Reykjavik –



CCP Rise has personally addressed the EVE Online community following an unpopular EVE Devblog that stated “wormholers will be unwilling collateral damage” as a result of the October Balance Pass. After consulting with the Council of Interstellar Management (CSM) and prominent wormhole figures, CCP Rise issued the following statement:



“Wormholers of New Eden, we have heard you loud and clear. We have made a mistake. After much discussion with the CSM and concerned parties, I have convinced our team to take another look at the October Balance Pass. Thanks to the CSM, we now understand exactly how critical the Griffin Navy Issue and Widow are to wormhole space and we apologize for making iterations on these ships without recognizing their integral role to many Wormhole operations. Due to the controversy surrounding the ECM changes, the Griffin Navy Issue and the Widow shall be receiving new, SKIN-specific role bonuses that will only be active in Wormhole space. We thank the CSM for their tireless efforts in making sure your concerns are brought to our attention with complete accuracy.”



The role bonuses, which will be detailed in a Dev Blog scheduled for a later date, will make use of ship SKINs that have traditionally only served a cosmetic role in the EVE Online MMORPG. In regards to the Griffin Navy Issue—a ship that would be made all but useless if not iterated upon in conjunction with the October Balance Patch—CCP Rise offered some insight on the bonuses:



“For instance, the Griffin Navy Issue will now receive a probe launcher high slot if an “Exoplanets Hunter SKIN” is applied to the hull. The “Ghostbird” SKIN, on the other hand, will allow it to generate an area-of-effect cloaking field for ships of its size. This should offer a wider range of gameplay options in Shattered Wormholes. By implementing these changes, we believe we can augment the exciting emergent gameplay that has come to characterize wormhole space.”



The Widow, which was also the subject of heavy critique following the original announcement of the October Balance Pass, would also be receiving a similar SKIN-specific role bonus:



“The Widow was a tough ship to adjust, primarily due to its role as a Black Ops battleship. However, we were able to find some interesting niches to offset the effects it would suffer as a result of the balance pass. Firstly, if a Matigu Seabeast SKIN is applied to a Widow hull, a player will have the option to turn their Widow into a special command center that can only be used on Oceanic planets located in C3 Wormholes and above. We are going to keep a close eye on it but we want to start it off with a 5% powergrid and 5% CPU bonus. We know that you love using your Widows for running Sleeper Sites, but this role bonus should also make it a common sight for your Planetary Interaction setups. The next SKIN we are introducing is the Raata Sunset SKIN—once applied, this SKIN will allow the Widow to make a one-ship connection, regardless of mass, to any Wormhole in New Eden as long as it is adjacent to an “End-of-Life” Wormhole. Finally, we will be introducing a new SKIN called the Remember Caldari Prime SKIN for the Widow, which, when activated, will allow the Widow to expend its fuel bay to close a Wormhole of any size. A limited release of this SKIN will be available initially for 4,000 PLEX and will be available to players who purchased tickets for Fanfest 2018 and EVE Vegas 2018 .”



The announcement was applauded by CSM members. In the words of Suitonia: “CCP has once again reaffirmed their commitment to the player community. These changes don’t just answer wormholers directly, they provide exciting new opportunities for wormhole space.” Brisc Rubal was also in agreement, sharing that the SKIN role bonus concept was a unique solution, adding that, “Wormholers brought a minor problem to CCP’s attention and in response they’ve gotten what they’ve been asking for all this time. People like to say that the CSM is out of touch with players, but if anything, this proves just how important the CSM actually is.”