A funny thing happened when I started cleaning up my blog a few weeks back. I was just “archiving” old EVE Online posts, fixing dead links, swapping in updated YouTube videos… totally innocent stuff. Right... And then, somehow, I found myself dropped straight into the deep end of the nostalgia pool. One minute I’m fixing a broken link or looking for a working link to an EVE Fanfest video, the next I’m getting bombarded with “Come back to EVE!” ads like Hilmar had personally noticed my footsteps into my EVE content archive.
And honestly? The pull was too strong.
Mix in that "Making of EVE Online" documentary, and the full-on marketing push for Catalyst, CCP’s latest expansion, and resisting New Eden became a losing battle. So I took a peek. Just a tiny one. And, well, you can guess where this is going.
I’ve only been back in the game for, what, the better part of a week now? But it already feels like that surreal combination of coming home and discovering someone completely renovated the place. Sort of like driving by your childhood home. The neighborhood layout is the same… everything else has been upgraded.
The new (to me) skill system was the first shock. I remember setting alarms at ridiculous hours just to log in and start a new skill like some half-asleep capsuleer monk. Now it’s smooth, structured, and downright friendly. Today’s newbies have no idea how lucky they are.
Then there’s the AIR Career Program. Wow. Genuinely well done. A proper onboarding system instead of the old “here’s a Reaper, and good luck not dying” approach we had back in the day. If this existed when I first undocked, I might’ve avoided at least a few of the many early catastrophes.
The mission and agent system feels properly fleshed out too. Clearer progression, clearer goals. And the new (again, to me) Opportunities feature? That’s straight-up sorcery for newcomers. Back then, you undocked and basically learned by getting lost. Now you get a neat panel that says, “Here’s everything you can do right now.” Actual guidance. Amazing.
And then there’s the audio. Some of the old tracks still kick up memories like dust motes in an ancient hangar, but there are new pieces too—lush, moody, almost Blade Runner-esque. EVE has always had atmosphere, but now it feels cinematic. And since December 2019, they've been available through Spotify, so that you can bathe in the New Eden soundscape when not flying in it!
Ships? Customization? The SKIN System? SKINR? My god. It’s like CCP finally let the art team off the leash and said, “Go nuts.” And the new Ship Tree… that alone is worth a round of applause. A clean, visual progression map instead of the old “pieced together from rumor and spreadsheets” method. I know it was introduce way back over a decade ago, but by then it had been two years since I'd stop playing.
So yeah, I’m back.
Slowly, deliberately, absorbing all this newness layered on top of the familiar stars.
It’s still New Eden, but it’s a New Eden that’s grown up in some very good ways, from what I can tell so far...
So if you spot me in local staring at the UI like a tourist, that’s me.
Still relearning the future.
Wave hello. And might wave back and throw a couple ISKs your way.
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