Sci-fi MMO EVE Online's 20th free expansion, Rubicon, is less than a month away and the anticipation, acrimony and antagonism is already starting to rise amongst a fevered internet spaceship community. (To be honest, that's actually just standard operating procedure for capsuleers.)

I was intrigued to see how the new features are shaping up and paid the Singularity test server a visit to capture some footage of the exciting new developments.

What's in the Rubicon Video Preview?

A look at all* the Marauder battleship 'Bastion Mode' animations.

A closer look at the Mobile Siphon Unit.

A brief fiddle with ISIS, the Ship Tree.

A loving gaze at the new Sisters of EVE ships.

Some wishful thinking and rampant speculation about what lays ahead.

It runs to a little under six minutes, please check it out (at the top of the page or on the GameSkinny YouTube channel) and feel free to share your thoughts and feedback here... and yes, that is my real voice. Don't laugh.

(*the Vargur was a no show.)

Edit: On request, below I have added the original high-resolution screen captures of the information shown in the video and links to other related resources. It's worth bearing in mind that this information was accurate on 23 October 2013, but is subject to change at the whim of CCP's development process.

Bastion Module Information:

[Click image to enlarge]

Mobile Siphon Unit Details:

N.B. I really hope that text is a placeholder - direct reference to "player owned structures" and POSes instead of "starbases" is a real immersion-breaker.

Sisters of EVE Astero Frigate Details:

[Click image to enlarge]

Sisters of EVE Stratios Cruiser Details:

[Click image to enlarge]

Changes announced since publication:

"We feel that while there are significant weaknesses in the cruiser that do balance it against major abuse, it's simply too strong in its current state. The combination of the covert cloak, black ops portal access and extremely high damage potential make for a ship that does a bit more than we are comfortable with. To tone it down slightly we are going to lower the drone bandwidth to 100mb/s and the drone bay to 400m3. The ship will still have very high damage potential and will certainly still be very powerful overall. This also makes me feel better about some other small changes that improve the ship, so we'll also be increasing the virus strength bonus to +10 and changing the laser cap use bonus to a medium energy turret optimal range bonus of 50%. We will also extend the virus strength bonus to the Astero." - CCP Rise, EVE Forums, 24 Nov



Useful links and resources:

The official Rubicon features page

EVE Online Singularity test server discussion forum

EVE Online Features and Ideas discussion forum

New Eden Today - Official in-character world news

The Vargur's bastion mode animation (since I missed it):

Credit to AkrasjelLanate for capturing this on an earlier, unbugged release.

The full EVE: Origins trailer: