Crimson Harvest 2025 Beginning On 6 October

Yesterday CCP announced that this year's iteration of Crimson Harvest in EVE Online will run from 6 October to 4 November. The seasonal event first ran in 2015. As usually happens the developers make some changes to prevent the content from going stale. I thought I'm run through the announcement for some key things I look when running EVE's oldest seasonal event.

Difficulty and Ships - What ships are needed to run the event sites? I'm at a point where I don't like flying the bigger ships anymore. Frigates and sometimes cruisers is more my speed nowadays. The announcement was nice enough to remove that uncertainty. Here is a quick breakdown of the sites and ship requirements.

Easy - Limited to high sec and allows Tech 1 frigates.

Medium - found in all space, limited to Tech II frigates and Tech 1 destroyers.

Hard - found in low sec, null sec, and wormholes, these sites allow Tech III tactical destroyers and below. In a change from last year the hard sites are no longer limited to Blood Raider regions.

New sites - Things never change in New Eden, do they? The new sites this year are associated with the Upwell Consortium. Unlike the old Jove who originally brought new technology to the game, Upwell screws up a lot.

New Biocybernetic Incident sites appear across highsec, lowsec, nullsec, and wormhole space as Upwell clone research goes awry. They were designed as labs, but now they are tombs. 

In an attempt to mitigate a somewhat messy situation for them, Upwell has blocked its own EDENCOM ships from entering these sites. 

The sites also have environmental factors to consider.

Stay within a designated area for a set duration, fight off enemy waves, and try to blast rogue shuttles loaded with valuable cargo. Be careful, as there are unstable generators in the sites which can be destroyed, causing damage to all close by. Make sure to keep your distance, but keep in mind you can use them strategically.

Returning sites - The sites are not just limited to small ships. Blood Raider and Tetrimon combat sites are returning. Last year the sites allowed cruisers, battlecruiser and battleships to enter and I assume the same will be true this year. Different this year is that the Crimson Gauntlet and Tetrimon Base sites may also trigger escalations which may prove another incentive to run the content.

A couple of other things to note about these sites.

Tetrimon Frontline Base and Dark Blood Gauntlet sites will also return and appear exclusively in Blood Raider space in lowsec and Delve. 

There are chance encounters within returning combat sites that may link directly to the Upwell horror unfolding across space, and they are more likely within wormholes. These encounters increase the rewards to be had from a site, so keep an eye out for any suspicious wrecks. 

Rewards tracks - Last but not least are the rewards tracks. 

The harvest is a time for reaping, and great rewards are to be expected as usual. Log in daily to claim a massive cache of Skill Points, boosters, new Deathglow Remnant SKINs, and more. Omega capsuleers earn rewards on both Alpha and Omega tracks. 

Complete seasonal challenges to unlock even more, including SKINR components and after the event enters the final week, a final crate with a rare Blood Raider blueprint. 

That's right, rewards that only unlock during the final week of the event.

In the final week of the Harvest, the horrors will intensify and the seasonal reward track will be extended to include a final reward crate containing a Blood Raider ship blueprint. More surprises will be announced as well, so keep your eyes on the unfolding bloodshed.

I think CCP is looking to keep players engaged enough with Crimson Harvest to stick around to try out the winter expansion. Players already do that, but I think CCP is looking for some higher player counts. Either that or the accountants are looking for higher Daily Active User numbers and don't want to let players completely finish the content early.

No FOMO With The Final Fantasy XIV x Monster Hunter Wild Crossover Event

Normally when Square Enix announces a crossover event I start clearing time off my calendar to run the event. While crossover events do come back, players who miss the event usually have to wait a couple of years to get another chance. One exception were the alliance raids in Shadowbringers. The YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse storyline has a Nier: Automata theme. And so, apparently, is the upcoming FFXIV x Monster Hunter Wild crossover event coming to FFXIV next Tuesday.

Not a limited time duty

I know practically nothing about Monster Hunter Wild but apparently Yoshi-P is sending one of our big bad bosses, Omega, for the hunters in that game to battle. In return, we get a fearsome boss to battle as well.

The Windward Wilds

A mysterious mark bill finds its way into your hands, sparking a hunt for otherworldy prey. Alongside your Felyne client and dependable Seikret steed, you soon discover your target is none other than the dread Guardian Arkveld, bane of hunters.

With a hearty meal of grilled meat, and a generous supply of mega potions in hand, the hunt for the White Wraith is on!

The trail comes in a regular version requiring item level gear of 725 and an extreme version requiring level 740 gear. Those who have completed The Ageless Necropolis (and thus the complete Dawntrail MSQ) in patch 7.3 will meet the equipment requirements. Those who have just completed the final quest of Dawntrail (patch 7.0) may need to upgrade their equipment first.

I'm glad I don't have to rush because 7 October is the launch of patch 7.35. While I don't like deep dungeons like the new Pilgrim's Traverse, I plan on jumping on the new allied society quests featuring the Yok Huy. And, of course, the new chapter of the Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures is available as well. So I can take my time getting around to the crossover event.

Crimson Desert Set To Launch March 29

Finally, a post about Crimson Desert not due to a Pearl Abyss earnings call. The single-player RPG announced by Pearl Abyss back in 2019 announced a launch date of 19 March 2026 on both Steam and Playstation.

The Steam announcement for Crimson Desert

One has to wonder if the South Korean game studio succumbed to investor pressure to announce the launch of the game. Back on the Pearl Abyss Q2 2025 earnings call held on 13 August investment analysts signaled their distrust of the company's pronouncements about the game due to the CEO telling those on the call that Crimson Desert would not launch in 2025. An hour after the end of the call the stock price fell by over 20%.

The release date does avoid the launch window of the most anticipated game of 2026, Grand Theft Auto VI. Despite rumors the release date officially is set for 26 May 2026. Crimson Desert should have two months before the gaming world goes crazy over GTA VI.

Pearl Abyss stock up 5.3% after the release date was announced

The Korean NASDAQ took the news favorably with share prices increasing by 5.3% in trading on Thursday. I have two questions. First, how much trust did Pearl Abyss burn with investors with the way the company strung them along over the past few years? Second, despite all the delays, is Pearl Abyss rushing to release Crimson Desert to save face with investors?

EVE Frontier: A Favorable Bug And Solo Fueling My Base

This morning I decided to log into EVE Frontier and do a little mining. One can never have enough fuel so I thought I'd go ahead and get some in a short play session. I saw patch notes and a new build were deployed so I went ahead and read them. 

Patch Notes for 2025-09-24

Features & Changes:

• Significantly reduced the build cost of the Chumaq and Smart Gate to promote gatebuilding.

Defect Fixes:

• Removed a Flegel used during the Hackathon that was causing issues with the buildable ships mission.

I bring up the patch notes because I think the fix for one thing broke another. When I went to the mission page to check how many people were ahead of me, I saw an unexpected gain of 300 Grace. I was credited with completing the mission to manufacture one of each module. Kind of hard to do that when I just started gathering materials to build a Printer M, a requirement for completing the module mission. So I dutifully submitted the bug to the Discord server.

