The Warzone Is Still Miserable

EVE Online Uprising 2022 update injected action into a stale warzone. But is that enough to boost the lagging EVE Online playercount?

Floating among the countless (or, 7,500 or so) stars in a frigate next to a hostile outpost used to be much more secluded. There were no lights anywhere nearby, save the ones on the tiny outposts. There was a tiny beacon and a ring of lights on a horizontal plain marking the range of the beacon. Every once in a while, the outpost would muster the resources to assemble a patrol ship, deploy it against you, and start the process all over again if you defeat them. They never try any different fittings or tactics. They never use a new ship.

They just undock and attempt to drive you away using the exact same tactic they failed with a few minutes prior.

Where there’s now a suspended megacomplex under the banner of the occupier, there used to be this tiny little bunker that you could just barely wedge a Stabber inside of, and there weren’t many resources to pilfer once you “docked.” It was tough to park in an enemy outpost.

EVE Online 2022 factional warfare outpost

Hell, even the athanors and such used to have really basic animations. They’ve all been upgraded to some pretty eyegasmic stuff. You could say that EVE Online factional warfare was in need of a serious overhaul. It was sought for years by capsuleers, and finally, it came. But was it too late?

EVE Online 2023 Factional Warfare

By now, you’ve heard there’s a lot more going on in the warzone than in the past few years. Most visibly for some, the structures that replaced the outposts and bunkers are absolutely majestic in scale.

And new systems in place to funnel activity and conflict to specific, important constellations appear to be working, albiet sporadically.

And best yet, after extended periods, many retired low security pirates have been spotted haunting these frontline systems. This is important; if the throngs that have evacuated the EVE Online player count, not everyone is back. But a few familiar, grimaced faces have blessed the streamverse.

Even with the pretty looking new updates, many have seemingly abandoned the stars, grateful to escape the monotonous grind of unyielding tedium that’s inevitable in EVE Online no matter what year you’re playing. But of those that have set up frontiers in Rust, steered their pod to the Tarkovian wasteland, or otherwise just abandoned their ships, EVE Online veterans are notoriously maleable; they’ll come back for a while, given the right incentives.

Whereas factional warfare used to be viewed more as a system to teach newer capsuleers basic warfare tactics in space, it’s now a morphing more toward a place where such baby nuts often get stomped into ballooned sacks of broken intentions and soprano shame under the boot heel of the (EVE Online) learning curve. And maybe that heel strike to the nads is what veteran players need to even feel alive anymore.

But then again, making anything more difficult in EVE online isn’t without risk. Frontline systems and listening posts add a layer of complexity that many veterans might not be reacting favorably to.

Whatever can be done to increase the opportunity for genuine conflict in the warzone is a positive change. War is about fighting, and in fights, somebody has to lose. In EVE Online factional warfare, you’re going to die. It’s a part of life. At least now, you’ve got something pretty to look at in the few seconds you’ll have outside your pod in the vacuum of space before you inevitably expire.

Written by Hannibal

Hannibal is a devout freedom fighter, an accomplished space captain, a famed psychonautic explorer, and the self appointed "Lord Of Sashimi."

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