CCP Games is introducing several new Tech 2 Triglavian Collective vessels to EVE Online as the developer teases major story beats related to the mysterious new faction in 2019 and beyond. During the keynote presentation at EVEsterdam 2019, the first of many stops around the globe as part of the EVE Invasion Tour, the developer unveiled new EVE Online content and quality of life updates that directly target issues discussed and raised by the game’s community and community representatives (The Council of Stellar Management, or “CSM” as it’s referred to as).

Coming to EVE Online this spring, developer CCP Games is adding three new Tech 2 Triglavian starships to the game - the Nergal, Draugur, and Ikitursa - based off of already existing vessels in the game. Four Triglavian ships were previously unveiled at EVE Vegas 2018. Below are details on the three new ships based on the limited info CCP was willing to share.

The Triglavian Collective are a new faction to EVE Online, announced at EVE Fanfest in April 2018, and introduced into the game a month later as part of the Into the Abyss expansion. They brought to the game not only new Precursor ships, technology, and weapons but also new environments as part of Abyssal Deadspace - the home for new, faster-paced PvE content that’s only going to grow in the future.

For players, Abyssal Deadspace and the Triglavians add another layer to the mysterious lore that’s increasingly becoming a more prominent part of EVE Online, and while many may not have noticed, this faction has been slowly seeded into the game’s backstory for years. The mystery behind them, and other factions like the Drifters, offer a pathway for years of potential content according the devs we spoke with at EVEsterdam who are excited for what’s to come on this front. And for the developers, Abyssal Deadspace lets them play with mechanics, environments, and scenarios that don’t otherwise occur in universe of New Eden.

Nergal - Tech 2 Assault Frigate

  • A beefier version of the DAMAVIK precursor ship. It has increased defense from being Tech II. It has bonuses to raise the maximum charge amount for Entropic Disintegrators. It will be able to use Assault Damage Controls.

Draugur - Tech 2 Command Destroyer

  • Is based of the Kikimora. Less range than the Kikimora but can use Command Bursts and Micro Jump Field Generators. Designed to be tighter, more vicious, and intense.

Ikitursa - Tech 2 Heavy Assault Cruiser

  • Is based off the Vedmak. Similar to the Nergal assault frigate. Increased defense from being Tech 2. It has bonuses to raise the maximum charge amount of Entropic Disintegrators. Will be able to use Assault Damage Controls Feels like the Cerberus / Caracal in its design.

In addition to the three ships, as part of the in-game EVE Online story the Triglavian Collective communicated with people of New Eden for the first time, demanding humanity comply with the flow. Speculation has been running rampant for a while and the devs are loving the discussion. Also teased was another mutaplasmid, one that could be health/repair related.

How Big of A Role Will The Triglavians Play in EVE Online’s Future?

Joshua “CCP Fozzie” Bayer, Senior Game Designer for EVE Online explained that of course the Triglavians have “very big role” to play long-term.

Bergur “CCP Burger” Finnbogason, Creative Director for EVE Online, smirked silently when I asked about how important to the long-term the Triglavians and Drifters are, and if there’s still a possibility for another faction down the road. “Well, you saw the Discourse video, you saw Scope, during the keynote. You can maybe put two and two together," Finnbogason teased while impersonating a maniacal laugh.

“The Triglavians are a major force in New Eden now and that’s only going to grow over time. The details of how that’s going to happen we’re not quite ready to reveal yet although a lot of players are already speculating about that and we’re REALLY excited to watch that speculation. It was great to watch the first players encounter the new location in Abyssal Deadspace that was shown in that Scope. Some players thought it was a bug, some players just got confused because we released it off our normal cadence of release so there’d be a surprise for people.”

The lore being teased and the mystery behind the Drifters and Triglavians are supremely interesting. These two factions alone offers years of potential storytelling but does that hinder the chances of CCP adding other, totally different factions as well? We ask since every time something entirely new gets added to EVE Online we see CCP’s creativity in the designs of new aesthetics, new technologies that come with all-new factions, something some players tell us they want to see continued. CCP Burger:

CCP Fozzie adds:

“It’s a beautiful dance introducing new things versus iterating on existing things versus pulling back and not doing anything - Not not doing anything but more like allowing things to brew and carve out their own place in space. This is something we’ve learned through trial and error, on what point do you seed stories, at what point do you tell people about what we’re doing, at what point do you not say anything and allow the world to kind of brew, at one point do you allow the tinfoil machine to take you to incredible places. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Caroline Star story when the Drifters came into null space. When we were developing that story we were actually listening to the forums and Reddit and Twitch streams, YouTubers, and bloggers. We were reading everything that came in and the fantastic thing is that when we write stories we have a general idea of where we’re going and we know the end goal but how we’re actually going there we let the community inspire us. It’s so fantastic when you open up to this and you get all this input and you can start to lean on a couple of stories and then you kind of move over to another story and you can press something down and elevate other things. It’s a really fantastic way of developing stories and storytelling to have this interactive moment with the community.

I mean, it’s super scary and it’s really difficult [Laughs] and it’s very painful – we have a lot of arguments or a lot of debate – but at the same time it creates such depth and it echoes the amazingness of EVE Online. It’s a lot of humans with human emotions doing human things in a sci-fi setting and why shouldn’t this story in part also follow that form? So it’s the irrationality of human beings and you’re like [whispers] “I could have never thought of this” so there’s a lot of back and forth and sometimes we go completely utilitarian and it’s like “no, our truth is the only truth!” and sometimes we scale back and listen and allow ourselves to be inspired by the community and be baffled by the community. Shoutout to the Discourse guys – that stuff is amazing!

Paul “CCP Falcon” Elsy, Senior Community Manager at CCP Games, explains that this lore has been in the works for quite some time:

“Yes, I think it’s both true that these factions leave a ton of room for growth and we build our storylines so that It can be evolved over time. Storyline writing in an MMO is a pretty uniquely collaborative effort because often you’re writing story threads that you know may be picked up by someone five years from now, and it might be a different person. We have a lot of secret notes about all of this but that leaves still a lot of room for interpretation for us to evolve in the future. Sometimes we take ideas from players where they would speculate “oh this would be great if this was this, and this was that,” and we make it happen! You’re trying to create something that has enough structure for a really cohesive storyline but also enough freedom to evolve, and the Drifters and the Triglavians are both big parts of that. They’re both story threads that we can use forever, basically, in the same way as the original EVE lore of the Jove, the Sleepers were pulled in. Even in 2003 we had writing about the Sleepers but when the wormhole space was introduced that became a much bigger deal than it had been before.”

CCP Falcon continued, reiterating that we should “never say never” about additional new factions in the future. “It’s interesting to see how these two NPC factions interact as well. There’s a lot of boogeyman in EVE now. There’s the drifters, Sansha’s Nation, and there’s the Triglavians now too.”

“This is a storyline that’s been building for a few years now behind-the-scenes. Some of the assets put in the game go back to 2013-14 so it’s been building for a long time, with the appearance of Jovian outposts, that kind of stuff. And obviously, the opening of Abyssal Deadspace. It’s something that’s building and I think it’s going to continue for quite a few more years. There is a lot of content we have and are planning so it’s going to be pretty interesting. I just have to be careful to not spill the beans on any of it!”

More: How CCP Games Plans For EVE Online’s Long-Term Future With New Tech

Source: CCP Games