Why did I submit a bug that benefitted me? I'm playing the game a bit differently that others. I use my position on the Grace list to see how many people are playing the game. As of Sunday over 2000 players had joined the Discord server, finished the tutorial, and set up a network node. With the Grace bug I moved up to 1824th place. I'll move up the rankings a little more as within the next week I'll receive another 200 Grace for logging in 10 times this development cycle.

The UI controlling my base

But the original purpose for writing this post wasn't to point out a bug in a system that won't make it to the release version of the game. I want to know how much of an issue a lone player will have keeping a base up and running. The answer is, not much if combat isn't a threat. If I spend 10-15 minutes or so mining carbon ore every play session I can build up a reserve of cheap D1 fuel. Enough to both fuel my ship as well as run my base. With the cheap fuel I can keep the base running for over 2 weeks. I even have enough fuel to completely refuel my ship.

Also going back to the bug, I need to make a Printer M so I can start cranking out modules. Over the past few days I build a small shipyard and a second portable storage unit. I use the portable storage units when interacting with my refinery or printers and the smart storage unit for long term storage. I now have one portable storage unit set up to only deal with fuel.

With the immediate grind in Final Fantasy XIV out of the way I can spend a little more time building my base in Frontier. Hopefully before Cycle 2 ends I can build and equip a new ship, preferably two. I do want to have enough playtime in the game to write an end-of-cycle review of my time in the game, as boring as my activities are in Frontier.

Why Argos Is Still My Favorite Mount In Final Fantasy XIV

Over the weekend I ground out the remaining 32 Phaenna Token Booklets needed to buy the Cosmoboard from the second phase of Final Fantasy XIV's Cosmic Exploration content. The mount feels so good to ride around Phaenna. But once I took the Cosmoboard to a normal zone and flew around something just felt off. That's right, I returned to riding Argos, the mount received for completing the Endwalker expansion.

Now, I have to admit I like the idea of a catgirl riding around the game on a golden retriever. But I think the lore has something to do with the choice. Argos was an NPC before becoming a mount.

Argos is Venat's faithful canine companion—a familiar who once accompanied the ancient throughout the world unsundered. When Venat was reborn as Hydaelyn, She summoned Argos to the moon that he might ferry travelers across the cavernous craters on the satellite's surface. It should be noted, however, that Argos only bears individuals he deems worthy of his trust.

Curiously, there have been sightings of a similar canine on Etheirys in recent days, carrying an adventurer on its back.

Venat is the NPC we befriend in Endwalker who winds up becoming Hydaelyn, one of the two gods/primals giving their names to the Hydaelyn/Zodiark saga.

"No more shall man have wings to bear him to paradise. Henceforth, be shall walk."

Originally a scholar of Anyder, Venat held a particular interest in the lives and histories of Etheirys's people. While some academics would be satisfied with the wisdom of tomes alone, Venat's fascination spurred her to venture into the wider world with her beloved familiar, Argos—to hear the star's voice, feel its very breath, and to think of what endless secrets remained undiscovered. Venat's accomplishments were recognized by the Convocation of Fourteen, and she was subsequently granted the seat of Azem. In this capacity, she wandered the star that she might provide succor to those in need.

Even after she found a suitable successor to take up the Traveler's mantle, Venat chose to continue her unending journey, and in the course of it encountered an adventurer from the far future who warned of the Final Days to come. Alas, she was the only ancient who would retain the knowledge of her people's inevitable demise. That one day life might prevail, she sacrificed herself to become the very embodiment of the star's will.

After millennia watching over the sundered Source, Venat—now Hydaelyn—took up arms one final time to take the measure of those who would answer Her question. Her defeat gave Her hope that life would go on, and She died with a smile on Her face and love in Her heart.

That's right, the Warrior of Light kills both Zodiark and Hydaelyn. I know that killing gods is a anime thing to do, but damn did it hurt. So does our link to Venat, a former Azem. Because guess who also is Azem? That's right, the Warrior of Light.

Azem was the title held by the Fourteenth member of the Convocation of Fourteen, a governing body of the Amaurotine society on Etheirys. The title was associated with the sun, rather than a constellation like the other seats, and denoted the role of the Traveler: one who roamed the world helping people directly and serving as a liaison between the Convocation and everyday citizens...

The holder of the Azem title was expected to remain active in the world, addressing problems firsthand and building relationships with those who lived outside the seat of power in Amaurot. Azem was known for their independence, eccentricity, and tendency to act without seeking approval, which often led to censure from the rest of the Convocation. Despite this, Azem's actions were generally driven by a deep compassion for others and a desire to do what was right, regardless of convention.

Venat was not the final Azem in the story. The wiki described the final Azem this way:

The Azem that would later reincarnate as the Warrior of Light (or player character) was known for being fiercely independent and deeply tied to both Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus. This Azem was widely traveled, often worked without bureaucratic oversight, and is said to have created a powerful summoning spell capable of calling allies across dimensions: an in-game explanation of the Duty Finder system.

They were responsible, or alleged to be responsible, for numerous feats, including:

• Creating various mounts to ease travel.
• Saving a village threatened by a volcano by turning fire aether into Ifrita, and then fighting it.

This Azem was opposed to summoning Zodiark and defected; as the seat was vacant and the Convocation deemed Azem unworthy of commemoration, no crystal to preserve their memories was officially created. However, Emet-Selch created such a crystal in secret and preserved Azem's summoning spell within it.

And while Emet-Selch comes off as the ultimate villian, I do want to follow his advice to explore the rest of the world.

Tell me, have you been to the ruins beneath the waters of the Bounty? Or the treasure islands beyond the frozen waters of Blindfrost, in Othard's north? The fabled golden cities of the New World? The sacred sites of the forgotten peoples of South Sea Isles? What about Meracydia, the southern continent? Do you know aught of its present state of affairs? I thought not. Even of your little Eorzea, you know precious little. The true identities of the Twelve, for instance. All of which is to say: expand your horizons. Go forth and seek discovery. Some of the civilizations in the reflections will surprise you. As the bearer of Azem's crystal, you may consider it duty to see at least that much. I certainly did.

At the end of Endwalker, my only real tie back to the game's first epic story arc is Venat's familiar Argos. The mount is a reminder back to a time of an epic tale I played through, taking hundreds if not thousands of hours. A time I loved that might be the best gaming experience I've ever had.

Cliffnotes Version Of EVE Online's Dev Talk - 22 September 2025

I woke up this morning to a new video dev blog for EVE Online. I watched to the end and found the content interesting. But CCP Okami did tell a really bad dad joke. So for those wishing to avoid the bad humor I put together a summary of the video based on a review by Copilot. For those not afraid of CCP Okami's humor I've included the video below.

