Technical details

Major Content Patches
Gemini - May 6, 2003
Gemini was not actually a content patch, but is included here for the sake of completeness. When EVE Online: The Second Genesis was released, the base was codenamed Gemini, version 1.00.0000.
Castor - December 18, 2003
Castor was the first major content addition. It focused on refining current functions along with adding "Tech 2" elite components and ships. With its release, EVE players saw conquerable stations in 0.0 (deep space) security systems, the introduction of the agent mission running system, the introduction of research agents, and many other features released between the launch of Castor and its follower, Exodus.
Exodus - November 17, 2004
Exodus is considered by the developers to be the first major game expansion. The expansion added multi-level "deadspace" scenarios, new environments and ships, better handling of conflicts, additional market functionality, user interface improvements, and an updated in-game web browser. A formalized method for alliances between corporations and the ability to claim sovereignty of a solar system via new "player owned starbases" was also added. Prior to its official release, this expansion was codenamed "Shiva".
Exodus: Cold War - June 29, 2005


The Caldari "Charon" freighter-class ships seen in this image were introduced with the Cold War Edition content patch.
Cold War Edition contained an extensive new tutorial sequence and a storyline background introduction. Challenging "level 4" agent missions were added for experienced players, as well as "COSMOS" constellations where in-space agents began giving out story-driven missions and unique rewards. The freighter and dreadnaught capital ships, full-fledged player-owned "outposts", and improved NPC pirate factions brought deep space play to a new level. This expansion also added Unicode chat support, allowing communication in Asian, Cyrillic, and Greek languages.
Exodus: Red Moon Rising - December 16, 2005
Red Moon Rising was split off from the "Kali" expansion in order to maintain a more regular patch schedule. It included many performance optimizations and updates to combat, research, and manufacturing gameplay. The expansion continued the focus on attracting new international players as four new "bloodlines" were introduced with Asian features and a boost in starting skills. Unicode support was also expanded from the chat system to game-wide. A major focus of the expansion was revamping existing ships and adding many additional ship classes. Twenty-three new Tech II ships were added including Exhumers, Force Recon cruisers, Command ships, Interdictors, and most notably the capital ships Carrier, Mothership, and Titan. ( See Spaceships of EVE Online for descriptions )
Bloodlines - March 2, 2006
Bloodlines is the codename for the small content patch that enabled players to create the new character "bloodline" with an Asian appearance.

• Achura, citizens of the Caldari State and expert scientists
• Jin-Mei, members of the Gallente Federation renowned for their legendary leadership traits
• Khanid of the Amarr Empire, the primary fighter-warriors of their culture
• Vherokior of the Minmatar Republic, the established manufacturers and engineers of the tribes.

