD testers has been about the way EVE Online is launched. Directly logging into a character is not always wanted, especially not when you’re in hostile space or planning a log-in trap, so we have already added means to disable this. We are also looking at iterating on this even further as we want to make the experience from launcher to in-game as smooth as possible.

As mentioned in the Improved New Player Experience dev-blog, new players help grow the game, strengthen the community, and keep stories in the world interesting and engaging. In that same spirit, we are looking at improving the on-boarding experience for new players, giving them information on their journey into New Eden while they wait for EVE Online to be installed.

As the song goes: the road ahead is empty. But instead of miles of the unknown, we are looking to pave it with your feedback. As mentioned in the [dev blog], we are looking for your feedback, which you can give us either in this thread or on the [EVE Online Discord] server.

Known hurdles

• I don’t want to login to my character, I just want my daily login rewards
  • You can create a launch group where you assign accounts, but leave the character deselected
  • You can enable always go to character selection screen in the launcher settings, under Game Client. Enabling this will prevent launch groups from selecting any assigned characters.
• I can’t resize the launcher
  • The window size is fixed, but we recognize the importance of being able to resize it and are working to provide a flexible and adaptive window experience in the near future.
• I created a new character / I biomassed my character, but it is not visible in the launcher yet | I changed my corporation, but launcher still says old corporation | I bought omega but it’s not showing in the launcher
  • To begin with we’ve introduced a delay between fetching, and updating, account/character information. As we progress, we aim to reduce this delay considerably.

The new launcher follows the “download everything” behavior, so it’s downloading the remaining resources that you would have to opt-in for on the current launcher.

You can already add your Steam account using the green button on the login screen. Full Steam support will be added when the launcher leaves Beta.

Thank you for your feedback, we will look into this. Could you create a bug report via the bug report system in the launcher?

There is no automatic way to sort this, but you can already re-order the accounts by dragging them into the right order. That should at least allow you to get your most frequently used accounts some better visibility.

Can you file a bug report (from within the launcher) about this?

This is something we are looking into adding, yes.

Just a reminder that you can collect daily login rewards while logged in on the bottom right of the NEOCOM bar.

If you start typing a name a create button will appear. We’ll make this a bit more clear in a future update.

CSM and others were specifically against this as it adds time for login traps and quick acess to the game - that is why there is a check box and also a groups option to get the to the character selection screen to minimize load time

You can get to character selection screen by using 2 methods

in settings - click the “Always go to character selection screen” Butan
OR
Setup a group and don’t select a pilot

@Arrendis can you file a bug report from within the new launcher? If that fails let me know so I can run you through the manual steps.

There’s a thread on the EVE discord’s #launcher-beta channel where @Katrina_Bekers has shared their progress in getting the launcher to run under Wine. There have been some issues due to wine running apps with full admin access, and the new launcher wanting to be installed as a user, but last I saw they found a workaround for that.

Changes for v0.2.3

• The launcher should now handle folder permissions better when moving the shared cache
• Cache verification has been enabled in the Tool settings menu

Bugfixes:

• Fix: Launch groups should only be visible when users have assigned one or more accounts to a group
• Fix (MacOS): Bug report form could fail in certain cases on MacOS
• Fix: Game client should now start with the correct display settings (maximized, etc.)
• Fix (Windows): The launcher update button should now correctly restart the launcher, when minimize to tray is enabled

1. Missing the ability to start the client without logging in.
You want the ability to come to the login screen without actually login in on a given character.
There are situations where you want to be able to be ready to login quickly on several accounts, ,so be
on login screen without actually logging in yet (eg. waiting for some ingame intel …)
This is really important, and also in the current form it is quite dangerous: you click and think you come to login screen but in fact you are coming into the game perhaps in a dangerous situation (eg. safe log in enemy system) and that gets you killed.

At least this Function is allready there:

Well, that’s exactly what this article is for. Give the developers feedback so that they can also respond to errors and wishes
Thanks for your mostly constructive feedback friends - keep on going!

The latest builds:

• Windows
• Mac

Once installed the launcher will automatically update itself once a new version is released.

We have included measures to fix this issue in the new launcher.

The links are visible in the news post, but to make it easier:

• Windows
• Mac

This would be a limitation of the game client, rather than the launcher, as starting the same user account multiple times would cause the previous instances to get disconnected.

