Tomorrow, November 10, EVE Online is releasing a new expansion, Fractured Skies, and companion FPS EVE Vanguard is going into something Fenris Creations is calling a 24/7 alpha. Formal early access on Steam is coming late next year, but you can buy the game and play it through EVE's own client⁠—and it won't go away like prior playtests.

Tomorrow will also see Vanguard start to fulfill its promise as a linked game to EVE Online⁠—completing contracts in the multiplayer FPS will create military campaign opportunities players can find and act on in EVE—marking the return of a dream Fenris (formerly CCP Games) has pursued since the ill-fated PS3 shooter, Dust 514. I sat down with Vanguard game director Scott Davis and EVE design director Greg Hennessey to talk about what's coming tomorrow and further down the line.

From a pure gameplay perspective, Davis told me that NPC AI and new player onboarding are the biggest improvements in Vanguard since its last playtest. The NPC enemies inhabiting Vanguard's levels just weren't challenging enough, and while it's easy to make them better shots, the problem was more one of tactical depth.

"We had a lot of people bounce off the game pretty hard in July," Davis said of the other issue, Vanguard's new player experience. " There will be more direct tutorializing to address this in tomorrow's Alpha, and a lot of thought has also gone into how Vanguard introduces its modes to players.

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