Dragon
This milestone patch brought together the code base from the Chinese server (Serenity) and the main server (Tranquility), but otherwise contained little added content and only minor bug fixes. With this patch, EVE could no longer be played on Windows 95 / 98 / ME or Windows 2000 Service Pack 1.
Revelations I - November 29, 2006
Revelations is the second major game expansion of EVE Online. Previously known by the codename "Kali", Revelations is slated to be released in three parts. Major features of this expansion include an exploration / scan probe system, a formalized contract system, the invention replacement for the Tech II research lottery, ship customization with "rigs", and temporary "combat boosters". Existing features expanded include a "new player experience" that grants new players a large head start in capabilities, an upgraded fleet system, eight new deepspace regions, a new map that zooms from ship to galaxy seamlessly, popular new battlecruisers and battleships, and many more.
Recently EVE voice was integrated into EVE as part of Revelations content patch 1.4 , it had been due for Revelations Revelations II previously. EVE voice is a voice communication tool integrated into the EVE-Online client, the software is licensed by CCP from Vivox.
Revelations II - unreleased
Much like Exodus part 2, Revelations part 2 is expected to add agent missions of increasing difficulty, up to Level 7. These missions, tailored for experienced players of Eve, would move increasingly into more and more dangerous space. Additionally, changes to the sovereignty system, and various other new content elements are expected in this expansion.
Revelations III - unreleased
Expected in the third release are features such as Medals, Ranks, Titles and Certifications which are to be awarded to players, corporations, alliances, and factions. Factional Warfare will allow a pilot to declare allegiance to a side in the inter-factional conflict in the EVE universe. CCP expects to publish the final part of this expansion during 2007.
Planned Future Developments
CCP have recently begun work on implementing a game feature that will allow players to "Step out" of their pods and interact with other player avatars in the communal setting of the interior of a station. CCP have not yet formally speculated on a release date for this feature. In March 2007, Ten Ton Hammer released in-development game footage of this feature, videotaped at GDC 2007 with the approval of CCP's CMO, Magnus Bergsson.
The ability to enter a planet's atmosphere (planetary flight) and to interact with the surface is also mentioned as one of the future development plans. In EVE Fanfest 2006, a working prototype was demonstrated in which a Caldari "Crow" interceptor could be seen flying around over a planet surface. However CCP stated that full-scale integration of such features to the game requires an enormous effort and is only planned for post-Revelations production phases.
EVE Online in China
Beginning in March 2006, CCP and its partner Optic Communications started working to bring EVE Online to the Chinese gaming audience. Closed alpha testing was held on a small cluster for some time, with about 3,000 players chosen from an initial pool of 50,000. The Chinese open beta test began on June 13, 2006, and proved to be very popular, gaining numbers comparable to EVE Online's main server cluster.
The code base between Serenity(China) and Tranquility(Iceland) is strictly in sync, so that software development is distributed to both server clusters, however the game worlds are not connected. EVE Online fully supports Unicode and has a back-end system to enable localization of each and every aspect of the game's content and UI.
Graphics Engine and Windows Vista
On March 14, 2006, the EVE Online development team announced that they would be upgrading the graphics engine of EVE Online to a DirectX 10 / Windows Vista graphics platform. Revelations patch 1.4 had patch notes quoted as saying that the current EVE client should work in Vista "as well as it does in XP".
Linux Support
Although CCP has made no announcement about a Linux port of EVE, it may be possible to play the game through the use of a Windows compatibility layer such as Cedega or Wine. CCP does not officially support EVE under this sort of configuration, but both Transgaming, the backer of Cedega, and CCP have suggested the companies cooperate to address functionality issues post-patch for Linux users.
Technical milestones
On January 14, 2007, EVE Online achieved a new record for the maximum number of simultaneous pilots online with 34,420 concurrent accounts logged on to the same server.
EVE Online has passed many milestones in Peak Concurrent Users since its release.

• January 12, 2004: 5,840
• March 7, 2004: 7,343
• April 28, 2004: 10,000
• September 5, 2004: 10,744
• June 14, 2006: 33,000 (Release of EVE Online China)
• September 4, 2006: 30,000
• December 4, 2006: 32,955

As of October 2006, EVE Online has over 155,000 active subscriptions and approximately 20,000 active trial accounts.
During two weekends in July 2006, a live streaming video production called EveTV covered the events of the 2nd Caldari Alliance Tournament. The tournament pitted five-man teams from the top alliances against each other. EveTV provided live in-game footage of the battles along with expert commentary. Analysis of the teams and strategies, interviews with CCP staff and behind-the-scenes specials were also aired between battles. EveTV was produced and hosted primarily by DJs  rom EVE-Radio (a player-run streaming radio station) with resources provided by CCP. A total of 95 matches were scheduled, with the Band of Brothers alliance emerging the winner on the final day. Recordings of the event are now available via BitTorrent and on EVE Files. Additionally, a better quality DVD is available through the EVE Online Webstore.
The first two weekends in December 2006 saw the 3rd Alliance tournament. This was once again broadcast via live streaming video by EveTV The tournament saw 40 Alliances pitting five-man teams against each other. Once again, the Band of Brothers alliance emerged as the winner. Of particular note in this tournament, was the fielding of an Imperial Apocalypse by the Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate. This ship is one of only four that were manufactured and is extremely rare. The ship was destroyed in the semi-finals of the tournament.
Third-Party Applications and The EVE API Project
A large number of third-party applications have arisen to supplement a player's EVE Online experience. Some of these, such as automated applications designed to claim publicly-available contracts accidentally put up without an associated cost, will result in a ban if discovered, but many others are endorsed, tacitly or explicitly, by CCP. EVEMon—a .NET application that monitors and forecasts skill training times—is one example of an explicitly-authorized external application. In May, 2005, CCP announced the EVE API Project; in the future, third-party utilities such as EVEMon will interface with character data, market, and other data through an API.