1. Formalizing Updates vs. Expansions  

• Expansions deliver major new features (ships, systems, game modes) on a long-lead, fixed schedule.  
• Major Updates are now a biannual, six-month rhythm focused on balance sweeps, ecosystem tuning, and quality-of-life “hygiene” rather than new content.  
• Patches handle urgent, targeted fixes between those bigger drops.

2. Three-Year Thematic Strategy  

• EVE’s dev roadmap is organized into multi-expansion arcs.  
• The next cycle kicks off under the Gold Rush banner (frontier-style, high-risk resource grabs) and will be followed by a “War Engines” phase.  
• Themes guide everything from corporate OKRs down to individual feature sprints.

3. EVE ↔ Vanguard Integration (Operation Nemesis)  

• Vanguard actions now feed directly into EVE’s insurgency mechanics, spawning convoys and dynamic events.  
• First iteration is deliberately light; CCP plans to deepen asynchronous links (e.g., player affiliations, localized incursions) once the baseline is stable.  

4. Community Feedback & Balancing  

• Ship-balance threads show broadly positive reception to large-batch tuning.  
• Future updates may skew economy-heavy in spring and ship-meta-heavy in fall, but CCP remains flexible.  
• UI asks (2D map, Neocom colors) are fully approved but “delivery is soon™.”

5. Narrative & Events  

• Big Lore drops (Drifter Crisis, Fractured Empires) remain layered across expansions, though they’re not always front-and-center.  
• Recurring faction-days and holiday events are deprioritized in favor of systemic health, but may return with more sustainable formats.  

I do want to add a couple of comments. First, the talk about economic content in the spring and ships in the winter was about the major updates, not the expansions. The expansions as we know them are not changing.

The themes are not expansion names. But I got the impression we'll hear about the themes in each expansion for the next 6 years. I also received the impression we are near the end of the Gold Rush arch.

About Vanguard. Perhaps my memory is faulty, but I seem to remember the game being described as a extraction shooter. In the dev blog CCP Rattati and CCP Okami backed away from that description.

Finally about the events. Remember the four empire events that were added as a marketing device a few years back? Sounds like those might go away.

Final Fantasy XIV Cosmic Exploration On Phaenna - All Stellar Tools Acquired

I went a little crazy crafting in Cosmic Exploration on Phaenna this weekend. On the positive side, I acquired the last of the 11 Stellar crafting and gathering tools on Tuesday. For me, getting all my tools leveled from Cosmic to Stellar two weeks after the launch of Final Fantasy XIV's patch 7.31 was lightning fast.

All tools research to intermediate level 5

Now to go over the details. The leveling process goes faster for the final 6 tools due to the research bonus for reaching level 5 for other tools. The bonus is:

• 1-2 tools - 50%
• 3-4 tools - 100%
• 5+  tools - 150%

Order: I think I found an order to level my tools. First, I start out with botany followed by mining. I think those two gathering sets of missions are the easiest so I do those to get the 50% bonus for the first crafting tool. Next, I work on the three tools used by my specialist crafting classes. In my case those are Culinarian, Leatherworker, and Weaver. Those classes get the specialist bonus stats which makes completion a bit easier. I then work on the remaining 5 crafting classes and finish up by fishing.

Resources: I used the following resources during my Stellar tool grind:

• Final Fantasy XIV Online Wiki - My favorite reference site, whenever I needed help with a gathering task I just typed in the name of the mission. Most of the time I found the information I needed, especially with fishing.
  
  
• Raphael - This site was invaluable for doing crafting missions. The site creates macros even if you only know the name of the mission. The mission feature is something new since I used the site during the first phase of Cosmic Exploration. I personally plugged in the lowest set of stats for all my crafting classes and Raphael produced a workable macro.
  
  
• Teamcraft - I used both the Teamcraft Crafting Melding Guide and Teamcraft Gathering Melding Guide to determine how to overmeld my gear and tools.

Overmelding: Yes! Overmelding makes things much easier. I did Sinus Ardorum using the mid-tier Teamcraft sets. This wave I didn't have everything pentamelded but using the top gear plus as many melds as possible made Phaenna feel so much easier. Which is the point of overmelding gear in the first place.

Gathering: Feel free to do all the weather-restricted and time-restricted missions if interested in getting the 60 books required for the Cosmoboard. Just make sure to have as much GP as possible to make things easier. Gathering requires a lot of travel so remember use of the aetheryte is not restricted.

Crafting: I found the fastest way to level was to craft items I could make macros for. Also, when crafting try to pick the missions that only give 2 crates of materials as those go by really fast. If one really wants to grind class points, I understand Sinus Ardorum is still the fastest place to do so.

Mech Ops: Mech Ops either grant bonuses to the next 20 missions if done on foot or between 1200 and 1800 Cosmocredits if performed in a mech. I usually alternated between doing one in a mech and one on foot.

Red Alert: I love doing Red Alerts. The missions are easy which means racking up large amounts of class points. I think I'm up to doing two fishing missions per minute during a Red Alert. Overmelding large amounts of gathering point materia really comes in handy.

Cosmic Fortunes: Do at least one every day as just doing one gives a daily reward. Also, spending Phaenna credits on spins just to not lose the excess credits can prove profitable. Right now I still need to win the Warp Loader mount. I have just about everything else and have even sold items on the marketboard.

Spending Cosmocredits: I started spending my Cosmocredits to get the glamour items from the shop. Which, in hindsight wasn't the best move as I won a set playing the Cosmic Fortunes roulette. I then began buying all the materia I needed to complete overmelding my gear. My crafting gear is now fully pentamelded and I just need to add one more materia to each of the eight secondary tools I own for my crafting classes.

Of course I had to treat myself once I reached that point in my melding grind, so I spent 29,000 Cosmocredits to purchase an Interstellar Dhalmel. That's right, I'm now riding around on a giant space giraffe while I grind out the last materia needed to finish off my crafting sets.

That's it for now. I need to go out and grind for the larger prizes like the Cosmoboard and the mount available when a player finishes grinding out 500,000 class points on each crafting and gathering class. I also need to finish off getting the last intermediate research points so I can upgrade my tools as soon as patch 7.41 drops. Really, I'm only at the halfway point now. Two more patches to go.

Elon Musk And CCP Games?

Before too much more time goes by I really need to make note of a post on X by the owner of the platform, Elon Musk. I just want to let people know I don't follow Musk. I would have missed this tidbit if not for the folks over on MassivelyOP.com.

The post in question

At the time Musk made the post he probably was in London, home of CCP Games' CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson's office. Since the post was about artificial intelligence, in reply to a writer who concentrates on AI, I thought asking Musk's AI program Grok appropriate to explain the post.

Elon Musk's mention of a potential AI game collaboration with Eve Online reflects a bold shift, leveraging AI to create experiences beyond human design, aligning with recent advancements in generative AI, such as OpenAI's DALL-E, which produced the 'Critterz' film in just nine months with a $30 million budget.



