Tiamat is an Expansion?

Tiamat has been released without any real drama from what I can see.  Except of course for the two idiots, and probably others since, who have lost shiny ships to The Drifters.

https://beta.eve-kill.net/kill/44679087/

https://beta.eve-kill.net/kill/44674857/

Patch notes for Tiamat are here.

To be honest I find Tiamat to be pretty lacklustre for an expansion, even with the addition of The Drifters, but over the few days and weeks the quality of this enhanced update will become apparent.

Meanwhile, CCP Peligro has posted an image of two pilots run by CCP that hold confiscated money from various miscreants in the game.

Yes that's trillion, not billion

Too Many Shades of Grey

Rokusaburo started a convo with me while I was sitting cloaked in space keeping an eye on some war deccers.

"So I heard Chuckles quit the alliance leadership and disappeared." he asked.

"Yeah, sorta.  I was away enjoying some R & R as it was that time of year." I replied.

"Of course." he replied with a voice that suggested he'd also tilted his head forward as he said it.

"When I came back from the festivities, and bothered to check my comms I found the message that he'd quit, given me the CEO position, and vanished."

"Any idea where he went?"

"None whatsoever.  So I've been constructing a fake mental reality that puts him down on some planet somewhere herding goats, or whatever the local equivalent of a goat actually is, and some day he'll appear again and ask us if we missed him." I was smiling a bit while saying this.

"Will you have missed him by then?"

"Yeah ... probably, but I'll be buggered if I'm going to let him know that."

"So you're in WGP now, obviously not the CEO of The Grumpy's, how'd that happen." he asked, getting a bit nosy.

"I knew that Chuckles was the alliance glue, so I put it to the remaining members what the direction should be, every answer was different, so I disbanded the corp, well I tried to, and removed it from the alliance.  Corps come and go, people come and go, this is New Eden, but eventually you meet up with them again, especially as we all now live forever." I said.

"Oh okay.  Oh before I forget have you seen the news about these Drifter people?" said Roku changing the subject.

"Yeah I did.  Kick arse ships and tactics worries me a bit, But what's with all the grey?"

"I know!  The suits they appear to be wearing look pretty snug, with some implants or whatever the hell is going on there.  The female one looks pretty hot.  How many shades of grey do you think she is?"

"I snorted in a sort of laughter, "She'll probably kill you and wipe your remains off her shoe. You think every female that looks at you is hot, even from a damn holo image!"

"Well most of them are, especially pod pilots.  Have you ever seen a fat one?"

"Well no, but perhaps all the fat ones are stuck in their pods never to leave and that's why we don't see them.  That's not pod goo my friend, it's just extra pod pilot clinging to the inside of the egg."

"Ewwwwwwww!" he exclaimed a sound not out of place in a school yard.

"Yeah I know." I said trying not to think of the actual image.

"Anyway we have war deccers to keep an eye on so we'll catch up soon, yes?"

"Certainly will, have a good one, out." he broke the connection.

Drifting Towards PVE Excitement

Drifters are going to be a new NPC race in Eve Online in news which has surprised the shit out of me.

I'll put some info and a link below but essentially they'll be at the harder end of NPC's, have some intelligence but at the moment have no bounties, or loot.  I expect that to change once it releases with the Tiamat expansion on February the 17th.

This news also saves the Tiamat expansion from being a pretty ordinary update in my opinion.

Superiority complex?

The Drifters are upon us, and they are not to be trifled with. The new NPC faction (or Jovian sub faction) will enter the game in the next expansion, Taimat, dropping on February 17th. The Drifters pilot extraordinary battleships that are set up to challenge even the most experienced players. Much like Incursions and burner missions, this is more high end PVE content from CCP.

The Drifters are not your typical NPC’s. They are built on the new the AI (Tale System) that was introduced with Incursions, improved upon in Burner missions, and is being used to power Circadian Seekers and, now, the Drifter battleships. The future of PVE is highly intelligent and coordinated enemies that will chase you, wait you out, and mercilessly pod you. A truly terrifying experience. So far, they will not attack you unless you provoke them by attacking them first. Drifters, however, are a new faction and have standings so, conceivably, they will attack on sight if you have low standings with them.

The origin of these Drifters is shrouded in mystery, but they seem to be related to the Jove. Their spawns are found around unknown structures (aka, listening towers) and strange wormholes found in New Eden, regardless of security rating. Some players speculate they have come here through wormholes, while others suspect they have been here a long time and are just now being discovered or declaoked. Lore enthusiasts are relishing the speculation, as many theories and clues are pieced together. Officially, no one knows who they are or what they want.

Further info including spoilers from the test server