Intrepid capsuleers,

Earlier today we have released a new version (v0.4.0) of the new Beta launcher. It’s been a while since the last release, but as you can see, we packed quite a bunch of things in this one.

The changelog for v0.4.0:

• Add: A searchable tools menu, use CTRL+F (Command+F on MacOS) to open
• Add: Character portraits are now cached, and will display as no-portrait picture until loaded
• Add: Character’s alliance & security status can now be seen in the character info
• Add: Information button appears for recently updated launchers
• Add: Support has been added for Epic Games Launcher automated login
• Add: Support has been added for Steam automated login
• Breaking: Removed double-click option to start up a character, users have been defaulted to the long click option
• Change: Aura’s tooltips are now visible to users with 2 or more accounts
• Change: Some pixels have been added, moved, or removed.
• Other: Applied security updates to dependencies
• Other: Localization has been added for supported languages

We’ve also started working on the build and release pipelines for platforms like Steam, and we are ready to expand the beta launcher there.

If you use steam (and this includes Linux based users), you will be able to opt-in to the beta as follows:

1. Linux users: back up your settings. The following steps may cause steam to remove your client and settings, forcing a clean install.
2. Uninstall the current EVE Online launcher from steam by right-clicking it in your library, and selecting Manage => Uninstall (Windows users: this does not remove EVE Online, just the launcher. Linux users: Steam cause the entire client to be removed because of proton/wine)
3. Right-click the EVE Online in your library and select Properties
4. Under the Betas section, fill in the following code: TheInvitation, you can now select the beta launcher version from the dropdown.
5. Install EVE Online to receive the new beta launcher.
   The accounts you had on the current EVE launcher will be migrated to the beta launcher.

If you wish to opt-out from the beta at a later stage, repeat the steps, except select None as your beta. Do keep in mind that at this point you will likely have to re-authenticate your accounts.

As always we are very keen on hearing your feedback on this new release, and if you come across any bugs, please don’t hesitate to file them from the bug reporting tool inside the launcher. You can find us in the #launcher-beta channel on the EVE Online Discord

It’s resizable

The launcher will install itself into %LocalAppData% and %AppData% (Unless you use steam). It shouldn’t matter much if this is on a HDD or a SSD. As with the old launcher you can configure where the launcher keeps your EVE files. Having this location on a SSD is what you are looking for, as this will affect how quickly EVE can load.

In the Settings menu, under Tools / Cache . You can access the Settings menu from the wheel icon in the top-right corner of the launcher (or the Ctrl+F menu)

Could you file a bug report for this from within the launcher?

This will be part of the next release (0.4.7)

We had this in an earlier version of the beta launcher, but it proved to be problematic and unintended logins, so we removed this in 0.4.0

This panel will show character-specific information. We aim to add more (useful) information once it becomes available for us to use in the launcher.

That is correct.

The launcher will detect the settings as from the legacy launcher and suggest the Shared Cache directory when you launch it for the first time. It should not attempt to install a second copy of the shared cache unless a different folder was selected than where the actual shared cache was located.

This also includes migrating the logged-in accounts from the legacy launcher to the beta launcher.

It bears repeating that your profile settings are stored with a reference to your shared cache location, so if you change the shared cache location while installing the beta launcher you will also lose these profiles.
If you do want to use a new shared cache location, you can move your current profiles over by opening a file explorer window to %LocalAppData%/CCP/EVE/. In that folder you will find folders named after the shared cache location, you can simply copy the files from the old to the new location.

Also note that there is a #launcher-beta channel on the EVE Online discord, where you can find me and other launcher devs lurking (and sometimes memeing) for questions/remarks.

Ctrl+F opens up the spotlight menu, which has all kinds of quick-access stuff.

The menu options merely fill in the prefix of the search bar, so if you really don’t want to use the mouse to start a client you can do something like: Ctrl+F => play: =>

Are you sure you are on v1.0.X ? resizing was added to the launcher around 0.4.0

There is an option in the settings menu where you can change the default behavior, so you do not have to change the options for every account.

The launcher will periodically remove unneeded files. If you want you can trigger this behavior yourself from the Tools/Cache section of the settings window in the launcher.

Patched files do not require there to be patchnotes. This is sometimes done in preparation of bigger release beats where some of the graphical data is preloaded before the functionality actually goes live. This is fairly normal.