EVE Frontier launched Cycle 5, titled Shroud of Fear, on March 11, introducing Shell Industry as a central new mechanic that lets players manufacture, store, and enhance the clone bodies their characters inhabit. The update also overhauls how space itself functions, replacing traditional dungeons with persistent Orbital Zones, expanding cooperative base building, and redesigning combat and movement distinctions between light and heavy ships.
What Changed
- Shell Industry is being introduced, allowing players to manufacture and manage the clone bodies they occupy using two new facilities: the Nursery and the Nest.
- Skills are now imprinted through specialized memory constructs called Crowns, and those skills are permanently lost if the Shell is destroyed.
- Traditional dungeons are being replaced by Orbital Zones, described as persistent ecosystems where resources, NPCs, and loot appear across solar systems.
- Feral AI entities now patrol and move dynamically between points of interest, actively analyzing their surroundings and defending territory.
- Base building is expanded with Construction Sites at owned Network Nodes, allowing groups to contribute materials collaboratively before structures come online.
- Combat now formally distinguishes light and heavy ships by acceleration, agility, and defensive profiles, and a new manufacturable Exclave Frigate called the LAI has been added.
Dates and Rollout
- Cycle 5: Shroud of Fear launched on March 11.
Numbers and Rules
- Two new facilities support Shell Industry: the Nursery manufactures new Shells and the Nest stores and manages them.
- Three new specialized turret types have been added for defensive infrastructure: the Autocannon Turret, Plasma Turret, and Railgun Turret, each targeting different ship classes.
- Two new types of rifts and crude matter are appearing across nearly every star system, providing earlier access to crude industry.
- Multiple players can now establish bases at the same L-Point location, opening the same coordinates to cooperation, competition, and territorial conflict.
- Light ships accelerate faster and carve tighter flight paths with active defenses, while heavy ships sacrifice angular agility for higher top speeds and passive durability.
Source: https://x.com/EVE_Frontier/status/2031007788873204018
