The new EVE Online: Ascension Expansion Theme (2016) is available.

Hooked up some new sounds when docking in stations; one for each race.

EVE characters will be assigned one of two distinct clone states: Alpha or Omega

Accounts with an active subscription and their corresponding characters will be assigned the Omega Clone State and will work the same as subscribed characters have previously.

Unsubscribed accounts and their corresponding characters will now fall into Alpha State, which allows free access to EVE Online using a specific list of skills and skill levels.

Omega Clone State

• Assigned to all characters on subscribed accounts
• Faster training rate and longer skill queue than Alpha State
• Allowed to train and use all skills, ships and modules

Alpha Clone State

• Assigned to all characters on unsubscribed accounts
• May train and use skills from a specific list which focus on Frigates, Destroyers, and Cruisers along with basic Industry ships
• List of allowed skills varies depending on character faction
• If you are returning after lapse, the faction chosen at character creation will be used to determine which skill list you have as an Alpha
• Accounts lapsing from Omega to Alpha will have their training queue paused and will have previously trained skills outside the Alpha set disabled until subscription is renewed
• Alpha characters may not be logged in simultaneously from the same location as other active EVE Online clients. For details please see our End User License Agreement

Account services such as PLEX, Multiple Character Training, and Skill Trading are available to characters of both Clone States, which the exception that characters in the Alpha State may not extract skills from the Alpha skill set.

For more information on Clone States, including the Alpha skill list, FAQs, and community discussion, see these Dev Blogs:

• Introducing Clone States and the Future of Access to EVE Online
• Clone States – Post CSM summit roundup

• New mining drones (including an ‘Excavator’ Mining Superdrone and the first ever ice mining drones) have been added, new mining drone skills have been introduced.
• Existing mining drones have been rebalanced.
• Further information is available in this dev blog.

• The drop rate of Small Ancillary Armor Repairer blueprints in data sites have been increased.

New explosions that will blow you away!

Sub-capital ship-wrecks have been redesigned.

A fourth level of detail has been added to improve graphics performance.

The old Warfare Link and Foreman Link modules will be converted in to the new Command Burst modules. For more details on Command Bursts, see the blog Command Bursts and the new world of fleet boosting

The conversion process will work as follows:

• Blueprints for all these modules will also be converted accordingly, along with any ongoing Science/Industry jobs
• The Command Processor I mid-slot module will be converted to a Medium Command Processor I rig. Any instances of this module currently fitted to a ship will be unfitted before conversion and moved to the ship's cargo hold.
• All T1/T2 Mining Foreman Link modules to T1/T2 Mining Command Burst modules. More information is available in the blog Mining Foreman Revolution
• All T1/T2 Skirmish Warfare Link modules to T1/T2 Skirmish Command Burst modules
• All T1/T2 Siege Warfare Link modules to T1/T2 Shield Command Burst modules. (Note that "Siege" is being renamed to "Shield" to better reflect how it operates)
• All T1/T2 Information Warfare Link modules to T1/T2 Information Command Burst modules
• All T1/T2 Armored Warfare Link modules to T1/T2 Armor Command Burst modules
• Existing market orders and contracts containing these items will be cancelled and refunded

Note that the Command Bursts modules require Command Burst Charges in order to operate. These charges were introduced in the previous release in order to allow supplies to be built in advance.

The Rorqual sees changes and additions to its specialty modules: more information is available in the blog Mining Foreman Revolution

• The Industrial Core module has been significantly improved, and a new tech II version has been added.
• The Pulse Activated Nexus Invulnerability Core module is a new Rorqual-exclusive defensive superweapon. It allows the Rorqual to make itself and its allies invulnerable for a short time. This new module requires a new rank 8 skill called Invulnerability Core Operation.

Phenomena Generators have been introduced. Titans will be able to fit these new modules (one per race) that apply timed bonuses and penalties to ships over an extremely large area. Unlike Command Bursts, Effect Generators impact ALL ships within their defined area (friend or foe).

