CCP Games, developer of the sci-fi MMORPG EVE Online, on Friday revealed information about the game’s next expansion for the Mac, Tyrannis, which will allow players to gather resources from all the planets in the game. Senior producer Torfi Frans Olafsson wrote about the expansion in a blog post, saying that an exact release date isn’t known at this time, “but let‘s say that it will happen before the summer solstice.”
Mr. Olafsson said that the major new feature in Tyrannis came out of feedback from players. He wrote: “There seems to be some deep Freudian desire to erect something monumental. To make stuff. To create something new … In Dominion, we gave the planets a facelift, updating the graphics with beautiful landscapes, awe inspiring deserts, peaceful Ewok-friendly green worlds and violent burning lava fields. But that was just eye candy, right? Well, not quite. In our upcoming expansion, Tyrannis, ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS.”
He explained that players “will finally be able to survey for juicy deposits of minerals and other goodies, build infrastructure to harvest them, store them, process them and launch them into space. Build complex networks of facilities and fine tune them for optimal production. All in a very massive single shard sandboxy way as only EVE can provide … Maintaining facilities on gruesomely hostile planets will be tougher and more demanding, but the rewards may be so much more ‘onturning.’”
Mr. Olafsson also said that more Tyrannis improvements are in the works. While players won’t be able to engage in combat on planets, he revealed that “in future expansions you will be able to project military force for attack and defense of planetary installations. That will be where DUST 514 will connect with EVE. But DUST 514 will not be coming out at the same time as Tyrannis, so that is at a later date.” Dust 514 is a first-player shooter version of EVE Online that will be released for consoles. It will allow players to explore planets, and it will tie into the main game, so players will be able to coordinate armies from space.