This idea builds on Eve Online's unique player-driven economy, supported by a 2019 study from the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research showing its 500,000+ active users generate real economic value through in-game trade, suggesting AI could enhance this complexity rather than replace it.



The timing coincides with xAI's growth and the rise of blockchain-based gaming (e.g., Xai's Layer 3 solution), hinting at a future where AI-driven games could integrate decentralized, persistent worlds, challenging the centralized control of traditional MMOs.

While the above may be an AI hallucination, the reasoning tracks. Plus, data centers in Iceland have advantages not found in other locations. Well besides the fact that CCP Games was one of the original anchors for Verne Global's data center back in 2012.

The creator of the EVE Online virtual world, CCP Games, chose Verne Global based on the site’s renewable power grid and strategic location between its two primary markets. Furthermore, a key factor is Verne Global’s ability to offer fixed power pricing for extended contracts.

“The primary reason for selecting Verne Global above all other alternative sites were the availability and predictability of power and the option of securing long-term price guarantees at attractive price levels,” explained CCP’s IT Director, Ingvar Bjarnason...

The new data center uses Iceland’s vast supply of hydroelectric and geothermal energy, and also takes advantage of the country’s cool climate, which allows for free cooling all year round. Modular specialist Colt customised the data center’s hall design, equipping it with cooling modules that allow to cool servers using air from outside the data center.

Well, a little more went into the arrangement since CCP Games and Verne Global had intertwining financial connections due to the involvement of Bjorgolfur Thor, Iceland's first dollar billionaire, in both companies. But with AI requiring the creation of a lot more data centers, operating in Iceland would provide an advantage to Musk's AI initiatives.

But the biggest reason for making a note are the rumors of Pearl Abyss looking to sell off CCP Games. At the time the rumors first emerged I thought someone interested in cryptocurrencies would show interest but I couldn't really think of a good buyer. But throw in Musk's interests in crypto as well as AI and maybe the idea isn't as far-fetched as when I first read about the X post on MassivelyOP.

Changes Are Coming To EVE Online's Monthly Economic Report

Last Thursday CCP Games released the monthly economic report (MER) for August 2025. Normally I would publish a post focusing on the Active ISK Delta, a measure of the net effect on the money supply of players leaving and returning to the game, including all GM actions. But with CCP's data scientists revamping the MER, now is a good time to change the way I look at the metrics like the Active ISK Delta as well.

Faucets, sinks, and the Active ISK Delta

First, let's look at the information provided by CCP.

The Monthly Economic Report for August 2025 is now available!

The Future & Beta:

• We are doing major work on both the data-pipeline and output (plots and CSVs) of the MER. You can see some of the early output in the beta directory. Expect to see significantly more in the September MER.
• Some plots will removed, mostly due to data issues.. We’ll go though each in detail next MER release.
• Specific to the Import/Export Chart - The data-source for this being depreciated. Regardless, we’ll continue to run it for as long as we can, in its current state. We understand there is some interest in it at the moment.

Some of the issues it has:

• It ignores Titan Bridge movements.
• It ignored Jump Bridge movements (rare between regions) until recently.
• We wanted to only include Non-Singleton items (that is, un-assembled items), in cargo holds. We can’t, the current data-source doesn’t differentiate between singletons and non-singletons. Nor does it differentiate between different holds (for example - ship holds for Capitals). We want the chart to show the movement of goods (but not ships) between regions. Instead we get a weird mix of goods and some ships in some cases.

For those running scripts to extract data from the MER; Sorry. Thank you for your patience.

I use the MER to explain player numbers on Tranquility which is why these posts almost always include Jester's average concurrent user charts.

Last 12 months

Since the Active ISK Delta became a tracked metric in February 2016 I have worked with the understanding that the active money supply consists of ISK held in corporate wallets plus in the wallets of characters of accounts that have logged in within the past 30 days. But I've had to question that understanding over the past few weeks. CSM member (and YouTuber) The Oz came out and stated the active money supply consists of ISK in the wallets of accounts that have logged in within the past 90 days. After searching the Internet, I can't find a statement either confirming or contradicting his assertion.

Now, if The Oz is correct -- and he does have direct access to the devs -- then the Active ISK Delta becomes a lot less explanatory of a metric. For example, let's take the Active ISK Delta for the last three Julys. The months with the most ISK removed in the last 9 years occurred in July 2024, July 2025, and July 2023. If the active money supply is defined as the ISK held in the wallets of accounts that logged into EVE in the past 30 days, then I can point to the aftermath of players who came back for the summer expansion falling away. But if the active money supply is defined as ISK on accounts that have logged in within the past 90 days? Honestly, I can't say what occurred in April of the last three years to make the money supply fall by over 5% in July.

I have to admit that due to the reading about economics I've done over the past couple of years I was inclined to just look at the money supply on a quarterly basis. The only thing holding me back was the explanatory nature of the Active ISK Delta. If the quarterly criteria applies as to whether an EVE account is active, I can't justify looking at the Active ISK Delta on a monthly basis. Not anymore.

The first two months of the global PLEX market

So does that mean I'll only look at the monthly economic reports on a quarterly basis? I do have ideas of new things to look at. For instance, the global PLEX market. I've always wondered about the ratio of ISK purchased off the market vs the ISK faucets. With the necessity of finding something new to write about I can recreate new datasets to look at the EVE Online economy in new ways.

Perhaps other ideas will pop up as CCP indicated a new data flow and different data will arrive next month. But for now I have to start working on a new format for these monthly posts.

The Ownership Of Cloud Imperium Games, 2025 Edition

September is here, which means the yearly disclosure of who owns shares in Cloud Imperium Games. Every September Cloud Imperium UK Ltd, the main company in Cloud Imperium, files a confirmation statement with UK Companies House disclosing the current ownership of CIG. Last year the confirmation statement allowed the public to know the disposition of CIG co-founder Ortwin Freyermuth's shares in the company. Today's filing confirms that the $5 million purchase of shares made on 15 January this year was to Keith Calder, CIG's second largest shareholder.

List of CIG shareholders, 2025

January's stock allotment and purchase increased Keith Calder's holdings in CIG to 22.4%. When combined with father Clive Calder's shares, the Calders control 23% of CIG. While CIG founder and CEO Chris Roberts saw his ownership share drop below 70% the veteran game maker and former film producer still holds solid control of Cloud Imperium.

Since I get asked a few times a year for the list, here is a breakdown of CIG's ownership as of 10 September 2025.

Chris Roberts (69.7% ownership, 8,354,020 shares) - The co-founder of Cloud Imperium, Roberts is known as the creator of the Wing Commander series of video games. After short run in Hollywood as a film producer, Roberts returned to video games in 2011-2012.

Indus Management LTD (22.4% ownership, 2,435,116 shares) - The company is owned (or at least controlled) by Keith Calder, a film producer since 2004. Calder is perhaps best known for the movies One Night in Miami, Blair Witch, and Blindspotting. Over the past two years Calder's ownership share of CIG has increased from 13.3% to 22.4%.