Entosis Link I module now requires Infomorph Pyschology II (was Infomorph Psychology I).

All small artillery weapons have had their powergrid requirements reduced by 2.

NPC Mining Operations will now appear across the New Eden cluster.

• Haulers come to carry away the mined ore, and if killed can drop rare strong boxes.
• If attacked, or you have terrible standings to that corporation, they will call for reinforcements.
• The reinforcements are formidable, and will act like players.

You are most likely to find these mining ops near stations owned by the following corporations:

• Amarr: Ducia Foundry
• Amarr: Joint Harvesting
• Amarr: HZO Refinery
• Caldari: Deep Core Mining Inc.
• Caldari: Poksu Mineral Group
• Caldari: Minedrill
• Gallente: Astral Mining Inc.
• Gallente: Material Acquisition
• Gallente: Allotek Industries
• Minmatar: Minmatar Mining Corporation
• Minmatar: Vherokior Tribe
• Minmatar: Thukker Mix
• Sansha: True Creations
• Blood Raiders: Blood Raiders
• Guristas: Guristas Production
• Angel Cartel: Salvation Angels

Aura has been fully re-imagined and all her vocal samples have been updated.

A brand new guiding tutorial experience has been created for Ascension.

• Four new ‘Mentor’ non-player characters will guide new users through a tutorial journey crafted for their chosen race.
• The updated Aura will also play a large part in this experience, guiding you through your first moments of EVE Online.
• Please note, that for the Ascension release only brand new accounts with new characters will be able to participate in the updated tutorial.
• Further information is available in the blog Inception – The new player experience for EVE Online

The brand new Star Captain SKIN is now available for the Confessor hull.

In celebration of the launch of the Ascension expansion, the New Eden Store is hosting a massive sale of all store ship SKINs.

The build, research and copy times of capital and structure blueprints have been increased. Find the details and discussion in this forum thread.

Improvement and changes to Industrial Command Ships:

• The Porpoise is a new ship Industrial Command Ship that fills the hole at the bottom of the mining foreman ship progression line (further information).
• The Orca is receiving a massive overhaul, with huge buffs to almost every attribute. It will be a mining powerhouse, a heavy duty ore hauler, a significant combat deterrent, and the strongest foreman burst platform available in highsec space (further information).
• The Rorqual is getting a revamp from the ground-up – It will be capable of providing strong Mining Foreman Bursts, repairing allies and fighting off enemies, and vacuuming up ore faster than any other ship in New Eden (further information). The Rorqual will no longer be able to dock at Astrahus citadels, in order to bring its docking restrictions in to line with other capital ships.

The unpackaged volume of Hulks and Covetors will be dropping by 25% to make them easier to haul and store.

The Bowhead ORE Freighter is also receiving some improvements:

• Slightly improved hitpoints and agility
• 37.5% reduced mass to match ORE’s commitment to improved wormhole utility
• 23% more capacity for the Bowhead’s Ship Maintenance Bay
• Further information

Tactical Destroyers have been rebalanced. All the details and discussion can be found in this forum thread.

The new Sunesis destroyer has been introduced. Find the details and discussion in this forum thread.

The jump ranges of most capital ships have been increased. Find the details and discussion in this forum thread.

Three new mining drone skills are being added:

• Mining Drone Specialization: 2% bonus to the mining yield and max velocity of drones requiring Mining Drone Specialization per level.
• Ice Harvester Drone Operation: 5% reduction in ice harvester drone cycle time per level.
• Ice Harvester Drone Specialization: 2% reduction in cycle time and bonus to max velocity of drones requiring Ice Harvester Drone Specialization per level.

Added new skill Invulnerability Core Operation – requirement for Rorqual's new PANIC module.

Added new skill Spatial Phenomena Generation – requirement for Titan's new Phenomena Generator modules.

The requirements for training the Command Ships skill have been adjusted, significantly reducing the time required before the skill can be obtained. Find the details and discussion in this forum thread.

