'EVE Online' Alpha Players Can Now Fly More Ships

For more than a year, CCP Games allowed interested fans to try EVE Online for free. With the release of today’s “Arms Race” update, those players get more ships to use throughout the universe of New Eden.

In the past, Alpha clone, a.k.a. free-to-play, participants only had access to 21 ships from their chosen empire. Now players have access to Battleships and Battlecruisers in addition to Destroyers and Frigates. CCP also lifted the restriction on empire-specific ships, which means that you can learn skills that allow you to fly ships for any faction. Overall, this means those on a free-to-play account can use a total of 145 ships in the game. With more ships comes better weapons. Alpha clones can now train to use small and medium Tech II weapons, which should help with inflicting more damage on enemy ships.

When training for these ships, you’ll have to carefully the choose the allocation of your skill points. CCP also announced that Alpha players will only have 5 million skill points to use, which isn’t much when you consider the multiple tiers associated with most skills. According to a blog post from the studio, the limit was imposed so that “skill points keep their value.”

“The more free training we give away the less valuable skill points become, which is not good for existing players, scary for CCP, and inevitably harmful to game balance and game economy.”

However, there is a way to get around this limit without paying a monthly subscription. Alpha players can buy a “Daily Alpha Injector,” which provides an additional 50,000 skill points to your pool. To prevent abuse of the system, it can only be used once a day. You can purchase the injector for 20 PLEX, a special in-game currency. The cheapest package includes 110 PLEX for $5, but you can also use in-game money (ISK) to purchase PLEX.

The update also brings additional changes that impact the entire game universe. Players should see more Pirate forward operating bases throughout their journey. The Resource Wars mode also gets a new player support role, balance changes, and new rewards. These features were initially introduced in October as part of the “Lifeblood” expansion. For the full update details, be sure to visit the game’s website.