14 DAY TRIAL // CCP Games, the developer of the highly acclaimed sci-fi MMORPG EVE Online, has announced that the mini-expansion pack Apocrypha 1.5 will be available this week, Thursday, August 20. Among other additions, the expansion brings small and medium ship rigs, several new epic mission arcs, specialized cargo holds and more.
“EVE Online Apocrypha 1.5 will be released on 20th, August, 2009,” reads the official announcement on eveonline.com. “This mini expansion will bring new and exciting content to New Eden including four new Epic Mission Arcs, one for each of the main Empire factions. These arcs will be at Level 4 mission difficulty to provide a challenge even to experienced mission runners,” CCP Games explains.
The company adds that fans of its game available for both Mac and PC, as well as Linux will also get multi-sized rigs, “allowing pilots to fit smaller rigs on smaller ships while maintaining the same effect,” CCP says. “Changes have been made to Factional Warfare; lag has been reduced substantially allowing for much smoother fleet fights, loyalty point stores now offer substantial discounts on Navy Issue ships while incorporating unique faction modules to pilots,” adds the developer.
Loyalty points for the stores can also be earned. There are two ways to do this: by completing agent missions and by killing player ships belonging to the enemy militia. “Black Ops Battleships now have a dedicated fuel bay that can be used to store fuel for their covert cynosural generators and jump drives while the Orca and Rorqual now have a dedicated bay for storing ore,” CCP adds.
Lastly, the makers of EVE Online say, multiple changes to the scanning and probing mechanics have been made, while the company’s ‘Need for Speed’ initiative to reduce lag and improve performance is reportedly going to be felt throughout Apocrypha 1.5.
For those who are new to EVE Online for Mac, CCP and TransGaming collaborated to develop the Mac and Linux versions of the game to allow users of more platforms to play within the same perpetual online universe. Seamless integration of EVE Online's original game code was achieved with Cider, TransGaming’s tool for porting Windows games to Mac OS X.