Engineering Complexes, Engineering Service modules, and Engineering rigs (for all structures) are now available. Detailed information can be found in the blog Building dreams – Introducing Engineering Complexes

When undocking any ship from a Citadel or Engineering Complex that would not be able to re-dock at that structure, a warning confirmation will now be displayed explaining that this will be a one-way undock.

The number of service module slots on Citadels have been reduced. The details and discussion can be found in this forum thread.

The skill queue will now pause and restart without intervention after a Clone Jump.

A new character sheet has been introduced for EVE Online: Ascension. 

• Further information is available in the blog Skill level complete – A new character sheet for EVE Online
• Alpha Clones will be locked to the Dark Matter window theme
• Omega restricted items will have a gold border in the Inventory, Contracts, Market, Assets and Industry window.
• Omega items have the Omega item added to the Show Info window.

Minor text changes to Fast Checkout window when Fast Checkout needs to be activated.

The buff-bar has been enhanced to support the new Command Burst mechanics. The buff-bar is designed to show timers that are associated with your ship.

• The incoming buffs that your ship receives from Command Bursts will now show up in this area. There will be one icon for each of the 5 Command Burst categories. A timer animation will show the duration of the buff, and tooltips will give more details of individual buff durations/values.
• A number of other buff/debuff effects have been also integrated in to this system, including the Titan Phenomena Generators, Supercarrier Burst Projectors and the Rorqual PANIC module.
• The warp-scrambling debuff side-effect of super-weapons will also appear here, showing the countdown until it has cleared.
• Timers that are associated with your character (such as Criminal flags, Weapons timer etc) will continue to appear in the upper-left of the screen – these will follow your character regardless of ship switching (including whilst docked in station).

Searching in personal assets and in corporation assets is now also returning items in structures like Citadels and Engineering Complexes. 

Several changes have been made to the fitting window. Most notably is the addition of the Fitting Simulation.

Other improvements to the fitting window include:

• When mouse-over modules while in normal fitting mode, the fitting window will no longer show preview in yellow text. This functionality has been moved to simulation mode, which provides an accurate preview.
• Textures in the fitting window have been updated.
• "Alpha strike" has been added to the damage section.
• Damage sections now show combined dps with a tooltip that details how the dps is divided between weapons systems. In addition to raw dps, it also displays dps with module reload times taken into account.
•  A 'Fuel' section has been added for structures. It shows how much fuel the online services consume per day.
• A 'Drone' section has been added to the fitting window. The drone panel lists bandwidth and drone control range of the deployed drones or the top drones in your drone bay.
• "Align time" has been added to the navigation section. This is the time it takes for a ship to go into warp from a standstill.
• Armor repair rate in the defense section now takes into account whether Ancillary repairers are charged or not.
• Capacitor simulation estimation now takes into account capacitor boosters and their reload times.
• Saving fitting from fitting window will now include the load charges.
• A "Group All" button has been added. It can be found in the gap between rig slots and high slots
• Effective hitpoints now assumes omni-damage, rather than the damage the ship is weakest to.
• Text readout of the calibration output and load has been removed. This info can be found by mouse-over the calibration gauge next to the rig slots
• The ship name has been moved to the left side of the ship.
• Price estimation of the fit has been added to the fitting window. It has a tooltip that lists the prices of the ship and the fitted items. The prices used for the estimation are the global averages for each of the types.
• The 'Save' fit button has been moved to a new panel in the left side of the window. The panel can be accessed by clicking the 'Browser' tab.
• The 'Strip' button has been removed. This option is available in the ship's right click menu.