Erin Roberts (4.6% ownership, 551,292 shares) - The brother of Chris Roberts, Erin has worked with Chris on projects going back 30 years. He currently is listed as CIG's Chief Development Officer.

Infatrade Group Corporation (2.3% ownership, 277,500 shares) - Infatrade is owned by Eli Klein, whom records show owns at least 75% of the company run by his brother Alon. Klein was involved as an advisor to CIG during the initial investment by the Calders and has had an involvement in company ever since.

Erloch, LTD (0.6% ownership, 70,034 shares) - Not much is known of Erloch, LTD, but information from the time of the Calders' initial investment in CIG leads to the conclusion the Erloch is the name of Clive Calder's family office in the Caymen Islands. According to Forbes, Clive Calder is worth $6.9 billion in 2025, although the records on UK Companies House show the "Calders' investment" in CIG was primarily from Clive's son Keith.

Marc Deaudet (0.2% ownership, 28,979 shares) - Marc Deaudet was a co-founder of Turbulent and mostly obtained his ownership stake in CIG's 2-stage acquisition of the company. Deaudet is currently listed as the Senior Vice President of Studio Operations.

Benoit Beausejour (0.2% ownership, 28,979 shares) - Benoit Beausejour was a co-founder of Turbulent and mostly obtained his ownership stake in CIG's 2-stage acquisition of the company. Beausejour is currently listed as the Chief Technology Officer of CIG.

No Squadron 42 At 2025's CitizenCon Direct

As I follow Cloud Imperium Game's single player game under development, Squadron 42, I'm beginning to get flashbacks to another long-delayed game, Pearl Abyss' Crimson Desert. I was expecting to get an update on Squadron 42 next month at CitizenCon. The game is finally supposed to launch sometime in 2026, presumably a few months after May's launch of Grand Theft Auto VI. But on Thursday's Star Citizen Live: Tech Talk w/ Benoit Beausejour, we learned no launch date will be forthcoming in October.

Cloud Imperium's Jared Huckaby made the following announcement:

I do want to say some more things about CitizenCon Direct. If you're a subscriber to the Squadron 42 newsletter that just went out with a with a map of the Odin system. There was a note at the end there about the Squadron 42 team still being heads down and working on that. I want to second the information there and I want to star-splain the information that was there. There will be no Squadron 42 presence at CitizenCon Direct this year. So, just in case there was any kind of kind of people were like, I didn't quite understand the message or maybe the message wasn't, you know, fully clear and what not and if it wasn't, maybe that was on us.

That team is heads down. We drew a line in the sand when we said 2026. I don't know if we're going to make it. I just know that we're going to do every single thing possible to make it. And part of that is not taking time for the distraction of CitizenCon. It's why we're not doing a larger event this year. It's why we're doing a smaller, more focused thing. Even when we did digital CitizenCon, those were still these big 6, 8, 10 hour things. We called that CitizenCon. This is not CitizenCon.

It's CitizenCon Direct. It's a much smaller, more focused thing specifically on the work of the Star Citizen team and what they plan for the next year of development. We're not going to look at 1.0 stuff. It’s just we're going to take a look at what the next year of our intention is for that. So it's a much smaller more dedicated thing. I think you're still going to enjoy it. People who are working on it are doing a lot of really hard work to make it as entertaining and informative as possible. 

But again, just want to be real clear with the expectations management. No Squadron 42 presence at all. That's not a release date. That's not any of that stuff. We're letting those people stay focused. They're letting those people stay focused. We're on track. There's nothing to report. There's no mystery. There's no anything we're hiding or whatever. It's like we said when we announced Star Citizen Direct, we're trying to stay out of everybody's way and let them focus and let them do the work that they're here to do, which is make the game.

In the video Huckaby did leave open the possibility the game will not launch in 2026. This year's record sales may have taken some of the pressure off of needing to launch the game in 2026. But I can't imagine Squadron 42 can realistically be delayed too much longer.

EVE Frontier: An Example Of Realism Vs Playability In Video Game Design

Back in the 1990s I learned a few things about game design by attending conventions like GenCon and Origins. One lesson was that realism often was the enemy of good gameplay and game designers needed to choose between the two. The advent of video games allowed computers to take care of the more mind numbing tasks but didn't eliminate the conflict. I was reminded of the realism vs. game play debate today when I read an article on Space.com about the way CCP Games created the EVE Frontier universe.

CCP is known for creating science fiction games like EVE Online and the two software engineers interviewed for the article definitely reflected the science part of the equation. Helgi Freyr Rúnarsson (aka CCP relativistic) has led "world generation and resource design" in the project and received a PhD in computational astrophysics from Portugal's Aveiro University while specializing in black hole simulations. Guðlaugur Jóhannesson (aka CCP Wizard) who developed the backend systems used in Frontier, holds a PhD in astrophysics and is a Stanford University postdoc in cosmic-ray and gamma-ray research.

The Frontier galaxy

The galaxy Frontier is set in was created by using the Barnes-Hut algorithm to recreate a three galaxy merger.

"We're using a full-scale version of that code," Rúnarsson confirmed before going really deep with his explanation of the process: "We have the Hernquist prescription to generate the initial conditions of the galaxies. It's a three-decade-old prescription done by a physicist called Lars Hernquist back in the '80s... He basically came up with nice probability density initial conditions for galaxies to construct them numerically, both their positions and velocities, and all of that stuff."

The second step involves calculating the forces with the Barnes-Hut algorithm: "If you know numerical integration, you have to calculate the forces, and then you have to do the timestamping. Repeat that as many times as you want until you get a nice image..."

While impressive, the model is probably not the most precise way to create the galaxy. But having reviewed CCP's finances for years I'm pretty sure the budget didn't include a line item to purchase a supercomputer. According to Rúnarsson the process ran on workstations in the office.

I began the post teasing how sometimes realism has to make way for game play. Here are some examples.

Crude and fuel. One way Frontier differs from its big brother EVE Online is the use of fuel. The idea of using dark matter as Frontier's version of oil was scrapped for understandable reasons.

...Jóhannesson actually pitched the creatives on using dark matter as the fuel for the ships; the problem was that we know too much about it. "We know for certain it's not clumped, and it peaks in the center of the galaxy, and anywhere else it's uniform, so it would not make for good gameplay. That's why we decided to go for a more hardcore sci-fi experience where the origin of it isn't exactly known."

Developing a game based on real science can be a challenge when our understanding of the universe is developing so quickly. Cutting-edge science that you base your project on can be outdated by the time you actually reach the development finish line. That's why Jóhannesson quips that it's "better make something up that's too far in the future to ever be discovered."

Did I mention that EVE Online is set 20,000 years in the future? 

