What's New?
A new map - Lost Convoy
Built from the ground up for Alpha - this new map takes place at an Upwell salvage recovery site, where Upwell are excavating salvage from a destroyed convoy of ships that have crash landed to the planet, as well as mining raw resources from the planets surface.
Around this map players will find diverse and challenging points of interest - from Upwell dig sites, refineries, a Mordu’s Legion military compound, and even the colossal Upwell Command Block itself.
Players will deploy down to this site to raid these points of interest, take on Mordu’s Legion soldiers that protect these sites, fight or collaborate with other players, loot key resources and equipment, and then extract.
Harmonic Bridges - Extraction Sites
New to EVE Vanguard for Operation Avalon is the Harmonic Bridge, located at various points on the map, players will need to find these, activate these, nervously wait for these to come online, and then run into these to extract themselves and their loot from the map.
These harmonic bridges will extract all player loot and equipment and transport it back to the warbarge for a later deployment - but there is a cost; the organic matter of the player’s warclone will burn up in front of them as they extract.
Throughout the deployment, these sites will be taken offline by orbital bombardments, one by one until only a single harmonic bridge is left to be used to extract. You will see these bombardments through the course of your deployment - don’t get caught in them, you will be killed.
Mordu’s Legion Enemies
Mordu’s Legion have called for backup in Operation Avalon - not only the reserves seeing a total pass to their aesthetics, polish, and behaviours, but new enemies joining the fray from Marksman, improved drones, but a Mordu’s Legion Heavy Oppressor to escalate fights in key areas and activies on the map.
Enemies not only deploy in via orbital drop pod - they will now take up station within key points of interest and can be deployed in from a Rapid Deployment Vehicle (RDV) who will drop in troops in response to your presence at key points on the map.
Weaponry & Gunplay Improvements
Gunplay has been largely overhauled for Operation Avalon - the feeling of the weapon in your hand, how the weapon is held, projected on screen, reacts, animates, and communicates have all be largely changed to bring a larger sense of immersion and impact to the weapons.
New weapons themselves have been added:
Minmatar Keshik Bolt Carbine
Amarr Praetorian Laser Pulse DMR
Amarr Deacon Beam Rifle
Minmatar Flayer Scatter Cannon
Minmatar Mauler Slug Launcher
All of which can be earned, manufactured, or bought for use in deployments.
Looting Improvements
Looting has been redefined for Operation Avalon - improving inventory management, item discovery, rarity, type, resources, and more.
Items will now be discovered over time, slowly revealing themselves as you loot enemies, containers, and more - creating a tension around looting that could leave you vulnerable if you over-commit.
Raid the Fueling Platform
Midway through a deployment, a Mordu’s Legion Reserve Leader will be deployed somewhere on the map, identifiable by their red insignia on their suit.
If you find and kill this reserve leader, they will drop a keycode that can be used to unlock the door to the Fueling Station point of interest.
Here a challenge awaits - raid and climb the tower, the myriad of troops that wait for you, and the climactic fight that triggers when you reach the top. All to raid some of the best loot you can find in the deployment.
Market Vendors, Blueprints, and Manufacturing
Spend the Deathmarks you earn from deployments with new Market Vendors, selling a myriad of basic gear, upgrades, and blueprints.
Obtaining blueprints allows you to manufacture gear using resources to recoup back what was lost or grant you more options for future fights.
All loot, weapons, gear, and resources have seen an overhaul for Operation Avalon all with a new icon set, to make it clearer to you an items purpose, type, and rarity.
Grow your arsenal, earn special variant weapon blueprints from Expeditions Assignments, and bring the fight to Mordu’s Legion and other players on the field.
Expeditions - Avalon & The Paragon Network
Like in previous tests - you can take on Expedition Assignments to complete during your deployments, earning you rewards and exclusive variant equipment and upgrades for completing assignment trees with a single job-giver.
Take on Avalon story Expeditions to help those trying to build the first rightful home and bastion for the persecuted Warclones in the universe. Or take on repeatable Expeditions from various factions and organisations in the universe through the Paragon Network.
In Summary?
1 New map
5 New Weapons
3 New Enemy Types
Overhauled Gunplay
NPC Enemy Behaviour Improvements
Refined Game Structure - w/ New Looting, Points of Interest, and Harmonic Bridge Extraction
Market Vendors
All new loot, gear, resources, upgrades w/ a rarity, type, and icon pass
Avalon Story Campaign & Paragon Network Expedition
