First Major 'Eve: Valkyrie' Expansion Hits The Skies Next Monday
Eve: Valkyrie is an action packed first person spaceship dogfighting game that launched alongside the Oculus Rift VR HMD. The game is currently exclusive to the Oculus platform, but it will arrive on the HTC Vive and PSVR later this year. For those lucky enough to already have an Oculus Rift in their hands, the game is about to get a big update and a completely new battle mode.
Carrier Assault
When Eve: Valkyrie launched, there were two modes of play: Team Death Match, which pits two factions against each other in a frantic gunfight, and Control, which is less about directly killing your enemies and more about taking hold of their resources. In Control, each player gets a drone that they can deploy to help capture control points.
The new Carrier Assault mode, which launches next Monday, should be a much more intense battle. In this mode, you’ll still be fighting each other, but you’ll also have to blast your way into the opposing team’s carrier ship and destroy its clone vats.
The Carrier Assault mode has three distinct stages. Stage 1 is the skirmish. Your mission is the take down the enemy carrier shields by taking majority control of the ships' Power Relay Stations. There are three relay stations per carrier, and if you get control of two of them, you can take down the shields. You play this stage the same way you play the Control missions.
Stage 2 is the attack. While the shields are down, you must destroy all of the carriers' Cooling Nodes. The nodes are crucial to the ship's defenses, and they must all be destroyed before you can move to the next stage. You and your team will have to avoid turret fire coming from the enemy carrier, as well as the ongoing battle between live players.
Stage 3 is the breach. This mode is where the real damage to the carrier ship happens. Once the Cooling Nodes are offline, you will be able to fly directly into the ship and attack the core. When enough damage has been dealt to the core, it will go critical, and the ship will explode.
CCP also added a new mechanic to go along with the Carrier Assault mode--Boost Gates, which will cut down on wasted time. When you fly through a Boost Gate, you’ll get a short speed boost to get across the map and back to the action quicker.
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Other Additions
To accommodate the Carrier Assault mode, CCP revamped the multiplayer selection menu. Once the update is live, you’ll have the option to search for games of all modes, or you can filter it to search for Carrier Assault only. The option to search for Team Death Match or Control games doesn’t seem to have been added. CCP did add a region selection option, though.
CCP also added a manual launch option in the Multiplayer HUB. Selecting this option will give you manual control over when you first deploy into a match, giving you time to prepare a squad and ready yourself for battle.
Next week’s update will also include a new map to enjoy. The Crossroads multiplayer map was first introduced during a tournament that CCP held at Eve Fanfest 2016 in April. On Monday, it will be available to play in all three multiplayer modes. It will also be playable in Scout and Survival PVE modes. CCP said the map includes new salvage crates and hidden Echoes, which contain more backstory about the Eve: Valkyrie universe.
The Carrier Assault update will also include a new Tactical Menu that will give you access to all of the same data found at the end of each battle, at any time. You’ll be able to see the names of active players and which ships they are using, as well as their score details (including kills, deaths and assist figures).
CCP has also added a Match Bonus to reward players who survive to the end of the battle. Any player that is still alive when a match ends will receive an extra XP bonus. Victorious players will also receive a Win Bonus.
The Carrier Assault update will also include a number of balance changes and bug fixes. The full list of adjustments is available on the Eve: Valkyrie website.
Eve: Valkyrie Carrier Assault will be available on Monday, June 20.
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Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years.
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problematiq Still urks me having it an Oculus Exclusive (Even if for a period of time) starting to look more like steam is holding the door open for Oculus and Oculus is slamming it back into steam face.Reply