Ship speed. Yes, really. Ships in EVE Online are realistically too slow. CCP Wizard explained:

CCP Games' efforts to make EVE Frontier's universe realistic occasionally had to be sacrificed to accommodate the game's systems and mechanics. Jóhannesson was bothered by EVE Online's "very, very low" speed when flying a spaceship, but ended up keeping it in Frontier for gameplay reasons. "In our universe, the physical space has friction; the physics engine is modeled as a Newtonian fluid without gravity. So there's no gravity there, and there's friction. The astrophysicist in me was like, 'This is absolutely insane and stupid, and we can do better.' I started talking to people around me about this, and they were 'Yes, this is unrealistic, but we want the enjoyment of the gameplay.' It also would be very difficult to get faster-than-light travel; you'd have to take relativistic time dilation into account... It wouldn't be much fun, so we implement this very non-scientific frictional movement in space so you can... actually see the stuff around you and can do dogfighting."

Pretty nebulae. I grew up in a time when space was black. I guess EVE Online players did such a good job of convincing the art department to add pink to New Eden that they got carried away. The philosophy extended into Frontier.

"When you're within the nebula, that's a very unrealistic image of what it would look like because the space is really low-density material. You need to look through quite a lot of distances before you can actually see all of this nice effect. So I wanted things to look black because space is mostly black, but art decided that wasn't a good idea. So they shut me down again... At least now in Frontier, almost all of the nebulas have some resemblance of a galactic disk in them, so I managed to get that through. But there are a lot of areas where we have to make compromises because we're making a game that should look pretty and be playable."

Systems. Near the end of the article the reader learns the Frontier team really could have used that supercomputer after all. 

Similarly, Rúnarsson and Jóhannesson would've liked to go bigger with the simulation and generation of solar systems: "Technically, with the exact same code that we used to smash three galaxies together, we could have just different initial conditions and run the same code and get some sort of protoplanetary disk that coalesces... That was totally out of bounds in terms of time constraints. We did like a toy model inspired by it... So you're like a kindergartner who's placing planets, making sure it looks kind of nice... What is it that players actually see? It'd be cool if we could've simulated 24,000 solar systems, but the end result is still the same."

Player devs and the blockchain. I never thought about the question, but with Frontier incorporating third party developers directly into the game, the development team needed to ensure whatever tools made their way into the game world fit in with the setting.

Before wrapping up, we also wanted to learn about the 'player-driven systems' and how they work together with all the complexity of the simulated universe. Jóhannesson told us the "base-building component and connection to the blockchain world" means CCP doesn't have "a monolithic power over what happens." There'll be a set of rules in the beginning "to allow people to interact from the Web3 to our game to the game servers and the game itself."

There are rules like gravity to obey, of course, but players can just create systems like hiring someone to move "storage units" across the game universe; this work can later be paid with "blockchain costs or EVE coins, which you can later exchange for something else in-game or outside the game." Generally, the developers are trying to "make consistent rules which players have to obey but can play with."

Some of what was covered in the Space.com article also applies to EVE Online. After all, both Online and Frontier use the Carbon engine. But some of the same principles also apply to video games in general. After all, a game designer's main purpose is to create an enjoyable game, not a simulation that leads to a miserable experience.

EVE's Carbon Engine: Quasar And Data Driven Design

Every so often I come across a reminder than both EVE Online and EVE Frontier use the Carbon game engine. Players from EVE Online probably want to check the latest Frontier dev blogs for information, especially those interested in the technical aspects of the game. Last week the Frontier team published a dev blog describing how the information from Quasar is used to evaluate events and gameplay loops during development.

First, what is Quasar? Quasar is CCP’s custom-built gRPC-based networking layer within the Carbon Engine. The framework acts as a high-speed data pipeline between the game client/server and external services—bypassing traditional databases for efficiency. For purposes of design from the dev blog, the author concentrates on the tracking of protobuf information.

What are protobufs? The dev blog explained.

These protobufs can be quite literally anything we want. The process is simple:

• Someone identifies a need for a particular point of data (e.g. a ship refueling or someone constructing a smart assembly like a Smart Storage Unit).
• The gameplay engineering team ensure a protobuf for that event is emitted to Quasar.
• The data engineering team receive these events and they go into the ‘cold data lake’. So called cold because this type of data doesn’t need to be real-time, it can take up to an hour as the system aggregates data for faster querying (there are also real-time events for things like missions).
• Data scientists do data magic and produce pages in Tableau for designers and engineers to review.

I don't think the example used to illustrate the usage of Quasar would surprise anyone who has played EVE Online. That's right, Frontier's New Player Experience, which I usually call the tutorial when writing about the game. But as I've run through the NPE several times now the example makes sense to me.

Timing of each element of Frontier's tutorial

I have to appreciate as someone who purchased a Founder's pack that I don't need to fill out journal entries for the developers. That task is handled by Quasar. Which leads me to concentrate on the mechanics so I can learn about Frontier instead.

Now, like AI programs, the data does need some interpretation.

In the table we can clearly see some steps take significantly longer than others. For example, players leaving the system after fitting modules to their ship. Now I should note some long steps are expected and not problematic. For example leaving the system being where it is makes sense because, once you have built your first jump capable ship, it takes a few more mining/refining runs to fuel up. Moreover, with the lens that as these are primarily new players, they will not have figured out the most optimal solutions / routes / methods for doing these things in-game.

The next example really appeals to long-time EVE players: player retention. Where in the tutorial do players decide to quit the tutorial?

Where do players quit?

A quick explainer on this one, the % shown at each line is the % of new players that don’t complete the previous step and move onwards. For example, of all the players that start the tutorial by entering the game, only 0.01% (or 1 in every 10.000 new players) don’t move onwards to refuel their ship. Now, suddenly, that large time ‘leave system’ looks a lot more understandable as only 7.13% of all new players drop out here. We can take this to mean if you’ve reached that point, you understand the gameplay to the level where you have figured out what to do next.

Instead, we can see that the step ‘gather resources' loses nearly 20% of  new players despite taking a median time of just 9.20 minutes. Relatively short steps with steep drop-offs are our biggest design red flags and offer clear areas for improvement. We can look into that step specifically and attempt to determine the factors that cause this drop-off. Once we have ideas, we can start testing changes and, thanks to our robust data pipeline, do comparisons between cohorts to see the effect our changes have. We can, of course, add as many steps into this chart as we think we need to get a solid understanding of the key moments that play into them.

Just from my experience I have to wonder how many of those new players quit because they couldn't find the necessary resources? I have to guess that people complaining on the Frontier Discord server weren't the only reason more resources seemed to pop up near systems adjacent to the tutorial areas. Or did I just get lucky?

Of course, what works in Frontier works in Online. I expect that the Online game designers use similar information to adjust both seasonal events and expansion content. That quick iteration on content that never used to happen before? Apparently the logs don't show anything but Quasar does.

Cliffnotes For The Major Update For EVE Online's Legion Expansion

I woke up to an insanely large update to EVE Online's Legion patch notes. Everything to nerfing drone use and Marauders to buffing tactical destroyers and Edencon ships, a lot of players will need to refit their ships over the next few days.

