The third EVE Online novel, EVE: Templar One, is available in stores all over the place including, of course, ebook versions

It picks up many threads of the EVE: Empyrean Age novel and reveals much about the first DUST 514 technology including some surprising EVE fiction reveals. 464 pages of politically-charged, action-oriented, mystery-unraveling, character-driven sci fi goodness that’s approachable and compelling and positively guaranteed to broaden your experience as a capsuleer as the NPC universe around becomes more familiar. We celebrate Tony Gonzales and the players that inspired him to write this epic novel and look forward to the evolution of this new technology he speaks of!

You can read more about EVE: Templar One at the above link or in TonyG’s dev blog.

Join us March 22^nd-24^th at the newly-constructed Harpa Conference Center for Fanfest 2012 in Reykjavík, Iceland. Tickets are now available, with special Early Bird Pricing if you buy before January 31^st. Here are some of the highlights of the 8th annual celebration of EVE Online:

The Future of EVE Online – Be here for exclusive announcements and presentations about the future of EVE Online. Sit in on roundtables and discussions with the developers to give your input on the current direction of the game and the road ahead.

Contests and Events – Poker and PVP tournaments, the Silent Auction, Live Agents and all the fun extras return in 2012 to challenge and entertain you throughout the festival.

One Universe / One War – Get the inside scoop on the revolutionary team-based shooter, DUST 514, exclusively at Fanfest 2012. Event attendees can look forward to roundtables, playable demos, and a chance to compete against fellow gamers in live matches. Every attendee will also receive a DUST 514 beta key!

Pubs and Parties – Sign up for a Pub Crawl with your favorite dev, rock out at the Party at the Top of the World, or head into town to bar-hop with your buddies. The night always comes alive in Reykjavik.

Inspired by Iceland – See the sights with fellow EVE fans! Golden Circle Tours and the Blue Lagoon Hangover Party will show you sides of Iceland that may very well surprise or amaze you. Event tickets are currently available on the account management page, and you can even buy them with PLEX!

Early Bird Specials

Early Bird Admission Tickets for the event are 100 USD, but that price won’t last long! After January  31^st, tickets will return to their normal price of 125 USD. Fanfest Admission Tickets are available here.

For more information, visit the Fanfest 2012 site. We look forward to seeing you in March!

With Crucible recently deployed, CCP Guard thought I should post up a new dev blog showing you all some stats on the goings on since, as apparently a couple of you enjoy these.

First up, the tier three battlecruisers appear to have been a real hit. 3,541 different characters produced a total of 47,023 of them as of 12:00am on Wednesday 7^th December. The Tornado was the most built, with 16,292 followed by the Oracle with 10,630. The largest single producing character produced 537 tier 3 battlecruisers and the largest producing corporation 664. That’s a lot of battlecruisers to blow up.

9,258 Customs office gantries had been built by 1,327 different characters. One corporation built 310 of them, with the maximum produced by a single character being 150. 5,146 Customs Offices had been destroyed, leaving that many planets open to player control. Of these, 18 were player owned customs offices and the rest Interbus.

Of the 5,128 Interbus Customs Offices destroyed, 778 were in low sec, 2,298 in null sec and 2,052 in wormhole space. These have been replaced by 4,515 player owned customs offices which were deployed at planets as of midnight. The largest single owner corporation held 51 customs offices.

Usage of the tier 3 battlecruisers was fairly high, with them scoring a total of 6,367 final blows (for simplicity we’re classing kills as being “final blows” for this):

So during the week after Crucible (excluding launch day itself), 24,104 final blows were made by battlecruisers compared to 14,955 the week before. That’s an impressive boost. There’s a fair few of the tier 3 battlecruisers getting blown up, too:

A huge amount of money was spent on the tier 3 blueprints; more than 4 trillion ISK. 4,138,410,333,998 ISK to be precise. That’s 8,709 blueprints. How much ISK is 4 trillion ISK? A lot. You’d have to kill Zor eight million times to make 4 trillion ISK.

Click to enlarge
A good indicator of in-space activity is how many ships have been getting blown up before and after the expansion. So to compare the week before and the week after:

…Or a an increase of 37.31%! The average daily peak concurrent user count  also jumped considerably, going from from 38,574 the week before Crucible to 43,180 the week after. We hope you’re all still enjoying the expansion and don’t forget that CCP Soundwave still wants you to tell him about all the little things that you’d like to see changed in this forum thread. If you enjoyed my previous blog about PVP stats, don’t forget to take a look at it’s comments thread where I’ve posted many further stats over the last week.

As the date of POS switchover has been moved to January 24 (please refer to this announcement by CCP Soundwave for more information), we will be temporarily doubling the size of POS fuel bays to reduce the impact of the delay to fuel block switch-over.

Please note that these changes will be reverted when fuel block consumption is enabled on January 24. Towers left with their fuel bays in an “overloaded” state as a result of this change should continue to function as normal.

Greetings again Capsuleers,

It’s time for more delicious brain implants. After downtime on Dec 12^th and running through Dec 21^st , you will find  the Genolution CA-2 available via the redemption system. Be sure to log in and redeem yours, the set bonus is pretty darn nice overall.

As an added bonus, we will also be unveiling the 2011 Holiday Gift during the same period. This will work just a bit differently than prior holiday gifts. There will be a list of items in your Account Management queue. You can choose one, and only one, gift from the list. That gift will then be made available in the redemption system on Dec 22^nd.

So, to be 100% clear, you can get your CA-2 only between Dec 12^th and Dec 21^st.

You can select your Holiday Gift during the same time.

Your implant appears in your hangar as soon as you redeem it, but your Holiday Gift won’t  appear until Dec 22^nd.

Implant 2: Hardwiring – Genolution Core Augmentation CA-2

• Slot 4
• Boost intelligence by 3
• Provides +1.5% CPU bonus
• Provides +1.5% capacitor recharge
• Implant set bonus: 50%

This is the second half of the Core Augmentation implant set, delivered by Genolution as a follow-up to the CA-1 just months after their first demonstration of new augmentation techniques shook up the often-stagnant industry.

The CA-2 picks up where its predecessor left off, providing a dual boost via frontal lobe enhancements and a neocortical modification that complements the CA-1′s focus on a captain’s ship-fitting ingenuity. The end result is an increase to intelligence, coupled with improved CPU output and capacitor recharge rate. Additionally, when combined the CA-1 and the CA-2 supplement each other, providing a significant increase in their overall net effect.

Item description:

Concurrent with the release of the CA-2, Genolution offered up the implant’s schematics for public inspection. They claimed the move was designed not only to allay any lingering fears about the technology – now widespread amongst the capsuleer class – but also to provide a foundation for future advances in the field.