Any EVE Online player has probably heard of the Drifters at this point. But in case you haven’t, here’s a very brief rundown.
CCP introduced the Drifters as a mechanism for testing new AI mechanics that would make “rats” (AI-controlled ships) much more lethal to players. These new Drifters were followed, experimented on and speculated about by many within the EVE Online community. The lethal Drifter Battleships were quickly set upon by all manner of players attempting to find out how they, mostly by trying to blow them up.
The Drifters quickly became a force for destruction in New Eden. One of their more infamous moments came about when a fleet of these seemingly invincible warships attacked an Amarr Empire fleet, destroying the TES Seraph, the Avatar-class Titan piloted by then Empress Jamyl Sarum I. Her death at the hands of the Drifters cemented them as a major threat both in-lore and to the playerbase at large.
Jamyl Sarum was an interesting and divisive figure among the lore and RP communities of EVE Online, maybe these new developments will shed some light on her motivations, but back to the Drifters themselves.
Up until this week, many players had become used to the Drifters, often messing with them out of boredom rather than curiosity. As such, their lore significance has seemingly diminished to the point of just being a particularly lethal anomaly in New Eden.
But over the weekend, everything changed. Groups of EVE Online players began noticing fleets of nearly destroyed Drifter Battleships all over New Eden.
Multiple damaged Drifter fleets were spotted in New Eden and Anoikis during the last weekend. The fleets encountered are the largest concentration of Drifter battleships since the Throne Worlds campaign in YC118 and the message of Hilen Tukoss in YC116.
But shortly after these Drifter fleets were spotted, CCP released a new teaser of some kind. They’re clearly baiting EVE players with a new mystery to solve. And judging from the timing, it must have some relation to the Drifters. The Discourse, the player-run new organization that produces video lore updates similar to the previous The Scope releases put out by CCP, has since released another video detailing this new anomaly.
The CONCORD Directive Intelligence Agency has a leak! A video from their Drifter Threat Analysis Group was forwarded to New Eden news agencies today, and analysts are now trying to determine what exactly this is, and what it means for the on-going Drifter crisis.
What are your theories? Check out the teaser below and see what you can make of it.