The 'Browse' button has been removed, and instead a new fitting browser has been added. It's still possible to access the fitting management window, either from the E button in the Neocom (or for now, by double clicking on the 'Hulls & Fits' tab)

The fitting management windows have been updated:

• The windows will now use icons to indicate whether the fit is personal or corp owned. For corp fittings, by default, the ‘Save’ button will save the fits as corp fits, but for personal or unsaved fits it will save it as a personal fit.
• For those with the corp role Fitting Manager, the 'Save' button will have a tooltip allowing you to save it either for the corp or the character.
• The name of the fitting can by modified by clicking the fitting name.
• The 'Rename ship to fitting name' has been moved to a setting wheel.
• Fits can now be imported and exported from the fitting window through the ‘Import & Export’ option in the left panel of the window.

• Fixed a case where it was possible to end up with a T3 cruiser with missing subsystems after applying a fitting from a link.
• It is now possible to trash asset safety wraps.
• Corrected the materials received when reprocessing the Standup L-Set Ice Grading Processor rigs.
• Added a new NPC type to the NPE called ‘Circadian Seeker’ and renamed the old ‘Circadian Seeker’ to ‘Autothysian Lancer’.
• Fixed an issue which could cause a momentary client lockup for players logging into the game while in space.
• Items of deleted character, which are inherited by the corporation, are now being sent to the corporation deliveries hangar (instead of to the first hangar division).
• The Crucifier Navy Issue Cold Iron SKIN (Permanent) is now available on the market.

• Positioned launcher locators on the Typhoon to prevent overlap.
• Adjusted visibility of turrets in hangar for low LOD quality.
• Tweaked logo placement on the Gallente Marauder Kronos.    
• Corrected the looping animation on the Angel Frigate Echo.
• Hacked in icons for cyno beacons.
• Nailed down a section rail on the ORE Barge Retriever and variant to comply with health and safety.    
• Offset the logo decal on the Minmatar Command Ship Sleipnir.
• Touched up the paintwork on the Ore Freighter Orca.    
• Erased the interior projection of registry decals for the Gallente Frigate Incursus and variants.    
• Stitched up the Blood Raider's jacket to close a gap with midlayer options.

A few terms have been changed for the French client:

• Training queue: changed from "file d'attente de compétences" to "file d'apprentissage de compétences"
• Materiel efficiency: "Efficacité matérielle" is now "Efficience matérielle"
• Info shard: "Fragment d'information" is now "Partition de données"
• Location marker: "Marqueur d'emplacement" is now "balise astrospatiale"

• The citadel docking restrictions for the Rorqual now correctly match those of other capital ships. This means that Rorquals will no longer be able to dock at Astrahus citadels.

• You can no longer invent a Capital Capacitor Booster II blueprint from a Capital Compact Pb-Acid Cap Battery blueprint.

• Resolved an issue which caused some brief client stutter when logging into a character that is in space.
• Fixed a timing problem, which could in rare cases lead to being tethered to a citadel while being many AU away from the citadel.
• Fixed a rare problem where all weapons in a solar system failed to cycle.
• Fixed an issue where asset categories in the character creator were sometimes missing, which could make it impossible to finish character creation.

• The description of the "Standup Weapon Disruptor I" has been updated with the correct name of the module.
• Various minor spelling, layout and grammar fixes (curse you double spaces in item descriptions, we'll get you all one day!)

• Fixed an issue with using the clipboard for ship skills in multibuy.
• Fixed an issue where the screen in the captain’s quarters would fail to load a scene and therefore stop cycling through all available scenes.
• Show info windows for charges no longer fail to show their "Used With" tab the first time they are loaded.
• Removed all references to EVElopedia from in-game texts.
• Removed duplicated attributes from the misc. section of the show info windows of structures.
• The "Market deliveries" hangar for corporations has been renamed to "Corporation deliveries" in the inventory window for clarity.
• The trade window has been stabilized to no longer break when trying to add an un-tradeable item to it.
• Fixed an issue where it was possible for the camera to break when using the "Look at" command at long ranges.

• The service module slots in the fitting window will now highlight correctly when hovering over a service module in the inventory.
• The fitting window now remains open when taking control of a structure.
• Fixed an issue that would cause the fitting window to comically oscillate when expanding or retracting the side information panels.