EVE Online at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

Harvesting, manufacturing, and war. These three make up the holy trinity of EVE Online's Senior Producer, Jon Lander. They are especially important in the Inferno Expansion, which will update and manipulate each part of that trinity and how it relates to the players in EVE Online. Despite the immanence of the Inferno Expansion, Lander was kind enough to take some time to answer some of our questions.

War In The Inferno Expansion

War has been an integral part of EVE Online for nearly a decade. It is probably the most common way for new players to be first exposed to PvP, as well. The Inferno expansion touches on and expands some of the biggest systems for wars in high-security space as well as those in the faction war between the major NPC nations.

According to Lander, "War is really the heart of what EVE is about. We call it the perpetual motion machine or the infernal machine. At it's very core, EVE revolves around harvesting, then manufacturing, and then destruction. One of the key things that we want to do is have all of them have an impact on each other. But only one of them really drives activity. One of the things that we really wanted to do in 2012 was take some of the ideas that we had and push on the parts of that machine that generate as much content across as many different play-styles as possible. War is an activity which really exercises that machine.

If we can promote reasons for people to fight each other, they'll have a lot of fun. If you are blowing up ships, then you need somebody to make those. If you are making ships, then you need somebody to get the raw materials. We are throwing a rock into the pond and upsetting things so that people actually have a few reasons to fight. It helps everybody in all the different play-styles of EVE to get involved."

Faction War In The Inferno Expansion

Inferno will certainly shake things up, and not just with regards to wars in high-security space. Says Lander, "Factional warfare is another really key part of the game for us. It's the entryway for newer players to get interested in fighting for a cause and learning about group PvP. It also lets you participate in part of the backstory. We're gone back and made quite a few changes that will make that more interesting."

The game mechanics involved with the NPC-backed faction war (much of which transpires in low-security space) are going to become much more enticing to players. New benefits include partial ownership of faction-controlled solar systems, cheaper loyalty point rewards. Most importantly, there will also be much larger personal gain offered in exchange for participation in faction-based PvP, whether in the form of direct action against enemy players or by helping the faction militia to take control of more space.