OK, no messing around. This is it. The third and final part of our EVE: Valkyrie A to Z in which we tell you pretty much everything you need to know about the game. First step, let’s go shopping.
Q is for Quartermaster
Ah yes, the enigmatic Quartermaster. Initial impressions tend to be of a fairly affable shopkeeper who is there to help keep your ships appropriately suited and booted for the battles ahead, and that is indeed his primary function. Take him blueprints for new ships and upgrades – along with the requisite amount of salvage and silver – and he’ll turn them around in a trice.
However, he’s a slightly more complex fellow than you might think. He has no single affiliation and provides his services to both the Valkyrie and Fatal’s Guristas. Even so, he has been known to intervene in events, as you can discover if you play through to the end of EVE: Valkyrie’s Recall Missions. No spoilers, go check it out for yourselves.
R is for Rán Kavik
Rán, as we know, is the leader of the Valkyrie, but her story is a complex and troubled one. She was once one of Fatal’s Guristas, seduced into working for him by his lies. However, on discovering his deceit, she broke away from him creating her own faction of fighters, the Valkyrie.
She’s a fascinating character and you can find a detailed account of her life story in a series of brilliant comic books from Dark Horse Comics, which we featured in a previous article.
Best of all, Rán is voiced by none other than the brilliant Katee Sackhoff, star of Battlestar Galactica and all-round sci-fi legend. You can see her in action, recording dialogue for Valkyrie, right here.
S is for Streaming
There’s a time and a place for everything. In the case of EVE: Valkyrie, the time is ‘always’ and the place is ‘everywhere’.
When not flying yourself, you can watch others play as there’s a thriving community of Valkyrie streamers keen to dazzle you with their online antics. Just search for EVE: Valkyrie on YouTube, check out our Twitch.tv channel or head over to EVE_NT’s TV Schedule to find out when ace Valkyrie pilots are live streaming.
T is for Total Immersion
Virtual Reality, and particularly EVE: Valkyrie, is a pretty full-on experience. Back in the days of bedroom programmers and 8-bit microcomputers, placing a flat sprite on a 2D screen was admittedly quite difficult, but easy enough for Joe and Josephine Public to get their heads around. VR is a whole different ball game. How does a developer go about the task of creating a convincing 3D environment, populating it with dynamic objects that largely observe the laws of physics and beam two slightly different versions of the same view directly into your eyeholes, all while tracking your physical movements to create a sense of reality where there is none?
Well, we’re exploring all those subjects. Right now you can find out how Valkyrie’s maps are made, how the game is balanced and about the creation of the game’s 3D soundscapes. Join us again tomorrow to discover how ships are built. In the next few weeks, we’ll be taking an in-depth look at how a VR version of New Eden has been implemented without making anyone who enters it throw up.
U is for Upwards
This is our slightly cheeky way of segueing into the subject of Leagues and moving up through them. This alpha feature is now available to Valkyrie pilots, having been introduced in the new Wormholes major update. There are four leagues that players are placed into, depending on various performance criteria. The leagues offer a way for players to set themselves goals in order to move up their current league or aim to jump to a higher one. You can find out everything you need to know about Leagues in our Q&A.
V is for… um, let’s see now… Ah yes, VALKYRIE!
What started out as a tentative dipping of toes into the uncharted waters of VR soon turned into a tantalizing demo of what immersive life in New Eden might look like. Spurred on by the limitless possibilities of this emerging medium, CCP Newcastle went on to develop their VR dabbling into a fully functioning online multiplayer experience that players on three major VR platforms can enjoy together. It’s been quite a journey.
W is for Wraith
There are many ships in EVE: Valkyrie, each sporting a unique set of capabilities and weapon loadouts. Nevertheless, it’s the very first ship a pilot is given, the Wraith, that endures as the most popular and, as such, deserves a special mention. The Wraith is, after all, every Valkyrie pilot’s first love. It’s a balanced craft boasting firepower that sits right in the middle of the range. It’s fast enough and able to take a moderate beating. It’s maneuverability is a delight. And as for its weapons – Gatling guns, head-tracked missiles and ECM countermeasures – it’s capable of taking on any foe given the right circumstances. Upgrade the shields, armor and capacitor and you have a pretty tasty piece of kit on your hands.
X is for...?
On this occasion, 'X' marks the undefined variable. It stands for the great unknown. When you begin your new life as a Valkyrie pilot, everything is a question mark. Who knows what you might find at the end of that launch tube? Even when you become familiar with New Eden, the uncertainty remains as there are always new gameplay features coming down the pipeline. Whether it's a daily challenge, a new map or a weekly wormhole, the goalposts are constantly moving. In the life of a Valkyrie pilot, every day brings added eXtras.
Y is for Yellow
And by ‘yellow’ we actually mean ‘ember’ which is yellowy-orange. What’s that got to do with EVE: Valkyrie? Well, if you take the time to register with us then link your Valkyrie pilot to your CCP account, you will receive a stunning Ember paint job that you can apply to any or all of your ships. Also, linking accounts in this way rewards you with an immediate seven day XP boost via an in-game implant. The more you play during that seven day period, the more XP you will earn. Find out more in our article on the subject.
Z is for Zero Gravity
Space is a pretty weird place. No air. No friction unless you hit something. Freezing temperatures and, crucially, no gravity. So, while EVE: Valkyrie is, at its core, a good old fashioned dogfighting game, the techniques for surviving in combat are somewhat different than they would be for an Earth-bound fighter pilot.
You need a good grounding in the skills required to prevail in such rarefied conditions. We have just the thing for you.
So, there you have it. EVE: Valkyrie from A to Z. Hope you enjoyed it. Check out the various links and do keeping checking back here - we’ll be taking many of the topics we've touched upon and going into them with lot more detail in the near future.
Fly safe!