Invasion Structure

A brand new region of EVE Online’s New Eden, built around the dynamic mechanics of the Triglavian Invasion and offering a haven for small-ship PvP gameplay. Introduced with the “Depths of the Abyss” expansion.

Content & Content Systems

Escaping Content

Dynamic Missions

World Ark Dungeon

Pochven

Role: Senior ranking designer.
Team: 2 designers, 2 engineers, 2 QA, and a producer. Supported by economy and art teams.
Scope: Pre-production through release of a major content expansion.
Co-designed? Yes, with Gregor Chalmers
Tools: Proprietary database system (ADAM), encounter logic and layout editor (JESSICA), NPC logic visual scripting editor (Behaviours), Dynamic content delivery system (Stories), and other in-house tools to support EVE Online’s Carbon game engine.

The Problem

Following the two-year live event arc of Invasion, the unique gameplay and content of the events were so beloved that leadership wanted to find an evergreen home for them. It only made sense that the invaders turn their conquered territory into a new home of their own, fleshed out into something that preserved the dynamics of gameplay that made Invasion so successful while providing a complete experience that would require minimal ongoing upkeep from the team.

What I Designed

Implemented three warring macro-factions, each utilizing unique ships/abilities and their own variations of the Invasion’s popular, ultra-dynamic behavior logic. One of these, the Rogue Drones, were designed from scratch for the region, while the others were reused from the Invasion event. All three could be found fighting, and players were able to ally themselves or create enemies of any faction.
(Rogue Drones were mine. Gregor largely owned the re-implementation of the other two factions)
Expanded the Triglavian invaders into three factions with home systems, separate reputation tracks, and unique mechanical strategies. They fought each other like other Pochven factions, but allied in the presence of common enemies such as EDENCOM or Rogue Drone NPCs.
(co-designed, and co-implemented)
Modified classic EVE wormhole mechanics to provide ingress and egress from Pochven that tied the captured solar systems to their previous geographic connections.
(personally owned, designed, and implemented)
Iterated upon wormhole mechanics to spawn fleets of Pochven NPCs explored and invaded the solar systems they connected, simulating an ongoing battle between Pochven and “known-space.”
(personally owned, designed, and implemented)
Connected the solar systems of Pochven together with new Triglavian gates that could only be accessed by progress up the controlling faction’s reputation track, providing a tactical home-field advantage to players attempting to live inside Pochven.
(co-designed, Gregor implemented)
Blocked titan-bridging and other capital-class ship transportation methods into the region, ensuring that the space was restricted to small-ship gameplay: the only lucrative PvP area of the entire game set up like this, and repeatedly requested from players.
(co-designed, engineers implemented)
Ported nearly all Invasion content (dozens of encounters and dungeons, approximately 100 NPCs, escaping and entrenching NPC behavior logic, and more) into the region, made adjustments to match the updated narrative, and created matching variations for the new Rogue Drones faction.
(co-designed, co-implemented)