I don't think the accompanying dev blog hits all the changes. Indeed, Legion has thrown a lot of changes at players throughout the course of the expansion.

But I'm going to try to provide a Cliffnotes version of the dev blog below. I've actually run the dev blog through two AI programs, which means this post is also part of my professional development for work. A positive is also it kind of fits the format I developed for previous posts on EVE updates. Hopefully players will find the information useful.

Deep Dive Summary of the Legion Major Update

The Legion Major Update isn’t just a balance pass—it’s a strategic pivot by CCP to diversify pilot roles, fracture stale metas, and spark new player-driven economies.

Combat Overhaul: Shaking Up the Meta

• Marauders nerfed: Their agility is reduced, and they’ve lost exclusive access to ESS sites.
• Tech III destroyers now enter the ESS fray, promoting faster, more flexible fleet tactics.
• Drone-assist mechanics rebalanced to curb multiboxing abuse.
• Ship buffs and nerfs: Forgotten hulls like the Confessor and Harbinger Navy Issue get revived, while overperformers like the Ferox Navy Issue are toned down.
• Battleship tweaks: Apocalypse leans into sniping; Maelstrom gains frontline resilience.

The marauder nerfs and targeted buffs for niche hulls like the Confessor revive underused ships while discouraging heavy alpha doctrines. By granting ESS access to Tech III destroyers and rebalancing drone-assist, CCP is nudging fleets toward more dynamic hit-and-fade tactics. This shift could decentralize nullsec power, rewarding alliances that embrace mobility and logistics over raw firepower.

Freelance Jobs: Merc Work Goes Pro

• New contracts let players hunt other capsuleers, repair remotely, or act as logistics specialists.
• ESI endpoints now support player-built bounty boards and contract systems—opening doors for emergent professions.

Capsuleer-launched bounties and remote logistics contracts transform the contract system into a gig economy. Pilots can now earn ISK by hunting specific targets, repairing ships in hostile space, or ferrying supplies—and alliances can tap this talent pool on demand. Expect third-party tools and APIs to flourish as hubs for matching “mercs” with mission-givers.

Exploration Upgrades: Wormholes & Pochven

• Wormholes offer better connectivity and smoother navigation.
• Pochven gets smarter NPCs, fairer payouts for small sites, and richer rewards for Observatory battles.
• Triglavian ship costs drop thanks to improved material flow

Smarter Pochven NPCs and streamlined wormhole routing reshape the risk-reward calculus for explorers. Lower Triglavian ship costs invite more pilots into Obelisk stickups and Expo fleets, changing the loot distribution in wormhole space. Gatecampers will need fresh tactics as small groups exploit optimized wormhole chains and higher-value sites.

Quality of Life: More Freedom, Less Friction

• Remote Skyhook configuration streamlines alliance logistics.
• Gender change added to resculpt certificates—free until Sept 16, along with 15,000 SP.
• Factional Warfare entry rules updated to reduce awoxing.

Remote Skyhook configuration cuts alliance logistics friction, making jump-freighting and POS resupply leaner. Faction Warfare tweaks curb awoxing, strengthening trust in zone defense ops. Free gender changes plus 15,000 SP until Sept 16 are subtle player-retention levers—small perks with big engagement boosts.

I'm going to end this post with the conclusion of the dev blog. 

A Galaxy in Motion

The Legion Major Update follows in the footsteps of what was seen in the Revenant expansion, but with a focus all its own. Revenant reshaped industry and warfare. Legion focuses on balance, freelance work, and exploration. Together, they set a precedent: that New Eden is ever in motion, never fixed, constantly adapting to capsuleers’ actions, and pushing them to adapt in turn.

The sandbox has shifted once again. New doctrines rise, new professions emerge, and the far reaches of space grow more rewarding. The changes are varied, but the purpose is simple: to give capsuleers more meaningful choices, more space for creativity, and more reasons to fly.

Beginning Cosmic Exploration Gathering On Phaenna - Final Fantasy XIV Patch 7.3.1

Yesterday I downloaded patch 7.3.1 for Final Fantasy XIV and headed off to restock my island sanctuary before venturing out to step foot on Phaenna, the next stop in Dawntrail's Cosmic Exploration content. I did some prep work beforehand but one can't learn lessons without looking back.

Heading to Phaenna for the first time

When I landed I rushed out to explore a little. Besides finding out more about the local currency I discovered two things. First, I really should have topped off all my types of experience before the patch as to get the first upgraded tool faster. The next is, I'm kind of glad I didn't.

The beginner's buff also works on Phaenna

The reason is that the equipment upgrade, including overmelding, I did over the first four weeks of patch 7.3 came in really handy, at least for leveling my botanist skills. I didn't complete the melding of GP materia but with the addition of Nasi Goreng I begin each gathering mission with 1001 gathering points. Combined with the new automatic reset of GP after each mission I am tearing through the content, needing at most to consume one hi-cordial to keep going. Best of all, I am not encountering the long periods of downtime I did in the first phase of Cosmic Exploration.

Next travelling to and staying in Cosmic Exploration zones is much easier than previously. First, players can travel via the Bestways Burrow aetheryte to Phaenna. So I designated the aetheryte my free destination and can now zip to the zone for free very quickly. And I don't have to leave as a summoning bell is present near the merchants. If I ever run out of Nasi Goreng I can make some more on the spot.

Speaking on the merchants, I kind of blew a lot of cosmocredits on shiny new items. The new Star Captain's Attire set cost 30,000 cosmocredits. What I should have done is spend that amount of materia instead. While 1001 GP is great for getting me through the normal missions, I would feel better with a little more GP. Or I could add a few more points of control by overmelding one more Craftsman Cunning Materia XI onto each of my secondary crafting tools. Each one currently has two open slots so I can add a total of 30 more control to each tool. Those 30,000 cosmocredits spent on a glamour set could have purchased 66 materia XIs.

The Stellar Hatchet

Since I decided to improve my botanist first I did the 5 botanist levels to get my first Stellar tool, the Stellar Hatchet. Not very impressive looking but when I got to Cosmic hatchet 1.4 the stats finally exceeded those of my pentamelded Everseeker's Hatchet. The Stellar Hatchet does not exceed the stats of a pentamelded Gold's Thumb Hatchet, but for the type of grind I intend to go on the Stellar tool's +35% bonus to earning Phaenna credits plus proc bonuses that come with the tools will come in more handy.

How much time did it take to go from Cosmic Hatchet to Stellar Hatchet? I needed three play sessions totaling perhaps 6-7 hours. But I did stop my progress to do Mech Ops missions as ground support. Doing so provides a bonus of the next 20 missions completed granting additional cosmocredits. I tend to try to keep the bonus up and running while running through the regular missions. I also managed to participate in one Red Alert event which helps level tools.

