What did 2016 / YC 118 mean to you? Was it a blessing, a curse or a little of both? Given the dramatic year that has passed, it’s likely to have been one, the other or a combination, but few are indifferent about what went down in EVE’s 2016.

At the start of the year we saw the introduction by CCP of the Citadel expansion, launched in late April. Citadels are now a cornerstone of our daily EVE content. Astrahuses litter the space lanes, Fortizars are growing in number and Keepstars have caused some of the biggest fights we have ever seen in EVE, as well as breaking the all time record for number of players in a system, with the fight over CO2’s Keepstar in M-OEE8. The Citadel expansion also saw the release of Force Auxiliaries – now the final word in logistics for any alliance worth their salt – and extensive changes to capitals and supercapitals.

We also saw the introduction of skillpoint injectors, representing a paradigm shift on how skillpoints function in your online society and economy. Some saw it as a redistribution of wealth and a sorely needed flexibility to character trading, with SP trading becoming much more dominant, others saw it as a pay-to-win and anathema to central tenants of EVE culture. Do you remember which side of that particular fence you stood on? Did you change your mind?

Tranquility moved to new hardware in 2016 and we’ve noticed improved performance. The eternal question remains, will EVE always be held back by legacy, single-thread, server code, or will CCP manage to get out of that ditch somehow? Do they even intend to? It can be argued that this is one of the main stoppers in EVE’s natural progression and was sorely felt during some of the big fights of the year.

Without question, the most pivotal event in EVE itself, and certainly a turning-point in contemporary EVE history, was World War Bee. So much so that Goons are still doing their best to alter the very name of it.

The pre-war of WWB in lowsec saw the unification of Lowsec Voltron™ following the Imperium invasion. The Viceroy programme, imperialistic propaganda, strong-arm diplomacy, the much reviled “weaponized boredom”, and spin the likes of which EVE has never seen had galvanized much of the rest of EVE against the Imperium with Lenny Kravitz2’s funding being the fuel needed to set the war in motion. Age-old rivals set their differences aside and marched on the North and what was expected to be a long war turned into a kind of Blitzkrieg – the Imperium was overwhelmed and crushed, picking up what remained of their coalition and moving south.

Throughout the war and after it, Imperium leadership argued loudly that the casino-based funding was unfair because it could not be directly assaulted in-game (fun fact: Goonswarm tried to start it’s own casino a couple of years ago). We need to not go into the miniature, suffice to say that on this subject Goons executed a unified front, or smear campaign, depending on your perspective – a skill some would say Goons are unmatched in. Whether CCP listened or responded to events outside of EVE concerning game-related gambling is hard to say, but in the end all EVE-related gambling was prohibited, killing much of the funding for many EVE content creators and event organizers.

Fanfest happened! Those of us lucky enough to be there saw Permaband perform their new hit “Wrecking Machine”, as well as friend and former writer of CZ Sindel Pellion joining the band live on stage.

We do not need to go into details here, if you’re interested in reading up on it, CZ had extensive coverage on the event which you can read here. Many talks were had, presentations made, conversations, interviews, tournaments, and so on. Many drinks were also had. Far too many.

EVE Vegas happened! You can watch the entire event here. During the event, the Ascension expansion was further detailed and we saw a new trailer.

A revamp of the new player experience, spearheaded by CCP Ghost, laid the groundwork for one of, if not the most important change to EVE since its inception: Clone States and Alpha clones, coming in the Ascension expansion. For the first time, EVE was free to experience via the Alpha clone, and we’ve seen a massive surge of new players flooding TQ. The question remains, how many will stay? Are you one of those players? What is your experience so far?

Do your bit for the future of EVE, shoot a new player today! Statistics show that new players that get shot are more likely to stay.

EVE also got a whole lot prettier over the year, with new explosions and visual damage probably two of the more impressive aspects.

Alliance Tournament XIV went down – not witout a whole slew of drama and nail-biting matches, as well as the premiere player-run championship, EVE_NT Collides.

Rounding off the year, the Tribute War was launched by PanFam and NC., with CO2, TEST and allies on the defensive. A conflict the so-called TESCO eventually lost due to overwhelming numbers and a superior supercapital force, but not before many memorable fights were had and we got to enjoy some amazing art by Cymek such as the image you see above.

A lull was expected, but that does not seem to be the case as TESCO and allies launch a new offensive against the Stainwagon coalition in the south. A Winter War is in the making.

All this and many, many other things made 2016 stand out as one of the most important years in EVE’s 13-year history. What did it mean to you? Let us know in the comments below!

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