An Undisclosed Volcanic Cavern/Lair – Iceland

CCP has certainly had their hands full in the past several weeks. While their attempts to make the chat system into a truly emergent gameplay system were successful, player backlash over the puke-green color of Gallente “Hunt” skins has truly taken up a significant amount of employee’s time and attention – a diversion which Eve Onion has used to bring you the freshest scoop since Assault Corvettes were announced.

From deep in our underground Icelandic lair, Eve Onion staff planned and executed a daring heist: An operation to steal communications regarding the next Eve Online expansion. Many of our Minmatari operatives sacrificed their lives for this mission, and their loss will be forgotten when we retcon this story in nine months. With that said, we at Eve Onion (the most trusted name in Eve Online news) are pleased to share our ill-gotten gains with you, dear reader.

The next expansion will be titled “Eve Online: Arbitration,” and it will bring major, major changes to the game as we know it, including the implementation of a brand new PVP mechanic. This “arbitration” mechanic, taking its name from the title of the expansion itself, will allow capsuleers to face off with one another in cutthroat legal negotiations regarding player negligence, breaches of contract, and injuries inflicted to another without due cause.

One member of the CCP development team outlined his initial perspective on the “Arbitration” expansion in one of the internal documents obtained by Eve Onion:

Look guys, for years we’ve been focused on giving content to combat and nullsec oriented players. We’ve given them so many mechanics to spur the emergent content that this game lives off of, including Citadels; Rapid Light Missile Launchers; ECM, and more. But they just refuse to fight. They’re happier AFK while quintuple boxing Rorquals and six or seven alpha mining barges than they are when actually using all of the mechanics we’ve given them.

I think we need to bring the focus back to Highsec:

Scams and ganks have been costing us Highsec PLEX-customers for years. So why don’t we give them some support here? Let’s give them more content to come back for. I mean, I know we have a lot to fix currently – FW, bounties, Captain’s Quarters, Dust, botting in general…why don’t we just try and kill all five birds with one stone here?

The ideas espoused by that developer can be directly seen in the features we have confirmed are currently in development, including:

Capsuleers will be able to register as a counsel then be retained by aggrieved parties. Fees for counsel will depend on their experience, the length of the proceeding, and the number of documents submitted. Botting is reportable, but will be ignored as emergent gameplay.

Capsuleer judges will be required to pay 40 billion ISK worth of PLEX to an NPC faction of their choosing then will immediately take office.

All of these procedures will take place in a new-and-improved “Captain’s Quarters” engine setting. Movement and camera will be imported from the first person view system used while in space.

A new skill tree based around “arbitration” skills will be released, including: “Argumentation”: 5% more irritability per level; “Paperwork”: 50% more paperwork for the opposing party per level; “Moving Speech”: 1% more sympathy points per client on death row; and “Alcoholism”: 3% more self-loathing for the training capsuleer.

Factional warfare territory will be removed, and instead the factional militaries will be detailed to the enforcement of player-issued warrants as “Officers of the Law”. A new high-slot module known as the “XXX-911 ‘In Plain Sight’ Surveillance Beam” will allow these new factional agents to search player assets and seize what is necessary to fulfill outstanding judgements.

Skin rewards depending on how many hours are spent spinning ships in a CONCORD station. Points towards skin packs will be tracked by the Agency window in a popup which cannot be closed.

The long-awaited arrival of the Angel Cartel Titan. The “Federale” will require perfect “arbitrator” skills and grant +20% to visual authority, +10% to gavel sound, and +5% to wig length. All skill bonuses will be applied in “arbitration” mode as the ship cannot leave CONCORD stations. It is 100%, absolutely, positively guaranteed to not be shaped like a phallus.

We at Eve Onion are still seeking out further information about this exciting new expansion. Rest assured capsuleer, when we know more – you’ll know more.