I should also add for the second class I intend to improve, miner, the research bonus will be 50% greater than what I earned for leveling the botanist tool. So I'm hoping at the reduced rate I can research 2 tools a week up to Stellar level. My goal is to have all the tools by 14 October, or five weeks from now. Of course, gathering is pretty easy with pentamelded tools and the change to gathering points and the timer for cordials resetting upon the successful completion of a mission. Next week I'll try my hand at crafting.

EVE Frontier Free Access 5-15 September: With 100% Less Rubik's Cube

Sometimes I see something come across my social media streams and a weird thought pops into my head. The latest involves CCP Games' latest EVE universe game currently under development, EVE Frontier. The game is holding a free access event from 5-15 September for Cycle 2 and I see documentation from CCP for beginners on how to get through the tutorial. The YouTube video is below.

I'm not exactly surprised since I have a founder's pack and have played in a few cycles now. What I am still a little surprised about is the official documentation. In the testing cycles before CCP started selling founder's access packs player created guides were available on the game's Discord server. But I did begin playing EVE Online in 2009 and some assumptions die hard.

Back then players began in space with no in-game introduction. To say I felt lost and frustrated playing EVE Online in my first few minutes is a bit of an understatement. A former high-level developer, CCP Soundwave, described the new player experience a few years later in a sentence: "Here's a Rubik's Cube, go fuck yourself."

Over the last decade CCP's philosophy has changed. Rubik's Cubes out, tutorials in. Of course, in EVE Online the company for the longest time resisted the idea of a stand-alone tutorial zone where players are safe from veterans. From my experience so far in Frontier, players still aren't totally safe from others but mostly they are put in a system with other new players, if they don't spawn in an empty system to begin. Another one of those differences between the two games.

For the Frontier team, the advantages of documentation for new players is pretty obvious. The tutorial by this point has been tested by thousands of players. With the game in alpha (or is it pre-alpha?) leading players into more raw and less tested content helps development efforts and player testing. Also, I imagine they, and helpful players, get tired of answering questions about the tutorial and want to engage with more interesting content.

One thing I have noticed through the four testing cycles I've participated in so far is the availability of information, both official and player-created, for the game. I get the feeling in today's age throwing a Rubik's Cube at players and telling them to figure things out for themselves isn't exactly a winning strategy. Especially when you need players to come in and test your game.

Final Fantasy XIV Patch 7.31 Cosmic Exploration Patch Notes - Phaenna

Another month, another set of patch notes in Final Fantasy XIV. Today is the release of patch 7.31, Square Enix brings updates to Phantom weapons and Cosmic tools. Since I am an omnicrafter I thought I'd go through and pick out the updates to Cosmic Exploration.

The first planet players travel to is Phaenna. To get to the new zone, players have to travel to Sinus Ardorum (the cosmic exploration moon) and complete the following quest.

Go Forth, Brave Explorers

• Disciple of the Hand or Land level 10
• Sinus Ardorum (X:20.4 Y:20.0)
• Searchingway
• Players must first complete the quest "Passion, Thy Name Is Ardorum."

The quest "Passion, Thy Name Is Ardorum" is the quest on Sinus Ardorum that becomes available after all infrastructure is built on Sinus Ardorum. In addition to the entry quest, patch 7.31 brings five other storyline quests that pop up once the players on a server get enough project progress.

Upon unlocking the new zone, players get a choice of how to travel to Phaenna. Players may travel to the star using the Bestways Burrow aetheryte, speaking with Drivingway in Mare Lamentorum (X:21.9 Y:13.2), or by speaking with Cruisingway in Sinus Ardorum (X:20.6 Y:19.5) and selecting Phaenna as a destination.

What is a new zone without new currency? For those wondering if currency earned on Sinus Ardorum was good on Phaenna, the answer is "kind of". Cosmocredits are usable universally but Phaenna has its own set of credits and tokens.

Phaenna Credits

Players earn Phaenna credits by participating in stellar missions and projects on Phaenna. These credits can be exchanged for mech op pilot applications while on the star, or used to draw cosmic fortunes.

* While on Phaenna, Phaenna credits will be displayed on your exotablet in the same location as lunar credits. Lunar credits can still be earned and used while in Sinus Ardorum, and will continue to display as usual.

Phaenna Exploration Tokens

Phaenna exploration tokens can be exchanged for a special mount.

These tokens are awarded upon the completion of EX+ stellar missions. Both the tokens themselves and the mount available for exchange can be sold via the market board.

For those wondering, we get to own the bulldozer.

And for those wondering about minions, I think the new one is adorable.

Another way to earn credits is through stellar successes. Here are the updates in patch 7.31 to the system.

Daily Successes

Upon completing the quest "Go Forth, Brave Explorers," lunar credits earned via daily successes will be converted to Phaenna credits. Please note that daily success points can also be accrued in Sinus Ardorum.

Standard Successes

Phaenna has been added as a separate category, and the Stellar Successes window will now display standard successes corresponding to the star on which you currently reside. Players may check the progress of standard successes on other stars via the pulldown menu toward the top of the window.

For those looking to become the Star Contributor and receive the 14-day buff the following changes were made to the system.

Starward Standings

Tallying for Starward Standings has been changed, and will now be based on player contributions from stellar missions, mech ops, and projects undertaken on Phaenna. Players can check their current standing by speaking with Scanningway on Phaenna (X:28.1 Y:12.6).

* Contributions made in Sinus Ardorum will not count towards your contribution score.

Commendation

Star Contributors will be honored for fourteen days in the following ways:

• A hologram of the player will be displayed on Phaenna (X:27.9 Y:12.7).
• The player's name will be displayed on the starward standings stela on Phaenna (X:28.0 Y:12.6).
• A special visual effect will be applied to the character in cosmic exploration areas.

Star Contributors cannot be reselected for fourteen days. However, if the current Star Contributor still holds the highest contribution score on the fourteenth day after being selected, they will be designated as Star Contributor again on the following day.

* Commendations received on Phaenna will not apply to Sinus Ardorum.

And last but certainly not least, the cosmic tools earned on Sinus Ardorum can be further enhanced.

By participating in cosmic exploration, players can obtain class-specific tools for Disciples of the Hand and Land which can be enhanced.

Enhancing Cosmic Tools

By completing stellar missions, players will obtain research data critical for tool enhancement. Cosmic prototypes do not need to be equipped to accrue research data.

Players can confirm required research via "Cosmic Research" on the exotablet.

Once players have accrued sufficient research data, they may report to Researchingway on the star on which they currently reside. Doing so will allow players to obtain enhanced prototypes and cosmic tools.

While players may obtain numerous cosmic prototypes and tools, research data can only be accrued via stellar missions for any given class.

The patch notes do make it sound like those just jumping into cosmic explorations can join the rest of us on Phaenna and not have to take on the missions on Sinus Ardorum alone. A very good decision.

I should note that as I prepare to publish this post that all worlds have completed the first phase of the project on Phaenna, Cosmoliner Beaconveil Filigree. Apparently Cosmic Exploration is popular. Who knew?